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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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Fil-Am family perishes in Union Township blaze
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THERE will be no Christmas cheer for EJ Aguas, the lone survivor of the fire that engulfed their house in Union Township, New Jersey killing his father, Edgardo, his mother, Digna, his little sister, Emily and his grandmother, Flotilda.
According to Union Township fire chief Fed Fretz, the fire was reported at 2:41 a.m. and already raging when authorities arrived, with flames and smoke shooting out windows.
The fire appeared to have originated from the basement, and may have been caused by a faulty electrical system.
The 21-year old E.J. managed to survive the inferno when his father pushed him out from a ground floor window. “He is still in shock,” said Resy Millora-Dilag, 50, who was Emily’s godmother.
Emily’s body was found on the first floor, and her mother’s in a bathroom holding a fire extinguisher, authorities said. The grandmother was found in a closet, while the father escaped the home but later died.
The Aguas family was well-loved in the community, often hosting dancing parties and social gatherings. The couple just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in October.
This was a great family,” said Pauline Pazas, 55, who lives two doors away.
“He was a great family man,” she said, referring to Edgardo Aguas. “He was a perfect neighbor, perfect.”
Friends and family members remembered Mrs. Aguas, 47, as an extrovert with a radiant smile. Mr. Aguas, 57, they said, was friendly and compassionate.
He cooked Filipino, Japanese and Chinese delicacies for parties that he would hold for parents of children on Emily’s two swim teams.
“It runs in the family,” said Mr. Aguas’s sister, Yolanda Aguas, 49. “My father is a very good cook.”
By 5 a.m., about 50 firefighters from Union and surrounding towns had the blaze under control, as family and friends began to grieve.
"They were beautiful people," said Stephanie Loredo, Digna's cousin, who said Digna and Edgardo had married in the Philippines before moving to the United States.
The couple celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in October, and relatives flew in from Australia, Florida and California for the party.
"And now they have to come back for the (funeral) services," Loredo said. Edgardo was an engineer, Digma a materials representative who assisted a surgeon at Overlook Hospital in Summit. Flotilda lived in Australia but spent four to six months per year visiting family in the United States. Emily was an eighth-grader at Morristown-Beard School, where teachers and coaches described her as a bright, athletic teen. She spent nearly every night at the Boys & Girls Club, practicing swimming with the Tidal Wave team, said her coach, Yefim Shoykhet. Her parents often traveled to meets, and the whole family -- including the grandmother -- attended a swim team Christmas party on Saturday.
"This is without question a devastating loss for all of us here," said Russell Triolo, the Boys & Girls Club CEO. "This type of tragedy doesn't happen often, thank God, but it hits us hard." With reports from NJ Star Ledger and NYTimes
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MANILA -- Unknown to some, the legal journey of Marilou Ranario, the Filipina convicted of murder for killing her Kuwaiti employer, from the time she was incarcerated in 2005 to the time she was granted commutation of a death sentence this year, started with the expeditious action of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to provide legal assistance to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) caught in a tangle with their host country's laws.
Ranario was spared the penalty of death by Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah upon the intercession of President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo when she visited the oil-rich state last Sunday TuttttIn Tuesday's edition of The Cabinet Speaks, a weekly television program aired over government station NBN-4, DFA Undersecretary Esteban Conejos and OWWA Administrator Marianito Roque narrated the different actions their respective agencies took to provide legal representation for Ranario.
Conejos said that as early as the fourth day of incarceration, Ranario was already legally represented by a competent lawyer well versed in Sharia law.
According to Conejos, aside from the legal representation, representatives from various government agencies pitched in to help.
He said that it started in February 2006 when the President first made an appeal for clemency. In March 2006, Vice President Noli de Castro visited the Emir of Kuwait to personally deliver a letter from President Arroyo asking for clemency on behalf of Ranario.
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CHICAGO, Illinois (JGL) – “I think this decision by the Philippine court was a BIG, important step in the war on terror. I am so glad that the prosecutors pushed through and made sure it happened! It seemed like it took a long time - I'm just glad the Philippines didn't forget about the case - or about me!”
This was the prepared statement issued by a spokesperson of American missionary Gracia Burnham when reached for comment by this reporter in her home in Rosehill, Kansas on the conviction Thursday (Dec. 6) (Friday, Manila Time) of 14 Abu Sayyaf members who abducted her and her husband, Martin, who was killed during a bloody military rescue mission on June 7, 2002 in Saraway, Zamboanga del Norte.
Gracia, who was out of town, added, “I feel like this ruling by the court brings some closure to Martin and my experience there in the Philippines with the Abu Sayyaf. It is over and done - and my children and I can move on with our lives.”
“I hope this is a big lesson that the choices you make have consequences. We can live our lives doing good for others or we can be harmful of others. This was a reminder to me that I want to live my life doing good.”
Gracia returned to the Philippines in 2004 to testify in a court trial held in the police headquarters at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City. She positively identified six of the eight arrested Abu Sayyaf members as among those who abducted her, her husband Martin and others in Palawan in May 2001.
She told the court she learned from rebel leader Abu Serbia that the rebels received a ransom from an unknown source but the abductors still refused to free her and her husband.
Aside from Martin Burnham, a Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap was also killed in that kidnapping incident.
Gracia wrote a book, “In the Presence of My Enemies,” about her plight. It stirred an uproar. In it, Gracia wrote that an unidentified Filipino general tried to get half of a possible ransom for the hostages and that soldiers delivered food and sold weapons to the abductors.
Most of the leaders of the Abu Sayyaff behind the abduction have been killed in clashes since the trial started four years ago. The Philippine soldiers were aided by U.S. counterterrorism training in those clashes.
A press statement issued by the Philippine Consulate in Chicago, Illinois said Undersecretary Ricardo R. Blancaflor, spokesman of the Anti-Terrorism Council, is very pleased to announce the conviction of 14 Abu Sayyaf members, who are accused in the Dos Palma, Palawan resort kidnapping.
Judge Lorifel Pajimna of Regional Trial Court in Taguig sentenced the 14 to reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment) with civil indemnities for the hostages.
Four of the accused were acquitted but only one has been ordered released because the three others were previously convicted by the RTC of Basilan for the kidnapping and beheading of coconut farmers at the Golden Harvest plantation in Basilan.
Out of 85 suspects originally charged with kidnapping, 23 were captured and tried, and 18 appeared in court.
Blancaflor, chair of Task Force 211 created to resolve political violence and extra-judicial killings, commended the team of prosecutors headed by Prosecutor Leo Dacera, “whose dedication, bravery and unwavering resolve to pursue justice for the helpless victims eventually led to the conviction of the culprits.”
It was on May 27, 2001 when a group of men belonging to the Al-Harakatul Islamiyyah (Abu Sayaff Group) with high powered firearms descended at Dos Palmas Resort in Honda Bay, Palawan abducted several resort guests, including three American nationals, namely Martin and Gracia Burnham, and Guillermo Sobero.
The ASG beheaded three hostages, among them Sobero. Several months later, the Philippine military, in an effort to rescue the hostages, initiated contact with the ASG in Saraway and a battle ensued. Gracia Burnham survived in the crossfire but her husband, Martin, and Ediborah Yap, did not.
Executive Secretary Eduardo R. Ermita, chair of the Anti-Terrorism Council, noted “the total terrorist conviction score care of the Philippines is now 39, which is the highest in the world.”
The 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 and taken by speedboat to southern Basilan Island.
Sobero and 17 Filipinos, including Ediborah Yap, also were kidnapped. Sobero was from Corona, California. The other hostages were released or managed to escape. Gracia returned to the United States after the rescue operation. The book, “In the Presence of my Enemies,” was listed on the New Times Best Seller in 2003. She followed it up with another, entitled “To Fly Again.” She promotes her books during her speaking tours.
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LONDON– A Filipino nurse is on trial for raping a teenage overdose patient after she collapsed in a hospital toilet, a court heard yesterday.
Oliver Balicao took the drowsy 16-year-old inside to “get a urine sample” and attacked her – then apologised, it is claimed.
He had earlier kissed her and fondled her breasts under her gown, it was said.
The jury heard the girl was rushed to A&E at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital by her mum after taking a paracetamol overdose.
The teenager, who was depressed because she was being bullied by other pupils at school, was put in a cubicle to await treatment.
Sam Mainds, prosecuting, said that night-shift nurse Balicao, 33, went over to her.
Mr Mainds said: “He spoke to her. She was feeling tired, was feeling drowsy and had been given some medication.
“He started to kiss her and he put his hand inside her gown and he touched her breasts. She did not say anything. She was too tired.
“He put his hands up her gown and touched her. Then he said he needed a sample of her urine for tests.
“We say that was because he wanted to get her in a room to rape her.”
Inside the disabled toilet, the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, collapsed, the court heard.
Balicao, born in the Philippines, then pulled down her gown and had sex with her.
Mr Mains said: “Afterwards he said he was sorry. He took away her gown to change it.” He then returned the girl to her treatment cubicle.
Balicao, of Bicester, Oxon, claims the girl consented to sex. He denies rape but admits sexual activity with a child by a person in trust. The case at Oxford Crown Court continues.
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MANILA– The transport strike Thursday was hardly felt in Metro Manila as hundreds of jeepneys continued to ply their routes and most major transport groups declined to join the protest action called by the militant Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (Piston).
Though many commuters were unable to make it to work on time as the strike affected key routes like Edsa, they were not completely paralyzed as trucks and buses deployed by police, local governments and various government agencies roamed the city picking up stranded commuters.
And except for initial early reports of striking drivers coercing other drivers to join the strike, Philippine National Police said the strike was “generally peaceful.”
The story was mixed in the rest of the country, with striking transport groups claiming to have paralyzed from 80 percent to 98 percent of transportation in provinces like Laguna, Batangas, the Bicol region, Negros Occidental, Capiz and Aklan, leaving hundreds of stranded commuters. In Baguio City, most drivers either stayed home or continued plying their routes, in Zambales and Cebu no strike was called and in Rizal, only about 60 percent of drivers stayed off the streets.
Most transport operations were back to normal by noon and 3 p.m. in Metro Manila and other parts of the country, earlier than the 5 p.m. scheduled by Piston leaders to end the strike.
However, Piston secretary general George San Mateo was unruffled, claiming that Piston had scored an average “90 to 95 percent transport paralysis nationwide,” including 70 to 90 percent in Metro Manila.
Modesto Florande, Piston’s NCR chief, said the strike was successful because it “sent a strong message to our leaders and the oil companies that the grassroots members will not sit in the sidelines anymore.” MNS
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