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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 22 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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FORMER Philippine ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja, Jr is in deep trouble. Former employee, Marichu Suarez Baoanan, has charged him with human trafficking and forced labor. Baja who now works for senate president Villar claims his innocence and maintains that Baoanan is out to demolish him.
We have received a lead about this case many months ago, around last year or early this year. A reliable source informed us that a nurse came to the immigrant rights group DAMAYAN for protection allegingthat then ambassador Baja maltreated her.
We have tried many times to contact DAMAYAN about this issue and we always ended up empty handed. Now this.
What took Baoanan so long to file her case? What made DAMAYAN come out now and rip the former ambassador and his family to pieces?
Perhaps Baoanan waited for Baja to relinquish his post in the UN, which gave him immunity from lawsuits. But if she did, then we can conclude that her condition then was not as urgent as she now claims. She had time. She waited.
Given this circumstance, we are compelled to ask for motive.
What’s Baoanan’s motive?
It appears that she does not want speedy justice because she herself delayed the process, which as the saying goes denies it– justice delayed is justice denied.
It seems that Baoanan’s move is a well calculated maneuver– well planned. If it is indeed a demolition job, who is behind it?
Now that Baja works for Villar, we could speculate that it could be an indirect job against the senate president who is known to be in contention for the presidency in the next elections. So Villar’s enemies could be the forces that move Baoanan. There could be other reasons for sure.
We could only look back and see what important things happened while Baja was still ambassador. Then perhaps we could connect some dots and get a clear view of what this is all about.
Baja and family could be guilty of all her allegations. But Baja clams to have evidence disproving Baoanan’s allegations, thus the counter suit.
Rest assured, there is somebody lying here. Either of them or both. What is causing the lying is what we are after.
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F-1 Options After Graduation
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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
F-1 international students are faced with myriad concerns upon completion of their studies. They want to know how they can extend their stay and remain legally in the U.S., how they can gain work experience and support themselves, how long they are allowed to work and what other options are available to them after their studies.
After completion of their studies, F-1 students are allowed full-time work in the U.S. for a maximum period of 12 months under the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program. However, the hours used up during pre-completion OPT will be deducted in calculating the remaining period for authorized post-completion OPT work.
To be eligible for OPT, the F-1 must maintain his/her status. This means that he/she had been enrolled in an academic program for at least one (1) year, remained in good standing and has not violated his/her status by engaging in unauthorized work. The authorized work must also be related to the student’s field of study.
Students need to apply for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) before graduating. There is no need for a job offer. They can only begin working upon receipt of the EAD card indicating the start and end dates for employment.
The new regulations require that designated school officials (DSO) track and confirm a student’s status even after completing his/her schoolwork by reporting the name, addresses, employment and other relevant data through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) that is linked with the USCIS system.
To maintain status, F-1 students cannot accumulate more than 90 days of unemployment during the initial 12-month OPT period. Hence, when one applies for OPT, one cannot put in a start date for employment of more than three months from graduation.
Under a recent interim rule, the OPT period of students in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) was extended to additional 17 months for a total of 29 months OPT. This was done in order to retain talented individuals in these fields and to allow them to transition into H-1B status. For students in these fields, they cannot accumulate more than 120 days of unemployment during that entire 29-month period of OPT. They must also make validation reports to the DSO every six months regarding their employment status.
Traveling outside the U.S. during the post-completion OPT period poses certain risks to the F-1 holder, particularly if the F-1 visa stamp on the passport has expired or is about to expire. To avoid re-entry problems, the F-1 student should advise his/her DSO of his/her travel plans and consult about the latest information and documentation requirements to be able to return to the U.S.
Currently, the policy allows re-entry if the student can present an EAD receipt notice, a DSO-endorsed I-20 within six months for OPT and a valid visa stamp. It is better if the F-1 student can present an approved EAD card with still ample validity period remaining in order to secure a new visa stamp at a U.S. consulate or Embassy.
Prior to the expiration of the OPT period, the F-1 holder can decide to enroll in another academic program. A new I-20 will be issued and an I-539 form submitted to extend his/her status. He/she remains in “duration of status” (“D/S”) while pursuing full time studies in the U.S. A student who was not able to report to the school in a timely manner can have his/her status reinstated. The F-1 student can also change to another status in the U.S. by filing the I-539 form.
The 12-month OPT period is renewed for each new educational level from Associate, Bachelor, Master up to Doctorate degrees.
OPT even while there is a remaining period on the EAD card automatically terminates when a student enrolls in a new degree program or transfers to another school.
Once the post-completion OPT has ended and the F-1 student decides not to re-enroll in school for further studies or to change to another status, he/she has up to 60 days from the expiration of the OPT to prepare for departure from the U.S.
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WORLD GETTING SMALLER FOR BOLANTE
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CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – The long and winding road for Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” I. Bolante may soon reach its dead end once the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, Illinois makes a ruling on his case any moment now.
Of course, the former Philippine Agriculture Undersecretary can extend his agony if the Seventh Circuit will affirm the denial of his petitions for political asylum and Withholding of Removal (deportation) by the Chicago Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Bolante can always elevate his case before the United States Supreme Court and seek a certiorari. If he takes this step, it will take him a minimum of at least another year’s wait as he celebrated his second year of detention last July 7th.
If the Seventh Circuit reverses, he will be on his road to his long-fought and long-sought freedom.
But if the filings of Mr. Bolante are to be the gauges, it’s very unlikely that the Seventh Circuit will find for Bolante.
TO BE RESOLVED
Up for resolution are the following issues:
1. Whether the BIA erred in finding that the Petitioner was not eligible for asylum
because he did not establish a well founded fear of persecution based upon his political opinion or status as a member of a protected social group? And
2. Whether the BIA erred in finding that Petitioner was not eligible for withholding
of removal because he did not establish a well founded fear of persecution based upon his political opinion or status as a member of a protected social group.
In seeking political asylum, Mr. Bolante claimed that he fears for his life when returned to the Philippines because he “learned from friends and relatives that a bounty had been set for his arrest” by Philippine Sen. Ramon Magsaysay, Jr., who contributed 20,000 pesos (US$465) for his “capture.” As others senators contributed to the bounty, the amount reached 200,000 pesos (US$4,650).
PURSUER HAD GROWN COLD FEET
This argument had somewhat weakened now that Senator Magsaysay is no longer in office. Other senators may not be as passionate as Magsaysay in running after Bolante.
But the more important thing to consider is the claim of the 56-year-old Bolante that his life will be in danger because of his alliance with President Arroyo.
If the Seventh Circuit will buy this argument, which is very unlikely, it will imply that the sitting government of Arroyo is not capable of protecting its ally, much less the majority of the Filipino people. This will be contradicting the view of the U.S. State Department estimate that the Philippines is a stable government that can protect its people.
Another entry in Bolante’s statement of facts that makes the personal judgment of Bolante suspect is the following: “Although he remained in this position for approximately three years, he (Bolante) ultimately resigned as Undersecretary because he was offered a coveted position as a member of the board of directors for (the Evanston, Illinois-based) Rotary International. This is an unpaid position that Bolante committed himself to even prior to his commitment to the President to become Undersecretary. (R. at 721). As part of his duties, Bolante is required to travel extensively (about once a month) to various points around the world. (R. at 720).”
TRADING FOR NON-PAYING JOB
If Mr. Bolante traded a paying job as Undersecretary of Agriculture for a non-paying job as a member of the board of directors for Rotary International that calls for him to “travel extensively (about once a month) to various points around the world,” where would Mr. Bolante be getting his traveling expenses from?
I doubt that his prior “work” before joining the government could support his self-imposed jet-setting lifestyle.
According to his statement of facts, “Prior to working in the government, Bolante owned several businesses including Life Plan, Incorporated, a financial services company. In addition, the Bolante family has several ongoing interests in real estate development, agriculture and production of fish for commercial purposes. (R. at 253).”
In the absence of additional evidence that would show his legitimate source of wealth, the Seventh Circuit could be persuaded to deny his petition for political asylum because the evidence presented so far is pointing to an irresistible conclusion that there could be a grain of truth to the widely-publicized suspicion by the Philippine Senate that Bolante fled his homeland after he failed to liquidate 728-M pesos (US$14-M) fertilizer fund that bankrolled the election of President Arroyo last May 2004. Part of this fund could very well support his globetrotting lifestyle.
If Mr. Bolante is interested in joining the Rotary, the main reason for this interest may not be an exercise of his civic-consciousness at all. It may simply be to be close to his family, whose members are living in Chicago, Illinois, which is a neighbor of Evanston, home of Rotary International. This could also bolster the suspicion of the Homeland Security that Mr. Bolante was an intending immigrant, not just a holder of a revoked “tourist/business” visa. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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“Men wage war but women make peace,” the old axiom goes But in the process, too many get battered, some beyond healing, says “Impact of Armed Conflict in Minadano on Women”.
The Committee for Asian Women, in Bangkok, published the Mindanao study. Jurgette Honculada of “Pilipina” wrote the report. It details how women in Basilan,Jolo, Maguindanao and North Cotabato, try to cope with armed clashes.
“Generations of Muslims and Christians, in significant areas of Mindanao, lived, for the greater part of their lives with the legacy of war,” she says. “The toll on life and limb ( has been ) incalculable for…tens of thousands, predominantly Muslim, particularly women and children.”
The report is part of a small but growing body of scientific studies on the levy extorted by clashes from women and children. University of San Carlos did a study on “Experiences of Cebu Women in Armed Conflicts”.
“Men may be the combatants”, writes USC Leny Ocasiones in “Culture & Society.” But “armed conflict has profound impacts on women, distinct from men.” Like children, “women endure a tortured existence... Not enough is being done to protect them.”
There are differences.. A narrow eroded island, Cebu’s 3,811 kilomter network links a culturally-homogenous population. Mindanao, in contrast, is “tri-people”: Almost three-fourths are Christian, many descendants of migrants. Roughly 30 percent is Bangsamoro. Indigenous people ( lumads) make up the rest.
There’s the “southern diaspora”. Waves of women, mostly Muslim, have crossed into Sabah. “Many who fled political persecution during martial law have intermarried.” Now, Indonesian and Filipino migrants are being repatriated by tough immigration curbs. Many have become “TNT” ( tago ng tago ), street argot for “undocumented workers”.
This is a man’s world. Mere possession of a womb can handcuff women to a treadmill of marginalized lives, But insurgency, poverty and military response, could make the three Cebu municipalities studied “Any Town”, Viewpoint noted ( PDI/ June 2, 2008).
Look at the identical traumas of Mindanao women. They’ve too have seen family members killed, homes razed, livelihoods shattered and forced evacuations. They’re dubbed with the gender-free “IDP” ( Internally-displaced person), There were 932,000 IDPs in Mindanao’s 2000 fighting.
In Jolo, “warring parties seem to know when the harvest is near. ( They ) orchestrate conflict and thus ( are ) able to steal the harvest,” Honculada writes. “Mischevous eyes” does not capture nuances of the Cebuano kiat ug mata when military interrogators first fleeced poultry coops and food stores, Ocasiones reports..
Post-traumatic stress disorders result from the conflicts. In Cebu, Marina, Erlinda, Venecia and Tanya bolt up, midnights, dreaming they heard guns cocked. Divina and Luisa still tremble when they hear helicopters.
They’re like Maranao Muslim Saldia Abu. Her relatives were killed in a grenade attack on a mosque. “Helicopter sounds throw Salida into tremors. ’It’s war again. We have to pack up,” she said three days before she died.
When troops came, Nurin Edjirin of Jolo – married to an MNLF organizer killed in Palawan -- moved with her mother to the next hill. Nurin now runs a community drugstore. “But the cycle of psychological violence contnues to haunt the family. For the son, bereft of a father, reverted to a drug habit, losing his scholarship of five years. (He) became, in turn, an in absentia father his two children.”
“Being privy to victim’s traumatic experiences” triggered Maguindanao’s Social Welfare officer Elena Torribio’s breakdown. Teacher Lorena Auxtero hides whenever she sees armed men. She was one of 21 held for ransom by Abu Sayyaf bandits, then under Gerry Salapudin who later ran for Congress.. Sixteen men, women and children, were too poor to pay ransom. “They were hogtied and shot in rapid succession”.
“The phenomenon of young Basilan war widows remarrying soldiers, police or paramilitary reflects feelings of powerlessness. Government aid is patchy, the study adds Worse, war widows who press charges against their husbands’ killers are threatened.
In critical areas, some non-Muslim teachers, whether single or married, feel compelled to become ‘wives’ of rebels or local men. This buffers them from other armed men. ‘Marriage’ ends with re-assignment.
Isn’t this man’s “burden of three mountains” that Mao Ze Dong spoke of? The three were: backwardness, oppression by others and feudal tyranny. But women, he added, were burdened by ‘four mountains.” The first three, plus the fourth and heaviest of all – man himself.
The result is economist John Kenneth Gailbraith’s description of woman as “servant wife”, but with a vengeance. Women combine work with caring for their families ( war widows as sole parents). These range from vending of dry goods to hiring out , fish, laundrywomen, cooks or house cleaners.Those in rural areas work as share croppers.
The study cites promising initiatives relevant for “a whole generation of children who have grown up in evacuation centers”: .peace zones, inter-religious groups cooperating in common projects like feeding programs to education, etc.. “These are people’s initiatives and do not depend for their mandate on armed parties.”
This study is a good read. It can help strip blinkers for a country fixated by Senator Lacson and Enrile’s brawl over a P40,000 tab for Blue Ribbon witnesses. Few are aware of the extreme suffering Mindanao’s clashes inflicted, it says. “Women are invisible.” ###(E-mail: juanlmercado@gmail.com)
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Finally, the United States has faced the music, so to speak. It joined a summit with other powerful nations and the goal is to cut down global warming into half. This turn of events happened only last Tuesday, when President George W. Bush and other heads of state of the Group of 8 (G-8) including Japan, Germany, Britain, Canada, France, Italy and Russia signed a five-page declaration to cut down (by 50% gas) emissions by the year 2020.
Though it has asked the cooperation of developing countries, the response has not been positive particularly from China which has to meet the demands of ongoing economic development such as the yearly construction of many roads, bridges.
Following the G-8 summit in Northern Japan, leaders of five developing nations - India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and China issued a joint statement asserting that the major industrialized countries should be the ones leading the effort by cutting their own gas emissions as these nations caused the world's climate crisis through excessive carbon emissions in the past century. The declaration of the latter group is not in agreement with the G-8 of wealthy nations in trying to limit the industrial growth of poorer economies.
The new G-8 agreement is viewed as the successor of the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 global warming accord which asserts that developed countries reduce their emissions by 2012. President Bush did not support the ratification of this accord.
One can only hope that the realization from the movers is not too late and that cooperation comes from all fronts whether the countries be rich or poor. As advocate of planet earth, we have to do our share to save it lest we all perish. We are all experiencing climate change brought about by too much gas emissions which has caused ecological imbalance. As a consequence, Mother nature has reacted destructively. Ever wonder about the calamities that have visited Myanmar, China and the Philippines?
Meanwhile the Philippine Department of Tourism has been promoting ang Bayan at the Expo Zaragoza (Spain) focusing its exhibit on the Philippines' marine attractions and on how these are being preserved and protected. Based on the Spanish Expo's theme: its title is Filipinas: Archipelago el mundo acuatico, visitors of the Philippine Pavilion experienced a seeming underwater midnight setting with a dramatic play of lights and sound to create a sensual feeling of the deep blue sea with lighted bubbles suspended from the ceiling.
Highlights of the recent event was the signing of the twinning agreement between the cities of Zaragoza and Zamboanga in the Mindanao region where the dialect is often referred to as the bastardized version of the Castilian language.
Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said that RP's campaign in Europe is focused on nature lovers which make up most of the European visitors to the archipelago.
Indeed its fine to draw foreign tourists to the homeland. But over and above all, the government and the people should maximize efforts to preserve our bountiful natural resources which are being alarmingly depleted by mankind.
101 Most Beautiful Launch
The 101 Most Beautiful Pageant and Awards kicks off at the MZR Gardens at the Bradbury Estates, California on Sunday, July 21, 2008 from 2:00 PM to 8:00 p.m. Award honorees and pageant candidates will meet the press. Interested parties may contact Lou Baron at 626.6102 or Norma Eustaquio at 909.319.1021.
Arroyo Reunion
Members of the Arroyo-Guevara-Imperial families will have their biennial reunion on Saturday, July 26, 2008 from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Community Center of La Verne, 3660 D Stret, La Verne, CA 91750.
Hosting this year's affair are Hansel and Angie Arroyo. The families originally hailed from Camarines Sur in the Bicol region. Interested parties may contact Hansel at 909.599.8992 or Paz Wierenga at 925.658.6136. They may also be reached at reunion@arroyoclan.org for particulars.
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