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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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NEW YORK– A New York district court denied former Ambassador Lauro Baja's motion to dismiss the civil case of trafficking, and forced labor on the basis of diplomatic immunity.
In a much -awaited ruling, Judge Victor Marero of the NY Southern District Court maintained that the charges that were filed by an ex-empolyee of the Baja family named Marichu Baoanan will then proceed sans the protection of immunity.
“The fact that I was able to file a case in the legal system was already a victory. What’s an even greater victory is that the judge was not blind to the merits of the case. The truth will always prevail. This is all the more reason why domestic workers need to continue to speak out, not be in hiding and to fight,” Ms. Baoanan said.
This initial victory was also celebrated by Damayan Migrant Workers Association, a cause oriented group dedicated to fight for the rights of migrant workers in the United States and Ms. Baoanan's legal team headed by Ivy Suriyopas and Aaron Mendelsohn.
“This victory is a testament to the organizing work and the unity of Filipino domestic workers, and to the growing movement of domestic workers regionally and nationally,” said Mona Lunot, Chairperson of Damayan.
Lauro Baja served as the Philippines' Ambassador to the United States to the United Nations. According to Ms. Baoanan's charges, Ambassador Baja and his wife, Norma, and daughter, Elizabeth Facundo, through their travel agency, La Baire Travel, lured Ms. Baoanan from the Philippines to work for them with the promise of a better future. But Baoanan alleged that she was miserably treated by the Bajas and was not provided fair wages an practically lived a life of a slave.
“The denial of diplomatic immunity in this case sets a precedent,” Lunot added. “The diplomat abusers should be afraid. We are going to continue to fight on behalf of our fellow domestic workers who have been abused and hold the diplomats accountable whether they have immunity or not.”
With reports from Ana Liza Caballes
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CHICAGO – Had Jefferson N. Calimlim Sr. and his wife, Elnora M. Calimlim, not appealed their four year sentence last 2006, they would have been due for release in September next year. Last Tuesday, June 9th, the Filipino doctors learned that they would have to languish longer by two more years in separate federal prisons.
According to the website of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., the two medical doctors from Milwaukee, Wisconsin suburb of Brookfield were each sentenced by Judge Rudolph T. Randa of the U.S. District Court of Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee to 72 months in prison for forcing a woman to work as their domestic servant and illegally harboring her for 19 years in their Brookfield residence.
The Calimlims were initially sentenced on Nov. 16, 2006 to four-year prison terms each by Judge Randa but they appealed saying, the forced labor statue is vague and over broad, that the jury instructions on the forced labor counts failed to exclude the possibility of a conviction for innocent actions, and that there was insufficient evidence of financial gain on the harboring counts. But the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit based in Chicago, Illinois was not convinced and affirmed on Aug. 15, 2008 their convictions and set aside their four-year sentence. The appeals court ordered a resentencing in keeping with the “Sentencing Guideline range” which would increase their jail term and remanded the case back to Judge Randa.
According to evidence presented at trial, Jefferson Calimlim Sr. and his wife recruited and brought the domestic servant, Irma Martinez, from the Philippines to the U.S. In 1985 when she was 19 years old. In September 2004, federal law enforcement officers responding to a tip removed Martinez, then age 38, from the Calimlim’s residence through the execution of a federal search warrant. The victim testified that for 19 years she was hidden in the Calimlim’s home, forbidden from going outside and told that she would be arrested, imprisoned and deported if she was discovered.
"Our Constitution promises freedom to all," said Loretta King, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "The defendants denied Ms. Martinez the basic right to her freedom. “
"Human Trafficking is a form of modern day slavery and is simply not acceptable. No person should ever be forced to live in fear, virtual isolation and servitude," said Acting U.S. Attorney MichelleL. Jacobs for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Martinez accompanied Dr. Jovito Mendoza, the father of defendant Elnora Calimlim, to the United States to become a domestic helper in the Calimlim residence in Brookfield. Martinez was told by the Calimlims that if she did not do everything they asked, they would not send money back to her family (in the Philippines), the Calimlims also knew that not sending money back home was, for Martinez, a “serious harm.”
In addition, the “Calimlims also warned Martinez about her precarious position under the immigration laws, conveniently omitting anything about their (Calimlims) own vulnerability.”
When the Calimlims “kept her passport, never admitted that they too were violating the law, and never offered to try to regularize her presence in the United States” that would compel her to remain, the Calimlims intentionally manipulated the situation, according to court records.
“Their vague warnings that someone might report Martinez and their false statements that they were the only ones who lawfully could employ her could reasonably be viewed as a scheme to make her believe that she or her family would be harmed if she tried to leave. That is all the jury needed to convict.”
Dr. Jefferson Calimlim, 64, is spending prison time atNortheast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio while Dr. Elnora Calimlim is doing time at Hazelton women’s prison in West Virginia that has a mix of low and high security inmates.
According to Journal Sentinel, their defense attorney Dean Strang wrote Judge Randa a letter where Mrs. Calimlim was admonished by prison officials not to practice medicine in prison. She witnessed violent fights and injuries and once saved an inmate’s life. The inmate passed out on the floor next to the toilet and stopped breathing. Elnora administered CPR and restored both respiration and a pulse.
Mrs. Calimlim cannot be released into a halfway house or camp because she is not a U.S. citizen — she’s a legal permanent resident. She must serve her full prison terms behind bars, Strang said.
The couple has paid Martinez nearly $700,000 of the $916,635 in restitution prosecutors said they owed for the two decades she worked as a maid, cook and nanny. The couple and their adult children are facing a federal lawsuit from Martinez, and prosecutors sought to forfeit the Calimlim home in Brookfield. The couple also is likely to be deported after prison.
Randa imposed a six year term and directed the couple to continue serving restitution of not less than $200 per month. Randa recommendation to the federal Bureau of Prisons that the couple be allowed to serve in a facility “as close as possible” to their Brookfield home.
Email message by this reporter to Mr. Strang for comment was not answered.
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CHICAGO – “Mahal ko ang Pilipinas (I love the Philippines) at baka doon pa rin ako mag-re-retire” (and perhaps, I may retire back home).
These were two of the reasons Dr. Virgilio M. Orillo, a state licensed and Medicare Certified Home Health Carem Agency, put forward to explain why he applied as a dual Filipino citizen.
On the other hand, Godofredo J. Angara, the elder brother of Filipino Sen. Edgardo J. Angara, said he wants to vote in the Philippine elections and he wants to enjoy his Filipino citizenship.
Doctor Orillo and Mr.Angara were two of the 22 American citizens, who embraced dual Filipino citizenship during a mass-swearing in ceremonies officiated by Consul General Blesila C. Cabrera in the Midwest Philippine Consulate General office in Chicago, Illinois, on Friday (June 12) Philippine Independence Day.
The swearing-in ceremonies were among the highlights of the 111th Philippine Independence Day celebration Friday that started at 9 a.m. with the annual traditional raising of a huge Philippine flag in the Daley Center at the heart of Chicago downtown. A Filipino cultural presentation was also staged at the Daley Center at noon witnessed mostly by Filipinos and Filipino Americans and their friends and employes taking a noon break around the Daley Center.
At least three of the four non-government organizations are separately holding three different dinner Independence Day celebrations in Chicago on Saturday (June 13). Two of these groups – the PWC or Philippine Week Committee and the Kalayaan- Council of Presidents – are holding their gala dinners under one roof – the Wyndham Hotel O’Hare at suburban Rosemont, Illinois – while the third group the Kasarinlan-Filipino American Council of Greater Chicago will hold Cocktails from 6 p.m. at the Rizal Center at Chicago’s northside.
Dr. Orillo, 66, a native of Sison, Surigao del Norte and a surgeon when he was practicing medicine in the Philippines, said the other reason he wanted to become a Filipino again is to keep his real estate property in the Philippines that he always visits. Although, he has retired in his practice as a surgeon, Dr. Orillo said he keeps himself busy by being president and administrator of Chalice Home Health Care Services, Inc. based in Chicago and has a branch in Morris, Illinois that he co-manages with his wife, Marygrace Mr. Angara, 80, a Manila- born, retired employee of the Quezon City Hall’s property and supplies office, immigrated to the United States in the 90’s.
Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown urged Filipinos and Chicagoans to “work together and love one another” as a key to the progress of the community during the flag-raising ceremonies. Ms. Brown’s supporter, Rey Nonato of Chicago Investors Connection, said Ms. Brown is running in the Democratic primary for the Cook County Board president.
Khaled J. Elkhatib, deputy director of Chicago office of the Mayor for International Relations, read during the flag-raising ceremonies the congratulatory greetings of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to the Filipino people on their Independence Day. Mr. Elkhatib said Mayor Daley encourages “Chicagoans to honor the occasion and join Filipinos around the world to celebrate the anniversary of your nation’s Independence.”
Home to thousands of Filipinos, Chicago recognizes the “history of friendship and exchange that unites Chicago and the Philippines. We are proud to see our ties continue to grow and were delighted to welcome (Manila) Mayor Alfredo Lim last January this year in Chicago at the Richard J. Daley forum.”
Consul General Cabrera read during the flag-raising ceremonies the message of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who said, “I thank the Filipino American community for your demonstrated commitment to help upload, protect, and promote our Filipino heritage; I am confident that you will continue to do your part in contributing to the full development of your motherland.”
The messages of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo and Philippine Ambassador to the U.S. Willy Gaa were also read by Consuls Orantes Castro and Bob Bernardo. Mr. Romulo said, “I am confident that our country is on its way towards realizing our collective aspirations for peace, prosperity and progress.”
On the other, Ambassador Gaa said, “This year’s theme, “Kagitingan, Kagalingan at Kasipagan Tungo sa Tunay na Kalayaan,” reminds Filipinos around the world of the continuing challenge for our nation’s people to do our utmost and contribute in the further straightening of our Republic.” (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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