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For the past 21 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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Miguel Gatmaytan celebrates with his sister, Isabella Gatmaytan, 9, after winning the 48th annual district spelling bee on March 22 at the Orlando Sentinel office in Florida.
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ORLANDO, Florida – After one of the longest Central Florida spelling bees in recent history, 11-year-old Philippine-born Miguel Gatmaytan on Thursday, March 22, won top honors – and a trip to the nation’s capital – with the word cossack.
The boy smiled, shook runner-up Sophie Jupillat’s hand, then sat down while his father and others rushed to take his photo. A few minutes later, the victory seemed to sink in.
“Yes!” he shouted, pumping his arms in the air.
Miguel, a sixth-grader at Osceola Middle School in Marion County, survived 38 rounds of spelling challenges and beat out 13 other competitors to win the 48th annual Central Florida bee, the Florida Sentinel reported.
The youngest regional spelling champion in more than a decade, Miguel’s victory earned him a spot in the National Spelling Bee in May.
“I feel awesome,” Miguel said after he had been handed a trophy and prizes, which included $2,000 for travel expenses to Washington, DC.
Miguel’s father, Carlos, described his son as a voracious reader and straight-A student who always seemed to have a gift with words. The family moved to Florida from the Philippines three years ago, and the trip to Washington for the 80th national spelling bee will be Miguel’s first to the nation’s headquarters.
After 24 rounds, Miguel and Sophie, the Lake County champion, were the last two spellers left, and they battled for the top spot.
Aplomb. Basilica. Fiefdom. Pinnacle. Adumbrate.
The two students took turns spelling them right, among other words, to go another 14 rounds.
Then Sophie misspelled
vagary. She sat down, and Miguel returned to the microphone. Miguel spelled vagary correctly, then won when he also aced the word for a Russian peasant who served in the Czar’s cavalry: c-o-s-s-a-c-k.
Miguel said he had never entered a spelling bee before this school year but studied nightly once he decided to compete. His parents helped by drilling him on words they found in spelling books. He won the Marion County bee, continued studying for Thursday’s competition and said he plans to do even more for the national event.
The regional bee was held at the Orlando Sentinel, which sponsors the event. It featured winners and runners-up from eight Central Florida county spelling bees, though two contestants did not compete Thursday.
It took 21 rounds to whittle the competitors to a final four. Those four spellers included the youngest in the pack, nine-year-old Benjamin Rice from Port Orange Elementary in Volusia County. Benjamin spelled a long list of words correctly and brought smiles to the audience when one of them was precocious. He was knocked out in the 23rd round by reticence.
Kaitlyn Johnston, a student at The First Academy in Orange County, came in third. She tripped up on the word apparition in the 24th round.
Sophie, who is home-schooled, said the bee was “fun and nerve-wracking” and she hadn’t expected to place as high as second in the regional competition.
Miguel also said he was surprised by how well he did.
“I thought I was a good speller, but I never thought I’d win the district,” he said.
Sophie had two chances to win when Miguel misspelled contrapuntal and, then in the next round, also missed plenary, but she also spelled both wrong.
The national bee, sponsored by the newspaper firm the E.W. Scripps Co., is scheduled May 30 and 31. Last year, it included 274 spellers, all winners from regional bees. The 2006 national champion won with the word ursprache.
Wendy’s restaurants was a sponsor of the Central Florida bee, providing the contestants with prizes and giving $1,000 to the winner’s school. The Sentinel provides the travel money for the winner, among other gifts.
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NEW YORK CITY -- Spurred by the recent assault against a Filipina high school student in Queens, a petition-signing campaign was launched demanding an investigation into the incident and to demand punishment for authorities who failed to stop the attack.
The letter of petition is addressed to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NY Police Department Hate Crimes Task Force Commanding Officer Inspector Michael Osgood and MTA Bus President Tom Savage.
The New York Post reported on March 16 that 17 year old Filipina high school student, Marie Stefanie Martinez was assaulted in New York by a group of teenagers on a MTA B82 bus due to their perception that she looked “Chinese” even though she is of Filipino descent.
Ms. Martinez was punched, kicked, and subjected to slurs in what can be categorized as a hate crime based on her attackers animosity towards her perceived ethnicity.
Reportedly, the MTA bus operator who witnessed the assault did nothing to intervene during the course of the assault on Ms. Martinez.
The petition accused the bus driver of “neglecting his moral and ethical duty to ensure the safety of MTA riders and punctuated his negligent conduct by allegedly advising Ms. Martinez, who was still wearing her Catholic school uniform, to ‘go talk to a priest’ after the assault.”
The petition is asking the MTA and NYPD to “conduct a vigorous full and complete investigation into the incident ensuring that any violations found of any applicable hate crimes statutes are fully applied.”
It also called for the bus operator to “be subjected to discipline commensurate to the action of permitting riders to commit a hate crime on a MTA rider.”
“If the bus operator is found to have permitted the assault to have taken place and informed Ms. Martinez to ‘go talk to a priest’, MTA should subject the bus operator to termination from his position,” the letter said.
The petition letter could be accessed via the internet at http://www.petitiononline.com/mtahate1/petition.html.
As of Thursday afternoon, March 29, close of 2,200 persons have signed the petition.
Martinez, 17 told the New York Post that she was attacked by a group of 10 black teenagers shortly after step ping on to the B82 bus at 3:30 p.m. Friday.
“I’m just so glad the kids didn’t have a weapon. If they did, I could have died if they stabbed me with a pen or something,” said Martinez, from the Philippines.
The brazen beating began as the bus pulled away from Ocean Avenue and Kings Highway, where Martinez boarded with her pal, Sherell.
“When we got on they were al ready whis pering and mak ing noises and everything,” Martinez said. “They were like ‘I’m not letting you past’ and everything. They were laughing.”
The scared schoolgirl said she was laughed at when she tried to defend herself, with the bullies mocking her accent.
“They were pulling my hair, pulling my hair, opening my book bag!” she said. “I said, ‘Leave me alone. I’m not doing anything to you.’
“That’s when they started to crowd around me. The boy punched me twice in my face and my mouth.”
Martinez said she was ultimately saved by a man in his 30s, who pulled her from the group.
The honors student then told the driver what happened, and he shockingly said to go to talk to a priest.
She instead opted to file a report at the 63rd Precinct.
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DALY CITY, California -- The 44-year-old schizophrenic Filipino cab driver found guilty of purposely attempting to murder two female police officers investigating his pellet gun shooting of a mother and child and later found sane at the time of the crimes was sentenced to 79 years to life in prison Monday.
The sentence makes Jerry Cabonce ineligible for parole until August 2082 — effectively meaning he will die in prison — and comes more than three years after the attack that left the two civilians wounded, the two officers severely injured with stab wounds and propelled Cabonce into multiple legal battles over his guilt and mental condition.
Cabonce elected not to address the court but his defense attorney Vincent O’Malley did file a written request for a lesser term, the San Mateo Daily Journal reported.
. After one of the injured officers, Lea Militello, thanked the court and those handling the case, Judge John Runde handed down a total term of 79 years to life in prison.
Cabonce’s sentence was a second strike because he had a prior conviction for stabbing his brother-in-law two decades ago. He will receive credit for time already spent at a state mental hospital and the jail while awaiting trial.
The sentence was a satisfactory end to a trial which required the jury to find Cabonce both guilty and sane, said prosecutor Al Giannini.
“The judge was typically thoughtful and meticulous, and imposed a sentence that will keep Mr. Cabonce from ever hurting anyone else,” he said.
The jury convicted Cabonce of two counts of premeditated attempted murder of a police officer, two counts of assault and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon on Jan. 25. On Jan. 31, the same panel found Cabonce legally sane.
On Aug. 11, 2003, according to Giannini, Cabonce was drunk and angry at the idea he could lose his Social Security benefits. Cabonce drove his illegal cab to San Francisco and took aim at a mother walking her 3-year-old son to preschool on Powell Street.
Cabonce testified he never opened the car door or deliberately aimed at the boy — both disputed by other witnesses. He admitted the shooting was a cry for help in which he hoped police would arrest him and contact a social worker so he could plead his case about the benefits.
Plainclothes police inspectors Pat Correa and Militello tracked the cab to the Daly City home Cabonce shared with his parents but did not immediately identify him as their suspect. After one of the officers placed her hand on Cabonce’s shoulder to calm his apparent anxiety at being questioned, he thrust a knife in her chest before stabbing the other and turning back to the first again. Cabonce re-entered the home and began a four-hour standoff with a SWAT team before being apprehended.
Cabonce testified the officers did not identify themselves or display badges. Both officers and witnesses said otherwise. During two days on the stand he also described the near-fatal stabbings as an accident sparked by his fear the officers were really gang members.
Cabonce similarly explained the 1987 stabbing of his brother-in-law over a child custody dispute as unintentional. He testified he is more important than other people. He also said everybody who had testified in the trial, including his own mother, was mistaken in what they saw.
During the trial, Giannini argued Cabonce is dangerous but not because he is a diagnosed schizophrenic whose delusions include beliefs about former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and being descended from Filipino royalty. The sanity verdict, he said, helps dispel the misconception that mental illness causes crime and frees a defendant from responsibility.
The verdict also spelled the first time in San Mateo County history when a formerly incompetent defendant was forcibly medicated to stand trial, convicted and imprisoned.
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NEW YORK CITY -- An organization of Filipino domestic workers in the metro New York area has expressed concern and questions over the reported suicide of a Filipina domestic worker in the Bronx.
Felisa “Fely” Garcia, 58, was found hanging inside her closet by her landlady on March 14.
Garcia reportedly left four suicide letters in an envelope in the kitchen for her landlady to find. One of the letter allegedly claimed of “abuse and harassment” from her employer, who remains unnamed.
The Queens-based Kabalikat Domestic Workers Support Network is currently helping the family of Garcia, who are based in Batangas, to find out more about her death and her allegations of abuse.
Kabalikat (literally, meaning shoulder-to-shoulder) has scheduled a town hall meeting on Sunday, April 2, at 2:00 p.m. to inform the public of recent developments concerning the Garcia’s case.
The public meeting will be held at the Philippine Forum office at 54-05 Seabury Street in Elmhurst, Queens.
Garcia’s family and leaders of Kabalikat also expressed concern over the Philippine Consulate in New York’s failure to disclose to the family the results of the investigation into the Filipina’s death conducted by the New York Police Department.
“Fely’s family and the Filipino community have a right to know what happened to her,” said Lorena Sanchez, co-coordinator of Kabalikat.
“Fely’s letter and the nature of her death call for a community action,” sh said.
Sanchez said Kabalikat will call for an autopsy and an investigation into her claim of abuse.
“We cannot allow this incident to be swept underneath the rug, like many cases of distressed Filipino migrants. She was clearly crying for help,” Sanchez said.
Members of Kabalikat met with Garcia’s landlord last week, and talked over the phone with Garcia’s family in Batangas and next of kin here in the US.
Garcia’s family said they were never contacted by the Philippine Consulate to discuss Garcia’s death and legal procedures. Garcia left behind four children whom she supported by working as a domestic worker in New York.
In a phone conference with Kabalikat, Fely’s eldest son Gabriel Garcia said his family is frustrated over “being kept in the dark” about his mother’s death.
Garcia’s children have also expressed a desire to fly to New York to settle legal procedures themselves, and not leave everything to the Philippine Consulate.
“The family obviously wants justice, not silence,” Sanchez added. “We support Fely’s family as they push for a criminal investigation of Fely’s employer and examination of her body for abuse.”
Kabalikat leaders also said that Garcia’s landlady will be present at the meeting to explain the case. A message from Garcia’s family in Batangas will be read.
The community meeting also aims to raise funds to help relieve burial and transportation expenses of the Garcia family.
Julia Camagong, co-executive director of Philippine Forum, challenged the Philippine Consulate to exert efforts to ensure the speedy release of the autopsy report and call on the NYPD to investigate Garcia’s allegation of abuse.
“Throughout the world, Philippine Consulates and Embassies appear more interested in quickly closing these types of cases of maltreatment and distress than actually offering assistance for victims of abuse like Fely and pursuing justice,” Camagong said.
“The orientation of our consular offices abroad is not to help migrants with their basic problems, but help them remit their earnings back to the Philippines,” Camagong added.
Kabalikat is an organizational network of domestic launched by the Philippine Forum, a community organization geared towards raising Filipino-Americans’ awareness of their roots, rights, and responsibilities.
To get to the Philippine Forum office, take the V, G and R trains to Grand Avenue/Newtown Station in Elmhurst, Queens. The office is located at the social hall of the First Presbyterian Church of Newtown.
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