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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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THERE is nothing we could do to prevent natural disasters from happening. But it definitely is within our powers to prevent these wraths of nature from becoming human tragedies.
In the aftermath of the most recent typhoon to ravage our home country, more than 1,300 of our kababayans died as supertyphoon Reming pounded the Bicol region last week. We have every reason to believe that the government could have done something to keep the human toll to the minimum. It’s not as if the typhoon caught us by surprise. It’s not as if the coming of heavy rains on villages at the foot of a volcano or hill is something new to us.
Remember Pinatubo? It gave us a 10-year course on disaster preparedness.
This once thought to be dormant volcano reentered the world’s consciousness with a big bang in 1991, erupting violently and spewing millions of cubic meters of ash, lahar and volcanic debris, much of which settled along the mountain’s slopes.
For 10 years, Mt. Pinatubo posed a danger to the people living in nearby villages in Pampanga and Zambales. Every time the rain comes, volumes and volumes of lahar flow cascade down Mt. Pinatubo’s slopes, inundating towns and erasing entire villages that lie along its path.
We need not go that far in time for our lessons as to why heavy rains and living along the slopes don’t mix. We have a refresher course a year ago. Remember Ginsaugon, Southern Leyte? Heavy rains softened the soil and caused a whole hill to collapse and bury several villages of Ginsaugon. More than a thousand, out of a total town population of 2,500, were killed.
The government could have used all its resources to evacuate the townsfolk a few before the typhoon struck. It could have ordered the military to conduct forced evacuation of people living within the danger zone. This is one occasion when the government is genuinely justified to use its emergency powers.
There ought to be a change in the way the government declares a state of emergency. Why declare it after the fact? Why not declare it a few days before a typhoon is expected to hit land, and all that is humanly possible to pull each and every one out of harm’s way.
We can mitigate the possible human toll a natural force might bring. But we never seems to learn.
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CHICAGO, Illinois – For the first time in a long while, the wheels of justice turned against an elusive erring American soldier in the Philippines who mistook the Filipino hospitality as an opportunity to satisfy his bestiality.
For as long as I can remember, starting from the days when the US military bases held sway in the Philippines, no American soldiers, who violated Philippine laws, were ever punished. I can still recall of one American soldier who shot a Filipino boy, picking up scraps in a garbage area of one of the bases. The boy was mistaken for a wild boar.
For days, calls to try the erring US GI before the Philippine courts dominated Philippine headlines. But the Almighty US military allowed the American soldier to leave the Philippines and escape prosecution.
I really don’t know if some Filipino justice officials made money or benefited personally from the Great Escape pulled by that erring American soldier.
Licensed to kill
During the good times of the US military bases, erring American soldiers were untouchables. They were licensed to kill or to break Philippine laws. They were treated like diplomats who were immune from arrest.
Not anymore.
Doing a stunt pulled by Philippine Chief Justice Panganiban for defying conventions, Makati regional trial court Judge Benjamin Pozon shocked the world, when he convicted US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith to suffer life imprisonment for raping a Filipina.
I was really pleased by the way, Judge Pozon handled the case, using common sense in arriving at his conclusion – that ‘Nicole’ had no way of giving her consent to have sex with Smith, when she was intoxicated and unconscious shortly before the sex act.
But because Smith’s presence in the Philippines is covered by the Visiting Forces Agreement, Judge Pozon has no recourse but to turn Smith back to the custody of the US Embassy. The VFA allows US Embassy to take custody of its erring US GI while “judicial proceedings” are in progress.
Since Smith is appealing Pozon’s ruling, US Embassy can regain back Smith’s custody, invoking the VFA. When a convict files an appeal, it extends the “judicial proceedings.”
Pozon should return Smith to US Embassy
I believe the choice for Judge Pozon to make is very clear – turn Smith over to the US Embassy.
If the US Embassy allows Smith to leave the Philippines, not only can the Philippine government cut off the diplomatic relations unilaterally from the United States, it can also raise the matter up before the United Nations for redress.
The recent decision of a three-member federal appeals court in Chicago, Illinois should be a good example for Judge Pozon to consider. The panel ruled that former Illinois Gov. George Ryan does not have to start his 6 1/2 –year prison sentence as scheduled and may remain free on bond pending appeal.
But the appeals court said in its ruling last Nov. 28 that if it upholds the racketeering and fraud conviction handed down by a federal court jury last April, the 72-year-old Ryan must go immediately to prison.
I just wonder if Ryan appeals the case to US Supreme Court, will he stay free? Let’s wait.
Undo or redo VFA?
I’m not sure if Smith posted bond before he was convicted. If he is not bonded, then the Philippine government would have to take the word of the US Embassy.
Meanwhile, the Philippine and US governments should initiate termination of this VFA, which is only contributing to the irritants of the relations of the two countries.
If the US is really sincere in training the Filipino soldiers to go after the terrorist groups, like the Abbu Sayyaf, then it should give Philippine soldiers visas to enter the US and train them in US soil.
Part of the term of the new agreement is that in case a Filipino soldier tries to rape an American lady, by intoxicating her, the US should allow the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. to take custody of the erring Filipino soldier while the rape case is pending. Let’s see if the US will agree to this term.
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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“I, A FELLOW Shepherd” is not your run-of-the-mill stapled collection of speeches. This 176-page book, launched Friday, benefits from insights of the author who holds an office shared by only two other Filipinos today: member of the College of Cardinals.
Manila’s Gaudencio Rosales received the “red hat” from Pope Bendict XI last year. Jose Cardinal Sanchez is retired. But Pope John Paul II named Ricardo J. Vidal cardinal 22 years ago. From this perspective, Vidal gives in “I, a Fellow Shepherd”, insights into an office that goes back, through the centuries, to Agustine of Hippo and Peter of Rome.
This is a tightly-edited collection of 38 homilies on 8 ordinations, 14 installations and 5 deaths of bishops where Vidal presided. Thus, they provide a glimpse of the priest from Marinduque who today pastors some of the Philippines’ oldest parishes.
“To be a shepherd is never easy,” Vidal writes in the introduction of a book, prepared secretly by his staff. It was given to him, as a surprise, on his 35th ordination as bishop anniversary. (If memory holds, there are 128 Filipino bishops today.)
“With lay people, I am always a pastor. With my priests, I am always their superior. But with my fellow bishops, I am a human being. And it is only then, I can laugh aloud and throw caution to the wind, for… I am among brothers who accept me as I am”.
The homilies – from “A Voice To Our Silence” on Jaime Cardinal Sin to “Poor In Spirit” for the self-effacing Archbishop Teofilo Camomot who, some speculate, could be beatified – provide a sketch of the bishop’s lofty duties of sanctifying, teaching, governing. Vidal anchors them to the nitty-gritty of 21st century daily life.
“Ever since I was ordained bishop, I’ve had problems for breakfast, and go to bed with problems. My phone rings way past bedtime,” Vidal said at the ordination of Jaro’s Emmanuel Trance. “On my daily schedule, I see a parade of names : priests, nuns, lay people, politicians businessmen, workers, parishioners…
“They come not only to consult you on their problems but simply expect you to agree with solutions they have decided on…..Welcome to the world of problems, Bishop Trance. Welcome to the world of bishops where half the population thinks you can solve their problem and the other half thinks you are the problem.”
Vidal recalls his former auxiliary, now Catholic Bishops Conference president Angel Lagdameo, began half-seriously an address to seminarians he was ordaining : “My dear future problems….” This take is anchored on the fact that bishops are problem solvers. They see people, not as problems, but as a rich harvest….
We must “recognize priests and layworkers are worthy coworkers. If a bishop wants to do everything, he must not pray that the Lord send more laborers into the vineyard. And he also has no right to complain about the burden of work….”
As CBCP president Vidal signed the 1986 pastoral that told President Ferdinand Marcos the massive fraud, in the snap election, stripped his regime of legitimacy – a theme that haunts the Arroyo administration today. Echoes of that resonate in his address on the 75th birthday anniversary of the man who summoned the people to People Power I : Jaime Cardinal Sin.
“Anyone could have made the call ( to Edsa ). Indeed many have attempted to do, before and after February 1986, sometimes brandishing the barrel of a gun, sometimes in anger or desperation,” Vidal writes. “But only the calm and sober voice of shepherd himself elicited the response of a million feet…
“Being a voice that speaks for the collective conscience of a people is an ability that does not go with any office. There is no radio station so powerful, nor a pulpit so lofty, so as to bestow automatic credibility on any voice. ( The shepherd ) became the voice of the people, not so much as speaking on their behalf, as by empowering them to find a voice of their own….
The three kinds of pastors are : ““the shepherd of reluctance, the shepherd of compliance, and finally the shepherd of devotion,” Vidal said at the ordination of Kabankalan bishop Patricio Buzon.
Unsure of himself, the shepherd of reluctance does not teach. Distant from his flock, he consults and never leads. “He only follows the flow of fickle public opinion.” In contrast, the shepherd of compliance, makes his flock toe the line, “spoon feeds the willing and force-feeds the recalcitrants”. He does not consult but not directs.
“The shepherd of devotion” consults but also shows the way. “Where there is consensus, he allows them to lead. Where there is dissension, he takes the reins….He does not only teach; he inspires.”
Vidal recalled the hesitation of then Lipa archbishop Gaudencio Rosales to accept ordination as Manila archbishop. He, too, hesitated when asked to head the Cebu archdiocese. Rosales had looked forward to rest from all his labors as Malaybalay and Lipa pastor.
“Manila’s ground has always been soft and shaky,” Vidal noted. “It sits in the epicenter of all political and social upheveals. Yet, before Manila is the country’s capital city, is first a sheepfold…The dilemma is how to nuture a flock that goes home to different political fences….He is your archbishop: Listen to him”
A good read, the book offers a welcome change from the daily political drivel. Get one.
(E-mail : juan_mercado74@yahoo.com )
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National calamity in the Philippines
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HEART-WRENCHING is first word that flashed in our mind, viewing the widespread devastation wrought by the supertyphoon “Reming” last week in southern Luzon. The death and missing tally is still far from over.
The one billion peso allotment for disaster relief from the government is easily discerned as greatly insufficient. Eighty percent of houses were heavily damaged in many towns, often unroofed. Agriculture in many areas were wiped out, perhaps for next year or two.
Power may take at least a month or more to restore. Food and water suffer from shortages. Banks shut down, but even if one had money, prices may have gone beyond reach.
Sickness and injuries remain untreated due to shortage of medicines. Hospitals in the areas affected suffered damage to their buildings and equipment. At the rate bodies are being dug up, the number could easily reach a thousand.
Some towns have decided on mass burials to prevent the spread of diseases from the rotting cadavers.
The magnitude of the suffering is so huge that one cannot help but ask himself, is this some form of divine chastisement? What evil thing can the people have done to deserve this?
In terms of punishment on account of the amount of corruption being perpetrated in many levels of government because of greed, the answer might be yes, and it is well deserved.
In terms of the suffering it will cause to the poor who have already endured enough of the larcenous greed of the corrupt, the answer should be no. It goes against the grain of divine mercy we have faith in as a believer.
But in terms of the calamity upsetting the plans of the grafters in government prior to the changing the constitution by hook or by crook, spending billions to carry this out, suspending next year’s scheduled elections to prolong their tenures illegally, etc. etc. and thus staying longer in power, we cannot help but think that maybe, the recent calamity is a blessing in disguise.
Before typhoon “Reming”, there were already voices saying that after the Supreme Court had rebuked the People’s Initiative twice, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Jose de Venecia should rest a while and concentrate on the economic reforms they say are badly needed.
Now after the calamity, more voices are making a louder appeal to defer the Charter Change and concentrate on helping the numerous victims of “Reming.” But no. They refuse to be dissuaded.
What we predict will happen is that massive spending will still take place to promote GMA’s agenda for political reforms and leftover crumbs will be made to suffice for the calamity victims. They will make do with the international assistance that will be donated by other countries.
The Central Bank and other agencies have been busy making announcements before “Reming” about how cash positions of the government have been exceeding targets. To be more credible, announcements were also being made about how debts are being prepaid.
Some analysts believe such “good” news are being spinned to cover up forthcoming elections spending next year, or if this poll exercise pedoes not push through as GMA wishes, Charter Change spending.
No matter how skilfull the administration’s spinmasters are, economic data slips through accidentaly through the slats to expose the window dressing. For example, the National Economic Development Authority cannot help but report that gross domestic product for the third quarter dropped to a five-year low of 4.8 percent, way below the government projection of a 5.2-5.8 percent growth.
There are really some data that the government spinmasters cannot belie. These include the number of unemployed and underempoyed. GMA targetted 10 million new jobs, but last year only 700,000 new jobs were created. The survey companies such as Pulse Asia keep reporting the increasing poverty level and the increasing level of Filipinos who distrust GMA - more than 50 percent.
That’s why the same survey companies keep predicting an opposition victory in next year’s elections. And that’s why GMA does not want the election next May. When the opposition captures both houses of Congress, her impeachment becomes a certainty.
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Avoiding problems with your case - Part 4
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IN previous articles, I discussed some items which could be viewed by the Embassy or USCIS as being suspicious, trigger delays, and possibly result in investigation, administrative review, or denials. Here are more items:
9. A woman claims to be single with no children. But a medical exam discloses a history of pregnancies and deliveries.
If a woman is being petitioned as an “unmarried” daughter and claims never to have given birth, but a medical examination shows that the woman gave birth, this creates the suspicion that the woman is really married, and she is trying to conceal the birth, (and more importantly, the birth certificate of her child, which would disclose her marital status). If the visa she is applying for requires her to be single, the Embassy or USCIS would definitely want to investigate and track down this “birth” before issuing her a visa (to make sure she is single). (Please note that having illegitimate children would not void or affect the “single” status of the parent.)
10. A person obtains a green card as “single with no children,” but after obtaining a green card, immediately petitions a spouse and children.
If a person, at the time he or she was processed for a visa, claimed to be single with no children, but, after obtaining a green card, makes an “about face” and petitions a spouse and/or grown-up child, the Embassy will wonder where this family suddenly came from (i.e. a person obtains a green card, claiming he or she is single with no children, but a few years later, he or she suddenly has a teenage child being processed for a visa). In such a case, the Embassy or USCIS will wonder why, a few years earlier, the person had “no children”, and now he or she suddenly has a teenage child.
Conclusion
If you are not entitled to an immigration benefit and hope to “get away with it”, you should be aware that the Embassy and USCIS are very wise to the above circumstances, and many more. You would not be the first person to be involved in any of the above situations. These schemes have become so common in the Philippines, that they are now routinely investigated. This is why, even if you are legitimately entitled to immigration benefits, but your case looks suspicious, you should consider the assistance of an attorney who can analyze your case, gather the necessary documents, and prove your visa eligibility to the Embassy or USCIS, satisfying any questions, concerns, or suspicions. This way, you may be able to avoid delays, investigations, or possible denials of your case.
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:
LOS ANGELES:
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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