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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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DIRTY INGREDIENT? The arrow in the photo shows the dead cockroach allegedly found in Elisa Hernandez's sandwich at McDonald's in New Milford, NJ.
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New Milford, NEW JERSEY, December 17, 2004 --- A Filipino couple here filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s after the wife allegedly found a dead cockroach in her sandwich. The suit filed in a Bergen County court had cited McDonald’s negligence and improper preparation of food that was “dangerous and injurious” to health.
According to Richard Garcia, 36, he and his wife, Elisa Hernandez, ordered “McChicken” sandwich on Sept. 27, 2002, at McDonald’s on Main Street, in New Milford, NJ.
“When we started eating the sandwich, the taste was so bad. We thought the chicken was rotten. We didn’t try to finish the food. It was then that my wife opened the sandwich and found a dead cockroach,” Garcia said in Filipino.
He added that when he came up to the restaurant’s manager and showed the sandwich with a cockroach, the manager told him that “it happens.” And when he wanted to call the police and take a picture of the sandwich, Garcia said, the manager replied to him: “It’s up to you.”
Garcia said he left the restaurant to buy a disposable camera from a nearby store as his wife was vomitting in the restroom.
The day after the incident, he said the food administration officials went to their place and checked the sandwich with the cockroach, which he put in the refrigerator.
“The food administration officials told me to just talk to the owners of McDonald’s, but my lawyer said not to do it.”
Garcia’s lawyer believes that Elisa Hernandez, 38, suffered injuries to body and mind, hedonic damages, loss in earnings, and was put to great expense for medicines and medical attendance.
Instead of bringing the case before the jury, however, Garcia said his lawyer, Gregory J. Irwin, wanted him to agree to a $5,000 settlement for the damages.
“I don’t think we want the settlement. We have already spent $2,000 on my wife’s medication, as well as lawyer’s fees and many other things to bring justice to our case. We also have given so much of our time and efforts here,” he said.
Irwin couldn’t be reached for comments.
But how much is his price for the lawsuit, Garcia declined to discuss the details. The latest hearing was scheduled Dec. 8, but the couple didn’t appear in court.
The lawsuit names as defendants, among others, TCB Management Corp.
While there have been many people who sued McDonald’s over different charges, the most successful claimant at this point was Stella Liebeck, who was awarded ten years ago with $640 thousand in damages over a spilled cup of coffee.
The case provided the inspiration for the True Stella Awards for most incredible lawsuits within the American court system. Liebeck spilled hot coffee on her lap, which resulted in the third degree burn. McDonald’s stated that it was the customer who was guilty of the incident, but Liebeck eventually won the trial. The court ruled that the lids to McDonald’s coffee cups were designed badly and there was no specific warning written on the cups.
American citizen Veronica Martin from Tennessee sued McDonald’s in 2001 over a hot pickle. The woman filed the $110,000 lawsuit against the corporation claiming that she had been burned on the chin by a hot pickle. Veronica stated that the injury from the second degree burn left a permanent scar on her chin. Veronica’s husband, Darrin Martin, followed his wife’s example and sued McDonald’s too seeking the $15,000 compensation over the fact that he had been deprived of conjugal communication with his wife during a certain period of time.
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MANILA, December 15, 2004 --- Movie star and former presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. passed away shortly after midnight on Dec. 14.
Poe, 65, popularly known by his initials FPJ, fell into a coma after a massive stroke over the weekend and never recovered.
“With a heavy heart, I wish to inform you that FPJ has passed away,” his wife actress Susan Roces said in a statement, which was read in to press by Poe’s former campaign staff Susan Tagle.
“I’m very sad to announce that FPJ passed away at 12:01 a.m. despite aggressive resuscitative and therapeutic measures,” said Poeís attending physician Dr. Abdias Aquino, head of the Stroke Service of the Institute for Neurosciences of St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.
Sorsogon Rep. Francis Escudero, a spokesman for the political opposition, also announced Poeís death.
Roces thanked the public for praying for her husband. “Let remember him with joy,” she said. “The Filipino people was in his heart.”
Roces and other family and friends had surrounded Poe since he was rushed to the hospital on Dec. 12.
Poe’s remain where brought to Arlington chapel. He will lie in state at the Santo Domingo Church.
Poe was rushed to the hospital after he fell unconscious during a party at his FPJ Productions studio compound Saturday. Doctors said he suffered from a blood clot in his brain.
Poe was on life support systems before he died.
A self-made millionaire, Poe lost the election to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in May by over a million votes. He filed an electoral protest with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, saying he was cheated.
After the election he kept a low profile, staying out of public eye and only occasionally attending showbiz functions.
Poe was a reluctant presidential candidate in May, but was cajoled into leading the opposition ticket at the request of his good friend, ex-president Joseph Estrada, who was ousted by a popular revolt in 2001 and was replaced by Arroyo.
Estrada is in jail while being tried for massive corruption.
Poe, who was also known as “Da King,” had built a successful movie career and film business. His production company FPJ Productions is said to be one of the biggest in the country.
Outside of the Philippines, Poe was a relatively unknown figure until he decided to stand in this year’s presidential election despite his total lack of experience in politics.
He promised very little to the voters. “Breakfast, lunch and dinner” was the slogan of his faltering campaign, which saw him blow a huge opinion poll lead to arrive at election day trailing incumbent Arroyo.
Poe’s campaign was more about showbiz than politics. His aides were film stars and his bodyguards were stuntmen, and he liked to pepper his election speeches with some of his most famous one-liners.
Some of his closest friends have said that he was reluctant to stand for the presidency and only did it as a favor to his old friend and acting buddy Estrada.
Born Ronald Allan Kelley Poe, the son of film star Fernando Poe Sr. — the real-life Fernando Poe Jr. was his elder brother — and an American mother Elizabeth Kelley, Poe always seemed destined for a life in the movies.
Poe dropped out of school at 15 after his father died and took a job as a messenger in a film exchange office. Later he took bit parts as a stuntman for Everlasting Pictures before being given his first real acting role in the film “Anak ni Palaris” in 1950.
Poe’s biggest break was in the film “Lo Waist Gang” in 1956. It marked the local cinemas shift from the fantasy world of costume productions to the trendy realism of action movies.
He starred in some 200 films specializing in Robin Hood-style guerrillas and honest cops who overcame fearsome odds, corrupt politicians and gangsters to secure victory for the common man.
Poe was “Ang Panday,” a working class hero who struck down challengers with a giant magic sword modeled on King Arthur’s Excalibur.
Through his years in the spotlight, Poe had guarded his privacy closely and tried to cultivate an image of incorruptibility, revealing little about his supposed storybook marriage to Roces.
However the image slipped a little in February when Poe was forced to admit he had fathered a child out of wedlock with a minor starlet, denting his reputation as “Mr. Clean.”
He leaves his wife and daughter, Mary Grace.
Burial set on Dec. 22
The remains of Philippine movie icon Fernando Poe Jr. will be brought to Manila Cemeterio del Norte in La Loma, Quezon City, for burial on Dec. 22.
“Poe will be buried beside his father, Fernando Poe Sr., mother, Elizabeth Arnold, and brother Andy at Cemeterio del Norte in La Loma,” said Tagle.
Tagle said the wake will be held at Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City.
“I just want to reiterate the family's request that the public give them some privacy for a few hours before Mr. Poe's remains are moved to Santo Domingo,” Tagle said.
Fans and supporters of the actor flocked to Arlington East Funeral Homes in Pasig City. Police and village watchers have been deployed on the streets to control the flow of pedestrians.
Tagle, who has worked for the Poe family for 21 years, said Susan Roces, the actor's wife, is “being strong for the family.”
“I think she knows that she has to be the anchor of the family at the moment and she is really standing strong in the midst of this very sad event. But I'm sure that her own private time, she will grieve for this very, very great loss,” Tagle said.
Tributes from all over
In life, he brought together groups from across the country’s political spectrum to launch what many in the establishment saw as a quixotic quest for the presidency.
In death, action star turned reluctant candidate FPJ has drawn tributes and statements of sympathy from an unlikely rainbow of sources.
Well known for its refusal to take sides in national elections, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has paid its tribute to Poe.
In a statement, CPP spokesman Gregorio Rosal praised Poe for his portrayal of “characters who were poor and downtrodden but dared to defend their rights and fight their oppressors.”
But Rosal also paid tribute to Poe’s concern “in real life” for social issues.
“In real life, we knew that FPJ was deeply interested and involved himself in matters of social concern,” he said. “On a personal level, he had profound sympathy for the plight of the poor and was always ready to contribute what he could for undertakings that would benefit the worker and peasant masses.’
Rosal said he learned of Poeís “great interest in achieving a lasting peace” from “several extended phone conversations” when Poe was running for the presidency.
The US Embassy recognized Poe for being an “icon of Philippine cinema” and the “son of an American citizen.”
“We note with sadness the news of the passing of Fernando Poe Jr., who is a much beloved icon of Philippine cinema and the son of an American citizen. Poe will be remembered with great fondness as much for his singular role as “Da King” of Philippine cinema as for his entry into the political arena as a presidential candidate in the 2004 national elections,” the Embassy said in its statement.
Poe’s citizenship became the subject of an electoral dispute that was resolved by the Supreme Court in Poe’s favor.
The Christian Nationalist Union tried to inject political color in its statement, attributed to CNU board member and former Sen. Francisco Tatad.
“Ronnie Poe will live in the hearts and minds of our countrymen as one who tried to bring hope to the poor and died trying to undo a grievous wrong to our sovereign people. We hope and pray that what he had failed to achieve in life will finally be achieved by our people,” the statement said.
Tatad ran unsuccessfully for senator as a member of the opposition Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino that had Poe as standard-bearer in the May elections.
Half-staff on Poe burial
Flags in government offices will be flown at half-staff on the burial day of FPJ Dec. 22.
Cecile Alvarez, presidential adviser on culture and executive director of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved the order along with her decision to award the Presidential Medal of Merit to the late movie actor.
Flags are flown at half-staff to honor departed government officials and also citizens who made profound contribution to national building.
The citation, which is handed out for oustanding achievements that bring honor to the country, will be given by Dec. 20 in time for the raising of flags at half-staff by Dec. 22 when Poe is buried at the North Cemetery.
Alvarez said the President also “recognizes Poe's immense contribution to Philippine cinema,” which prompted her to nominate the actor as a candidate for National Artist for cinema.
She said separate National Artist nominations were also presented for the late Zenaida Amador for theater; and the late George Canseco for music.
Relatives of the late actor, meanwhile, turned down offers from the camp of Arroyo to bury Poe at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, preferring to bury the actor at North Cemetery. (MNS)
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60-day wait for work permit now take up to 3 yrs or more
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Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA, December 16, 2004 --- Beginning Jan. 1, 2005, US Immigration officials will block a shortcut that allowed thousands of foreign nurses, predominantly from the Philippines, to get US work permits, the State Department announced.
According to a State Department bulletin, until further notice the government will not process applications filed after January 2002. The change means that what has been a 60-day wait could now drag on for three years or more.
“It’s basically going to cut them off,” said Charles Oppenheim, head of the State Department’s immigrant visa control division.
Recruiters have long sought nurses from the Philippines, where nursing programs train nurses for work in the United States, and the change could leave a gaping hole for hospitals across the country that increasingly rely on foreign-born nurses to bridge a nursing shortage.
US authorities have warned that the country could face a shortage of about 275,000 nurses by 2010, although exact estimates are difficult to come by. Technology will likely reduce the number of nurses needed in the future, but the aging US population will require more.
Nurses in the United States said they hope the new limits will help refocus attention on training and recruitment of nurses within the country.
“If the industry has ready access to nurses from whatever, then they ease their shortage and never address why we donít have a sufficient domestic nursing work force,” said Cheryl Peterson, senior policy analyst for the American Nurses Association.
But in the short term, the change will hurt hospitals, health economist Len Nichols said.
“The Philippines is our major source of imported nurses, and we’ve been doing that at a clip of thousands a year for a while now,” said Nichols, vice president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Nurses are not the only workers affected by the change. They fall in a category that also includes doctors and tech workers. But the work-permit options for nurses are more limited under immigration rules.
Robert Salazar, 31, a nurse from the Philippines, began working at a Los Angeles hospital in July and is awaiting his green card.
“It’s much better pay and fewer patients,” Salazar said of his job here.
But he now worries that friends and family in the Philippines will have to wait years for the same opportunity he had.
Canadian and Mexican nurses can also obtain visas to work in the United States under the North American Free-Trade Agreement. But not enough Canadians choose to come south, and Mexico doesnít produce enough US-qualified nurses, Nichols said.
The new quota limit is the indirect result of a more efficient immigration process. After Sept. 11, 2001, the system became backlogged owing to updated security measures. Many foreign workers from the Philippines, and to a lesser extent India and mainland China, got by on temporary work permits as they waited for their ìnumberî to come up for a green card.
Now those cases are being processed, and the government said beginning Jan. 1, 2005, it will no longer issue new temporary work permits for workers from these countries until it deals with the backlog, which could take several years.
Immigration lawyer Carl Shusterman, whose company represents hospitals throughout California and helps about 350 Filipinos nurses a year find jobs in the United States, said he frequently obtains a work permit for qualified nurses in 60 days, allowing them to work as they wait three years for their permanent residency.
“There’s no way for us to keep a nurse here for three years until we have the job,” Shusterman said. “It’s like meeting some guy, falling in love and saying you canít be together for three years.”
Filipino nurses
not alone
Nurses from the Philippines are not the only ones who will suffer from the US new immigration laws requiring immigrant visas to be made available strictly in order of priority date, the US Embassy in Manila said.
In a fact sheet it issued, the embassy said that “contrary to some reports, this measure does not apply solely to the Philippines. This is a worldwide change and affects countries with high demand for employment-based immigration visas, such as China and India.”
The E3 visa, one of five employment-based immigrant visas, is by law a numerically limited document.
In order to qualify for the E3 visa, the applicant must meet the following requirements: At least two years of experience as skilled workers; professionals with a bachelorís degree; and other workers with less than two yearsí experience — such as unskilled workers — must be able to perform labor for which qualified workers in the US are not available.
Nurses — of which the Philippines is one of the biggest sources in the US — teachers and some accountants and information technology (IT) workers fall under this category.
The US Embassy explained that, because of the legal numerical restriction, when a visa category becomes oversubscribed, visa numbers are issued according to the date that petitions are filed or according to priority date.
“A beneficiary becomes eligible for a visa number when his/her priority date becomes current for processing as determined by the State Department,” the mbassy said in its fact sheet.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo has asked Philippine Ambassador to Washington Albert del Rosario to make representations with the US government for measures to protect Filipino nurses following the changes in the US immigration policy.
Romulo said Del Rosario will talk with the concerned US officials and agencies in Washington to see what can be done to accommodate nurses from the Philippines.
“We keep pushing our envelope, that’s our job,” Romulo said. “Besides, this is especially true with Japan and with Europe. Our Filipino nurses have proven themselves.”
The US State Department has announced that starting in January next year, only those Philippine employment-based immigration applicants seeking an E3 visa who had filed petitions before Jan. 1, 2002 will be able to obtain visas.
While the embassy admitted that there still is a shortage of nurses in the US, it also said that under the new rules, new applicants may have to wait three years or more.
“We are unable to reliably predict the movement of priority dates, which can advance, stop or even regress from month to month,” the embassy said. “Visa availability and movement of priority dates depend primarily on the number of documentarily qualified E3 applicants and worldwide issuance trends.” (MNS)
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US Medicare benefits pushed for Fil-Ams retiring in RP
MANILA, December 16, 2004 --- Filipino-Americans should continue to enjoy US Medicare benefits even if they would choose to spend their retirement years in the Philippines, the new chairman of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) said.
CFO Secretary Dante Ang told a small gathering of Filipino immigrants and advocates of Filipino migrants’ rights that US laws prevented the release of Medicare benefits to those who would choose to live outside the United States.
“This [proposal] would benefit the US government, the Philippine government, and the Filipino migrants,” Ang said.
Ang, whose CFO chairmanship had been raised to Cabinet rank, said allowing Fil-Ams to enjoy their US Medicare benefits in the Philippines would ease off the pressure on the American government to provide medical personnel to an increasingly aging population.
This would entice Filipino-Americans to spend their retirement years in the country, he added.
“The benefits to us would include more foreign exchange earnings, no or lesser exodus of Filipino medical personnel, more local employment, and an upgrade of skills for Filipinos [serving retiring Filipino-Americans],” he said.
The Filipino-Americans will also enjoy the warm weather and the company of their family, friends, and countrymen, the new CFO chief said. “They can enjoy their stay here longer.”
Ang also disclosed plans to “correct the historical aberration of the Philippine-American War from the American point of view.”
He said American history books viewed the war as a Philippine insurrection when it was in fact a war for Philippine independence.
The CFO chairman also said he wanted to have a “Death March” monument built in Washington D.C. to remind American leaders of the “shared pains and victory” of Filipinos and Americans.
Ang was referring to the historic march in Bataan province of Filipino and American soldiers who were captured by the Japanese following their invasion of the Philippines.
He said he also wanted Filipino children born of American soldiers from their bases in Clark, Subic, and other places in the Philippines to get automatic residency status, similar to what had been given to those born of American soldiers during the Vietnam War.
The CFO used to be an attached agency of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) until President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo put it under the Office of the President in August. (MNS)
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