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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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JERSEY CITY -- The more than 500 Filipino Americans and Americans who joined the cultural and business trip to the Philippines from July 13 to 21 came back satisfied and impressed with developments in the native country.
Of this number, more than 100 were from New York and New Jersey participated in the trip. Cecilia Rebong, Philippine consul general in NY, led the NY-NJ delegation.
The Department of Tourism commissioned RTA Travel to take charge of travel arrangements for participants in the New York-New Jersey area. RTA booked the flights through China Airlines.
Many participants said they found the visit to Intramuros, Rizal Park, Malacanang Museum, Money Museum, and the historic Kawit, Cavite very educational.
Most of them took the opportunity to take pictures to document their visit to the historical sites of the Philippines.
During the trip, participants met with Philippine president Gloria Arroyo in Malacanang and participated in business-matching meetings in Makati.
Several U.S. investors joined the trip to explore possible projects that could spur greater trade and commerce between the U.S. and the Philippines.
Cavite Gov. Ayong Maliksi and former prime minister Cesar Virata led provincial officials in welcoming guests at the historic Cavite shrine.
Students performed native dances, providing festive ambience to the event. The visitors went to the historic balcony where the first Philippine president, Emilio Aguinaldo, declared Philippine independence from Spain in 1898.
Rebong said the tour was conceptualized last year by former Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Albert del Rosario to encourage the 3.5 million Filipinos, who have settled and become naturalized citizens of the U.S. and Canada, to see the Philippines and be part of its development.
Sometime during the tour, the Fil Am delegates broke into smaller groups and went to different parts of the Philippines. One group went to the Ilocos region; another to Southern Tagalog; others went to Central Visayas, Western Visayas and Mindanao.
Many participants listed the shopping in Tiendecitas, the trip to Malacanang, the Money and Metropolitan Museums and Ricky Reyes Resort as the activities they enjoyed most.
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NEW YORK CITY — In response to the rise in political killings in the Philippines and in observance of 34th anniversary of the declaration of martial law on September 21, several Filipino American groups in New York and New Jersey are appealing to the community to offer their prayers and light candles for over 730 victims of human rights violations and their families in the Philippines.
The Jersey City-based Filipino youth organization Anakbayan and members of the NY Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP) are sponsoring a “People’s Pilgrimage for Human Rights” to bring public attention to the growing human rights violations in the Philippines in the form of politically-motivated killings and forced disappearances.
Every Sunday starting August 27 through October, the group pilgrimage will travel to churches starting in Jersey City to New York City and from their doorsteps, encourage entering parishioners to offer prayers in memory of victims of human rights violations and light candles for peace and justice in the Philippines.
The pilgrimage, which is open to the public, will especially visit churches with large concentration of Filipino parishioners and Filipino church workers.
On, September 21, the pilgrimage will gather at the steps of the famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan at 6:30pm, then continue in procession to the nearby Philippine Consulate for a candlelight vigil and prayer tribute.
This action will be in coordination with several other overseas Filipino groups around the world who will light candles in front of the Philippine Consulates and embassies in their countries.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Presbyterian Church of the USA, the United Methodist Church, and several other international church organizations have all issued public resolutions condemning the onslaught of politically-motivated killings, a many of which are church workers themselves.
For church locations and schedules of the People’s Pilgrimage for Human Rights in the Philippines, as well as a summary of the Amnesty International country report on the Philippines, visit www.anakbayan-ny.blogspot.com, or call 201-895-2475.
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