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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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(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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AFTER World War II, the Filipino veterans did the Philippine government a favor: Allowed the U.S. government to park millions of dollars in the custody of the Philippine government as the U.S. Congress tried to escape responsibility from the payment of billions of dollars due the veterans.
Instead of passing billions of dollars to compensate the services of 240,000 Filipino veterans, the US Congress reduced their benefits to a mere $200-M in passing the First Recession Act of 1946. Later, the same Congress also passed the Philippine Rehabilitation Act (P.L. 79-370), which appropriated a measly “$620-Million to rehabilitate the Philippines and (pay for) war damage claims.”
Now, that the Philippine government was able to stand on its feet after the veterans brought back peace and democracy to their country, the Philippine government is again teasing the veterans by putting the veterans benefit issue in the back burner.
I am referring to the reported $500,000 lobby money being dangled by the government of President Arroyo to a mainstream lobby group in Washington, D.C., the Covington & Burling, LLP, as payment for its lobbying effort for the Philippines in the next six months.
If you convert it into the resurging Philippine pesos, it will be cool 20 million pesos, an amount attractive enough to pay whistle-blowers of corrupt leaders in the Philippines.
ALTERNATE LOBBY GROUP
According to Los Angeles, California community activist Bobby M. Reyes the lobby deal could ultimately cost the Philippine government millions of dollars “plus reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses per annum.”
Instead of channeling the scarce Philippine pesos to this American lobby group, the half-million dollar budget could have been “used to build additional classrooms or to fund further the charitable activities” for calamity fund or even for the Philippine National Red Cross headed by Sen. Richard Gordon.
It is hard to quantify the future benefits the Covington & Burling will bring to the table of the Philippine government at this time since terms of the contract have not yet been disclosed. But this U.S. lobby group is touted to take a share of the pie from the largess of billions of dollars the U.S. government distributes to hundreds of countries every year that implements its “carrot and stick” diplomacy. Reyes, however, is asking the government of President Arroyo to give his think tank a chance as an alternate to the Covington & Burling if his Filipino-American Lobby Task Force (FALTF) is allowed to be set up with the blessing of her government.
In a letter to the President coursed through Philippine Ambassador Willy C. Gaa, Mr. Reyes said his lobby group will “undertake the proposed long-term lobbying campaign in the corridors of power in the United States without any cost to the Philippine” provided it is allowed to “raise lobby funds pursuant to a legal and politically- correct formula.”
FOREIGN GOV’TS CAN’T VOTE; FILAMS CAN
He said, the “lobbying firm hired by the Arroyo government will be cancelled out by efforts of the anti-Arroyo forces in the United States.
One of the most effective means of getting the attention and cooperation of the American politicians, is to donate to their Political Action Committees,” which cannot be done by Covington & Burling because foreign governments are not allowed to donate money to the U.S. Elections. But the Filipino American dual citizens, who can help in his lobby effort, can vote in the U.S. elections, which I, wholeheartedly agree.
But for another lobbyist of a different stripe, Father Prisco E. Entines, who filed class action suits in the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., seeking benefits for veterans, and in the District Court of Columbia, seeking grant of “instant U.S. Citizenships” for Filipino veterans born in the Philippines while the country was under American Occupation, he would like the lobby money offered by the Philippine government to Covington and Burling to pay for the lawyers who can handle his cases.
“The Filipino veterans have already paid their dues with their lives and their sacrifices in the services of the Philippines. I don’t see anything wrong if the Philippines asks the lobbyist being hired by the Philippine government to lobby for the passage of Filipino Veterans Equity Bill before the U.S. Congress or to subsidize the lawyers who handle my cases, which can bring benefits to the veterans.
These veterans are dying by the dozens everyday. They are like bridesmaids, ladies in waiting, but never a bride.” Father Entines, a Catholic priest on leave, said. (lariosa_jos@ sbcglobal.net)
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“WE spend about P7,000 for every student in this country,” the Education Department official said at a recent Region 7 meeting.
“The international average spending, when converted, is about P47,000. Many other countries spend more than P100,000 for each student.”
So, is that news?
We’ve always snitched on our kid’s futures by penny-pinching on essentials, be it schools or health.
0f 42 countries that took the Third International Mathematics and Science Test in 1995, for example, the Philippines limped in as Number 39 – just above Kuwait, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
We then “spent the smallest amount per pupil: US$318 (purchasing power parity),” an earlier Philippine Human Development Report observed.
“Thailand which near the median spent more than six times as much per pupil.” And topnotcher
Singapore allocated $1,582.
“The Philippine math average (then) was only 78 percent of world average,” PDHR added. “In science, the score of Filipino children in lower secondary school were below the international median by 77 percent.
In the fourth IMST, we were a non-descript 38th among 42 nations. Now, we’re into what? The seventh IMST drill? And we really haven’t budged out of cellar status. That’s been true too with national tests. When ill-educated kids flunk, as hundreds do, we resort to a typically Pinoy device: Instead of tough reviews and retakes, we lower the passing grade, notes “A New Math: 37.5 = 75.”
Thus, there’s thin comfort in Mark Twain’s wisecrack: “I never let schooling interfere with my education.”
Go through what kids scribble – and wince.
“We hav sop drink in batols”. Or listen to the noontime soaps.
Simple question and answer contests flummox our kids...
In the post World-War II effort to wipe out backlogs, schools got about 30 centavos out of every tax peso. This shriveled during the Marcos dictatorship even as population surged, foreign borrowings bolted and corruption metastasized.. School budgets then dipped to “a trough of 5.6 percent in 1976”. And in the “New Society’s” waning years, it averaged only 8.7 percent.
There’s an eerie little noticed echo of that tailspin in the Asian Development and World Bank report on “Early Childhood Development”. Malnutrition ushered in more Filipino pre-school children to premature graves than poorer countries like Bangladesh or Kenya, that landmark report noted. Under the Marcos regime, the steady decline in infant mortality faltered, then stopped as health services thinned out. And death rates started to climb.
The Aquino government reversed this lethal decline, the bank report said. It also restored education’s importance, PHD Report adds. That budgetary priority continues today: Succeeding administrations slice, for education, the largest share of the budget.
The education budget is 3 percent of country’s GDP or total output. That’s large – if one uses total government spending as yardstick for comparison. But a reality check comes in comparison to what other East Asian countries allocate: 5 to 6 per cent.
This is double what we anted up, despite officials who’ll sound off with numerous Filipino proverbs on education’s value. Say aral ag natepeway kuarta, Pangasinan’s Speaker Jose de Venecia would say. “Education is better than wealth.”
Sure. But rhetoric papers over the persisting gap.
“Priority In Public Spending” tables, of the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report, show Malaysia spends 8.0 percent of its GDP for education --.more than double our allocation ( 3.2 percent ). Thailand set aside 4.2 percent for it’s schools.
Congressmen, who’ve stashed an additional P13.5 billion in pork, for themselves in the public works budget, won’t tell you this: Filipino GDP per capita is already lower than for east Asian average. That low base prunes already low spending per pupil.
How low?
Asian Development Bank just released a comparative study of real per capita income in Asia and the Pacific. The “2005 International Comparison Program “ says, for example, Malaysia’s real per capita GDP is 3.9 times bigger than the Philippines. Brunei’s GDP is 40 times larger than Nepal.
This is not a bleeding heart argument for throwing more money at schools. Rather it is a hard-nosed fact that economists have proven : education is the escape hatch from poverty.
In a study of regional poverty, UP School of Economics Arsenio Balisacan found that “the rate of poverty incidence falls by three percent for every one percent improvement in functional literacy.”
“Our constituents need= it,” Rep. Edcel Lagman said in an indirect admission the Lower House stitched the P13.5 billion slab into the budget.
“We merely realigned items.”
That’d tiptoe around the constitutional ban against fracturing budgetary ceilings set by the President.
Many congressmen are like piranhas. A scent of blood whips them into a frenzy. Hence, there is little hope that congressmen will yield to former Senator Franklin Drilon’s plea to waive their pork barrel. They’ll go after those public work pre-Civil War Negro slaves, grabbed, as much as salted pork for themselves, from barrels, rolled out by their masters, New York Times William Safire noted.
Can this nation survive schools that are locked into perpetual crisis: from overworked, under-trained teachers to error studded textbooks and schoolroom shortages?
That’s seems the least of our officials’ concerns.
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Media Members Warned On Future Rallies
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JANUARY 22, 2008 is being contemplated as a red-letter day for anti-destabilization strategists of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, if we go by what reaches our ears presently.
There is a big anti-GMA march and rally being planned in Manila for that day. The attempted Manila Peninsula
Hotel take-over on last Nov. 29 by the Magdalo group is being used as a model by both the organizers on one hand and by the police and the military on the other.
The anti-GMA group learned some lessons when they staged the march and rally last Nov. 29. The police and military deviated from their usual tactics and succeeded in putting a swift end to the antigovernment demonstration.
In planning for Jan. 22, we will probably witness the lessons both have derived from their analytical exercises.
Are we going to witness the police's use of "vicious" force as they applied mechanized armor to crash the five-star Peninsula Hotel last Nov. 29?
We anticipate the degree of response to the rallysts will be the same or even escalate. We also anticipate that the rallysts will equally be prepared. So the engagement could finish swiftly or it could drag on longer.
From what we hear, the police and the military have discussed how they would handle the media this time.Learning their lessons from the take-over try at the Peninsula Hotel, the police is expected to be better prepared in isolating the members of media from the "battle scenes". This time, they have warned the media from keeping out of the area of police operations.
Up to Nov. 29, the police and the military had always used kid's gloves in dealing with members of the fourth estate. They gave them a wide berth when the latter got in the way during operations. During the Manila Peninsula event, some members of media were arrested although released within a short time. After the review of media handling, will the newsmen and broadcasters receive a harsher treatment?
In other similar instances, the government has been known to run out of patience.
Normally, rallies and marches attract members of media from other countries. The presence of representatives of foreign news organizations are sufficient to discourage inappropriate actions against their members. The bad publicity resulting from such reactions are never worth it.
The reams of publicity generated by the cases of media members who have been killed or declared missing in the Philippines have earned indelible black eyes for the country. They have been widely condemned by the civilized world.
On the other hand, we have gotten the impression that this Philippine government has at times overplayed its hand and engaged in excesses and abuses against members of media. How many unsolved killings of media people have there been? We are sure there have been cases reported or unreported.
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New Ownership Can Give Rise To
Challenge To Rent Stabilized Tenants
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SEVERAL months ago I had written a column about eviction proceedings in relation to rent stabilized apartments where the owner is claiming that the tenant does not reside in the apartment for 183 days or more out of the year.
When a rent stabilized building changes hands and the new owners are seeking to maximize their investment by evicting rent stabilized tenants and raising the rent to market levels – non primary residence eviction proceedings are a useful tool for achieving this objective.
In recent months the tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village - a large rent stabilized housing complex on the East Side of Manhattan with over 100 buildings – have seen a significant increase in non-primary residence holdover proceedings.
The complex was recently sold by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to Tishman Speyer and the new owners have begun a systematic process of challenging long term tenants with respect to their primary residence. Tenants who maintain vacation homes or who own property for investment purposes are particularly susceptible to challenge, as the landlord views the ownership of real property as an indication that the tenant resides elsewhere.
While the mere prospect of such a challenge can induce panic, tenants who legally occupy their apartments have nothing to fear. Personal documents such as tax returns, driver’s licenses, bank statements, credit card bills, utility bills, voter’s registration cards, jury duty notices, and even ATM receipts for local banks will demonstrate an ongoing connection to the rent stabilized apartment.
Although some might feel comfortable dealing directly with building management, given the ramifications of such proceedings, it is probably wise to retain counsel to act as your liaison. Such is particularly the case if any personal documents – such as vehicle registrations and income tax returns - are tied to a second home for convenience.
Susan C. Warnock, Esq.
880 Third Avenue, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10022
Tel. 212.750.3110
Fax. 212.750.9773
Email:SCW@warnocklegal.com
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