|
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEWARK, New Jersey -- Michael Ray Aquino, a former high ranking official pf the Philippine National Police, pleaded guilty Monday, July 24, to charges that he received classified U.S. intelligence reports, including information on terrorist threats to U.S. military personnel on the island nation.
Wearing a green prison outfit and wrist and ankle shackles, Aquino, 40, told U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark the documents were e-mailed to him early last year by former FBI intelligence analyst Leandro Aragoncillo.
Meanwhile, Aquino’s co-accused who turned state witness in the double murder of publicist Bubby Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito, was arrested by US Department of Homeland Security in Long Island, New York.
Assistant US Attorney Karl Buch said former PNP Superintendent Glen Dumlao was arrested for allegedly overstaying his visa.
Aragoncillo, an ex-Marine who worked as an aide to Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney, was hired in July 2004 by the FBI as a civilian intelligence analyst at the Fort Monmouth Information Technology Center in central New Jersey.
In May, Aragoncillo pleaded guilty to espionage charges, admitting that for five years he passed classified information gleaned from White House and FBI computers to conspirators he said were trying to overthrow Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.
Aquino’s attorney, Mark Berman, said his client had nothing to do with any plot to topple the Philippine government. Nor did Aquino know the documents were classified because Aragoncillo had removed their secret markings, Berman said.
“He has a continuing interest in events in the Philippines and Aragoncillo offered information to him,” Berman said. “He shouldn’t have accepted it, but he did and that’s why he’s here today.”
“He wasn’t spying for the Philippines ... and didn’t plead guilty to engaging in espionage,” Berman said.
Berman said that Aquino’s guilty plea to unauthorized possession of US defense documents is consistent with his client’s statements that he was not acting as an agent of any foreign official.
“Aquino pleaded guilty to charges of possession of US documents, not espionage,” Bergman said. “Aquino was not aware that documents in his possession were classified.
U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie didn’t see it that way.
“Aquino is now an admitted spy, who cultivated and used Aragoncillo, a willing accomplice, to transfer U.S. intelligence secrets abroad,” Christie said in a statement. “He did this at the behest of a high-level government official in the Philippine legislature. We view that as a grave intrusion on the integrity of our national security, and we will seek the longest prison sentence possible for Aquino.”
The two reports Aquino admitted possessing contained national defense information relating to threats to U.S. military troops in the Philippines and details of confidential U.S. intelligence sources and methods. Officials declined to elaborate.
The documents were not directly sent to Aquino, but copied to him in e-mails after he provided Aragoncillo with an introduction to Panfilo Lacson, a Filipino senator who had been Aquino’s boss at the PNP. Aquino didn’t pass along the documents to anyone, he added.
Aquino, who formerly served as deputy director of the National Police Intelligence Group, arrived in New York in July 2001 on a tourist visa.
At the time, he was facing an investigation for his alleged role in the murder of publicist Bubby Dacer and his driver, Emmanuel Corbito. Authorities said he was later charged with their murders.
If Aquino goes to jail in the US, Manila will have to wait for him to serve out his sentence before charging him in a Philippine court.
Aquino has been held in federal custody since his arrest last Sept. 10. He was indicted in October on charges of defrauding the United States by conspiring with Aragoncillo and others to receive classified information and acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government official.
He faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on October 30.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CHICAGO – A Filipino American certified public accountant and his brother have been indicted by a grand jury before the US District Court of the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago for allegedly preparing fraudulent income tax records that enabled them to obtain more than $167,768 in tax refunds, a loss to the US Treasury from 91 false refunds.
Named in the 27-page indictment papers filed before Judge Melton I. Shadur were Pepito Guinto, 59, and his younger brother, Pablo Guinto, both of the Pepito O. Guinto CPA based in Chicago’s northside.
Pepito and Pablo Guinto were each indicted with eight counts of violation of Title 26, United States Code Section 7206(2), which is the filing of tax fraud and false statements.
A single count of tax violation is a felony, which carries a fine of more than $100,000 or imprisonment of not more than three years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.
This means that if one of the brothers were convicted of all eight counts, he will be facing a maximum of 24 years in prison and $2 million in fine.
Pepito is out on bail on his recognizance. If he fails to show up at a court hearing, he will be compelled to pay a $6,000 bond.
US Assistant State Attorney Michelle Nasser Weiss said that a warrant of arrest was issued for Pablo when he failed to attend the first court hearing of the case last April. He fled from the United States and is believed to be in Manila.
A status hearing is scheduled on August 8.
Phone calls placed on Pepito’s lawyer, Patrick Cotter and Pablo’s lawyer Stephen Eberhardt for comment were not returned.
Pepito and Pablo have been preparing for a fee federal income returns from clients from 1999 to 2002. They were able to attract more clients by maximizing the “refunds the clients received.”
The Guintos usually increased “certain clients’ tax refunds on the Form 1040 by fraudulently overstating or misrepresenting expenses on the Schedule A, which were used to decrease the clients’ taxable income, thereby, fraudulently reducing their tax liability and improperly qualifying them for increased refunds.”
Out of the 4,780 clients of Pepito from 2000 to 2002, 57 of them had false medical expenses, charitable contributions and unreimbursed job expenses involving refund to clients, which results to the Internal Revenue Service incurring losses totaling $124,802.
In Pablo’s case, out of his 1,868 clients from 2000 to 2002, 34 of them had false and fraudulent loss of the US Treasury of $42,969.
Pepito’s average refund is $2,558 while Pablo’s is $2,386.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEW YORK -- A Filipino American detective for New York City claimed a Westchester County police officer cut him off on the Bronx River Parkway and held him for two hours — including 45 minutes handcuffed in the patrol car’s back seat — because of his race.
Detective Elpidio DeLeon, part-Filipino and part-Mexican, said on Wednesday, July 26, that he may pursue a lawsuit against the county on allegations of false arrest and imprisonment, and violation of civil rights, according to the the Westchester newspaper The Journal News.
The event drew four county police cars and a police helicopter, but ended without even a traffic summons when county police concluded Detective Elpidio DeLeon was “suffering from emotional issues related to his sick mother” and released him to a captain and lieutenant from his Washington Heights precinct.
DeLeon’s description of his April 7 arrest differs substantially from the one offered by spokesmen for county police and described in the police report, which says DeLeon was not even arrested.
Whichever account is closer to the truth, the event represents a significant departure from the unofficial police tradition of “professional courtesy” — allowing off-duty officers stopped for traffic infractions to continue on with a wink and a wave.
Sgt. Leonard G. Spano, one of the county officers who converged on the parkway’s shoulder in Yonkers after DeLeon was stopped, said DeLeon refused to pull over for almost a mile as Officer Daniel Carfi tried to stop him for allegedly speeding, forcing Carfi to cut him off.
Spano said DeLeon refused to show his New York Police Department badge after saying he was a city officer, and he rejected DeLeon’s allegation that he was stopped only because of his race. Carfi and the other four county officers involved in the incident are white.
“That’s a ridiculous claim,” said Spano, who heads the county Police Officers Benevolent Association. “We don’t engage in racial profiling in Westchester. I don’t know what happened when they placed the handcuffs on him, but from the moment I arrived, he was treated professionally. We treated him as one police officer would treat another.”
Deputy County Police Commissioner Demosthenes Long said Carfi handcuffed DeLeon because “he was pretty emotional and had to be restrained for officer safety reasons.”
DeLeon said he was driving to Sam’s Club in Elmsford with his girlfriend after visiting his mother at Albert Einstein Medical Center in the Bronx. He said Carfi did not turn on his siren or flash his lights in the traffic stop, and said he continued driving because he was unable to find a shoulder on the parkway.
He said he produced his NYPD shield immediately, but stopped cooperating — refusing to produce his license and registration — when he said Carfi became vulgar and abusive.
“The next thing you know, there’s a helicopter overhead,” DeLeon said. “(Carfi) said, ‘You see that up there? That’s for you.’ “
DeLeon said the county police ordered him to remove his gun from his holster himself in alleged violation of procedure, slammed his head against the hood of his Acura and drew blood from his wrists by ratcheting down on the handcuffs. He said he was held for two hours, until his captain and lieutenant arrived from Manhattan.
“They gave my supervisor my gun and my shield and they drove off like nothing happened,” DeLeon said.
“Did I get arrested because I was speeding?” he said. “Did I get arrested because I refused to give my license and registration until their supervisor got there? Because I refused to give them my gun? Or because I’m half Filipino, half Latino and I happen to look Mexican or Ecuadorian?”
Asked why he believed the incident was racially motivated, DeLeon said, “It’s things that got done and things that got said that make this a racial issue, which I’m not going to go into.”
DeLeon’s lawyer, Rocco Avallone, has filed a notice of claim, alerting the county that his client reserves the right to file a lawsuit.
DeLeon, 50, has been a New York City police officer for 21 years. Three years ago, he fatally shot a teenager holding up a partner who was posing as a deliveryman in a West Harlem apartment building that had suffered from a string of robberies.
Published reports a day or two after the shooting said investigators believed DeLeon acted properly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEW YORK CITY -- Filipino businesses in Queens lost an estimated $200,000 as a result of the nine-day unexplained power outage that hit large areas of the northwestern part of the borough last week.
Many of business establishments in the Woodside-Jackson Heights area had to close shop due to their inability to engage even in basic business transactions.
Many restaurants had to throw away food stock that turned rancid and spoiled, as freezers were rendered inoperable by the power blackout.
The Filipino business district along Roosevelt Avenue was among the hardest hit in the Woodside and Astoria areas of Queens, together with that of the Hispanics and South Asians.
The $200,000 estimated revenue loss does not include damage to equipment as a result of power fluctuations, as well as stock inventories that were disposed due to shorter shelf life.
Renee Dizon, owner of Renee’s Kitchenette and Grill, told The Filipino Express that some of her freezers sustained busted compressors while they had to do away with their food inventories due to spoilage.
She estimated her revenue loss to be between $30,000 to $50,000.
Perlas ng Silangan restaurant was a bit lucky; it usually has scheduled entertainment during the weekend. Fortunately, last week, there was no entertainer scheduled.
Still, the restaurant lost a significant amount of possible revenue, said its manager, Hope Aquino.
Much of its customers come during the evenings and weekends. With the blackout, the number of people dining at the retaurant was remarkably fewer than usual.
Phil-Am Foods had to dispose of their spoiled native “kakanin” but remained open ito sell canned and dried Filipino foods.
Phil-Am Foods may have survived the ordeal with a little humor. On a wall leading to the store’s door, a sign was posted saying “Con Ed Couldn’t Close Us.” Nearby, a generator set that provided power to the store has a sign beside it that said “Patis-Powered”.
Filipino money remittance firms and freight and cargo forwarding establishments in the district remained open throughout the nine day power outage.
But most admitted having slow business days during the stretch.
An employee of one of the remittance firms said they continued accepting money with a notice that they will only be remitted once electric power is restored.
Many complained that Con Edison failed to communicate with its customers the reason for the power outage.
Both Dizon and Aquino admitted they had to rely on television and newspaper reports as to the status of the repair work Con Edison was doing.
A meeting among business establishments in the affected area was held on Wednesday.
Dizon said among the issues discussed was the possible course of action they will take as a result of the losses they all sustained.
Dizon said the group is exploring the possibility of filing claims they might be entitled to as a result of the power outage.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
