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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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We Pinoys are world-class
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THREE cheers for Filipinos who made us proud this past week. What our government officials have failed to do for the country, our gritty and determined athletes were able to accomplish in a grand fashion.
In a span of less than a week, three Filipino athletes were able to win honors for the country, earning for us the respect of the international community. For these past seven days, we Filipinos were on top the world, basking in the glory of our countrymen’s international achievement.
First to cause a national celebration was hitherto unknown billiards player Ronnie Alcano, who bagged the P5 million prize money in the 2006 Philippine World Pool Championship on November 12. Alcano capped his amazing run in the Pool Championship with a 17-11 triumph over German machine Ralf Souquet to rule the event.
Alcano was at first the object of hate in the Philippines because he defeated popular cue artist Efren ‘Bata’ Reyes, which led toReyes’ early disqualification. But in the end, Alcano, nicknamed the Volcano proved that he can win the championship and wirth it, earned the love of the Filipino masses.
Three days later, Filipino American dancing instructor Cheryl Burke led her dancing partner, former football star Emmitt Smith, in winning the third season of ABC’s hit reality competition Dancing with the Stars.
For Burke, 22, it was the second year in a row she has claimed the Dancing with the Stars mirror ball trophy, prompting one judge to declare her “ an MVP; Most Valued Partner.” Last year, she led pop star Drew Lachey into winning the finale of the popular dance competition.
And of course, there was Manny ‘The PacMan’ Pacquiao. His victory over Erik Morales on Saturday, November 18, led many of our countrymen back home and elsewhere in the world to erupt into spontaneous celebrations. Everywhere, Filipinos are wearning their Pinoy pride in their sleeves. Everywhere, the Philippine flag seems to be flying high and mighty.
The Filipino Express joins the entire nation in celebrating the recent victories of our athletes. Thank God for Ronnie, Cheryl and Manny. Thank God for people like them, whose successes can serve to motivate us to work harder to make our own dreams to come true.
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Pacquiao let his fist do the talking
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CHICAGO, Illinois – When Chicago-based artist painter Bueno Silva invited me over to watch the Pacquiao-Morales decisive third bout Saturday (Nov. 18) night (Sunday morning, Manila time) in the apartment of his son in Chicago’s northside, I did not expect to see Hispanic Latino guests outnumbering Filipinos.
Then, suddenly I thought the Hispanic-speaking guests were probably Mexicans rooting for Erik “El Terrible” Morales, who is from Tijuana .
But my hunch was wrong. The guests were mostly from Colombia in South America .
It turned out that they were cheering for one of the protagonists in the under card that featured Ricardo Torres, a scrappy boxer from Colombia, who beat Philadelphia’s “Mighty” Mike Arnaoutis for the WBO super lightweight title in a split decision.
Baranquilla, Ganador!
As soon as the referee raised Torres’s arm in declaring him the winner of the bout, all hell broke loose to the shouts of “Baranquillia, Baranquilla ganador!” (Baranquilla, Baranquilla was the winner!).
They explained that Torres is their homeboy from Colombia ’s industrial city of Baranquilla , home to recording artist Shakira and Atlanta Braves shortstop Edgar Renteria.
The Colombians led by Angel Garcia were overly ecstatic because unlike former champion Brian Viloria of the Philippines, who merely fought to a majority draw with Mexico’s Omar Nino earlier, even though Viloria knocked Nino down twice, Torres won a split decision even though he was knocked down in the earlier round.
Garcia and his companions stayed on to watch Pacquiao demolish Morales in a sensational knockout in the third round. This time they were cheering for Pacquiao, not for their South American neighbor Morales of Mexico.
Garcia happens to be the future in-law of Mr. Bueno Silva, who is a townmate of Pacquiao from General Santos City in the Philippines. Silva painted the life-size image of General Paulino Santos, for whom Pacquiao’s hometown derived its name. Silva’s painting is now on display at the city’s museum.
Aside from being Pacquiao’s kababayan, Mr. Silva is also a family friend of the parents of the boxing Penalosa brothers – Gerry, who TKO’d top-ranked Panamanian Mauricio Martinez in El Paso, Texas three weeks ago, and a close friend of Pacman, and Doddie, a former world boxing champion, who is his Godson. The Penalosa brothers were the son of Carl Penalosa, also a great Filipino fighter during the 60s, who has a brother, Ricky, who fought Gabriel “The Great Flash” Ilorde.
Viva Filipinas!
Silva’s son, Patrick, 31, an employee of Chicago Transit Authority, has been engaged to Garcia’s daughter, Wende, 26, a paralegal for the last 10 years.
As Silva expertly predicted before the fight that Paquiao was going to beat Morales within three rounds, cheers erupted into “Viva Filipinas” (Mabuhay Philippines!) as soon as Morales failed to rise and refused to fight as if telling the referee Vic Drakulich “no mas, no mas!” (No more, No more!)
Then, the Colombians stood around to shake the hands of the Filipinos in the room. Athough, the Colombians were speaking in Hispanic Latino language, the Filipinos understood that the Colombians were congratulating the Filipinos for having a Filipino boxing champion in Pacquiao.
For one shining moment, the excellence of the Filipino race in sports was conveyed to the world without expressing a diplomatic nicety, but through the language of fist!
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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Are there thresholds in national life which, when crossed, open floodgates to sudden change or irreversible damage? “How much poverty can a nation take before it starts to disintegrate?, Inquirer columnist Randy David aptly asked.
Physical benchmarks are obvious. Water, for example, will freeze at 0 degree Celsius. And satellite photos can match deforested areas against guidelines of keeping minimum forest cover at 30 percent. ( Today’s forest cover is 18 percent, down from 36 percent in 1970. )
Social markers are harder to track. Surveys on poverty, for example, don’t pinpoint thresholds. “Individuals have different thresholds of pain”, David notes. But the unchecked scramble for visas and jobs abroad is a tell-tale sign that a threshold has been crossed..
The Commission on Filipinos Abroad’s last headcount reported 7,924,188 Pinoys lived and worked in 193 countries. It points to an impoverished “people fragmented by conventions of social exclusion”... desirous to be able to look to a future that is kinder”, David notes.
But is there also a threshold in this diaspora? Remittances, “diaspora philantrophy” of $218 million annually or a safety valve the country’s jobless, are gains. .But are they negated by loss of educated citizens? At what point? And when?
A country that can not hold its best and brightest compromises it’s future. There has been no reverse flow, as in India and Ireland. The Asian Development Bank’s new study : “Converting Migration Drains Into Gains” indirectly meets the issue in three case studies of how China, Afghanistan and the Philippines harness overseas professionals.
Current “policy is geared more towards sending workers abroad….The absence of a policy to address the brain drain remains a significant gap,” write case study authors: Tricia Anne Castro, Jeremaiah Opiniano and Victoria Garchitoerna of Ayala Foundation USA.
The study presents options to hold on to trained talent : from voluntary three year service, by health workers, before migrating, to balik scientists programs. But they still fall short of need. And there is no clear threshold when the migrant flood could cause the ceiling to cave in.
Recent development literature underscores the concept of sustainable thresholds. Some call this “environment’s Plimsoll Line”. This refers to the marker, painted on a ship’s hull, that . signals overloading and “carrying capacity” has been exceeded.
And it applies to critical natural resources. like water, fisheries, wetlands, soil, forests, etc. Larger populations and rising expectations have jacked up demands on water, fisheries, wetlands, soil, forests, etc. Demand outstrips their capacity to regenerate or recharge.
Metro Cebu, for example, siphons 275,000 cubic meters of water from it’s aquifers – double the rate it can recharge. The most productive wetland ecosystem, mangroves, are down to a fraction over 100,000 hectares from the 1900’s half a million, notes Pew Fellow Jurgenne Primavera. And once-rich fishing grounds, like Moro Gulf and Bohol Sea, now yield only a third of their original yields.
Over-pumping, over-fishing, over-cutting breach thresholds. Further demand for water, fish, trees etc. is met by consuming the strained resource itself.. And each downward step reinforces this self-feeding process. It accelerates the slide towards irreversible damage. As brackish wells shut down, one after the other, Cebu is belatedly learning that scoffing at ecological “Plimsoll Lines,” does not prevent it’s saline-contaminated aquifers from irreversible collapse.
“Precisely when vital thresholds are crossed, no one can say,” Peter Vitousek and colleagues write in Bioscience. “But those who believe that limits to growth are so distant, as to be of no consequence to today’s decision leaders, are simply unaware of reality.”
“In the social world, the thresholds to sudden change are no less real,” Lester Brown of Earth Policy Institute writes. A “critical mass of people demanding change” forms at some usually hard-to-pin-down point, he asserts. “It then tips the balance and brings a cascading shift in public perception… That results in change often impossible to reverse”, as in the collapse of communism.
Our historical experience confirms this. Imelda Marcos disparaged the two million who trudged behind the assassinated Benigno Aquino’s coffin. “I can rally four million”, Madame Marcos bragged. But as Lady Macbeth discovered, murder can tip the balance. It cascaded into “People Power” that dictator Ferdinand Marcos couldn’t reverse.
There are pre-conditions for profound social change, Brown thinks. One is a gestation period. We had 14 years of Marcos dictatorship and the Indonesians 32 of Suharto. But it took only two and a half years before “5-K governance” -- kamag-anak, kumpadre, kaibigan, kaklase – and kabit – booted out Joseph Estrada.
Second, the threat must impinge directly on people’s lives. And third, enough people must also see the threat to buttress their demand for change. Emergence of non-governmental organizations is a response of society, Brown insists, to immobility of existing agencies, captured by elites and irresponsive to citizen’s needs.
In the 13th century, Dante wrote of a threshold that had this line seared on it’s entrance: Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate. “Abandon hope you who enter here.” But in 1994, John Paul II titled his 1994 bestseller: “Crossing The Threshold Of Hope.” It’s theme remains valid for Filipinos bothered by Gloria, Joe deV, Erap, Ping, Danding and assorted soulmates: “Be not afraid.”
(E-mail: juanlmercado@gmail.com )
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Living a double life in the Philippines
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IF ONE analyzes life in these islands, one realizes that it’s like Filipinos are leading adouble life in their country. What one reads in most print media and hears over radio and watches on television appear to be two different versions of the same thing.
Over the years during the reign of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the government’s communication policies have undergone a drastic evolution. Communication has gradually taken a form similar to the early years of the Marcos marshal law dictatorship.
Under GMA, there are two types of messengers. One type still employs a little sophistication. Spin is in vogue. But sometimes, in the rush to get things across quickly, the messengers just throw lies straight to the face of the people. They probably think spin is an unnecessary bother. Goebbel-like, they believe on telling lies untiringly hoping the lies will eventually be accepted as gospel truth.
Recently, we came across what appears to be first hand accounts of a few alleged victims of kidnap and torture by the military. We take it as an example of the hidden version of a reality. It is a reality that’s as real as the traffic cop slyly accepting a hundred peso bill from a jeepney driver so the latter does not have to surrender his driving license.
As real a denizen from Smoky Mountain in rags salvaging metals and plastics to sell from a pile of trash that he could sell to buy a half kilo of rice for his family.
Last April, workers from the... mining company in Bulacan were detained by members of the AFP’ 56th infantry battalion... Oscar now sits on the stand, a witness in a habeas corpus case filed against the military. if the case is won, the military will be compelled to release the bodies of abducted up students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan, as well as Manuel Merino, the farmer who tried to help them.
Asked about the military’s denials that the girls were in their possession, Oscar’s voice is low but distinct. “that’s a lie.”
At 10:35 in the morning of april 17, nearly 30 masked military men and five known members of the cafgu stormed out of a nearby forest. the mine workers were forced to the ground. Oscar, the calilap couple and mendiola were singled out and bound.
They began to beat us, kick us and hit us with the butts of M16s and M14s, while asking who and where the NPA’s were,” says Oscar in a statement. “They had us on the ground from 10:25 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon.”
From a recent editorial of “The Daily Inquirer”, we quote:
“The World Banks’ improved forecast for Philippine economic growth is a vote of confidence in the economy, and in the government’s economic managers...There is no gainsaying the real achievements of the government.
In his dissenting opinion, Senior Associate Justice Reynato Puno discussed at length what the Court had failed to address: whether the Commission on Elections (Comelec) committed a “grave abuse of discretion” in refusing to perform its ministerial duty of scheduling a plebiscite to ratify the proposed constitutional amendments even if the 6.3 million petitioners had complied with constitutional requirements for a people’s initiative.
The majority decision penned by Carpio had failed to even touch on this legal poser, even though it was what the plea filed by Sigaw spokesman Raul Lambino and Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado of ULAP had wanted the Court to rule upon.
Puno pointed out that Comelec, in its August 29 decision, had abused its discretion because it dismissed outright the initiative petition filed by Lambino and Aumentado on the basis of what they called a nonexistent doctrine in the case of Santiago v. Comelec.
The Supreme Court was deadlocked in that 1997 case. Six justices ruled that Republic Act 6735 was insufficient as an enabling law to cover a people’s initiative as mode of amending the Constitution; six others voted otherwise. Another justice abstained and two more inhibited themselves the deliberations altogether.
Puno said that “plainly, the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack of jurisdiction in denying due course to the Lambino and Aumentado petition on the basis of the mistaken notion that Santiago v. Comelec had established the doctrine that R.A. 6735 was an insufficient law.”
He noted that the “ruling of six justices who do not represent the majority lacks precedential status and is nonbinding on the present petitioners” referring to Lambino and Aumentado.
Puno further pointed out that the court’s permanent injunction on the Comelec, which barred it from entertaining any petition for an initiative, only referred to the 1997 petition filed by Jesus Delfin.
Puno, along with seven other justices, had voted to remand or return the case to Comelec “for further proceedings.”
In addition, Associate Justice Minita Chico-Nazario noted in her separate opinion that the permanent injunction issued by the Supreme Court against the poll body in Santiago v. Comelec “pertains only to the petition for initiative filed by Jesus B. Delfin and not to all subsequent petitions for initiative to amend the Constitution.”
She added: “The haste by which the instant petition [of Lambino and Aumentado] was struck down is characteristic of bad faith, which, to my mind, is a patent and gross evasion of Comelec’s positive duty.”
With these persuasive arguments, the PI proponents need not resort to ad hominen attacks on Panganiban and Carpio. Name-calling belies a dearth of logic—if not desperation.
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During Thanksgiving, we all realize how grateful we should be, especially to those who are especially important in our lives.
First, I express my sincerest thanks to God Almighty, who has always inspired me to do my job to the best of my ability, and maintain my passion for the law and put it to the best use for my clients.
To my clients and the entire Filipino community. – Thank you for your trust and confidence in me and my firm. I know how important your immigration matter is to your life and family, and I will never betray your trust in me.
To my staff -- who share my passion in law and service to our clients, I salute and thank you all. You continue to be the backbone of our quality service to our valued clients. Due to your tireless efforts and dedication, we continue to be one of the most successful immigration law firms in the country.
To our friends in the media – Through you, I am able to reach millions, and provide accurate information about immigration. Through you, we were able to enlighten those who did not know, and help so many bring their families together, and realize their American dream. Thank you for being such an effective vehicle in our constant drive to inform, assist and serve others.
And of course, to my wife, Millie -- Where would I be without her by my side? Thank you for your tireless efforts in making our partnership a success.
I am personally grateful to each and every one of you. With our joint efforts, I am confident that we will continue to move forward. With your continued support, I have no doubt that the future will continue to provide hope and promise to those in need.
My best wishes to all, as we celebrate Thanksgiving!
Michael J. Gurfinkel has been an attorney for over 25 years, and is an active member of the State Bar of California and New York, as well as the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Immigration Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has always excelled in school:Valedictorian in High School; Cum Laude at UCLA; and Law Degree Honors and academic scholar at Loyola Law School, which is one of the top law schools in California.
WEBSITE: www.gurfinkel.com
Four offices to serve you:
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219 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California, 91203 Telephone: (818) 543-5800
SAN FRANCISCO:
966 Mission Street, San Francisco, California, 94080 Telephone: (415) 538-7800
NEW YORK:
60 East 42nd Street, Suite 2101, New York, NY 10165 Telephone: (212) 808-0300
PHILIPPINES:
Heart Tower, Unit 701, 108 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, Makati, Philippines 1227 Telephone: 894-0258 or 894-0239
(This is for informational purposes only, and reflects the firm’s opinions and views on general issues. Each case is different and results may depend on the facts of a particular case. All immigration services are provided by an active member of the State Bar of California and/or by a person under the supervision of an active member of the State Bar. No prediction, warranty or guarantee can be made about the results of any case. Should you need or want legal advice, you should consult with and retain counsel of your own choice.)
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