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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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JERSEY City will have its local election on May 12, 2009. It is an election that will put Filipino-Americans in a sensitive position because one of our own is vying for a council seat in Ward A: Rolando Lavarro.
Why sensitive? You might ask. It is a sensitive position to be in to have a Filipino-American campaigning for an election because it puts pressure on the community to unite and support one candidate regardless of any personal preference or party affiliation. It compels the community to consider the possibility of having a fellow Fil-Am seating in the Jersey City government and convince them that it would work. While these things seem easy to achieve, it is not. Truth is, it is easier said than done.
That explains why the Lavarro team is working extra hard to convince every single Fil-Am voter in this city. It is difficult to understand, however, how some of us would rather vote someone else, or not vote at all, than to vote for a fellow Filipino-American, in this case Rolando Lavarro. This is inexcusable behavior and is punishable by the harshest penalty possible. This is nothing short of betrayal– Betrayal of our Filipino blood.
Rolando Lavarro is the choice. He is the only significant candidate that has a legitimate chance at being the first Fil-Am to serve in the city government as a council member. He has a legitimate chance because he is qualified to do the job and deserving of our support. And those who are not voting for him have no right to call themselves Filipino- Americans. They have no right to cheer for Pacquiao every time our “National Fist” knocks out an opponent and hoists the three stars and the sun.
Make sense of this coming election and be one with the community. Do not let envy and jealousy blind you. Stand in front of a mirror and reminds yourselves: You are Filipino-American. Mr. Lavarro may not be your original choice for a Fil- Am to run for a seat. He may not be your ideal candidate. He may not be connected to you personally and thus have no bearing in your decision come May 12. He may not be your most favorite person, or your best friend. But know this: Rolando Lavarro is Filipino-American– like you. Hence, there is no excuse not to vote for him. To ignore him or vote for someone other than Rolando Lavarro is an unpardonable crime.
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CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – A few days after waking up from his sweat dreams, British champion Ricky Hatton still could not figure out what Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) hit him in the ring.
Even seasoned sports journalists were thrown off and were lost in translation in describing what power punch Manny Pacquiao launched from “Mars” that rocked Hatton’s glassjaw in the second round that sent him to dreamland. Most journalists called it a “left hook.”
Thanks to instant replay, on suggestion of an email casual contact, I found out that most journalists got it all wrong. I don’t blame these journalists. Most of the reigning world boxing champions like Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson or Oscar De La Hoya, who had occupied much of the public imagination, were orthodox boxers. This means in their stance or guard position, their right hands are the rear hands. When they throw their rear hands from their chin, crossing the body and traveling towards the target in straight line, this punch is called “right cross” or “right straight.”
But in the case of Manny, who is an unorthodox boxer or a southpaw, when he connected with his right hand to Ricky in the semi-circular punch in the first round that dropped Ricky to the canvass, the punch was a right hook.
But when Manny threw his left rear hand in straight line to the chin of Hatton in the second round, the punch is called a “left cross” or “left straight,” not a “left hook.” It was the punch that knocked out Hatton flat on his back for a few minutes.
The phrase, “left cross,” had a very familiar ring to Filipinos from the fifties and into the seventies when Gabriel “Flash” Elorde ruled the junior lightweight for nearly ten years.
Like Manny, Mr. Elorde was also an unorthodox boxer or a southpaw.
After Elorde retired in 1971, seven years before Pacquiao was born, the words “left cross” had never seen print again in Philippine newspapers. The most familiar punches mentioned in boxing stories afterwards were the “jabs” and “left hooks.” Thanks to orthodox boxers, like Muhammad Ali, George Foreman or Mike Tyson, etc.
FULLFILLMENT OF UNFINISHED BUSINESS
An uncrowned featherweight champion, after he beat then reigning world featherweight champion Sandy Saddler in a non-title fight, Elorde tried to climb the 135-pound world lightweight division when he was 29. But he twice lost in his title bids to then Puerto Rican reigning champion Carlos Ortiz.
That’s why, when Manny beat David Diaz to claim the world lightweight championship last year, it was a fulfillment of Elorde’s unfinished business.
When Manny added unprecedented WBC flyweight, IBF super bantamweight, WBC super featherweight titles under his belt, Manny took over the mantle from Elorde, who was named in 1974 by the WBC as “the greatest world junior lightweight boxing champion.”
It was an icing in his cake when he defeated Hatton last Saturday (May 2) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada that let him collect two more titles – the junior welterweight and the IBO super lightweight division. With Manny now on top of the world as the undisputed pound-for-pound champion, the only question left is, how long can Manny defend those titles?
Both Manny and Elorde started amateur boxing at the age of 16.
While Elorde ended his professional career at the age of 36 when his career was in decline, will the 30-year-old Kibawe, Bukidnon native linger in the ring like the Bogo, Cebu native?
Or will Manny consider retirement now that he has run out of challenges? Retirement is now the best option for Manny so he leaves the ring as an undefeated champion.
Elorde died at a young age of 49 of lung cancer after failing to kick his smoking habit.
KICKING GAMBLING HABIT
Will Manny be able to kick his own gambling (cockfighting) habit as well so he will not be losing the millions of dollars that he tried very hard to earn and become a successful businessman as a boxing promoter like Oscar De La Hoya?
If he plans to be a promoter and put up his own boxing gym to develop futures boxers like Elorde, Manny can now be his own promoter in his next fight, after all, he is a quick understudy.
In my video taped interview in Chicago with his promoter, Bob Arum before the Pacquiao-De La Hoya Dream March last Dec. 6, Mr. Arum told me that De La Hoya would get 68% of the sharing of the proceeds of the fight. Manny would get 32% because De La Hoya at that time was a bigger box office draw than Manny.
If Manny beat De La Hoya, Mr. Arum said, this sharing would be reversed because Manny would be the bigger draw than De La Hoya.
For some reason, after knocking out De La Hoya, Manny did not get the sharing promised him by Mr. Arum when Mr. Arum agreed with Ricky Hatton to split 50-50 the revenue with Manny in the Battle of East and West last May 2nd.
Now that Manny knocked out Hatton in the second round, will Manny get the 68-32 sharing in revenues Mr. Arum had promised Manny in his next fights?
Let’s keep our fingers crossed. If not, Manny should take over as his own promoter.
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Like a bum check, this question keeps bouncing, more so during crises. Only names, places and time change. New threats, like the swine flu, swirl around this old issue, namely:: Do expiration dates on medicines mean anything?
In 20 countries, the H1N1 influenza A, for example, affected 1,024 ( plus three suspected cases in Cebu ) before starting to ebb, BBC reports. Taipei’s Health† Department predicts scientists may come up with a vaccine in three months. Health Secretary Francisco Duque seeks P90 million to beef up anti-viral stockpiles.
DOH has 600,000 capsules of the anti-flu drug --. good for 60,000 patients “Most of the capsules expire this month,” Inquirer reports.. “( But ) United Laboratories, which donated the medicine, assured the drugs remain efficacious from 36 to 40 months.”.
So, do we trash those expired stocks? Or don't we?
Critics earlier strafed V. Luna military hospital for accepting donations of expiring drugs Our soldiers deserve better than lapsing ( and "ineffective"? ) medicine, the line went. Food and Drug officials threaten medical missions, from abroad, if they stock drugs with expiry dates shorter than a year..
Use of expiration dates started in 1979, Harvard University's Medical School says in it's Family Health Guide. "It stands for something. But probably not for what you think it does."
Most data on drug expiration stems from an earlier question the Pentagon tossed to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA): “Should the military junk it's over $1-billion stockpile of medicine every two or three years?”
In response, FDA studied more than 100 drugs in military pharmacies. The agenc found that 90 percent, of both prescription and over-the-counter medicines, were perfectly good to use -- even 15 years after expiration dates.
"(Expiration dates) don't indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or unsafe," the Harvard briefing for US physicians adds. "This is the date at which manufacturers can guarantee full potency and safety of the drug."
"Many drugs, stored under reasonable conditions, retain 90 percent of their potency for at least five years after expiration date, sometimes much longer," notes Brigham Young University Health Center.
A simple device, such as "placing a medication in a cool place, such as a refrigerator, will help a drug remain potent for many years”, the center adds.
Among medicines FDA tests found effective after expiration were: Bayer's anti-biotic Cipro and aspirin; SmithKline Beecham PLC's Thorazine, a tranquilizer. Wyeth-Ayert's antidote to chemical poisoning was still effective 15 years beyond expiration date.
“We extended shelf lives instead of destroying large quantities of still-useful medical products," said Franics Flaherty, who oversaw FDA’s testing, wrote.. This decision saved the US military an initial $263.4 million, after the study’s completion..
These findings have implications for fund-strapped countries like the Philippines. Here, government clinics† are perennially drug-short, from simple aspirins to anti-tuberculosis drugs.
"TB or not TB is the congestion," Woody Allen once joked. But TB is no joking matter here. TB incidence in the Philippines is triple that of Thailand. Death rates for Filipina mothers is 162 in every 100,000 births. Compare to 62 for Malaysians.
This is obscene – and inevitable. Collectors for foreign debt get more (10 percent of GDP) than do health budgets (2 percent), says UN’s Human Development Report.. Thus, skilled health personnel attend only 60 out of 100 births here. In contrast, 99 of Thai mothers can count on medical attention.
And poverty opens floodgates to disease. The most violated human right here is the child’s right to celebrate first birthdays. But misinformation deprives sick people of medicine "Is there no balm in Gilead?" cried the ancient writers.
"Unless you have nitroglycerin, insulin and liquid antibiotics, be assured your medication expires years beyond (expiration ) date,” notes Dr Joseph Mercola. "The major tragedy is many Third World countries needlessly discard drugs that. could save lives due to lack of appreciation of this concept," adds this author of Total Health Program.
FDA's Shelf Life Extension Program recognizes expiration dates – often two to three years, have “a commercial dimension,” reports Wall Street Journal's Laurie Cohen. “B relatively short shelf lives make sense from a public-safety standpoint…,It gives enough time to put the inventory in warehouses, ship and ensure it l stays on shelves long enough to get used."
Peg expiration dates at no more than one year -- if drugs are dispensed in containers other than the original packaging, urges the non-profit group US Pharmacopeia.
"New containers may let in more moisture and heat than the container the manufacturer used for the stability study," says the USP General Counsel Joseph Valentino. The one-year rule is "motivated by product integrity, not by profit."
The Harvard note suggests a rule-of-thumb: If the expiration date passed a few years back, and it's important your drug is absolutely 100 percent effective (as for stroke, cancer, etc.), "you might want to consider buying a new bottle."Or ask your ask your pharmacist.
Indeed, health is better than hard cash. "The poor but healthy man is better than a sickly king," the old Ilokano proverb says.
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By Nestor Palugod Enriquez
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LET me give you my take on the Pacquiao devastating victory against Ricky Hatton at the MGM Palace in
Las Vegas. I watched the fight wearing Manny Pacquiao Tshirt and I was confident that he would prevail. Since the beginning of boxing, boxing managers avoided southpaw opponents like the swine flu virus. They are the curse of boxing because the natural lefty stance is unorthodox if not awkward. Called "sinister" in Latin, the shadow or mirror image defeats the best strategy. This strategy would never work on TV's "Dancing with the Stars": a dancer with two right feet would still get trampled by his partners left.
Manny Pacquiao is a lefty. I followed boxing as I follow Filipino history and I don't know any recent boxers who have created such a lefty boxing arsenal. His left hook and jab are delivered each time from different angles and often enough to confuse his opponents. Ricky Hatton would become just a natural victim of his southpaw stance. He could not defend against the left hook, as he had never fought a left hander boxer with
the caliber of Manny Pacquiao. Since he had trouble with mediocre left boxers before, he should have prepared for this. However, in the first round, Manny showed his right hand had lethal power. Ricky remembered it well going into the second round and defended against it, but then forgot the more powerful left that landed on the chin. The match was over.
Manny fought in 3 different weight classes in his last few matches. The perception that the power of his punch is not good enough for the heavier division is now a myth. He brought the speed and power combination to a higher weight level where most boxers failed. Henry Armstrong also fought in different divisions and he held the distinct title of holding three championship belts at the same time. Armstrong is considered the second best pound per pound champion of all time, next to Sugar Ray Robinson. He almost won his fourth except he was held to a draw by Ceferino Garcia, the middle champion. Garcia, known for his Bolo punch, was born in Tondo, Manila (1912- 1981). I am still trying to interview his grandchildren who
settled in Long Branch, New Jersey.
Strangely enough, conservative cultures still believe that the lefty habit should be reversed and forcibly train children to use the opposite hand in this right handed society. In sports, left handers are trained in southpaw stance. This advantage is very visible on the baseball diamond. The term southpaw is used mostly in boxing and baseball. You saw this when Manny broke his training regimen just a few days before last night's bout with Hatton. He went to San Francisco and threw the ceremonial first pitch with his left hand to Tim Lincecum, the Filam 2008 Cy Young winner.
In baseball the left-right matchup is part of the game strategy. Just in case you don't know already, your dominant eye and dominant hand is not always the same, normal vision has the effect of parallax. Earlier studies concluded that cross dominance might have advantage in sports where side stance is required. Science should study Pacquiao eye coordination in hitting the target simultaneously escaping incoming punch. It is magic Manny's natural stance became the best weapon because it was easily recognized by his trainer. It is made with the right stuff for the future best pound per pound champion of all time. While boxing is an individual sport, Manny and Freddie Roach tandem a team to be reckoned with. Manny is only an enlisted man in the army reserve but to the Filipino nation he is the Philippine Armed Forces.
The complete player is called the switch-hitter, and Manny Pacquiao is fast becoming a rare one. Without abandoning the southpaw stance he could deliver power from both sides. His first knockdown of Hatton was from his vicious right. Where most boxers will just show the weaker arm to set up his money punch, Manny lately can take down his opponents with his right. This is the sign of the ultimate switch, the ambidextrous Emmanuel Pacquiao. The virtuoso is cut above the rest because he is an excellent student of the sweet science.
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