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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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THANKSGIVING is here once again. However, this year is especially difficult for us to feel grateful. Our people back home have been suffering without any hope seeing a brighter day. Government scandals, terror attacks and rampant corruption further alienate our beloved countrymen.
In the same vein, our fellow immigrants here have been subjected to many trials and hardships due to the lackluster American economy. And as a result, the Holiday box that we usually send home may lack a box of spam or two. Many may have broken their hearts this year–a relationship gone bad, unrequited love or failed courtship.
Also, many may have lost loved ones this year and couldn’t get over the pain of it all.
Some may have failed in their businesses and professional careers.
Some immigrants may have been deported and have given up on their American dream.
With all these circumstances surrounding our daily lives this year, it is definitely difficult to even utter the word ‘thanks’.
However, it is necessary that we do pay gratitude. Our countrymen back home may be in desperate times, but they still live in a country that they can all call home. One will never know the value of one’s country until one lives away from it for a long time. And there is really no place like home.
While we Filipino-Americans struggle through financial hardships, we should be thankful that we still have enough to elevate our lives from utter poverty and share the goods to our loved ones back home, even if it lacks a box of spam or two.
For the heartbroken, be thankful for being capable of loving. Love should be rewarding, and nothing makes it more rewarding than past failures.
For the ones who lost loved ones, be thankful that you had the chance to share and celebrate life with them and find comfort in the thought that the ones you lost have made you what you are.
The message is to be thankful for being able to participate in the mystery called life.
Hence, we give thanks for everything we have and even the things we couldn’t have.
We give thanks for what we are as well as what we couldn’t not be.
We give thanks for love gained and love lost.
We give thanks for dreams fulfilled and for shattered ones.
For the truth is, there is nothing more beautiful than life. We are all blessed to be able to hear laughter, shed tears, listen to music, behold beauty, accept pain, embrace defeat, and feel love.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
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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)
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Brand Of “Southern Justice”
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THE murder case of Filipino American Dr. Noel Chua in Georgia appears to be slowly but surely turning into a brand of “Southern Justice” made famous by such cases as “Jena Six” and “Mississippi Burning” whose decisions were fraught with racism that raises more questions than answers.
Donald Samuel, the lawyer of Doctor Chua, is still preparing his brief to appeal “for a new trial” on the life sentence imposed on him by a jury for felony murder charge and for violation of seven drug charges last month. But Dr. Chua’s supporters cannot stop speculating on why Dr. Chua should even be charged with murder in the first place instead of manslaughter that would have considerably lessened his imprisonment in the event of conviction.
An email sent to me by Dr. Edmundo F. Relucio, a Chicago area-based general surgeon and fellow alumnus of Dr. Chua at the Far Eastern University in the Philippines, was asking why Dr. Chua was being singled out to answer for the crime. “Why weren’t the other physicians who prescribed similar narcotics exempted from the ‘crime’? Shouldn’t they be as guilty as Chua when in fact they were not monitoring Carter (Jamie Carter, III) as Chua did and failed to notify Chua of their prescriptions? The pharmacy filling the prescriptions should also be held responsible for not warning Chua of the other physicians’ prescriptions.”
Carter, 20, was found dead at Chua’s home in St. Marys, Georgia on Dec. 15, 2005.
Dr. Relucio added, “I believe that defense attorney Don Samuel clearly established thru the forensic toxicologist Varviere’s cross examination that it was the morphine that killed Carter and not the methadone and that Chua’s last prescription of morphine would have been consumed way before Carter’s demise. This should cast enough doubt as to Chua’s guilt.”
BLAME-SHARING Dr. Relucio, who is leading a fund-raising for the legal defense of the 45-year-old doctor, said the life sentence “plus five years” imposed by Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams of Camden County “is too severe for a first time offender, who, I believe, should have been charged with manslaughter or homicide rather than murder.
This is particularly true in a case where there is obvious sharing of blame with other doctors, with the pharmacists, and with the patient’s own behavior of hiding other prescriptions, using other doctor, obtaining drugs from other sources, and his parents’ failure in parenting (addict from age 9). The parents should likewise be put to jail.
“Carter’s behavior is typical of a true addict-manipulative, suicidal, no true organic disease but instead has a psychiatric or behavioral disorders probably originating from a dysfunctional family.”
Dr. Relucio agreed with the observation of another doctor, Dr. Ely Abellera, who believes that Dr. Chua is not blameless either. They said Dr. Chua was guilty of malpractice and impropriety and he has some responsibility in the final outcome of the case. They said Dr. Chua did not keep good records. He should have documented every office visit or consultation on the patient’s chart, including explanation of why he is changing or adding new drug, etc.
Dr. Chua should not have allowed Carter to live in his house at St. Marys and more so his office (its contents). This is tantamount to giving your keys to an addict who will burglarize your office.
Carter was found in possession of morphine and syringes while in school when brought back to his home by two men because he was under the influence.
LESS UPFRONT And Dr. Chua should have been more upfront with his supporters, who would have given him more appropriate advice.
The prosecutor presented a witness, a young man who apparently had a sexual relationship with him during a trip outside the country. This testimony “only proves that Dr. Chua is gay but not a killer.”
Had we known these facts, Dr. Relucio said, his supporters would have advised Dr. Chua to accept the initial offer of the prosecutors to give him a “five year probation only and later another two-year jail term,” which would have applied to his 13 months of time served, and “revocation of license to practice.”
Dr. Chua’s die-hard Filipino American supporters in Georgia include Dr. Abellera, Mr. Willy Blanco and Mrs. Pam Peterman.
Dr. Chua’s supporters also denounced the prosecutors for charging Dr. Chua with RICO (racketeering) when Carter was the only patient Chua had prescribed multiple drugs and was not benefiting from it since Carter was not paying him. Chua was merely writing the prescriptions not handing or administering the drugs himself.
Dr. Relucio was suspecting RICO was imposed on Dr. Chua to freeze Chua’s assets and prevent him from funding his defense.
Fortunately, Dr. Chua’s patients raised $130,000 for his legal defense in Atlanta while he was able to raise $26,000 in Chicago.
The court-appointed guardian of Chua’s bank account depleted his $130,000 in 11 months. It took 13 months before Chua was given a day in court – enough time to morally, mentally and financially bankrupt him. It was “another tactical maneuver by the prosecution.”
The jury that convicted Dr. Chua was composed of 11 whites and one African American. Most of the defense attorney Don Samuel’s preferred jurors were disallowed.
Dr. Chua was denied bail although he is not a flight risk or a recidivist. He is well-liked physician in the area as shown by the funds raised.
Dr. Relucio said donors to the Dr. Chua Legal Defense Funds may be sent to Dr. Edmundo F. Relucio, 5905 Deerfield Dr., Coal City, IL 60416. Checks are payable to DR. NOEL CHUA LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, which can also be sent to Standard Bank, 1111 Rt. 6, Morris, IL 60450.
He is asking donors to provide him their email addresses for acknowledgement and thanksgiving.
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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“MAN does not live by words alone, although sometimes he must swallow them,” Adlai Stevenson mused after his US presidential election bid crumbled. So, is former President Joseph Estrada swallowing his words as the brawl over court seizure of tainted loot intensifies?
Reread Erap, suggests “My National Disaster: It's called the Republic of the Philippines”. Written by former PCGG commissioner Ruben Carranza, this insightful New York blog quotes Estrada to Estrada. "Hindi nilalambing ang krimen. Dinudurog. Hindi kinukupkup ang kriminal. Pinaparusahan" (“Crime should not be treated gently. It should be crushed. Criminals should not be coddled. They must be punished”) Estrada perorated in his 1999 State of the Nation address
Hindsight is always 20/20. Issuing decrees, as lawgiver, is a different kettle of fish, from confronting that decree, even as pardoned lawbreaker. So, Erap whines for kid glove treatment as the court ordered Sheriff Edgardo Urieta: Shear other properties, to make up for shortfalls, if there’s welshing on restitution.
Foul, Estrada protested. His lawyers scrambled to quash the writs, arguing: seizures exceed the court decision. A convicted plunderer doesn’t owe the state the monetary value of what he swiped. Therefore, Erap can’t be compelled to cough up pre-ransacking assets like Tanay and Polk Street mansions, a fleet of cars, bank accounts etc. . Nilalambing ang krimen?. Kinukupkup ang criminal?
The court will hear Erap out this week. He scoffed, meanwhile, at Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio proposal to grab back pardon papers if forfeiture is derailed.. ”What was granted to me was unconditional clemency...”
Equitable PCI Bank ( now merged with Banco de Oro ), surrendered P215 million held for the programless Erap Muslim Youth Foundation, as the court ordered.It still smarts from criticism over it’s cozy coddling of Estrada in power. The amount seized, so far, is peanuts. It’s a fraction “of the P545.29 million that the court said was creamed off from “illegal gambling payoffs and ordered forfeited in favor of government.”
What’s left of the P189 million stashed in the Jose Velarde, after panicked withdrawals? And the “Boracay Mansion” has been cannibalized.
These publicized seizures come in a country where the main under-the-table industry, by a moneybag aristocracy, is hauling cash to the grave. It’s members claw to keep what they’ve pillaged. They sneer at Seneca’s caution: “The most grievous kind of penury is to want money in the midst of wealth.”
The Marcoses try to wrest loot stashed, they claim, with Lucio Tan and other cronies. The cronies. Every centavo, mansion and hacienda are camouflaged by cronies. “Count” Herminio Disini retained Bata-an nuclear plant booty. Have Lapu-Lapu mayor Arturo Radaza and ex-Mandaue Mayor Teodoro Ouano made good for overpriced Asean street lamps? Eduardo Cojuangco and partners hang on to the coconut levy, extorted from small farmers by martial law. Mega-Pacific hasn’t repaid P1.2 billion to the Commission on Elections for defective computers, thumbing their nose at a Supreme Court decision.
Pampanga offers a relevant example. Without tacking a centavo on quarry levies, Pampanga Governor Eduardo Panlilio collected P88.6 million in 95 days. He pulled that off by transparent governance It took Senator Manuel “Lito” Lapid and son, Mark, as governors, three-and-half years, to raise that sum, Inquirer’s Tonette Orejas noted.
At this rate, Panlilio will raise P354 million in a year of 313 working days, Columnist Antonio Abaya’s tallied. When his term ends, Panlilio may have infused P1.41 billion into Pampanga’s anemic treasury. “Among Ed” would have raised P1.3 billion more than the Lapids. Do deadbeats get to pocket the difference?
For boosting tax collections eight times, Pampanga officials won’t pin a medal on Panlilio. Instead, they’d castrate the govenor’s office. Mayors scramble for “greater control over quarrying”, notes Columnist Randy David in “Crisis of Cash Politics”. They jettisoned that role earlier on the Lapids. Thru Ordinance 176, the provincial board would dump the governor’s tax powers in associations of quarry operators and officials. The fox will guard the chicken coop.
Cebu City replicates this sordid pattern. There, Mayor Tomas Osmena would cut revenue base of a key barangay Lahug, by tax-map smudging. He’d shuffle lucrative agencies into barangays headed by his minions. That would bypass Lahug’s multi-awarded and independent Mary Ann de los Santos .
“It is the old system gasping for life”, David observes.
“Such a system spurns the duty of “restitution. But making good for harm done is rooted in justice. God himself can not pardon if in matters of thievery, restitution is not made of stolen goods.”, Jesuit anthropologist Bishop Francisco Claver wrote in an Inquirer op-ed article ( Nov 7 ).
And former Senator Jovito Salonga reminded Estrada in a private letter, of the “Zacchaeus precedent”: “Half of my goods, I give to the poor,” the tax collector Zacchaeus told the Master: “And if I’ve cheated anyone, I pay him back four times as much.”
Indeed, the inscription, on the Great Mosque’s façade in Fateh-pur-Sikri, India, reminds us all “The world is a bridge. Pass over it. But build not your dwelling there” – let alone chew words on it .
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Hope For Forclosed Homeowners
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THE latest report is that the current subprime lending mess will affect two million homeowners who will lose their homes through foreclosure. And the number is still rising. It's good that the issue as expected has caught fire and advocates have surfaced and are gearing up to come to the rescue.
There are two main characteristics of Filipinos who have decided to make the US their adopted country. First is to educate their children to enable them to get a good job. Second is to complete their American dream by buying a home. Those who have achieved the second objective may have their lives complicated by the deepening home credit crisis. Obliquely or directly, the expected recession because of this crisis will result to possibly massive job layoffs. Loss of income will accelerate widespread problem of home foreclosures.
By the time this column comes out, the House of Representatives may already have voted into law a measure to curtail abusive mortgage lending. Such abuses have reportedly contributed to starting a widening problem that could cause many homeowners to become a victim of foreclosure. It's heartening to know the move from Congress. But keep your fingers crossed. The proposed law has a formidable lobby against it. It includes large and powerful financial institutions. The opposition will try to weaken the bill if they cannot stop it.
A significant loophole in favor of borrowers has been uncovered in a federal court in Ohio. Because of massive demand, large lenders have resorted to pooling loans and selling the receivables as securities to bigger lenders including giant hedge funds. The loopholes involves the requirement that such lenders must establish their ownership rights as investors on the pooled assets.
Federal Judge Christopher Boyko in Cleveland has dismissed 14 foreclosure cases brought on behalf of mortgage investors, ruling that they failed to prove that they owned the properties they were trying to seize.
In a report last week, the New York Times said the “pooling of home loans into securities has been practiced for decades... Some $6.5 trillion of securitized mortgage debt was outstanding at the end of 2006. But as foreclosures surged, the complex structure and disparate ownership of mortgage securities has made it harder for borrowers to work out troubled loans in part because they can’t identify who holds the mortgage notes.”
The same problem is causing hardships to the lenders and lawyers of the borrowers have seized the opportunity for the benefit of their clients. Judge Boyko’s decision is seen as a landmark development on which to establish future rulings. In the case in the sala of Judge Boyko, the lenders' representative was asked to file copies of the loan assignments. But lawyers for the lenders were able to show only an intent to convey the rights in the mortgage pooled, rather than proof of ownership as of the foreclosure date. They claimed they had been doing this for decades and it had never been challenged until now.
Judge Boyko wrote "Finally put to the test, their weak legal argument enabled the court to stop them at the gate."
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TOP honorees at Sunday's Reflections Gala held at Marriott Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles were celebrated film icons from the Homeland. Present to accept their lifetime achievement awards were Superstar Nora Aunor, matinee idol, Eddie Gutierrez and multi-awarded director, Elwood Perez.
It was also gratifying that my own efforts to showcase the best of Philippine themed classic and contemporary movies through the 6-year running LA Cinema Indio Festival was given recognition by the Beau Monet Event Special. There was a total of 26 honorees plus four queens of the night: Francheska Vicents (Little Miss Philippines), Marianne Erica Panaligan (Miss Teen Philippines), Heidi Ann Riego (Queen of Reflections) and Olivia Quido (Queen of the Philippines).
The long and winding dinner-awards-fashion event lasted for more than five hours with over 300 attendees dressed in their pink and black finery. Arrivals walked the pink carpet amidst flashbulbs popping to the cocktail reception which was soon followed by a sitdown dinner in the Grand Ballroom. Featured fashion designs this year were by Katrina Macabagdal Ruddock, Irma La Dolce and David Tupaz plus the bold Body Paint artwork of Carmela Leelin.
I was seated with La Aunor who wore a black lace/ chiffon gown by Lou Razon who also did my bustier lavender formal in elegant silk. In the same table was Lou Sabas in fuschia and Chris Friel, Mr. Asia-USA. The tall and striking Toni Abad, youngest sister of Christopher and Pinky de Leon (visiting from Manila) came in a glamorous pink Iala creation to present the Man of Style award to Dion Santos.
Emotional was the word to describe Eddie Gutierrez's acceptance speech after receiving the Golden Reflections Awards. He went down memory lane and recalled how he and Nora had teamed up in Pogi, Hindi Goli a Sampaguita Pictures comedy flick. Film clips of Elwood Perez movies were also shown (mostly Nora-Tirso Cruz, Vilma Santos- Christopher starrers) before the filmmaker was called on-stage. And, finally, the One and Only Superstar was introduced by the Reflections' perennial Master of Ceremonies, Sonny Madera but not before her memorable scenes from Ina Ka ng Anak Mo, Minsan May Isang Gamu-Gamo and Bilangin and Bituin sa Langit were flashed on the screen.
Nora's speech was moving as she humbly acknowledged her fears and uncertainties of appearing in public after the year long controversy involving her case (which had been dismissed and expunged from US records quite recently). The formally-dressed crowd gave her a resounding applause and a standing ovation after she obliged Monet Lu's request to sing People a-capella.
The night ended with the seemingly never-ending influx of people on-stage to bask in the unfading glory of Nora Aunor.
The souvenir program's most exposed image was Michael "Michelle" Molina (cited for make-up artistry) who outdid everyone with the most number of pages greetings so much so that the Reflections souvenir book literally looked like Michelle's album.
Named Man of the Year was Ted Benito, producer of theater/stage events and his humanitarian mom, Fe Israel Benito, Woman of the Year.
Outstanding community leader, Dr. Linda Enriquez was elevated to the Hall of Fame for her continued medical missions to the Philippines through the auspices of the Philippine Medical Society of Southern California.
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