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For the past 20 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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IT WASN’T too long ago when the name of then-President Joseph Estrada was synonymous with graft and corruption and moral bankruptcy and then-Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was widely considered as the nation’s hope toward economic and moral recovery.
Just five years later and the roles have been reversed: in the public eye, Arroyo has become the epitome of corruption and lack of moral scruples.
Of course, Estrada has yet to fully rehabilitate his image from the accusations that he pocketed money from an illegal numbers game and from commissions from government contract. But public perception of him tend to be a lot kinder than that of Arroyo.
Through all these, President Arroyo has only herself to blame.
First, she made her credibility dip to unimaginable depths. She said in 2002 that she won’t run for president in the 2004 polls only to reverse herself one year later. Then last year, amid allegations that she connived with an election official to rig the elections, she refused to come clean.
What made the situation worse was her efforts to block attempts to investigate the allegations of poll fraud. First, she orchestrated efforts by her subalterns in the House to block the impeachment against her. Then she issued an Executive Order prohibiting military and Cabinet officials from testifying in Senate probes.
But to many, her worst move was to declare a state of emergency in February, which many legal experts say has no basis and was actually a de facto martial law. It was the greatest sin any post-martial law president can commit -- throwing the country back to the days when basic civil liberties and democratic rights are curtailed.
In 2001, we thought Estrada was leading us back to a martial law regime and Arroyo was our hope against it. We never thought it would be Arroyo who would actually plunge us into an authoritarian state without even declaring martial law.
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NEW YORK --- For quite some time now, a nagging question has been shadowing the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI). That question is about a supposed $5,000 donation to Gawad Kalinga (GK), which apparently, immediate past president Nimia Lacebal has promised to do before her term ended.
This could have been resolved between the parties involved through earnest mediation and mutual understanding, in the same way some people decide to give to the needy. They believe that they do not have “to announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.”
In other words, acts of righteousness before men need not be seen by them.
To make their good deeds known to the community is similar to how some people, out of their selfish motivation, write checks or pull out hundred of bills from their pockets to give to charity. In their mind, however, they just want to be seen and heard as the biggest contributor and the first in a list of benefactors.
You may describe such behavior as mere lip service but I simply consider such conduct as false piety.
If we analyze and think about this supposed donation, perhaps one may conclude that behind this sustained pressure to PIDCI lurks a pompous motive of settling scores driven by political objective at the expense of a noble cause.
I have nothing against GK; I believe in its work and I do not dispute its goals to transform poor people from despair, hunger and thirst for righteousness into hope and hope into a new beginning.
However, to drag GK into a political controversy and use its good name as a means to earn brownie points is uncalled for and uncomforting. It is a disservice to the organization’s founders, donors and volunteers who commit themselves to work unpretentiously and tirelessly to advance the cause of what they believe in.
Gawad Kalinga should not be used as a reason to sow hate and discord but to encourage love, peace, and joy among people. As a proverb says, “there is deceit in the hearts of those who plot evil, but joy for those who promote peace.”
When some people cry foul over PIDCI’s failure to remit its supposed donation, invoke justice and at the same time wish for some unfortunate event to happen to PIDCI, they are like dogs crying wolf or people shedding crocodile tears.
As a public benefit corporation, PIDCI is bound by laws that not only define its fiduciary responsibility but also hold its board members accountable for their actions. It is not that easy for PIDCI to release its funds to a charity that has not been directed or authorized by a donor.
In this case, there is no specific donor that can be identified to admit or confirm instructions that direct PIDCI to donate $5,000 to GK. The last I know, any funds raised was intended to commemorate Philippine independence and not for a charitable cause.
Even assuming, for argument’s sake, that PIDCI has contributed to charity in the past, it does not follow that they can do it again. A mistake cannot be corrected by another mistake especially at a time when all eyes are focused on the acts and omissions of this year’s administration. A perceived infraction of a law may just encourage some folks to take PIDCI again to court.
As far as I know, Gawad Kalinga is not insisting for an immediate remittance of a supposed PIDCI donation. For all we know, it may not even be aware of such a donation. GK is anchored on love and justice for the poor.
And as it believes in Jesus Christ, it accepts that “love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
If GK can wait, why then are some people pressing PIDCI to pay up? Is there some expectation of their names embossed in a certificate or a plaque honoring their bequest? Or a GK village’s name for their sake?
If this was the intent, it is now clear to me. It is false piety.
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Missing piece of Dacer’s murder found
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Chicago, ILLINOIS --- When former Philippine police superintendent Michael Ray Aquino was arrested last year, I felt that the arrest of Cesar Mancao II, Aquino’s colleague in the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) of the Philippine National Police under General now Sen. Panfilo Lacson, would not be far behind.
As gleaned from the voluminous court records of the case I gathered from Aquino’s case on file at the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, it was very clear that the computer, either a desktop or a laptop, confiscated by either the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the US Marshals turned up as a treasure trove of information on Aquino and his friends.
When I gazed upon the personal information sheet of Aquino that was filed in court, it was very plain to see that all the U.S. Attorney did was to copy-and-paste or download and print what appeared to be a personal resume that Aquino stored in his computer. The prosecutor did not really need to conduct a thorough investigation on the personal background of Aquino shortly after Aquino’s arrest because all the information there is to know about Aquino were preserved in his hard drive and perhaps floppy disks, CDs and DVDs.
That’s why I was wondering why it was only during the Holy Week that the FBI was able to arrest Mancao. I asked myself, “What took the FBI so long to bag Mancao?”
Arrest Due to Immigration Violation
Like Aquino, Mancao is being arrested for violating his immigration status.
If Mancao puts up a spirited defense, it will take sometime before he could be reunited with Aquino in the Passaic County Jail in New Jersey.
Otherwise, Aquino and Mancao are going to have a reunion very soon.
It is possible that Mancao must have been “copy-furnished” with classified information that was supplied to Aquino and the three Philippine public officials by FBI intelligence analyst Leandro Aragoncillo.
Mancao will likely have to come up with corroborating statements to fortify New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s charges of espionage against Aquino and Aragoncillo.
If Mancao cooperates with the prosecutors and he turns out to be “clean,” meaning there are no charges that can be filed against him, then, Mancao will soon be likely deported to the Philippines, where he is being awaited with open arms by the National Bureau of Investigation. The NBI was gingerly building up a double murder case against him and Aquino until the two fled and sought a safe haven in the United States in 2001.
Did not leave it to the pro
Instead of leaving the matter to the “pro” – that is, an immigration lawyer – Aragoncillo made the mistake of inquiring on the status of Aquino when Aquino was arrested for immigration violation by the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents – a blunder that would blow wide open his cover.
It did not only cost his illustrious career in the US Marines and his stints in the FBI, Aragoncillo’s undoing led the FBI to conduct a discreet investigation of his activities as the FBI trained a surveillance camera in his FBI office and conducted an audit of his use of the FBI computer assigned to him after “lawyering” for his friend (Aquino).
The FBI later found out that Aragoncillo was transmitting classified and confidential information to Aquino and former Philippine President Joseph Estrada, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and former Speaker now Congressman Arnulfo Fuentebella that turned out to be embarrassing to the US government.
If Aragoncillo cops a plea of guilty and volunteers to testify against Aquino and the three former and current Philippine government officials during trial, Aragoncillo is likely to serve a lesser number of prison term while Aquino could stay much longer and will have to pay bigger restitution.
GMA’s death penalty abolition a blessing?
But if the Philippine government can strike a deal with the US government, Aquino will likely be extradited (actually deported) much sooner. The recent pronouncement of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo abolishing the death penalty during her watch should be an argument less for Aquino to fight off his extradition (deportation).
If Aquino, like Mancao, will be convicted of double murder of Dacer and Corbito, he is supposed to face death penalty in the Philippines. But now that the issue of death penalty is out of the way, the prosecution of the double murder should start in earnest for Aquino and Mancao in the Philippines.
And this should be welcome news for the relatives and friends of Dacer and Corbito, especially if Aquino and Mancao will corroborate the affidavit of their fellow Philippine Police Superintendent Glenn Dumlao that the murder of Dacer and Corbito stage-managed by Aquino had the blessings of their former boss, General-turned Senator Lacson and Malacanang.
And Philippine authorities should now secure a video-tape testimony of Dumlao and other witnesses to his testimony. His testimony should be preserved in case Dumlao’s enrollment into the Witness Protection Program will not be safe.
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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“DEMOCRACY sometimes seems the art of running a circus from the monkey cage,” editor H.L. Mencken once wrote.
From his gilded detention cage, ex-president Joseph Estrada signaled, once again, that he’s willing to run the circus that is today’s Malacañang. How? Like the honky-tonk bar that his soused “midnight cabinet” caroused in from June 1998 to January 2001?
This time, he pledges to lead a squabbling, tainted opposition in a victorious snap election. In the process, he’d shuck off those plunder charges handcuffs.
Ask and you will receive Estrada as leader, says spokesman Didagen Dilangalen. “People power would be the best way” to his re-enthronement. He’s still the “legitimate head of state,” Dilangalen adds without blinking. In a snap election, Estrada would thrash Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Perhaps so. But a snap election between Arroyo and Estrada offers a choice between Barabbas and Barabbas. It’d short-circuit the Constitution. Snap elections are held only when the presidency and vice presidency are vacant.
That’s not the case here. Numero Uno [Number One] and Numero Dos [Number Two] cling fiercely to position. President Arroyo used her eroding Visayas clout to neutralize antipathy in Manila and Luzon. Noli de Castro, meanwhile, tries to look presidential.
Estrada, meanwhile, welcomed April surveys that showed six in 10 Filipinos wanted the President to quit. When 2004 surveys tracked the President rapidly closing on Fernando Poe, Estrada denounced them as rigged.
Like Richard Nixon, Estrada pinned his hopes for executive pardon on a friendly chief executive. “That a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, / Or what’s a heaven for?”
The opposition, communists and party-list comrades failed to uncork people power. From Camp Capinpin in Tanay town, outside Manila, Estrada urged people to rise. “We’re not getting anywhere with these rallies,” the hard-nosed pragmatist Rep. Ronald Zamora told squabbling opposition colleagues.
Does Estrada think people power will spring him from the slammer before the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court decides his case? That’s delusion. The surveys found a majority thumbed down a rerun of people power, much less a military coup. “The worst deluded are the self-deceived,” Christian Bovee writes.
For five years, Estrada sulked in detention, just as Achilles did in his dusty tent in Troy. The country meanwhile moved on. “Time flies and does not return,” says an old Latin axiom.
The question has changed to: How long can President Arroyo hold on? Until July when, by Speaker Jose de Venecia’s reckoning, the ongoing farcical “people’s initiative” embeds a new Charter, despite its patent constitutional flaws?
Those who’d revise the Constitution can’t tell you what “people’s initiative” will cobble. But all concur that the Transitory Provisions ensure that the President, along with elected officials, would coast, without elections, to 2010.
“Is there anything new under the sun?” Ecclesiastes wearily asks. Today’s “people’s initiative” recycles former president Fidel Ramos’ “Pirma” [Signature] campaign to allow reelection.
The Transitory Provisions shut out Estrada. His term petered out in 2004. He is an “ex.” Period. Those presidential wristbands are irrelevant.
Like lost time, missed opportunity never returns. At his inaugural, Estrada perorated, in cadenced prose ghost-written by Teodoro Locsin Jr., his flubbed chance: “This time, things will be different. What wealth will be generated will be equitably shared. What sacrifices are demanded will be evenly carried. This much I promise: for every sacrifice you carry, I will carry twice the weight to make freedom more meaningful.”
“My promises are made to be fulfilled in a working day,” he added. “They are hopes of ordinary Filipinos like myself... The common people have waited long enough for their day to come.
“That day is here. Now, power is with the people. One of their own has made it.”
He never made it. Instead, he failed to deliver. “Between 1997 and 2000, overall poverty increased from 25.1 percent to 27.5 percent,” the Philippine Human Development Report notes. “There were an estimated 3.3 million more poor Filipinos in 2000 than there were in 1997.”
Worse, “5K government” dominated: “kamag-anak” [relatives], “kaibigan” [friends], “kaklase” [classmates], “kumpadre” [bosom buddy] -- and “kabit” [mistresses]. Dante Ang, Jaime Dichavez, Yolanda Ricaforte, Cecilia de Castro were his regime’s version of Ms Arroyo’s Joc-Joc Bolante, Virgilio Garcillano et al. They skipped town without leaving forwarding addresses.
Barely a third into its six-year term, a drunken corrupt-to-the-core Estrada regime was booted out by People Power II. He became the first Philippine president to be impeached.
The “Wowowee” tragedy, however, showed that show biz remains the opiate for many Filipinos. This is a nation where half of those between seven and 21 years don’t read even comics. “Will stardust from a movie icon blind an impoverished half-educated electorate and enable (him) to crawl back to power?” the Cebu Daily News asked.
Estrada II would inflict more of the same pummeling. It would prove our critics right: we, Filipinos, are gluttons for punishment.
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Mayuga Report turns into a circus
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THE way the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is handling the infamous Mayuga Report issue, it has become the ultimate example of barefaced prevarication.
The GMA administration is turning its butt on anybody who dares to question the highly questionable report and mockingly declaring, “Kiss my ass!”
Defenders of the report has been hurling outright insults in effect to the Senate, which is currently investigating the subject matter of the Mayuga Report, namely, the electoral fraud allegedly perpetrated by certain generals of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to enable Arroyo to score a questionable victory in the last presidential election. The evidence was in the wiretapped records of the conversation between GMA and Commissioner of Elections Victorino Garcillano.
In the wiretapping tapes, three generals were specifically mentioned as having been involved in the commission of the alleged electoral fraud. A fourth military officer, Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani of the Philippine Marines, was dragged by the government into the case. Gen. Gudani was on the scene of the fraud. But his conscience bothered him, so he turned whistleblower.
For this, he was charged with violating Executive Order 464, the infamous gag order of GMA, forbidding anybody of the executive department fom testifying in Congress without her permission. EO 464 was reportedly signed at the same time that Gudani was starting to testify in the Senate. His inclusion in the Mayuga investigation was done obviously to confuse the issue.
The other generals were Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Army chief (reportedly the next Chief of Staff shortly to succeed Gen. Senga, who has shown signs of vaccilating away from GMA); Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, Southern Command chief; and Lt. Gen. (very recently retired) Roy Kyamko, former Southcom chief.
After a highly suspicious delay, Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga, Navy chief and former Inspector General, finished his investigation last December and submitted his report to GMA. Then followed an unreasonable period of silence.
But restiveness in the military especially among the ranks of the marines escalated. The latter on two occasions last February attempted to withdraw support from GMA and staged a protest in their Fort Bonifacio headquarters. In both instances, they protested the AFP inaction on the cases of the three generals and other issues.
Then the GMA ball team engaged in a delaying tactic, also known as ball-passing, also known as a circus. GMA passed the task of announcing the Mayuga report to Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz. Delay. Cruz passed the ball to Chief of Staff Senga. More delay. Senga passed it back to Mayuga. Additional delay. The Senate began to ask for a copy of the report.
Finally, the hen laid an egg. Only it does not look like a normal egg. It is shaped like an egg. But it was full of stitches. It looked like an egg that underwent a series of surgeries. Some scalpels and surgical threads were still sticking out.
Reportedly, the original report consisted of 15 pages. A total of 70 witnesses were selectively interviewed. Many depositions were reportedly deleted as irrelevant. Finally, the 15 pages were reportedly compressed into two pages.
“Kailangan lumabas ang report. Utos in Pangulo. Kahit ano pang report iyan.”
Reportedly, the report in effect declared the three generals “absuelto”. Walang kasalanan. Because the report simply did not touch on their participation in the election. Even then, Senator Rodolfo Biazon, former marine general and former chief of staff, panel chairman of the Senate investigating committee, is still awaiting for his copy of the report.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and concerned military officials announced: The subject matter of the Mayuga report is “classified”; it involves national security.
Senator Biazon scratched his graying close- cropped hair. “What do you mean it involves national security? It involves wrongdoing. Malfeasance. Misfeasance. Criminal acts. Bakit ganoon? Close to two terms in the Senate. Fomer chief of staff. Former Phillippine marines chief. He does not know the difference between a common criminal act and something involving national security?
Now the Senate is bringing the matter before the Supreme Court. What Supreme Court?
Adding a final insult to more insults. Maj. Gen. Angel Honrado, AFP spokesman, declared, “We have not monitored any military personnel expressing disagreement to the report.” When Mayuga announced the abbreviated report, he did it in a closed meeting at a government television studio, where no member of media could infiltrate.
The entire defense establishment, protected by water canon, shields, truncheons and even firearms, is deathly afraid to let in even a tiny ray of light called truth.
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Fixed and suspicious marriages
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EVERYONE knows that one of the fastest and easiest ways to get a green card is through a bona fide, good faith (love) marriage to a U.S. citizen.
However, one of the worst things that a person can do is enter into a fixed marriage for purposes of obtaining immigration benefits. This is because if the person is ever caught, it results in a lifetime ban, meaning no petition will ever be approved for them in the future, and they cannot come to America even if there is a relative or employer who could petition them.
The following are some points and immigration laws relating to marriage:- The central question is whether the bride and groom “intended to establish a life together at the time they were married”. Some of the evidence which could demonstrate their “intent to establish a life together” could include the beneficiary being listed on the petitioner’s insurance policies, property deeds, property leases, income tax forms, or bank accounts. In other words, they have joint documents to show their bonafide relationship.
- The focus of any marriage interview is for the officer to make sure that the marriage is “bona fide” and not whether it is “viable” (viable means the probability of the parties remaining married for a long time). As stated in the USCIS’s Field Manual “USCIS is not in the business of determining (or even speculating about) viability. Although the petitioner and the beneficiary may not appear to have a “viable” marriage, the petition may be approved if the marriage is valid and was not entered into solely for immigration purposes.” Therefore, even if a marriage is “on the rocks”, it is still possible (but very uphill), for the case to be approved.
- There are a number of things which could cause an immigration officer to become suspicious, investigate the case, visit the couple’s house in the early morning, or interview landlords and neighbors, just to make sure it is a real marriage:
- Large age difference between the couple
- Couple does not speak each other’s language
- Vast difference in cultural and ethnic background
- Family and/or friends are unaware that the couple got married
- The alien married immediately after being placed in removal/deportation proceedings
- Discrepancies or differences in answers to questions for which a husband and wife should have common knowledge (i.e. where did you first meet? where did your husband propose? what did you have for dinner last night? how many telephones in your house? where are the phones located? etc.).
There are also situations where a couple is truly in love, but for one reason or another, the immigration officer become suspicious about the relationship, and is convinced that the marriage is fixed. Loving couples find that their case is being denied, even though they are deeply in love.
For one reason or another, one or both of them may have been scared, confused, or did not fully understand the questions being asked by the officer at the interview.
As a result, if they were interviewed separately, they may have given different or inconsistent answers, which could have led the officer to suspect that it was a fixed marriage. In fact, one of my clients, who was featured on my television show Citizen Pinoy, was originally suspected of being in a fixed marriage, because her American citizen husband was much older, and of a different race.
They were also confused by some of the questions, and she was put under investigation. After that interview (which she tried to handle on her own), she came to our office for help, and we were able to prove that it was a good faith marriage. Now, this loving couple has been married for many years, and she is already a citizen. But my point here is, this was a good faith marriage, that almost got denied!
That is why it is important that a loving couple consider retaining a reputable attorney for their immigration case. While having an attorney does not absolutely “guarantee” success, the attorney can still prepare the couple for the interview, focus on potential issues, and assist them in proving to the immigration officer that this is truly a love marriage, so that they don’t face risks of getting their case being denied as a “fixed marriage,” even though it is really for love.
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