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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 - Supertyphoon Reming slammed into the Bicol region on Thursday, November 30,, bringing torrential rains and powerful winds as it headed towards Manila.
Packing winds of 190 kilometers (118 miles) an hour Reming tore through the eastern island of Catanduanes, about 410 kilometers (254 miles) east of Manila, just before dawn, destroying property and uprooting trees.
Power lines were brought down causing widespread blackouts throughout the eastern Bicol region including the provincial capital Legaspi City, the civil defense office said.
In Manila, which was overcast, all schools were closed and emergency services put on alert.
Reming is expected to hit Manila on Friday before moving into the South China Sea later in the day.
On Thursday, chief weatherman Nathaniel Cruz said that a high-pressure area over the South China Sea steered Typhoon “Reming” away from a direct hit on Metro Manila, but the year’s strongest howler is still expected to cause damage at the level of Typhoon “Milenyo.”
Cruz, announced “a big change in direction” toward the Southern Tagalog provinces of Batangas, Mindoro and Marinduque.
But he said the typhoon, which had winds of 190 kilometers per hour and gustiness of up to 225 kilometers per hour (kph) Thursday, was expected to gain strength as it crossed Philippine waters.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center of the United States Navy said the typhoon’s center would be closest to Metro Manila about 8 a.m. Friday. It is expected to move slightly northwestward and be west of Bataan by 8 p.m. Friday.
“Metro Manila is still in peril. We should not relax,” Cruz stressed.
All government energy agencies and distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in Luzon were placed on full alert, according to Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla.
Reming was bearing down on the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon) area after wreaking a path of destruction across Catanduanes Island and the Bicol Peninsula.
The supertyphoon, originally thought to have weakened after making landfall in Catanduanes early Thursday morning, quickly regained its Category 5 Status when its center winds increased from 190 to 250 kph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center of the US Navy.
The highest level of a four-step alert was raised over Catanduanes and other provinces in the eastern Bicol region, while the third-level alert was raised in the nearby provinces of Sorsogon, Quezon and surrounding islands.
The second-level storm alert is in force over Metro Manila and surrounding provinces.
The website’s graphs showed Reming with a cloud diameter of 630 km, unlike the compact Typhoon Milenyo. Its outer bands brought overcast skies and rains as far north as the Batanes group of islands and as far south as the northern peripheries of Mindanao Island.
Authorities detained ships and ferries at ports throughout the Bicol Peninsula as early as Tuesday. Ship captains berthed their vessels in known safe anchorages to withstand the onslaught of winds that are expected to generate waves as high as 41 feet.
Puerto Galera and the Batangas City Pier reported congestion from ships seeking to ride out the storm.
Officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport said they were thinking of diverting incoming international flights to Hong Kong. Domestic flights to and from Luzon have also been canceled.
The Philippines is still recovering from typhoon Cimaron, the strongest cyclone to hit the country in more than 10 years, which left 38 people dead or missing late last month.
Manila received a direct hit, the first in more than a decade, from typhoon Milenyo in September causing caused widespread damage and leaving wide parts of the city without electricity for days.
By the time Milenyo left the Philippines it left more than 200 people dead and a damages bill running into the millions of dollars.
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MANILA -- President Arroyo considered placing the country under martial law in January but the plan was failed to push through after the United States government warned it would not support the declaration, Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz said Tuesday, November 28.
“I was able to talk with [former defense] Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and he was explicit to me that the United States is of the position that the Philippines should take the course of democracy and republicanism,” Cruz said in an ABS-CBN TV news report.
Cruz, a former lawyer of the President, filed his irrevocable resignation and will step down from the defense post on Thursday.
Cruz’s statement confirmed information that the administration wanted to declare martial law as early as November last year to quell alleged plans of military adventurists to oust Mrs. Arroyo.
The defense chief said: “We cannot talk about [the discussions in the Cabinet] because of the principles of executive privilege.”
He, however, added: “What I can tell is that personally and professionally I am against any form of emergency rule.”
The supposed plan to declare martial law followed a visit to Manila by John Negroponte, US director of national intelligence.
Negroponte’s arrival came as a surprise though both Malacañan and the US embassy in Manila declined to issue statements about the details of the visit.
Former Senate president Franklin Drilon, meanwhile, said he was informed of the plan last December.
“I was informed that there was really a plan to declare martial law on January 15 of this year and therefore I was preparing to take it up in a joint session which the Constitution requires to be held in order to act on a martial law proclamation,” Drilon said.
But Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita denied that the President had wanted to declare martial law.
“That has never been a plan of the President. Wala akong nalalaman (I don’t know if such a plan existed),” Ermita said.
He said that Negroponte visited Manila to meet with officials of the US Institute of Peace.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The US government on Thursday, November 30, unveils a new citizenship test that focuses more on American values and principles than on historical trivia.
The test, which will be piloted in 10 cities beginning next year, aims to ensure immigrants seeking to become American citizens can answer questions on the meaning of democracy or the Bill of Rights rather than about who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner or the colors of the American flag.
“The intention is to make the citizenship test more meaningful, not more difficult,” Shawn Saucier, a spokesman for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency, said.
“The current test does not gauge a person’s adherence to the US Constitution or
an immigrant’s understanding of our civic values and what it means to be a US citizen.”
Saucier said 140 questions will be tested on some 5,000 volunteers who can retake the regular test if they fail. The questions will eventually be narrowed down to 100 before the new test is fully implemented in 2008.
Among the new questions, Saucier said, are:- Why does the US have three branches of government?
- Name two rights that are only for US citizens.
- Name two Cabinet-level positions.
Name one important idea found in the Declaration of Independence.
John Keely of the Center for Immigration Studies, a non-profit research organization based in Washington, D.C., welcomed the changes saying they would add substance and integrity to the citizenship process.
“The existing exam had atrophied into something meaningless,” he said. “Just as we expect those getting a driver’s license to actually get into an automobile and operate it proficiently, there is an analogy that simply knowing that American pie is popular in the US or what colors are our flag doesn’t demonstrate one’s fluency with the United States.”
Immigrant advocacy groups, however, are wary of the changes and fear they will constitute another hurdle for immigrants already facing a substantial hike in the $400 citizenship application fees and a longer processing period.
“Right now the immigration process is very unclear, very complicated and there is no indication that this test is going to make it less complicated or more equitable,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
His organization was one of more than 220 immigrant groups that sent a letter to the USCIS expressing fears that the new test raises the bar too high for immigrants, especially those with lesser education.
“Immigration is our culture war of the day and I think it’s fair to say that reevaluating the test and increasing its difficulty is part of this immigrant debate,” Noorani said.
Immigration officials and experts have expressed surprise at the criticism and point out that the new test was devised in consultation with advocacy groups and that the questions and answers will be available in advance to candidates for citizenship.
“The purpose is not trick questions,” said John Fonte, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank, who took part in the consultations. “It’s more like someone taking a first communion or a bar mitzvah, a type of ceremony where you put in some effort, you’re joining something.
“You’re joining the United States in this case.”
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MANILA -- The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines on Thursday, November 30, forecast a sharp increase in the demand for Filipino nurses in the United States.
TUCP secretary-general Ernesto Herrera said more than 800 new hospitals are being built in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Virginia and this would mean hiring of Filipino nurses by the thousands.
The new hospitals would have at least 200,000 beds for patients, Herrera said.
Many of the 41,500 nursing graduates look forward to working in the US.
Herrera cited a survey done by the American Hospital Association and a construction data from the Reed Elsevier Group Plc., a business information consulting firm, that said 20 percent of the new hospitals would be put up in California and Florida alone.
“California and Florida are popular retirement havens for American baby boomers. Apart from this, the two states are also being swamped with Hispanic migrants,” he said.
Herrera said there would also be a high demand for other migrant workers in the US.
“We must stress that the data on new US hospitals do not include new medical office buildings, mainly put up by health maintenance organizations, and nursing homes for the aged, that invariably require more registered and vocational nurses, physical therapists and other caregivers,” he said.
He said 78 million American baby boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964 now comprise 26 percent of the 300 million US population. The oldest baby boomers are turning 60 this year.
In 1990, Americans visited healthcare providers at a rate of 2,900 appointments per 100,000 populace.He said there was an increase of 4,256 medical checkups in 2005.
He said in the past nine months, 10,290 Filipino nurses sought jobs in America based on the US National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
TUCP is pushing the deployment of Filipino nurses overseas, saying these professionals have the right to seek greener pastures for their personal advancement.
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