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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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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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JERSEY CITY– A Filipino– American lawyer based in Queens, New York volunteered to help the family of the late Ruth Sigue to win custody over her two orphaned daughters here in New Jersey.
In a call to the Filipino Express Tuesday afternoon, the lawyer offered his services to Cirila Martin free of charge.
As reported last week, Cirila Martin is the Filipina- American teacher who has the special power of attorney (SPA) from Ruth’s mother in Cebu, Thelma, to further the Sigue family’s fight here in the United States.
Mrs. Martin, in another exclusive interview with the Express, confirmed the participation of the lawyer, who requested for anonymity.
“The lawyer gave his commitment to help me and the Sigue family to bring the children to where they should belong,” Martin said.
Martin also disclosed that the lawyer is planning to file a writ of habeas corpus so that the alleged current guardian of the children, a woman named Mimi, would produce the children before a court of law.
“We have to know the address of this Mimi,” Martin said. “I hope she would just voluntarily give the children up to avoid further problems.”
According to Martin, the lawyer is also planning to file a kidnapping case if the respondent refuses to come forward with the children.
Martin said that the lawyer informed her that the law grants the next of kin first option to adopt orphaned children. She added that she is still wondering how the adoption went through without Thelma’s approval. She said she couldn’t believe how the agency in-charge of the children’s welfare let Mimi take custody of the children without the approval of the next of kin.
“There is something fishy there,” Martin revealed.
Meanwhile, Cirila Martin is scheduled to fly to New Jersey first week of August to work on the case and end this rough custody battle.
“ I am going to New Jersey in the hope of getting the children. I will be heading back to Germany soon, and I don’t want to go back and forth to New Jersey for this. But if that is so, then be it,” Martin said.
As of press time, there is still no word on the full identity of Mimi, nor her contact information.
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CHICAGO – A Filipino American father of seven was sentenced Friday (July 18) to six months in jail in connection with a $1-million scheme to defraud the Export- Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor of the District of Columbia announced Friday.
Edward Javier, 53, of Cerritos, California, was sentenced by Judge Richard W. Roberts of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Javier was also ordered to serve six months home detention and 36 months of supervised release following his release from prison. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $684,934 to the Ex-Im Bank.
Javier pleaded guilty on April 30, 2008 to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of mail fraud in a plea deal.
The former owner of Lifeline Infinity, Inc., Javier admitted that between February 2003 and July 2003, he acted as a make-believe “exporter” in a $1-million loan transaction by falsifying documents sent to U.S. banks and to the Ex-Im Bank and misappropriated approximately $870,000 in loan proceeds.
He kept $13,000 of those proceeds and transferred approximately $550,000 of those proceeds to bank accounts owned and controlled by a co-conspirator in the Philippines and $300,000 to a company in the United Kingdom.
This case is part of a broader investigation into an $80-million scheme to defraud the Ex-Im Bank between Nov. 1999 and Dec. 2005.
To date, seven people – Javier, Daniel Curran, Edward Chua, David Villongco, Robert Delgado, Christina Song and Jaime Galvez – have pleaded guilty to the charges.
Curran was sentenced last April 23, 2008 to 41 months in prison; Chua was sentenced on May 14, 2008 to 37 months in prison; Villongco was sentenced on Feb. 29, 2008 to 33 months in prison; Delgado was sentenced on Oct. 5, 2007 to 24 months in prison; and Galvez was sentenced on Jan. 7, 2008 to 12 months in prison. Song is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 2, 2008.
Four other individuals – Marilyn Ong and Ildefonso Ong, the alleged masterminds, Nelson Ti and Joseph Tirona, all believed in the Philippines – have been indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia as alleged conspirators in the scheme.
The cases are being investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Los Angeles Division and the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The cases are being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Hank Bond Walther of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Michael K. Atkinson, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
As the least “culpable,” Javier’s participation was considered a “drop in the bucket” in the “Grand Scheme” of things. He participated in the conspiracy in a “one-time” transaction.
Prosecutors asked for leniency in his sentence because of his “limited participation,” “his cooperation with law enforcement and his acceptance of responsibility.” (lariosa_jos@ sbcglobal.net)
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