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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)
The K-1 nonimmigrant visa allows the fiancé(e) of a U.S. citizen to enter the U.S. for a period of 90 days in order to marry the petitioner and apply for permanent residence.
During the 90-day period, the parties must marry. If not, the beneficiary will have to return back to his/her home country. No extension of stay is permitted. If they get married during that time frame, the beneficiary can then apply for permanent residency here in the U.S. and will be given the two-year conditional status.
Before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approves the K-1 petition, the petitioner and the beneficiary must satisfy certain requirements.
First, the parties have to prove that they have previously met in person within two years prior to filing the petition, unless a waiver is granted. Secondly, they must prove that they have a good faith intention to marry each other. Lastly, they have to prove that they are free to enter into a valid marriage in the U.S. within 90 days from the fiancé(e)’s arrival.
In one case, the petition of a Michigan resident was denied because he was only fourteen (14) years old and was prohibited to enter into a valid marriage by the state because of his age.
But, in another case, the petition of a Michigan resident was approved because, although the parties were first cousins and prohibited to get married under Michigan laws, the prohibition did not apply to a marriage solemnized in another state.
There are instances when the “previous meeting” requirement can be waived. This can be done if they can show extreme hardship or strict and established customs prohibiting the prospective bride and groom from meeting prior to the marriage. Examples of grounds for waiver of previous meeting due to extreme hardship may be health reasons, political dangers, and financial burdens.
If the K-1 beneficiary has children, the minor unmarried children may join the K-1 principal under the K-2 visa, provided they are included in the I-129 form as accompanying or following to join the beneficiary.
If the K-1 petition is approved, the beneficiary must present the following documents: Form DS-156 (in duplicate) and Supplement, valid passport, birth certificate, evidence of termination of prior marriages, police clearance or certificate, medical examination record and financial records to show that he/she will not become a public charge.
For those who are already married to each other, the K-3 visa status category allows the spouse of a U.S. citizen who is waiting abroad for an immigrant visa to enter the U.S. initially as a nonimmigrant and then to later adjust to immigrant status once in the U.S. The K-3 beneficiary’s minor unmarried children may qualify under the K-4 visa status.
To be eligible for a K-3 nonimmigrant visa, an applicant must be the spouse of a U.S. Citizen and the beneficiary of an immediate relative (I-130) petition and an approved I-129F K-3 petition.
Under the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA), K-1 or K-3 petitioners must disclose information about any criminal convictions for specified crimes such as domestic violence, child abuse, stalking and sexual assault.
They are also required to inform the USCIS of the involvement of any international marriage broker.
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My Encounter With Jun Lozada
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IN journalism, a long running story is a news that has “legs”—the story goes on and on and on.
I ran into some leggy stories three years ago when out of the blue, my companion in my trip to the Philippines, Marlon L. Pecson, got an invitation from my town mate, Atty. Loida Nicolas Lewis, that we stay in her Sorsogon City hotel – Fernando Hotel – for a Holy Week vacation.
But before proceeding to Sorsogon, Attorney Lewis asked us to stop by Legazpi City to attend a conference of Bicol governors, who would listen from two national government officials from Manila how they can get a “piece of the pie” from the tens of millions of dollars in Japanese grants “with an initial trance of $20-M (US) earmarked for release to rehabilitate the 12 provincial hospitals in the Bicol region.”
I was glad I filed that story, which came out in the Manila Bulletin, and my other outlets in the United States because it turned out that one of the two national government officials presiding over that meeting was a fellow Bicolano, Rodolfo I. Lozada, Jr., then with the office of the chairman of the Natural Resources Development Corporation, and is now the center of the Senate controversy that corroborated the expose of the son of Speaker Jose De Venecia on the $329-million NBN contract between the government and ZTE Corp. of China that is plaguing the Arroyo Administration.
The other national government official was another daughter of Bicol, Secretary General Imelda M. Nicolas of Sorsogon City, then lead convenor of the National Anti- Poverty Commission. Miss Nicolas is the younger sister of Attorney Lewis. Miss Nicolas’ later claim to fame, of course, was being one of the members of the “Hyatt 10,” a conscience-driven group of Cabinet secretaries and administration’s economic managers who quit in July of that year (2005) from the government of Arroyo to protest the rampant corruption engulfing the Arroyo Administration.
At that time, Arroyo was reeling from numerous accusations being investigated by the Philippine Senate, notably the “Hello Garci” tapes that validated the accusations that Mrs. Arroyo stole her 2004 elections; the “Jueteng” (numbers game) scandal, the treasonous Venable consultancy and the onerous and overpriced North Rail contract, etc. However, Arroyo got a break when former President Fidel Ramos and Speaker De Venecia came to Arroyo’s rescue, quelling what would have been “People Power 3” that would have made Arroyo the third ousted Philippine president.
It’s hard to tell the “content of character” of Mr. Lozada from my two-hour encounter with him. But he struck me as a “Malacanang insider,” whose authority and credibility were validated by the presence of governors in the meeting.
Mr. Lozada was not the kind of bureaucrat, who would be lugging notebooks and PowerPoint laptop. He would rattle off statistics at the top of his head as he fielded questions from the governors that included the host, Albay Gov. Fernando V. Gonzales, Sorsogon Gov. Raul R. Lee, and Masbate Gov. Antonio T. Kho.
The grant was available to two hospitals of each of the six provinces in the region. Lozada told the governors if they were to come up with requirements in three months, the Japanese grantors could release the funds in six to nine months. I just hope the governors were able to come up with those requirements and Lozada was able to deliver the grants he promised them.
Lozada said the Japanese grant was intended to provide “for healthier Filipinos, who will provide physical work force for the Japanese.”
At the meeting, Mr. Lozada also discussed his forte – reforestation of the region.
If Mr. Lozada’s Senate testimony would prove as potent as Gov. Chavit Singson that brought down the Estrada Administration, then the sacrifices of the “Hyatt 10,” Joey de Venecia III, etc. would not be a big waste.
When we finally reached our final destination at the Fernando Hotel in Sorsogon City, Attorney Lewis would later introduce me to Gen. Restituto Patricio Mosqueda, the Bicol police regional commander.
General Mosqueda would later be named by a whistle-blower, Sandra Cam, as Cam’s supplier of the nine hundred thousand pesos in monthly payola she delivered to Mrs. Arroyo’s son, Rep. Jose Miguel “Mikey” Macapagal Arroyo and his uncle, Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo.
The young Arroyo would later take a leave of absence as Pampanga’s second district representative after Cam’s expose.
That 2005 Holy Week vacation in Sorsogon City gave me some leggy stories that are very hard for me to forget. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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“THIS rings a bell”, the wife said after reading Inquirer’s report : “Nuns Outwit Cop Escorts of Lozada”, the engineer “shanghaied”, by security agents, to prevent his testifying on the national broadband network scandal.
The Inquirer earlier ran a front page photo on “Guardian Angels”: Good Shepherd, Salesian and Daughters of Charity nuns linked arms to escort Rodolfo Lozada to a predawn press conference at La Salle. The nuns “were able to spirit ( him ) out to the Senate afterwards to testify”.
Before the Blue Ribbon Committee, Lozada linked First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo and ex-poll commissioner chairman Bejamin Abalos to a deal that ballooned from $132 million to $329 million.
“I’m just an ordinary lawyer,” Mr Arroyo protested.
Like Dennis Thatcher? “I trust my husband completely,” Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said. “He doesn’t fall asleep when I give a speech. And he claps at the right places.” Or is he cut like Asif Ali Zardari, the corruption-hounded husband of Pakistan’s late Benazir Bhutto?.
What bells?, we asked the wife. San Francisco Examiner’s report on soused Marcos minister Jolly Benitez after snap elections fraud triggered People Power One, she replied.
Priests and nuns blocked rigging of tallies for Corazon Aquino’s landslide vote.
“It’s all those nuns’ fault,” a tipsy Minister Benitez told Examiner’s Lin Neumann at Manila Hotel. “How were we to know those ( expletive deleted ) nuns would sit on ballot boxes. Marcos is finished”.
Is the Arroyo-Macapgal regime finished? Not yet. But how was Malacanang to know that nuns would shield Lozada? They later sat in a stolid phalanx in the Senate gallery.
“Angels shall guard your camp,” the Psalmist writes.
Lozada’s testimony ripped the fig leaf: that he voluntarily vanished for 27 hours, then sought protection, as National Police chief Avelino Razon mumbled.. No way Jose, Lozada told senators.
Armed men spirited him away, as airport officials acquiesced.. They kidnapped Lozada from family, the Senate Sargeant-at- Arms, and media.
Under duress, Lozada signed an affidavit that he “asked for security”. His abductors drove driven him from Manila, Cavite to Los Banos -- until directed to return because “media was red hot” on the trail. They dumped Lozada at La Salle where the Christian Brothers earlier gave sanctuary to Lozada’s terrified family.
“In a democracy, people should not be afraid of government. It is government that should be afraid of people,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said in a lucid sound-byte. Take it from Ping Lacson’s rose to national from being a “star” of Marcos’ torture agency : the Military Intelligence Security Group. The MISG specialized in torture, abductions and salvaging.
Misuse of state power for abduction and crime never tainted presidents like Manuel Quezon, Elipidio Quirino, Corazon Aquino, Carlos Garcia or Sergio Osmena – although his grandson, Tomas, as Cebu City mayor, winks at 183 summary executions by vigilantes.
Today, this country reels from serial abductions. The Abu Sayyaf kidnaps for loot in Islam’s name, seen in the Los Palmas abductions. Over 156 Filipino Chinese have been kidnapped for ransom, including Coca Cola Export Corporation’s Betty Sy. And the New People’s Army abducts, both for ideology and cash.
But these were by brigands. In contrast, state agents “shanghaied” Lozada. That clones Burma’s tatmadaw
( military ) who abducted Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Protectors that we train, arm and pay, with taxes, turn predators. When government evolves into a Mafia, everyone is threatened.
This brings back May 1970 . Military and immigration agents abducted the Chinese Commercial News publisher and editor. Quintin and Rizal Yuyitung were shoved abroad an Air Force C-47 and handed to Taipei. Like Violeta Lozada, Veronica Yuyitung didn’t know what happened to her husband.
Like Immigration Commissioner Edmundo Reyes, General Razon denied they were abducted. Both were brazen daylight grabs.. Quintin was pi cked up at the Manila Overseas Press Club. Lozada was bundled off from Manila International Airport’s arrival tube.
A Filipino citizen, Quintin Yuyitung was “deported”.
Blind to historical irony, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol sneered : "They say Lozada’s a Chinese from the province. Bagay sa iyo ideport ka. Magulo ka dito (You should be deported because you're troublesome),"
The Yutitung kidnapping short-circuited a petition that Joker Arroyo lodged with the Supreme Court, questioning immigration’s jurisdiction.
Lozada’s abduction would have derailed the broadband probe. But “there is much law at the end of a bayonet”.
Marcos’ imprimatur, in the Yuyitung case, developed into martial law policy. “A country with a remarkable constitutional tradition turned into a gulag of safe houses where members of the Armed Forces (were) responsible for acts of unusual brutality,” Amnesty International found. Between 1975 and 1985, some 737 Filipinos “disappeared”. Among these were sons of Supreme Court Justices Abraham Sarmiento and Pedro Yap.
Under Joseph Estrada, Pagcor employee Edgardo Bentain filmed the President playing high-stakes baccarat – and disappeared. The burned remains of abducted publicist “Bobby” Dacer and driver were recovered in a shallow grave in Cavite. Then PNP chief Lacson’s men, Rey Aquino and Cesar Mancao, skipped town when linked to the kidnap-murder.
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Tighten Your Belt -- Recession Starts
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WITH 2 million homeowners threatened with foreclosures and a few million more facing tightening of credit, the Treasury Department through the nation's largest banks and lending institutions by the time this column sees print will have already announced a rescue program. Under the Treasury project, both prime and subprime borrowers who are more than three months behind their payments will be given a chance to halt foreclosure proceedings for 30 days and work out new loan terms.
Because of the growing severity of the nationwide credit crisis, even people with good paying habits are exhibiting strains. Many of them had borrowed against their home equity, drawn by the boom credit expansion in the last several years, which caused the prosperity period that has started to slowdown.
The New York Times described the situation thus, "Like subprime mortgages, many prime loans in recent years allowed borrowers to pay less initially and face higher adjustable payments a few years later. As long as home prices were rising, these borrowers could refinance their loans or sell their properties to pay off their mortgages. But now, with prices falling and lenders clamping down, homeowners with solid credit are starting to come under the same financial stress as those with subprime credit."
Realtors tell of clients who have started to lighten their property holdings starting two or three years ago by selling. They were fortunate if they caught the tail end of the high prices. If they acted late, they are now burdened with amortizations with higher interest rate. If they sought relief late, they will have to encounter the slow market.
People in the real estate industry describe the enlarging crisis as the bursting of the credit bubble. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that 4 percent of prime mortgages were past due or in foreclosure as of September 2007. It was the highest since l998. The delinquency and foreclosure rate for all mortgages was. 7.3 percent, the highest since 1979.
The housing mortgage problem was the forerunner of the financial crisis which has started to affect the US economy. Some of the largest financial giants of the world has started to show cracks. Among them, according to The New York Times is the giant American International Group which suffered losses on complex financial instruments linked to mortgages and corporate debt. Consequently, the Times said this could indicate the deterioration of the financial health of other financial companies.
"We are going to see more and more problems come to light like this," said Lynn E. Turner, former chief accountant at the SEC. "This is an indication that these large financial institutions do not have the risk management systems in place to give us accurate data."
If the threatened recession pushes through, it could mean job loss and cost of living escalation for the people.
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