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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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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 JERSEY --- The U.S. Senate on Thursday, May 18, adopted by unanimous vote an amendment to grant immigrant status to children of Filipino American World War ll veterans.
The amendment, introduced by Democratic Senators Daniel Akaka and Dan Inouye of Hawaii, would allow sons and daughters of naturalized Filipino World War II Veterans to obtain a family-sponsored immigrant visa without being subject to direct numerical limitations.
Akaka read a 20-minute statement on the Senate floor. He said: “The Akaka-Inouye amendment would allow the sons and daughters of naturalized Filipino World War II Veterans to obtain a family-sponsored immigrant visa without being subject to direct numerical limitations.
“This would rectify a long standing unjust gap in our nation’s immigration policy.”
Eric Lachica, executive director of American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, lauded the Senate approval, saying that Filipino veterans served the U.S. Army and for that, they deserve to be treated as full Americans.
Lachica said the Senate approval of the amendment would serve to provide Filipino war veterans with a partial measure of U.S. veterans’ recognition that they were unjustly denied since 1946.
He, however, said most Filipino veterans who became US citizens have became estranged from their families.
They had to suffer from separation from their families, as their children were not automatically granted US citizenship.
“Even if their children’s immigration petition have been approved, they still have to wait for a dozen years,” Lachica said.
Many Filipinos with parents or brothers and sisters who are U.S. citizens wait up to more than 25 years to get a green card.
Filipino advocacy groups in the U.S. are clamoring for a comprehensive immigration reform that would lead to a shorter waiting time for the granting of immigrant visas.
The American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, Inc. of Virginia thanked Senator Akaka and Inouye for introducing the bill and the amendment.
“On behalf of 4,000 members of our national advocacy organization, we highly commend your leadership in introducing (the Senate amendment) to grant special immigrant status to children of Filipino WWII veterans for the purpose of family reunification, the coalition said in a statement.
“It is high time for our elderly Filipino American heroes to have their children join them in their twilight years in the U.S.A.,” it said.
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ON TOP OF THE WORLD. Mt. Everest summit conquerors Leo Oracion (top) at the summit of Mt. Everest, and Erwin Emata (above) in a file photo while in training in Mount Aylmer in New Zealand.
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MT. EVEREST --- Triumph and deep emotion marked the announcement on Wednesday, May 17 of triathlete Leo Oracion that he had made it to the summit of Mt. Everest.
Barely 14 hours later, another Filipino member of the same team, Erwin “Pastour” became the second Filipino to reach the world’s highest mountain peak.
“The Philippine eagle has landed,” was the radio message of the first Filipino to set foot on the roof of the world, according to Regie Pablo, team leader of the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition (FPMEE), of which Oracion is a member.
The 32-year-old Oracion, from Cebu City, reached the summit at 3:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. Philippine time), Pablo said, citing information relayed in a phone call by the FPMEE’s Arturo Valdez, who is at the Everest Base Camp (5,400 meters or 17,700 feet).
The adventure racer and lead climber for the FPMEE would have reached the peak earlier in the day but was reportedly bogged down by “traffic” on the trail.
He was among a 30-member team composed of Swiss, Korean and American mountaineers as well as Sherpas, indigenous people who serve as guides and climbing partners.
The team was slowed down considerably upon reaching the Hillary Step, a 40-foot wall of rock around an hour to the summit.
“This is a big accomplishment for a country at sea level,” Pablo said just after he got the news.
“We have no experience with alpine conditions; this is alien to us. It’s like putting a Filipino on the moon. We also showed the other expeditions our positive values and outlook on things,” he said.
Pablo also said Oracion’s feat would put the Philippines on the international mountaineering map: “It’s a boost to the reputation of Filipinos in the mountaineering world. I think that in a very strong way we showed them what we are made of. All around the world, people will look at Filipinos with higher esteem.” Emata, a native of Davao, summitted Everest at 5:34 a.m. (7:34 a.m. in Manila).
Arturo Valdez, team leader of the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition, confirmed that Emata set foot on the peak of 8,848-meter mountain early Thursday morning.
“We we’re stunned [and] excited,” Valdez said.
Emata followed Oracion using the popular South Col route, the same trail climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
Oracion has returned to the mountain’s Camp 4 and on his way to Base Camp to meet Valdez and the rest of the team.
Aided by good weather, Oracion reached the summit ahead of Romi Garduce, the Filipino adventurer who first set out in April to reach the top of the world on his own.
Pablo said the team split up Oracion and Emata as part of its “strategy” -- “Just in case the weather turns bad, there is a climber on standby.”
From the team’s account, Oracion started off from Camp 4, the final way station at the rarefied air of 26,000 feet, on Tuesday night, and had been climbing since.
He had to fight off exhaustion, the thin air, and the cold (sometimes dropping to as low as -60 degrees Celsius) to reach the peak.
Oracion brought with him an oxygen tank, water and some personal effects, including a crayon drawing of the Philippine flag by his 5-year-old daughter.
In an interview aired over ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp., a principal sponsor of Oracion’s climb, an emotional Valdez said a Filipino on top of Everest was for him “a dream come true.”
“We showed the whole world that if we [get] our act together we can accomplish anything. Indeed, the Filipino can do it,” Valdez said.
Next year, the whole FPMEE is scheduled to climb Everest (29,028 feet, or 8,848 meters) through the North and South routes.
Team members Pablo, Karina Davondon, Larry Honoridez, Janet Belarmino and Noelle Wenceslao were at the National Sports Grille in Greenbelt, Makati City, for a press conference when they heard the news of Oracion’s feat.
When Pablo heard confirmation from Valdez, the team members erupted into shouts of joy. Shortly afterward, they gathered to say a quick prayer for the safety of Oracion on his descent and of Emata on his own assault.
Oracion and Emata arrived at the Everest Base Camp on April 15. By then, rival climber Romi Garduce had been preparing for his own attempt to become the first Filipino to plant the national flag at the summit.
Garduce, 37, who had arrived at the Base Camp late in March, is due to reach the summit also on Thursday.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Bush on Monday reiterated his call to Congress to pass a bill that would provide for a guest worker program and a path to legalization to undocumented immigrants.
He also said he will dispatch 6,000 National Guard troops starting next month to help secure the porous U.S.-Mexican border and urged a divided Congress to find “a rational middle ground” on immigration.
In a rare prime-time speech from the Oval Office, Bush endorsed for the first time in a public forum new procedures that would give illegal immigrants who have lived here for an extended time preferred status in obtaining citizenship.
To qualify, workers would have to pay a fine and back taxes and would have to learn English and meet other requirements, he said.
The speech -- with its balance of security measures and pleas for tolerance -- comes as Bush is trying to revive his presidency and salvage an immigration deal in Congress before the midterm elections.
Bush’s Monday night speech was viewed by some Filipino community leaders with mixed reactions.
Immigration lawyer Reuben Seguritan said Bush could have said and done more, like persuading fellow Republicans to push for comprehensive immigration reforms.
Still, Seguritan welcomed Bush’s statement. “This is a good sign that the broken immigration system will be overhauled -- with the help of continued public clamor, for the better.” he said.
Analisa Caballes, of the Damayan group, said Bush’s proposal to put some 6,000 National Guard troops on the border violates the Posse Comitatus Act, enacted in 1878. This law prohibits the U.S. military from operating within U.S. borders.
“The presence of the military in border communities heightens the perception that migrants or people who are suspected of being migrants, are enemies and military threat,” she said.
The president’s focus on border control on Monday night was aimed at mollifying conservative Republican lawmakers and disgruntled voters, who have accused him of paying insufficient attention to tightening the border and enforcing immigration laws. Bush said his goal is to help lawmakers forge a bipartisan compromise this year to change how the United States deals with illegal immigration and the pressing need for foreign workers.
Bush said the nation must move immediately to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants from its southern border by sending in the National Guard to free up U.S. Border Patrol agents in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The Guard troops will provide intelligence, surveillance and logistical assistance over the next two years -- not armed law enforcement.
In conversations with lawmakers earlier in the day, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove made it clear that Bush supports, in principle, a Senate-backed plan that would provide immigrants who have lived here for five or more years a clear path to citizenship if they pay a penalty, according to participants.
Under that plan, which Rove called “intriguing,” those who have been here two to five years would have to report to a border crossing, receive a temporary work visa and then apply for a green card.
Those here less than two years would have to leave. But Rove made it clear the White House is open to compromise on how this tiered system would be structured, said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who participated in the private briefings.
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NEWARK, New Jersey --- Federal authorities in New Jersey have indicted a Filipino man who was a former driver at the Micronesian Embassy in Washington on charges he altered stolen passports to help smuggle Filipinos into the United States.
According to the indictment, Enrico Calderon, 41, a Filipino immigrant living in Springfield, Va., charged up to $15,000 each for a doctored passport stolen from the Micronesian Embassy.
Travelers with Micronesian passports, unlike those from the Philippines, are not required to get visas from the United States to enter the country.
Though the indictment cited five cases, federal authorities believe Calderon and two coconspirators smuggled about 50 people into the country since 2004, said a spokesman for Christopher J. Christie, United States attorney for New Jersey.
Also named in a related indictment was Roehl Rivera, 41, of Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija, Philippines. He is charged with escorting illegal immigrants into the United States using a Micronesian passport himself.
The men were indicted in New Jersey because customs agents caught Rivera and an immigrant he was escorting with the doctored passports.
Court papers say that when questioned, the men quickly admitted to traveling on false documents and implicated Calderon.
If found guilty, Calderon and Rivera each face 3 to 10 years in prison.
According to criminal complaints filed in the case, Rivera also entered the United States with a Micronesian passport and was paid $300 to $400 per person for his part in the scheme.
An assistant United States attorney, Seth Kosto, gave this description of the scheme: Calderon would buy one-way tickets for the people to be smuggled, generally Filipinos. Then he and Rivera would gather them in a Hong Kong hotel room where they would instruct them in basic facts about Micronesia, the tiny island nation of 120,000 people, to provide them with answers to potential questions from the United States Customs and Border Protection agents.
They were also instructed to tell customs and border protection officials that they were entering the United States for a visit and planned to buy their return ticket once the visit ended.
From Hong Kong the smugglers would take their charges by nonstop flights to Newark Liberty International Airport.
In January, the criminal complaint said, customs and border protection agents noticed alterations in the passport documents of Rivera and one of the people he was escorting. They admitted that they were all traveling on false documents, the complaint said, and Rivera implicated Calderon in the scheme.
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