Free Republic

When Pia Wurtzbach brought back the Miss Universe crown in 2015 she received a hero’s welcome. Ayala Avenue, the main road of Manila’s central business district was closed off midday, during a weekday and people gathered in their thousands carrying signs, waving flags and tearing up as they greeted the newly crowned beauty queen. It was a day of national pride for Filipinos. For the first time in 42 years, a Filipina brought home the most coveted crown in the beauty pageant industry. And in a country where pageants are followed and cheered on as much as the Superbowl, the...

About 709,000 years ago, someone butchered a rhinoceros using stone tools on the Philippine island of Luzon. That may not seem remarkable -- except that humans weren't supposed to be in the Philippines so long ago. Before this discovery, the earliest indicator that early humans, or hominins, were even on those islands had been a single foot bone from 67,000 years ago, uncovered in the Callao Cave on Luzon. That's quite a time jump. Research says that the new findings push back the date for humans inhabiting the Philippines by hundreds of thousands of years. A study published Wednesday in...

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday said the temporary ban on Filipinos going to work in Kuwait is now permanent, intensifying a diplomatic standoff over the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf nation. Mr Duterte in February imposed a prohibition on workers heading to Kuwait following the murder of a Filipina maid whose body was found stuffed in a freezer in the Gulf state. The crisis deepened after Kuwaiti authorities last week ordered Manila's envoy to leave the country over videos of Philippine embassy staff helping workers in Kuwait flee allegedly abusive employers. The two nations had been negotiating...

Asia needs more transport infrastructure. More than the state, which finances the lion's share, can fund. So what more can be done to bring in increased private capital, when investors have so far been mostly disappointed by the returns? Is there a way of breathing new life into the public private partnership (PPP), the most common vehicle for private infrastructure investment? We think so. Governments need to offer private sector investors more than they can hope to earn from ticket sales on railways or motorway tolls. They should consider sharing the extra tax revenues generated from the increased economic activity...

An Israeli company located in Judea and Samaria is working to combat the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement through a monthly box subscription that allows supporters throughout the world the opportunity to be part of the Israel experience. Aryeh Powers, the director of marketing for Lev HaOlam, told Breitbart News that these gift boxes — which include items that are boycotted by anti-Israel entities as part of the BDS movement — reach thousands of people worldwide. “We send thousands of packages to people in multiple countries per month,” he said. These packages are sent to over 40 countries...

The Philippines took its closest step yet to legalizing divorce this week, despite opposition from President Rodrigo Duterte and religious groups. The country’s lower house of Congress voted Monday to pass a bill allowing couples to dissolve “irreparable marriages” and remarry, with 134 lawmakers voting for and 57 against, with two abstentions, Reuters reports. The only other country where divorce is illegal is the Vatican City. Congresswoman Emmi de Jesus said the bill sought to address the “clamour of women trapped in abusive relationships,” the BBC reports. The bill, which passed with support across the political aisle, offers Filipinos a...

Few events in the Philippines have been more anticipated than Pope Francis’s 2015 visit to the home of the world’s third-largest Catholic population. Six million people attended a parade on the final day of the pope’s trip, a meeting he decided to make following one of the strongest cyclones ever recorded. During mass with survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, Pope Francis declared, “I have come to tell you that Jesus is Lord. And he never lets us down.” Stirred by his homily, many were overcome with tears. Pain is not an anomaly for Filipinos. Suffering punctuates centuries of Philippine colonial and...

California Democrats are speechless as they watch their prized Sacramento gun control senator, Leland Yee, head to prison for weapons trafficking, accepting bribes, and extorting money. “The crimes that you committed have resulted in essentially an attack on democratic institutions,” Breyer told Yee, who nodded as the judge addressed him. “This is a serious, serious injury to a governmental institution.” Breyer called his involvement in that crime “hypocritical” and “unfathomable” given his past advocacy for gun control. The judge gave him 30 days to surrender to the U.S. Marshal’s Service, which will turn him over to the federal prison system....

Perseverance is The blood , sweat and tears of the persecuted for My names sake but be reassured that all of Heaven is with you in all you do and say by My spirit and for My glory . 1 Corinthians 9:24 24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let...

MANILA - A group of Filipino and American businessmen has called for the return of the Balangiga bells to the Philippines in a bid to strengthen ties between Manila and Washington. The US-Philippine Society on Monday passed a board resolution expressing support for the return of the Balangiga bells to its "rightful owners," said John Maisto, the organization's president. The passage of the resolution comes ahead of the group's meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday. Duterte, during his second State of the Nation Address last year, called for the return of the 3 church bells taken by the US...

The time to plow is over for the seeds are bearing fruit for I have gone before you as David in the Valley of Breakthrough . So speak and declare My Words of Righteousness given to all those that believe on Me for "Truly" The Harvest is ready to be brought into the Storehouse That is , "My Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven" for "Truly" You "ARE " My Keepers of My Love and ONE True Light EMMANUEL ( God with us ) JOHN 4:34-38 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will...

Philippines' Duterte orders female communist fighters shot in the genitals, reports say Feb. 14, 2018 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte last week bragged that he had ordered troops to shoot female communist fighters in their vaginas, according to multiple reports, triggering a wave of criticism against the strongman when the remark was published Monday. “Tell the soldiers, ‘There’s a new order coming from the mayor,'” Duterte, a former mayor, told an audience of approximately 200 former rebels in Malacañang. “We won’t kill you. We will just shoot your vagina.’” “If there is no vagina, it would be useless,” Duterte added to...

“When our country needs us, we will go without a second thought to defend China’s rights,” said Chen Yuguo in a recent interview with the Washington Post. If Chen were a sailor in China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy, or perhaps an officer of the Chinese Coast Guard, his pledge to use force for his country would not be particularly noteworthy. But Mr. Chen is a fisherman. As captain of a trawler based in the port of Tanmen, Chen is one of China’s 6 million plus fishermen. He pilots one of the country’s 2,600 distant-water fishing ships. And much of this...

My children do you realize all the battles we have walked through together have already made you Overcomers as David over Goliath ?! Now I desire you to take the hand of others I have placed in your path and reveal to them that I AM The KEY to all trials and I alone hold the Key to their Victories as I overcame for you in your Valleys ! Now be that buoyancy compensator for as I have been the Lifter of your Soul Now I desire you to lift up others and love them as I Love you for...

My occupations for you are endless so don't box yourself in, just allow my spirit to lead you into each pasture of revelation knowledge with out fear of reprisal or resistance for as I AM in and through you nothing can ever harm your life in Me . Allow me to flow freely as you saturate yourself in My word daily so that you understand completely just what it is I plan to accomplish through you . There is no need to confide in the Ephod for I AM your complete armor and eyes for now as you trust me...

A giant mushroom-shaped cloud shot up from the Philippines’ most active volcano on Monday, darkening the skies and raining ash on communities where tens of thousands have fled after warnings of an impending eruption.Mayon volcano’s new activity prompted state volcanologists to raise the alert level one notch higher than the initial warning scientists issued last week, meaning a hazardous eruption is possible within days. Fine ash and sand fell on Legazpi, a city of about 200,000 people, and nearby areas after the midday explosion of Mount Mayon, forcing motorists to turn on their windshield wipers and headlamps, an AFP video...

Despite the “rise and fall of the unipolar concert,” China and Russia’s balancing strategies have backfired: they are not leading to multipolarity, but are actually reinforcing unipolarity. The reason is that China and Russia’s balancing strategies have focused on regional “revisionism,” which has provoked powerful responses in East Asia and Europe to contain them. Russia’s balancing strategy has to a large extent proven to be counter-productive. Instead of preventing the expansion of NATO through a “divide and conquer” strategy, or driving a diplomatic wedge between the United States and Europe, Russian revisionism has united NATO...Perhaps most illustrative of all, a...

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You are of heavenly creation no longer earthly bound, My crown of salvation freed you from earths ground, For now you are grounded in Me, Mt Zion your home for all eternity, The Father and I light your day, No illness or sadness its all washed away, My Blood the payment for the fallen world, You in Me The Word , Now and forever I AM your Truth and Life, Nothing else will suffice, Worshipping your Majesty, Savior, Lord, your Gethsemane, Come up higher this very day, Listen closely for I have much to reveal and say, Your kingdom has...

The Resolution calls on Myanmar to allow access for aid workers, ensure the return of all refugees and grant full citizenship rights to the Rohingya.The UN general assembly has urged Myanmar to end a military campaign against Muslim Rohingya and called for the appointment of a UN special envoy, despite opposition from China, Russia and some regional countries. A resolution put forward by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was adopted by a vote of 122 to 10 with 24 abstentions.