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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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GOTCHA. Manny Pacquiao (left) connects on a left hook to the face of Mexican Jorge Solis during their World Boxing Council international super featherweight fight on April 14.
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SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Manny Pacquiao came out from a listless start bleeding from a ghastly cut to chase down and knock out Mexican challenger Jorge Solis in the eighth round of a title fight Saturday in a victory laced with political undertones in a nation gripped with election fever.
The 28-year-old Pacquiao kept his WBC (World Boxing Council) international super featherweight crown by stopping the previously unbeaten Solis in 1:16 of the round with a flurry of blows that floored the Mexican twice. The champion shifted to attack mode after being stung by a headbutt that led to a nasty cut above the left eyebrow in the sixth round.
As in past fights by the Filipino icon, the country stood still at midday and rejoiced as referee Vic Drakulich counted out the Mexican flat on his back under the ropes.
It triggered a frenzied celebration at the Alamodome, scene of Pacquiao’s greatest triumph over Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003, and back home.
President Arroyo lauded Pacquiao’s victory and urged Filipinos to use the win as an inspiration to battle poverty and other social ills, adding, “Manny stands for the dream of every Filipino in the ring of life and the arena of the future.”
The Chief Executive issued her statement from the St. Luke’s hospital in Quezon City, where she has been watching over her husband, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, who had a high-risk open-heart surgery last week.
Many candidates running in the May 14 congressional and local elections used the boxing match to campaign. In fact, followers of Pacquiao, himself a congressional aspirant, said the General Santos native virtually put his political ambition on the line by taking on the untested but dangerous Solis.
Pacquiao has repeatedly said the fight had nothing to do with the elections where he would contest the congressional seat with incumbent Darlene Antonino-Custodio, who gamely cheered her political rival during the bout.
But his legal counsel and General Santos City pointman, Franklin Gacal, said later that he almost fell off his seat when he saw Pacquiao bleeding as a result of the accidental headbutt.
“Kinabahan talaga ako (I became nervous),” he said. “Nakakarga sa laban ang kandidatura ni Manny (His candidacy lies on the this fight).”
Pacquiao, who is expected to earn no less than $4 million for this fight, is scheduled to fly back to Manila Sunday evening. The moment he steps out of the airport, the celebration, and campaigning would continue.
The Filipino champ had trouble connecting in the opening rounds as Solis, using his advantage in reach and height, proved slippery and up to the challenge. The Mexican showed great head and body movement that often left the Filipino’s punches either short or wide.
The cut served as a wake-up call for Pacquiao that he could not fool around with Solis who carried an unbeaten 32-0 record into the ring. Two rounds later, the fight ended with the native of Guadalajara wobbling to his corner.
Solis fell into the waiting arms of his younger brother and world champion Ulises. He sat on a stool for nearly 10 minutes before he was escorted out of the ring.
“It was hard to fight that type of a fighter. He has long arms and good head movement. I took it easy in the early rounds,” Pacquiao said.
Pacquiao admitted in an interview by Mel Tiangco in the early evening news program 24Oras Tuesday night that he was paid $2 million, 35 percent of which will go to the United States treasury in the form of taxes, to fight Jorge Solis of Mexico.
Pacquiao added that his earnings are still subject to Philippine taxes, “but not as much.” However, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank said that the Filipino boxer’s total earnings could be at least $5 million, if fees from pay-per-view, endorsements and other promotional arrangements are totalled.
Pacquiao is also expecting to rake in profit from the sale of the fight DVDs and CDs.
In other words, Pacquiao is likely to earn at least $1.3 million to at most $5 million from his title bout with Solis.
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BLACKSBURG, Virginia -- More than 100 students of Filipino heritage are enrolled in any given year at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg about 260 miles west of Washington, but members of the Filipino-American Student Association said as far as they know, none of their compatriots was among the casualties.
Thirty-two students and professors of VTech, as the school is more commonly known, were gunned down by a senior student from South Korea, Cho Seung-hui on Monday, April 16.
On Tuesday, the Philippine Embassy in Washington said it is still checking if Filipinos were among the 32 people killed in the massacre.
But Filipino students at the university said they are not aware of any Filipino casualty in the shooting, the Philippine Star reported.
Jennel Baltazar, a Filipino American civil engineering senior, said she was attending a class at 9 a.m. at a building adjacent to Norris Hall when she heard ambulance and police sirens and saw heavily armed police running across the campus.
“One of the officers kept shouting to his men ‘run faster, hustle, hustle, hurry up,’” she said. She said a dean came to the class and ordered everyone —about 15 to 20 of them —to quickly move to another room.
It was then she said when she knew it was serious, so she called her parents
mom Marinet is from Cavite —and told them she was safe. “I didn’t want them to worry in case they heard the news on TV,” she said.
She said from the window she saw two people bleeding being led away to safety.
But it was only after she returned home to her apartment when the gravity of the situation hit her. “When I saw the TV replaying what had happened, I felt limp and started crying uncontrollably. I could easily have been one of the victims as I usually have classes at Norris Hall,” she said.
Adrian Santo Domingo, 20, a junior taking up computer engineering, said when he got to his 10 a.m. class three buildings away from Norris Hall, he thought it strange that there were only about 20 students present when more than 100 normally attended the lecture.
He said as he left the building to get to his car, he heard the emergency PA system announcing a lockdown.
Baltazar and Santo Domingo said the shooting at Virginia Tech was all the more chilling because in their years at Blacksburg they always felt safe.
One week earlier, on April 9, Filipino and Asian students of Virginia Tech held a candlelight vigil to remember the Bataan Death March.
“This is the first vigil to be held at (Tech) specifically to remember the Bataan Death March,” said Brian Gerardo, Education and Advocacy Chair of the Asian American Student Union at Virginia Tech.
Several speakers addressed the gathered students during the one-hour vigil, including Omar Maglalang, sophomore communication major and Education and History Chair of the Filipino American Student Association (FASA) at Virginia Tech.
On Tuesday night in Washington State University, an informal candlelight vigil was held to remember the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. The vigil started at 6 p.m. on Glenn Terrell Mall and lasted about an hour.
It was initated by the WSU Filipino American Student Association.
Fred Ancheta, a member of the WSU Filipino American Student Association, said the idea came up during the group’s meeting and has grown from a few people to about 70 expected guests by this afternoon.
“We just kind of got together last night (Monday),” Ancheta said. “It’s just gotten kind of big.” He said the vigil is not an official FASA event. They just want people to show up. People should try to bring their own candles, he said.
“We decided we wanted to do something about it [the shootings],” Ancheta said. “The more the better, I guess.”
WSU Campus Involvement has also placed 33 white hearts near the blue “Technicolor Heart” statue on Stadium Way as a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims. The white paper hearts are staked into the ground to represent each of those killed during Monday’s shootings, according to a sign at the memorial.
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LAGAWE, Ifugao -- Soldiers found the body of a missing US Peace Corps volunteer in a shallow grave in a dry creek Wednesday, April 18, in a mountainous northern town where she disappeared while hiking, an Army spokesman said.
The spokesman, Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, said officials at the site confirmed the body was Julia Campbell, 40, of Fairfax, Virginia, saying she was wearing the same clothes as when she was last seen and her glasses were found nearby.
A manhunt has been launched for the suspected killers, police officials said here.
The body of the former freelance journalist was flown to Manila on Thursday, April 19, for forensic tests. She had worked for The New York Times and People magazine and recently reported for CNN on a typhoon that hit the area where she was working for the Peace Corps.
Campbell’s aunt, Ann Knight of Pensacola, Florida, said Peace Corps officials had
contacted Campbell’s mother with news of the discovery.
Peace Corps director Ron Tschetter, who had gone to the area Tuesday to monitor the search, said his agency was “saddened by the loss of such a dedicated and vibrant volunteer.”
“Julia was a proud member of the Peace Corps family, and she contributed greatly to the lives of Filipino citizens,” Tschetter said in a statement.
Police had speculated earlier that Campbell might have fallen off a cliff. She went missing April 8 in the village outside Banaue town in Ifugao province north of Manila, where she had planned to view famed mountainside rice terraces.
Ifugao’s provincial police chief, Senior Superintendent Pedro Ganir, told The Associated Press by telephone that a stray dog had dug out one foot by the time soldiers discovered the body, which had been laid in the creek and covered with dirt.
A pair of reading glasses was found near a trail about 160 feet from the body, with one of the lenses nearby. Police also recovered a sandal they believed belonged to the woman, he said. “This is no longer an accident,” he said.
Ganir earlier said Campbell, wearing blue jeans, black shirt and a shawl, was last seen buying a soda at a store in Batad. She had bought a bus ticket to return to Manila by April 9, indicating she did not plan to extend her stay or make a long hike, he said.
Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Oscar Calderon identified one as a male but added that investigators were still gathering information, including statements from a female masseuse that Campbell was said to have met before she disappeared.
“We have to determine if she and Julia met,” Calderon said.
“We also have a witness that says that more or less identified the last person seen with her. We have also an idea of the name of the person seen carrying the backpack of the victim. He’s male,” Calderon said.
Calderon and Chief Superintendent Raul Gonzales, regional police director of the Cordillera Administrative Region, agreed that there was enough evidence to indicate Campbell was killed.
“If the report is true [that Campbell was killed], we think he’s [the killer] a local,” Calderon added.
They said teams had been activated to find possible suspect or suspects but they declined to elaborate if there is more than one suspect.
Calderon noted that Campbell’s body, which was in an advanced stage of decomposition, was found buried near a creek and not at the foot of a ravine, which would be the case if she had fallen in an accident.
Gonzales said the fact that the American had been buried already indicated foul play.
“She was supposed to have a massage that night. She met a woman who offered a massage. But based on investigations, the woman was not able to meet with her. She was only declared missing three days after,” Gonzales said.
Both officials said they have witnesses who could shed light on what could have happened to the American, who was declared missing by the US embassy in early April after she was found to have missed her appointments.
In Malacańang, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has vowed to cooperate with the US government in the investigation and resolution of Campbell’s case as she expressed grief over the death of the Peace Corps volunteer.
“The President is saddened by the death of Ms. Campbell and the government is extending its full cooperation to the US authorities in investigating the circumstances that led to it,” Arroyo’s spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement Thursday.
Bunye said Campbell’s death was “unfortunate” especially knowing that the American has grown to love the Philippines as seen in her work in Sorsogon.
Campbell was one of 137 Peace Corps volunteers in the Philippines.
She had worked in New York City as a freelance journalist before joining the Peace Corps two years ago and was only about two weeks away from finishing her term with the organization.
“It’s horrible,” said Michael Cooper, a New York Times political reporter who worked with Campbell when they covered New York City police for the Times.
“She was a very dogged, very hardworking reporter,” Cooper said. “She put in long hours. When doing street reporting, she was always sure to ring the 10th doorbell, not just leave after a few.”
Cooper said she left the Times to cover hard news for People magazine, but he hadn’t talked to her in a couple of years.
Campbell taught English at the Divine Word College in Albay province’s Legazpi City, southeast of Manila, since October 2006. She previously taught at a public school in Donsol in nearby Sorsogon province, said Nora Gallano, assistant dean of Divine Word’s College of Liberal Arts. The victim’s aunt said Campbell wanted to try something new.
“She just felt not fulfilled in New York and shocked us when she said she was joining the Peace Corps,” Knight said. “She was doing what she wanted to do.”
Campbell moved around a lot as a child because her father was in the Marines, Knight said. She graduated from high school in Fairfax, where her mother still lives.
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NEWARK, New Jersey: Federal prosecutors are seeking a 10-year prison term for a former Philippine National Police officer who pleaded guilty to possessing secret U.S. documents as part of an opposition plot to undermine the Philippine government.
In seeking the maximum term for Michael Ray Aquino, prosecutors said that the “serious disruption” he caused to the American government outweighed any benefit he should receive for accepting responsibility in the conspiracy — a plot that involved the theft of classified national defense documents from the White House and the FBI.
In a memo to the federal judge who is to sentence Aquino in July, prosecutors said Aquino also posed a “danger to the national security, including the foreign relations, of the United States” by attempting to destabilize and overthrow Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The 97-page memo was filed Monday, April 16, in U.S. District Court in Newark. Such sentencing memos are generally not made public because they often contain information from grand jury proceedings, which are secret. But U.S. District Judge William H. Walls ordered the document released after The Star-Ledger of Newark protested, asserting the case was of public importance.
Walls, who is to sentence Aquino and former FBI intelligence analyst Leandro Aragoncillo, said it could be public after removing national security information and the names of people and companies who have not been charged. As a result, blank spaces appear in several sentences.
Aquino’s lawyer, Mark A. Berman, was at a trial Tuesday, April 17, and did not immediately return a message seeking comment. He has said that Aquino should face less than four years in prison.
It is unusual for a defendant who pleads guilty to get the maximum term.
Aquino, 41, pleaded guilty in July in a deal that spared him a life term if convicted of espionage.
Aragoncillo, 48, a former Marine who worked as a military aide to vice presidents Al Gore and Dick Cheney starting in 1999, pleaded guilty to four charges in May.
The most serious charge, conspiracy to transmit national defense information, can carry the death penalty. But under a plea agreement, Aragoncillo faces 15 to 20 years in prison.
After retiring from the Marines, he became a civilian employee of the FBI, working at Fort Monmouth in central New Jersey. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in the Philippines.
He admitted passing information to Aquino and opposition politicians in his homeland who wanted to oust Arroyo.
Recipients included former Philippines President Joseph Estrada, who was ousted six years ago; Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the leader of the Arroyo opposition party; and former House Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella, according to earlier court documents.
Estrada and Lacson have acknowledged receiving information from Aquino or Aragoncillo, but deny any wrongdoing.
Aquino was once a senior officer under Lacson in the Philippines National Police. He fled to the United States to escape murder charges in 2001 and lived with his wife and son in Queens, New York.
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