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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 PROTEST. Members of militant groups in New York and New Jersey picketed the US Navy Recruitment Center in Times Square, Manhattan on Friday, November 4 to condemn the reported rape of a Filipina by six US Marines in the Philippines. Similar indignation rallies were held simultaneously in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
Story on Page 2 of Hard-Copy edition.
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Olongapo City, PHILIPPINES --- As the mother of the Filipino rape victim tearfully pleaded for justice for her daughter, a Philippine official said that the six US Marines who had allegedly violated her had asked to be transferred to their Okinawa home base.
“Please help my daughter get justice,” the 45-year-old mother urged a Manila-based newspaper in a telephone interview to send this message to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The senior official of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the Americans had made “unofficial requests” for the transfer to their 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit of the III Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Zosimo Paredes, who is also executive director of the Presidential Commission on the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement, said the VFA does not prevent the accused in the rape case to leave the country.
He said the VFA has “no qualification” as to where exactly an accused can be held “so long as they don’t leave US custody.”
“There’s really nothing there that says ‘US custody in the Philippines’,” Paredes said. “Their only obligation is to make them available during judicial proceedings.”
Paredes also conceded that “we cannot compel” the US to keep the accused on Philippine soil so long as it complies with court orders for them to be presented on specific dates.
Captain Burrel Parmer, public information chief of the US Marine contingent that joined the recently concluded military exercises in the Philippines, said he was unaware of the reported request.
“The US Embassy still has custody of them and assured that it would make them available,” Parmer said.
On Tuesday, the six US Marines have been served subpoenas to attend the November 23 preliminary investigation on the charges filed against them.
The subpoena was served to the US Embassy that has custody of the six servicemen by the Olongapo City prosecutor’s office. It urged the accused to show up in court so they can present their side through a counter-affidavit.
The United States Embassy on Monday refused to heed the clamor for it to turn over to Philippine authorities the six US Marines. They remain in US custody.
“I want justice for her,” the mother said in the first family statement on the Nov. 1 incident at the sprawling Subic Bay Freeport -- the largest US naval base outside the continental United States until it was shut down in 1992.
“Binaboy nila ang pagkatao ng anak ko (They destroyed my daughter’s reputation),” she said.
She stressed that her 22-year-old daughter is a decent woman. “She is not a prostitute. They should not judge her character,” she said.
The mother, together with a son, also appeared in an interview with GMA television news, weeping and appealing that there should be no whitewash on the case and that Americans be jailed.
Many people, she said, were trying to extend help to her daughter but she said she was wary of some who might want to use her for their political interests.
“Ayaw kong pagpiyestahan nila ang anak ko (I don’t want this issue to turn into a circus),” she said.
“Don’t pity my daughter. Our fellow Filipinos should instead be angry at the Americans who abused her. This is not solely my daughter’s battle. It must be our people’s fight because those soldiers abused a Filipina.”
Overnight, she said the incident had changed her family and thrown her other four children into confusion and feelings of shame.
As the mother tried to help her daughter overcome the trauma, she was also helping her other children cope with the situation.
“They are either embarrassed [about] what happened or couldn’t accept it. I told them they shouldn’t feel shame for their sister because she herself did not like what happened to her. Often, I tell them that what their sister needs now is understanding and support,” she said.
The mother said her daughter had a full life ahead of her until she was abused.
The victim’s father, a former Navy officer -- not an Army soldier as identified in earlier reports -- and her mother, a government employee, gave her a college education.
The daughter has been receiving counseling from crisis management specialists of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. She had come to Subic to accompany a stepsister to meet her boyfriend. In the course of bar-hopping, she was taken to a van, where she was allegedly raped, according to accounts by freeport officials.
The incident, the mother said, has disrupted their lives and their food business in Zamboanga City but this is not important anymore.
“She is our priority now, nothing else,” the mother said.
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Ambassador Kristie Kenney |
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MANILA --- US President George W. Bush has nominated Kristie Kenney as ambassador to the Philippines, according to a posting on the US embassy’s website.
A career diplomat, Kenney would become the first female ambassador to the Philippines if the US Senate approves her nomination, replacing Francis Ricciardone, who left in May.
Kenney was most recently ambassador to Ecuador and previously served as senior advisor to the State Department’s Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
According to the website, Kenney, from the state of Virginia, has also served as economic counselor in Geneva, economic officer in Argentina and consular officer in Jamaica.
Kenney was reportedly US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s personal choice to head the American embassy in Manila.
The new ambassador is expected to arrive in Manila next month, four months after Washington last had a full-time ambassador in the Philippines.
Philippine Ambassador to Washington Albert del Rosario described Kenney as a “very good” diplomat.
“She was handpicked by the Secretary of State, so I presume she’s very good, and we look forward to working with her,” Del Rosario said.
Earlier, Ambassador Cameron Hume’s name was submitted but later withdrawn in June, after the Philippines already accepted the nomination.
Del Rosario said the delay in announcing the new US ambassador should not be taken as a sign of strained RP-US bilateral relations.
“The US could just have let a Deputy Chief of Mission run things there but it sent a distinguished ambassador, Darryl Johnson, to be interim ambassador, and soon we’ll have a new ambassador,” the Filipino diplomat said.
Kenney earlier served as director of the State Department Operations Center, was a member of the National Security Council staff at the White House, and was a political-military Officer of Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) Affairs.
Kenney holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve as executive secretary of the State Department, and will also be the first female US envoy to Manila.
She has served as economic counselor at the US mission in Geneva and economic officer at the American post in Argentina.
Del Rosario said Washington has already submitted Kenney’s name to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which in turned registered agreement to the choice.
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New York City, NEW YORK --- Students in 15 public schools in Mindanao in southern Philippines will soon be able to access the Internet, courtesy of eight Filipinos who ran 26.2 miles across the five boroughs of New York City in the New York City Marathon last Sunday. November 6.
The eight Filipino runners, some of whom are based in the United States and some who flew in from Manila, were among the record 37,516 participants, including eight other Filipinos, in this year’s ING New York City Marathon. But apart from putting their physical abilities to the test, they ran for a cause.
Companies and individuals who sponsored the runners have pledged a total of about $30,000. The money will go to Ayala Foundation’s Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Schools (GILAS) project in Mindanao. Setting up Internet connection in public schools will cost $2,000 each.
“It is an avenue for Filipinos abroad to help our country,” Dondi de Ocampo, an Atlanta-based information technology architect for IBM who was the first among the eight to cross the finish line, said. “The people behind GILAS saw the marathon as an opportunity to reach people who they can hardly reach otherwise.”
De Ocampo said that the GILAS project’s goals coincide with his own commitment to educate Filipinos about open source technology and eventually generate more jobs in the information technology sector. De Ocampo is the chairman of Vinta, LLC, a Philippine-based services company.
Building on previous efforts of the Department of Trade Industry of the Philippines, the GILAS project has been able to provide Internet connection to 686 public high schools in the Philippines. The target is to have 200 more schools gain access to the Internet by the end of the year.
Runners have traditionally promoted causes such as cancer research, youth development, and environmental conservation. This year, for example, 650 members of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Fred’s Team ran 842 miles over six months of training and 26.2 miles in the ING New York City Marathon for the benefit of cancer research.
De Ocampo’s older brother, Jayjay de Ocampo, also joined the marathon. The older de Ocampo is an executive in an investment holding company in Manila. He started getting involved in triathlon two and a half years ago, and as a result, was able to completely cut medication for diabetes.
The siblings almost did not make it to last Sunday’s marathon. A few days before the marathon, their father was diagnosed with coronary heart disease and had to undergo a heart bypass. But the success of the bypass and the quick recovery of their father made them decide to push through with plans to run in the marathon. That their family went through this crisis, Jayjay de Ocampo said, was actually a blessing in disguise.
“If it were not for the marathon, my father would not have come here,” Jayjay de Ocampo said. “He would not have had a check-up and would never have found out about his heart problem. The doctor said he was almost a dead man walking.”
Their father stayed at the hospital. But friends and other family members were in the stands near the finish line to give full support. So were those of the six other GILAS runners. Jovi Zalamea, a U.S.-based volunteer for the GILAS project, was also present.
The long distance that the participants had to run was aggravated by heat and humidity. The marathon started at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in Staten Island, went through Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and finally ended at Tavern on the Green in Central Park.
“The most difficult parts were the Queensboro Bridge and First Avenue because the terrace was steep and it was already far into the race,” said Rick Yupangco, one of the GILAS runners and a tri-athlete from Manila.
Jayjay de Ocampo said that at 30 kilometers, his stamina was down. Dondi de Ocampo said for a moment, he wanted to give up, but decided he would never quit on something he started. In the end, all eight GILAS runners were able to cross the finish line. They joined 635,000 others who have crossed the finish line of the New York City Marathon since it started in 1970.
The other GILAS runners were Binoy Padilla, a Manila lawyer; Javier Carballo, an investment banker in New York; Kristin Pecson, six-time New York City Marathon participant; Nona Torres, a tri-athlete; and Oona Mapua, silver medalist in gymnastics in the 1987 Southeast Asian Games.
Kenya’s Paul Tergat, the world marathon record holder, beat defending champion Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa, by a third of a second to win the men’s race. Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia was the winner of the women’s race. More than $600,000 was awarded to the race leaders of the 2005 ING New York City Marathon.
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Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA --- In what is touted as a landmark case in the US, a 20-year-old Filipino American in Downey, California has been arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and indicted for allegedly creating and selling an army of bots -- malicious computer programs that can be used to subvert networks and make them launching pads for distributed denial of service attacks or mass spamming.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the suspect has been identified as Jeanson James Ancheta, who allegedly uses several online aliases, including resili3nt and ResilienT.
US authorities claim Ancheta, through his bots, seized control of an estimated 400, 000 computers.
Ancheta is charged with two counts of conspiracy, two counts of attempted transmission of code to a protected computer, two counts of transmission of code to a government computer, five counts of accessing a protected computer to commit fraud and five counts of money laundering.
Count 17 of the indictment seeks the forfeiture of more than $60,000 in cash, a BMW automobile and computer equipment that the indictment alleges are the proceeds and instrumentalities of Ancheta’s illegal activity,” according to the statement from the US Attorney’s Office.
If indicted on all 17 federal charges, Ancheta faces a maximum of 50 years in prison.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Thom Mrozek, public affairs officer of the United States Attorney’s Office, Central District of California (Los Angeles), confirmed that Ancheta is a Filipino-American.
The Los Angeles Times on Nov. 4 stated that Ancheta was an immigrant from the Philippines.
“Yes, he is Filipino-American. However, there is some question as to his history. Some information indicates that he was born in the Philippines and later became a US citizen. However, other information contradicts that. I expect to have more information on this on Tuesday,” Mrozek said.
An aunt of Ancheta’s, Sharon Gregorio, confirmed that Ancheta is an immigrant from the Philippines.
“He came here in the United States when he was five years old. He is my deceased brother’s son and we basically are very close. It is very hard for me to be talking about him because he’s dear to me. I grew up with him, I took care of him when he was still little and it just breaks my heart how he has to go through this ordeal,” Gregorio said.
Gregorio, who is based in Los Angeles, said that Ancheta grew up in Santiago City, Isabela. His mother is also in the US.
Asked what the family’s reaction was to Ancheta’s arrest, Gregorio replied, “We’re still stunned. We can’t believe it. We are just devastated by what happened.”
Ancheta denied the charges on Monday, November 7, according to a report from Agence France-Presse.
This is the first prosecution of this kind in the US, according to the official statement from the US Attorney’s Office. Ancheta was allegedly motivated by profit, acting as a broker and offering control of botnets to individuals and companies for a fee. Ancheta supposedly offered his botnets for sale on the Internet relay chat channel #botz4sale.
A bot, which is short for robot, is a computer program that simulates human activity or acts as an agent for a user or another computer program.
A botnet, also known as a zombie army, is a network of computers that, unknown to its owners, have been taken over by a hacker and programmed to send transmissions to other computers over the Internet.
This is usually done by introducing a Trojan horse -- malicious code hidden inside another apparently harmless computer program -- into a system. The botmaster can control a botnet with just single command, for instance through an IRC site.
The indictment alleged that Ancheta modified the Trojan program known as rxbot.
“Ancheta caused the surreptitious installation of adware on approximately 400,000 compromised computers. Ancheta used the advertising affiliate proceeds he earned to pay for, among other things, the multiple servers used to conduct his schemes.
“Ancheta used programs powerful enough to cause the infection of computers at the Weapons Division of the United States Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, as well as computers belonging to the Defense Information Systems Agency, a component of the United States Department of Defense.
Both networks are used exclusively by the federal government in furtherance of national defense,” according to the official statement from the US Attorney’s Office.
A Web search indicated that resili3nt and irc.shk-security.net, the IRC network Ancheta allegedly set up, have been well known in the online community for years, including sites devoted to IRC and cracking.
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