Category Archives: International

Philippines VP Leni Robredo Agrees To Interview With BBC’s Stephen Sackur

IMG_2507LONDON, United Kingdom (Exclusive to The Adobo Chronicles) – Since that celebrated one-on-one interview with Senator Antonio Trillanes, the hard-talking Stephen  Sackur has been wanting to have Philippines Vice President Leni Robredo guest on his BBC talk show. Negotiations have been ongoing for at least two weeks.

Today, BBC announced that Robredo has finally agreed to appear on Sackur’s show on the following conditions:

  • Office of the Vice President (OVP) spokesperson Georgina Hernandez will appear on the show, along with Robredo and that she will be seated between Sackur and the Vice President.
  • Hernandez will act as interpreter.  While Sackur will be asking the questions in British English, Hernandez will be translating the questions in Taglish (combination of Tagalog and English) to the VP.
  • When answering Sackur’s questions, Robredo will be whispering her responses into Hernandez’ ear.  Hernandez will then relay Robredo’s responses to Sackur in Filipino English.
  • Both BBC producers and the OVP have agreed that Hernandez will have the option to revise Robredo’s responses if she feels that it will reflect badly on the Vice President.
  • If Hernandez needed more time to sugar-coat or revise Robredo’s responses, she will flash a “time out” sign with her hands and BBC will go into commercial.

The Robredo interview will not be aired live in the 🇵🇭 Philippines and the video recording of the show will become the property of the Office of the Vice President.  It will be up to the OVP whether or not the interview will be shown to Filipinos.  Even then, the OVP reserves the right to edit the video as it sees fit.

 

Divorce Rates Up In U.S., Thanks To Supreme Court Decision

IMG_2457.JPGWASHINGTON, D.C. (The Adobo Chronicles, Washington Bureau) – Divorce rates in the United States almost tripled in just the last 24 hours, thanks to a decision by the Supreme Court to allow parts of Donald Trump’s Muslim travel ban to go into effect.

The ruling by the Supremes all but upholds the administration’s temporary ban on issuing travel visas to citizens from several Muslim countries.

The court’s opinion explained the kinds of relationships people from the six countries must demonstrate to obtain a US visa.

“For individuals, a close familial relationship is required,” the court said. For people who want to come to the United States to work or study, “the relationship must be formal, documented and formed in the ordinary course, not for the purpose of evading” the travel ban.

Apparently, many Americans who are opposed to the Muslim travel ban are resorting to divorcing their spouses in the hope that they can marry citizens from the banned countries.  This would satisfy the court’s condition of “close familial relationship.”

Let’s give it to these Americans.  They can’t be outsmarted. Not by Trump. Not even by the U.S. Supreme Court!

 

PRIDE: Facebook Launches Gay App

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Facebook’s float at San Francisco’s PRIDE Parade (photo credit: Ignatius B.)

SAN FRANCISCO, California (The Adobo Chronicles, San Francisco Bureau) – The LGBTQ PRIDE Parade is just now winding down in the City by the Bay, but the one news that has sparked an even bigger celebration is Facebook’s launch of a new social media app that’s exclusively reserved for gay men and women.

It’s called GayBook.

For several years now, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been resisting the urge to create a new social media platform that would be Facebook’s version of the growing number of gay dating apps.

Aside from gay.com or Grindr, a quick Google search would call up many other gay dating and chat apps:

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In an exclusive interview with The Adobo Chronicles, Zuckerberg said it’s time for the popular social networking site to branch out to this all-important community. “They’re ten percent of the world’s population. That means by 2050, there will be 1 Billion of them, something that we at Facebook can no longer ignore.”

Unlike the regular Facebook app, Gaybook will pre-screen and approve all accounts.  One of the requirements is for account applicants to sign and upload a document certifying that they, indeed, are gay.

Happy PRIDE! Happy GayBook!