|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MANILA - A Philippine court has convicted 14 Muslim militants of abducting a US missionary couple and 18 others in a 2001 kidnapping spree that left two Americans dead and prompted Washington to start training Filipino troops.
Most of the top leaders of the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group, which orchestrated the abductions at a resort island, have been killed in clashes since the trial opened in 2003. Philippine officials have credited the US counterterrorism training that started in 2002 for many of the battlefield successes.
Out of 85 suspects originally charged with kidnapping, 23 were captured and tried, and 18 appeared in court. Fourteen were sentenced Thursday to life in prison and four were acquitted. Four others were killed in a botched prison break in 2005, and one has been cleared of charges.
Among those acquitted was the only woman in the group, Satra Tilao, the disabled sister of rebel leader Abu Sabaya who was killed by troops after the abductions.
''I'm so happy. Thanks to Allah! I'm taking my daughter home,'' said her mother, Isnaria Kuranding. ''She was never a terrorist. How can she be, she's a cripple.''
Americans Gracia and Martin Burnhams, missionaries for the Florida-based New Tribes Mission, were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary when they were snatched by the Abu Sayyaf at the upscale Dos Palmas resort on Palawan island on May 27, 2001, and taken by speedboat to southern Basilan island.
Fellow American Guillermo Sobero and 17 Filipinos also were kidnapped. Sobero, from Corona, California, was among several hostages beheaded by the rebels. Martin Burnham and a Filipino nurse were killed during a military rescue raid on June 7, 2002. The other hostages were released or managed to escape.
Burnham, from Wichita, Kansas, returned to the Philippines in 2004 to testify against her captors. She told the court she learned from Abu Sabaya that the rebels received a ransom from an unknown source, but that the guerrillas still refused to free her and her husband. Burnham recounted her ordeal in a book, ''In the Presence of My Enemies,'' which aroused controversy in the Philippines because of her allegations that an unnamed Filipino general tried to get half of a possible ransom for the hostages and that soldiers delivered food and sold weapons to the guerrillas.
A year after the resort raid, the US military began sending troops and instructors to train Filipino soldiers in counterterrorism. US-backed offensives had dislodged the guerrillas from their bases on Basilan, but they have remained a major threat and continued to regroup. Officials estimate their number is down to about 300 guerrillas from about 1,000 in 2001.
The overall leader, Khadaffy Janjalani, was killed last September in fighting on southern Jolo island. His presumed successor, Abu Sulaiman, was shot dead in a separate clash earlier this year. (MNS)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CHICAGO – Authorities said today they have disbanded a major drug ring that brought tens of millions of dollars of ecstasy pills and marijuana to the Chicago area from Canada, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
Drug suppliers in Toronto distributed the drug to two trafficking crews, federal prosecutors said. One of the crews was led by a 38-year old Filipino named Ivan Myint, who is a member of a Filipino-based faction of the Latin Kings street gang in Chicago, authorities alleged.
Authorities have announced charges against 21 people. Ten were arrested in the Chicago area early Thursday and were scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court later this afternoon.
Authorities said a joint investigation involving federal officials and the DuPage County sheriff’s office has seized more than 180,000 pills, several thousand marijuana plants and more than $500,000 in drug proceeds.
At least 10 defendants arrested in the Chicago area are scheduled to begin appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan in U.S. District Court.
All 21 defendants are charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana and more than 500 grams of mixtures containing methamphetamine and quantities of Ecstasy or MDMA, the release said.
According to the complaint affidavit, the Canadian drug suppliers, Ju Wen Zhou, 33, and Kenneth Luong, 31, both of Scarborough, Ontario, negotiated and concluded drug transactions with two Chicago distribution crews. The transactions were brokered and facilitated by individuals with connections to Chicago's Chinatown neighborhood, including Thomas Man Lung Lo, 29, Yong Ouyang, 32, and Li Xien Wu, 32, all of Chicago, according to the affidavit.
One of the Chicago distribution crews was led by Sejin Oh, 37, of Arlington Heights, while the other was led by Myint, 38, formerly of Gurnee, who is charged separately in a pending federal case, the affidavit states.
In early 2005, Myint was arrested and charged with a federal narcotics offense, but fled to Mexico, where he allegedly attempted to continue his drug trafficking operation in both the United States and in Mexico, the release said. He returned to the United States this past summer and remains in federal custody after entering a plea of not guilty in that case.
In addition to Oh, others charged in the federal case are: Jong Kyun Chae, 39, of Skokie; Carlo Panadero, 36, formerly of Des Plaines and believed to be in the Philippines; his brother, Carlos Panadero, Jr., 27, formerly of Berwyn; Melvin Dumanlang, 25, of Chicago; and Henry Chun, 36, of Morton Grove. Also charged are Myint's brother, Michael Myint, 33, of Chicago; Joahan Trujillo, 25, of Chicago; Yvonne Law, 28, of Ontario; and sisters Su Jung Chen, 49, of Ontario; and Susan Chen, 62, of Skokie, according to the release.
Each faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life without parole and fines up to $4 million if convicted.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LOS ANGELES - A woman who was sexually abused by seven Roman Catholic priests and had a baby by one of them received a $500,000 (€339,190) settlement from America's largest archdiocese.
Rita Milla, now 46, first filed her case in 1984 after she says she was abused as a teenager by priests in the Los Angeles area. The payment was part of a $660 million (€447.73 million) global settlement the diocese reached collectively with past abuse victims.
"I'll never escape the memories and I'll always be fighting the after effects of the trauma I went through, but now I can work on healing," Milla said Tuesday at a news conference.
A state court found in 2003 that priest Valentine Tugade fathered Milla's daughter, now 25. And another priest, Santiago Tamayo, admitted he had sex with Milla and publicly apologized years before his death in 1999.
The diocese refused to comment on Milla's case, referring questions to a statement by Cardinal Roger Mahony. The whereabouts of the remaining priests were unclear. "We will continue our long-standing efforts to protect children, prevent sexual abuse and the potential for abuse," Cardinal Roger Mahony said in a statement.
Milla has maintained that she was molested by Tamayo at a church in Carson when she was 16. After she turned 18, she says, she had sexual intercourse with Tamayo and he introduced her to six other priests who also abused her.
After she was impregnated in 1982 by Tugade at a Los Angeles-area church, Milla said, Tamayo suggested that she get an abortion, then devised a plan to send her to the Philippines to have the child.
Milla returned to California after giving birth to her daughter, Jacqueline, and pleaded with the archdiocese for help but was refused. On the day Milla sued 23 years ago, all seven of the accused priests disappeared from their parish offices, said her attorney, Gloria Allred. Tamayo later went to the Philippines. In 2004, Allred released documents showing the church urged Tamayo to stay in that country after Jacqueline's birth and mailed him checks.
In three letters, church officials advised him not to reveal the source of the payments "unless requested under oath," noting that he was "liable for personal suits arising out of your past actions."
Milla, now a medical assistant who lives in southern Los Angeles County, said that she has not spoken with Tugade since shortly after her return from the Philippines. Tugade, who was last known to be living in Fremont in Northern California, never expressed interest in caring for the child, she said.
"He was disappointed actually that she wasn't a boy," Milla said.
While she once planned to become a nun, Milla no longer believes in God. She said she lost her faith because of the church's callousness.
"I thought that the church would make everything OK, that they would punish them," she said. "After the church showed me that they didn't care about what happened, I realized what they were really about, that they were more like a business. They have no fear of God." - AP
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CHICAGO – Philippine Rep. Carlos M. Padilla (Nueva Vizcaya-NP/Abante Vizcaya) and the National Press Club of the Philippines in the US (NPC-Phil. U.S.A.) in Chicago, Illinois denounced over the weekend as “plain barbaric” the “excessive use of force” of the Philippine National Police in the arrest of journalists at the siege of the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City last Thursday (Nov. 29).
Padilla, 63, in town as guest of honor and speaker at the gala event of the 75th anniversary celebration of the Nueva Vizcaya Association of Chicago, told this reporter in an interview that the treatment of Filipino and foreign journalists by the police “was overkill, unnecessary and should not be condoned. It was plain barbaric.”
The opposition lawmaker, who exposed the ZTE scandal in a privilege speech in the House of Representatives, said he supports the resolution filed by Sen. Manuel Roxas II, denouncing the treatment by police authorities of the Filipino and foreign journalists during the power play.
On the other hand, Ms. Yoly T. Tubalinal, president of the NPC-Phil. U.S.A. based in Chicago area, wrote Philippine NPC President Roy C. Mabasa that in its statement of solidarity as its sister organization, the Midwest press club is denouncing the “method of intimidation and force used by the government in dealing with our media brethren covering breaking news.”
Tubalinal said, “in any democratic country, in peace and or at war, the press is guaranteed the freedom to perform its duties to perform its duties such as broadcast and publish news.,” invoking the entreaties of American journalist Walter Lippmann and U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.
The junior congressman from the lone district of Nueva Vizcaya said he will also sponsor or co-sponsor a parallel investigation in the House of Representatives to bring about sanity in the way police authorities treat the media.
Mabasa filed an official complaint last Monday on behalf of the reporters, columnists, and cameramen who were “handcuffed, tied, loaded into a bus, and taken to the headquarters” of the National Capital Region Police Office in Camp Bagong Diwa in suburbanTaguig, Rizal in the Philippines.
Padilla said although what Senator Trillanes is “fighting for is valid. Hindi na dapat dumating sa ganoong pangyayari (it should not have happened that way.)” “I am not in favor of disruption (of the government) at this time. Two years na lang, pagbigyan na lang natin ang gobyerno.” (It’s only two more years to go, let’s allow the government (of President Arroyo to complete her term). Padilla said.
“If we change those people in power, magiging abnormal na naman ang situasyon. (Things will be back to abnormal times again.)” he said.
From Chicago, Mr. Padilla flew to Texas to visit his cousins and stay there for three days before heading back to the Philippines. Mr. Padilla also told host Gerry Alcantara of the weekly “Fil-Am TV Show” on on-air KBC-TV WOCH-LP Channel 41 Chicago that he was airborne en-route to Chicago when the attempted putsch was in progress. It was only by the time that he landed when he came to know about the takeover. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
