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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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Lt. Sgt. Menpin |
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Sgt. Geslani |
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NEW YORK --- The American dream may have been too much of a magnet for two Filipino peacekeepers who failed to return to duty in Haiti after a rest break in the United States.
The Philippine military believes that either or both of the deserters could be in Brooklyn, New York.
A two-man investigative team will be sent to Jacksonville, Florida, and Brooklyn, New York to locate the two soldiers.
“It is dreadful to note that two of our peacekeepers have turned into illegal economic migrants,” Colonel Daniel Lucero, the former commander of the Philippine contingent in Haiti, told reporters in Manila on Wednesday, August 10.
Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade Valentin Menpin and Marines Sergeant Geoffrey Geslani have not returned from the US since being sent there in April for an official mission and R&R (rest and recreation), Lucero said.
“They have breached the trust that their commander has given to them,” Lucero added.
The United States is home to about 3 million Filipinos who left their country in search of a better life.
Lucero said the Philippine army had “taken steps to arrest the two deserters,” who disappeared during two weeks of leave in Florida in April.
In New York, Ambassador Lauro L. Baja Jr., Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations, said Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo wants the two deserters located, repatriated and prosecuted for bringing shame to the country.
“No less than Secretary Romulo, during his visit to New York in June, gave instructions for us to exert all means to bring the two deserters back to the Philippines so they could be brought before a military court,” Ambassador Baja said.
The Philippine Mission to the United Nations and the Office of the Defense and Armed Forces Attaché at the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. made initial representations with US authorities immediately after Lucero reported around the second week of May the disappearance of Menpin and Geslani.
The Philippines sent a 135-member peacekeeping team to Haiti in December 2004 to help U.N. forces curb political unrest ahead of elections later this year.
Menpin was sent to the US on April 16, four months after the country’s 135-member peacekeeping force arrived in the Caribbean island nation in December. Geslani followed on April 29, he said.
Lucero and his team arrived in the country last month.
“They have given an awful name to our mission in Haiti,” he said.
Military prosecutors can conduct an “investigation in absentia” since documentary evidence and testimonies from members of the Haiti contingent would “support criminal and administrative prosecution of the respondents,” documents showed.
Baja said the Philippine Mission is only waiting for the formal notification from the Armed Forces on the filing of charges against the two for violation of the Articles of War before it formally requests the assistance of US authorities in locating the two.
The two disappeared one after the other shortly after Army Staff Sergeant Antonio Batomalaque became the first Filipino combat fatality in a UN peacekeeping operation when he was killed in a firefight in Cite Soleil neighborhood, Port-au-Prince, one of Haiti’s most dangerous areas on 14 April.
The disappearance of the two also followed the almost daily harassment by Haitian gunmen of members of the Philippine contingent serving as the Force Headquarters Support Unit for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
Ambassador Baja said he was informed by Colonel Lucero that Mempin failed to report on schedule in late April after he was allowed to take his R&R in the US. He is known to have proceeded to the Philippines from Haiti but returned to the US shortly after.
Geslani, on the other hand, left for Florida to visit his brother, Gary, who is serving in the US Navy but failed to report for duty at the end of his leave on the first week of May.
The two were among the 155 peacekeepers the Philippines deployed in December last year to support a Brazilian-led multinational force that was dispatched to restore order and stability in Haiti.
Last month, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said she would send another 200 Philippine troops to Haiti to join nearly 4,000 Brazilian-led peacekeepers after the president of the Caribbean island, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted last year.
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Military explosives experts investigate the scene of a car bomb explosion in downtown Zaboanga City. Two bombs exploded in the city, wounding 26 people. (MNSwirephoto)
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MANILA --- Two bombs have exploded in Zamboanga City, wounding 26 people, in attacks which security forces blamed on Muslim militants.
Six suspects have been arrested, a military official based in Mindanao said.
The first bomb, which exploded in a parked jeep, damaged shops and wounded 14 people. The second, in a room of a nearby hotel, wounded 12.
“These explosions appear to be terror attacks,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said, adding that a third bomb was found in the area but did not explode.
“These could be the handiwork of the Jemayah Islamiyah (JI) or Abu Sayyaf because of our intense manhunt in Maguindanao,” he said, referring to a central province of Mindanao island where the militants are believed to be hiding.
Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza said the bandits could be trying to divert the military’s attention from pursuit operations against Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani in Maguindanao.
“This is a possible diversionary tactic due to the Maguindanao operation,” Braganza said.
The military is on a manhunt for Janjalani and his men, who have been reportedly trapped in the area of Talayan town since July.
“This is definitely a terrorist attack,” Western Mindanao police commander Chief Supt. Prospero Noble said.
Abu Sayyaf group (ASG) is a guerrilla group with links to JI, a Southeast Asian network aligned with al Qaeda, according to authorities.
ASG is blamed for the country’s worst terror attack, when an explosion and fire on “SuperFerry 14” in February 2004 killed more than 100 people.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Zamboanga.
The bombs went off as officials were counting votes from the Aug. 8 election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The military said the attacks were not related to the elections.
Zamboanga, which is not part of the autonomous Muslim region, is the staging point of all military operations on Mindanao.
Apart from four homegrown Muslim rebel groups in Mindanao, criminal gangs extorting money have carried out bomb attacks in the region.
The last time Zamboanga came under attack was in October 2002 when a series of explosions killed 13 people, including a US Army Special Forces soldier.
The military said Abu Sayyaf, working closely with JI, was behind those attacks. (MNS)
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NEW YORK --- A little over a year after successfully separating formerly conjoined Filipino twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre in an operation, doctors gave an upbeat assessment of the boys’ progress.
“Carl and Clarence have done remarkably well, exceeding our best expectations since their separation,” said James T. Goodrich, MD, director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) and one of the two lead surgeons on the boys’ medical team.
The boys were successfully separated on August 4 last year in an historic 17-hour operation.
While the successful series of four separation surgeries was a milestone in medical history, today all of the key parties -- the twins, their mother Arlene and the CHAM surgical team -- are going about their business as usual.
This “re-birthday” is being noted by those close to the boys, but no special celebration is being held.
The boys have become favorite child stars at the hospital where media, visitors and celebrities like the famous Wiggles singing group visited them.
“We are encouraged by their continued development and lack of significant medical problems,” Dr. Goodrich said. “Their progress is remarkable and it is a pleasure to watch them as they move around to explore a world that had been out of their reach,” he said.
“The last year has gone by so quickly,” said Dr. Goodrich. “I am more convinced than ever that their incredible progress is due not only to their spunky character but to the physical advantages they gained through the staged surgical separation.”
The doctors said Carl usually takes a nap while Clarence -- like toddlers everywhere -- nibbles on cheesy puffs, spurning his mother’s offer of yogurt. He also seemed to enjoy looking at himself in a mirror offered by a hospital staffer.
In addition to their GI and general check-ups, Carl was given another hearing test as part of a continuing effort to discover any physical cause for delayed speech development.
“The tubes we inserted into both boys’ ears a while back have definitely helped clear up their hearing,” said Sanjay Parikh, MD, pediatric Ear Nose and Throat specialist at CHAM who performed the tube insertions on both boys.
“Since Carl’s verbal skills seem to be lagging behind Clarence’s, we wanted to examine him again,” he said. “While Clarence now says additional new words such as ‘Carl’, ‘bubbles’, ‘momma’, ‘up’, and ‘baby’ very clearly, Carl does not,” said Dr. Parikh. “We are still working on reasons why.”
The boys will undergo a skull reconstructive surgery this fall as a step to allow the boys to have stronger skulls necessary in living independent lives. “
I’m pleased that the skull constructions we did at the time of the fourth surgery were so durable they have allowed Clarence and Carl to stay out of the operating room,” said David A. Staffenberg, MD, chief of pediatric plastic surgery at CHAM, and co-leader of the medical team.
“This has given them the luxury of spending uninterrupted time with their mother and with each other in physical therapy,” said Dr. Staffenberg.
“It’s so hard to believe that an entire year has passed since Carl and Clarence emerged from that operating room on separate stretchers,” said Robert Marion, MD, the twins’ lead pediatrician at CHAM. “Their progress during these past twelve months has been nothing short of miraculous.”
“They are just beginning to stand and walk with help, and their talking has really started to take off,” said Dr. Marion. “Just watching as they become independent kids, it is more and more apparent that their future is unlimited.”
“It has been the most gratifying and satisfying part of my medical career,” said Dr. Marion.
The next big step for the boys will literally be when they start taking steps on their own, unassisted. Their medical team says it could happen any day.
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MANILA --- About 90 Filipinos reportedly deported by US authorities for committing various offenses have been flown back to the country, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said.
NBI Interpol chief Ricardo Diaz said the deported Filipinos, mostly convicted criminals who have served their prison terms, juvenile offenders and overstaying aliens, arrived at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) at Clark Field, Pampanga.
Diaz said the deported Filipinos were brought back aboard an aircraft called Justice Prisoner Air Transport (JPAT).
Under the Department of Homeland Security, the US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) arranged for their return.
Diaz said he ordered two of his agents to check if any of the arriving Filipinos have pending warrants in the country. “Our men are on standby, so that if they have a pending case here in the Philippines, we could immediately apprehend them,” he said.
But Interpol Special Investigator Limuel Loyola, one of the two NBI agents present at the DMIA, said none of the 90 deportees had existing warrants.
“At first, we detained two persons because there were cases pending against them, but we released them later after learning that they (the accused) were only their namesakes,” he said.
Diaz added, “this signifies that when they left the country they had no criminal cases and that the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and other government agencies had been effective in securing our borders.”
The deportation process started some two years ago. Just last March 17, about 80 Filipinos were sent home.
Loyola said the US has become more aggressive in its campaign against illegal aliens following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Among the Filipino deportees, there were about 12 youth offenders between the ages of 16 and 17. Some of their offenses were drug-related and involved physical assault. (MNS with Rita Villadiego)
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