|
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Susan B. Ralston, the highest ranking Filipino American in the Bush administration, has resigned from the White House.
Ralston, a former aide to the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff who went on to work for the presidential adviser Karl Rove, filed her resignation after a report that she was a conduit between the two men, according to various reports.
Ralston submitted her resignation to President Bush on Thursday night, saying the time had come “to pursue other opportunities.”
Administration officials acknowledged, however, that she quit as a result of a Congressional report, released last week, that documented hundreds of contacts between Abramoff the lobbyist and the White House.
“A protracted discussion of the report was not in anyone’s best interest, and when she chose to step down, we supported her decision,” a White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said.
According to the report, Ralston was repeatedly lobbied by Abramoff after she became a top aide to Rove, as her former boss sought to curry favor with her new one. Once a high-rolling operator who lavished gifts on lawmakers and officials — in exchange, he hoped, for help with his clients — Abramoff has become, in the midterm elections, synonymous with corruption.
For more than a year, Ralston was entangled in two Washington scandals at once, the New York Times rerported. A nexus between Abramoff and Rove, she was also pivotal in the C.I.A. leak case. It was Ralston who patched through a telephone call from a Time magazine reporter to Rove, a conversation that cast a suspicion on the White House strategist. Ralston testified to a grand jury on the leak and was interviewed by prosecutors in the Abramoff case.
Ralston was never accused of wrongdoing. The Congressional report suggested she merely passed on messages from Abramoff to Rove, who sought basketball tickets from the lobbyist and ate at his restaurant (where, White House officials said, Rove paid for his own meals).
Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, which issued the report, accused White House officials of “trying to make Susan Ralston the scapegoat.”
“There is a lot that we don’t yet know about the assistance that Ms. Ralston provided Mr. Abramoff from inside the White House,” Mr. Waxman said in a statement. “But there are also many unanswered questions about the assistance that higher-ranking White House officials appeared to provide Mr. Abramoff.”
Ms. Ralston was promoted after the 2004 election, receiving the title special assistant to the president and a raise to $122,000, from $64,700.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEW YORK CITY — No Filipino was hurt when a light plane crashed into a 50-storey building in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, although a Filipino diiplomat is living in one of the units in the damaged building.
A press release from the Philippine Permanent Mission to the United Nations said Ambassador Bayani S. Mercado, deputy permanent representative, and many foreign diplomats and their families, are staying in the building.
Two men, including New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, were killed when a four-seater aircraft crashed into the 50-story skyscraper by the East River and burst into flames.
The incident briefly raised fears of another terrorist attack and sent fighter jets scrambling. Authorities have ruled out terrorism in the crash.
Consul General Cecilia Rebong said a check with the New York Presbyterian Hospital, where most of the injured were taken, showed it had admitted no Filipino national.
She said she was also coordinating with the Philippine Nurses Association in New York to determine if there were Filipino nurses working inside the Belaire Condominium on 524 East 72nd Street, which was struck at 2:45 pm. on Wednesday, October 13.
“People thought it was another terrorist attack but because of quick news reports, calm was restored immediately,” Rebong said in an interview with a Filipino news program.
Although some thought it was 9-11 all over again, it was business as usual for Filipino diplomats in New York just minutes after the city was thrown into panic by the light plane crash.
“The initial reaction was that it could have been a terrorist strike,” Ambassador Lauro L. Baja Jr., Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations, said. “But within minutes, we knew it was not another 9-11.”
Ambassador Baja, whose official residence on East 66th Street is only six blocks from the crash site on 72nd Street, was on his way to a meeting at the United Nations when the crash occurred. Along the way, they encountered police and firefighters rushing to the scene.
“Diplomats were all glued to television sets at UN headquarters when I arrived and I knew immediately that something big had just happened,” the Filipino envoy said.
At the Philippine Mission on 5th Avenue, officers and staff were alerted by relatives and friends and monitored the accident on TV. Later, most of them proceeded to their meetings at the United Nations where the 61st General Assembly is ongoing.
Ambassador Leslie Gatan, who had just arrived from Manila, said he was confident it was not a terrorist attack considering the full-scale anti-terrorist measures undertaken by the United States Government.
The building was vacated soon after the crash. Firemen quickly put out the flames that engulfed at least three floors of the building.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was nothing to suggest that “anything remotely like terrorism” was involved.
The afternoon crash beneath overcast skies sent debris clattering hundreds of feet to the sidewalk and started a fire that destroyed several apartments and left a charred smudge on the face of the building.
Fourteen firefighters and four people in the building were injured, officials said, including a woman who had been in an apartment hit squarely by the plane and escaped the inferno, suffering burns.
The plane, owned by Lidle, was a Cirrus SR20, a four-seat propeller plane that is popular for its performance and sleek looks. It has a fixed landing gear reminiscent of a stunt plane.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MANILA -- It is apparently the most coveted raffle prize for anyone harboring the American Dream. But unfortunately for Filipinos, they have long been disqualified from this annual draw.
The US Embassy in Manila on Tuesday, October 11, warned of scam artists out to lure Filipinos with false hopes of winning the 2007 US Diversity Visa Lottery.
“While Filipino citizens born in the Philippines are not eligible for this program, the US Embassy is concerned that some innocent citizens may fall prey to criminals who try to make money by claiming they can help you win an immigrant visa in the DV lottery,” the mission said in a statement.
Under the DV program, 50,000 US immigrant visas are issued each year to people who come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
Citizens from countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the past five years are considered out of the selection.
The US Department of State’s National Visa Center holds the lottery every year, choosing “winners” randomly from all qualified entries.
Those selected will also have the opportunity to apply for permanent residence which, if granted, would authorize them to live and work permanently in the United States. They will also be allowed to bring their spouses and any unmarried children under the age of 21 to the United States.
The lottery process for the 2007 program has officially started -- and this is that time of the year when “fraud schemes resurface” targeting aspiring immigrants, the embassy said.
“If you receive an e-mail, phone call, or letter saying you have won the US Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery, the US Embassy urges you to be cautious. Do not pay any money to individuals claiming they can help you get a diversity visa,” it said.
Victims are usually told that they have won a visa and that they must send a “clearance/acceptance fee” in order to claim the visa.
“Sadly, the only `winner’ is the criminal who takes your money,” the embassy said. “That’s the lesson that some hopeful immigrants throughout the world are learning the hard way as a result of fraud schemes that resurface every year.”
The most common racket involves the use of “official-looking e-mails and web sites designed to copy the US State Department web site or e-mail communications,” it said.
The real sites to consult on US immigration or visa matters are http://philippines.usembassy.gov/, www.travel.state.gov, and www.unitedstatesvisas.gov.
The victims would then receive an e-mail congratulating them on winning the DV Lottery and giving them directions on how to pay the “fees.”
“Do not trust someone who offers or guarantees -- for a fee -- a diversity visa or any other type of US benefit,” the embassy warned.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
