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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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New rule to speed up employment-based immigration
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NEW YORK, December 30, 2004 --- The US Department of Labor announced Monday a new immigration system that will streamline and expedite the processing of labor certifications for foreign workers applying for employment-based permanent residency.
Known as PERM, the new rule will reduce the processing time to a maximum of two months [or 45 to 60 days] -- a big time difference from its current processing time that takes from one year to four years.
The new rule will take effect on March 28, 2005, the Department of Labor said.
Under the PERM, the labor certification application may be filed electronically or by mail. A new DOL form (ETA 9089) will be used for such application. Faxed applications will not be accepted.
Once the form is certified, the employer must sign it and the original signed form will then be attached to the immigrant petition for foreign worker (I-140) to be filed with the US Citizenship and Immigration Service. The employer must retain a copy of the labor certification application on file.
“PERM anticipates dramatically faster adjudication for most petitioners due to the combination of pre-filing recruitment, using an automated system for processing application (even for applications submitted by mail) and the elimination of the State Workforce Agency’s (SWA) previous role in the recruiting process,” the Labor department said.
Obtaining a labor certification is the first step in the employment-based immigration process. It is intended to ensure that there is no available, willing and qualified US worker for the position sought by the foreign worker and that the employment of the foreign worker would have no adverse effect on the wage or working condition of the US workers in the same field.
Presently the state departments of labor of New York and New Jersey are currently processing labor certification applications filed in April 2001.
Conversion of pending cases
The PERM system also allows pending cases to be withdrawn and re-filed. Re-filed cases where recruitment has not yet occurred, the new rule says, may retain the priority date in their respective original applications.To retain the priority date, the re-filing must be made within 210 days of the withdrawal.
Reduction-in-recruitment (RIR) cases and other cases where recruitment has occurred may be re-filed under the PERM but will be assigned new priority dates.
Pending cases that are not re-filed under the PERM, such as RIR cases that were not withdrawn, will continue to be processed under the current rules.
Prevailing wage determination
In addition, the Department of Labor said PERM gives employers more power to get the SWA to accept alternative wage surveys provided such surveys meet the Labor criteria.
Employers are still required to secure prevailing wage determinations from SWAs using SWA forms and will be required to have prevailing wage data available in case of audit. The validity period for a prevailing wage determination of between 90 days to one year will be set by the SWA.
Employers, for their part, must either begin the pre-filing recruitment or file their applications within the validity period set by the SWA.
Recruitment before filing
Recruitment under the PERM must be made between 180 to 30 days before filing the application. Employers must place a job order with the SWA for 30 days and run two job advertisements in Sunday newspapers.
Additional types of recruitment methods are required from employers of professionals such as job fairs, employer’s web site, job search website other than employer’s, on-campus recruiting, trade or professional organizations, private employment firms, etc. The PERM no longer requires the wage offer to be stated in the job advertisement.
Unlike the current procedure, the documentations of the recruitment need not be submitted with the application. Employers simply need to have such documents ready and available in case requested by a Certifying Officer or when an audit is conducted by the DOL.
The recruitment report of the employers must indicate the recruitment steps taken, the responses to the recruitment effort, the number of US workers hired or rejected and the lawful job-related reasons for rejection of a US job applicant, where applicable.
How about nurses and physical therapists?
The employers of nurses and physical therapists still [need not] go through the usual labor certification process to sponsor foreign workers.
In the case of Schedule A nurses, however, the new rule firmly imposes the requirement of a CGFNS certificate, not just the passage of the CGFNS exam. This is because the CGFNS certificate is evidence that the nurse has passed the English language test and meets the educational requirements of the CGFNS.
Live-In domestic workers
The procedure for obtaining the labor certification for live-in domestic workers essentially remain under the PERM, except to the extent that supporting documents should be made available by the employer for audit purposes or upon the request of a Certifying Officer.
The PERM specifies three documents to be kept by the employer: (1) a statement describing the worker’s living conditions; (2) two copies of the employment contract, indicating among others, the wage, hours worked, and freedom to leave the premises on off-hours; and (3) document evidencing the foreign worker’s experience of at least one year of full-time employment.
(Editor’s Note: Reuben S. Seguritan has been a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association since 1975. Any questions about this article may be directed to REUBEN S. SEGURITAN, Esq., at 450 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1400, New York, NY 10123 by phone 212 695 5281; or e-mail seguritanlaw@yahoo.com.)
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Toll of dead Filipinos will grow and grow, DFA says
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FLOATING CORPES AND CARS. The lobby of the Seaport Beach Hotel on Thailand's Phuket Island becomes an extension of the ocean as giant waves swept into the tourist-packed resort. Photo: Star Ledger
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MANILA, December 30, 2004 --- At least 24 Filipinos are feared dead with 15 others missing from giant waves that swamped southern Thailand and other Indian Ocean countries after a massive earthquake off Indonesia, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
The DFA has published a list of “Filipino-sounding” names from among hundreds of people killed in holiday resorts in Thailand and appealed to relatives to contact the authorities for help in claiming the bodies.
The number of Filipino casualties is expected to grow, DFA said.
“Aside from the eight names that we have released earlier, we now have 16 other Filipino-sounding names that were sent by the (Thai) Ministry of Interior to the (Philippines’) Bangkok embassy,” DFA spokesman Gilbert Asuque said.
Fifteen other presumed Filipinos are missing while 13 were treated for various injuries, he added.
The missing daughter of a Filipino survivor in killer tsunamis that hit Phuket, Thailand has been found dead after an extensive search since the disaster on Dec. 26.
Rosemarie Tan identified the remains of her daughter Sherlyn, 19, at the Patong Beach hospital in Phuket, a TV news report said.
The body of Tan’s husband, David, had been recovered on Dec. 27. She said she would bring the remains of her husband and daughter back to the Philippines.
She later said that her daughter was a student at the Ateneo, a Jesuit-run university. Her 12-year-old child, Garvyn, remains missing and is feared dead.
The body of Tan’s brother-in-law, Gilbert Choi, was found immediately on Patong Beach after the tsunamis hit Phuket. Rosemarie had confirmed that Choi and Tan were Chinese-Filipinos.
The DFA, however, maintained that Choi and Tan were British citizens and said no official confirmation of Filipino casualties in the tsunami-stricken Asian countries, including Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia and Malaysia, could be immediately made.
Meanwhile, the government said it would be sending medical aid teams to Thailand and Indonesia to help the survivors of the catastrophe that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in several countries.
For its part, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said its operating centers will continue to accept calls from families and friends of Filipinos who were in the affected areas at the time of the quake and the tsunamis.
OWWA said most calls come from relatives of Filipino seafarers.
Eleven sea vessels with several Filipino crewmen aboard were sailing the Indian Ocean when the tsunamis hit five Asian countries.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said one of the vessels, the Silver Cloud, which was carrying 73 Filipino crewmen, was spared from the tsunami onslaught.
The DOLE, however, did not provide further information on the whereabouts of the Filipino seamen. (MNS)
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HONOLULU, December 30, 2004 --- A US appeals court has upheld a lower courtís ruling freezing assets of the late President Ferdinand Marcos that are being held in banks around the world.
In a decision, the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the Philippine government, which wants the money, lacks the standing to challenge the freeze.
The order was first issued in 1986 and reaffirmed in 2003 by federal judge Manuel Real, who is presiding over a class action filed by more than 9,500 Filipinos who won a $2-billion judgment against the Marcos estate in 1995.
The award has grown to $3.7 billion with interest, but none of the victims of the Marcos regime have received any money.
“It’s a nice victory for the victims,” said Jon Van Dyke, an attorney representing the class action. “The Republic of the Philippines has been trying to block the victims every time they make any attempt to collect on their judgment.”
Ownership of the funds has been disputed since they were discovered in 1986, soon after Marcos was forced from power and fled to Hawaii.
At the time, the deposits totaled about $356 million but have almost doubled from interest and later investments.
In 1997, a Swiss tribunal ruled that the funds were ill-gotten and approved their transfer from banks in Switzerland, Singapore and elsewhere to an escrow account at the Philippine National Bank.
The Philippine Supreme Court decided in July 2003 to forfeit the Marcos deposits in favor of the Philippine government after ruling that the Marcos family “failed to justify the lawful nature of their acquisition.”
Real reviewed the court’s ruling and said there was no evidence to support whether the Marcoses were the rightful owners of the assets. In his September 2003 order, Real said any transfer of the funds in escrow would violate the freeze order and banks would be held in contempt of court.
The Philippine government appealed. In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that the government is not “a person or banking institution” that is threatened with contempt under Realís order, and thus lacks standing to challenge the order.
The PNB, which holds the escrow account, also challenged Realís September 2003 order. A decision on that appeal is pending.
Meanwhile, arguments are scheduled before the Ninth Circuit in March on the ownership of an additional $40 million in Marcos assets.
Real in July ordered that those assets be used to start paying the judgment awarded to plaintiffs by a Honolulu jury in 1995 after it found Marcos responsible for executions, disappearances and torture during the 14 years he ruled under martial law.
Lawyers for Arelma Corp., a Panamanian financial company set up by Marcos that originally held the $40 million, appealed that ruling.
Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii after he was toppled in a “people power” revolt in February 1986, ending his 20-year rule.
He died in Honolulu in 1989 without admitting any wrongdoing. (MNS)
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NEW YORK, December 30, 2004 --- For the second year, Filipino Express Editor Anthony Advinculabagged four major awards for excellence in journalism in the New York region.
Advincula’s “Does pain only speak in English?” — an in-depth news story on language barrier in New York hospitals —wasawarded First Place for Best Public Affairs article at the third annual Independent Press Association-New York (IPA-NY) Press Awards.
His story “Immigrants with H.I.V. Hide Status for Green Card” took Third Place in Best Investigative report. Exploring the biases of immigration laws against people living with H.I.V./AIDS, the story was picked up by several newspapers and was included in the brochures distributed by Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Advincula’s story “From Laborer to Entrepreneur” was also cited as one of the Best Feature stories of the year.
He was also awarded Honorable Mention for his story “What They Don’t Know Can Hurt Them,” as Best Article on Immigrant Issues, fearlessly exposing racial justice. The best article on the same category went to the Haitian Times for its outstanding article “Golden Years Tarnished.”
“I feel honored for these achievements,” Advincula said. “I’m sharing this honor with The Filipino Express and the whole Filipino community.”
Last year, he won three editorial awards, including First Place for Best Article on Immigrant Issues, as he strongly exposed in his story the exploitation of employers against undocumented workers.
With seven New York journalism awards under his belt, Advincula said he will continue to write more stories that move policy-makers, especially issues that are related to immigration, public health care, housing, and education.
A graduate of the University of the Philippines, Advincula has been an editor of the Express since 2001. He is also currently a correspondent for The Jersey Journal.
In 2003, he was a fellow of the New York Times Foreign Press Fellowship and the IPA-NY Fellowship.
“He (Advincula) is a very dedicated and strong journalist. He explores his subjects, and is not scared to tackle sensitive issues,” said Abby Scher, director of IPA-NY.
The Independent Press Association-New York’s Press Awards recognizes the rich diversity of editorial and graphics excellence in the ethnic and community press in the New York region.
This year the awards ceremony, hosted by Ray Suarez of PBS’| News Hour, was held on Dec. 15 at Kimmel Hall, New York University.
The well-attended event was also a day of valuable trainings for the publishers, editors, journalists and ad sales people to help them survive and succeed in the competitive New York publication industry.
Among the highlights of the conference was a presentation by Geneva Overholser of the Washington Bureau of the Missouri School of Journalism. She is a broadcast and media critic syndicated columnist, and previously was an editor for seven years of the award-winning Des Moines Register.
Many of this year’s winning articles dealt with issues of exploitation of immigrant workers, low-income tenants by landlords, and other issues in the day-to-day life of individuals struggling against disempowerment.
Publications in the independent press often report on the injustices suffered by their readership and the way the communities are responding.
IPA-New York is a member-based non-profit organization of ethnic and community media. It also produces “Voices That Must Be heard,” a weekly Internet publication translating the best of New York’s press, and publishes “Many Voices,” a comprehensive guide to New York-area publications serving 60 ethnic groups in 42 languages.
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