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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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VETERANS EQUITY BILLS HEADED FOR FINAL VOTE
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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)
The House and Senate bills that seek to restore full benefits to our World War II veterans are headed for a final vote by the entire House and Senate probably this month.
If the bills are passed by both houses, they will be sent to a conference committee to work out the differences. If the conference report is approved, the bill will be sent to the President for his signature.
HR 760 introduced by Rep. Bob Filner of California on January 31, 2007 and also known as Filipino Veterans Equity Act of 2007 was approved by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee on July 17, 2007. Currently it has 90 co-sponsors.
S. 1315 was introduced by Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii on May 7, 2007. Cited as the Veterans’ Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007 it was ordered to be reported by the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on June 27, 2007.
It was placed on the Senate legislative calendar on August 29, 2007 after the committee held hearings on benefit legislations that included S.57 proposed by Sen. Inouye.
Although both bills enjoy strong support, especially by Democrats in both the House and the Senate, informed sources acknowledge that their passage is not yet certain.
More Support Needed
The National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity which is a coalition of local, national and international organizations and individuals, including NAFFAA and the Philippine Embassy, is stepping up its campaign to gather more congressional support for the bills through call-ins, letters and emails. A lobbying effort is also reported to be underway.
The American Coalition for Filipino Veterans, which is a longtime advocate for veterans equity is also urging its members to work harder in raising public awareness. It has designated September 11 and 20 as “action days on Capitol Hill”.
These bills will provide disability compensation, pensions and readjustment benefits. The House bill will in addition provide dependency and indemnity compensation.
Cost of Benefits
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the House bill will increase direct spending by $53 million in 2008, $449 million over the 2008-2012 period and $822 million over the 2008-2017 period.
The Senate bill, on the other hand, will increase direct spending by $24 million in 2008, $198 million over the 2008-2012 period and $332 million over the 2008-2017 period.
The cost of providing VA medical care is not included in the above figures. According to CBO, there will be about 30,000 eligible veterans living in the Philippines in 2008 and that number will decline to about 24,000 in 2012. The average medical care cost was about $1,700 per person in 2006 and this will increase to $2,100 by 2012. This will translate to an increase in VA health care cost by $5 million in 2008 and $55 million for 2008-2012.
Under the bills, all Filipino veterans whether residing in the US or in the Philippines will receive full disability compensation. Current laws entitle Philippine residents to only one half of the full rate. The average disability compensation is estimated to be about $9,600 in 2008 resulting in an increase of $4,800 per veteran.
The veterans will also be eligible for disability pensions and their surviving spouses will be eligible for death pensions. Presently, neither the veterans nor their spouses are entitled to these benefits. Under the House bill, single veterans would be eligible for $6,000 yearly and married veterans for $8,400. The annual payment for surviving spouses would be $3,600.
The Senate bill provides for a lesser amount: $3,600 for single veterans and $4,500 for those married. Pension for spouses would be $2,400.
The House bill, unlike the Senate bill, grants full dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) to eligible surviving spouses of veterans living in the Philippines. Under current laws, they are eligible for 50% of the regular payment. The average DIC benefit in 2006 was $13,441. The CBO estimates that the average annual payment will be $14,060 in 2008.
Certain readjustment benefits, including dependent education, specially adapted housing grants, and automotive and adaptive equipment, will be available to some Filipino veterans.
Bills Criticized
The ranking Republican in the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Rep. Steve Buyer of Indiana criticized the bill as extremely generous to Filipino veterans. Rep. Buyer said that it would reduce if not wipe out the increase in compensation given by an Appeals court to some 20,000 elderly American veterans. The American Legion has echoed Rep. Buyer’s criticism.
Rep. Filner countered that Rep. Buyer’s reference to lost benefits resulted from a loophole in the laws as interpreted by the Appeals court. He argued that the expanded benefits to Filipino veterans are of a higher priority since they are more than 60 years overdue.
In the Senate, Senator Larry Craig, the ranking Republican in the Veterans Affairs Committee, opposed the Senate bill for paying the benefits to Filipinos living outside the US at the full benefit rate even though the cost of living there is much cheaper. In addition, he said that it would overwhelm the VA Medical Center hampering its capability to provide adequate medical care.
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CHICAGO, Illinois (JGL) -- In the Philippines, the ethnic Chinese businessmen put up businesses beside each other, selling the same items, and yet everybody is thriving.
If a newcomer would like to invest in business, he will first apprentice in a flourishing business establishment. When he thinks he already learned the “secrets” of the trade, he puts up his own.
If the new businessman does not have capitalization, his former employer will even extend him credit so that he can grow and set himself for life.
But among Filipino businessmen in the Philippines, these Chinese ways of doing business are somewhat invisible and foreign to them.
They don’t have to attend and complete their MBA’s at some expensive schools in the Philippines or in the United States, like Wharton School, Harvard Business School or Yale School of Management to conclude that symbiotic ways of the Chinese work.
All they have to do is to look around major cities in the Philippines, where mushrooming malls and blue chip businesses are owned and controlled by Chinese.
In fact, if you read the Forbes magazine annual list, you will read the wealthiest Filipinos bear Chinese names.
But why can’t the Filipino businessmen see the light of day? That beats me.
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
If Filipinos in the Philippines cannot see this hard reality, why can’t overseas Filipinos? And why not?
Overseas Filipinos are supposed to have gained a different perspective after being exposed to a more cosmopolitan environment.
Let’s take the case of Filipino publishers.
A Filipino publisher in the U.S., one of the subscribers to my Journal Group Limited, an online news, photo content service provider, told me that he was amazed by the feedback given to him by a Filipino businessman.
He was told that when the businessman placed an ad in a Korean newspaper, the Korean publisher called up other Korean publishers to call the Filipino businessman to place an ad also in their own newspapers.
“This is an amazing business practice,” the Filipino publisher gushed. “You will never see this phenomenon among Filipino publishers. I wish this practice of spreading business around by fellow Korean publishers will rub off on other Filipino publishers.”
If another businessman placed an ad on a Filipino publisher, the Filipino publisher would certainly just keep quiet about it, like a cat that swallowed the canary, the Filipino publisher told me.
Among Filipinos, a competition is the last thing they would have for their neighbor. They don’t realize that a healthy competition is good for customers, who have the right to choose the best product the market can offer.
FILIPINOS “KILL” THEIR COMPETITION
“Ang problema sa mga Pilipino, pinapatay nila ang kanilang kalaban.” (the problem with Filipinos, they would kill their competition), the Filipino publisher rued. “They simply just want the business for themselves.”
He even cited the practice of a prominent Filipino advertising executive, who would ask from publishers a “$300.00 placement fee (for a full page ad) on top of the customary 15 percent commission.”
“The Filipino advertising executive justifies the $300.00 placement fee by saying that it is him, who makes the decision where to place the ads. Of course, the fee goes to the pocket of the executive, not to the advertising company. Only the 15 percent commission goes to the advertising agency.”
The publisher is a good writer but he asked me to write something about this “placement fee” because he does not want to be identified as a source of this fee, which is more of a “grease money” to me than an incentive.
This practice of asking for a “$300.00 placement fee” is news to me that’s why I agreed to write something about it.
I took up some advertising courses in my journalism program but this “placement fee” is unheard off. I don’t think professional advertising agencies will even tolerate it.
It is a sad commentary that this shadowy practice of this Filipino advertising practitioner is bearing strong similarity to the demand of Chicago Sun-Times publisher and newspaper mogul Conrad Black who was convicted of bilking his own Sun Times of $60-Million. A portion of this amount came in the form of “non-compete payments” from publishers, who bought his community newspapers. Mr. Black assured them that they are not going to have a competition in their local community if they came up with the non-compete fees.
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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“Logger” is a dirty word in this neck of the woods. Not us, snaps San Jose Timber Corporation. Senator Juan Ponce Enrile’s firm logs within a 95,770-hectare area that straddles protected zones of the country’s last old- growth forest in Samar. SJTC claims it works by “sustainable management.”
Bought in 1977 by then-martial law Defense Minister Enrile, SJTC got the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to scrub a logging moratorium. This feat affects what World Wildlife Fund (WWF) lists as “one of the top 200 endangered spaces in the ( planet ).”
Catholic bishops, green groups to international foresters fret over threats to one of the world’s richest biodiversity pools. Some 406 of Samar’s 2,400 plus species of flowers bloom nowhere else. And it has 39 species of mammals and 197 birds. Many are endangered. “This genetic pool has incredible value,” marvels Food and Agriculture Organzation forester Patrick Durst.
To protect this critical resource, UN Development Program, Global Environment Facility and government launched Samar Island Natural Park. But government often snitches with the left hand what it hands with it’s right. Here, DENR spiked the the log ban – and stretched SJTC’s license by 16 years and five months. DENR secretary Mike Defensor’s Aug.16, 2005 order tacked this rider for the SJTC : “extension of period of said TLA equivalent to the time lapsed from 31 May 1989 until promulgation of this order”.
Extension constituted “restitution”. Onli in da Pilipins, retorted Samar Island Biodiversity Foundation in a letter to senators, church leaders and NGOs. “Extension of aTLA as ‘restitution’ never happened in the Philippines before,” wrote Foundation president Agustin Docena.
“Restitution,” the dictionary says, “is making good for injury done.” In a country where crime pays, the idea of making good for harm inflicted startles many. But the concept of reparation goes way back.
Some dub it the “Zacchaeus Precedent”. In Luke’s account, the tax collector Zacchaeus pledged, before the Master: “Half of my goods, I give to the poor. And if I’ve cheated anyone, I pay him back four times as much.” This four-fold restitution amplified the 7th Commandment : “Thou shall not steal”.
In an Orwellian country, like the Philippines, some people are more equal than others. A moneybags aristocracy dominates here. By manipulating government levers, pecuniary aristocrats grab all resources within reach. The Ten Commandments are watered down to the “Ten Suggestions.”
The result is a moral vacuum. It shuts out “restitution” – except where the elite cash in..The powerful monopolize the Zacchaeus precedent but deny it to the weak. Eduardo Cojuangco and Marcos cronies couldn’t be bothered with “restitution” for wringing, under martial law, billions in levy from helpless coconut farmers.
Defensor’s order, in effect, rules that SJTC been prejudiced and is entitled to “restitution” -- by extension of it’s license. Who inflicted the harm? The Catholic bishops of Calbayog, Catarman and Borongan who supported the moratorium? DENR? Who calibrates the value of “restitution”? SJTC? And how? In open hearings? Or was all this a secret, as Oliver Franks said, “in the Oxford sense – you may tell it only to one person at a time.”
Fairness is often the first victim in smoke-filled backroom negotiations. And the Catholic bishops’ pastoral, opposing SJTC’s claim to “prior rights”, makes the same point. This “legal assertion…does not reflect true justice or morality…The people of Samar have more prior rights.. Justice dictates that the natural wealth of Samar Island benefit Samar's poor, not end up (with) the already wealthy.”
Scientists have estimated losses if erosion of Samar’s biodiversity continues. “More than US $40 billion, in just 25 years,” says Marcelino Dalmacio, who led the UN’s Samar Biodiversity Project. “That’s more than projected value of bauxite minerals. And it’s definitely greater than timber.”
Water accounts for more than 80 percent of the bill, Dalmacio added. “Water will suffer consequences of logging and mining, particularly in karst (limestone) areas.” Underground cave systems, in the country’s largest karst region, would crumble from logging trucks.
Beyond price tags is the “killing curve”. Plant and animal genes form life’s building blocks. They spin off into diverse products from high-yielding seeds to anti-cancer drugs. Only 15 percent have been studied. Of today’s 300,000 plants, only 200 or so appear on our dinner tables. Three crops -- rice, maize and wheat – provide most of energy.
Yet, Oxford University’s Norman Myers estimates that some 30,000 species slip into extinction yearly – compared to “two or three lost every five years or so before man appeared. This “genetic library” took eons to evolve. “It’s destruction would wreck the very systems that enable us to feed the world”, Thai Princess and Magsaysay Awardee Maha Chakri Sirindhorn warns. “It would foreclose options for generations coming after us.”
Bio-diversity loss is irreversible. There is no recall mechanism from obliteration. Who’ll make restitution for such damage? .Forest cover here stood at 57 percent in 1934. It’s been whittled down to 18 percent today – and is still dropping.
Samar Island Biodiversity Foundation prodded the Senate to consider the “restitution” flap when selecting Commission on Appointments representatives. Did Defensor swap extension-plus-restitution for Enrile’s vote in confirming his DENR appointment?, it asks. Were you born yesterday?
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Abalos Knows Where The Bodies Are Buried
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Commission on Elections Chairman Ben Abalos replies to any criticism with such ease. He is so glib. He has a ready explanation for any accusations hurled at him. And he is such a magnet for questionable deals.
But his answers are made to entertain. Not to enlighten. They lack depth and avoids going into substance. That's why when the most recent surveys say Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's trust rating is a dismal 18% versus 64% for former President Estrada who has been in jail over six years awaiting judgment for plunder, such a lack of credibility on her part is attributable to her minions like Abalos.
Questions about Abalos run like how come the election cheatings in Mindanao in the 2004 presidential elections were linked to him? How come Abalos remains untouched in the "Hello Garci" scandal?. How come he is cited in the purchase of election counting machines over the Supreme Court's objections, where the government lost P120 million which he is asked to pay? And more recently, how come his name comes up prominently in the pending P329 million proposed purchase of a national broadband network facilities where the overprice reportedly is P80 million? In this latest case, Abalos has a hard time explaining why Chinese officials of the ZTE Corp. involved paid for his travels and entertainment including golf games which he admitted and sex favors from fun girls which he denies.
A relevant question is how come Abalos without let up keeps being linked personally with such high profile questionable deals. Does he feel so powerful that he does not fear anybody and is not afraid of being charged of graft, a danger which an official like him would normally face?
"He knows where the bodies are buried." This 7-word sentence is the simple explanation of the invulnerability of Abalos.
Having been appointed as Chairman of the Commission on Elections by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Abalos has loyally served her by looking after her interests in that body.
And as a reward, it appears the entire government has become beholden to Abalos. In fact the very legitimacy of GMA's presidency is within the power of Abalos to protect or to destroy.
As we went to press, very much in the limelight is the questioned national broadband deal with ZTE Corp. of China. The power of Abalos is such that he could get a ranking cabinet Secretary like Gary Teves to turn around and disowned statements he had made to the press about his meetings with the Chinese arranged by Abalos. And Teves up to this point is one of the credible government officials respected by business leaders. What kind of pressure has GMA used on Teves to get him to protect Abalos? And from hereon, who will still believe Teves when he reports on the government's economic achievements?
And worse, a move to impeach Abalos has been proposed. An impeachment case is to be filed in the House of Representatives. Here, some problem is perceived. It turns out that Abalos is not only the keeper of Malacanang's election skeletons in the closets. He also keeps such skeletons for some congressmen.
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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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