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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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Nelson Mayo, Jr. |
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Jersey City, NEW JERSEY --- A young Filipino artist’s dream of becoming a filmmaker was crushed when the car he was a passenger in swerved off Route 22 West and struck a utility pole in Hillside, Union County.
Nelson Mayo Jr., 24, of 140 Jewett Avenue., in Jersey City was killed in the crash the morning of October 26. His cousin, Racielle Ann Lipa, 22, of Union Street in Jersey City, who was driving the 1990 Mercedes, was injured and was rushed to the Beth Israel Hospital in Newark.
The Mercedes 190-B Lipa was driving rammed into a pole at around 10:17 a.m.. The crash brought down the pole and power lines, temporarily closing the highway’s westbound lanes and causing traffic back-ups for some three-and-a-half hours.
The accident happened near the Vauxhall exit of Route 22 West.
Lipa told police she had panicked when a tractor-trailer passed her vehicle and created turbulence.
“She said she was scared when she felt her car move, panicked, and swerved off the road and struck the pole,” Hillside Police Chief Robert Quinlan said.
“The accident remains under investigation,” Quinlan said. “Initially it appeared to be a hit-and-run, but that was incorrect. It appears the car left the roadway, swerved and hit a telephone pole, and wires came down,” the police chief continued.
“We believe the passenger was ejected,” said Quinlan.
Nelson Mayo Sr., 49, the father of the victim, said Lipa fetches his son every day since both of them work for the same company -- a photo editing firm in Union, New Jersey.
“He is like my bodyguard,” the elder Mayo said in trying to describe his closeness to his son and his son’s physique.
“Palagi ko siyang kasa-kasama (He is a constant companion,” Mayo Sr., a loan officer with Wall Street Financial Corp. told The Filipino Express.
“At saka pang-football ang katawan niya. Six-footer at halos 300 pounds (He has the body of a football player. He’s a six-footer and weighs almost 300 pounds),” he added.
“Kabe-birthday, ka-kasal lang (He just had his birthday, he had just gotten married),” Mayo Sr. lamented.
Mayo Jr. had just turned 24 last September 30, and had just gotten married to the former Jennifer Heise, 23 last July.
The young Mayo was into drawing, computer and filmmaking, said the father.
Mayo Jr. graduated from the New Jersey University-Jersey City with a degree in media arts.
He had worked and volunteered in several film projects, the most notable which was the New York filming of the Tom Cruise-starrer “Vanilla Sky”.
Family friend Anna Padua, 72, said she was shocked by the sad news of Mayo Jr. “Mabait na bata ‘yan, mababait na tao sila (He is a good man, they are good people),” she said.
Police is encouraging anyone who witnessed the crash to call the police traffic bureau at (973) 926-5800.
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Mohammed Khan |
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MANILA --- One of the four bombers who killed 52 people on London’s transport network in July secretly trained in the Philippines with leaders of the al Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) reported.
The BBC report said a suspect held in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings has alleged that Mohammed Sidique Khan went to Malaysia and the Philippines in 2001 to meet JI leaders.
According to the BBC, the suspect said Khan, 30, trained with leaders of the group in the Philippines. The report said Khan met an Islamic extremist in Pakistan in 2003 who has since confessed to supplying military equipment to al Qaeda.
The extremist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is a US citizen from a Pakistani family from New York who travelled to Pakistan a week after the September 11 attacks.
Several weeks before the BBC report came out, a congressman from Cebu already revealed about the London bombing brain’s visit to the Philipines.
“We obtained information that Khan was trying to see how much money was needed to keep the terrorist group’s activities from going smoothly,” Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas said.
Gullas said Khan was accompanied by Nasir Abbas, a senior JI member who is now helping the Indonesian police in the war on terrorism. He did not say when Khan made the visit.
Gullas made the disclosure after Indonesian authorities claimed that Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top, the suspected masterminds of the suicide attacks in Bali, Indonesia last Saturday, underwent training in the Philippines. The attacks left 26 dead and thousands injured.
“This latest information that we obtained as well as the Indonesian police’s new revelation, underline the fact that southern Philippines has become a convenient sanctuary and training ground for the JI and other regional terrorist groups,” Gullas, one of the principal sponsors of the anti-terrorism bill, said.
Indonesian police said Azahari, known as “Demolition Man,” honed his bomb-making skills in Mindanao in 1999.
Noordin, known as “Money Man”, developed his fund-raising and recruiting skills also in Mindanao.
The US National Counterterrorism Center has reported that JI is one of 11 foreign and indigenous terrorist groups operating in the Philippines.
Khan and three other young Britons detonated homemade bombs concealed in rucksacks on three underground trains and a bus in London on July 7.
Last September 1, Al Jazeera television aired a videotape of Khan who gave his reasons for attacking the civilian population.
“Your democratically elected governments continually perpetrate atrocities against my people all over the world. Your support makes you directly responsible. We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation,” Khan said in the tape.
The videotape also featured Ayman al-Zawahiri who is second in command in al Qaeda.
The BBC said intelligence officials also secretly filmed Khan speaking to a British-based terrorism suspect during a surveillance operation in 2004.
The report appears to contradict initial media suggestions that all the bombers were previously unknown to British security services.
A London police spokeswoman declined to comment. No one at the Home Office could be reached for comment.
The BBC said it had no independent corroboration that Khan was secretly filmed by intelligence services talking to the terror suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons. (MNS)
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Newark, NEW JERSEY --- The formal start of the trial of former police superintendent Michael Ray Aquino will ahve to wait until the middle of 2006.
This developed as the US District Court agreed to give government prosecutors two months to search for more evidence that they may use to strengthen the espionage charges slapped against Aquino.
Judge William H. Walls made the ruling during last week’s arraignment of Aquino after Newark District Attorney Christopher J. Christie sought for more time so he can search for more evidence.
Aquino’s lawyer, Mark A. Berman, however, told The Filipino Express shortly after the arraignment in this city that he is confident no new charges will be filed against the former Filipino police officer.
As evidences stand right now, Berman said, he expects Aquino to be acquitted of both charges.
“Michael Ray is very eager to have his day in court, and eventually get acquitted of the charges.”
Berman said Aquino denied having known documents given to him by Aragoncillo were classified. “There is even no physical marks to show the documents were classified.”
Judge Walls ordered Christie to present a status report on January 17 on the discovery obligations he availed of to further strengthen the government’s case against Aquino.
Only after these procedures were complied with will the court finally set the date of the trial, which according to Berman, would most likely be scheduled by the middle of next year.
Berman described Aquino as in high spirits during the entire proceedings of the arraignment.
Aquino’s wife, Fatima, was present with two relatives during the arraignment. The couple were not allowed to talk to each other during at the arraignment. She immediately left the building after the arraignment and used another door to avoid talking to reporters.
Aquino is presently detained at the Passaic County Jail.
He and Leandro Aragoncillo, a Filipino American then working for the FBI as an intelligence analyst at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, were arrested separately last month for allegedly stealing classified government information and passed them on to several persons in the Philippines.
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Jersey City, NEW JERSEY --- With President Bush and Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff announcing a tougher US immigration policy last week, several Filipino and Asian groups have banded together to support the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM bill.
The DREAM bill aims to legalize the status of non-citizen students who entered the United States before they were 16, have graduated from high school and are enrolled in college. It also would authorize states to offer them in-state tuition. The DREAM act was approved by the Senate judiciary committee two years ago.
Sponsored by Senators Orrin Hatch and Richard Durbin and co-sponsored by more than 45 senators, the DREAM Act was a reponse to the tragedy of young people who grew up in the U.S. and have graduated from high schools, but can’t go to college because they don’t have social security numbers.
Many of these students were brought to the United States as young children by their parents and have lived here most of their lives.
Undocumented students face deportation and can’t have their immigration status legalized. Their home states are required to charge them the higher out-of-state tuition rates, making college unaffordable in many cases.
Among those who expressed support for the DREAM bill during the immigration seminar held at the office of the Pan American Concerned Citizens Action Group (PACCAL), were the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), the National Federation of Filipino American Organizations (NaFFAA), the United Community Development Copr of New Jersey, the Asian American Legal Project of New Jersey and law students from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.
The Rutgers law students urged Filipinos to write letters to legislators expressing support for the DREAM bill.
“If enacted, DREAM 2003 would have a life-changing impact on students who qualify, dramatically increasing their average future earnings – and consequently the amount of taxes they would pay – while significantly reducing criminal justice and social services costs to taxpayers,” the National Immigration Law Center said.
Under the DREAM Act, most students with good moral character who came to the U.S. before they were 16 years old and at least five years before the date of the bill’s enactment would qualify for conditional permanent resident status upon acceptance to college, graduation from a U.S. high school or being awarded a GED in the U.S.
Students must not be involved in dangerous crimes, or not classified as security risk, to be able to win permanent residencies.
“It can provide in-state tuition for undocumented immigrations. We need help of the immigrant population to pass this law, “ said Hemant Wadwani, president of the United Community Development Copr of New Jersey.
The immigration clinic was sponsored by PACCAL and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF).
“The DREAM act will benefit the children of undocumented immigrants -- it will allow them to get good college education. It will allow them to have green cards, “ said lawyer J.T. Mallonga , an officer of the National Federation of Filipino American Organizations (NaFFAA) who gave legal advice to Filipino immigrants at the PACCAL office.
“The DREAM Act is not a government hand-out. It does not require any additional federal or state funding. It simply makes it legal for hard-working, determined young people of good moral character to go to college. The DREAM Act gives young people the possibility of pursuing their dreams where that possibility does not exist now,” said the Asian American Legal Project of New Jersey said.
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