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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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Filipina girl with a hole in her heart arrives in New Jersey for sponsored operation
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“It takes a whole heart to repair a broken one”.
JERSEY CITY---Jude Tiner, the war veteran from Bayonne, New Jersey never leaves a mission incomplete. Even in his stint as a paratrooper in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969, Tiner always made sure he finishes his tasks.
Now, more than 30 years later, his most important mission yet is almost done.
His mission: To save the life of Meraly Mariano, a poor Filipina girl from the Philippines suffering from a rare ailment, known as Tetralogy of Fallot.
On Thursday afternoon, Meraly accompanied by her guardian Criselda Malicdem arrived in Newark, airport. On Monday, she will undergo preliminary tests at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey before her big procedure in October.
Tiner, with the help of the ‘Rotary gift of Life Foundation’, managed to arrange for St. Joseph’s to operate on Meraly, free of charge.
The Christian and Filipino communities of Jersey City and Bayonne also play an integral part in Meraly’s journey to a new heart and a new life. They have conducted fund raisers and continue to spread the word about the mission to save Meraly.
“It has been a long ride but the joy I got from being a part of this, I just can’t describe. There’s not a job in the world that can give you this thrill”, Tiner said.
Tiner met Meraly in the summer 2006, while he was undergoing a Teknotropheo mission in Mindoro, Philippines. There he saw the dire poverty that the locals were enduring and likewise discovered the hopelessness of Meraly ‘s condition – a condition that defies comprehension.
Tiner learned that Meraly was suffering from the heart defect that created a hole in her heart. In addition, he learned that she was being raised solely by her father, a farmer who works long hours in the fields to put bread on the table because Meraly’s mother committed suicide, apparently from post-partum depression.
“When I met this girl, I kind of doted on her”, Tiner said. “She was very gregarious and we kind of bonded. I spend a week and a half with the mission and the day I was leaving, she just turned away from me, she couldn’t speak.”
In an exclusive phone interview with The EXPRESS, Meraly said, “ Gusto ko pumunta sa Disneyland pagkatapos ng operation. Tapos punta na kami ni Tita Criselda sa Mindoro”(I want to see Disneyland after my operation and then head back to Mindoro with my aunt Cridelda.)
Meraly will be the 437th child to be sponsored for surgery by the Rotary Club Hudson/Passaic District Gift of Life Foundation. The foundation will also provide $6,000 for medicine, fluids, oxygen, and other related expenses.
Tiner expressed his gratitude to RTA Travel and The FILIPINO EXPRESS, which broke the story a month ago that resulted in a new wave of support from the Filipino-American community.
Meraly Mariano’s young life would have been cut short by her incomplete heart if not for the full heart of Jude Tiner.
He may be an ex-paratrooper, who lived the horrors of Vietnam. However, for Meraly, and the thousands of Filipinos who care for her plight, he is the saint of impossible causes. He is St. Jude.
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NEW YORK--- Filipinos and other immigrants who are victims of crimes can avail of U-visas to grant benefits to certain victims of crimes who assist government officials in investigating or prosecuting the criminal activity, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced.
The U visas were created by Congress in the victims of trafficking and violence protection act and offers not only protection and temporary benefits to alien victims but also bolsters law enforcement capabilities to investigate and prosecute criminal activity. These are not green cards but the U visas is a humanitarian way to help and uplift the lives of majority of immigrant victims of crimes.
“Many immigrant crime victims fear coming forward to assist law enforcement because they may not have legal status, said USCIS director Emilio Gonzales.
“We’re confident that we have developed a rule that meets the spirit of the act: to help curtail criminal activity, protect victims, and encourage them to fully participate in proceedings that will aid in bringing perpetrators to justice,” he said.
Not only do eligible petitioners obtain legal status to remain in the country, but will also be provided referrals to non-governmental organizations for assistance and additional resources, and automatic employment authorization. A total of 10,000 U visas will be available each fiscal year, however, the congressionally mandated caps does not apply to eligible family members.
The USCIS will publish an interim rule to grant the immigration benefits. The interim final rule will be available for public comment at www. Regulations. Gov until 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
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CHICAGO, Illinois – Filipino superstar Nora Aunor will be back before the Superior Court of Los Angeles in California on October lst to put closure to the drug charges filed against her for alleged possession of controlled substance and a glass of pipe.
A court spokesperson said Ms. Aunor, whose real name is Nora Cabaltera Villamayor, 53, is due to pay a fine of $250.00 before Judge Cynthia Rayvis.
The fine is part of “18-month deferred entry judgment” issued last March 29, 2006 by Judge James Brandlin.
“Yes, this is her last court-ordered appearance on this case. I am confident it will be indeed the last one,” according to an email response from Ms. Aunor’s criminal lawyer Claire N. Espina from her office out of southern California city of Encino.
When asked if she will encourage Ms. Aunor to return to the Philippines after the dismissal of the case, Ms. Espina said that the songstress “was always free to return to the Philippines at any time. There was no impediment to this trip back to the Philippines based upon the case in question.
Whether she will go or not is something her business manager can address. I am copyingNorie Sayo, her business manager with this email.”
When asked if Ms.Aunor runs the risk of being barred from returning to the U.S. in thelight of “9/11’ and “Patriot Act” despite the impending dismissal ofMs. Aunor’s felony drug case if Ms. Aunor returns to her motherland, Ms. Espina demurred and referred the query to Ms. Aunor’s immigration lawyer, Lourdes Santos Tancinco, based in San Francisco, California.
Under the deferred judgment, if Ms. Aunor is not arrested for any violationduring the 18-month period, “the plea is withdrawn, as if (it was)never made, there is no record of conviction, and the case isdismissed, and arrest stricken from the record.”
Ms. Espina said,Nora was granted full credit for all the group sessions she attended inthe Drug Court program and was not required to attend any more sessionsduring those 18 months.
Ms. Aunor also passed in excess of 40drug tests while under Drug Court and is no longer required to undergoany drug testing. She will need to return to court in October 2007 forthe closure of the case unless defense makes a motion for earlytermination, which we may decide to make prior to October 2007.
Ms.Aunor’s guilty plea comes nearly a year after she was arrested forpossession of eight grams of methamphetamine (commonly known as shabu)and a glass of pipe in her carry-on bag at the Los AngelesInternational Airport while she was on a domestic plight to Oakland,California. She was arrested on March 30, 2005.(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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NEW YORK---- Specially trained DVD-sniffing dogs that were utilized in the Philippines to battle piracy were used in a succesful raid of pirated media in Queens.
After raiding Filipino and Malaysian shops, to combat anti-piracy, government investigators, announced the seizure of thousands of counterfeit DVDs from three retail outlets in Jamaica, and the arrest of three suspects.
The Queens Chronicle reported that the Motion Picture Association of America’s Executive vice president and director of anti-piracy operations John Malcolm, actively participated in criminal investigation.
Charged with second-degree trademark of counterfeiting and failure to disclose the origins of recording were: Ibrahim Diallo, of Jamaica, Mohamed Sene of the Bronx and Michael Williams of Jamaica. They are being held pending arraingment in Queens County Criminal Court.
The Queens Chrinicle reported that the disc-sniffing dogs are two black Labrador Retrievers, who are the first animals trained to detect the scent of polycarbonate and other chemicals used in optical discs. They are sponsored by the MPAA as part of an initiative to combat copyright infringement relating to motion pictures and DVDs.
“The MPAA has a multi-pronged approach to fighting piracy, including public outreach and enforcement. And since last year, we’ve added two more very talented crime fighters to our arsenal, Lucky and Flo, the world’s first DVD-sniffing canines,” Malcolm told Queens Chronicle.
The two black labradors retrievers, are the first animals trained to detect the scent of polycarbonate and other chemicals used in optical discs.
Raids in Philippines and Malaysia yielded 1.9 million pirated discs with an estimated street value of more than $3.5 million were seized, as well as 97 burner towers used to produce the pirated discs and plant valued at $2 million, the Queens Chronicle said.
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