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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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First bill to ease backlogs introduced
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NEW YORK, January 14, 2005 --- To address the present nursing shortage in the country, the first bill was introduced last week in US Congress.
Known as the “Health Improvement and Professionals Act of 2005,” the bill is expected to ease considerably the backlog in the employment-based third preference for the Philippines, China and India which has resulted in retrogression to Jan. 1, 2002. Filipino nurses were among the hardest hit by the regression.
The employment-based third preference refers to professionals and skilled workers. Included under this category are teachers, accountants, therapists and computer professionals who will also benefit from the bill.
The bill also seeks to recapture unused employment-based immigrant visa numbers from 2001 to the present to facilitate improved health care for all the persons in the US.
“It is ridiculous that amid a nursing shortage, the US is turning away large numbers of registered nurses from abroad due to bureaucratic constraints,” Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), who introduced the bill.
Lantos said that aside from the bill, he will also explore longer term solutions to the shortage.
Backed by immigrant workers and advocates, the American Hospital Association (AHA) expressed a strong support for the bill.
“Act immediately to help ensure that hospitals can continue to rely on highly qualified foreign RNs as they work to address their serious staff shortages and meet the needs of their patients and communities,” AHA said in a statement.
The association directed its plea for immediate legislation to the Congress.
“I hope this bill will be approved. Many of the Filipino nurses' working visa applications are now hanging. The US is obviously in need of more foreign nurses. I don't see any reason that Congress will deny the bill,” said Linda Co, a Filipino nurse based in California.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) in a recent statement urged Congress to The association directed its plea for immediate legislation to the 109th Congress.
The bill is similar to a law passed four years ago called the American Competitivenes in the 21st Century Act. This law allowed unused visa numbers from 1999 to 2000 to be used by 3rd preference visa applicants and has been the reason why the visa numbers for the Philippines has remained current until recently.
Since the passage of that law, a large number of employment-based visas have not been used, including more than 50,000 visas in fiscal year 2003 alone. -- with reports from Reuben S. Seguritan, Esq.
(For comments about this article e-mail the author at seguritanlaw@yahoo.com, or call (212) 695 5281.)
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NEW YORK, January 14, 2005 --- Filipinos in the United States rank third among Asians in terms of median family income pegged at $65,189 per annum, according to the US Census Bureau last month.
Since 1999, the census said, Filipinos have had the lowest poverty rate among Asians. One of the reasons was that Filipinos have the highest labor force participation in the US.
There were 2.4 million Filipinos in the US, the census said, accounting for 0.85 percent of the total US population and 18.3 percent of the Asian population. Filipinos rank second among Asians with the biggest population in the US.
Of that figure, however, there were about 85,000 undocumented Filipino immigrants in the country. The census said Filipinos rank ninth among the ethnic groups with undocumented presence. Mexico remains in the lead, with 4.8 million undocumented. Among the Asian groups, Chinese -- with 115,000 undocumented -- rank sixth.
In terms of acquiring US citizenship, Filipinos are the most diligent, with the lowest proportion of non-citizens among close to 12 million Asians.
According to the report, sixty-five percent of Filipino women aged 16 and older are working, far exceeding the national average of 57.5 percent among women in the US and the 56.4 percent participation rate among Asian-American women.
Filipino men, however, rank lower than Filipino women in terms of earning capacity. Their median earnings was pegged at $35,560 as of 1999, ranked sixth among Asian men. With the Asian average at $40,650, Asian Indian men took the top slot with median earnings of $51,904, followed by Japanese men at $50,876 and Chinese, $44,831.
Filipino men are also outranked by other Asian men, particularly South Asian Indians and Pakistanis, in terms of earning capacity.
The report said most Filipinos are in management and professional jobs in the US. About 30 percent are in sales and office jobs, while 17.5 percent in service occupations.
As of Sept. 2002, the largest concentration of Filipinos is in California. Other states with big Filipino population include New York, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, Florida and Hawaii.
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Former Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rosario G. Manalo
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NEW YORK, January 14, 2005 --- Former Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rosario G. Manalo did the Philippines proud by becoming the first Filipina to head the prestigious United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) with her unanimous election as chairperson of the international women’s rights body on Monday.
Ambassador Lauro L. Baja Jr., Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said that Manalo, one of the country’s leading experts on women’s issues, was elected by acclamation on the basis of a unanimous endorsement of the Asian Group in CEDAW.
“With her election, Ambassador Manalo earned for herself the distinction of being the first Filipina ever to become Chairperson of the Committee and also the first Filipino to chair both women’s committees of the United Nations—CEDAW and the equally prestigious Commission on the Status of Women,” Baja said in his report to DFA Secretary Alberto G. Romulo.
Manalo, who retired from the Foreign Service three years ago as Undersecretary for International Economic Relations, will hold the chairmanship of CEDAW until the end of 2006.
CEDAW was established by virtue of Article 17 of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to oversee the implementation of its provisions. The Committee acts as a monitoring system to oversee the implementation of the Convention by those States that have ratified or acceded to it.
A law graduate of the University of the Philippines, Manalo had distinguished herself in her work towards the advancement of women’s rights both in the Philippines and abroad. She had previously served as Philippine ambassador to the European Community, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
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MANILA, January 14, 2005 --- As the anniversary of the peaceful revolt that installed her in power approached, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has vowed that she would finish her six-year term.
“I’m going to last out my term and deliver on my 10-point agenda,” the President told the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) during its Gala Night at Malacañang. It was her reply when asked about the possibility of an Edsa 4 to topple her from power.
She also expressed “trust and faith” that Vice President Noli de Castro, her running mate in the elections last May, would continue to support her amid efforts by the opposition to replace her with him in case a poll protest filed by the late Fernando Poe Jr. prospered.
During an open forum, the President announced that she had appointed her chief legal counsel Merceditas Gutierrez as the governmentís anti-graft czar.
The President also said the nation is poised for “strong economic takeoff” once its fiscal house is put in order.
She vowed not to go abroad this year until she has completed her legislative agenda for fiscal reforms “so that I will have something to report about if ever I go abroad.”
The President is tentatively scheduled to visit Germany, Libya and Saudi Arabia this year.
She reiterated she would not push for constitutional amendments for at least a year, or until after Malacañang and Congress have the tax measures in place to raise P80 billion.
The President said the agreement she reached with Congress leaders to pass vital tax bills by April would generate an estimated P80 billion in additional revenues this year, reducing the burgeoning deficit.
The fiscal turnaround would prompt international credit rating agencies to give the Philippines the thumbs up for creditworthiness, she said.
“We face sharp scrutiny of our fiscal status and if we hurdle the rest we can have one of the best opportunities for a strong economic take-off,” she said.
Speaking before top Filipino and foreign media practitioners led by MOPC chairman Max V. Soliven as well as some members of the diplomatic corps, Arroyo exhorted the press anew for support.
“Help me spread the good news to get the people on board the express coach of our economic reforms,” she urged the MOPC.
She expressed optimism that the 10-point agenda she has laid down for the next six years has started to gain momentum.
The Chief Executive believes she can achieve the goals of her fiscal reform program with the agreement she forged with lawmakers and with her economic managers.
“Our revenue raising train is moving forward. I sit down with representatives and senators frequently to tighten the nuts and bolts that put our fiscal house in order,” she cited.
Without going into details, Arroyo thanked legislators for their “admirable commitment to national interest” to act on urgent yet unpopular tax bills for their immediate passage into law.
She admitted these tax measures were being closely watched by the countryís creditors as well as international credit rating agencies like Fitch’s, Standard & Poorís and Moodyís Investors Service.
“But itís not only our creditworthiness thatís under test today. Itís our worth as a people and as a nation to compete in a global game where only the best can win,” the President pointed out.
Arroyo reaffirmed her commitment to wield the “political will” necessary to put in motion these drastic fiscal reform measures no matter how unpopular they may be as they would be good for the Filipino nation as a whole.
“As President, I am mandated to bring our country to such level of creditworthiness and competitiveness that will allow us to ensure the most pressing day-to-day needs of the average Filipino,” she said.
The political will reigns not only at Malacanang but also in the legislature, she added.
The President emphasized as well that her administration has also showed its “political will” on other highly controversial cases like the government takeover last month of the mothballed Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) project.
“The taxiways of the new airport terminal are already being used. In time, the stakeholders will be compensated as determined by the courts,” she said.
Arroyo also reaffirmed her campaign promise to create more jobs for the Filipino people and cut poverty incidence in the country by half by the end of her term in 2010.
She pledged to exert her executive authority to prosecute illegal loggers, cancel government contracts with corrupt companies, file unscrupulous government officials “who rob the nation,” and restore the integrity of the military leaders and soldiers “who put their lives at risk and defend the honor of the nation.”
Consistent with her call for a press honeymoon, the President reiterated her administrationís commitment to bring justice to a number of still unsolved murders and assassinations of Filipino journalists.
“And there is nothing more corrosive to our democracy than the murder of journalists in pursuit of truth,” Arroyo said. “And I will not rest until those assassins are brought to justice. You deserve no less. The nation deserves no less.” (MNS)
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Kaye Torres, lights a candle at the tomb of her slain mother, Nida Blanca, on the actress' birth anniversary
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Chicago, ILLINOIS, January 14, 2005 --- The defense lawyer of Roger Lawrence Strunk refused to make any comment “about the evidence” that could revive the extradition of Strunk before a United States Eastern District Court in California's capital of Sacramento.
Jeffrey S. Kravitz reached in his Sacramento office by phone said, “I am not commenting about this evidence — three years later someone will remember things.”
“This woman's profession is to do things for money, yeah?” Kravitz added, referring to newspaper reports that the new witness is a hospitality girl who was waiting for a client when she witnessed the crime scene.
Saying that he is aware of the developments of the case involving his client, Strunk, Kravitz said, his client has nothing to say about these developments.
The developments refer to the recent revelation of a Filipino woman who came forward with testimony, placing Strunk and several others on the crime scene where Filipino comedienne Nida Blanca was murdered.
The witness, Andrada “Anji” Dalandas, re-enacted on Jan. 7 before Philippine crime investigators how Blanca was murdered and testified that the actress was even punched in the face by one of the killers identified as Philip Medel.
Dalandas said the punching incident happened while the popular movie and television actress was being transported from a van to Blanca's car.
She described one of the murderers resembling the description of Strunk, Blanca's common-law husband, who is an American citizen.
Blanca was found murdered inside her car at the 6th floor of the Atlanta Center in Greenhills San Juan, Metro Manila.
In the course of the investigation of the case, Medel confessed to the murder and implicated Strunk. Medel, however, recanted his own testimony, which weakened the case against Strunk. Strunk was able to obtain permission to leave the Philippines to visit an ailing mother in the United States.
However, Strunk decided to stay in the United States, prompting the Philippine government to seek his extradition to the Philippines.
On May 30, 2003, US District Magistrate Judge Gregory G. Hollows of the Eastern District of California denied the “certificate of extradition” of Roger Lawrence Strunk to the Philippines.
Commenting on the decision, Kravitz said: “US government can come right back against my client is if it can introduce new evidence. If the Philippine government will introduce the same set of evidence presented before June 23, 2003, the extradition of Strunk will again be denied.”
The main reason the Strunk extradition decision is not appealable is the “nature of decision – (it established) lack of probable cause,” Kravitz explained.
When challenged if Strunk can go back to the Philippines to go after the “real mastermind,” Kravitz said his client can do so “only if the murder charges against him are dismissed.” Strunk is one of the co-accused in the murder case pending before a regional trial court in Pasig City.
“But what can a 63-year-old man do? Strunk does not have sufficient resources to mount a massive manhunt for the killers of his common-law wife,” Kravitz said, referring to actress Nida Blanca.
“But Kaye has resources to go after Blanca’s killer.” Kravitz said.
Kaye is Katherine Joan Jones Torres, the only child of Blanca, whose real name is Dorothy G. Jones. Kaye has been named the sole beneficiary to the estate of Ms. Blanca. (For comments and suggestions, e-mail to: lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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