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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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BEFORE AND AFTER Janice Del Rosario as she appeared to her new friends, left and as she appeared before going into hiding.
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TORONTO, Canada -- She came into their lives out of nowhere – a beautiful, God-fearing woman preaching love, bearing presents, and offering everyone an opportunity to share in her good fortune.
Janice Del Rosario dressed in Gucci and drove a BMW. And she dispensed kindness, compassion and good deeds “like a Mother Teresa.”
But when she disappeared suddenly last November, the velvet-tongued Del Rosario left behind a dozen victims clutching an armful of bounced cheques, useless promissory notes and slim chances of recovering any of the estimated $1.5 million they claim she took from them. Victims told The Toronto Star said the amount taken may be much higher, but those victims have not come forward.
“I never in my life thought she was capable of something like this,” says 75-year-old Luigi Chiarotto who says he is owed about $1.2 million. “She seemed honest, very honest, like my daughter.”
Del Rosario was arrested in her Bathurst St, apartment by Toronto on January 15. The government is now preparing to deport her to the Philippines, where she and her husband are wanted for for fraud in connection with a large-scale pyramid-type scam.
Her husband Kaye Gravador del Rosario, 33, remains at-large.
Del Rosario feted the retired construction worker with a lavish surprise party on his 73rd birthday. A cancer victim was given a prepaid cemetery plot. Some got Danier leather jackets, others Swarovski crystal.
Even as the 44-year-old Filipino refugee claimant garnered sympathy among newfound friends with horrific stories of her family being extortion victims back home, they say she was setting them up to be exploited.
When she began offering 10-per-cent return on personal loans for just 10 days they were ready with their chequebooks, and paid the price for that all too human weakness – greed.
Some lost their life savings, others were hit up for luxury cars and credit cards. And a lot of people who should’ve known better are left wondering just who on earth is Janice Florence Vasquez Del Rosario?
And more important, where is she now?
Del Rosario, her husband, Kaye, 34, and their two boys, aged 8 and 13 went into hiding on Nov. 15, the day before they were to surrender to immigration authorities for deportation to their native Philippines. Her eldest son, Jose Vicente Tayzon, 25, who is here on a student visa, says he does not know where his mother is.
“She’s not here, she left months ago,” Tayzon says, adding he is aware of the warrant for her arrest. “Whatever the allegations are, I am removed from that. I am not in communication with them.”
The family, who came to Canada in March 2003 as visitors, then applied for refugee status claiming they were victims of extortion by corrupt Filipino police officials, had exhausted all legal means of overturning their removal order.
A Canada-wide warrant was issued for their arrest after they failed to make a flight to Manila on Nov. 16.
The last place Janice and Kaye Del Rosario want to return to is to their own country, where both are wanted for fraud in connection with a large-scale pyramid-type scam. None of their alleged victims in Canada were aware there were warrants for their arrest in the Philippines when she started tapping them for loans.
By the time Del Rosario had finished with Chiarotto, the hard-working Italian immigrant was out $1.2 million in cash, and had co-signed leases for two luxury cars, a BMW X-5 for Janice, and a Mercedes-Benz for her husband.
“I said, why not a Dodge Caravan?” Chiarotto says. “But she said she had to have expensive cars so she could look good in her business.”
After loaning Del Rosario, a woman he hardly knew, $800,000 without collateral, Chiarotto needed her to succeed in business, which she claimed was buying and selling high-end jewellery. Chiarotto’s wife, Lydia Pagulayan, a fellow Filipina immigrant, also signed documents to provide two credit cards for Del Rosario, who said she didn’t qualify for credit in this country.
Over the next six months Del Rosario charged $33,000 on them, everything from pizzas and parking fees to payments for personal trainers, lunches at Sassafraz in Yorkville, and $11,000 shopping sprees at Gucci stores.
As apparently was her pattern, Del Rosario paid regular interest payments on the loans, giving Chiarotto post-dated cheques as collateral.
To prove her wealth and allay their fears, Del Rosario showed statements from TD and HSBC banks in Toronto and Equitable PCI bank in the Philippines attesting to more than $2 million on deposit with these institutions.
When Del Rosario called Chiarotto in a panic last summer, saying she was about to be deported unless he came up with another $200,000, Chiarotto mortgaged his house and gave her the money.
“She said her lawyer had an agreement with a judge that will allow her to be landed, but it must be $200,000 in cash,” he says. “She started crying, crying. So I believe her.
“What could I do? It was either that or lose everything.”
In exchange he got a promissory note dated Oct. 4, 2006, consolidating all the previous loans totalling $1,163,500. The note called for Del Rosario to start paying Chiarotto $20,000 a month, plus interest, conditional on her obtaining landed status. She also gave him a copy of her will, showing him to be a benefactor of her estate should she die before repaying the loans.
A month later, Del Rosario, who also goes by several aliases, disappeared. “She has no heart. She has no humanity,” says Chiarotto.
The last time Chiarotto saw Del Rosario was Nov. 15, the day before she was to be deported when she drove to his modest Scarborough bungalow and phoned him from her BMW. When he came to the door, however, she had already driven off. (On Friday evening she phoned again, to say she’d start repaying him next month, and to ask if he’d been talking to a reporter.)
Before those final fleeting contacts, Chiarotto had last heard from her before Christmas, when Del Rosario phoned from an unknown location wishing him a Merry Christmas, saying she would send her brother or her son, Tayzon, to deliver the money she owes him.
Michael Labrecque, a Toronto real estate agent and a counsellor who works with the homeless and kids at risk, still can’t quite believe he too fell for Del Rosario’s charm and business proposals.
“We should’ve know better,” says Labrecque, 29, who along with his wife, Cecilia Ramos, 28, a mortgage broker, is out more than $120,000. “I don’t even know how we got in this deep. She portrayed herself as a religious, trustworthy person and we all fell for it.”
Del Rosario claimed she was a wealthy businesswoman in the Philippines, where she operated several businesses including a finance company. She showed Ramos her bank account statement showing a balance of 44,196,000 pesos, more than $1 million Canadian.
As she had done with the others, Del Rosario gave Ramos and Labrecque cheques written on her business account, Gloval Venture Trading and Investment Placement, at a TD-Canada Trust branch in Thornhill. Most of those cheques have bounced.
“She was really good,” Ramos says, explaining how Del Rosario took her for $90,000. “Michael is probably the cheapest person in the world and he gave her $30,000.”
“We know of at least another five people who are owed about $300,000,” says Labrecque.
Ramos claims that the previously pleasant Del Rosario left a chilling message on her answering machine after learning she and other investors had gone to the police.
“Tears of blood will flow from your eyes if you come after me,” was the message Del Rosario left in Tagalog, the Filipino language.
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CHICAGO – The moment of truth will come for former Philippine Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” I. Bolante on Jan. 23 when the Chicago, Illinois Immigration Court will hand down its verdict on his petition for political asylum.
This tightly-guarded information was relayed to this reporter by one of its sources from the law firm, Azulay, Horn & Seiden, LLC, retained by Mr. Bolante. The source requested anonymity.
“While the mass media were barred from covering the case,” the source said, “the decision of Judge George P. Kastivalis will be a public information.”
As Bolante’s lawyers succeeded in imposing a news blackout on the story, it generated wild rumors from Philippine newspapers. One report said Bolante had abandoned his petition for political asylum and opted to file for “voluntary departure to leave for Indonesia.”
His voluntary deportation to a third country, like Indonesia, would reportedly clear him of any liability in the United States.
The voluntary deportation would mean that the record of his entry to the US would be expunged. Bolante was barred from the port of entry at the Los Angeles International Airport last July 7.
The rumor prompted Bolante’s lawyers to break their silence, saying the report as a yarn.
Aside from barring reporters from staying near the premises of the locked doors of the court room, reporters and photographers were shooed away from standing on the federal building premises housing the immigration court.
If Bolante prevails on his political asylum petition, he could be granted a lawful permanent residence, which is a path to US citizenship. If he loses, his lawyers can file an appeal. If his lawyers will not appeal his case, he will be processed for deportation to the Philippines.
From interviews with immigration lawyers, who had appeared before Judge Kastivalis in previous separate cases, it was disclosed that Kastivalis had been very stingy in approving political asylum applications. “Nine out of 10 applications are the average rejections compiled by Judge Kastivalis on asylum cases,” one immigration lawyers explained.
Citing threats on his life, Bolante filed for political asylum last Nov. 9 to avoid political persecution in his homeland. In contesting his deportation, Bolante said he never broke any immigration rules contrary to allegations by immigration agents who stopped him at the Los Angeles International Airport last July.
According to the court records of the Bolante case, the United States Embassy in the Philippines revoked his “B-1/B-2” (tourist/business) visa when Bolante did not respond to its two letters, inviting him to the embassy so his visa can be revoked.
By failing to show up at the embassy, Bolante prevented the US Embassy from stamping “Revoked” in his passport as he left the Philippines.
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CEBU CITY -- Even without the nod of the bicameral Commission on Appointments, former chief justice Hilario Davide took his oath here as Philippine ambassador to the United Nations in New York.
Outgoing ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja will assume a new diplomatic post, that of special envoy on inter-faith dialogue, when he goes back to the home office.
ASEAN spokesman Victoriano Lecaros announced in a press briefing that Davide took his oath as Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN before President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo just after the ASEAN meeting with Korea.
Davide was deemed bypassed by the CA when it adjourned on December 22 without tackling his appointment.
But according to Lecaros, there is nothing irregular with the oath-taking.
“Filipino diplomats actually have the option to take our oath before or after their confirmation,” Lecaros said.
Davide cannot assume his post as the new envoy to the UN in New York without the CA’s approval.
Lecaros said Baja, a former career diplomat and deputy foreign secretary, will be given a special assignment by the President upon his recall.
Baja, now a political appointee, is scheduled to end his tour of duty in 2009. However, the President has the prerogative to recall ambassadors anytime.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Baja is already “overstaying.” Baja was originally scheduled to be replaced by Davide in February last year.
Sources earlier said Davide, 71, has reportedly been lobbying for the post months before his retirement in December 2005.
Plum diplomatic posts are usually offered to political appointees by the President as a political concession.
Although there is no age limit for political appointees, Section 23 of the 1991 Foreign Service Act states that all incumbent non-career chiefs of mission who are 70 years old and above should no longer be appointed.
All political appointees, are, however, co-terminus with the appointing authority.
Career service officers, on the other hand, who have reached the age of 65 shall be automatically and compulsorily retired from service.
The Foreign Service Act also states that majority of the ambassadors should come from the career service.
Present ratio between career officers and political appointments is 51 percent for the career officers against 49 percent for political appointees.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol defended on Monday, January 15, the appointment and oath-taking of retired Supreme Court chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr as permanent ambassador to the United Nations even without confirmation by the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA).
Apostol said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, being the appointing authority, is allowed to designate anybody she deems qualified for the post.
“The appointment of Chie Justice Davide is valid, legal and constitutional…(there is) no infirmity that is stated in the decision of the SC that the President can (name) any appointee to the post even without the confirmation of the CA,” Apostol said.
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CHICAGO, Illinois – Hawaii’s Democratic Sen. Daniel K. Inouye has reintroduced the “Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2007” on January 4, the very day the new 110th US Congress opened session on January 4.
A House version is expected to be refiled soon , by either Rep. Bob Filner (Dem.-CA-51) or Rep. Darrell E. Issa (Dem. CA-49),
In his introductory statement, Inouye, a recent visitor to the Philippines, said:
“The Filipino Veterans Equity Act, which I introduce today, would restore the benefits due to these veterans by granting full recognition of service for the sacrifices they made during World War II. These benefits include veterans health care, service-connected disability compensation, non-service connected disability compensation, dependent indemnity compensation, death pension, and full burial benefits.”
Like the previous bills that Inouye filed in the Committee on Veterans Affairs, Senate Bill 57 is re-introducing S. 146 as a “bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to deem certain service in the organized military forces of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and the Philippine Scouts to have been active service for purpose of benefits under programs administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.”
As in the past bills, Inouye’s bill will bestow to World War II Filipino Veterans living in the United States, in the Philippines or anywhere else, benefits similarly received during World War II by members of the US Armed Forces, including the Allied Forces from 66 other countries, now receiving this benefit. The Filipino veterans were singled out not to get these benefits with the passage of Rescission Act of 1946 on Feb. 18, 1946.
This bill needs to be passed by the Senate Veterans Committee for it to be sent to Senate floor for debate. It will need at least 51 Senators to pass it and forward it to the House of Representatives.
This year’s bill will have the best chance to pass as the Democrats were able to capture the majority of both the Senate and the House.
The bill got a big boost earlier in the House Veterans Affairs when Democratic Congressman Bob Filner replaced Rep. Steve Buyer (IN-4th), a Republican, as Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, in the new 110th Congress.
The Filipino Veterans Equity Bill of 2005 was able to draw the support of 42 cosponsors.
In the House of Veterans Affairs Committee, Filner needs at least 14 votes from its 27-members before it can be forwarded to the House floor for debate. If there are at least 218 members of present, the House can pass it with a simple majority of 110 votes.
In a statement, Senator Inouye said:
“Throughout the years, I have sponsored several measures to rectify the lack of appreciation America has shown to these gallant men and women who stood in harm’s way with our American soldiers and fought the common enemy during World War II.
“It is time that we, as a Nation, recognize our long-standing history and friendship with the Philippines . Of the 120,000 that served in the Commonwealth Army during World War II, there are approximately 60,000 Filipino veterans currently residing in the United States and the Philippines.
“According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Filipino veteran population is expected to decrease to approximately 20,000 or roughly one-third of the current population by 2010.
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