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For the past 17 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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JERSEY CITY -- Jersey City Deputy Mayor Ador Equipado resigned on Thursday, January 4 after he was accused of demanding cash from a couple he married in October and using the occasion to peddle his private phone service business.
“It is the policy of my office that a mayor, deputy mayor, or any other individual designated to perform marriage or civil ceremonies should not derive a fee for this service,” Mayor Jerramiah Healy said in a statement, according to a Jersey Journal report.
The matter came to light last week after the bride and her mother contacted The Jersey Journal and said that City Hall had taken no action when they complained.
More complaints against the Filipino deputy mayor were received by City Hall this week.
Jersey City resident Donnell Morrison, who tied the knot at City Hall on October 6, said Equipado spent the first 10 minutes with her and her husband-to-be quizzing them about their finances and what phone service they used.
When she demanded to know what this had to do with administering the nuptials - which the $66,000-a-year deputy mayor is empowered to do - Equipado allegedly handed her and her mother, Carmen Hayes, applications for a phone service he sells.
Morrison said Equipado finally proceeded with the wedding after she said she wasn’t changing phone carriers.
But the static wasn’t over.
Seconds after the bride kissed the groom, Equipado allegedly demanded $50 cash, Morrison and Hayes said.
Morrison told Equipado she had already paid the $28 marriage fee charged by the City Clerk’s Office. She said she was told there would be no other charges - which officials confirmed is in fact city policy.
At that point, according to Morrison and Hayes, Equipado allegedly said, “Consider it a donation to me.”
The groom was about to pay Equipado, Hayes said, but she intervened.
A spokeswoman for Healy, Maria Pignataro, couldn’t say last night if Equipado had ever collected money from couples.
Records show he performed 60 weddings between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31.
Three other people regularly perform weddings for Jersey City: Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini and the Revs. Michael Kelly and David Hoffman. None accepts tips or charges couples for their services, Pignataro said.
On Monday, two more couples have stepped forward after the report accusing Equipado of charging charging couples to perform weddings.
One Jersey City resident, Budnarine Persuad, said he and his wife gave Equipado $150 on Oct. 10 after he told them he was a minister raising money to feed the homeless, and that his trusting wife continued to give Equipado donations after the wedding.
That same day, Doralee Ferrera said she borrowed $50 from her soon-to-be father-in-law to pay Equipado. This was after Equipado agreed to give her a “discount” - charging only $30 - because her fiancé, Oscar, was in the military. But since her father-in-law had only a $50 bill and Equipado didn’t have any change, Equipado allegedly kept the entire amount, she said. In fact, City Hall weddings should only cost $28.
“I feel robbed. It’s terrible,” Ferrera said. “It’s supposed to be one of the greatest days of our lives and here we are being taken for fools.”
Another couple wrote Mayor Healy and said Equipado asked them for money - in violation of city policy - before marrying them.
Equipado told them he was raising money for a charity in the Philippines, they said.
Appointed as a deputy mayor in January 2005 by Healy, Equipado, 62, a former director of the city’s water department, didn’t return several phone calls seeking comment.
He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the 31st District Assembly seat in 2001 and for Hudson County freeholder from Jersey City - also as a Republican, also unsuccessfully - in 1999.
Several Hudson County mayors charge for the service and pocket the cash, including East Newark Mayor Joe Smith, Union City Mayor Brian Stack, North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco and Kearny Mayor Albert Santos.
Jersey City’s policy is that officials who conduct City Hall weddings are not paid and don’t accept tips. The only charge is a $28 fee paid to the City Clerk’s Office for the marriage license, officials said.
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CHICAGO – A former ranking Philippine National Police official who pleaded guilty to passing classified information to opposition politicians in the Philippines as part of a scheme to overthrow the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been rescheduled for sentencing on March 13.
On the other hand, the former FBI intelligence analyst who passed the information on to PNP Senior Superintendent Michael Ray Aquino has also been rescheduled for sentencing on March 15, according to an email message from Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl H. Buch.
Aquino, 41, has been scheduled to be sentenced last December 12 while his fellow conspirator, Leandro Aragoncillo, 47, was supposed to be sentenced last December 14. But their sentencing dates were moved to January, 2007 and were later re-scheduled to March, 2007.
For pleading guilty last July to unlawfully possessing secret US government documents containing information relating to national defense as well as information on terrorist threats to US military personnel in the Philippines, Aquino faces a sentence of between 70 and 87 months in prison plus $250,000 fine.
On the other hand, by pleading guilty last May 4 to one count of conspiracy to transmit national defense information and another count of transmitting national defense information, Aragoncillo, a Filipino American FBI analyst at Fort Monmouth Information Technology Center in New Jersey, could face a maximum term of life in prison.
Aragoncillo could also face additional maximum penalty of 10 years each in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of unlawful retention of national defense information and unlawful use of a government computer. He will likely be asked to pay a fine of $250,000 for each count.
Aragoncillo described the documents he transmitted as “blueprint” on how to launch a coup.
Aragoncillo was a former US Marine who worked at various times for Vice President Al Gore and Dick Cheney.
Aquino, a former deputy director in the PNP and senior superintendent of the disbanded Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, supported Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who lost to Mrs. Arroyo during the 2004 presidential election. Lacson, Aquino’s former superior as former PNP chief, has acknowledged receiving information from Aquino.
Aquino’s lawyer will be seeking a reduction of sentence from 37 to 46 months. By pleading guilty, Aquino avoided possible life sentence and trial that could have exposed the intelligence gathering techniques of the US government.
Aquino admitted receiving documents and information from Aragoncillo that contained details of threats to US military personnel in the Philippines.
He started receiving these documents from January 2005 until his arrest at his residence in Queens, New York, on an expired visa on March 7, 2005. While Aragoncillo was arrested by special agents of the FBI at his home in Woodbury, Gloucester County, New Jersey.
According to court documents, Aragoncillo sent email messages, often with classified documents attached to former President Estrada, who was named as the Public Official #1 described in a criminal complaint as a former high-level public official; to Sen. Lacson as the Public Official #2, a current high-level public official; and to Congressman Fuentebella (NPC-3rd Dist. Camarines Sur) as Public Official #3, a second current high-level public official. Estrada, Lacson and Fuentebella were named as Aragoncillo’s unindicted co-conspirators.
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