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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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NEW YORK CITY -- The body of Filipino caregiver Felisa “Fely” Garcia, 58, who was found hanging inside her closet on March 14 in The Bronx, will be repatriated to the Philippines next week.
In a telephone interview with The Filipino Express, Consul Edgar Badajos said that the Department of Foreign Affairs has already gave the approval to retrieve the body of Garcia and to send it home to her family in the Philippines.
Badajos also allayed fears raised by two Filipino domestic workers groups claiming that Garcia may have been led to commit suicide because she was abused by her employer, who remains unnamed.
Garcia reportedly left four suicide letters in an envelope in the kitchen for her landlady to find. One of the letters allegedly claimed of “abuse and harassment” from her employer.
The Kabalikat Domestic Workers Network and Damayan Migrant Workers Association are demanding a thorough investigation into the death of Garcia.
“We contacted the Bronx Medical Office which conducted the autopsy. And they said there was no foul play, no rape or physical abuse against Garcia,” said Badajos.
The Bronx Medical Office has yet to formally fax a copy of its autopsy to the Philippine Consulate, however.
Badajos also denied accusations by Kabalikat and Damayan that the Philippine Consulate General in New York did not lift a finger in connection with Garcia’s case.
He said the consulate has been working on Garcia’s case right upon learning upon her death.
“From the moment it happened, we immediately reported it to Manila office of undersecretary for migrant affairs. We didn’t announce publicly because we had to inform the family of the victim. We cannot make a sweeping conclusion and we have to wait for an official copy of the autopsy report,” said Badajos.
He explained that it would take time to get the official copy of the autopsy report because they had to receive a consent letter from the family of the victim.
But Garcia’s family, who are based in Batangas in Southern Luzon, said they have not been contacted by the DFA nor by any other government agencies.
In a long distance phone conference with Kabalikat, Fely’s eldest son Gabriel Garcia said his family was frustrated over “being kept in the dark” about his mother’s death.
Badajos said the DFA had directed the New York Consulate office to handle the case and to coordinate with the Bronx police for the investigation.
“We’re here to help overseas workers. Its our duty to see that justice is done,” said Badajos on April 1, officers and members of Kabalikat held a phone conference with Garcia’s family in Batangas and Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Arnedo Valero.
The Garcia family has given authorization to Valero to act as the family lawyer here in the US.
“Our mother was in good spirits days before her death. We had no reason to question her emotional health or detect that she was distressed. That is why we are suspicious of the circumstances surrounding her death. The circumstances suggest foul play,” Geraldine Gamboa, Garcia’s daughter, was quoted to have said during the phone conference.
Kabalikat is calling a townhall meeting on April 15, at 2:00 p.m. at the Philippine Forum’s Bonifacio Hall at 54-05 Seabury Street in Elmhurst, Queens.
Damayan, for its part, had launched an online petition for justice for Garcia.
It is asking President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to take steps in seeking justice for Garcia.
“We call on all Filipino domestic workers, the whole Filipino community in the US and our supporters to unite and show solidarity by coming to community actions and contributing towards fighting for truth and justice for Fely and her family,” said the petition circulated by Ana Liza Caballes, overall coordinator of Damayan.
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LOS ANGELES, California -- A registered nurse from the Philippines was sentenced on Monday, April 2, to 57 months in jail in Los Angeles, California for defrauding the US government of over $3 million in health care money.
US District Judge Dale Fischer also convicted Haydee Parungao for the structuring of cash transactions to avoid Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reporting requirements involving $613,710, the US-based Balita News Service reported.
The judge ordered Parungao to pay back Medicare the amount of $3,099,835.89, representing the amount of fraudulent claims she filed with the health care system, and to spend three years on a supervised released after serving her prison sentence.
Parungao entered a plea bargain agreement in which she agreed to forfeit her four luxury cars—two Mercedes Benz automobiles, a 2002 Mercedes Benz ML 55 AMG and a 2003 Mercedes Benz SL 500—to the government. She admitted that the vehicles were bought with proceeds from her illegal activities.
Parungao will start serving her sentence on May 25.
In October 2006, another US district judge found Lourdes Perez, also a Filipino registered nurse in California, guilty of defrauding Medicare of $40 million in fraudulent health care claims and for filing false tax returns that concealed her ill-gotten gains.
Judge Stephen V. Wilson sentenced Perez to 46 months in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme in which her companies obtained patients by paying illegal kickbacks to marketers, doctors and patients then billed Medicare for services that were not medically necessary and, in some cases, not performed at all, and made false medical records to support the fraudulent claims and avoid detection by Medicare contractors.
Parungao and Perez fell into the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after an inter-agency investigation that involved the IRA-Criminal Investigation, and FBI’s Health Care Fraud Unit in LA.
Apart from the prison term, Perez was also ordered to pay $6,127,374 to Medicare representing the fraudulent health care claims she managed to collect between October 2002 and September 2003, and an additional $874,336 to the IRA representing the amount of taxes she avoided to pay.
Perez pleaded guilty to health care fraud and tax charges and agreed to cooperate with government in the investigation of others involved in similar modus operandi.
Balita News Service said both Parungao and Perez were part of a complex interlocking web of fraud involving several home health businesses and hundreds of unwitting seniors across Southern California.
Parungao was engaged in a business that purportedly provides in-home nursing services to Medicare patients.
From 2001 through 2004, she worked as an independent contractor for several home health agencies, including Provident Home Health Care Services Inc., Tri-Regional Home Health Services Inc., Datacare Home Health Service Inc., and Double Diamond Home Health Services.
Together with others working for the home health agencies, Parungao engaged in a scheme to defraud the government in three ways. One, they billed Medicare for patients who were neither homebound nor eligible for Medicare home health services. Second, they billed Medicare for services that were not rendered, and three, they created false medical records to support the fraudulent claims submitted to Medicare, Balita News Service reported.
Perez owned two of the home health agencies involved in the fraud—Provident, in Eagle Rock and Tri-Regional, in San Dimas. They were once two of the largest such businesses in California.
A prosecutor in the case said the fraud worked because it pitted a vulnerable sector, senior citizens, against enterprising home health providers like Parungao and Perez, who aggressively peddled their scheme in the places their victims congregate: seniors centers, home health agencies, even outside supermarkets.
They offer something the seniors think they could use, from electric wheelchairs to health beverages and home health services. In exchange for signing off on a form, the unwitting seniors get something: cash, a gift car, cookware, etc.
Assistant US Attorney Consuelo Woodhead has cautioned senior citizens to be wary of anyone offering them money or gifts in exchange for signing off on services they don’t need or think is wrong.
“They are getting themselves mixed in defrauding the government, in taking money that should be going to services that could benefit them,” she said.
Instead, if someone approaches them offering home health service, they should first talk to a doctor, Woodhead said, noting that many of the victims of the Medicare fraud case have regular physicians, Balita News Service reported.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – In just two days, the congressionally mandated cap for H-1B visas for next year was reached.
In fact, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received much more than the 65,000-visa annual limit that it will resort to raffling the petitions it had received.
This means that there is no more H-1B visas available for those who did not file a petition before April 2.
It also means that even those who were able to file by April 2have no guarantee that the USCIS will process their applications. Because close to 150,000 petitions were received, the USCIS will use a computer-generated random selection process.
Only 65,000 will be processed, and the rest will be turned down and returned.
The USCIS announced on Tuesday, April 3, on its website that it has received enough H-1B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated cap for fiscal year 2008.
“USCIS will use a random selection process (described below) for all cap-subject filings received on April 2, 2007 and April 3, 2007. USCIS will reject and return along with filing fee(s) all petitions received on those days that are not randomly selected.”
The USCIS said that as of April 2,, it had received enough H-1B petitions to reach the 2008 H-1B cap and has set the “final receipt date” as April 2.
“USCIS will reject all cap-subject H-1B petitions for FY 2008 received on or after Wednesday, April 4,” it said.
“USCIS will reject and return along with the filing fee(s) all cap-subject H-1B petitions that are not randomly selected.”
The USCIS said those whose petitions will not be processed may re-submit their petitions on April 1, 2008 when H-1B visas become available for fiscal year 2009.
April 1, 2008 is the earliest date for which an employer may file a petition requesting H-1B employment, with a start date of October 1, 2008, for 2009.
As of late Monday afternoon, April 2, the USCIS had received approximately 150,000 cap-subject H-1B petitions.
The USCIS, however, also announced that there are exceptions.
Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers do not count towards the congressionally mandated H-1B cap.
The USCIS will continue to process petitions filed to:- Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States.
- Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers.
- Allow current H-1B workers to change employers.
- Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.
Certain H-1B petitions are exempt from the cap. Those petitions are not affected by this release, the USCIS said.
The H-1B visa program is the primary method for bringing in professional level foreign employees to the USA.
The H-1B visa enables US employers to hire foreign professionals for a specified period of time. The H1B program allows workers in specialty occupations to work in the US for up to a total of six years.
The H-1B is the visa used by US e,mployers to bring in professionals in the fields of computer science, health care, university teaching, engineering, law, accounting, financial analysis, management consulting, architecture and scientific research positions.
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CHICAGO, Illinois – Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate in the 2008 elections, urged the United States government to “closely monitor the situation in the Philippines” in connection with the unabated killings of journalists, political activists and clergies.
In an email to Jerry Clarito of Filipino Human Rights Coalition based in Chicago, Illinois, Obama said, “The United States must closely monitor the situation in the Philippines.”
“As you may know, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which I am a member, recently held hearings on this issue. My staff also met with Bishop Eliezer Pascua, General Secretary of the United Church of Christ, to discuss the situation,” the senator said.
“As the world’s sole superpower, the United States must lead the international community in bringing attention to human rights issues and working towards long-term, sustainable solutions.”
The junior senator from Illinois added: “Despite economic growth and democratic progress in recent years, reports of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines persist.”
Quoting the 2006 State Department Human Rights Report on the Philippines, Obama said, “During the year there were a number of arbitrary, unlawful, and extra-judicial killings apparently by elements of the security services and of political killings, including killings of journalists, by a variety of actors.
“In response to the problem, the government of the Philippines formed the Melo Commission, headed by a former Supreme Court Justice, and made recommendations to the government on how to proceed. Some of these recommendations have been followed.
“Also, at the invitation of the government of the Philippines, the UN Special Rapporteur visited the country and has since released a report on the problem of extrajudicial killings. These are important signs of progress, but the United States must continue to work toward improving this problem.”
The email from the presidential aspirant was the result of a visit by Clarito in Washington, D.C. during the “summit for the Filipino veteran issues” hosted by Philippine Ambassador Willie Gaa last January.
Clarito was the representative of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) for Midwest Region 3 at the summit. Mr. Clarito asked another NaFFAA Region 3 official, Marlon L. Pecson, to hand carry the letter of the FHRC to the office of Mr. Obama in the Capitol Hill.
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