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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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CHICAGO – Three Filipinos – one American citizen, one Canadian citizen and the third, a US immigrant – will face the moment of truth starting Friday, Jan. 4, when jury selection starts before Judge Kathleen Cardone of the United District Court of Western District in El Paso.
They were charged with illegally recruiting hundreds of Filipino teachers into the United States even if most of them have no job employments waiting for them. Daryl Fields, public affairs officer of the United States Attorney’s office in San Antonio, Texas, said the month long jury trial will start on Monday, Jan. 7th. He said the three are named in the 26-page “second superceding indictment.”
They are OMNI Consortium, Multicultural Professionals, Multicultural Education Consultants Noel Cedro Tolentino, 46, a Canadian citizen and a U.S. Permanent Resident; his wife, Angelica Tolentino, 46, a Filipino citizen and U.S. Permanent Resident; and his mother, Florita Cedro Tolentino, 72, a Philippine-born U.S. naturalized citizen. They are all residents of Houston, Texas.
Noel Cedro Tolentino, currently on $150,000 (%15 down) bond, faces Count 1) Conspiracy to Defraud the Government/ Visa Fraud and up to 5 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine; Counts 5-6) Visa Fraud/Aidingand Abetting, up to 10 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine per count; Count 7) Destruction of records in federal Investigation, up to 20 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine; Counts 9-19) Money Laundering, up to 10 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine per count; Angelica Tolentino, currently out on personal recognizance bond, faces Count 1) Conspiracy to Defraud the Government/Visa Fraud, and up to 5 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine; Counts 2-6) Visa Fraud/Aiding and Abetting, up to 10 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine per count; Count 8) Misprision of felony, up to 3 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine; Counts 9-19) Money Laundering, up to 10 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine per count; And Florita Cedro Tolentino, also currently out on $250,000 (15% down) bond faces Count 1) Conspiracy to Defraud the Government/Visa Fraud, up to 5 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine; Count 7) Destruction of records in federal investigation, up to 20 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine; Counts 9-19) Money Laundering, up to 10 years in federal prison, maximum $250,000 fine per count.
They were charged with 19 counts and Notice of Forfeiture of “$2.7-M personal money judgment” and other properties.
ORIGINAL 40-COUNT INDICTMENT
In its original indictment, a grand jury accused the Tolentinos and four others with about 40 counts of violations of laws, including conspiracy to smuggle aliens, visa fraud and money laundering.
At the eighth week of the jury trial, Judge Cardone declared last March 19th (2007) a “mistrial” when she learned that two of the 12 jurors read about the case in El Paso Times, a daily newspaper, making them prejudicial to the case.
Cardone reset a new trial last September, 2007. But when the defense lawyers withdrew from the case, the judge set the trial on the first Friday of the New Year to give the newly appointed lawyers Luis Isla and Ray Velarde familiarity with the case.
The Tolentinos were accused of recruiting mostly Filipino teachers for Ysleta Independent School District (YISD); Socorro Independent School District (SISD); El Paso School Independent School District (EPSID); all in El Paso; South San Antonio Independent School District (SSAISD); and Brownsville Independent School District (BISD).
They recruited more teachers than needed “knowing said teachers had prior offers of employment rescinded and/or who had no confirmed teaching position with a specific employer, in order to bring such alien teachers to the United States for defendants’ financial gain.” They carried this out using “false documents and” making “false statements before the United States Department of State and CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Service) in order to secure the (H-1B) visas.”
The U.S. attorney's office has said that 273 Filipino teachers were brought to the United States during 2002-04 and that fewer than 100 actually had jobs waiting for them.
According to the Indictment records obtained by this reporter, the defendants required each teacher, prior to being interviewed by the BISD Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources, to pay $10.00 tosubmit resume; $130.00 to take Functional Academic Skills Test (FAST); $175.00 to have their credentials evaluated; $100.00 to be interviewed; and after being selected by the BISD, each teacher is asked to pay $850.00 in legal fees; $110.00 for visa; $1,000.00 for expedited processing of a visa; and $6,000.00 “security bond.”
Each teacher is also required to pay $1,500.00 placement fee “to a Philippine company, associated with defendants,” where defendants have percentage; “pay one of the defendants airfare, furniture andother assorted fees” after being selected by a school district for possible employment; or a total of approximately “$10,000.00 or more, requiring many of the teachers to acquire loans at high interest (60% APR) rates thru their associates “C.J. Librodo and/ or Owen Carsi Cruz.”
Daryl Fields said as for the Filipino teachers who are now in the United States, their status are “under review by the Homeland Security’s CIS— Citizenship and Immigration Services.” (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal. net)
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CHICAGO, Illinois (JGL) – Retired Filipino Canadian qualified electrical engineer Cecilio M. Rous from Manaoag, Pangasinan in the Philippines rejected Friday (Dec. 28) the offer of $1,000 by his neighbor who was ordered to pay $8,000 by the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission for discriminating against him.
Describing the offer as an “insult,” Rous, who will turn 71 on Jan. 11th, told this reporter in an interview that as a result, his neighbor, Mr. Jean Blais, will have to face the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal, which is equivalent to a court.
Rous, a cousin of former newsman Albert Rous, met Friday with the lawyer of the Quebec Human Rights Commission, who will represent him as witness before the Tribunal. Also at the meeting with his lawyer, Pierre Moretti, was Fo Niemi, executive director of the Center for Research –Action on Race Relations based in Montreal, capital of Quebec. Mr. Niemi assisted Mr. Rous in bringing his case before the Commission.
Mr. Niemi told this reporter over the phone it is possible that if Mr. Rous case is brought before the Tribunal, a ruling will likely be handed down from five to six months.
A resident of St. Hubert, a neighboring borough of Montreal to the east, Rous sought the help of CRAAR in 2003 “for protection from his neighbors.”
Mr. Rous and his wife, the former Rustica Punzalan, a native of Sta. Maria, Bulacan in the Philippines told CRAAR that in 2003, their neighbors were throwing garbage in their property, provoking him to retaliate. His neighbors, however, called him “cochon,” a French for pig, and told him to go back to his “home country.”
In August 2003, CRARR filed a complaint on behalf of the Rous couple, claiming $20,000 in damages from the four neighbors, who were identified “as having harassed the couple,” before the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission.
The Commission’s investigator first interviewed Mr. Rous in his home in November 2005. But the investigator had never gotten to interview Mr. Rous’s wife, who died of cancer last June 2007, at the age of 71. As a result, the Commission only awarded the $5,000 in moral damages and $3,000 in punitive damages to Mr. Rous.
The Commission merely relied on the June 2003 incident report of the suburban Longueuil police, which concluded that “she was never a victim of discrimination from the neighbors, and consequently, no damages were awarded in her favor.”
Mr. Rous neighbor, Blais, was given a deadline of Dec. 21, 2007 to pay Mr. Rous. Last Dec. 21, Mr. Blais offered Mr. Rous only $1,000, out of $8,000, prompting the Commission to raise the case before the Tribunal. “I am merely fighting for principle and dignity,” Mr. Rous told this reporter. “I will be there to testify in the case to the end.”
Mr. Rous said that his neighbor is just like him, a white immigrant to Canada. He noted that the aborigines of Canada are not whites nor Asians but Red Indians.
Rous came to Canada in 1977 after he was petitioned by his sister, Melba, a nurse. He settled at Quebec, the French speaking province of Canada. He has never been back to the Philippines since. He plans to visit his native land very soon. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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MANILA -- Vice President Noli de Castro on Wednesday said the 18 Filipino seamen who survived an attack on their ship by armed militants in Nigeria and were subsequently trapped in the hotel where they had sought refuge will be returning home Friday.
De Castro identified the lone Filipino casualty in the attack as Vito Cruz, an electrician, who was burned to death in an explosion after the oil tanker in which he and the 18 other Filipinos were working was attacked on December 19 in the Okirika District in Nigeria’s Rivers state.
The return of Cruz’s body may be delayed until after an autopsy is completed, said De Castro, the presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers.
The 18 Filipino crewmen jumped from the burning tanker and were rescued by Nigerian forces. The state government housed them at the President Hotel in Port Harcourt while the Philippine Embassy in Abuja prepared the documentation needed for their repatriation.
Holed up in hotel
However, in the early morning of New Year’s Day, bands of armed men attacked targets in Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s main oil industry center, including the hotel where the Filipinos were staying.
Four policemen, three civilians and six attackers were killed, said Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, spokesperson of the military task force in charge of security in Nigeria’s troubled oil region.
The attack delayed the repatriation of the 18 crewmen who were scheduled to be relocated to Lagos by Jan. 1, said De Castro.
Meanwhile, the River state government has informed the Philippine Embassy that their free accommodation would only be good until Jan. 2.
De Castro said the 18 Filipinos would be evacuated to Lagos by evening Wednesday. From Lagos, they will be taken to Abuja for their flight back to the Philippines.
The vice president said he would ask the Makati based SeaGem Maritime International, which was responsible for the deployment of the seamen, to pay for the repatriation costs.
Agency probed
Esteban Conejos, the undersecretary for migrant workers affairs, said the Department of Foreign Affairs would investigate the manning agency that sent the Filipino seamen to Nigeria despite the government ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to the African country.
The Niger Delta Vigilante Movement, led by militia leader Ateke Tom, claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s spokesperson Richard Akinaka told the Associated Press by telephone.
The group is one of several armed movements active in the southern Niger Delta oil-producing region. (Associated Press)
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