CHICAGO (FAXX/jGLi) – Liza Soriano was part of group touring California and Nevada some years ago. When they were in Las Vegas, she felt a tugging pain in her chest. Because she did not want to spoil the tour, she just sat meekly by on a corner although she was having shortness of breath and was breaking out in cold sweat.

Fortunately, one of her companions noticed that she was perspiring when everybody else was enjoying a cozy indoor temperature.

So, someone described in a phone call her condition to another, who has knowledge of Soriano’s symptoms. The call recipient advised one of them to call 9-1-1 and rushed her to the nearest hospital.

NEW YORK CITY, NY --  The grand opera “Noli Me Tangere” has edged one step closer to the American mainstream.  At a special dinner held in Manhattan in late March 2013, leaders and advocates of the Filipino American community in the Northeastern U.S. have pledged to do their part to invest funds and raise public awareness for the highly anticipated New York premiere of the “Noli” — a landmark opera based on the great novel by the Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal.

Hosted by U.S. industrialist Loida Nicolas Lewis at her Fifth Avenue residence, the evening affair was intimate and one-of-a-kind.  Conversations delved deep into the subject of how a classical music piece from the Philippines could garner global appreciation from opera aficionados and Western centers of culture.  The New York dinner also offered a unique opportunity for lead sponsors and potential investors to personally meet Bayani Mendoza de Leon, the son of Philippine National Artist for Music composer Felipe Padilla de Leon who wrote and completed the opera in 1950.

“Lovers of Philippine culture would have heard of Rizal's classic novel,” says Loida Lewis, the project’s lead producer. “When they hear the ‘Noli’ opera sung in the Filipino language, Filipino Americans everywhere will be curious and amazed that this masterpiece could be presented in New York.”

One of the world's largest foreign aid organizations just announced it will be forced to make substantial program cuts this year. For hundreds of thousands of people, the consequences could be lethal.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced in late November that it had failed to raise the minimum $13 billion needed to support current operations. This is terrible news -- fully 70% of anti-retroviral HIV/AIDS drugs available in poor countries are provided by the fund.

TOKYO (Apr. 15) -- In an event organized with the Department of Tourism (DOT), the Philippine Embassy opened the Philippine Food Festival 2009 at the Hilton Tokyo in Shinjuku on April 13.

The 10-day event, which started with a sit-down buffet dinner featuring the culinary talents of Chef Myrna Segismundo, was attended by Filipino and Japanese VIPs.

MANILA – The statistics is glaring. Two hundred and twenty one mothers die in every 100,000 live births, according to the 2011 data of the National Statistics Office. It has increased from 162 in 2009. Purportedly to address the problem of maternal deaths, the Department of Health (DOH) implemented a policy discouraging home births assisted by traditional birth attendants (TBAS) or hilots.

The Department of Health passed Administrative Order 2008-0029 known as “Implementing Health Reforms towards Rapid Reduction in Maternal and Neonatal Mortality,” called the “No Home Birthing Policy,” during the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. This policy was also intended to enable the Philippines to achieve its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs include lowering maternal mortality rate to 52 per 100,000 live births in 2015.

MANILA -- With a bang and a drumbeat, the youth demand to be heard.

Independent musicians and mainstream artists from Karl Ramirez and Talahib  to Datu’s Tribe and Kate Torralba, cheered on by a crowd of young students as well as curious onlookers, took part in the call for clean, transparent elections in an event that lasted well beyond midnight on Friday, at Morayta University Belt, Manila. Poetry readings from members of KM-64 and other artists segued between band performances.

NEW YORK – The search for 2013 Diwa ng Kalayaan (Spirit of Independence) and Mrs. Kalayaan (Mrs. Independence) is now open, the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI) has announced.  The winners of the two contests will reign for the duration of the 115th anniversary commemoration of the Declaration of Philippine Independence being celebrated this year.

DIWA NG KALAYAAN

Entry application forms for the Diwa ng Kalayaan beauty, brains and talent contest may be obtained by calling search and gala committee chairs Joyce Castillo at (848) 467-0269 or Maryann Sanagustin at (908) 456-7063, or PIDCI President Fe Martinez at (973) 222-0085 or any member of the PIDCI Board of Directors.

The deadline for submission of entries to the Diwa ng Kalayaan contest is April 5, 2013.

If novelist, poet and national hero Jose Rizal was alive today, would he be joining the protests against human rights violations and the continuing deterioration of the Filipino people’s economic well-being?

Chances are, yes.

Last week, University of the Philippines professors Judy Taguiwalo and Sarah Raymundo posited that when Rizal was 23 and studying in Madrid, Spain, the young doctor saw nothing amiss about joining protests. Arkibong Bayan editor Mon Ramirez was a also quick to post a website wherein Rizal’s letters were archived.