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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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100 dead and injured --- and still counting
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MANILA, February 10, 2005 --- Intense fighting raged Thursday between government soldiers and members of a Muslim rebellion group in the Mindanao island of Jolo for the fifth day running, leaving some 100 dead and injured, military officials said.
Although mystery surrounds the exact identity of the group behind the uprising, the government suggests it is a faction of the MNLF, which signed a peace agreement with Manila in 1996 but failed to disarm.
MNLF founder Nur Misuari is in jail and on trial for rebeliion charges arising from a similar revolt by hundreds of his followers that left more than 100 people dead in Jolo and Zamboanga City in Nov. 2001.
Misuari’s supporters are using the current clashes to pressure the government into transferring their leader to detention center in Jolo, some military officials said.
But President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Thursday the fighting would not affect peace talks with the 12,000-member MNLF, whose forces operate elsewhere in the troubled south.
Arroyo said that military operations in Jolo are not directed against the MNLF but the terrorists and criminals in the area.
“The situation in Sulu has brought together the forces of law against the forces of lawlessness. As we deal with the pockets of criminal and terrorists holdouts, we are keeping the line of the law firm with the full cooperation of the local governments, the peace constituencies and community leaders,” Arroyo said.
The President added the military operation blamed for the attack was not against the MNLF because of many of its ranking members are co-leaders in governance like Basilan Rep. Gerry Salapuddin, Mayor Muslimin Sema, Marawi City Mayor Omar Ali, and several other officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The fierce fighting started when at least 400 Misuari supporters had attacked several Jolo military detachments at dawn on Feb. 7, armed with recoilless rifles and other assault weapons.
Lieutenant General Alberto Braganza, head of the Philippine military command in Mindanao, said MNLF members launched the attacks due to the continued operation of government soldiers against the Abu Sayyaf.
He said military operations in the area might have irked the attackers, making them launch the offensives.
Families leave homes
According to Philippine Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman, there were already some 2,000 people who have left their homes for fear of being caught in the crossfire.
“We have dispatched teams in Jolo to attend to the needs of the displaced,” Soliman said over radio station DZRH.
PCID convener Amina Rasul said Thursday: “We need to know what really happened here. President Arroyo must call on her defense people to rein in their forces to avert further bloodshed.”
Mindanao Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called Thursday on both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the MNLF-Misuari faction to immediately suspend armed hostilities in Jolo and resolve the causes of the renewed fighting through peace dialogue.
Pimentel expressed concern that fighting may further escalate, causing more deaths and displacing of civilians from their communities that will negate the gains in bringing Muslim rebels into the mainstream of society under the government-MNLF peace agreement of 1996.
He said the government should exhaust all efforts to convince Misuari’s followers not to stray from the path of peace and development and to respect the 1996 peace agreement with the government.
He said the members of the MNLF breakaway faction resorted to armed action apparently to manifest their disenchantment and impatience over the slow pace of the judicial trial of Misuari for rebellion charges.
More troops deployed
As of Thursday, hundreds of extra troops have been rushed to Jolo to quell the rebellion of the Muslim gunmen.
US military personnel have also been seen arriving at Jolo airport.
Neither the US or Philippine military would comment on an aircraft clearly marked United States of America which landed in Jolo, with at least two US personnel dressed in fatigues being greeted at the steps of the aircraft.
The US is known to have a number of advisors in Southern Philippines and is lending support to the anti-terrorism effort there, though this does not involve direct combat.
“The situation is fluid as our troops continue to pursue these perpetrators,” Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, AFO deputy chief of staff, told reporters. “We have dispatched another Marine battalion from Zamboanga.”
This brings the military presence on Jolo to three Army and three Marine battalions, or at least 3,000 soldiers.
The air force has provided additional helicopters, Adan said, adding that the government has sought the help of MNLF leaders to quell the fighting.
“We asked them to do their part in controlling this breakaway group, denouncing this treacherous act and assisting the government in pursuing this breakaway group and bringing them to the bar of justice.”
Adan said the military has received reports that the rebels may be operating in league with the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim kidnap gang which is on a US terrorism blacklist.
The military says at least 20 soldiers have been killed and 38 wounded while an estimated 40 Muslim rebels have died with 37 wounded in the fighting, which came after a child was shot dead during a weekend military operation.
In Jolo, Muslim rebels fired mortar bombs at a marine camp in Patikul town. But most of the fighting centered in the coastal town of Panamao where the gunmen engaged troops in a series of skirmishes, officials in the area said.
Two planes bombed suspected rebel positions and a naval boat shelled the area.
Braganza said in a visit to Jolo that there would be no negotiations with the gunmen.
“To me, it is surrender or nothing. I will pursue the group responsible to the death,” Braganza said. -- with reporting from Anthony D. Advincula and the MNS
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Jersey City, NEW JERSEY, February 10, 2005 --- Fact: Not a single Asian-American woman has joined the police department in New Jersey state.
Fact: Asian Americans in New Jersey are more interested in establishing a business than becoming law enforcers.
“Considering the big population of Filipinos in Hudson County, or Koreans in Middlesex County, the Asian American community is still not adequately represented in New Jersey fire and police departments,” said David Chong, executive director for New Jersey State Law Enforcement Asian American Advisory Committee (NJSLEAAAC).
He said that due to lack of interest in making a career in law enforcement, most Asian Americans, especially the second and third generations, go into finance, legal and medical fields.
“We think there’s no good salary and benefits in the law enforcement career,” he said. “But there is — and we could serve our own community as we understand better our culture and the language.”
As the population of Asian Americans and other ethnic minorities grow more and more in NJ, Chong said: “It’s time to promote diversity in the law enforcement, especially the state police department.
But for Connie Cacnio, who applied in the Jersey City Police Department in August last year, the recruitment and application are not easy.
“You have to pass too many examinations,” she said. “And the waiting period for the training is quite long.”
With no Asian American women in the police department, Cacnio, 25, said she feels that her application will be put in the priority list.
“I believe the recruitment officers will certainly give me importance because of two things: one is I’m a woman, and the other is that I’m of Asian descent,” she said.
A journalist by profession, Cacnio had decided to apply in law enforcement because she “wants to give back something to her community.”
“I grew up in Jersey City, and this community strongly needs Asian women in the law enforcement. I also like the benefits, especially when you retire. They will take care of you until you die,” Cacnio said.
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San Francisco, CALIFORNIA, February 10, 2005 --- A U.S. federal appeals court ruled last Friday against thousands of Filipinos who were seeking compensation for human rights abuses committed under the late president Ferdinand Marcos, saying the money belongs to the Philippine government.
A U.S. appeals court ruled the 9,500 plaintiffs have no right to $683 million US in Marcos assets that were transferred from a Swiss account to the Philippine government, because the Philippine Supreme Court has ordered the funds be forwarded to the national treasury. The plaintiffs, most of whom live in the Philippines, had sought the money to recover a $2-billion jury verdict to settle human-rights abuses.
They filed a class-action lawsuit against the Marcos estate in 1986, the year he was deposed as president after ruling for 20 years. Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii, where he died in exile in 1989.
In 1995, a Honolulu jury awarded the plaintiffs $2 billion after finding Marcos responsible for summary executions, disappearances and torture.
The $683 million represented the largest amount available to the plaintiffs.
“This means the class is going to have a lot of difficulties recovering money,” said Robert Swift, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
On Friday, a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled U.S. courts may not overturn a foreign country's supreme court. Friday's decision overturns a lower-court ruling that said the Philippine Supreme Court “was entitled to no deference” and blocks the plaintiffs from pressing the bank for the money.
Jay Ziegler, a lawyer for Philippine National Bank, said the institution was pleased with the decision.
“We think it is the correct result in this case,” Ziegler said.
The plaintiffs are also trying to seize $22 million in Marcos assets located in a Singapore bank but the Philippine government claims ownership of that money as well, said John Vandyke, a professor of international law at the University of Hawaii. -- with AP reports
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Illegals must go back to homeland first to apply for work permit:
US solon
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NEW YORK, February 10, 2005 --- As immigration reform has become a familiar phrase in President Bush’s speeches, House majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) supports a U.S. guest worker program, only that illegal immigrants must go back to their homeland to apply for temporary work permits.
DeLay said he recently talked with President Bush, and the president was open to suggestions that “you have to apply for it from your country of origin,” the Washington Times reported.
“What I understand as a guest worker program is one where you apply for the guest worker program in your country of origin, and you have a job when you apply,” DeLay said.
In his recent State of the Union address, Bush urged for an immigration reform, saying the present system is outdated.
“We should not be content with laws that punish hardworking people who want only to provide for their families, and deny businesses willing workers, and invite chaos at the border. It’s time for an immigration policy that permits temporary guest workers to fill jobs Americans will not take,” said Bush in a televised speech last week.
Bush has made it clear that he does not want amnesty for immigrants as he proposed last year a guest worker program that would allow immigrants to work for three years, renewable up to six years. Then the workers must return to their home country. He reiterated his calls for immigration reform in a number of press conferences and speeches.
An estimate of eight to 12 million undocumented immigrants are working hard despite of low pay and lack of protection to give a bright future for their families. Many of these immigrants have children who are U.S. citizens.
Most immigrant groups believe that it’s naive to think that immigrants who are already here in the U.S., would return to their homeland to apply for a visa.
Filipino Carolyn De Leon Hermogenes, an organizer of advocacy group CAAV, protecting the rights immigrant domestic workers, said most immigrant groups were supporting the passage of the bill called Safe, Orderly, Legal Visa Enforcement Act (SOLVE), which is pending in Congress.
Hermogenes said SOLVE act is more fair, safer and more humane as it would legalize millions of undocumented immigrants.
He opposed the proposal of DeLay, requiring illegal immigrants to apply for worker ‘s permits in their home country.
“I think people will be afraid to apply, they don’t want to go home. To require them to go home is like punishing them. If these immigrants are already here, it would be impossible for them to go back home to apply for a visa,” Hermogenes said.
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NEW YORK, February 10, 2005 --- Lorli Villanueva, a well known theater, television and movie actress in the Philippines, is directing Samuel Beckett’s tragic-comedy “Waiting for Godot” at the Royal Theater (The Producers Club), located at on 358 West 44th Street, New York.
“Directing this play makes me very proud to be a Filipino and a woman,” Villanueva told the Filipino Express. “It is not everyday that a Filipino gets this opportunity and recognition.”
Presented by JMV Productions, the play opens on Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m. Evening performances continue on Thursday, Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. and Friday to Sunday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Considered throughout the world as a classic of the Absurd Theater, this famous play by Beckett consists of five laid-back characters: two tramps (Vladimir and Estragon) played by Ben Sumrall and Lawrence Lesher; Pozzo, a flamboyant lord of the earth (William Demaniow); Lucky, the “whimpering and staggering at the end of a rope” (Jeff Stevens); and the innocent boy “who twice arrives with a message from Godot” (Mike Villanueva).
Aside from “Waiting for Godot,” Villanueva had also directed two other off-Broadway plays: “Inherit the Wind” and “Twelve Angry Men.”
“I am pleased that many of the young men in that cast landed summer jobs as background actors in the summer production of “Aida at the Central Park” in 2000,” she said.
When asked about the challenges of directing the current play, Villanueva mentioned problems with some of the actors in the beginning. “But with persistence, patience and better understanding of directorial styles, everything is turning out to be really good.”
Villanueva co-founded InArte Productions, a musical theater company for children and Amerasian artist members, with Miguel Braganza, another up and coming Filipino-American artist.
She said that all the children who took part in InArte’s training program are now part of the “King and I” tour and some are involved in “The Lion King.”
InArte had two productions after 9/11 at the Citicorp Bldg. on 53rd and Lexington Ave.
Villanueva has performed in numerous theater, television and movie productions, both in the Philippines and in New York.
She was awarded Best Supporting Actress at the Manila Film Festival and nominated numerous times for awards including the First International Film Festival held in Manila. She also played the role of Mrs. Dimagiba in the movie American Adobo in 2002.
Villanueva will also be featured in two upcoming American film productions, “Heights” and “The Sisters.”
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