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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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Immigration officer questions Erap’s wife; RP gov’t to file diplomatic protest vs. US
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San Francisco, CALIFORNIA, March 23, 2005 --- Senator Luisa Ejercito, wife of ousted President Joseph Estrada, has been detained by US immigration officials at the San Francisco International Airport in California and questioned about the plunder charges against Estrada.
Senate President Franklin Drilon said that US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone had apologized for the incident.
Ricciardone gave assurance that he would ask for a “full report from Washington” regarding the incident, Drilon said.
“They (US immigration) need a lecture on how to deal with people who go to the US. They have a job to do but I am sure they can do it with more decorum and respect,” he added.
A ranking official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), who requested anonymity, said the Philippines may file a diplomatic protest against the US because the former first lady had not violated US immigration laws.
“We have reasons to complain,” the official said. “If these are the facts presented, we have grounds to file a protest. She (Ejercito) is a senator and should be given courtesy.”
Quoting Ejercito, Drilon said the senator and her party were met at the arrival area by agents of the US Department of Homeland Security and were immediately segregated from the other passengers.
Drilon, himself a “victim” of US immigration’s strict security measures in 2002, said Ejercito was held in a cubicle at the airport, where US immigration officials led by a Filipino-American identified as “Pangan” interrogated her for an hour and a half about her husband’s case.
“Such questions had nothing to do with US immigration laws,” he said.
“I wonder why a member of the Senate had to be subjected to such irrelevant questioning. They need some lecturing on how to deal with people who go to the US. They have a job to do, but I am sure that they can do it with more decorum and respect,” he said.
Drilon did not say whether Ejercito’s daughter, Jacqueline Ejercito-Lopez, and her grandchildren, who were traveling with her, were also detained and interrogated.
Drilon said Ejercito called him up to complain that she had been “harassed” by US immigration officials upon her arrival in San Francisco.
“As Senate president, I denounce this shabby treatment of a duly elected Filipino senator at the hands of US immigration officials,” he said.
“These unnecessary and uncalled for cases of harassment of Filipino officials at US airports should stop,” he said.
Ejercito had asked permission from Drilon to travel to the US to speak before the Filipino community in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She will be back on April 9.
Last year, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile said the US Embassy canceled his multiple-entry visa because of security concerns that had not been explained to him.
In 2002, US immigration officials stopped Drilon also at San Francisco International Airport and asked him to remove his shoes as part of strict security measures. (MNS)
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NEW YORK --- President Bush pledged Wednesday to make a fresh push for stalled immigration reforms despite strong opposition from Congress to legalize undocumented workers.
The Knight Ridder Newspapers reported that Bush told Mexican President Vicente Fox in a meeting in his Texas ranch, that he would keep pushing for more lenient immigration laws, but said he couldn't guarantee that Congress would go along.
Immigration is a sensitive issue for both Mexico and the U.S. as America is determined to tighten its border to stop the illegal crossing of thousands of Mexicans into the border. In the aftermath of September 11 terrorist attacks, the government has been more strict in its border control and in scrutinizing even legal immigrants in airports. Immigration reforms were put in the backseat.
It is estimated that there are 8 to 12 million illegal immigrants are working in the U.S., struggling to build a better future for their children. Their valuable work is an engine for economic growth. Bush wants to provide these workers legal status, through a temporary working permit, that would give them more protection, would allow them to pay taxes, to be part of radar’s screen and easily monitor their number and their going in and out of the country for security purposes.
Immigrant rights advocates are pushing for the passage of the SOLVE Act bill pending in Congress that would allow undocumented workers to have legal status and a chance to be permanent residents.
Republicans and Democrats are divided on immigration issues. Some legislators believe that the plan must include a temporary working permit, and perhaps permanent residency and those who advocate for stricter policy to remove undocumented workers.
Instead of legalizing immigrants, Congress and some states legislatures, filed bills recently that would make lives of illegal immigrants more miserable by disallowing them to have legal ID, driver licenses and restriction of funds for health and education of children of illegal immigrants. Stricter policies were also a blow for asylum seekers whose lives are in danger in their home countries.
“You've got my pledge. I'll continue working on it,” Bush told Fox during a joint news conference here at Baylor University. “You don't have my pledge that Congress will act because I'm not a member of the legislative branch,” the Knight Ridder quoted Bush.
Knight Ridder said that the illegal immigrant population has reached an all-time high of nearly 11 million. The study by the Pew Hispanic Center, a private research group based in Washington, also found that undocumented Mexicans accounted for 57 percent of all illegal entrants.
Bush reiterated his calls to match working with willing employers.
“That job ought to be filled on a legal basis, no matter where the person comes from. That makes sense,” Bush said.
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NEW YORK, March 23, 2005 --- The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has requested the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to facilitate the return of former police Supt. Michael Ray Aquino, who was arrested at Federal Plaza in New York for violations of immigration laws.
Ric Diaz, chief of the NBI Interpol Division, said they’re arranging Aquino’s return to the country.
According to NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco, Aquino planned to study nursing in the US and work as a caregiver.
Wycoco, however, said no arrest warrant had been issued against Aquino although he was charged with murder following the abduction and murder of public relations executive Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, in 2000.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), meantime, said there is no chance Aquino will enjoy political asylum in the US.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Aquino’s case is not political in character, which disqualifies him from the US program.
He said asylum is usually extended to political leaders facing charges such as rebellion and sedition.
But according to a source, who requested not to be identified, Aquino’s lawyers in New York are working on his case. Aquino is currently detained in Passaic County jail, in New Jersey.
DOJ Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño said the inclusion of Aquino and another fugitive police officer, Sr. Supt. Cesar Mancao, in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case is still pending.
Mancao and Aquino were also implicated in the killing of 11 Kuratong Baleleng gang members in 1995. The case was dismissed by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court for lack of probable cause and is pending before the Supreme Court.
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JERSEY CITY, March 23, 2005 --- It was exactly like a dream.
Lito Gajilan, publisher of the Filipino Express, won -- at least that’s what he had thought -- $100,000 in the Daily News Scratch N’ Match game on Saturday and lost it when he woke up the next day.
“I was overjoyed Saturday night, telling my wife, daughters and siblings that I won big time. It was a wonderful feeling,” Gajilan said.
When he was lying on his bed that night, Gajilan admitted, he got very excited that he already planned to give a special bonus to his employees and buy more computers.
If he was not the sole winner, he thought, he would only share the money with most likely two other people, but not more than that. Apparently he was wrong.
“I got up Sunday morning and read in the paper that there was a typo error in the game. Everything collapsed. I was very disappointed,” he said.
The Daily News misprinted one of the winning numbers that led hundreds of players to show up in the tabloid’s midtown Manhattan office.
“There was chaos outside the News,” said Gajilan, who also went there Monday to see what would happen with his own winning numbers. “People were all over the streets, and we were asked to line up in the cold for two hours.”
Gajilan said the News personnel got their names and contact details. They were also asked, he said, to leave their winning tickets, but no one among them agreed.
On Monday night, the paper announced that instead of holding a single drawing for the top prize, as is its policy in such cases, it would put up $1 million and give out five $100,000 prizes, five $10,000 prizes and many smaller prizes for people who sent in their tickets with the mistaken numbers.
While the New York Post, the rival tabloid, has called the game a “rip-off” and promoted its own game of chance, the News blamed D.L. Blair, the Long Island firm that handles the promotions, for the error.
“We printed the numbers that were provided to us by D.L. Blair,” Eileen Murphy, spokeswoman for the News, said in several reports. “On Saturday they gave us the wrong numbers and we want to find out why.”
The paper told readers to scratch off the number 13 instead of 12 that would have produced a single winner.
“Sometimes we think we get so lucky, and there’s nothing wrong with that” said Gajilan, who won $5,000 in Florida lotto three years ago. “It’s not over yet, anyway. I still try to be positive. Who knows, I will win it in the end.”
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