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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 YORK, March 4, 2005 --- The US Supreme Court decided to grant American citizenship to an estimated 300 “stateless” persons — majority of whom are Filipinos — in the US Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), according to a statement sent to the Filipino Express by the Philippine Consulate General in Saipan.
The citizenship grant came after the US Department of Justice failed to appeal the US 9th Circuit Court's ruling last July that those born in the US Commonwealth of CNMI after January 9, 1978, are considered to be US citizens.
In the absence of an appeal, “the 9th Circuit Court's ruling is final and executory,” according to the Commonwealth’s Assistant Attorney General James Livingstone as quoted in the statement. The Justice Department was given a maximum of 60-day waiting period, which ended last February 13, to appeal the ruling.
The “stateless” individuals are persons born to foreign parents in the CNMI between January 9, 1978 and November 3, 1986, when the islands — formerly held by Japan and became the UN Trust Territory administered by the US government after Japan's defeat in World War II — were in transition under a covenant of political union with the US. Under legal circumstances, they are nationals of their parent's home countries, but have expressed preference for US citizenship.
Some of the 300 “stateless” persons, however, have already left CNMI, the statement said.
In an effort to support the ruling, CNMI Governor Juan N. Babauta called it a “victory” and had vowed that he would petition the concerned federal agencies to expedite the processing and issuance of US passports to the former “stateless” persons.
The CNMI Election Commission also announced last week that the 300 individuals granted US citizenships could now register as legal voters as long as they could present their birth certificates.
The Commonwealth Attorney General, in addition, ordered the release of scholarship checks to the former “stateless” persons, who have shown academic excellence. The checks were earlier held in abeyance pending the outcome of the Federal Justice Department’s appeal.
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Jersey City, NEW JERSEY, March 4, 2005 --- Sitting silently in a dimly lit movie theater of Jersey City Museum on Sunday afternoon, 84-year-old Jose Genito found himself in tears as the grim images of dying Filipino and American soldiers on the infamous Bataan Death March during the World War II were flashed on screen.
Genito, of Cottage Street, said watching the documentary film “Untold Triumph” — one of the Museum’s featured presentations on its four-day Asian Film Series — was like watching himself and fellow Filipino war veterans struggling for life all over again in the hands of the Japanese soldiers.
“When I saw the film capturing the atrocities of the war, my whole body quivered — perhaps because of anger, or of the feelings I couldn’t describe by now,” he said. “It was just difficult to control my emotions.”
A member of 76th infantry, Genito recalled his most unforgettable experience when he and his comrades tried to rescue their battalion commander in the mountains of Negros Islands — about 700 miles off Manila.
UNTOLD TRIUMP! Members of 1st and 2nd infantry
regiments see action in New Guinea, spring of 1944
“Our battalion commander was captured alive at noon by the Japanese soldiers. But later he was stabbed several times with a bayonet on the neck and waist, and we found his dead body in the battlefield. It happened right after General MacArthur returned to the Philippines, in 1944,” he said.
Genito came to America with his wife, Justa, in 1992. Both of them became U.S. citizens in the same year. He is now president of the Philippine American Veterans Organization (PAVO) based in Jersey City.
With ailing knees as he suffered from arthritis, and slow and trembling voice, Genito said the film on Sunday refreshed his memories of the bloody fightings. “Everything just came back.”
Linda Onorevole, director of marketing and public relations for the Jersey City Museum, said they showed “Untold Triumph” — in collaboration with PAVO — because the film represents cultures in Jersey City and the entire Hudson County.
“With the large population of Filipinos here, we felt it was great to show the film,” she said.
“Untold Triumph” is a never-been-told story about the U.S. Army’s 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiments made up of more than 7,000 Filipino immigrants and their sons in America who rallied and joined the fight for freedom after the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the immediate invasion of the Philippines by Japanese military forces in 1942.
The film shows that the Filipino soldiers, along with Americans, were trained as infantry troops in California, and a select group was handpicked and given a specialized training in Australia for reconnaisance and espionage.
Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2002 Hawaii International Film Festival and a Silver Telly at the 24th Annual Telly Awards, “Untold Triumph” was directed and produced by Noel Izon, a son of a Filipino-American veteran, and narrated by Hollywood actor Lou Diamond Philipps, who is half Filipino.
A 1st Filipino infantry regiment member undergoes
training at Morro Bay, California in 1942
“Since the end of World War II, the vital role played by Filipino soldiers in General MacArthur’s covert plan to retake the Philippines has remained untold,” Izon said. “This is not just a story of men at war, but an intimate portrait of people who were unlike any other in America. Their love for America — the land of their ‘colonizers’ — and the love for their ancestral homeland defined them as they served both countries in this time of war.”
The general public, Izon said, has known very little that there were Filipinos in America before the World War II broke out who “without any inducement, unhesitatingly help the Americans to fight the Japanese.”
Born in Manila, Izon spent 10 years at PBS-affiliate WNVT-Virginia and at the Educational Film Center as a writer/producer. He has been involved in print and broadcast design and production since 1970, and has won many awards for his works, including some 100 nationally televised programs done mainly for PBS and National Geographic Television.
“Untold Triumph,” which took Izon eight years to finish, also honors the memory of his father, Esmeraldo Izon, who on his deathbed made his son promise to finish the film. Esmeraldo was a member of the Philippine guerillas officially recognized by the U.S. armed forces and served as a member of the Philippine underground press during the war.
Izon said he’s hoping that his film will be aired on PBS on May 30, a fitting time for Memorial Day. “At great length, it will be the time for America to see the heroism and sacrifices of Filipino soldiers.”
For Eric Lachica, executive director of American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, Inc. based in Arlington, VA, who attended the film presentation in Jersey City, the award-winning documentary will have an impact on their campaign to push Equity Bill HR 302 — the legislation that would grant a broader package of U.S. veterans’ benefits, including monthly pension of $800 for low-income veterans.
“One by one, Filipino veterans are dying. It’s sad they never enjoyed the complete benefits,” he said. “By showing “Untold Triumph” to people, it would be a great eye-opener for President George Bush and members of the Congress to see the need to approve the Equity Bill.”
At least eight Filipino veterans based in the U.S. and the Philippines, Lachica said, are dying every day. And out of the 29,000 Filipino veterans recorded in May 2003, he added, there are now only 26,000 remaining in the present time.
“I have been waiting more than half of my life for the U.S. government to give us the full compensation, like what the American veterans get,” Jersey City resident and Filipino veteran Vicente Armando said in Tagalog.
Armando, 88, of Olean Street, said he heard about “Untold Triumph” from his fellow veterans, but he felt sorry that he was not able to watch the award-winning film because his body is now too weak to stand the cold weather.
A prisoner of war (POW), in 1942, Armando said he fought the Japanese in north Luzon — the biggest island of the Philippines.
“I was jailed in Capas, Tarlac for six months, along with about 100,000 American and Filipino troops.As far as I could remember, the American prisoners were transferred to a different area of the island. I couldn’t recall what happened to them, but only 37,000 alive prisoners were released. I’m lucky I was one of them.”
Armando immigrated to America with his wife, Carmen, in 1993. They have been residents of Jersey City for 12 years now.
“I have so many ailments these days. My back and legs are aching. I move slowly. I hope America will give us the pension before I pass away,” he said.
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NEW YORK, March 4, 2005 --- To curb rising abuses against Filipinos and other domestic workers, the New York State Assembly has introduced the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
Assemblyman Keith Wright (Democrat-Harlem) announced Sunday a statewide initiative to bring the domestic workforce in New York out of the shadows of slavery.
The Domestic Workers Union said the bill of rights wil be a key labor issue in Albany on the heels of a minimum wage increase victory for low-wage workers statewide.
Joined in a press conference by members of Domestic Workers United, mostly nannies and housekeepers, including Filipinos on the steps of City Hall, Wright said he introduced the “Domestic Workers Bill of Rights” in Albany to offer critical protections for the hard-working members of the industry. For so long, these workers have suffered in silence despite abuses.
“Domestic workers take care of the city’s children. Domestic workers take care of the city’s family. Domestic workers do the cooking and do the cleaning. They are the backbone of this city. They just do everything,” said Wright. “This bill is about justice and fairness,” he added. “This is not an issue of politics, this is an issue of humanity.”
The blue-print Domestic Bill of Rights calls for a strict legislation that would require a living wage of at least $14.00 an hour, health insurance, overtime pay and paid vacations for domestic workers.
The Bill of Rights addresses the historical exclusion of domestic workers from state labor protections, which has resulted in unchecked maltreatment in the workplace.
“Some employers feel that because it’s their home, they can set the rules, but a workplace is a workplace,” said Filipina Carolyn Hermogenes, a former nanny and organizer for Domestic Workers United.
She said many Filipinas who were paid below the minimum wage come to her office every week to complain of their problems.
Take the case of Filipina Windy Dolores, 40, who came to the U.S. in 2000. She said she worked like a robot for 16 hours for a measly pay of $2.00 per hour, way below the minimum wage. She submitted her deposition at the New York Superior Court to claim $120,000 punitive damages and back wages.
Filipina Linda Abad, an organizer for Damayan said that as they struggle to win this Bill of Rights, migrant workers have to fully address the poverty and unemployment in poor countries which created a pool of 90 million migrants as cheap labor for industrialized countries.
But Wright admitted that the bill faces tough hurdles in Albany. The bill is seen to be a hard sell to conservatives who opposed additional legislated wage increase. The minimum wage increase which was passed for low-age workers statewide last year was initially opposed by most Republican politicians.
“Any bill faces hurdles. I can guarantee this bill will come out in the committee,” Wright said. Over 20 Assemblymen co-sponsored the bill, he said.
There are more than 200,000 women working in the domestic industry statewide. These highly-motivated, hard working people are vital to New York’s economy. They cared for children and aging parents of people, so these people could work. However, recent horrible stories of abused women, set off alarm bells in organized workers’ community.
Two months ago, Filipina Nancy Ventic, 38, filed a federal lawsuit seeking back wages. She said she suffered exploitation and earned only $2 to $3 an hour for 90 hours a week. When she complained of her low pay, she was fired from her job. Her visa was sponsored by her employer. Now, her immigrant status is in limbo. Ventic was brought to New York in 2001 from Hong Kong, by her employers– a director of Deutsche Bank and his wife.
More and more women have suffered similar abuses. Faced with realities of no one to turn to in times of crises, these women cried in misery.
Marie–Josee, in her 40’s, was brought to New York from Congo, by a Belgian diplomat two years ago. The diplomat signed a contract to pay her $880 a month and a health insurance. She worked for 14 hours a day , cared for their children, cleaned the house, did the laundry, cooked and all other household chores, but she was only paid less than $500 a month, more than half of it went to her 6 children left in Congo. “I barely ate and I worked for nine months without health insurance. When I got abscess in my jaw and fever, I had no health insurance and couldn’t go to the doctor. My employer still told me to work. Basically, I was treated like a slave,” said Ms. Josee, through a translator. She said when she complained, her employer run after her inside the apartment and tried to get her passport. She fled from her house, left her employer and staying now in New Jersey, she said in a separate interview.
“My employer rarely paid me on time, but little by little she managed to pay me a little. Around 2001, she started owing me more and more and when I would tell her she would ask me to wait a bit more and one, and the amount got bigger, said Lu, 44, a Hispanic babysitter, as told by her translator.
Lu, who refused to give her last name, said she filed a federal case in New York against her employer to get thousands of back wages. Her lawyer declined to give details of the case because its still pending in court.
“What we are asking for is just, because even though some of us might not be privileged with the ability to read and write, we perform our jobs with honesty, respect and great care,” said Lilliam Juarez, a Hispanic, and a domestic worker from the Workplace Project in Long Island. She said domestic workers, just like farm workers must be recognized as essential part to the sustainability of our country’s economy. Squeezed by poverty in their foreign land, most domestic workers came to America in search for a better future for their families.
Two years ago, nannies and housekeepers in the city were victorious when the City Council passed a law, setting up a standard work contract for domestic workers and employers to ensure compliance of minimum wage.
Holding placards that read: “Livable wage not minimum wage,” nannies and housekeepers chanted slogans like “ What do we want now, Justice!” during the press conference.
The advocacy group is also pushing for the passage of the Safe, Orderly, Legal Visa and Enforcement Act (SOLVE) pending in Congress to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants, including domestic workers. The group said the bill was needed to protect the rights of immigrants, who are toiling despite of oppression.
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