|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
To tell us what you think about Filipino Express Online or to comment on the stories published here, E-mail us at Filexpress@aol.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WE WERE there. We are proud to know and to announce that the Filipino immigrant community was eloquently represented in the May Day rally dubbed as the Day Without Immigrants.
It gives us goose bumps when we saw the Philippine flag flutter proudly and take its place among the community of nations that was marching as one to fight for immigrant rights. It is indeed inspiring to see our kababayans linking arms with people from other cultures, very much a part of the sea of humanity crying for dignity and respect.
What has been happening the past couple weeks all over America is something that has not been seen since the 60s. The clamor of immigrants for Congress to scrap HR 4437 and to pass a bill that would provide a path to legalization is now being compared in terms of scope and intensity to the civil rights movement some 40 years ago. And we Filipinos are very much a part of it.
What warms the heart is the fact that our fellow Filipinos are slowly coming out of their shells, wishing to stand and be counted. They don’t want to be voiceless anymore. For many of them, it was the first time they ever participated in a political rally, but the knowledge that they are in the right has given them courage and hope.
It is good to know that Filipinos in the United States know how to fight, not just for elective positions, but for a cause. It is great to know that Filipinos has the audacity, not just to strut in a beauty pageant or in a parade, but to march in a show of solidarity for what they believe is just and fair.
Scrap HR 4437, which seeks to treat undocumented immigrants as criminals. No to deportation, yes to legalization. Speed up processing of family visas and shorten waiting time for family petitions. Provide more family-based visas. Provide a path through which undocumented immigrants can earn green cards and eventually, citizenship.
This is what our kababayans are fighting for. This what they were marching for last May 1.
To these courageous Filipinos in the US, we say: Mabuhay kayo!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEW YORK --- Perhaps no one could really understand why and how some people react to problems or setbacks in life except the person that’s affected by it. But whatever motivation that person has in reacting in a negative or positive way confirms that person’s beliefs and values.
Nowadays, it is not difficult to know who among our so-called community leaders have a positive mental attitude in their outlook. In much the same way, it is also a lot easier to pinpoint those who grumble peevishly about almost anything that affects their status and image.
This only shows how much these embittered people value their image. By all means and at all costs, they love to flaunt whatever power and influence they think they possess over anyone that cross their way. But by their conduct, they manifest their own weaknesses, which only make them a butt of jokes wherever they go.
A friend of mine once received a call from someone who questioned him about what his group didn’t like about the caller. My friend didn’t even know who the caller is, and how the caller got hold of his telephone number.
And here was the caller blubbering to him all the good things that the caller has done and continue to do for the community.
My friend was told by this caller, in no uncertain terms, that whatever impression he has of the caller is quite the opposite. That was the only purpose of the call: to let my friend know the status and image this person enjoys in the community. This is really a pathetic display of insecurity, if not outright arrogance.
This behavior is quite popularly known to us as an example of a fly sitting on an elephant’s tail. Don’t laugh now but that’s an observation of how some of our supposed leaders show themselves off – unconsciously or consciously -- to those who they consider as the lowly ones.
I recall someone as saying and acting as if that person was born here. That person was exhorting everyone to accept American values and beliefs for what they are; that we have to think and act as Americans do. But, then again, there’s that clear demonstration of an un-American gesture of what was said.
No matter what explanation was said later on, it only shows some people’s penchant for the American way regardless of how awkward a message was relayed and how it reached the raw nerve of some in the audience.
Perhaps we cannot really understand why some people embarrass themselves.
Just like in two occasions where someone made a five-minute fame of glory acting as if he or she was representing a big politician.
All that that person did was to read off a message from the event’s journal instead of an actual proclamation. This only shows that old habits never fade away.
As the famed Art Linkletter once said: “people are funny.” I share his observation, but whether or not the intent of some people is to call attention to themselves in doing what they do, I find no logic to it.
I can only think of pride and arrogance coming from their hearts. Yet, sometimes it is better to identify with these people, hold our judgment, and hope for a positive change to happen with them. We, ourselves, have our own weaknesses to improve on.
I also recall someone saying at an event or a meeting: “We are all professionals; we know what we ought to do.” It is an admission of strength and yet the way they have behaved themselves in the process – fighting like cats and dogs and bemoaning each other’s fault like juveniles do – is a weakness previously unnoticed.
Another interesting recollection of mine is someone’s “expertise” in inviting guests to a function to fill up two to three tables at a pop.
Tables were reserved and on the day of the event, only a few guests showed up. Also, it turned out that the guests had paid that person but the money was not remitted to the organizers immediately – the collection was paid in installments.
Yet today, that person staunchly defends status and image, which that person thinks is deserved. In all reality, however, that person is a social climber who never had the opportunity to enjoy the same glitter and attention while back in the homeland.
What do status and image do to a community leader? Perhaps, a lot; we can count the ways.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
At 64, The “Rock” still rolls
|
|
|
|
Chicago, ILLINOIS --- Corregidor is a tiny rocky island in the Philippines about 26 miles west of Manila. But it has become the geographical pair of Bataan after World War II. Just like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the first, and to date, the only targets of nuclear attacks.
For a brief period of time, Corregidor was the seat of the Philippine Commonwealth government under President Manuel L. Quezon and the headquarters of the Allied Southwest Pacific Command under its Supreme Commander General Douglas MacArthur shortly after Japan invaded the Philippines.
Today, Corregidor is a popular tourist destination, especially for the returning members of the Allied Forces and their families, taking a sentimental journey to what Americans called Fort Mills. Corregidor comes from the Spanish word, “corregir,” to correct. One story says ships entering Manila Bay had to stop and have their documents checked and corrected in the island called “Isla del Corregidor” (Island of Correction). Another tale is that the island was used as a penitentiary or correctional institution by the Spaniards, who called it “El Corregidor.”
“The Rock,” the Land of Promise
It was in this island fortress called “The Rock” on February 22, 1942 nearly two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor when MacArthur recommended to his Commander-in-Chief the equalization of Philippine Army pay scales with the United States Army in a “Radio RN-3” message to the US War Department.
His plea was approved by President Roosevelt on March 11, 1942 as the War Department sponsored a legislation introduced as S. 2387, which passed the Senate on March 30, 1942, and reported out favorably by the House Military Affairs Committee on May 7, 1942.
The US Congress, however, waited four years before it finally broke MacArthur’s promise to the Filipino soldiers, who were waiting for their “back pay,” when it inserted a rider on a legislation passed as the First Supplement Surplus Appropriations Rescission Act. P. L. 79-60 Stat. 14.
It provided that “...service in the organized military forces of the ... Commonwealth of the Philippines, while such forces were in the service of the Armed Forces of the United States ... shall not be deemed to have been active military, naval or air service for purposes of any law ... conferring rights, privileges or benefits... .”
After making the plea, Roosevelt directed MacArthur to leave Corregidor and proceed to Australia so he can organize an American offensive against Japanese Forces and fulfill MacArthur’s famous pledge --“I Shall Return.”
Quezon and his family left “The Rock” ahead of MacArthur on February 20, 1942 on a submarine. Before leaving, Quezon gave MacArthur his ring, saying, “When they find your body, I want them to know you fought for my country.”
Since no significant reinforcement could reach Bataan and Corregidor and the disease-ravaged, ammunition-short Filipinos and Americans could not be expected to hold out much longer, MacArthur and his family and his nucleus staff left Corregidor on a torpedo boat for Mindanao. MacArthur left behind Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright in command. From Mindanao, MacArthur flew to Australia.
From April 1942 to October 1944, MacArthur trained, organized, planned for, and led the southwest Pacific Command from New Guinea, New Britain, the Bismarcks, and Morotai to a successful landing in Leyte on October 20, 1944 that led to the defeat of the Japanese Forces in the Philippines.
When Bataan surrendered on April 9, 1942, the neighboring island of Corregidor was able to delay its surrender for 27 days on May 6 -- 64 years ago -- this year. The surrender day of “The Rock” is being commemorated by a Chicago-based Bagumbayan Association and Credit Union with a dinner dance fund-raiser on the eve of its anniversary, Friday, May 5, at the Lone Tree Manor at 7730 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Niles, Illinois.
Silent Prayer
Bagumbayan officials led by Lourdes M. Ceballos, Thelma T. Fuentes and Ban Gallardo explained that instead of commemorating the Fall of Corregidor with elaborate speeches extolling the valor and heroisms of Filipino, American and Allied soldiers who died in the hands of the Japanese in defense of the island fortress, they will be leading a few minutes of silent prayer before they proceed with the dinner and dance programs.
“We wanted to invite Filipino and American veterans to the membership and fund-raising campaign of our organization,” Ms. Ceballos said at the 44th anniversary of their organization and induction of officers. “But most of these veterans are now too old to step on their dancing shoes.”
“We will just drum up the commemoration of the event so that the heroism and bravery of the Filipino World War II veterans will not be forgotten,” Ceballos said, having in mind the pending bill in US Congress called “Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2005” as H.R. 302 IS and the US Senate as 146 IS, which will try to fulfill MacArthur’s recommendation of Filipino soldiers’ equalization pay with their American counterparts.
Interested parties to the dinner dance may call Ms. Fuentes at 847.677.1620; Mr. Gallardo at 773.227.8968; and Ms. Ceballos at 773.472.3650. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
“COMPARISONS”, it’s been said, “are odious.” But they can instruct. And the differences between the kings of Thailand and Nepal is startling -- and .relevant to Filipinos.
We’ve had leaders who strut as if they’re “kings”. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos always insisted on throne-like chairs at public functions. And today’s pretenders – elected and aspiring – posture as monarchs while claiming to be masa, “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me,” Macbeth muses in one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. .
Thailand and Nepal have constitutional monarchs. But similarity ends there.
On one hand is the world’s longest reigning monarch : King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. Born in the US in 1927, he came to the throne in 1946. He is the ninth king of the Chakri Dynasty, established in the 18th century.
“When King Bhumibol speaks, his people listen,” Asiaweek observed. “In an era when monarchies are on the wane, his pictures appear in every home.....( reflecting ) the enormous respect and affection the King has built up over five decades of working to improve his country...”
On the other hand is Nepal’s King Gyanendra. This tall, severe man, in daura-suruwal pants, returned in a “bizarre” way to the throne, in a Hindu kingdom that traditionally revered its monarchs as living gods.
Fewer people in Nepal listen when King Gyanendra speaks. People Power forced him to reinstate the parliament he abolished in 2002. A constituent assembly, which meet in three months, will consider a demand to abolish the monarchy. Once unthinkable proposals for establishing a republic are bandied about openly..
How does one explain this startling difference? Look at their differing lifestyles.
King Gyanendra has tenuous contact with Nepalese people. He is remote and his programs patchy. He clubbed an admittedly ineffectual democractic government to it’s knees but offered little change from infighting that saw 14 prime ministers in 14 years.
A brutal Maoist revolt, meanwhile, grew after peace talks flopped. ”His thinking that everything can be solved by guns is part of the problem,” says Shyam Shrestha, editor of Nepali weekly Mulyankan.. All power rests with the king. No decision or comment is made without his approval But that seems to be slipping away.
In contrast, the 18-year old King Bhumibol started his reign as a ceremonial figurehead. He had “no more power than it took to cut a ceremonial ribbon to open a new highway, Joseph Wright from University of Michigan points out in his book : “The Balancing Act”
But he poured out his time and talents in reaching the poor with programs and projects, even when Thai politicians, like Phibul Songkhran sought to undercut his reach.
The King “from his earliest days was never content to be the dignified stalking horse for a corrupt power elite,” Wright notes. He defined a new role for the monarchy by becoming a neutral and transparent bridge between elite and people.
Only in extreme circumstances does the King touch the levers of power today. “But when he does, the intervention is decisive,” Asiaweek notes.
As a United Nations officer stationed in Thailand for 17 years, we saw instances of this. In 1992, unelected prime minister Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon and rival Chamlong Srimuang knelt while he told them to stop the bloody fighting. They obeyed.
Earlier, he denounced summary executions of alleged drug addicts. He raised his voice against abuses of Muslim minorities. These were heeded. And Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra stepped down after the King called him in over the scandal sale of major telecom holdings to Singapore.
King Bhumibol rejected calls to intervene himself in the deadlock caused by the opposition’s bycott of snap elections called by Mr Thaksin. But he had uncharacteristically blunt words for the April 2 elections. “Having an election with only one candidate running is impossible. This is not a democracy.”
“The Thai elite cannot continue to rely on the 11th hour rescues that King Bhumibol has, in the past, provided,” Wright asserts. Potential for progress exists “provided the nation’s leaders can follow their sovereign’s lead and rise above self interest.”
That could have been written for Filipinos too. We’re ready to follow a sovereign who can rise above “self interest”. And that’s not Glo, Erap, Noli, Franklin, Joe, Ping or JoMa.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Creeping full dictatorship
|
|
|
|
|
SIGNS are growing aplenty that a fullblown dictatorship in the Philippines is in the making.
The absence of a stronger protest in the May l rallies in spite of the setbacks the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo suffered from Supreme Court decisions regarding Executive Order 464, otherwise known as the gag order, and police and military reactions to rallies and marches, was deemed due to wrong expectations on the part of the demonstrators and utmost preparations for the worst on the other side.
The various groups who took the May l Labor Day celebration as an occasion to urge the resignation of GMA from the presidency went out on the streets, their hearts brimming with pride that the Supreme Court justices has finally cleared the cobwebs from their minds, seen the light, begun to apply the laws to correct the illegalities the government has been siccing on critics of Malacanang.
They expected, wrongly, that the police and the military would apply the brakes on their oppression of demonstrators in observance of the Supreme Court rulings.
On the other hand, the police and the military had apparently gotten their orders to proceed as if there were no Supreme Court rulings and admonitions. In other words, be prepared for brutal assaults of the demonstrators.
They descended on the hapless crowds at all points of the Metro area and successfully kept them out of the immediate Malacanang grounds. And they encountered a milder masa. It could have been messier otherwise.
The next time around, the demonstrators would know better. And the police and the military would know what to expect. This week, as a further sign that GMA is determined to survive politically, there is an information clampdown inside Camps Crame and Aguinaldo.
Amidst protest from media, an order went out banning them and the use of their press passes in visiting areas other than the Defense Press Corps and Public Information Office premises. This means it is expected that more preparations are in store for keeping the public in the dark about what the police and the military will do to keep in power their Commander in Chief and his cohorts of generals.
The presumption has been advanced that GMA is now in effect held hostage by the generals who were linked in the election cheating operations that gave her the presidency. With a change of presidency, their careers would be over. And they would face trial and if convicted, jail time. Their insurance is that if GMA turned against them, they would sing their heads off and rat against their Commander in Chief.
In the case of the untainted military and police officials, they are held hostage against breaking the chain of command through their pensions. This has been demonstrated in the case of Gen. Francisco Gudani. After turning whistleblower and exposing the electoral cheating in Mindanao, he was charged in a court martial and his retirement pension withheld.
Solve their retirement problems and you’d probably have more Gen. Gudanis turning up.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You could lose your visa if you don’t pursue your case
|
|
|
|
DEAR Atty. Gurfinkel,
Years ago, I was petitioned by my U.S. citizen father. The priority date is current, but our family has not received any papers in connection with my visa.
During the many years that I was waiting for the visa, both my father and I moved, and we are no longer living at the addresses we were at when the petition was filed.
I am very anxious to go to America, and I am wondering what is going on with my case. Very truly yours,
F.T.
Dear F.T.,
An immigrant visa is like a seat on an airplane: although you may have made your “reservation” for the seat, if you do not claim that seat within a specific period of time, the airline will cancel your reservation, and give the seat to the next person in line. The same is true for immigrant visas: Once a visa is available to a person (i.e. priority date is current, and the Embassy or NVC has sent notification), the person must come forward and pursue his visa application. If he does not do so, the Embassy could take steps to terminate the visa application/registration. In that case, you lose your priority date, and have to start all over again. Meaning, a new petition will have to be filed on your behalf by your petitioner with a new priority date.
There are a number of ways by which a person could have his visa application/registration terminated:
1. An alien did not “apply” for his visa within one year after his immigration-related papers are mailed to him would not have made a timely application for a visa, and may be considered to have abandoned his application.
2. If the Consul asks the applicant, at the interview, to present additional evidence or documents to prove his eligibility for a visa, but he fails to submit that evidence within one year of the Consul’s request, the visa application/registration is considered to have been terminated. For example, a person may go to the U.S. Embassy for interview, and the Consul gives them a form (called an MNL-IV-22) requesting that, under Section 221(g), the person bring additional documents, such as a birth certificate, marriage contract, proof of family relationship, etc. If the person failed to submit that evidence requested by the Consul within one year, the visa application/registration could be cancelled.
3. The one-year period (in which to pursue the visa and/or provide additional evidence) stops if the alien, at any time within that one-year period, is able to convince the Consular Officer that the alien’s initial failure to appear for an interview “was beyond his or her control”. Even after that initial one-year period has ended, if the Applicant is able to persuade the Consular Officer within the next year that the failure to appear within the first year was beyond the Alien’s control, the Applicant could possibly be entitled to another appointment. (So, a person could, potentially, have up to two years to salvage their case.)
4. The Alien is required to provide the Embassy (or the National Visa Center) with the Alien’s current address, even if they move. Failure of a visa applicant to receive the Embassy’s Notice of Termination, due to the Alien’s change of address (of which the Embassy was not informed), will not be considered as a “reason beyond the applicant’s control” for not pursuing the visa application. In other words, if you change your address, and do not notify the Embassy of the new address, the Embassy will continue mailing papers to your old address. If you do not receive the Embassy’s notices (because you had moved and did not notify the Embassy), then it is your fault, and the Embassy will not consider that “beyond your control”, as it clearly was within your control to keep the Embassy advised of your current address. Also, a change of address form given to the post office is not enough. You need to notify the NVC or Embassy.
Therefore, if a person’s priority date on their petition has been current for a long time, but they (or their relatives in America) have not received anything from the Embassy and/or National Visa Center, they should consider taking steps to make sure that their visa application or petition is still “alive”. In such a case, people may wish to seek the advice or assistance of a reputable attorney, who can analyze the situation, find out the current status of the case, and, hopefully, salvage the situation before it’s too late. The Embassy will not hold your visa application indefinitely once your priority date becomes current. Either you are interested in the visa, or you are not. Remember, there are plenty of “stand by” passengers in line for visas, who are definitely interested in pursuing their own visa applications.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
