About the author Val G. Abelgas, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Los Angeles-based Philippine Post, has been a professional journalist for almost 45 years, 20 of them in Manila and 25 years in Los Angeles. Val started as a sportswriter in the now defunct Philippine Daily Express in 1972 while still in his junior year in journalism at the University of the Philippines' Institute of Mass Communications. He rose to become city editor of then the country's biggest daily newspaper at a very young age of 24. He was the last managing editor of the Daily Express, which was closed down by the Cory Aquino administration in 1987. The next day, he moved to the Manila Standard as its first managing editor. After stints as editorial consultant of the Philippine Star Group and later managing editor of the Philippine Times Journal, he and his family immigrated in 1991 to the United States, where he later obtained his green card as an alien of extraordinary ability in the field of journalism. In his first year in the US, he was editor of the Los Angeles Monitor and the next year became the first editor-in-chief of Balita. He moved to the Philippine Times in 1993, during which time he won the Newspaper of the Year and Columnist of the Year awards of the Philippine Press Club of America for two straight years in 1993 and 1994. In November 1993, he organized the first-ever nationwide convention of Filipino-American editors in Los Angeles with President Fidel V. Ramos as guest speaker. In 1995, he left the Philippine Times to join his wife Marisse in editing the Philippine Post and later became editor of Ang Peryodiko, the Pinoy Weekly and the Philippine Tribune. He published and edited two magazines with his wife, the Philippine Post Magazine and the Hiyas Magazine. Before becoming a professional journalist, Abelgas was editor-in-chief of The Nucleus, official organ of the Manila Science High School, assistant news editor of the Philippine Collegian, official newspaper of the University of the Philippines, and editor-in-chief of the Campus Journal, laboratory newspaper of the UP-IMC. Abelgas wrote a column, "As We See It," for the Philippines Daily Express in the 1980s. In 1992, he started writing his weekly "On Distant Shore" column, which is being published in 9 Filipino publications in the US and Canada. Val has won numerous journalism awards both as a professional and campus journalist and served as director of the National Press Club of the Philippines five times and president of the Philippine Press Club of America. In 2016, he was named Journalist of the Year by the Filipino-American Press Club of California. He has travelled to more than 30 countries in official assignments as a journalist. + + + + Contents + + + + 1--Secretary of Injustice - Sept. 3, 2017 - p7 2--Let the bells ring - August 22, 2017 - p12 3--What about the bigger crimes? August 10, 2017 - p17 4--What happened to 'never again'? July 29, 2017 - p21 5--Clothing tyranny with constitutionality July 10, 2017 - p25 6--Making health care unaffordable again June 27, 2017 - p29 7--The mighty Speaker - June 26, 2017 - p33 8--Trump just wouldn't listen - June 13, 2017 - p37 9--Tyranny: The signs are clear June 1, 2017 - p43 10--Playing with fire - May 25, 2017 - p47 11--Napoles should not be spared May 16, 2017 - p52 12--Deadly drug war doesn't work May 13, 2017 - p56 13--Of secret cells and impunity May 2, 2017 - p60 14--There is light at end of the tunnel - April 25, 2017 - p64 15--Stop flying the unfriendly skies April 15, 2017 - p69 16--'The rants of a petty tyrant' April 7, 2017 - p73 17--Duterte's latest affront to democracy March 28, 2017 - p77 18--Rape on sovereignty: Relax and enjoy it? March 20, 2017 - p81 19--Where is the change?- March 14, 2017 - p86 20--'A country where everyone lives in fear' March 8, 2017 - p91 (more inside)