Editorial

On September 20, CBC hosted a virtual town Hall with BC Health Minister Adrian Dix, as part of its Situation Critical series on the barriers British Columbians face in accessing timely and appropriate health care, on the province’ health care crisis: about a million without family doctors, hospitals operating over-capacity, some rural hospitals forced to close down, ambulances  unable to respond to 911 calls, and five to eight hours of wait times in emergency rooms and urgent care  facilities. All these because they have been seriously short-staffed and demands from patients have been overwhelming.  

The countdown has begun for the 50th-year anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines.

In March 2018, House Bill 7303, "An Act Instituting Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage in the Philippines" languished on the Senate floor, its passage into law uncertain. For almost a year before that, the Philippine Divorce bill was heatedly debated in Congress after it was approved by the House of Representatives and favored by the majority of Filipinos surveyed in a scientific study conducted by the Social Weather Station.  For the last 10 years, divorce advocates have been trying to pass an absolute divorce bill but always failed.  But in September 2021, a paradigm shift regarding grounds to void a marriage in the Philippines was passed by the Supreme Court making it less costly to prove “psychological incapacity” as a ground for legal separation.

As evidenced by two countries on either side of the Pacific Ocean, this year marks the beginning and the end of that ideal often referred to as the “last great experiment” – democracy.

Like other immigrant communities in Canada, Filipinos are far from being a homogenous group.

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.