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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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Miami, FLORIDA --- A former high-ranking Philippines police official living in Florida surrendered to the FBI to testify in a New Jersey spy case involving a former FBI analyst, another ex-police official and several Filipino politicians.
Cezar O. Mancao II, a former high-ranking officer of the Philippine National Police who fled to South Florida in 2001, was held Wednesday, April 19, to testify against ex-FBI analyst Leandro Aragoncillo and former colleague Michael Ray Aquino, both charged in a New Jersey espionage case involving presidential politics in the Philippines.
Mancao was released on Thursday, reportedly on a $575,000 bond, according to a Miami Herald report.
Aquino and Mancao were identified as having close ties with former PNP chief and now Senator Panfilo Lacson.
Philippine honorary Consul to Florida Lito Macatangay confirmed that Mancao was allowed to leave the Federal detention center in North Miami Beach.
“It’s been a gruelling experience. Pasensya ka na, ito na muna ang first and last statement ko sa media hanggang ma-resolve ang kaso. (I’m sorry. This will be my first and last statement to the media until my case is resolved.),” Macatangay quoted Mancao as saying.
Mancao added that his priority is to be with his family. He is currently living in Pembroke Pines, Florida.
He surrendered to the FBI on April 13.
FBI agents had initially tried to arrest Mancao -- a 44-year-old real estate broker from Coral Springs -- at the Pembroke Lakes Mall on April 12, but he was not there. He surrendered the next day to Miami FBI agents on a material-witness warrant.
Mancao had been living an affluent lifestyle in South Florida with his wife and family far removed from his past as a top police officer in the Philippines.
Federal prosecutors in Newark, N.J., want Mancao to testify on April 27 before the grand jury in the spy case against Aquino, and Aragoncillo. They are charged with conspiring to reveal U.S. government secrets and acting as unregistered foreign agents.
In 2004-05, they passed dozens of classified FBI documents about the Philippines to current and former officials in that country to influence the presidential election, according to a criminal complaint.
Mike Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office based in Newark, declined to comment about Mancao’s role. Mancao’s lawyer, Michael Schutt, also declined comment.
The New Jersey espionage case has attracted intense media interest in the Philippines, where Mancao and Aquino were close colleagues in the national police.
Both were implicated in the alleged ‘’rubout’’ of 11 members of a bank robbery gang more than a decade ago, The Manila Standard reported.
They also became suspects in the killing of publicist Buddy Dacer and his driver in late 2000, but both fled to the United States before Filipino authorities could formally charge them, the newspaper reported.
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MANILA --- The Supreme Court on Thursday, April 20, ruled that President Arroyo’s order banning Cabinet and military officials from testifying at legislative inquiries is unconstitutional.
The Court also ruled that Cabinet members could not invoke executive privilege to avoid appearing before Congress.
Malacañang said it would appeal the decision, which would open the floodgates to a series of “investigations in aid of legislation.”
The President’s allies see these largely as veiled attacks on her.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel called the ruling a “total victory” for the Senate.
The Court ruled that provisions of the President’s order, issued in September, were unconstitutional and that Cabinet members and other officials could still be summoned to “investigations in aid of legislation.”
Mrs. Arroyo imposed the order after National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales was subjected to an intense grilling in Congress, causing him to fall ill.
She charged that the opposition legislators were overstepping their powers and that they were using these investigations to harass public officials.
The President’s spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said the Palace respects the Court’s ruling and it called on opposition legislators “not to use their power to conduct inquiries as an avenue to harass public officials.”
The President’s political adviser, Michael Defensor, said the administration still believes that “definitely it will not allow members of the Cabinet to be pilloried, embarrassed and insulted in the guise of an investigation.”
Since last June, the opposition has been waging a campaign to oust Mrs. Arroyo, charging her with cheating to win in the May 2004 election.
The President has denied any wrongdoing and last year her allies in Congress defeated an impeachment complaint against her.
Since then, legislators have called investigations into the alleged election fraud and other supposed anomalies. Mrs. Arroyo has charged that these are attempts to covertly extend the impeachment complaint.
The Court voided Sections 2B and 3 of EO 464, which covers senior officials of executive departments who in the judgment of the department heads are covered by the executive privilege; generals and flag officers of the Armed Forces, police officers with rank of chief superintendent or higher; and senior National Security officials who in the judgment of the National Security Adviser are covered by the executive privilege.
“Since this is constitutional it does not impinge on the powers of Congress. Congress, however, must observe its own rules in the power of inquiry in aid of legislation while the rights of the witnesses should be respected,” Supreme Court spokesman Ismael Khan said.
He added: “If the inquiry is in aid of legislation, [government officials] must go with or without the consent of the President.”
The decision was written by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales.
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Stockton, CALIFORNIA --- A Filipino American was booked into jail Wednesday, April 19, on suspicion of murder following the discovery Tuesday of a missing Stockon woman’s body in a sport utility vehicle, police said.
Reynaldo Dungo, 35, from the Philippines, was taken into custody following interrogation by police.
Police said Dungo may have been the roommate or boyfriend of 30-year-old Lucinda Correia-Pina, who was found dead. Dungo’s last known address was at her residence.
Correia-Pina, mother of three children, was going through a divorce, the California-based KCRA 3 reported.
The county coroner reported no obvious signs of death for Correia-Pina. Toxicology tests are now being ordered.
Prior to going missing, Correia-Pina was last seen leaving her home about 2 a.m. Saturday. She was supposed to pick up her children on Easter, but never showed up.
Correia-Pina’s black Ford Expedition was found by police Tuesday morning parked on Don Avenue in north Stockton.
On Tuesday, April 18, a body was found in Correia-Pina’s car. On Wednesday, the police identified the body as that of Correia-Pina.
A resident in the area where the car was found said she remembers seeing the car parked in the spot as early as 7 a.m. Saturday.
The police described Dungo as Filipino, and about 5 feet 10 inches tall.
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New York City, NEW YORK --- Filipino advocates for immigrant rights in New York and New Jersey are set to join a huge nation-wide immigrant rally on May 1 dubbed as “A Day Without Immigrants”.
The May 1 is aimed at protesting anti-immigrant bills in the U.S. Congress and at pushing for more humane immigration reform.
Organizers have called the May 1 rally as the “Great American Boycott of 2006, which will be a day of “No Work, No School, No Sales, and No Buying.”
The May 1 rally is designed to let U.S. legislators and businesses feel the impact of immigrants on the U.S. economy.
The rallies will be held around symbols of economic trade in several areas, such as stock exchanges, anti-immigrant corporations, city halls, to express opposition to HR 4437 which aims to make felons out of undocumented immigrants.
“As Filipino workers and working families, we support this call because this is one dramatic way of proving the importance of immigrants to the US economy, and the economic power immigrant workers truly have,” said Kawal Ulanday of BAYAN USA in a statement.
“We see this as part of our ongoing call to demand respect, justice, and dignity from the broken US immigration system that is working against the people’s interests,” he added.
BAYAN USA member organizations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle are also expected to join the rallies in their cities.
For his part, Henry Soliveres, spokesman of the Justice for Immigrants Filipino Coalition, said what they are asking for is just and fair.
“We are asking for the right to live and work in the US without fear, and the right to be reunited our families without having to be subject to inhumane waiting periods,” said Soliveres.
The J4I is originally a local alliance of Filipino organizations and individuals in the New York and New Jersey area. Recently, it expanded to include Filipino organizations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
The May 1 rally is a follow-up to the April 10 rally which saw millions of immigrants march through 11 cities all over the US to pressure Congress to scrap HR 4437 and push the Congress to pass a bill that would provide undocumented immigrants with a path to legalization.
Filipino groups in the New York-New Jersey who will join the rally will converge in three different places before proceeding to the big rally at Union Square at 4:00 pm.
The converging points are in Queens, at 2 pm in front of Krystal’s Restaurant, corner 69th Street and Roosevelt Avenue; Jersey City, 2 pm in front of Jackie Robinson Statue in Journal Square; and in Manhattan, at 3 pm at the northeast corner of 5th Avenue and 14th Street.
Rally organizers are also urging the immigrant communities to wear white shirts on May 1 to express support for their campaign.
J4I’s demands include unconditional legalization for all undocumented persons, the scrapping of the bill criminalizing immigrants, and a more efficient and swifter processing system for family visas.
Soliveres explained in a statement that over 70 percent of all Filipinos who migrate to the US enter with family visas. Under the current visa backlog system, applicants from the Philippines have one of longest waiting periods for visa processing-- up to 25 years.
Members of the J4I Filipino coalition include Philippine Forum, NY Committee For Human Rights in the Philippines, Anakbayan-New York/New Jersey, Migrante International, Movement for a Free Philippines, Kinding Sindaw, Critical Filipino/Filipina Studies Collective, Sandiwa National Fil-Am Youth Organization, Habi-Arts, Anakbayan-Los Angeles, People’s Rights International Solidarity Movement (PRISM), Anakbayan-Seattle, Filipino Community Center (San Francisco), BABAE (San Francisco), League of Filipino Students (San Francisco).
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