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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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GMA doesn’t need emergency powers
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LIKE a magician pulling out his favorite rabbit-out- of-the-hat-trick, Malacañang has raised the spectre of emergency powers to help the government deal with the skyrocketing prices of oil and oil products.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and his executive assistants were at least honest enough to admit that they got the idea of using emergency powers in the face of runaway oil prices from the late unlamented President Marcos.
That’s where the problem lies. Perhaps President Arroyo and his Palace advisers should be advised that the country has had bad experience in the past when the tenant of the Palace by the Pasig River arrogates emergency powers unto himself.
Of course, nobody needs to be reminded of what happened to emergency powers during the martial law regime of then-President Marcos. It was abused. Not that Marcos was not abusing his one-man, authoritarian rule. But the emergency powers he vested on himself fortified his strongman regime even more. The energy crisis in the early 70s became his pretext to use emergency powers.
But then again, the Marcos example is not an apt model for Arroyo’s emergency powers bid. The energy crisis that we had under Marcos was a shortage of oil supply. What is happening now is an unbridled surging of oil prices.
In a shortage situation, you may need to enforce rationing and other laws to make sure the supply lasts. In a situation where the problem is pricing, you don’t need to tell the public to be more conscious of energy use. The price itself will act a as police and forbid people to be wasteful. If they don’t conserve energy, it’s going to hit them where it hurts most -- in the pocket.
One can’t help but wonder why every Philippine government asks for, or resorts to, emergency powers whenever confronted with an oil problem.
It’s not really about powerlessness in the face of the energy crisis. But plain and simple power trip.(NP)
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NEW YORK --- When I was younger, I was told of ghosts that could be good or bad. I found it scary and funny watching Casper, the friendly one, or Hot Stuff, the Little Devil, the naughtier of the two, on TV. But knowing these were just kid stories and meant for entertainment, ghosts didn't bother me. Even as I now recall the episodes with friends, we all could be giggling in tears or die laughing.
However, with the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI), it is something else. In its early days, I found that ghosts exist. It's not the entertainment-type ghosts but some unknown names conveniently tucked in a roster of members, which I call ghost members.
Some supposedly "community leaders" had purposely used ghost members to apply for membership in PIDCI. They did this to assure themselves of a vote when they ran for an office or supported someone else's candidacy.
Membership was as easy as buying coffee and donuts from a deli. It was either who you knew in the membership committee or you were a member of that committee itself. Anyone who had a list of ten ghost members and money to pay the $35 membership fee, it was a done deal. Forget about proof of existence for one year; that could have been easily waived. PIDCI had to be up and running, remember?
Hence, we find member-organizations such as Institute of Spirituality in the Workplace, led by board member Angie Cruz or Asian Workforce Alliance, headed by 2003 overall-chair Nena Kaufman. Can these organizations be considered community organizations?
There were also board members who weren't active in the organization they claim to be a member of or worse, weren't even a member of any organization at all. They just happened to be around at the right time, the right place and the right opportunity. They considered themselves "community leaders."
Just as it was then easy to tell which member-organizations had ghost members, today, it is easier to name those that still exist. Only now, however, nothing could be done about them even if it can be proven they have no members, ghost members or less than ten members.
"They've been grand fathered," says one board member. "It's difficult to remove them now. Let them be; we might have more problems dealing with it if we pry into their membership," she added.
I wonder if that was said in pragmatic terms, in jest or out of frustration for the way things are in PIDCI. But seriously, PIDCI needs to revisit this membership issue and do something about it. The ghosts of the past need not be same ghosts of the present nor of the future. Leave it to Ebenezer Scrooge, he had too much of it.
Everyone knows that these organization-members exist only on election day when their votes are needed. However, you could hardly expect their own members to get involved in various PIDCI committees or even participate in the grand parade or independence ball. So what does this tell us?
Since 2003, membership has grown steadily. Beginning with about 90 members, it grew to 120 in 2004, and lately, to a high of 195. Indeed, there is membership growth. With a minimum requirement of ten members for each organization, this translates to 1,950 folks that could be mobilized and be involved in several committees.
But that is not the way things are. PIDCI scrounges for people to help out. On top of this, if someone is not in friendly term with another, that makes it tougher to recruit resulting to having the same people working in the same committees over and over. And that's not a ghost story, it is reality.
Okay, 1,950 might be a simplistic observation. Let's take a look at the 14 members of the board that theoretically, represent 14 member-organizations. If they have the power of influence, we could assume that they could harness at least 140 members to help them carry out the tasks of the group.
But as some people say, they're lucky to have even 50 joining them in their committees. Forget talking about community meetings. The last I heard of their attendance in these meetings was less than 30. So what's wrong with this set up?
There are ghosts everywhere: ghosts within and outside of themselves. There is ambition but lacks leadership. There is vision but it gets blurred in the long run. There is creativity but it gets mired in the process. There is responsibility and accountability but are ignored. There is transparency but gets covered up. There is truth but gets manipulated
It seems that our leaders are fearful of facing their own ghost. Unless they rid themselves of it, the results will always be the same. If all the 195 member organizations do what needs to be done, we all could breathe some fresh air. PIDCI should lead the way to change; its board members must face their own ghost and deal with it.
They themselves could be a ghost buster.
Send comments to rickyxpres@aol.com or visit Website at PinoyOnBoard.com.
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I WOKE up one morning to find myself in another place, another time. In this world everyone is Filipino so I feel right at home.
I leisurely eat my tuyo and the smell fills the air. Yet nobody minds. In this world, politicians have self-destructed and so have celebrities – so there are no showbiz talk shows or political rags. Cell phones have been implanted into our bodies so I don’t even need a phone to make a call. And to send a txt msg I just have to think it and punch alphanumeric keys in the air.
I wash down the tuyo and rice with a steaming cup of kapeng barako. Then I remember my appointment in front of the Truth Commission later that day. I’m running late but I know that is acceptable because in this dimension, Filipino time is the only time. Things never start when they say. And hardly ever end when they should.
I pick up my invitation letter to come before the Truth Commission and am surprised by the signatories -- Inday Badiday, Joe Quirino (Ok Ngarud) and Lovingly yours, Ate Helen. I don’t remember what got me here but in this Orwellian society, one never knows.
What do they want from me?
They tell me my voice is on a tape allegedly implicating me in something—the key word being “allegedly.” So I stand there swearing on a book –which happens not to be the Bible – and I swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth because Ate Luds asks me to do so. I fold and say it is indeed my voice on the recording. Why it matters. I don’t know.
I don’t even remember now but the questioning was along the lines of Who Stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Who Me? Yes you. Not me. Then Who. And so on.
I feel silly. The Truth commission has broken me – I will admit to anything even the ugly annoying things that I do as Filipino – like arrive late for everything, say yes when I mean no, and point with my lips.
Did I vote for so and so? Yes. Did I watch such and such? Yes. Did I travel to a foreign country to escape? Yes. Did I once say I was Filipino-Spanish-Chinese? Yes. Yes. Sorry Ate Luds, Ate Helen. I cover my face in my hands. It is then that I hear JQ say “Okay Ngarud!” and then he winks and asks me to pass the microphone. The session is over. I am exhausted.
When I really wake up, I’m in America. My phone beeps wildly with political jokes text messaged from the Philippines. GMA is still in power. Bush is still in power. This is the truth. And nothing but...
Had any bad dreams about the Philippines lately? E-mail me manilagirl01@hotmail.com Visit www.missingmangoes.com
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OUR paths crossed, for the last time, at the San Francisco International Airport. The family and I were heading for our Bangkok flight gate. Striding toward his Boston plane, Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. bumped into us.
The years have blurred what we chatted about then. We did laugh over my having an airline courier sneak his protest, smuggled from his Fort Bonifacio cell, to Bangkok Post editor Theh Chongkadikhij.
The PA system announced our flights. As we parted, my then grade-school son Francis, groused : “Why didn’t you introduce me? That’s the next Philippine president.”
That was not to be. Twenty-two years ago, on 21 August, the 52-year old Aquino returned to Manila. While military agents “guarded” him, a single bullet tore into his jaw, on the airport’s 19-step metal service stairway..
Marcos’ censored press suppressed even the arrival statement he never got to read. The two-page speech is part of history in a country where half of youngsters, an Ateneo survey reveals, don’t read even comics.
“I have returned of my own free will to join the ranks of those struggling to recover our rights and freedoms through non-violence,” Aquino planned to say. “I seek no confrontation....
Aquino knew that the dictator suffered then from failing kidneys. He felt that a direct appeal to the increasingly isolated Ferdinand Marcos could help usher in peaceful regime change – and cap looming violence.
Return would only provoke a brutal regime, many warned Ninoy. He saw the danger. “If they kill me, they’re out in two years”, he predicted. That forecast fell short of People Power Revolt by two years.
Was Ninoy’s adamance stupidity? Or principled stubbornness? Recall how the Duke of Norfolk badgered the imprisoned Thomas More to heed Henry VIII’s demand for consent to the king’s divorce.
“Think Master More,” the Duke urged. Indignatio principis mors est. (“The prince’s anger is death.”),
“Is that all my Lord?”, More replied. “In good faith then, there’s no difference between your grace and me, but that I shall die today, and you tomorrow.”
Ninoy’s funeral saw two million mourners line the streets. It took 12 hours for Aquino’s hearse to reach Manila Memorial Park, after a Santo Domingo requiem Mass.
Thousands were glued to Radio Veritas, the only station that dared to cover the rites. Crowd forcibly lowered the Philippine flag to half-mast when Aquino’s coffin passed Rizal Park. “No umbrellas”, people chanted as rain fell. “Only Imelda uses an umbrella!” – a jeer at cronies who’d hold a parasol over the First Lady..
Ninoy’s murder transformed a miniscule opposition into to an unstoppable movement. Indeed, the blood of martyrs is the seed of heroes.
But the same question festers today : Who were the mastermind(s)?
The new book “Who Killed Senator Aquino : The Unsolved Assassination” (Universe Inc, New York, 2005) doesn’t answer that question beyond the soldiers.
But author Ramoncito Umali provides a novel insight. “”(I) was personally responsible for overseeing the washing and cleaning of Senator Aquino’s blood on the tarmac,” he says in the foreword.
Now a US resident, Umali managed the family-owned Loyal Maintenance & Janitorial Services. It serviced Manila International Airport.
Umali walks the reader under the airport ramps, one by one. Clipboard in hand, he checks his crews use hoses and a degreaser machine, to flush dirt, oil slicks – and “dried blood.”
Ramp Number 6 was where Aquino had been gunned down. That’s what the dictatorship claimed. How could the networks mistake Ramp 6 for Ramp 9?, Umali wondered.
But Ramp 6 “looked clean and normal...” Engineers, mechanics and cargo cars were being readied. Strange for a supposedly “major crime scene”. “Nothing to put on the report sheet” for Ramps 7 and 8.
At Ramp number 9 (I) “got the eerie feeling that something was wrong....There were at least three times that number of cargo cars needed for one flight....Then, (I) “saw a puddle of dried blood... surrounded by big plastic cones.” There were no off-limit signs, ropes or guards.
In his janitorial company uniform, Umali edged closer until “(I) was one foot away from the puddle of dried blood. It measured approximately two feet by three feet in diameter which had dried up from the heat of the sun...”
But there were not two victims? Aquino was shot once by Rolando Galman who, in turn, was repeatedly shot by guards. So, where was the second blood puddle?
“I was stunned and could not move a muscle”, Umali recalls. He records his conversation with another supervisor who walked by.
Umali: “Am I going blind?”
Supervisor: “Why do you ask?”
Umali : “I see only one puddle of dried blood on the tarmac”.
Supervisor: “No you are not going blind”.
Umali: “Then, whose blood are we looking at?”
Supervisor: “That’s the dried blood of Ninoy Aquino.”
Umali: “Okay. What happened to the other puddle of dried blood.”
Supervisor: “There’s no other puddle....Galman was already dead when he arrived at the tarmac.”
Umali: “God!”
Now a 37-year old Northwest Airlines pilot, Francis never met Aquino. Today, eight out of ten students barely remember Aquino. Nor do they understand what that puddle of blood on tarmac means. They too haven’t met Ninoy.
“The struggle of man against power,” novelist Milan Kundera writes, “is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” That’s why we must remember.
E-mail: juan_mercado@pa-cific.net.ph
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The September 2005 Priority Dates
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The priority dates for all family-based petitions, except that of the Third Preference (married children of U.S. citizens), moved forward by at least two weeks, as shown in the September 2005 monthly Visa Bulletin. Petitions by green card holders moved forward by at least 2-1/2 months.
However, visa numbers remained “unavailable” for both employment-based cases for professionals and skilled workers, and for “other” (unskilled) workers. This means that these two employment categories have reached their annual limits, and no adjustment of status or immigrant visa issuance will be made from July through September. With the start of the new fiscal year in October, we hope visas will become available again in these categories. The State Department said it is not possible to make any estimates regarding potential cutoff dates at this time.
Petitions by Citizens :
The priority date for the
First Preference Category, F-1 (unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens, over 21 years of age) moved forward by two weeks, from March 8, 1991 to March 22, 1991.
The
Third Preference Category F-3 (married sons and daughters of United States citizens) did not move, and remained at September 8, 1990. (Note: There is now a difference of 6-1/2 months in priority dates between unmarried and married sons and daughters of U.S. citizens.).
The
Fourth Preference, F-4 (brothers and sisters of United States citizens) moved forward by one month, from February 1, 1983 to
March 1, 1983.
Petitions by Green Card Holders :
The
Second Preference, F-2A (spouse and minor children below 21 years of age, of green card holders) of Family-Based Petitions moved forward by two months, from July 22, 2001 to September 22, 2001.
The
Second Preference, F-2B (unmarried sons and daughters, over 21 years of age, of green card holders), moved forward by 2-1/2 months, from January 22, 1996 to
April 1, 1996.
Petitions by Employers:
The
Third Preference (professionals and skilled workers) of Employment-Based Petitions (Labor Certification), remained unavailable. The
Third Preference (non-skilled workers),
also remained unavailable.
Each month, the Visa Office of the State Department publishes the priority dates for that particular month. This means that visas would now be available for persons
whosepriority dateis
earlier than the cut-off date listed below.
The
September 2005 priority dates for the
Philippines are as follows:
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FAMILY CATEGORY: |
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Priority Date: |
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First Preference |
Unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens (over 21 years of age)
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March 22, 1991
(In August 2005, the priority date was March 8, 1991.)
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Second Preference |
2A. Spouse and minor children
(below 21 years old) of green card holder
2B. Unmarried sons and daughters (over 21
years old) of green card holder |
September 22,
2001
(In August 2005, the priority date was July 22, 2001.)
April 1, 1996
(In August 2005, the priority date was January 22, 1996.)
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Third Preference |
Married sons and daughters of
U.S. Citizens |
September 8, 1990
(In August 2005, the priority date was the same.)
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Fourth Preference
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Brothers and sisters of U.S. Citizens
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March 1, 1983
(In August 2005, the priority date was February 1, 1983.)
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LABOR CERTIFICATION: |
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Third Preference |
Professional/Skilled Workers |
Unavailable
(In August 2005, the priority date was also unavailable.)
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Other Workers |
Non-Skilled workers |
Unavailable
(In August 2005, the priority date was also unavailable.)
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Michael J. Gurfinkel has been an attorney for over 24 years, and is an active member of the State Bar of California and New York, as well as the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Immigration Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has always excelled in school: Valedictorian in High School; Cum Laude at UCLA; and Law Degree Honors and academic scholar at Loyola Law School, which is one of the top law schools in California.
WEBSITE: www.gurfinkel.com
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