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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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Homeless and hungry, thousands of
Filipinos in Cayman Islands seek help
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Friends Leticia Katanghal (right) and Dory Hey in one of photos taken in Leyte
years ago. After hurricane Ivan ravaged her apartment in Cayman Islands, Katanghal
asked Hey, of Phoenix Az., to contact fellow Filipinos in America.
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NEW YORK, September 17, 2004 --- After Hurricane Ivan lashed the U.S. Gulf on Wednesday night, Leticia Katanghal stood in the middle of the wreckage in her apartment. She could openly see the dark sky as strong winds howled away large portions of the roof and walls, she said, and nothing but shards of metals and torn furniture had been scattered around her.
Katanghal, 45, is one of the thousands of Filipino workers in Cayman Islands, located nearly 500 miles away from the Florida coast, severely affected by Ivan.
“Ang hirap ng sitwasyon dito. Wala kaming kuryente, walang trabaho, at paubos na ang aming pagkain (We are in a very difficult situation. We have no electricity, no job, and we are running out of food),” Katanghal, who worked for a furniture shop, said in a phone interview.“We need your help.”
She said that some Filipinos had already evacuated and stayed in public shelters opened by the local government there. Others had decided to flee the island and relocated to relatives or friends in Florida. But for her and her family, she said that they have nowhere to go.
“Sabi ng mga opisyal dito, ‘yong mga tao sa evacuation areas ay pwede nang umuwi at bumalik sa kani-kanilang bahay dahil halos wala ng supply ng pagkain (The local officials here have told the people at the evacuation areas that they have the option to move out and go back to their homes because the food supplies are running low),” she said.
Left with no option, Katanghal, through the help of her couple friends, Steve and Dory Hey of Phoenix, Az, appealed to the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. The Embassy told them, Katanghal said, to get the names of the Filipinos in Cayman Islands and describe their actual condition. But no specific aid had been offered.
“Ang sabi sa akin ni attaché Jose Ladoño ng Philippine Embassy sa Washington D.C., bumalik na lang daw muna kami sa Pilipinas. Pero ano naman ang gagawin namin ‘pag kami’y umuwi doon? (I was advised by attaché Jose Ladoño of the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. to just go back to the Philippines. But what are we going to do there?),” she said. “At saka kapag umuwi kami sa Pilipinas, makakabalik pa ba kami dito sa Cayman? (And if we go back to the Philippines, can we still come back to Cayman?)”
Although Katanghal and most of the Filipinos in Cayman Islands, who work as nannies, hotel assistants, cooks, caregivers and other skilled jobs, have a legal permit to work, their concern is whether they would still have a job after Ivan.
The Cayman Islands is a tourist resort that is part of the Caribbean, nearly one-half of the way from Cuba to Honduras. The islands are under the British colony. Many Filipinos prefer to live and work in Cayman Islands because of the tropical climate that is similar to the Philippines.
“Pagbalik namin dito, sabihin nating pakalipas ng ilang buwan, baka wala na rin kaming trabaho, at baka ang work permit namin ay pumaso na (If we leave the country and come back to Cayman, say after a few months, perhaps there will be no more jobs for us, and our work permits have expired by then),” Katanghal, who originally hails from Leyte, said.
For Dory Hey, she said that what her friend (Katanghal) and other Filipinos need is any form of donations and assistance in order for them to survive.
“Also, the best thing that the Philippine Embassy could do for them is to assure their immigration concerns,” Hey said.
According to Consul Jocelyn Baton-Garcia, the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. has already started “contacting Filipinos affected by the hurricane in Cayman Islands to see what type of services and assistance they need.”
“We have tried to get in touch with their families, especially to those who have no means of communication since there has been no electricity in Cayman Islands,” Garcia said. “We have also given out food, clothes and other basic supplies.”
But Garcia said she has been grateful that “there are no Filipino fatalities, though we are still waiting for further developments.”
The Red Cross, meanwhile, have already sought on Thursday for 6 million Swiss francs ($4.8 million) to help tens of thousands of people in the Caribbean left homeless by Hurricane Ivan.
The appeal funds will be used to provide shelter materials, food, blankets, kitchen sets, hygiene articles and jerry cans to support 85,000 people in Grenada, Jamaica, Cuba and the Cayman Islands over the next six months, according to the statement of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Katanghal, whose husband Gilberto works for Hyatt Hotel in Cayman, said it would be easier for them to renew their life after the calamity if her husband could be permitted to work for other employers outside Cayman Islands.
“Kailangan na namin umalis dito. Ang dumi-dumi na ng paligid. Maamoy mo ang bahong mga patay na hayop, at walang maayos na mapaglalagyan ng aming mga dumi (We really need to get out of here. The surrounding is not very healthy. You could smell the stench of dead animals, and there’s no proper waste disposal).”
Katanghal said she has been using pieces of the wreckage to cook food or heat up water for the family. Their stock of food may only last for another day.
“Nang isang gabi, hinugasan ko na lang ‘yong pagkain naming natira, kahit medyo sira na, para makain namin. Ang ginagamit naming tubig na panghugas ay tubig-ulan (Last night, I washed our food, even it was almost stale, so we could eat them. We use rain-water to wash soiled dishes),” she said. “Pakiramdam ko, daig pa namin ang refugees dito. Kailangan namin dito ng kahit na anong maitutulong ng ating mga kapwa Pilipino sa Amerika (I feel as though we are refugees here. We need any help from our fellow Filipinos in America).”
She feared that if they will stay in Cayman Islands for a longer time, they would soon get sick.
(For immediate donations, contact Steve and Dory Hey at (623) 873-0488, or e-mail to: sdscbhey@aol.com. Leticia Katanghal can also be reached at (345) 547-1806.)
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By Anthony D. Advincula and Emelyn Tapaoan
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NEW YORK, September 6, 2004 --- A five-day fasting and vigil to protest on-going immigration arrests by the NYPD will be staged starting on Friday, a press statement said.
Hundreds of immigrants, New York officials, including City Council John Liu and Hiram Montserrate, will participate to demand justice and fairness for immigrants.
Despite the Executive Order 41, which assures that it is safe for undocumented immigrants to interact with police officers and other City workers, NYPD has continued unlawful arrest practices.
EO 41 prohibits the police from seeking information regarding immigration status unless investigating illegal activity.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, during the signing of the EO 41 on Sept. 17, 2003, repeatedly assured the City’s immigrants that the NYPD will not arrest them simply for being undocumented.
Reports, however, said that NYPD officers routinely breaks the mayor’s promise, since they use a federal database known as the National Crime Information Center to run background checks on individuals they encounter in the course of routine police work.
Attorney General John Ashcroft has, in defiance of Congress, report said, ordered hundreds of thousands of immigration records to be loaded into the database, and when local police officers get a “hit” on one of these records, they are asked to arrest the individual on behalf of the immigration service.
Records show the NYPD makes hundreds of such arrests each year, stoking the fears of immigrants who might otherwise want to report that they have been a victim of or witness to a crime, and makinga mockery of the mayor’s assurances that immigrants will [not] be arrested for being undocumented.
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Chicago, ILLINOIS, September 12, 2004 --- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was well within her right to pull Philippine troops out of Iraq during the recent hostage crisis.
This was what Major General Antonio M. Taguba said on Saturday night prior to his speech before hundreds of his fellow Filipino-Americans at the gala night of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations’ (NaFFAA) three-day national convention, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois.
Taguba, the second highest ranking Filipino-American US military officer, said: “I am not to make any judgment on matters of national and international politics. But President Arroyo was well within her right and prerogative to make a decision. And decision has to be made and go on with the business at hand.”
In a press conference that was also broadcast Sunday noon at the weekly, hour-long talk show program, “Fil Am TV” hosted by Chicago civic leader Gerry Alcantara over on-air Channel 28 in Chicago area, the Manila-born US Army general said that as he wound up his one-year tour of duty in Iraq and Kuwait, Pres. Bush assigned him as deputy assistant secretary for reserve, training and mobilization of the officers at the office of the US secretary of defense.
The military officer who turns 54 on Oct. 31 this year made headlines around the world when he released his report about the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.
The public got a first glimpse of Taguba when he testified before the US Senate Committee hearing where he presented the 53-page report that revealed a wide range of blatant abuses committed by soldiers within the 372nd Military Police Company as well as by members of the American intelligence community.
His exposé resulted in the replacement of Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as commander of US troops in Iraq.
“I have an obligation to report the truth and the responsibility to make the report.” Taguba said.
The two-star general said he last visited the Philippines in 1999 together with his family, who have not been to his native land before. He visited the tomb of his father, Thomas Taguba, who fought under General Douglas MacArthur in World War II.
A prisoner of war, the elder Taguba survived the Bataan Death March and went underground.
“I am very proud of the heroism of my father, my ethnicity and the Philippine legacy,” as he described his visit.
Although, his father is his role model that inspired him to join the military, he also paid tribute to US Army Lt. Gen. Edward Soriano, the highest ranking Filipino American general in the US military, “as my coach and mentor.”
In his speech, Taguba paid tribute “to those thousands of innocent lives lost during the Sept. 11 tragedy and how that single life-altering event that caused unintended consequences and had raised new prospects of uncertainties as we continue to fight global war on terrorism. It will take time but America will prevail.”
He said he applauds the tenacity of NaFFAA members for pushing the HR 677, the Filipino Veterans Equity Act, which is now gaining over 188 co-sponsors in Congress. He hopes the additional 34 congressional sponsors will be collected in the coming months.
“In my mind, there is no statute of limitations in giving recognition to our Filipino veterans by providing them fair benefits for their service and sacrifice,” Taguba said.
The other gala night speakers were Fernando Zobel de Ayala, chairman of the Ayala Land, Inc.; Tony Meloto, Brains of Ancop-Gawad Kalinga; Mona Pasquil of the Sen. John Kerry campaign; Susan Bonzon Ralston, special assistant to President Bush; Eddy Badrida, executive director of White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders and Philippine Ambassador to the US Albert del Rosario.
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Chicago, ILLINOIS, September 12, 2004 — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was well within her right to pull Philippine troops out of Iraq during the recent hostage crisis.
Major General Antonio M. Taguba presents a certificate of recognition
to one of the Veterans of Foreign Wars who is in wheelchair during the
NaFFAA national convention on September 11.
This was what Major General Antonio M. Taguba said on Saturday night prior to his speech before hundreds of his fellow Filipino-Americans at the gala night of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations’ (NaFFAA) three-day national convention, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois.
Taguba, the second highest ranking Filipino-American US military officer, said: “I am not to make any judgment on matters of national and international politics. But President Arroyo was well within her right and prerogative to make a decision. And decision has to be made and go on with the business at hand.”
In a press conference that was also broadcast Sunday noon at the weekly, hour-long talk show program, “Fil Am TV” hosted by Chicago civic leader Gerry Alcantara over on-air Channel 28 in Chicago area, the Manila-born US Army general said that as he wound up his one-year tour of duty in Iraq and Kuwait, Pres. Bush assigned him as deputy assistant secretary for reserve, training and mobilization of the officers at the office of the US secretary of defense.
The military officer who turns 54 on Oct. 31 this year made headlines around the world when he released his report about the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.
The public got a first glimpse of Taguba when he testified before the US Senate Committee hearing where he presented the 53-page report that revealed a wide range of blatant abuses committed by soldiers within the 372nd Military Police Company as well as by members of the American intelligence community.
His exposé resulted in the replacement of Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as commander of US troops in Iraq.
“I have an obligation to report the truth and the responsibility to make the report.” Taguba said.
The two-star general said he last visited the Philippines in 1999 together with his family, who have not been to his native land before. He visited the tomb of his father, Thomas Taguba, who fought under General Douglas MacArthur in World War II.
A prisoner of war, the elder Taguba survived the Bataan Death March and went underground.
“I am very proud of the heroism of my father, my ethnicity and the Philippine legacy,” as he described his visit.
Although, his father is his role model that inspired him to join the military, he also paid tribute to US Army Lt. Gen. Edward Soriano, the highest ranking Filipino American general in the US military, “as my coach and mentor.”
In his speech, Taguba paid tribute “to those thousands of innocent lives lost during the Sept. 11 tragedy and how that single life-altering event that caused unintended consequences and had raised new prospects of uncertainties as we continue to fight global war on terrorism. It will take time but America will prevail.”
He said he applauds the tenacity of NaFFAA members for pushing the HR 677, the Filipino Veterans Equity Act, which is now gaining over 188 co-sponsors in Congress. He hopes the additional 34 congressional sponsors will be collected in the coming months.
“In my mind, there is no statute of limitations in giving recognition to our Filipino veterans by providing them fair benefits for their service and sacrifice,” Taguba said.
The other gala night speakers were Fernando Zobel de Ayala, chairman of the Ayala Land, Inc.; Tony Meloto, Brains of Ancop-Gawad Kalinga; Mona Pasquil of the Sen. John Kerry campaign; Susan Bonzon Ralston, special assistant to President Bush; Eddy Badrida, executive director of White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders and Philippine Ambassador to the US Albert del Rosario.
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Jun Policarpio (left), congressional candidate in the 5th District of New York with State Senator Michael A.L. Balboni.
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NEW YORK, September 16, 2004 --- Despite losing in the Republican primary elections in the 5th Congressional District of New York, Filipino-American candidate Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio is determined to continue his fight as an independent candidate in the coming elections.
“I’m still fighting. Anything can happen. This might be a blessing in disguise. I’m still campaigning as a compassionate moderate candidate,” Policarpio said.
He said he lost to Stephen Graves in the primary elections last Sept. 14, but his name will still be in the ballot on the Nov. 2 Congressional elections.
Policarpio got 477 votes or 26 percent of the vote as compared to Graves of over 1,300 votes.
“I feel energized by the campaign. I still have a winning chance,” Policarpio said.
Policarpio is running to promote issues on immigration and immigrants’ rights, protection of small businesses, improved education, and equal opportunity and justice for all.
He believes he could be a stronger voice for Filipino and Asian-American voters.
Policarpio immigrated from Manila to the U.S. in 1973 and worked as an Immigration officer. He vows to protect minority and women-owned businesses.
He said he lost in the recent primary because most people, who voted, in his district, were Caucasians.
“Only seniors and Caucasians cast their votes, while the young people, mostly minorities, didn’t vote,” he said.
The primary elections, he said, reported low turn-out of votes.
But Policarpio is hopeful the minority voters will cast their ballots for him in the regular elections on Nov. 2.
He won the Corona and Flushing Districts where there are thousands of immigrants. He hopes to get a bigger share of Republican voters numbering more than 136,000 in his district.
“I feel more energized. I run against the party machinery but I hope to make it as an independent candidate,” he said.
Policarpio gathered 3,500 signatures that would enable him to be listed as independent candidate this November elections. He is joining the race against Democratic candidate U.S Rep. Gary Ackerman.
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