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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 embattled 26 nurses and one physical therapist facing criminal and civil charges for allegedly abandoning their patients are getting the support of the Filipino American community and the Department of Foreign Affairs. DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos Jr. said his office will provide legal assistance to the nurses and physical therapist who left allegedly their individual assignments in protest of their recruiter’s violationof the provisions of their employment contract.
Among the nurses is Elmer Jacinto, who topped the Philippine medical licensure exams and then signed up with Sentosa Recruitment Agency to work as a nurse in the US.
The Filipino health care workers filed several cases against their recruiters -- one before the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), one before the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the Philippines, and one before the Office of the Special Counsel in Washington DC.
The nurses said Sentosa made them work for other facilities other than the ones stipulated in their contracts.
But Sentosa filed countersuits against them -- one for breach of contract and another for endangering their patients’ welfare.
“All these cases are pending and unresolved. We are monitoring the cases very closely and we will provide whatever legal assistance is required,” Conejos said.
Asked how much in legal assistance the country is willing to spend on the Sentosa 27, Conejos said the law allows him to spend only P100,000 on legal assistance.
“But I assure them [of] a comprehensive assistance in their cases,” Conejos said.
The issue has run for about a year and the health care workers are becoming apprehensive about their cases.
On May 6, Sunday, the start of National Nurses Week in the United States, they are scheduled to link up with Filipino-American community organizations to publicize their plight.
The New York-based National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (Nafcon) said it is helping the 27 “pursue justice by building national community pressure in the case.”
Nafcon, a coalition of Filipino-American organizations present in 23 US cities, said it will work closely with the Sentosa 27 to help them meet their basic demands: the dropping of all criminal and civil charges against them in the State of New York; compensation for all back wages, including unpaid overtime wages; re-suspension of the Sentosa recruitment license by the POEA; and the investigation by the State of New York on Sentosa Care LLC operations related to existing anti-human trafficking law and the thirteenth amendment outlawing slavery.
“We pledge to support the Sentosa 27 and commit our resources and facilities to this campaign for justice. All our members, volunteers and supporters will be mobilized to support our nurses,” said Robert Roy, Nafcon national executive director.
In their earlier statements to the media, the Filipino health care workers, many now working in different parts of the United States, said they left their work assignments after their tour of duty because of maltreatment, abuse, and lack of compensation for long working hours.
They also claimed they did not receive the benefits they were promised.
The case acquired diplomatic undertones after US Senator Charles Schumer and former presidential chief of staff and now senatorial candidate Michael Defensor allegedly pressured the POEA into reversing itself on the decision to ban Sentosa.
The Philippine office of Sentosa said Schumer never pressured the POEA but only expressed concern about the case because he was the one who pushed the US Senate into having the unfilled US nurses’ quota of other countries transferred to the Philippines.
It added that the 27 health care workers are now working legally in the US because of Sentosa.
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WEST POINT, New York -- On May 26, a Filipino couple will proudly witness their eldest daughter Erin Grace Begonia, 22, commissioned as second lieutenant to the US Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Erin is one of over 900 USMA Class of 2007 who will be joining “The Long Gray Line,” which was how USMA graduates are collectively known because of the color of cadet uniforms and the unbroken line of West Point graduates, GMAnews.tv reported.
The Manila-born Erin may have acquired US citizenship, but this 5-foot-7 tall lady proudly carries the distinction of being the first Filipino-American woman to hurdle four years of rigorous military, academic and athletic training at the United States’ oldest military academy in New York.
USMA, established in 1802, opened its doors to women cadets only in 1975. It had its first woman graduate in 1980.
Erin was born in the Philippines and moved to California, USA when she was 10 months old. Her Filipino parents and younger sister Annika, currently live in Bellflower, California where she grew up.
Her father, Richen Padua Begonia, was born and raised in Quezon City and mother, Caridad Feliciano Begonia, grew up in Gagalangin, Tondo, Manila.
Erin has never been back to the Philippines in 22 years. But she is proudly a Filipino. “Erin loves all Filipino food, except the exotic ones. “Her favorites are pancit and lumpia,” said her father.
“Being close to her family and friends is probably the Filipino trait that is instilled in Erin,” Mr. Begonia said.
Erin majored in Systems Management at West Point. “I hope to work with a successful business and help manage the company,” Erin said in an e-mail to GMANews.TV.
But after graduation, she will be going back to the USMA Preparatory School in Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey to be an Athletic Intern for the women’s basketball team.
“I will help coach the team and the girls who will be promoting to West Point the following year,” Erin said. “After that, I will be attending Basic Officer Leader Course (BOLC) II and III for more military training before I head to my unit. I will not find out where I will be going until about mid-October.”
“Erin has always been athletic,” said her father, a senior accounting liaison at Geneon Entertainment (USA), Inc. Mr. Begonia said he left the Philippines at age 19 with his parents. His wife followed him to California after five years.
Basketball star
“Basketball is her passion, and that’s what kept her mind from the academic pressure at West Point,” he said in an interview via electronic mail.
Erin was a basketball star in California before she got into West Point in 2003 by some sort of a blessing in disguise. She became known for her remarkable performance as point guard of the girl’s varsity basketball at Bishop Amat Memorial High School in La Puente, California in all of four years in secondary school.
She was part of the team that won its first California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) championship for the school.
Erin also played for the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball team called Southern California Basketball Club that gave her the opportunity to travel all over America and to play in competitive basketball tournaments.
She was one of 100 national high school players nominated to the first-ever McDonald’s All-American girls team in 2002, inducted into Bishop Amat’s “Hall of Fame,” rated among School Sports top players in the Los Angeles area as senior, and invited to the 2000 Nike West Region Observation Camp.
She was a Street & Smith magazine regional all-American in 2001 and one of the top players to come out of the Los Angeles area.
She excelled not just in athletics but also in academics. She holds a long list of distinction in basketball, and still managed to be in the National Honor Society being a four-time Academic Honor Roll honoree.
With her exposure, prestigious universities such as the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the USMA showed interest in recruiting her for membership in their basketball teams.
In an article in July 2005 on Times Herald-Record in New York, Erin said she “never envisioned (to be in) military service.”
In her senior year in high school though, Erin had a serious knee injury. She went up for a rebound and got shoved from behind. She slammed knee first onto the court. She tore her posterior cruciate ligament, the connective tissue in the back of her knee. That was in March 2001 while paying for an AAU team.
“I was looked at by UCLA and other southern California schools, and that was a big blow,” Erin recalled. “But Army was the one school that kept their interest in me (after the knee injury) and gave me a chance to go to the Prep School to recover and rehab.”
“It was tough because UCLA was my first choice, but Army is a great opportunity and it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Erin said. “It’s a great academic school and it guarantees me a good job after I graduate, so it’s a big thing.”
West Point experience
Erin said she first heard of West Point when she was in junior high school when she received her first letter from the USMA. “Thereafter, the Army Women’s Basketball team continued to stay in contact with me and they seemed very interested in me and eager for me to attend the academy.
“I took my official visit to West Point at the beginning of my senior year and during that visit I got to know the basketball team and what the academy was all about. I had meetings with the Superintendent and other important officials and they really exemplified how much West Point fitted my interests and personality,” Erin said.
And that was how her West Point experience began.
USMA is renowned as a historic and distinguished military academy, and a leading, progressive institution of higher education. Former President Fidel Ramos is one of its famous graduates from the Philippines.
Sherri Abbey-Nowatzki, coach of the Army’s women’s basketball team, described Erin as “a phenomenal player.”
Erin first attended the USMA Preparatory School in Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey for one year to enable her to recover from injury prior to admission at West Point in New York.
It was at the Preparatory School, Erin said, where she learned the basics of the military ways, the academics and athletic aspect.
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MANILA -- The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) denied that the reported huge back taxes incurred by the Philippine consulate with the New York City government was a result of abuse of tax exemption privileges by Filipino diplomats.
DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal, explained that the $34.6-million back taxes incurred by the Philippine consulate was about property taxes being levied by New York City on the Philippine government’s property in the city, the Philippine Center.
“The New York tax issue is all about real estate taxes being assessed on the Republic of the Philippines’ property on Fifth Avenue,” Cristobal said in an e-mail to the Philippine Star.
“No Philippine diplomatic or consular official in New York ever abused or is accused of ever abusing his or her personal tax exemption privilege,” Cristobal stressed.
Cristobal said all the countries who were said to have the hefty back taxes with the New York City government owned properties in the city.
Cristobal said that along with the other countries named as having huge property back taxes, the Philippine government was contesting the tax assessment.
“The Philippine government is contesting the New York tax assessments,” Cristobal stressed.
The Philippine Center is home not only to the Philippine consulate which includes the Kalayaan Hall and the Center Gallery but also to the Philippine mission to the United Nations, the Trade Representatives Office, the Tourism Representatives Office, the Commission on Audit (COA) representative office, and the center management office.
Cristobal said that the Philippine government was claiming property tax exemptions for the entire building.
However, the New York City government had disapproved the claim of tax exemption because some parts of the building were taxable.
“The entire thing about New York trying to collect taxes from India, Mongolia and Hungary is because all these countries own buildings in New York. And according to New York, some parts of these buildings are subject to property taxes. Which all of these countries are contesting. All, without exemption,” Cristobal stressed.
Cristobal issued the statement after it was reported that the Philippine consulate in New York City has racked up a whopping $34.6 million in back taxes with the New York city government.
The Philippine consulate is third only to Hungary and India in the size of its assessed tax debt with the New York City government with Hungary topping the list of embassies with back taxes, including interest, of $79 million, and India with $35.7 million.
Others in the list are Mongolia with $4 million back taxes, Libya $7.7 million, Rwanda $1.4 million, Nigeria $1.9 million, Uganda $1.2 million.
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NEW YORK CITY — When 17-year old Gliff John Garcia, found out his mother was dead, after allegedly hanging herself in a closet, he wept in their home in Batangas. He was so shocked he couldn’t believe his mother would commit suicide.
The young Garcia and his brother Garry, flew from the Philippines to New York to attend the wake of Felisa “Fely” Garcia at Greenwich Village Funeral Home on Sunday, April 29.
“It was so painful to lose a mother, I was always with my mother. She gave me all I need, She was so kind,” John said.
His brother, Garry, 40, a businessman in Batangas, said it was difficult for all four children of Fely Garcia to accept the tragic death of their mother.
“She was never depressed. She always looked after the interest of her children,” said Garry.
After weeks of campaigning for a second investigation and for the New York Consulate to shoulder the repatriation and burial fees, the body of Garcia was flown to the Philippines on Tuesday, Julia Camagong of Philippine Forum said.
But on Sunday, friends and relatives of Garcia honored her with patriotic songs, eulogies and prayers. Her casket was closed, and only her photos were displayed at the funeral home.
Garcia, 58, found dead in her Bronx home on March 14, 2007, has been in the heart of the controversy involving what many deem as the New York Police Department and Philippine Consulate’s essential mishandling of the initial investigation and lack of great consideration for alerting her family back in Batangas.
Through the Philippine Forum, Garcia’s two sons were able to secure visas to come to the United States and raise money for roundtrip airfare from the Philippines.
The Philippine Forum, an 11-year community organization in Queens , through its domestic worker-organizing project Kabalikat, has been in communication with the family since news of Garcia’s death, and launched a massive community campaign to push for their demands. The organization was also able to secure pro-bono legal representation for the family.
The Philippine Consulate offered a partial repatriation fee of $4.900. The family, however, maintains the amount is not enough, and should secure her transportation all the way back to Batangas, not just Manila. Burial fee money has also not been offered by the Consulate.
Philippine Forum maintains that financial, legal, and other forms of assistance should be standard policy by the Philippine government.
“We are honored to have Fely’s sons come to New York City to pay their respects to their mother and bring her home for a proper burial, despite the ongoing campaign for justice and for fulfillment of the family’s wishes. They, along with their mother, have been further victimized by a criminally-negligent Philippine government with an aggressive but inhumane labor export policy void of compassion, dignity, and basic human services,” states Rico Foz, executive vice president of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, a network of Filipino American organizations.
The family immediately brought her remains to Barangay Pantay-Cawong in Calaca, Batangas for the wake shortly after it arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) around 2 a.m. on Thursday on board Northwest Airline flight 071. The date of interment has not been set.
In what was considered as a suicide note that Fely left behind, she complained of being harassed by her employer, a “Wener Oppenheimer”.
“Ito ang tao (Wener Oppenheimer) ang dapat mananagot sa akin. Hinaharass niya ako marami siyang kasalanan sa akin. Nag-sorry na ako di niya ako pinakinggan,” the suicide note dated March 13, 2007 contained.
Fely’s relatives and leaders of the Gabriela Women’s Partylist and Migrante International picked up her remains at the airport.
“Along with the family, we suspect foul play in Fely’s death. We demand that a second investigation be conducted soonest. Too often, cases like this are brushed under the rug by the DFA and Philippine Consulate officials. It is incumbent upon the Philippine government to determine the real cause of Fely’s death and thus, her employer must also be thoroughly investigated,” said Connie Bragas-Regalado, Migrante International Chairperson.
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