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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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SAN FRANCISCO, California -- Another Filipino American has become a casualty of the United States’ war in Iraq.
Army Spc. 4 Christopher D. Rose, 21, a third-generation military man, was killed by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad on Thursday, July 6.
Christopher’s father, Rudy Rose, hails from the province of Aklan in Western Visayas. His mother from Mexico.
In Manila, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo offered his condolences to the Rose family, praising Christopher for helping defend democracy, a government statement said Tuesday.
Romulo has directed a Philippine consular official in the US to hand-deliver his letter to the family of Rose in San Francisco, a Department of Foreign Affairs statement said.
In his letter, Romulo said the Philippines honors Rose’s “bravery and commitment in helping secure a free, stable and democratic Iraq.”
“Christopher represented the best of the Filipino-American -- freedom-loving, independent and goal-oriented,” Romulo said.
At Rose’s parents’ home in Daly City on Saturday, family members gathered to share memories of Christopher Rose.
Nora Rose described her nephew as a fun-loving kid and an ebullient young man. “He was an absolute joy to be around,” she said. “He made everyone feel better whenever he showed up. He was full of life.”
A native of Vallejo who grew up in San Francisco’s Excelsior neighborhood and attended the Voice of Pentecost Academy in the Ingleside district, Christopher Rose died during a regular patrol. He was the only soldier killed in the incident, the Department of Defense said Saturday.
Rose enlisted in the Army in June 2004 and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.
Haunted by a “justified killing” he had participated in and disillusioned by the war, Rose had gone back on patrol recently despite being wounded earlier by another improvised explosive device, family members said.
His unit was sent to Iraq in November 2005 for a one-year tour of duty, said Fort Hood spokesman Dan Hassett. It was Rose’s first tour of duty, he said. The unit’s mission is peacekeeping and countering insurgent activity, Hassett said. Rose was scheduled to return to the United States in October.
On Saturday, his sister, Lisa Rose, opened an e-mail from Spc. Andy Zepeda, Christopher Rose’s roommate and friend, who treated him after the IED blew up.
Zepeda described the day of the incident as ordinary in every respect.
The patrol had stopped near the entrance of the base to remove some barbed wire. As Rose grabbed the wire, Zepeda wrote, he stepped on a pressure plate, triggering the explosive device.
Rose quickly went into shock from his wounds, Zepeda wrote, and stopped breathing shortly before a Blackhawk helicopter arrived to transport him.
“We did nothing different, everything we did that day was routine,” Zepeda wrote. “Within the 10 minutes that (U.S. patrols) went in and out of base, someone planted (the IED) there. They just got us.”
Rose was home on leave over Memorial Day, and was back in Iraq by early June. Within a few days of his return, his sister said, he was wounded in the arm by an IED.
“He wasn’t fully recovered by the end of the month, but he insisted on going back out on patrol,” she said.
“Another one of his friends had been wounded a few days earlier, and he was worried about his friends.”
Rudy Rose, Christopher Rose’s father, said he is bothered by the fact that his son was allowed back on patrol even though he was still recuperating from his injuries.
“He had told me before he went back on patrol that the wound was hurting him a lot, and he was using pain medications,” said Rudy Rose, who recently moved with his family to Daly City.
That fact weighs heavily on the father, who wonders whether his son’s superiors were sufficiently concerned about the combat readiness of the soldiers under them.
Benito Rose, Christopher Rose’s uncle, said it was natural for his nephew to sign up, given family traditions.
“Rudy was in Vietnam, and our father fought in World War II and Korea,” Benito Rose said. “We’re familiar with military service.”
But Rudy Rose said his son’s commitment to the war began waning once he got to Iraq in November and began regular patrols with his platoon as a gunner on a humvee.
“He began wondering why we were there,” Rose said. “He began feeling the Iraqi people didn’t want us there.”
In particular, said Rose, his son was haunted by an incident that occurred within his first few couple of months in Iraq.
While on patrol, Rose said, an IED exploded near his son’s humvee. Christopher Rose saw several figures running away through some bushes, and notified his sergeant, who told him to fire.
“Under the rules of engagement, it was standard procedure,” his father said. “If an explosive goes off, you fire on people fleeing the immediate scene.”
Christopher Rose fired nine rounds at the people, said his father, killing them all. When the troops examined the bodies, they found they were young kids -- and one of them had a cell phone modified to function as a remote detonation device.
“It was a justified killing, but he never got over it,” Rudy Rose said. “It bothered him terribly, because they were just kids. He talked to his superiors, all the way up to his commanding officer, who basically told him, ‘That’s war.’ But after that, whenever I talked to him, he sounded very depressed.”
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NEW YORK CITY -- Filipinos in New York will have a chance to attend a Catholic Mass officiated by the new Prince of Philippine Catholic Church.
Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, successor to the late Jaime Cardinal Sin as Manila’s archbishop will be in New York in September.
Rosales will say Mass celebrating the feast of San Lorenzo Ruiz on September 24, in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
The Mass, organized annually by the Filipino Apostolate of the Archdiocese of New York, is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
Fr, Erno Diaz, coordinator of the Filipino Apostolate and director of the Chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz in Little Italy, said that Cardinal Rosales has accepted the invitation extended by New York Cardinal Edward Egan to say Mass at the Cathedral on San Lorenzo Ruiz’s feast day.
Diaz said Egan invited Cardinal Rosales on behalf of the Filipino Apostolate.
An executive committee has been formed to organize and coordinate the San Lorenzo festivities and the visit of Cardinal Rosales.
The committee is composed of Fr. Diaz; Consul General Cecilia Rebong; Jose Ramos and Jose Lim, both trustees of the Philippine Pastoral Center; businesswoman Elma Santander; Gavino Abaya, manager of the Philippine Center and former classmate of Cardinal Rosales; and Arthur Acosta, president of San Jose Batangas Association and province mate of the Cardinal.
The Cardinal will also be honored at a gala testimonial dinner to be held at the Hilton New York on September 23. Jose Ramos is chair of the testimonial dinner committee with Elma Santander as co-chair.
The cathedral Mass is expected to draw thousands of devotees of San Lorenzo and well-wishers of Cardinal Rosales, who will be saying his first Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral after being ordained Cardinal by the Pope last March.
The annual Mass for Filipinos at St. Patrick’s coincides with the feast of San Lorenzo Ruiz.
The late Cardinal John O’Connor personally chose San Lorenzo’s feast. Cardinal O’Connor was fond of San Lorenzo, having said two San Lorenzo feast day Masses himself, in 1985 and in 1996. Cardinal Sin said Mass for the feast of San Lorenzo in 1984. New York’s Cardinal Edward Egan said the Mass last year, 2005.
After the Mass on September 24, an informal reception will take place in the Cathedral High School on 56th St. and First Avenue.
Also during his New York visit, Cardinal Rosales will bless and dedicate two markers in the Chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz on 378 Broome Street in Manhattan in the afternoon of September 23.
The first marker will be engraved with the date of the Chapel’s inauguration and the name of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who graced the inauguration last September 15, 2005. The other marker will be engraved with the names of the commemorative donors of the Chapel.
Father Diaz said the events lined up for Cardinal Rosales is open to the public. He expressed hope that Filipinos in the New York - New Jersey area will come out to welcome Cardinal Rosales.
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SAN JOSE, California -- The city of San Jose is suing a Filipino-American non-profit group and its former executive, accusing both of breach of contract for reportedly misusing more than $200,000 in city grants earmarked for senior citizens.
Named in the suit are the Filipino-American Senior Opportunities Development Council and Ben Menor, its former executive who is accused of diverting the money for such things as in-home health care for his parents. Until this year, the non-profit, which City Attorney Rick Doyle confirmed is also under criminal investigation, had been running the city’s Jacinto Tony Siquig Northside Community Center.
The San Jose Mecury News reported that Menor, who refused to comment Monday, saying he had not yet seen the suit and wanted to seek legal counsel, has steadfastly denied that either he or his agency ever knowingly broke the law.
``This is essentially a collection action due to monies owed to the city,’’ Doyle said. ``We’re just seeking to collect those funds that were not properly spent or accounted for.’’
Victor Nakamoto, co-chairman of the Citizens Rebelling Against Bogus Spending, a group of dissident former Filipino-American Senior Opportunities Development Council board members, applauded the suit. ``I think it’s justified the city proceed with their lawsuit,’’ Nakamoto said. ``I looked at the records personally, and we agree with the city auditor.’’
Complaints about the agency’s management of the community center began two years ago, triggering a city audit in June 2005. The audit found that the agency misused $219,414 in city grants; that Menor authorized imprudent expenditures and processes; that the board of directors gave insufficient oversight; and that the group overstated its performance. The audit also found inadequate oversight by the city’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department.
According to the suit filed Friday, July 7, the defendants misappropriated grant money the agency received in 2002-03 for programs to improve the quality of life for seniors.
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MANILA -- Calls for extradition were aired on Wednesday, July 12, as news broke that the former agriculture undersecretary embroiled in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam had been arrested on visa matters in Los Angeles.
Senate President Franklin Drilon called on the government to seek the extradition of Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante, who had defied summonses from the chamber for months and whom it subsequently ordered arrested last year.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who was en route to the Philippines from Spain when reached for comment, offered a similar view: “[Bolante] probably violated US laws. No matter, we need him here to put a closure to the fertilizer scam.”
“Good development,” Pimentel added, referring to Bolante’s arrest. “It gives him a chance to clarify where the over P1 billion in fertilizer money for the farmers went, and who benefited from it.”
Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., chair of the Senate committee that looked into the fund scam, also said the government should seek Bolante’s extradition so he could face investigation before the Ombudsman.
“But I don’t know if [it has] the will,” Magsaysay said in a phone interview. He said that embezzlement of funds was an “extraditable offense,” and that the government “should look at that aspect.”
News of Bolante’s arrest came four months after the Senate committee on agriculture wrapped up its inquiry into what it called the “premeditated, systematic” agricultural theft and recommended the filing of charges against Bolante and several current and former agriculture officials.
The committee also concluded that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should be held accountable for the “mismanagement of the fund.”
The fund, allotted for the purchase of farm inputs, was believed to have been diverted and distributed as largesse to administration allies to ensure Ms Arroyo’s victory in the May 2004 presidential election.
Bolante is being held at the San Pedro Detention Center in California, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Gilberto Asuque told a press briefing on Wednesday.
He was arrested by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on July 7 and detained because of his cancelled B1-B2 visa, Asuque said, quoting the Philippine Consulate in Los Angeles.
The hearing of Bolante’s visa case is scheduled on July 12 (today in Manila), Asuque said.
He said the consulate’s legal officer, Noemi Diaz, had spoken with the INS representative and was informed that Bolante was being represented by his own lawyer.
“We will know why his business visa was cancelled after the hearing,” Asuque said.
Bolante was once considered one of the President’s most trusted men, but now Malacañang would not dream of posting bail for him.
“We will not raise a finger to do such a thing that you are suggesting,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said when told about Bolante’s supposed request for Malacañang’s help in posting bail of $100,000 for his temporary release.
“I don’t see under what arrangement we can help him. He is a private citizen. If the government helps him, [people] will say, ‘Malacañang helped Bolante, so Malacañang is responsible for hiding Bolante.’”
At the most, Ermita said, the government would extend to Bolante the same assistance it would give ordinary Filipinos in a similar bind.
“It will just be SOP (standard operating procedure) for the consulate,” he said.
According to Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, the government’s role in Bolante’s case is only to make sure that his legal rights are respected.
Quoting Consul General William Gaa, Asuque said the INS informed the consulate by phone of Bolante’s arrest and detention on July 10.
Asuque said Bolante was arrested upon arriving in Los Angeles via Asiana Airlines from Seoul on Friday night (Saturday morning in Manila).
“He appeared to be traveling alone,” Asuque said.
Asuque told reporters that the DFA had not cancelled Bolante’s passport, allowing him to travel freely. “This is a visa case. It is the decision of a country’s immigration officials if they would allow a person to enter their country or cancel one’s visa,” he said in Filipino.
Asuque also said there was no information if Bolante’s arrest and detention were related to the fertilizer scam.
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