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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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MANILA -- Typhoon “Milenyo” wrought destruction across the main Philippine island of Luzon Thursday, September 28, leaving at least 10 people dead, displacing thousands, crippling transportation and communications networks, and triggering a massive blackout in the region, officials said.
But President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said, “We are doing our best. We are on top of things.”
The President gave the assurance during a teleconference with officials of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) after she was briefed on the damage.
Arroyo ordered Trade Secretary Peter Favila to conduct strict monitoring on the prices of basic items and vegetables in markets.
She also told the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to hasten clean-up operations of roads and highways.
Arroyo was originally scheduled to preside over the meeting but chose to return to Clark Field in Angeles City north of Manila due to bad weather. She said she would call for another NDCC meeting once she returns to Manila.
Two of the 10 reported deaths have been confirmed by the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) as of posting time. In Albay province, a 77-year-old woman with a heart condition died after being caught in heavy rains while a 42-year-old man in the same province was killed by a falling tree, said Health Secretary Francisco Duque.
In a separate police report, another person was killed after his vehicle was hit by a falling billboard along EDSA in Makati City.
The other victims are either missing or feared dead as of posting time. In Lucena town, Quezon province, five people are missing after being buried in a landslide, Duque said during a meeting of the NDCC in Camp Aguinaldo.
In the town of Calamba, Laguna, 50 people were injured when three buildings inside the Calamba Premiere Industrial Park collapsed, a police report in the province said.
The South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), which connects Metro Manila to the Southern Luzon industrial hub, will be closed until Friday, said Favila.
Meanwhile, Coast Guard chief Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan said all ferry services in affected areas have been suspended. In an earlier radio interview, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Alfonso Cusi announced the cancellation of all outgoing and incoming flights in the country’s main air terminal. Airport operations have since resumed.
Manila Mayor Lito Atienza and Albay Governor Fernando Gonzales placed their areas under a state of calamity.
Atienza’s declaration was prompted by flooding in several areas.
The storm’s damage to agriculture is estimated at 60 million pesos, 35 million of which are in farmlands and 25 million in fisheries, the NDCC said.
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MANILA -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the retake of the June nursing board examination to redeem the image of Filipino nurses here and abroad, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced on Wednesday, September 27.
Ermita said Labor Secretary Arturo Brion was to meet with officials of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to discuss the details of the retake of the exam that was marred by a leakage of test questions.
He also said Mrs. Arroyo had assigned the supervision of the PRC to the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE). Prior to the leakage controversy, the PRC was attached to the Office of the President. “As to whether it will be a retake of everything or only the test where there was leakage, or whether it will be only for those who may have taken advantage of the review centers where they had registered, all these details will be discussed by Brion and the PRC,” Ermita told reporters at his weekly briefing in Malacañang.
According to Ermita, Ms Arroyo decided on a retake of the exam at a meeting with members of her Cabinet on Tuesday, September 26.
“The President made the decision and agreed with the majority of those who said, ‘Yes, let’s allow the retake, but leave the details to Secretary Brion,’” he said.
The leakage of test questions for the nursing board exam is now being looked into not only by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) but also by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The NBI has recommended the filing of charges against two members of the Board of Nursing whose test manuscripts had been leaked.
PRC Chair Leonor Tripon-Rosero had earlier said there would be no retake despite the leakage.
She subsequently told a recent Senate inquiry into the leakage that the decision not to have a retake and to administer the oath to the exam passers was final.
Some 42,000 students took the June nursing examination and 17,000 passed.
Senator Richard Gordon and other senators have been pushing for a retake, saying the leakage had besmirched the reputation of Filipino nurses and the integrity of the nursing licensure exam.
Ms Arroyo had previously aired statements to the effect that she wanted the guilty to be punished and the innocent to be spared, suggesting that a retake was possible.
On Wednesday, following a Senate budget hearing, Brion told reporters that the PRC decision against a retake of the exam could still change.
He said the matter would be among the talking points at the planned meeting with PRC officials today.
“Of course [the decision] can change,” Brion said. “It’s in the agenda. It’s a current problem that we have to look into.”
Recalling the discussion at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Ermita said his colleagues had argued for the retake in the conviction that “the integrity of the exam and of the nursing profession” was “at stake.”
He said members of the Cabinet had also expressed concern that the integrity of other Filipino professionals whose licensure exams were controlled by the PRC could be tainted.
“And therefore, in order to preserve the good reputation of our Filipino professionals, maybe we should get back the respect of employers -- both local and [foreign] -- for our professionals,” he said.
Ermita quoted a Cabinet member who had just arrived from the United States as saying that according to the Philippine Nurses Association in that country, the reputation of nurses there had been somehow affected by the controversy.
Among those who took part in the discussion were Brion, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, Dante Ang of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and Trade Secretary Peter Favila. (MNS)
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NEW YORK -- Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales urged Filipino Americans to unite for peace and help end violence and hatred in the world and in the homeland.
“Hatred and violence must be gone. We must all work for a possibility of peace,” said Rosales in his homily on Sunday, September 24, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where he officiated a Mass honoring the feast day of Filipino saint San Lorenzo Ruiz.
An estimated 4,000 Filipinos in the New York-New Jersey area packed the gothic-styled St. Patrick Cathedral to attend the Mass officiated by Cardinal Rosales.
The Cardinal shunned political talks and focused his homily on paying tribute to the life of San Lorenzo Ruiz, the first and only Filipino saint.
“San Lorenzo fled from violence in Manila . He wanted to share the life of Jesus and went to Nagasaki. San Lorenzo is a man of peace,” Rosales said.
He compared the lives of migrant Filipinos to San Lorenzo, saying Filipinos have to fulfill their mission to propagate the teachings of Jesus.
In a reception later at the Catholic High School of New York, Rosales urged Filipinos to join the movement “Pondo ng Pinoy,” (Filipino Fund) to help their impoverished countrymen. He challenged Filipinos in the U.S. to participate in the ministry of evangelization.
At St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, Filipinos brought big red photos of Rosales and took turns paying respect to him by kissing his hand.
The Cardinal received souvenirs from members of the Filipino American community. Rosales gamely wore a New York Yankees cap given to him and posed for photos.
“He is truly a gift. He is a man of God and a man of people. My group will donate and support his project,” said Lolita Compas, a nurse and a board of trustee of the Filipino Apostolate in the Archdiocese of New York.
Batangas congressman Hermilando Mandanas who was in New York to meet some investors and attend a United Nations meeting joined Filipino Americans in welcoming the Cardinal. “The Cardinal’s presence is uplifting. It provides unity and hope for Filipinos,” said Mandanas.
“I feel great. It’s very touching that he came and celebrated with us. It means a lot to Filipinos,” said Dr. Connie Quiambao of New York.
“This event is significant because we are celebrating our 100 years of immigration. The Cardinal wants us to know that we have a role to play in evangelization,” said Consul General Cecilia Rebong.
There are over 50,000 Filipino parishioners in the archdiocese of New York, the office of Cardinal Edward Egan said.
The Filipino Apostolate in the archdiocese was set up in 1995 and headed by Fr. Erno Diaz, who is also the director of the chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz in downtown Manhattan.
The gold-plated statue of San Lorenzo Ruiz, decorated with red and pink flowers was displayed at St. Patrick Cathedral during the ceremony.
Back in 1982, the statue was donated by the late Cardinal Sin when he visited the Cathedral. Every September since then, the statue of San Lorenzo is being displayed at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
San Lorenzo was beatified by Pope John Paul ll in 1981 and was elevated to sainthood in 1987.
While in the US, the cardinal is scheduled to: do a live interview on EWTN, a Catholic cable channel, in Burningham, Alabama; visit and celebrate mass at the Mary Immaculate Convent in Monroe, New York; meet Filipino communities in Boston; attend a retreat at Mepkin Abbey, South Carolina; and meet with Bishop Oscar Solis and the Filipino community in Los Angeles.
He will fly back to Manila on October 12.
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NEW YORK --- Several groups of American lawyers has urged Congress to suspend military aid to the Philippines, saying that the Arroyo government is using the money to finance the execution of political opponents of Mrs. Arroyo.
“There is ample evidence to suggest that U.S. military aid is being using to finance the executions of critics of (President) Arroyo regime,” said lawyer Vanessa Lucas of the National Lawyers Guild, in a press conference.
“We are calling on the U.S. to suspend military aid immediately and launch an investigation of human rights violations in the Philippines. The ‘War on Terror’ cannot be used as a cover for political repression, or the credibility of U.S. efforts will be hopelessly undermined,” she added.
Lucas said US military aid to the Philippines hascost US taxpayers over $437 billions.
Lucas said several lawyers group want the US. to intervene and strongly denounce the killings of 750 church workers, activists, lawyers, workers and journalists in the Philippines since 2001.
Lawyers from International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Center for Constitutional Rights sent an all-woman lawyers team last June to the Philippines to probe the pattern of killings of workers, children, activists and journalists.
In 2002, the U.S. increased by 2000 percent its military assistance to the Philippines as President Bush and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo jointly declared the Philippines the “second front” in the US war on terror.
But the war being waged by the Philippine government wrongly targeted unarmed civilians.
To date, 54 children were killed, 17 tortured, and 69 illegally arrested , 43 journalist killed since 2001, making the Philippines the second most dangerous country for journalists after Iraq. The grim scenario continued with 285 people jailed political prisoners, 214,641, children were displaced due to indiscriminate bombing, 80 women workers assassinated and 6 Congressional representatives affiliated with workers union and women’s group were charged with rebellion.
“A pattern of substantive evidence strongly connects the Philippine military to the killings,” the group of U.S. lawyers said..
“We are urging the US to reconsider its financial support for a military that is murdering its own people in the name of war on terror,” attorney Tina Monshipour Foster said.
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