WEEKLY ISSUE @FilAmNewspaper www.filamstar.com Vol. IX Issue 578 1028 Mission Street, 2/F, San Francisco, CA 94103 Email: [email protected] Tel. (415) 593-5955 or (650) 278-0692 May 07-13, 2020 Taiwan refuses to deport anti- Duterte OFW, takes offense at By Beting Laygo Dolor Contributing Editor MEAT PLANTS CLOSED BUT IMMIGRANTS RUN ‘One China policy’ reply THE GOVERNMENT of Taiwan not POULTRY SUPPLIER only refused a request from a Philippine US NEWS | A2 government official to deport an over- seas Filipino worker (OFW) accused of attacking the Duterte administration. The Chinese state also slammed the President’s spokesman for incorrectly saying that the People’s Republic of China had a say on the matter. Elanel Egot ‘Linn’ Ordidor, who works as a caregiver, used social media to lambast what she said were the seri- ous shortcomings of President Rodrigo Duterte. For this reason, Labor attaché in Taiwan Fidel Macauyag last week SENIORS PROTEST requested the cancellation of Ordidor’s QUARANTINE KEEPING visa and passport, followed by her de- THEM HOME portation back to Manila. PH NEWS | A3 Macauyag said Ordidor’s Face- book posts against Duterte were meant to “cause hatred amid the global health crisis brought about by the COVID-19 Elanel Egot ‘Linn’ Ordidor, Harry Roque (Photo: Facebook) and Fidel Macauyag (Photo: Twitter) pandemic.” ■ TO PAGE A7 Media watchdogs decry curtailed free speech Nurse group, By Daniel Llanto Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), “President Duterte’s low tolerance FilAm Star Correspondent MindaNews, Philippine Press Institute for the adversarial press became com- (PPI), and Philippine Center for Inves- mon among government officials, in- advocates ON THE occasion of World Press tigative Journalism (PCIJ) cluding those in local government units Freedom Day on May 3, the country’s They said the recent crackdown on (LGUs), the police and military. Social protest lack of media watchdog organizations came up netizens in social media posts suppos- media spawned trolls and so-called CARNIVAL CRUISES with a joint report deploring how press edly critical of government, including influencers, as these were ‘weaponized’ PPE at Regional RESUME AUGUST freedom and freedom of expression the arrest of a film writer for her satiri- to attack the political opposition, those WORLD NEWS | A5 have been further constricted under the cal message on Cebu and the coronavi- identified with the former administra- current pandemic. rus, and the Labor department’s threat tion, groups and individuals, including Medical Center The report was put together by to deport a Filipino worker in Taiwan journalists. The most prominent of the Pope Francis names the Freedom for Media, Freedom for for her anti-Duterte posts on Facebook Duterte propagandists were featured on All (FMFA) network composed of the are triggering public concerns. podcasts by the Presidential Communi- Tagle highest-ranked Center for Media Freedom and Re- The assessment covers the period sponsibility (CMFR), National Union of from January 2019 to end of April 2020. ■ TO PAGE A7 cardinal in Vatican By Daniel Llanto ABS-CBN closure order opposed by FilAm Star Correspondent POPE FRANCIS broke tradition by solons, media, rights, labor groups naming an Asian and former Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle pines to the Filipino people “ but in the By Macon Araneta to Cardinal-Bishop, the highest rank in FilAm Star Correspondent absence of a legislative franchise, ABS- CBN’s continued operation is entirely the College of Cardinals at the Vatican. LAWMAKERS, media and militant NTC’s decision.” Manila Cathedral Rector Fr. Regi- groups condemned what they described Roque also said the media giant is nald Malicdem, Tagle’s former personal as contrary to law and a grave abuse of free to exhaust all legal remedies avail- secretary, said the Vatican announced discretion and assault on press freedom. able to it. He also related that President Tagle’s elevation to Cardinal-Bishop They referred to the “cease and Rodrigo Duterte accepted the network’s last May 1. desist order” issued by the National apology, so he was leaving the matter to (Photo by Jocelyn Mallari) In so doing, Malicdem said Pope Telecommunications Commission Congress. Francis broke tradition again, as he (NTC) to ABS-CBN to stop broadcasting ABS-CBN Convergence franchise By Elpidio R. Estioko did with four other bishops in 2018, to on television and radio, a day after its expired on March 17, 2020, while ABS- make the Philippines’ Cardinal Tagle 25-year operating franchise expired. CBN Corporation’s franchise ended on one of the highest-ranking princes of May 4, 2020. SAN JOSE – A union-organized In an order dated May 5, NTC the Catholic Church. The network, which airs on Chan- rally by the California Nurses As- directed the giant media network to Tagle is the first Filipino and stop operating its various television and nel 2 on free television and transmits sociation (CNA) gathered at the first Asian, for that matter, to become radio broadcasting stations nationwide through AM radio dzMM and FM radio front lobby of Regional Medical “absent a valid congressional franchise MOR, signed off on both platforms after Center (RMC) in McKee Road cardinal-bishop, making him the high- as required by law.” its evening newscast that ended at 8 p.m. last May 1, according to CNA est-ranking Filipino bishop in almost 500 Presidential Spokesman Harry Tuesday. Their regional channels and spokesperson Jocelyn Mallari. years of Christianity in the Philippines. Roque said Malacañang acknowledged affiliates were expected to follow suit. TO PAGE A7 (Photo: Twitter) the services of ABS-CBN to the Philip- ■ TO PAGE A7 ■ ■ TO PAGE A7 Activist group aims to counter Trump’s virus ‘disinformation’ A POLITICAL action committee spot misinformation just as it’s has launched to counter false and beginning to go viral on social misleading statements about the media,” according to a statement. coronavirus pandemic from US It also aims to promote President Donald Trump with a the “truthful counter narrative” wide-ranging, tech-infused social about COVID-19 with tweet- media campaign. for-tweet responses to limit the Defeat Disinfo, which started impact of inaccurate information. last week, plans to use “a sophisti- cated set of tools that allows us to ■ TO PAGE A5 A2 Issue 578 FilAm Star May 07-13, 2020 US News Working in fear, immigrants Trump relaunches campaign with vaccine promise, vision keep US poultry plants running of ‘incredible’ future TINA says a little prayer every time she heads to “COVID-19 touched home,” said the 45-year- work at a Delaware poultry plant, a plea that this old. “My cousin was 44, working at Perdue plant. PRESIDENT Donald Trump relaunched his elec- His emphasis, however, was not on the dead, will not be the day that the invisible killer picking Beginning of April, he could not breathe, his wife tion campaign Sunday with a live television event but on resurrecting his image as a can-do leader off her colleagues comes for her. convinced the medics to take him to the hospital. In inside the iconic Lincoln Memorial, promising an who can end the skyrocketing unemployment With the coronavirus shutting down meat less than two weeks he died.” early coronavirus vaccine and urging Americans caused by the lockdown. plants and threatening the country’s food supply, The disease’s toll has also been boosted by a to put the pandemic behind them to embrace an That audacious shift began Sunday at possibly she would rather not be there at all, but President fear of hospitals and by the language barrier for “incredible” future. the most hallowed monument in the country -- the With the two-hour long Fox News “town statue of Abraham Lincoln, who led the country Donald Trump has designated the sector as strate- many Haitians, doctors said. hall,” Trump sought to wrap himself in the mantle through civil war, urged reconciliation, and was gic, and low-paid workers like her as essential. “When they see people dying in New York hos- of America’s arguably greatest president -- and assassinated in his moment of triumph. The 27-year-old mother works shifts at the Per- pitals, the lack of material and people put in dumps, to persuade a nation battered by death and mass Trump, who calls himself a “wartime pres- due packing plant in Georgetown, a major employer they are scared thinking they won’t receive the care unemployment to look ahead. ident” denied that the election will turn into a among the thousands of fellow Haitians settled in they need -- and end up dying,” said Nadya Julien, a “We can’t stay closed as a country, we’re not referendum on his handling of the crisis. the area. If she wants to hold on to her job, she feels Haitian nurse practitioner in Laurel, Delaware. going to have a country left,” he said on the show, But he added: “I hope it does because we’ve she has little choice but to clock in for her shifts, Some who speak Creole but little English have where two moderators, as well as ordinary citi- done a great job.” despite the risk to her and her family. trouble explaining their symptoms, she said. zens via video, put questions to him in front of the In the next few days, Trump will follow up by “Every day I come, I just pray to God that nothing She herself contracted the disease and was monument. breaking months of self-quarantine with long-dis- happens,” said Tina -- one of few workers who would hospitalized for six days in April, a story she tells “We’re going to have an incredible following tance trips to the key electoral states of Arizona and agree to speak to a reporters, although even she de- her patients to help them overcome their fears.