besguerra

When life becomes one big stress

News

Jul 292013

Teen to Teen By Elizabeth Horner 5:59 am | Tuesday, July 30th, 2013 High school can be specially trying. For me, I went from being a little girl with big dreams of college—an Ivy League education, to be exact—to a teenager who was expected to make those dreams become real. My anxiety was sky high over failing at the task. I was in calculus, advanced English 12, advanced anatomy, ACP chemistry, Spanish IV, and ACP psychology. Sure I graduated later that same year with a final GPA of 5.11 in the scale of 4.0, but I remember the nights I stayed awake, looking at where the moon should be visible from my window, and worried. Every big paper I turned in didn’t seem to meet my standards, and I pictured it, among a pile on my teacher’s desk, waiting for red ink to fall on it. My tests, especially the ones for chemistry class, haunted me like ghosts. It didn’t matter if I read the chapters in the textbook twice over, or if I went in to see the teacher at lunch with my innumerable questions; I never seemed prepared for the tests. And, in waiting to get my test back, I put myself through some self-imposed mental torture. I’m sure this sounds like the dramatic ramblings of someone young and hormone imbalanced. Maybe it is, but so long as the problems felt real and pressing, with direct lines tying themselves to my future, then they were real problems in need of Read More …

With US Supreme Court ruling, married same-sex couples can now file taxes jointly

News

Jul 292013

With US Supreme Court ruling, married same-sex couples can now file taxes jointly

By Edgardo M. Lopez Esq.INQUIRER.net US Bureau 5:48 am | Tuesday, July 30th, 2013 Same-sex couples all over the United States celebrated on June 26, 2013, after the US Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional part of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 (DOMA), that denied federal marital benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married under state law. One of the most obvious effects of the ruling is that same-sex couples can now report their income and file tax returns as married people. The decision came from the U.S. v. Windsor, a case involving a same-sex couple living in New York. The female couple, Windsor and Spyer, was legally married in Canada and moved to New York, where the marriage is recognized as valid. When Spyer died, she left her entire estate to Windsor. The controversy arose when Windsor’s claim for federal estate tax exemption as a surviving spouse was denied by the IRS, which ruled that the exemption applies only to the traditional definition of marriage between a man and a woman under DOMA. This resulted in Windsor being compelled to pay more than $300,000 in estate taxes. Windsor filed a lawsuit in federal court, seeking a refund of the estate taxes she paid. The case eventually reached the US Supreme Court, which held Section 3 of DOMA as unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution. Although federal agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service and US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Read More …

Filipino artists band together to send message of peace to China

News

Jul 232013

Filipino artists band together to send message of peace to China

By Matikas SantosINQUIRER.net 11:40 pm | Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013 MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has a new message for China amid its continued maritime dispute with the country: “FU”. This message however does not mean any profanity, but instead is a call for “peace, love, unity and respect.” An independent group of artists from the United States and the Philippines have banded together and called themselves “The Filipinos Unite” (FU) movement with the aim of using music to call for Filipinos all over the world to unite against China’s bullying of the Philippines. Vonz Santos, chairman of FU, said Tuesday that their movement has several goals, among them are “to inspire the Filipinos around the world to wake up and come together, to show the world that there is another way to deal with conflict so peace can be attained, and to remind the Filipinos around the world about the strength and dignity that belongs to every Filipino.” “We have to do something as responsible citizens and Filipinos. I’ve marched and held rallies, I’ve been in front of the UN [and yet] the situation continues to get worse,” he said in a press conference. Santos was referring to the recent incursions of Chinese ships into Philippine territorial waters. China claims the entire West Philippines Sea (South China Sea) as its own including Bajo de Masinloc (Panatag Shoal or Scarborough Shoal) and Ayungin Shoal. Recently, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) started the arbitration process between the Philippines and China despite Beijing’s pronouncements that it Read More …

3 Filipino fishers hit by storm to be repatriated from Taiwan—PCG

News

Jul 222013

3 Filipino fishers hit by storm to be repatriated from Taiwan—PCG

By Jerry E. EsplanadaPhilippine Daily Inquirer 1:06 pm | Monday, July 22nd, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—The government will repatriate shortly three Filipino fishermen who were rescued Saturday by Taiwanese coast guard about 80 nautical miles off Kaohsiung port in southern Taiwan days after they were caught in storm last week, the spokesman of the Philippine Coast Guard said Monday. Commander Armand Balilo, also chief of the PCG Public Affairs Office, told the Inquirer on Monday that they were “coordinating with the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (in Taipei) for the repatriation of the rescued fishermen.” He identified the fishermen as Ronald Dumaran, Edwin Zoilo and Gener Mendoza, all residents of Sta. Ana, Cagayan. Citing a report from the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Makati City, Balilo said the fishermen “encountered a storm last July 15.” “On board a fishing boat, they drifted for five days until they were rescued by a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel,” he said. “They are in good condition and currently under the custody of the TCG in Kaohsiung.” However, “another Filipino fishing boat (with an undisclosed number of crew) is still missing,” said Balilo. In May, a Philippine fisheries patrol vessel manned by the PCG shot at a Taiwanese fishing boat near Balintang Channel in northern Philippines. The PCG had admitted that its personnel shot at the vessel in an incident that left Taiwanese fisherman Hung Shih-chen dead. The Coast Guard shrugged off an Inquirer report that the National Bureau of Investigation had recommended the filing Read More …

Fil-Ams at high risk of hepatitis-B; free testing in SF Bay Area

News

Jul 212013

Fil-Ams at high risk of hepatitis-B; free testing in SF Bay Area

By Rose PaquetteINQUIRER.net US Bureau 12:14 pm | Monday, July 22nd, 2013 BLOOD-DRAWING. Mark Nagales (right), Field Representative from the Office of Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco-San Mateo), who wants to set an good example to the Fil-Am community, volunteers for a free hepatitis B screening being conducted by Samson Ku (left), Lab Assistant of the North East Medical Center clinic in Eastmoor St., Daly City. PHOTO BY ROSE PAQUETTE DALY CITY, California—Among Asians, Filipinos are the third-most chronically infected with the deadly Hepatitis B disease, next only to Chinese (first) and Vietnamese (second), reported Genevieve V. Jopanda, executive director of the San Francisco Hep B Free Campaign. At the launching of the Free Hep B test clinic at the North East Medical Services (NEMS) in Daly City on Thursday, Jopanda explained that as many as 1 in 10 Asian and Pacific Islanders are infected with Hepatitis B worldwide. “Of these, two out of three don’t know they are infected, and one in four will develop liver cancer or liver disease if untreated,” Jopanda said, noting that nearly 80 percent of all liver cancers is directly associated with chronic hepatitis B. The campaign started in San Francisco in coordination with the city’s Public Health Clinic, Asian Week Foundation and the City of San Jose. Daly City Mayor Raymond A. Buenaventura encouraged the Filipino-American community to participate in the free hepatitis B testing. “Get tested and be a hero to yourself and family members by getting tested.” Silent killer “Hepatitis B Read More …

Court won’t honor US ruling vs Marcoses

News

Jul 142013

By Norman BordadoraPhilippine Daily Inquirer 6:55 am | Monday, July 15th, 2013 The Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) has dismissed Priscilla Mijares et al.’s petition to enforce in the Philippines an 18-year-old United States District Court decision awarding some $2 billion from the Marcos estate to victims of human rights violations during the late dictator’s administration. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—The Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) has dismissed Priscilla Mijares et al.’s petition to enforce in the Philippines an 18-year-old United States District Court decision awarding some $2 billion from the Marcos estate to victims of human rights violations during the late dictator’s administration. A PDF copy of the 11-page decision rendered by Judge Bonifacio Pascua of Makati RTC Branch 56 was furnished the Inquirer by the staff of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who expressed the family’s feeling of vindication on the heels of the June 25 ruling. “Even if we were to espouse fear or threat as reasons for plaintiffs not to file the same in the Philippines, MDL No. 840 was filed in 1991, or five years after Ferdinand E. Marcos was deposed,” the Makati court said in dismissing the plaintiffs’ petition for enforcing the Hawaii court’s award of billions of dollars in damages. “Moreover, the case was filed on foreign soil nearly two years after the death of Ferdinand E. Marcos. A thought along the line of fear or threat on the plaintiffs that could have precluded their filing of a case in the Philippines is obviously imaginary,” Read More …

DNA flaw boosts cancer risk from diabetes—study

General

Jul 142013

DNA flaw boosts cancer risk from diabetes—study

Agence France-Presse 5:24 am | Monday, July 15th, 2013 In this Friday, March 2, 2012, file photo, DNA samples are processed at the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center in Albany, New York. A DNA flaw may explain why people with Type 2 diabetes are more prone to blood cancers than the rest of the population, a study said Sunday, July 14, 2013. AP PHOTO/MIKE GROLL PARIS—A DNA flaw may explain why people with Type 2 diabetes are more prone to blood cancers than the rest of the population, a study said Sunday. Doctors have long known that Type 2 diabetes is associated with leukemia and lymphoma, but the reasons for this have been unclear. Researchers in France and Britain, looking at blood samples from nearly 7,500 people, including 2,200 patients with Type 2 diabetes, suggest the answer lies in cellular mutations called clonal mosaic events (CMEs). These are defects that result in some cells having extra copies—or, alternatively, missing copies—of large stretches of genetic code. Reporting in the journal Nature Genetics, the researchers said that in the general population, CMEs are usually very rare in young people but become more common with aging. Among people aged over 70, around two percent have these mutations, which gives them a tenfold higher risk of developing blood cancer, previous research has found. But among people with Type 2 diabetes, CMEs were four times more common than otherwise healthy people, the new study found. They also had a far higher rate of Read More …

Third girl aboard Asiana jet dies from injuries

News

Jul 122013

Third girl aboard Asiana jet dies from injuries

Associated Press 9:15 am | Saturday, July 13th, 2013 Asiana flight 214 is dismantled and hauled to a hangar at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, July 12, 2013. Two people were killed and over 180 injured when the Boeing 777 crashed July 6 as it struck the seawall on the approach to runway 28L, knocking off the plane’s tail. AP SAN FRANCISCO — A girl who was aboard the Asiana Airlines flight that crash-landed died Friday, the same day that authorities confirmed one of the two Chinese teenagers killed in the disaster was hit by a firetruck. The disclosure about the girl raised the tragic possibility that she could have survived the crash only to die in its chaotic aftermath. No one knows yet whether the two girls lived through the initial impact at the San Francisco airport. But police and fire officials confirmed Friday that Ye Meng Yuan, 16, was hit by a firetruck racing to extinguish the blazing Boeing 777. Her close friend Wang Linjia, also 16, was among a group of passengers who did not get immediate medical help. Rescuers did not spot her until 14 minutes after the crash. The other girl died Friday morning. San Francisco General Hospital said she had been in critical condition since arriving Saturday after the accident. Officials did not identify the girl at the request of her parents. Her age was also withheld. Meng Yuan’s body was found covered in firefighting foam near a seawall Read More …

LGBT Fil-Ams hail same-sex marriage triumphs

News

Jul 082013

LGBT Fil-Ams hail same-sex marriage triumphs

By Mila de GuzmanINQUIRER.net U.S. Bureau 5:41 am | Tuesday, July 9th, 2013 Shirley and Jay Mercado (2nd and 3rd from left) and their twin sons Jashley and Joriene joined over a million people at the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 30, 2013, to celebrate the Supreme Court decisions on same sex marriage. SAN FRANCISCO—Darwin Dayan and his husband, Deo Patrimonio-Martin, who have been together for 18 years and wed five years ago, screamed with delight when they heard that DOMA had been struck down. Their union in 2008 remains valid because they luckily wed during the brief period when same-sex marriage was legal in California. The United States Supreme Court on June 26, the last day of its session this term, issued two stunning decisions on same-sex marriage that were heard around the world. It overturned the Defense of Marriage Act’s (DOMA) federal ban on same- sex marriage as unconstitutional, thus allowing married same-sex couples in states where same sex-marriage is legal to receive federal benefits. The highest court of the land also ruled that proponents of California’s Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage, had no standing or right to appeal the district court’s ruling that the initiative violated the state Constitution, thus facilitating the resumption of same-sex marriages in the country’s most populous state. Elated Like Dayan and Patrimonio-Martin, other members of the Filipino LGBT community were elated by these historical rulings, which brought them a step closer to achieving full equality. Dayan welcomes the ruling, which not Read More …

Resolve tiff with Taiwan, gov’t urged

News

Jul 082013

By Leila B. SalaverriaPhilippine Daily Inquirer 4:32 am | Tuesday, July 9th, 2013 OFW Family Club party-list Rep. Roy Señeres: Stop foot-dragging MANILA, Philippines—Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continue to suffer from the hiring freeze that resulted from the Philippines’ recent tiff with Taiwan, leaving 10,000 of them unable to return to their jobs there, according to OFW Family Club party-list Rep. Roy Señeres. Señeres, who served as labor attache of the Philippine Embassy in the United Arab Emirates from 1983 to 1989, told a press briefing the Philippine government must stop its foot-dragging and resolve the Taiwan dispute immediately, lest OFWs suffer more permanent consequences. Taiwan earlier decided to freeze the hiring of Filipino workers following the shooting by a Filipino coast guard of a Taiwanese fisherman whose boat had strayed into Philippine waters. The incident triggered the harassment of Filipinos in Taiwan. Slow to act on problem Señeres said the Department of Justice’s report on the shooting incident, which has been submitted to Malacañang, should be made public. Those involved in the incident should also face criminal and administrative charges, he added. “The government is slow to act on this problem,” he said. The Aquino administration must also hasten the restoration of bilateral relations with Taiwan, he said. He said many OFWs wanted the administration to resolve the issue soon, and were worried that it was becoming too preoccupied with the allegations of sexual exploitation of OFWs by Filipino officials in the Middle East. Señeres said many Taiwan-bound OFWs Read More …

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