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Founded in 1986
Founding Publisher/Editor:
Lito A. Gajilan
Columnists:
Atty. Michael J. Gurfinkel
Joseph G. Lariosa
Gani P. Tolentino
Ted L. Reyes
Atty. Reuben S. Seguritan
Photographers:
Butch Gata
Sheryl Garcia
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not reflect the opinion of the paper nor that of the publisher
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For the past 20 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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To tell us what you think about Filipino Express Online or to comment on the stories published here, E-mail us at Filexpress@aol.com
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SOMEBODY should tell Philippine Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to shut up before he single-handedly bring down the Arroyo presidency. It seems that every time Mr. Gonzalez opens his mouth, he either causes the Arroyo government to lose respectability or the administration’s senatorial candidates to lose precious votes.
The justice secretary received a lot of flak last week for mouthing several statements that offended people’s sensibilities, sensitivities and civilities. One statement dishonored the dead, one disrespected honorable guests and one disregarded the country’s laws.
The most controversial of his pronouncements was the one concerning US Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell, who was found dead in a shallow grave in Apayao province. At a press briefing, Gonzalez said Campbell herself was partly responsible for her death. “She was a little irresponsible. Why would she walk alone in this remote mountain? ... She was careless that she took a lonely walk in this deserted area,” he said.
On Thursday, the supposed gentleman from Iloilo showed the world his boorish ways when he told three officials of the International Parliamentarian Union (IPU) who paid a courtesy call at his office to “go home”.
The IPU officials – Secretary General Anders Johnsson of Sweden, Canadian Senator Sharon Carstairs, Chairman of IPU Committee on Human Rights and Committee Secretary Ingerborg Schwarz – were sent to the Philippines through a motion of the IPU assembly composed of parliamentarians from 143 countries after the Arroyo government ignored the IPU resolution asking for the release of detained congressman Crispin Beltran.
A few days later, Gonzalez betrayed another facet of his dark character, the one that tells us that the justice secretary’s strong disdain for the law and propensity to cheat. In a meeting with Iloilo City barangay captains, Gonzalez offered P10,000 to each of the 180 village chiefs, or a total of P1.8 million if all 12 administration candidates win in their villages.
Commission on Election Regional Director Renato Magbutay said that what Gonzalez did was tantamount to vote-buying. “The giving of money is prohibited in the campaign period especially by candidates to officials or supporters. That is considered vote-buying,” he said.
This is the same Gonzalez who lambasted the special rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council as “a mere muchacho” of the UN and accused the UN envoy of having been influenced by the Communists. Gonzalez may have conveniently forgotten that the UN envoy, Philip Alston, was invited by his boss, President Arroyo, to help investigate the series of political killings that have mainly targeted political opposition, militant leaders, human rights advocates, church workers and journalists.
The point is that when Gonzalez issued these statements, he is doing so not as a private citizen but as a public official. Whether he likes it or not, or whether we like it or not, he represents the office which he heads -- the Department of Justice -- and the administration of President Arroyo. His statement will always be considered an official pronouncement of Malacañang.
President Arroyo can render justice to the nation by reigning in, if not firing, his alter ego at the justice department.
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Update on H-2B Temporary Workers
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Editor’s Note: REUBEN S. SEGURITAN has been practicing law for over 30 years. For further information, you may call him at 212 695 5281 or log on to his website at www.seguritan.com
ON April 20, 2007, the Department of Labor issued new regulations concerning the processing of an H-2B petition. The H-2B visa category is for non-agricultural foreign workers who enter the US on a temporary basis.
There are two important aspects to the H-2B category. First, the employment of the foreign worker must be temporary in nature. This means the job itself must be “one-time, peak load, seasonal or intermittent. The other important aspect of the H-2B category is that there should be no available US qualified worker for the job and that the job will not adversely affect the working conditions of similarly employed US workers.
Considering the visa retrogression and the critical shortage at present, the H-2B can be used for the recruitment of workers in hotels, parks, casinos, country clubs and other establishments that need temporary help.
Temporary Nature of the Job
The Regulation explained the standards for determining the temporary nature of the job opportunity. It emphasized that what is controlling is the nature of the employer’s need, and not the nature of the duties. Thus, the question does not turn on whether the job is permanent or temporary. The Regulation added that only full-time employment, not part-time employment, can be certified.
The Regulation emphasized that the period of the H-2B petitioner’s need must be a year or less. In the event of “unforeseen circumstances” that creates a need of more than a year, a new temporary labor certification application must be filed. A recurring “seasonal” or “peakload” need that exceeds 10 months does not qualify either.
Lastly, the Regulation further requires the employer’s need for temporary non-agricultural services or labor must meet the following standards: (a) a one-time occurrence; (b) a seasonal need; (c) a peakload need; and (d) an intermittent need.
Labor Certification Requirement
To conform to the second aspect of the H-2B category mentioned above, the petitioner must file a labor certification application with the local State Workforce Agency (SWA) on two (2) originals of ETA Form 750 Part A.
This ETA form could be used for more than one job opening and for the same rate of pay. The certification pertains to the employer (not the alien beneficiary/ies) and may not be transferred to another employer.
According to the Regulation, if the application includes worksite locations within a Metropolitan Statistical Area covering several SWAs, the employer may submit a single application to the SWA where the employment will begin.
After review, the SWA will forward the ETA Form 750 Part A to the appropriate National Processing Center (NPC) where a final determination will be made.
The labor certification is issued when the DOL finds that there are no US qualified workers for the job and that similarly situated US workers will not be adversely affected by the hiring of foreign workers. Otherwise, the DOL issues a denial.
Technically, a labor certification denial does not bar the filing of the H-2B petition because the decision of the SWA on the labor certification request is merely advisory. The USCIS, however, generally heeds the DOL recommendation.
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Yuyitungs: Symbols of press freedom
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CHICAGO, Illinois – I was a teenager when newspapers in the Philippines were screaming with headlines on the arrest and forcible exile of the Yuyitung brothers.
Because the circumstances of the arrest and deportation of Quintin and Rizal Yuyitung were murky, it was really hard to appreciate the significance of the events.
Only last week when I got an email from my friends – Messrs. Jojo Taduran and Rodel Ramos, media types up north in Toronto, Canada – did I realize the impact of their arrests when I was informed of the death from cancer of the last of the two brothers – Rizal Chang Keng Yuyitung - last April 19 at the age of 84 in Toronto.
As an ethnic newspaperman in America, I feel the pain of Rizal and his brother, Quintin, editor and publisher, respectively, of an outspoken Chinese language daily newspaper in the Philippines, Chinese Commercial News, when they were arrested by agents of President Marcos in the summer of 1970 and forcibly flown to Taipei, a city they had never visited before and were tried for “treason.”
And so, perhaps, when Taiwanese government-leaning Chinese cronies of Marcos were able to lobby Marcos into suppressing the CCN, using the “Communism” yarn as an excuse, Marcos did not even think twice where to take them – to the anti-Communist Taiwan, but of course!
Thrown into the wolves
If Marcos were more discriminating, more sensitive and kinder, he should have sent the brothers to their ancestral land – Xiamen in Mainland China, where they have relatives and friends. Although, the Yuyitungs believe in neutrality and fairness in their news coverage, even if they were supporting the Communist ideology, there is nothing wrong with the brothers supporting communism after all it was the belief of their fellow Chinese Mainland’s majority, just as majority Filipinos profess Roman Catholic religion.
By sending the brothers to Taiwan, Marcos was, in effect, throwing the Yuyitung brothers to the wolves. Marcos was like the Monkey in the fable, throwing the Turtle into the fire, instead of the river, which was the Turtle’s natural habitat.
Like the hunch of the late Maximo Soliven, I believe the arrest of the Yuyitung brothers was Marcos’ dry run for the imposition of Martial Law.
CCN is dead, long live CCN
Marcos tested the waters if he could handle the criticism in case he wanted to silence his critics, particularly the liberal media. And from the looks of it, Marcos must have been pleased with the result as he imposed Martial Law less than two years after he banished the brothers from the Philippines.
Marcos’s crackdown of the CCN was the bleakest yet for the media since World War II. The father of the Yuyitungs, Yu Yi Tung, publisher of CCN, a pre-war daily, was killed by the Japanese during the war when he refused to turn his newspaper into a Japanese mouthpiece.
The CCN was not stranger to trials and tribulations either.
Despite the death of the elder Yuyitung and the confiscation of the CCN by the Japanese, the paper managed to rise from the ashes of World War II, like a phoenix, through the hardwork of the Yuyitung brothers Quintin (Tiong Seng) and Rizal (Tiong Kieng) and sister, Helen (Un Hui) and Tiong Nay, and the help of faithful colleagues such as Messrs. Yeh Hsieh Min and Tan Cho Tok.
It was able to reclaim its pre-eminent role as a newspaper founded on “truth, freedom, independence, integrity and fairness.”
When the Yuyitung brothers were forcibly deported to Taiwan, the volunteer legal team in the Chinese Commercial News case took up its cudgels for them to run the paper. Mr. Juan Quijano acted as publisher and the other lawyers, Joker P. Arroyo, Juan T. David, Napoleon Rama (Free Press editor-turned Manila Bulletin publisher) took over as editors. It continued as the leader and advocate of the Chinese community until September 21, 1972 when President Marcos declared martial law. The paper was padlocked just as all other Philippine media.
Karmic coincidence
When Marcos was forced into exile in Hawaii, like almost all of the pre-martial law English newspapers and media, the Chinese Commercial News became the only pre-martial law Chinese-language paper to resume publication. Today, the CCN is published by Rizal’s nephew and Quintin’s son, Solomon.
When the Yuyitungs hold its memorial service for Rizal on Friday, April 27, at the Kuchina Room, Century Park in Manila, they will be happy with the thought that the Yuyitung brothers were blessed to have an army of freedom-loving supporters led by the International Press Institute, which lobbied the Taiwan government into sparing their lives from a bizarre crime of “treason” they never committed after they were convicted by a “kangaroo court.” The IPI also secured their release from prisons -- two years for Quintin and three years for Rizal.
Upon his release, Quintin immigrated to San Francisco, California, where he died on March 6, 1990 (California time) at the age of 72, while preparing to return to the Philippines, the land of his birth.
While Rizal immigrated to Toronto. Rizal visited his birth place – the Philippines – last 2004 and told Mr. Soliven he “had one year or so left.”
In a karmic coincidence, their tormentor Marcos who forced them into exile was also forced into exile himself and had died away from his native land. While Marcos’ remains is still unburied while waiting for a hero’s burial, the Yuyitung brothers were happiest to see the collapse of the Marcos regime and are now resting in peace and are hailed as heroes.
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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WE mark World Press Freedom Day next week. For 2007, the theme is: the “Press Under Surveillance”. Terrorism spawned new security measures, notes the World Association of Newspapers ( WAN ) And some are implemented with scant concern for individual liberties, “notably, freedom of the press”.
Journalists here get almost daily reminders of this threat. The failed assassination attempt on Inquirer correspondent Delfin Mallari, followed the killing of Carmelo Palacios of government’s Radyo Ng Bayan.
Would Mallari have been Victim No. 57 under headcounts that started after the dictatorship’s collapse? Was Marlene Esperat incorrectly tagged as 54th victim? If so, was Mohamad Yusuf of Islamic Broadcasting Victim No. 36? Or Ferdinand Reyes of Diplog’s Press Freedom Weekly?
Political fronts, meanwhile, muddle this macabre treadmill further. On flimsy headcounts, they tack shrill political statements to nail President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for every scalp.
Journalist groups stress accuracy and reject being boxed into term of office time-spans.. They track nonetheless an escaIating gory trend from legal violence to hired gunmen. . A “culture of impunity” prevails. So, masterminds are rarely caught and many triggermen go scot free.
In 1999, WAN’s body count was 26. The year after, International Press Institute reported 32. And the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists reported, in 2006, that 57 were salvaged in work-related assaults, i.e. attacks by queridas, bill collectors, etc don’t qualify.
This week’s obit, on the death of former Chinese Commercial News editor Rizal Yuyitung, in Toronto, could help set this issue in context. With his publisher brother Quintin, Rizal was targeted, in May 1970, for Marcos’ attempt, to bring the press to heel.
Is that too far back for most of today’s journalists who’re mainly martial law’s “baby boomers”? To avoid institutional Alzheimers, here’s a brief summary: President Marcos sought to deport Rizal and Quintin for “spreading communist propaganda.” On May 4, 1970, defense lawyers Juan Quijano and Joker Arroyo were lured away from Manila Overseas Press Club by fake phone calls. Military agents bundled Quintin and Rizal into a car that drove to Lipa Air Base.
“Night of May 4, and into the dawn of May 5, Rizal’s pregnant wife, Veronica, stood knocking at the gate of Immigration Commissioner Edmundo Reyes’home. She had clothes and medicines for the CCN editor and wanted to bid him good-bye.” The door remained shuttered.
Dawn of May 5, the two were deported secretly to Taipei on an airforce C-47. After a four hour “trial”, on August 14, 1972, the Taiwan Garrison Command sentenced Quintin to two years; Rizal got three years. Due to worldwide protests, they were shoved in a “reformatory school”.
In his Manila Chronicle eye-witness account of “How the Yuyitungs were Tried”, Columnist Alejandro Roces wrote : It was “a combination of Franz Kafka, Koestler’s Darkness at Noon and Alice in Wonderland…The Yuyitungs admitted they published Associated Press and United Press International reports, not in Taipei – but in the Philippines where this is a normal everyday procedure. This admission was interpreted as a confession” of spreading communist propaganda.
“The Yuyitungs were found guilty of publishing western news agency reports…Both assumed full responsibility for whatever Chinese Commercial News published. There is only one description for these two men: De Cojones. ( “They have balls” ) The Yuyitungs proved that Manila and Taipei combined could not snuff out press freedom…It was one time I was proud to be a newspaperman.”
Canberra Times publisher Rohan Rivett, who represented IPI, noted: “a military tribunal dealt with charges of alleged offenses committed by civilians in other countries.”
And Senator Jovito Salonga confirmed that it was a kangaroo trial. A person can be held criminally liable only under the law of the place where the crime was allegedly committed. Joker Arroyo and Juan Quijano, Salonga noted, defended the two pro-bono and even spent their own funds to ensure the two journalists would be protected.
Filipino newsmen who denounced the kidnapping and farcical trial included:Teodoro Locsin, Sr and Jr; Napoleon Rama, Quijano de Manila, Max Soliven, Alfredo Roces, Amando Doronila, Luis Beltran, Narciso Pimental Jr – well as Economist, Times and others.
Canada and the US offered sanctuary for journalists the Philippines treated like dirt. And both saw the dictator flee People Power fury. Quintin died in the US. And Rizal’s family will scatter his ashes in the Pacific Ocean “to flow and touch all the places he called home – China, Philippines and Canada”.
Press Freedom Week is appropriate time to re-read Rizal’s “Acknowledgement”, published with the book “The Case of the Yuyitung Brothers”. It offers pointers for tomorrow’s inevitable brawls with those hostile to press freedom.
“Marcos decided to test the waters with actions against Quintin and myself, believing we were the weakest link in the Philippine press,” Rizal wrote. “During our sham trial, Commissioner Edmundo Reyes shamelessly admitted that his ‘task’ was to pressure the press to submit to whims and wishes of the man in power…
“Instead of being cowed, the journalists fought back ferociously. And the intensity of the international press responses forced Marcos to retreat. Led by Joaquin “Chino” Roces …the press proved that brute force might suppress the pen for a time…but will, in the end, coalesce people power to overthrow tyrannical rule.”
(juanlmercado@gmail. com )
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Pardon, your fangs are showing
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IN AN earlier column, we held that next month’s congressional and local elections in the Philippines will serve as a referendum on the governance record of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, although her position as President is not at stake. It is similar to the situation here in the US where the recent victory of the Democrats in congress reflected the American voters’ dissatisfaction with the performance of President Bush.
In Manila, the opposition has made GMA the main electoral issue. And GMA as the issue is in turn broken down into the subissues of corruption, poverty and human rights violation.
Expectedly and reportedly, the media has been subjected to intensive pressure from Malacanang whose message is to go easy on GMA. As the May elections near, the pressures increase so that subtle reminders no longer suffice. GMA’s political beast, in keeping with what we have recently pointed out is the undeclared martial law propped up by the GMA-military combine, has now bared its fangs. GMA’s judicial functionaries has issued unmistakable warnings to the two TV-radio giants -- ABS and Channel 7 -- against using political campaign advertisements prepared by the opposition. What happened to freedom of the press?
We have watched the ads. It flashes a picture of GMA, while the audio portion talks of rampant graft and corruption and poverty. And the ad voices a reminder: “Isang boto laban sa nakaupo” (one vote for the incumbent occupant of Malacanang).
Presidential Legal Adviser Sergio Apostol has threatened to file libel cases not only against Genuine Opposition (GO) what sponsored the ads but also against ABS and Channel 7 and the senatorial candidates.
Senator Sergio Osmena III, GO campaign manager, said all the issues raised by the ads are factual and based on newspaper headlines. The corruption issue was also the subject of surveys by international bodies as the Transparency International which reported that the Arroyo government ranked high in the corruption list in Asia, as well as the Hongkong-based Political Economic Risk Consultancy and the US State Department.
ABS is owned by the wellknown Lopez family of the Meralco group. The Lopezes have been known to resist similar pressures from past administrations, including that of dictator Ferdinand Marcos during the Martial Law era. This time, ABS printed the GO ad after some changes. Channel 7 followed suit.
The decision to threaten the media TV giants is a known strategy of repressive governments. The threat implies that unless they yield, their pocketbooks stand at risk.
GMA or Channel 7 posted a net income of P1.97 billion last year. ABS financial achievement was not too far behind as the second largest TV enterprise. Channel 7’s consolidated revenue in 2006 rose 12 percent to 11 billion pesos..
When such business empires get politically threatened, the time-tested hazard signal “Don’t fight City Hall” is difficult to ignore. You have to admire the Lopezes who are able to look further to the future beyond GMA’s myopic horizon to perceive the greater value of freedom.
The “Philippine Daily Inquirer”, the leading mainstream newspaper, is also known to display a streak of independence. Early this week, it editorialized: “Why are the voters dissatisfied with Ms. Arroyo? Actually, it is not just a feeling of dissatisfaction but one that is mixed with fear. The people are afraid that the country is not just creeping but hurtling fast toward a fascistic, dictatorial regime propped up by the military and the police. The country appears to be heading toward a repeat of Marcos’ martial law, but this time, an undeclared de facto martial law.”
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Michael J. Gurfinkel has been an attorney for over 26 years, and is an active member of the State Bar of California and New York, as well as the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Immigration Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He has always excelled in school:
Valedictorian in High School; Cum Laude at UCLA; and Law Degree Honors and academic scholar at Loyola Law School, which is one of the top law schools in California.
WEBSITE: www.gurfinkel.com
Four offices to serve you:
LOS ANGELES:
219 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California 91203
Telephone: (818) 543-5800
SAN FRANCISCO:
966 Mission Street, San Francisco, California 94103 Telephone: (415) 538-7800
NEW YORK:
60 East 42nd Street, Suite 2101, New York, NY 10165 Telephone: (212) 808-0300
PHILIPPINES:
Heart Tower, Unit 701, 108 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, Makati, Philippines 1227
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