Editorial

This month as Filipinos in Canada are celebrating the rites of spring and new beginnings, Filipino voters are faced with a crucial task of electing their next president along with hundreds of other government officials in a national election on May 9^th. 

For those who lived through or grew up from 1972 to 1986, there are palpable parallelisms between the Philippines’ martial law era to present-day Russia. While Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war is in Ukraine and Ferdinand E. Marcos’ war was against his countrymen, the similarities are nonetheless striking.

Some Filipinos who are passionate about politics in their homeland sometimes say one thing during presidential elections.

The official campaigning for the Philippine national elections has started. In three months, Filipino voters will elect a new president, a vice president, 12 senators and more than 100 party list representatives. 

 If the last couple of years made you feel that they were a precursor to an apocalyptic event, you are not alone. Extreme weather marked almost every part of the globe with hurricanes and typhoons unseasonably hitting areas when residents are not prepared for such and drought in areas where entire crops are destroyed.

Real friends stand up for each other.

Countries do as well. Canada is a good example.

Canada has shown that it is prepared to stand up for the Philippines in its longstanding territorial dispute in the South China Sea with Asian power China.

Nostalgia is the unforgiving curse of nationalistic Filipino immigrants.  These immigrants are prone to periodic bouts of longing for their home country.

It was a hastily called federal election that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had hoped he could use to solidify his party’s hold on political power.

As its name signifies, the Filipino Canadian Political Association is dedicated to a singular mission.

The Toronto-based nonprofit wants to foster stronger Canadian Filipino representation in elected offices at all levels of government in the country.

The fourth Monday of August has been designated National Heroes Day in the Philippines to pay homage to the national heroes of the country.

The discoveries of unmarked graves first in Kamloops, BC at the Kamloops Indian Residential School of 215 graves and just recently of 751 graves near a former Saskatchewan residential school shook Canada’s core. We, as a nation, suddenly lost our moral compass.

With the ongoing vaccination against COVID-19, this coming summer may look a lot brighter than last year’s.

However, the fight against the novel coronavirus is far from over.