WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Adobo Chronicles, Washington Bureau) – After a stinging loss at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday, President Donald Trump announced that he is going back to the drawing board and will issue a new travel ban Executive Order shortly.
While Trump’s announcement is not surprising — considering the fact that he is a man that does not take defeat lightly — what shocked even his close advisers is that he is including a non-Muslim country in the new order. That country is the Dominican Republic.
Large-scale migration from the Caribbean country to the United States began in the 1960s, in the wake of economic and political turbulence that occurred after dictator Rafael Trujillo was killed by rebels in 1961 and the U.S. military and other government agencies intervened.
As of 2012, it is estimated that 960,000 immigrants from the Dominican Republic resided in the United States, constituting 2 percent of the total U.S. foreign-born population of 40.8 million.
But the number of immigrants has nothing to do with Trump’s new draft order. Rather, it is in retaliation for a Dominican Republic front-page newspaper article about the U.S. and Israel.
The photos of both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump appeared in that article in El Nacional. Alas, the paper used a photo of Saturday Night Live’s (SNL) Alec Baldwin impersonating the U.S. president.
Upon seeing a copy of the newspaper, Trump was reportedly mad as hell. So he decided to include The Dominican Republic among the new countries in his new travel ban which will focus not on religion but on national security.
MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – On February 25, 2017, the Philippines will commemorate the anniversary of EDSA People Power I, the peaceful revolution that ousted the late Ferdinand E. Marcos.
Since that 1986 life-changing event for the Filipinos, nothing much has changed in as far as the ideological rivalry between the pro-Aquinos and the pro-Marcoses. In fact, taking Marcos out of the equation, there continues to be a fierce conflict between the so-called Yellowtards (pro-Aquino and Liberal Party) and Dutertards (pro-Digong Duterte).
But 2017 could see a historic coming together of all Filipinos from all sorts of colors and political persuasions. As a matter of fact, President Rodrigo Duterte and Ex-President Noynoy Aquino are leading this new phenomenon of “One Filipino Nation, United.”
Reliable sources in Malacañang tell The Adobo Chronicles that the two presidents have decided to reconcile to the dismay of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines which has always been pro-Aquino and anti-Duterte.
In fact, Aquino joined Duterte in his latest trip to Davao City where the two met privately in the president’s private residence before announcing their reconciliation.
So on February 25, 2017, the Filipinos will gather one last time at the EDSA shrine to celebrate People Power, one that is neither yellow nor red; neither ‘L’ sign nor “closed fist.” It will just be a colorless event with a new Miss Universe-type hand wave, symbolic of unity, camaraderie and everlasting peace.
Mark your calendars: February 25, at noon, EDSA!
The Adobo Chronicles 
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