The Filipino Express v28 Issue 39

US urged to approve PH request
for TPS for undocumented
Filipinos Story on page 3
Pres. Aquino’s US trip
Stories and photos on pages 7-9
VOL. 28 w
NO. 39 w
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014 w
NATIONAL EDITION w
NEW JERSEY w
NEW YORK w
(201) 434-1114 w
$1.00
PH bears brunt of
Aquino to UN:
climate change impacts
By Nikko Dizon
Act now to
stop perils
of climate
change
UNITED NATIONS -- President Aquino on Tuesday,
Sept. 23, called on nations to end a protracted debate and
work together to save the world from the perils of climate
change.
Joining some 100 world leaders at the one-day UN
Climate Summit, the President said one nation should not
wait for another's action before determining its own,
saying this would only defeat the goal of establishing a
collective and effective response to mitigate the effects of
global warming.
“The time of debate of whether climate change is real
or not is over. There is no doubt that it exists, which is the
reason we are all here. It would be wrong, however, to
engage in another protracted debate over the individual
commitments of countries. To my mind, that would be
adopting the wrong framework,” Aquino said.
“Instead, everyone here has to do everything they can
to address climate change, without first waiting for their
neighbors to engage in action. Doing anything less leaves
the problem unattended, too, thereby increasing the
problem we all face,” he said.
“It would not be an exaggeration to say that Filipinos
bear a disproportionate amount of the burden when it
comes to climate change,” the President said, pointing to
the battering his nation received from Super Typhoon President Benigno Aquino III speaks during the United Nations Climate Summit, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014 at U.N.
u
Page 4 headquarters in New York City. AP photo/John Minchillo
Gazmin on Sayyaf threat to Owners of care homes arrested
behead German: We don't for wage theft in SF Bay Area
negotiate with terrorists
Abu Sayyaf group. AFP file photo
SAN FRANCISCO -- Four owners
of million-dollar senior care homes,
By Bong Lozada
including a Filipino, in Brentwood
and other Bay Area cities were
MANILA -- Defense
arrested for alleged wage theft.
Secretary Voltaire Gazmin
They allegedly paid workers,
on Thursday, Sept. 25 said
some of whom are immigrants, for
they will not bow to the
as little as $4 an hour, working day
demands of the Abu Sayyaf
and night.
group, which has
Arrested on several felony
threatened to behead a
counts of wage theft were Sara
German hostage.
Abraham, Annette Sanchez and Julio
“What the Abu Sayyaf
Sanchez of Abraham Rest Home Inc.
are doing are like a
and Sanchez Abraham Corporation,
propaganda of theirs so that
and Florinda Yambao of Florin
the government would give
White Dove Care Homes. In some
u
Page 5
One of the senior care homes where workers allegedly received cases, labor officials said caregivers
substandard wages. Bay Area News Group
u
Page 6
As our community partner, you may be aware that during the U.N.
General Assembly on September 25, the Iraqi Prime Minister made
statements indicating that his intelligence agency uncovered a plot to
attack the subway systems in New York City and Paris. The NYPD
Intelligence Bureau is aware of this statement and is in contact with
international and federal agencies. At this time, no plot has been
verified.
The NYPD will remain in close contact with the FBI and other federal
partners as we assess this particular threat. New York City normally
operates at a heightened level of security and we adjust that posture
daily based on our evaluation of information as we receive it.
Although we have no confirmation of the threat's validity, we take any
threat seriously and remain committed to keeping New York City safe.
As always, if you see something, say something.
Witness: Binay used
dummies to hide wealth
New witness says VP owns P1B Makati property
By Kristine Angeli Sabillo and
Maila Ager
MANILA -- Vice President
Jejomar Binay allegedly used
dummies to hide his wealth
when he was still the mayor of
Makati City, former city vice
mayor Ernesto Mercado told a
Senate hearing on Thursday,
Sept. 25.
Mercado submitted
documents to the Senate blue
ribbon committee
investigating the allegedly
overpriced Makati City Hall 2
parking building involving an
8,877-square meter lot in
Makati City and ownership of
Omni Security and
Investigation formerly known
as Omni Security Investigation
and General Services.
Te s t i f y i n g b e fo re t h e
committee, Mercado claimed
that Binay used a certain
Gerardo Limlingan and Erlinda
Chong as fronts in the Makati
lot, which was split between
the local government and the
military to house its personnel.
M e rc a d o h a d a l re a dy
u
Page 4
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 2
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Aquino's revenge comment
understandable - Palace
By Kristine Angeli Sabillo
MANILA -- Any person who had a relative
murdered would probably feel the same,
Malacañang on Tuesday, Sept. 23 said of President
Benigno Aquino III's comment that he wanted to
seek revenge against former President Ferdinand
Marcos.
“I think you cannot take it away from the
President as an ordinary human being…for his
father to be brutally murdered. I think kung
mangyari ito (if it happens) to anyone of us, we will
experience that rage,” presidential spokesperson
Edwin Lacierda told Palace reporters.
Aquino on Sunday, during a speech in Boston,
admitted that after his father was assassinated upon
his return to Manila, he had wanted Marcos to also
suffer, like how their family suffered under his
administration.
“What makes it more painful for him is the fact
that he was thousands of miles away,” Lacierda
explained.
Aquino was living in exile in Boston, along with
the rest of their family when the former senator flew
back to the Philippines.
Nevertheless, Lacierda said the President never
talked to them about it and doesn't seem to be
interested anymore in revenge or finding the real
mastermind.
“The President recognizes that this is really a
personal burden that the family would have to carry.
But his number one priority is to govern the country
and to ensure that he improves the lives of Filipinos,”
he said. Inquirer.net
Bongbong Marcos won’t
comment on Aquino's past
desire to avenge Ninoy's death
By Christine O. Avendaño
MANILA -- The son and namesake
of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos
is not about to tangle with President
Benigno Aquino III's past desire to
exact revenge against his father for
the assassination of Aquino's father,
Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983.
Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong”
Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday, Sept. 23 he
did not want to comment on
President Aquino's statements in
Boston Monday that he had thought
of avenging the death of his father
who was assassinated upon his
return to Manila in August 1983 after
three years of self-exile in the United
States.
The President, who has been in
the US for a four-day working visit,
earlier said he had wanted to exact
revenge on Marcos, his father's jailer.
Asked for his reaction, Senator
Marcos said: “Those are his feelings.
It's not for me to comment.”
Marcos told reporters to ask
President Aquino about his
statement.
Senator Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos. AFP file photo
Asked whether he should be
concerned because of the President's
statements, he said he did not feel
that way.
In his speech in Boston, President
Aquino said he calmed down only
after a Japanese diplomat told him
people would be looking up to him
and his mother, the late President
Corazon Aquino.
The President conceded that he
realized then that “you cannot make
decisions just for yourself.”
The death of Ninoy Aquino
sparked national outrage that
concluded in the military-backed
Edsa people power revolution in
1986 that ousted Marcos and swept
Mrs. Aquino into power.
While his death was largely
blamed on Marcos, this was never
proven in court. Inquirer.net
Our Lady of Guadalupe - Message of Trust and Hope
‘..... I am the ever Virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the true Godfor whom we
live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of Heaven and the earth. I wish that
a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my
love, compassion, help and protection, because I am your merciful mother,
to you and to all ......’
Pilgrimage
Mexico City Cuernavaca Taxco Tlaxcala Ocotlan Puebla
(Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe)
December 8-13, 2014 US$1,499.00
RTA TRAVEL
NEW YORK: 39-85 65th Place, Woodside, New York 11377 Phone: 718-507-2500 Fax 718-478-8683 Email: atgajilan@aol.com
NEW JERSEY: 2713 Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, 07306 Phone: 201-434-8282 Fax 201-434-0880 Email: litogajilan@yahoo.com
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 3
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
US urged to approve PH request for Temporary
Protected Status for undocumented Filipinos
​ N EW YORK, 24 September
2014 -- Saying there is still much ​to​
be done, Manila ​today​ called​ on
Washington to approve ​its request
for Temporary Protected Status
(TPS) to allow undocumented
Filipinos in the United States to
help the Philippines rebuild much
faster from the devastation
wreaked by Typhoon Haiyan.
In letters to Secretary of State
John Kerry and Secretary of
Homeland Security Jeh Johnson,
Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F.
Del Rosario underscored the
importance of the request, saying
its approval would not only
alleviate the plight of eligible
Filipinos in the US but also greatly
ease the strain placed in the
country's infrastructure and
resources.
“I take this opportunity to once
again reiterate the Philippine
Government's request for the US
Government's immediate positive
consideration of the request.”
Secretary Del Rosario said.
“Many of my countrymen in the
US were affected by Typhoon
H a iya n . T h i s h u m a n i t a r i a n
assistance would provide
temporary relief for them from the
natural disaster,” he added.
Secretary Del Rosario sent the
letters, which were dated 22
Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. Del Rosario, left, assures Fil-Am Community leaders that the Philippine Government will
continue to push for the approval of the request for TPS for the more than 200,000 undocumented Filipinos in the U.S. Also in
photo are Consul General Mario L. De Leon Jr.,2nd from left, Consul Felipe Cariño III, 4th from left, and Atty. J.T. Mallonga, Chair of
the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations, extreme right. (Philippine Embassy Photo by Elmer G. Cato)​
September 2014, to Secretary
Kerry and Secretary Johnson more
than a month after the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) told
leaders of the Filipino-American
Community that ​the Philippine
request to be placed under TPS is
still under consideration.​
Manila formally filed for TPS
designation in December, a few
weeks after Typhoon Haiyan, one of
the most powerful storms in
history, devastated the Central
Visayas, killing more than 6,000
people and severely affecting more
than 1.4 million others in 17
provinces. Secretary Del Rosario
said a TPS designation for the
Philippines will allow more than
200,000 undocumented Filipinos
to stay and work legally in the US
for at least 18 months.
In previous years, the US
granted the same immigration
relief to undocumented aliens from
El Salvador, Nicaragua and Haiti
after these countries were struck
by natural disasters and
subsequently placed under TPS.
On Wednesday, Secretary Del
Rosario met with leaders of the
Filipino-American Community led
by lawyer J.T. Mallonga, Chair of the
National Federation of Filipino-
American Associations (NAFFAA)
and assured them of the full
support of the Philippine
Government in pushing the TPS
request.
“We stand with you on this
issue,” Secretary Del Rosario said,
adding that the Philippine Embassy
in Washington D.C. and the
Consulates General in New York,
Chicago, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Honolulu and Guam will
continue to work with the FilipinoAmerican Community on the TPS
initiative.
Secretary Del Rosario also told
the Filipino-American Community
leaders ​that he will personally
follow up the Philippine request
when he meets US officials in
Washington ​on Sept. 25.
In his letters to Secretary Kerry
and Secretary Johnson, Secretary
Del Rosario said: “In a little over six
weeks, the world will observe the
first year anniversary of Typhoon
Haiyan. While the memory of the
devastation still lingers in the mind
and psyche of the Filipino people,
we h ave n o t fo r g o t te n t h e
unprecedented outpouring of
international support for the
Philippines.”
“We will always remember and
c h e r i s h t h e i nva l u a b l e a n d
immediate assistance provided by
the United States in the aftermath
of Typhoon Haiyan,” Secretary Del
Rosario said as he cited the
overwhelming and timely response
of Washington, which not only
provided troops, ships and aircraft
but also more than $86 million in
assistance.
“However, almost one year
after the calamity, there is still
m u c h t o b e d o n e . M a s s ive
i nve s t m e n t s a n d n e c e s s a r y
expertise are still necessary to
continue the reconstruction work,”
Secretary Del Rosario said. Khrystina P. Corpuz, Vice Consul,
Philippine Consulate General - New York
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 4
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Multiple charges filed
vs PNP chief Purisima
By Julliane Love De Jesus
MANILA -- A consumer rights
group filed plunder, graft and
indirect bribery charges against the
Philippine National Police (PNP)
chief Director General Alan
Purisima on Monday, Sept. 22.
The Coalition of Filipino
Consumers Secretary-General
Perfecto Tagalog went to the Office
of the Ombudsman to file multiple
charges against the highest PNP
official amid his alleged hidden
properties, the P25-million “White
House” controversy and his
allegedly spurious gun licensing
contract.
This is the second time Purisima
was slapped with plunder charges.
In April, a complainant in Legazpi
City accused the PNP chief of
plunder for entering into an
allegedly anomalous P100-million
contract with a courier service
company for the delivery of firearms
licenses.
Chief Superintendent ‎Reuben
Theodore Sindac, PNP Public
Information Office chief, told the
media that the PNP assures that
Purisima will respond to the cases.
“There are allegations and if
there are charges filed, [they] will be
answered in the proper forum,”
Sindac said.
Last August, the consumer
group also filed a petition before the
office of Commission on Audit
chairperson Grace Pulido-Tan
PUBLIC PROPERTY THAT REPORTEDLY BECAME BINAY'S. An 8,877-square-meter property on J.P. Rizal Extension and
Sampaguita Street in Makati City, now worth about P1 billion, is owned by Vice President Jejomar Binay, according to his
former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado. The property (inset) is now occupied by commercial buildings and a
Mormon church. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE AND GOOGLE EARTH SCREENSHOT
PNP Director General Alan Purisima.
Inquirer file photo
seeking for a lifestyle check on
Purisima.
Purisima left the country for an
anti-kidnapping and anti-extortion
conference in Bogota, Colombia
which will last until September 26.
‎The same group also claimed in
an exclusive ABS-CBN report that
Purisima allegedly owns a P3.7million worth mansion in San
Leonardo, Nueva Ecija.
Although Purisima declared this
in his statement of assets, liabilities
and net worth (SALN), the San
Leonardo Municipal registry
certified that Purisima has no
registered property in the town.
Inquirer.net
Aquino to UN: Act
now ... From page 1
“Yolanda” (international name:
Haiyan) in November last year.
Green Climate Fund
At the UN summit held after tens of
thousands rallied around the world,
presidents and prime ministers urged
action to combat climate change, but
pledges remained well short of goals.
France promised $1 billion to the Green
Climate Fund, making it the only
contributor other than Germany to the
new institution that would help the
worst-hit countries.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
said that $2.3 billion had been pledged
to the Green Climate Fund, but the
amount was well below the $10 billion
aimed for by year end let alone the
Witness: Binay
used ... From page 1
mentioned a certain Gerry
Limlingan in his previous testimony
in the committee and identified him
as finance officer of the Vice
President, who he said had received
kickbacks for Binay.
But he said the property that
went to the city government
became a private property later
under a company owned by Chong,
who he said is a contributor of
canned goods.
The lot, which he said now costs
more than P1 billion, was
eventually divided into four one
was sold to the Mormons while the
three remained with Chong.
Asked by Senator Antonio
“Sonny” Trillanes IV how Chong
would link to Binay, Mercado said:
“Siya ho iyong nagiging front ni
$100 billion a year aimed starting in
2020 to help poor nations cope with
rising temperatures and disasters.
The UN chief called the meeting
more to build momentum than to reach
concrete achievements. It was the first
such event since the Copenhagen
summit on climate change ended in
disarray in 2009 and aims to set the
tone for a conference next year in Paris
designed to seal a new global
agreement.
French President Francois
Hollande said the Paris conference
should deliver a “global and ambitious”
deal and warned that climate change
posed a “threat to world peace and
security.”
US President Barack Obama,
addressing the summit hours after
ordering strikes on Syria, said that the
“urgent and growing threat of climate
change” would ultimately “define the
Mayor Jejomar Binay or Vice
President Binay sa mga ganitong
property na dapat ay malihis o
maitago ang kanilang pangalan.”
“Actually, ang talaga hong
kaibigang-kaibigan ni Vice
President dyan yung kanyang
asawa, si Mr. Vic Chong dahil yun po
ang ka-badminton nya araw-araw,
si Mr. Vic Chong,” he said.
Mercado said Erlinda Chong
was also managing the canteens at
Makati City Hall and in Ospital ng
Makati.
“Yun din pong pangalan nila ang
ginagamit sa transaction ng cake ni
Senadora Nancy Binay kaya nandun
ho talaga yung link…” the former
vice mayor said.
He also noted that when Chong
was selling a portion of the land , it
was Limlingan who was talking to
the Mormons.
Mercado claimed that the Vice
President was also part owner of
Omni Security.
Notably, he said, Limlingan was
also the co-signatory of the former
president of Omni in all its
transactions with the Makati City
government.
A former president of Omni,
Jose Orillaza, who was present in
the hearing, confirmed that
Limlingan was indeed his
cosignatory in the cheques of Omni
though the latter was not an
incorporator of Omni.
“Ang pagkakaalam ko po simula
ng dumating po siya dun, sya po ang
pinadala ng dating mayor ng Makati
na si Jojo Binay para sumama sa
aming corporation,” Orillaza said,
responding to Senator Aquilino
“Koko” Pimentel III, who was
presiding over the session.
Asked by Trillanes if he would
admit that he was used as a dummy
of the Vice President, Limlingan
answered yes.
Mercado said Limlingan was
also the president JCB Foundation
Incorporated. JBC, he said, stands
for Jejomar C. Binay. Inquirer.net
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 5
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
'Mission accomplished': Aquino says of Europe trip
By Christian V. Esguerra
BERLIN -- Mission
accomplished.
President Benigno Aquino III
ended his weeklong European trip
on Saturday, September 20
convinced that he had gathered
enough support behind the
Philippines' call for a peaceful
resolution of conflicts in the South
China Sea, particularly through
international arbitration.
“The short answer is yes,” he
told reporters over coffee at 8 p.m.
on Friday, September 19 here
when asked if he felt he had
achieved the goal of his four-nation
tour of Europe.
With Spain (which has offered
to be the Philippines' voice in the
European Union), Belgium, France
and Germany all seeking a
resolution of the territorial
disputes through processes
provided under international law,
the President said it was time to
“get to a stage where we have
reasonable and doable objectives.”
Mr. Aquino said he had been
told by some of his European
counterparts that they had been
asking Beijing about its claim to 90
percent of the 3.5-million-squarekilometer South China Sea.
He said another point of
inquiry was “adherence” to the
United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea (Unclos).
“There seems to be a push,” he
said.
One of the most categorical
statements came from German
Chancellor Angela Merkel who
described “international dispute
settlement arrangements that we
have on the basis of Unclos” as “a
very good way forward in order to
settle those differences.”
“We share the concerns about
the tensions arising in that
particular part of the world and we
believe in good, pragmatic
approaches,” Merkel said. “But we
also believe in solid, legal
settlements of the disputes.”
Merkel cited similar cases in
Europe where Germany took the
position that “we should embark
on such roads where the
limitation, for example, of borders
has to be settled by arbitration.”
“So that is the road that we
would opt for,” she said. “A peaceful
approach, a diplomatic approach is
always the one that is called for.”
The Philippines and China are
locked in dispute over territory in
the South China Sea, where islets,
reefs and atolls are believed to be
sitting atop vast reserves of natural
gas and oil.
Grabbing territory
China has grabbed Panatag
Shoal (Scarborough Shoal), a rich
fishing ground in the West
Philippine Sea, part of the South
China Sea within the Philippines'
370-kilometer exclusive economic
zone recognized under Unclos.
Beijing has also seized several
Gazmin on Sayyaf ...
From page 1
in to their demands of a ransom,”
Gazmin said in a radio interview. “We
will not be intimidated by these gestures
and actions.”
In a report from SITE monitoring
that Arab News wrote, the Al-Qaedalinked Islamic rebels threatened to
behead one of two German hostages
they have been holding captive since
August.
T h e A b u S ay ya f g ro u p a l s o
demanded a P250-million ransom for
the release of the captive.
Gazmin, however, would not budge
and said that the Philippine government
“does not negotiate with terrorists.”
“We will continue to contain them,”
Gazmin said.
He added that President Benigno
Aquino III has ordered to “once and for
all stop the Abu Sayyaf.”
Troops in Patikul, Sulu, where the
small terror group is said to be
concentrated, would be reshuffled,
Gazmin said. Members from Philippine
Marines and Philippine Army would
comprise the government force.
“We are changing our action plan,
and we do hope to effectively contain the
movement of Abu Sayyaf,” Gazmin said.
In recent months the Abu Sayyaf has
uploaded videos on the Internet
proclaiming its allegiance to the Islamic
President Benigno S. Aquino III at a forum in Berlin with members of the Philippine media before he left for Boston.
Malacañang Photo Bureau
islets in the Spratly archipelago
that are in the West Philippine Sea,
i n c l u d i n g Pa n g a n i b a n Re e f
(Mischief Reef), which it has
converted into an offshore
g a r r i s o n , a n d M a b i n i Re e f
(Johnson South Reef), where it is
reclaiming land that could be used
to build an airstrip.
China is also harassing supply
vessels to keep them from
restocking a small Filipino
garrison on the BRP Sierra Madre,
State group, which has taken control of
large parts of Iraq and Syria.
“They are taking advantage of the
international attention the ISIS is getting
so that the ransom would increase,” said
Lieutenant General Rustico Guerrero,
Armed Forces of the Philippines
Western Mindanao Command Chief. “All
their activities are criminal in nature.”
He added that there are continuous
operations that the AFP and the
Philippine National Police jointly
conduct.
Gazmin said that even with their
small number, the Abu Sayyaf continues
to operate as they get support from the
civilians in the area.
The Abu Sayyaf, considered a
“foreign terrorist organization” by the
United States, is a loose band of several
hundred Islamic militants originally
organized with Al-Qaeda funding in the
1990s.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for
the Philippines' worst terrorist attacks,
including kidnappings, abductions and
beheadings of foreign and local
hostages.
It was also blamed for the bombing
of a ferry on Manila Bay that killed more
than 100 people in 2004.
The group is believed to be currently
holding several other foreign and
Filipino hostages, including two
European birdwatchers abducted in
February 2012. With a report from
Agence France Presse. Inquirer.net
TO ADVERTISE, PLEASE CALL
201-434-1114
which Manila grounded on
Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas
Shoal) in 1999 to mark Philippine
territory in the Spratlys.
Without military muscle and
firepower to counter China's
aggressive actions in the West
Philippine Sea, Manila filed a
petition for arbitration in a United
Nations arbitral tribunal in The
Hague in January last year.
In late March, the Philippines
submitted evidence to the tribunal,
Which ordered China to comment
on the Philippine case by Dec. 15.
China has refused to take part
in the proceedings, insisting on
bilateral negotiations to resolve
the dispute.
At a policy forum here on
Friday, Mr. Aquino reminded China
that it is a signatory to Unclos,
which grants countries 370-km
exclusive economic zones in the
sea. Mr. Aquino rejected China's
u
Page 6
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 6
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Aquino doubles security due
to 'credible threat' vs Pope
By Nikko Dizon
NEW YORK -- President
Aquino on Tuesday, Sept. 23
said he expected stepped up
measures by the Presidential
Security Group (PSG) to
protect Pope Francis during his
visit to the Philippines in
January next year amid a news
report in Italy of a possible
threat against the Pontiff by
Islamic militants.
“We are not going into
details. What the PSG affords
me, I want to see them double
the effort especially for the
head of the Holy Mother
Church. There shouldn't be any
incident while he's in our
country. But going into details
now might increase the
problems of the PSG,” Aquino
told reporters in a briefing.
The Iraqi ambassador to
the Vatican, Habeeb al-Sadr,
has been quoted by the Italian
newspaper La Nazione earlier
this week as saying there is a
“credible threat” from the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(Isis) against the Pope.
With 'Yolanda' victims
Pope Francis will be in the
Philippines from Jan. 15 to 19,
primarily to visit the survivors
of Super Typhoon “Yolanda”
that devastated the Visayas in
November last year. He is
scheduled to fly on Jan. 17 to
Tacloban, which bore the brunt
Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square
at the Vatican on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014. AP PHOTO/ALESSANDRA
TARANTIN
of the cyclone, internationally
known as “Haiyan.”
The PSG will also beef up
security for 21 world leaders,
including the United States,
China and Japan, who are
expected to attend the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation
(Apec) summit in the
Philippines in November next
year, the President said.
Aquino said the terrorist
groups in the Philippines being
pursued by security forces are
not part of the Isis.
“The Abu Sayyaf, maybe
even the BIFF (Bangsamoro
Islamic Freedom Fighters) are
doing basically the same things
but now attributing it to their
joining IS, which doesn't
necessarily mean that they are
IS,” the President said.
Foreign Secretary Albert
Del Rosario was set to meet
with officials from the US
D e p a r t m e n t o f S t a te o n
Wednesday morning on the
latest air strikes by the US
military carried out against the
Islamic extremist group in
Syria.
The President said Del
Rosario would seek “more
details, exactly if they [US] are
asking for assistance [from the
Philippines] and what manner
of assistance… which we will
review.”
“Of course, we want to do
something that is doable and
within our capabilities without
posing undue risks to our
forces or the country at large,”
said Aquino, who was winding
up a two-week visit to Europe
and the United States.
Inquirer.net
‘Mission
accomplished’ ...
before members of Koerber Stiftung
Foundation and Asia-Pacific Committee
of German Business.
From page 5
Threats to rule of law
The President said “tensions in the
S o u t h C h i n a S e a h ave c re a t e d
uncertainty in our region” and “this
uncertainty poses threats to the rule of
law.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, if it is true
that international law embodies our
consensus as coinhabitants in a single,
global community, then it stands to
reason that violating it means flouting
not just a single nation, but the entire
community of nations,” he said.
“ C o n v e r s e l y, o b s e r v i n g
international law strengthens a
dynamic harmony among nations,
which could then be harnessed to uplift
the lives of all,” Mr. Aquino said.
At the open forum, Mr. Aquino was
asked how he intended to “balance” the
need to resolve the Philippines'
territorial dispute with China with its
economic relations with the Asian
powerhouse.
“We still adhere to that belief that
this particular tension should not be the
be-all and end-all of our relations with
China,” Mr. Aquino replied.
But the Philippines, he said, could
not stand down and tell China, “Yes, OK,
you are the bigger country, you are the
military power, you have everything and
we have nothing except what we believe
is right.”
“At the end of the day, if we [fail] to
protect our rights, then we will lose
them [because] we don't think anybody
else will rise up to protect [our] rights,
which we chose not to defend,” he said.
“Now it behooves us to really expand
our trade relations with everybody [who
is] willing and eager to trade with us.
Perhaps to give us that degree of
independence that we need to chart our
own course,” he said. Inquirer.net
position to resolve the dispute through
bilateral talks, noting that there are six
claimants to territory in the South China
Sea.
“How does a situation where two
parties agree to a solution bind the four
other parties who are not even part of
the dialogue?” Mr. Aquino asked.
Other claimants
Besides the Philippines, Brunei,
Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also
claim parts of the South China Sea, but
China spurns their claims and rejects
efforts at resolving the conflicts on
international forums, always insisting
on one-on-one talks with its rival
claimants.
“This problem has been put on the
back burner for far too long and that's
why in the Philippines' case, we want a
resolution,” President Aquino said in a
joint press conference with Merkel at
the Federal Chancellery here earlier on
Friday.
“It is not a situation that can be
ignored and it has to be confronted and
perhaps that will prod everybody to
a r r ive a t a s o l u t i o n b a s e d o n
international law, based [on] justice and
fairness,” Mr. Aquino said.
The Philippines has been trying to
“internationalize” the issue, arguing
that instability in the South China Sea
could also affect global trade.
The disputed waters are
crisscrossed by vital sea-lanes where a
third of annual global commerce passes,
making the disputes a major concern for
countries that trade with emerging
economies in Southeast Asia.
Mr. Aquino sought to drive home the
same message in another policy speech
Owners of care ...
From page 1
worked 12 to 16 hours a day for $50 to
$80 total.
There were no allegations that
senior residents in their care homes
were harmed or mistreated.
The arrests in Walnut Creek, and
others in Concord, Brentwood and
Antioch, were part of a one-year probe
into fraud allegedly committed by the
owners of 19 residential care homes.
Complaints filed with the US
Department of Labor triggered the
investigation.
“It's almost like slave labor,” Pat
McGinnis, executive director of
California Advocates for Nursing Home
Reform, told the Contra Costa Times of
the Bay Area News Group.
Some 60 workers are owed a total of
$2 million, and $624,000 in fines
against the companies will be split
among the workers, according to
Contra Costa deputy district attorney
William Murphy,
“(The owners) can afford to pay off
these million-dollar homes because
they're only paying their workers a
couple of bucks,” Murphy told the
Contra Costa Times.
The homes will be allowed to
remain open if the owners begin to pay
legal wages and taxes and comply with
workers' compensation laws, Murphy
said. Inquirer.net
The Filipino Express is
only $40 (52 copies) for
one year. That’s only 77
cents per copy and mailed
right to your home !
For details, call us at 201-434-1114 or
send an email to filexpress@aol.com.
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 7
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
President Benigno S. Aquino III delivers his policy speech at Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University, during the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. Edwin Bacasmas
Aquino at Harvard: I
am chasing my father's
‘impossible' dream
By Nikko Dizon
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -President Aquino on Monday, Sept. 22
told a forum at Harvard University's
John F. Kennedy School of Government
that he had committed himself to
fulfilling the dreams of his father, the late
Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.
“I have to do whatever I can to be
able to finish that dream and to make the
sacrifice have some meaning,” Aquino
said to the audience that included
teachers, students and members of the
Filipino-American community on his
sentimental journey to his old home in
Boston.
“John F. Kennedy dreamed bigger,
and acted on it. My father laid down his
life, and in so doing, ignited a movement
that toppled a dictatorship. My mother
devoted her life to ensuring that the
democracy we had reclaimed would
never again be taken away. All of them
were faced with daunting tasks, and all
of them dared, risked and acted,” Aquino
said.
NEW YORK -- President Benigno
Aquino III was heckled by individuals
who appeared to belong to US-based
Filipino militant organizations during
his visit to Columbia University on
Tuesday (Sept. 23) afternoon.
Aquino delivered a policy speech at
Columbia's World Leaders' Forum and
had just begun taking questions when a
man and a woman took turns shouting at
him.
The woman was heard saying: “I
look up to your mother. I am a Filipino
woman and I saw her as a hero - a
modern-day hero for me - and what do
you do? You want a charter change to
extend your presidency? I looked up to
her as a hero and now I see the realities
of what your family has done. I have
been to Hacienda Luisita. I have seen
nine-year olds who lost…”
The forum host interrupted the
woman and asked her to stop but she
told the emcee:
“This is the only opportunity I have
Aquino meets Kennedy scion
By Nikko Dizon
coverage, reporters were not
allowed at the meeting
between the two scions of their
countries' most influential
political families.
At press time, details of
their 30-minute meeting have
yet to be released.
Kennedy is the grandson of
the late US Sen. Robert
Kennedy and grandnephew of
US President John F. Kennedy.
On a recent visit to Manila,
the 33-year-old Kennedy
invited Aquino for a meeting if
he travels to Massachusetts.
From the Kennedy meeting,
Aquino proceeded to his
family's former home on
Connecticut Avenue.
A statement from the Office
of the President said that
Aquino met with several
American companies on
Monday afternoon.
Inquirer.net
NEWTON, Massachusetts -'Why not?'
President Benigno Aquino III
“This is my message to all of you:
shared a pepperoni pizza with
Like JFK, Ninoy and Cory, each one has
United States Representative
the capacity to dream, to die, to live, to
Joseph Kennedy III at a pizzeria
fight, to stand for something, to ask 'Why
that was one of the Philippine
not?' when the challenges seem
leader's favorites when his
insurmountable. Thus can we transform
family lived in exile in Boston.
the world for the better.”
Aquino met with Kennedy
Aquino arrived in Boston on
at Bill's Pizzeria in Newton on
Saturday night from Berlin following a
Monday (Sept. 22) morning.
weeklong visit to Spain, Belgium, France
Except for a photo
and Germany to drum up support for the
Philippines' move to bring its territorial
dispute with China to international
arbitration and invite investors to the
country. He flies tonight to New York to
join a United Nations summit on climate
change.
The elder Aquino, jailed by
President Ferdinand Marcos for nearly
eight years, was assassinated on Aug. 21,
1983, on his return to Manila, from three
years of self-exile in the United States
with his family.
The President said his father, as an
opposition senator in the premartial law
u
Page 12
Aquino heckled at
Columbia University
By Nikko Dizon
MAKING HISTORY IN A PIZZERIA. President Aquino talks with US Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy III at Bill's Pizzeria
on Beacon Street, Newton Center, Massachusetts, the former's favorite pizza place when his family lived in
Boston. The lawmaker is a grandson of US Sen. Robert Kennedy and grandnephew of US President John F.
Kennedy - who were both felled by assassins' bullets. Edwin Bacasmas
to talk to the person…”
She screamed “Shame on you!” as
she was led out of the Low Library where
the forum was held.
Inquirer photographer Edwin
Bacasmas said he saw the woman join
protesters holding up banners of the
militant groups Gabriela and Bayan.
At a press briefing with the
Philippine media, Aquino said he was
used to being heckled.
“I am ready to listen to everyone,” he
said but expressed hope that there
would be a “synthesis” of ideas and not
simply end with an “anti-thesis.”
A man also tried to engage President
Aquino in a debate after he delivered a
policy speech at Harvard University's
John F. Kennedy School of Government
last Monday, Sept. 22.
The man questioned the
Philippines' purchase of firearms from
the United States and Canada, when
such a program would not create
employment for the Filipino people.
Inquirer.net
BOSTON COLLEGE VISIT. President Aquino greets students, members of the faculty and members of the
Filipino community at the reception line during his visit to Boston College on Sunday, Sept. 21. Ryan
Lim/Malacañang Photo Bureau
Boston College renames
scholarship grant to honor
Ninoy and Cory Aquino
By Nikko Dizon
NEWTON, Massachusetts -President Aquino on Sunday,
Sept. 21 expressed his
gratitude to Boston College for
renaming its Asian-American
Scholarship after his parents,
Benigno and Corazon Aquino.
“Mom and Dad placed a
very high premium on
education. They believed that a
person can be famous one day,
and a nobody the next; he can
be rich today, and penniless
tomorrow. But education is a
permanent resource; once you
have it, you can never lose it,”
he said in a speech.
“I remember my father
stating that there were two
things he wanted most of all: to
preserve our good name, and to
ensure that we would learn the
value of a good education,”
Aquino added.
The Asian-American
Scholarship was created in
1995 and renamed after
President Aquino's parents in
2010.
Min Hyoung Song, director
of the Asian American Studies,
chairs the program.
He said that for years,
students questioned why the
scholarship program was not
named after a specific person
u
Page 8
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 8
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
After 31 years, Aquino visits
Boston home of Aquino family
By Nikko Dizon
NEWTON, Massachusetts -After 31 years, President Aquino
thought it was time to go back to
his second home, a two-story red
brick house at 175
C o m m o nwe a l t h Ave n u e i n
Chestnut Hill, an affluent area in
this Boston suburb.
The house has been owned
by a retired American
schoolteacher over the past
decade. Aquino was to visit the
house at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Sept.
21.
“I normally try to remove
emotionalism in my speeches but
it's the first time I have been back
in Boston. And I actually had
several opportunities to come
earlier, and I kept begging off. I
said, 'Let me make sure that my
emotions are in check before I do
make a homecoming,'” the
President said in a speech at
Boston College, a stone's throw
away.
“ To t h o s e o f yo u w h o
remember me back then as the
dog-handler, carpenter, plumber
and baggage-carrier, as that
young man who found it difficult
to weather your cold winters, you
must be thinking, 'How things
have changed.' Boston played a
significant role in this,” he added.
He said Boston gave the
Aquinos during three years of
self-exile a sense of normalcy “in
what can only be described as
abnormal times” in the
Philippines under the dictator
Ferdinand Marcos.
Here, he experienced his first
snowfall, which coincided with
one of the coldest winters in the
state at the time.
To survive the biting cold, he
slept in a tracksuit and thermal
underwear, snuggled inside a
sleeping bag, and buried himself
in heaps of blankets and sheets
which he topped with a
comforter.
“One typical Boston winter,
our family had an influx of
v i s i t o r s , a m o n g t h e m my
Aquino to UN:
Act now ...
From page 4
contours of this century more
dramatically than any other”
issue.
The Philippines has taken
important measures in an
effort to address the effects of
climate change despite its
limited resources, Aquino said,
citing the enactment of the
Renewable Energy Act in 2008.
“We are now treading a
climate-smart development
pathway. We continue to take
steps to maintain and even
improve our low-emission
development strategy and the
trajectory of our energy mix.
And we are hopeful that our
fellow developing nations,
especially those who have been
Aquino remembers
a pretty woman in
Boston neighborhood
By Nikko Dizon
HOME AWAY FROM HOME. President Aquino visits the house on
Commonwealth Avenue in Newton, Massachusetts, where the Aquino family
lived for three years while his father, then opposition leader Sen. Benigno
“Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was on exile in the United States. The President returns after
31 years, saying it's an emotional time for him. Edwin Bacasmas
grandmother who came to
America to receive treatment for
colon cancer. Her company and
contingent of relatives, and some
Japanese friends of my family,
were all our guests at the house at
175,” Aquino said.
With so many people in the
house, Aquino said, the hot water
eventually ran out.
“And I, being part of the host,
that was how I learned to take a
shower in two minutes flat, using
ice cold water in the dead of
winter,” he said, drawing laughter
from the crowd.
As he shivered, he saw TV
advertisements of sunny Florida
“with its warm breeze and palm
trees.” He remembered the
Philippines.
And he recalled how much he
missed the Philippines that he
was thankful to the kutsinta that
longtime family friend Norma
Bucal, who hosted lunch for him
o n S u n d a y, m a d e e v e r y
Christmas.
“And since there were so
many Filipinos waiting for her
kutsinta, it was divided by, I think,
two pieces per person per year…
And I have to tell you - it's a
confession - that up to now,
w h e n e ve r I s e e k u t s i n t a ,
regardless of where I am in the
Philippines or elsewhere, I have
to [eat] it. Perhaps I was too
deprived then,” Aquino said,
again eliciting laughter.It was in
Boston where he said he learned
the value of introspection, as he
considered how his family lived
in exile while the Marcoses
partied in Malacañang, “raping
the economy and oppressing my
people.”
He also learned to empathize
with overseas Filipino workers
who missed the Philippines.
The President expressed
gratitude to the Bucals, Dr. Steve
a n d C h e r i A g u i l a r, t h e
Buenaventuras, and all his
family's supportive friends who
helped him ease his “entry into a
new life in the midst of a small
community composed of
professionals and students.”
He thanked them for being
supportive to this day, especially
when Cheri Aguilar “defended
t h e t r u t h” wh e n h e r l a te
husband's name was dragged
into the 2010 presidential
election “in an attempt to slander
me.”
Dr. Aguilar was allegedly the
psychiatrist from whom the
President sought treatment for a
mental disorder. Cheri Aguilar
denied this.
“It was in Boston, thanks to all
our friends, that my family was
given a haven from the
persecution of the dictatorship,”
Aquino said. Inquirer.net
gaining the economic
wherewithal to pursue similar
strategies, will tread a path
akin to ours,” he said.
needed at a national level.
Nations, including the
Democratic Republic of Congo,
Ethiopia, Guatemala and
Uganda, said they would
restore 30 million hectares of
tropical forest, more than
doubling the 20 million
hectares already pledged
through a global initiative.
Star power
Leonardo DiCaprio
brought star power to the UN
summit, urging leaders to stop
treating global warming as if it
were fiction.
“As an actor, I pretend for a
l iv i n g . I p l ay f i c t i t i o u s
characters often solving
fictitious problems,” DiCaprio,
sporting a ponytail and suit
and tie, told the summit. “I
believe mankind has looked at
climate change in that same
way as if it were fiction.”With a
report from AFP. Inquirer.net
Fears of being wiped out
Small island nations fear
that climate change will
literally wipe them out as
water levels rise, turning their
people into environmental
refugees.
“Tuvalu's future is in your
hands. The time for denial, for
hesitation, for pandering to
the interests of the fossil fuel
industry is over,” said the
Pacific island's prime minister,
Enele Sosene Sopoaga.
In one notable promise,
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio
vowed that the metropolis and
host of the United Nations
would cut its emissions by 80
percent by 2050, a level of
ambition that activists say is
NEWTON, Massachusetts -- He
had a pretty neighbor but someone
else in a flashy car picked her up one
day. And that ended Noynoy
Aquino's plans of asking her out on a
date.
This was among the fond
memories that President Aquino
shared with friends who
accompanied him to his family's
former home in Newton on Monday
(Sept. 22) morning.
Aquino brought a gift for Ione
Malloy, the retired American
schoolteacher who had bought the
house more than a decade ago.
Mah-jongg, informal dinners
Dr. Mario Bucal, a good friend of
the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy”
Aquino Jr. in Boston, also joined the
President in his nostalgic return to
the house that saw a lot of mahjongg games and informal dinners.
The President spent some 30
minutes inside the house with his
friends, Doctor Bucal and Malloy. It
was a private meeting, which
members of the media were not
allowed to cover. Coverage of the
visit was limited to a photo and
video opportunity outside the
house.
Aquino was overheard by
Inquirer photographer Edwin
Bacasmas sharing his stories with
friends as they ambled on the
sidewalk after emerging from the
house.
The President said he shoveled
the heavy snow on the sidewalk and
their driveway, not an easy task
Boston College
renames ...
From page 7
like the Martin Luther King
Scholarship and the Oscar Romero
S c h o l a r s h i p fo r o u t s t a n d i n g
African-American and Latino
students, respectively.
After two years of
brainstorming for a name, Min
recalled that someone eventually
mentioned the Aquinos.
“They used to live down the
street from us and they did a few
important things in their lives. So we
looked at their history and we were
very impressed,” Min said.
The Aquino scholarship is
awarded to students who are not
only intelligent, dedicated and
hardworking, but also embody
courage, dedication to social justice,
has a “commitment to giving back as
much as they got.”
According to the Boston College
we b s i t e , t h e w i n n e r o f t h e
scholarship is given a $15,000
toward senior year tuition.
“What I personally love about
the name Benigno and Corazon
Aquino is that it tells us something
about this problem for justice. It
says that one might never see the
fulfillment of one's aspirations for
justice. But that one, nevertheless,
considering the bitter winters in
Massachusetts.
An elderly American couple,
John Paul and Rebecca Valette,
patiently waited for Aquino outside
the house. And when he got near
them, Rebecca introduced herself as
the Aquinos' neighbors and pointed
to him where they lived.
Cute
The anecdote on the “cute
neighbor,” as Bacasmas heard from
one of the President's friends, was
the closest one got in satisfying the
curiosity about whether Aquino
dated anyone while in Boston.
At 54, the President remains a
bachelor.
u
Page 12
strives and finds courage to attain
it,” Min said.
Matt Alonsozana, the recipient
of the Aquino scholarship in 2014,
told the President that it was
“humbling” to be named “in honor of
heroes who gave their lives to better
realize the restless dream of
Philippine freedom, and who in the
spirit of democracy demonstrated
to the world that the Filipino is
worth fighting and dying for.”
In his speech, the President said
his father once told him: “The most
basic freedom is the freedom from
hunger, and until that is resolved,
everything else is irrelevant;
political freedoms are nothing but
mere afterthoughts to a people
deprived of food on the table.”
He said he now had the chance
to “apply this idea, and help our
country recover from its lost decade
under the previous administration.”
Aquino gave a detailed list of his
administration's accomplishments:
the economic turnaround, the
conditional cash transfer program,
reforms in graft-ridden Bureau of
Customs and Department of Public
Works and Highways, the peace
agreement with the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front, and the campaign
against corruption, which led to the
detention of former President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and three
sitting senators for plunder.
Inquirer.net
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 9
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
More photos of Pres. Aquino’s US trip
Pres. Aquino visits his family's former residence at 175 Washington
Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts Monday, Sept. 22, 2014. MNS photo
Pres. Aquino delivers his speech at a public forum at the Kennedy School
of Government, Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts on
Monday, Sept. 22. MNS photo
Pres. Aquino signs the Harvard University official guest book during
public forum at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in
Boston, Massachusetts on Monday, Sept. 22. MNS photo
Pres. Aquino answers inquiries of CEO's and officials from the US
Chamber of Commerce and the US-ASEAN Business Council in a
roundtable conference at the Omni Hotel on Tuesday, Sept. 23. The
roundtable conference aims to facilitate smooth business transactions
between US companies and the Philippines. MNS photo
NEW YORK, New York - Pres. Aquino meets with Her Majesty Queen
Maxima of the Netherlands United Nations Secretary-General Special
Advocate during their bilateral meeting on the sideline of the United
Nation Climate Change Summit held at the UN Headquarters here on
Tuesday, Sept. 23. MNS photo
NEW YORK, New York - Pres. Aquino exchanges views with the President
of Republic of Serbia during their bilateral meeting on the sideline of the
United Nation Climate Change Summit at the UN Headquarters here on
Tuesday, Sept. 23. MNS photo
NEW YORK, New York - Pres. Aquino delivers his speech during United
Nation Climate Change Summit held at the UN Headquarters here on
Tuesday, Sept. 23. MNS photo
NEW YORK, New York - Pres. Aquino tours the City of New York, walking
across Park Avenue with Cabinet Secretary Jose Almendraz. MNS photo
NEW YORK, New York - Pres. Aquino with Lee Bollinger, President
Columbia University after the program of the World Leaders Forum
Tuesday, Sept. 23 at the Low Library Rotunda of the Columbia University.
MNS photo
NEW YORK, New York - Pres. Aquino delivers his speech at the Columbia University World Leaders Forum Tuesday, Sept. 23 at the Low Library Rotunda
of the Columbia University. MNS photo
vgslaw@gmail.com
NEW YORK, New York - Pres. Aquino graces the business roundtable with
the CEO's and senior officials from the US Chamber of Commerce, the
US-ASEAN Business Council and the US-Philippine Society held at the
Omni Berkshire Place here. MNS photo
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 10
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
World's
heavy burden
Before the largest assembly of world leaders gathered on
Tuesday, Sept. 23 in New York City to promise “catalytic” action on
climate change, the largest climate change protest rally took to the
city's streets the Sunday before. More than 300,000 people took
part in the “People's Climate March,” and were joined by more
protesters, perhaps another 300,000 or so, in other cities around
the world. The marches were designed to put public opinion
squarely behind the United Nations Climate Summit, and also to
put public pressure on it.
The summit was a one-day event for leaders from
government, business and civil society, convened by UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon to “galvanize and catalyze climate action.”
The idea was to help ensure that a substantial and legally binding
agreement on limiting greenhouse gases will be reached in Paris
late next year. The summit is separate from the ongoing and
complicated negotiations undertaken under the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change, but its goal, according to official
UN literature, is “to raise political will and mobilize action,
thereby generating momentum toward a successful outcome of
the negotiations.”
Did it work? It is of course too early to tell, but there are
disquieting signs. China, now the world's largest single source of
carbon dioxide emissions, was not represented by its new
paramount leader, Xi Jinping. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the
leader of the third-biggest emitter, India, did not show up either.
The climate change skeptics who run Canada and Australia,
Stephen Harper and Tony Abbott, skipped the event, too. Even
should not displace the regular
both the beneficiary's career
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who pledged $1 billion to
employment of citizens and
outside the United States and his
the UN's Green Climate Fund, missed the summit.
The USCIS recently released a
resident workers.
overseas employer.
While the UN has sought to put a positive spin on these and
policy guidance on H-3
A foreign nurse may enter the
The petition for an H-3 trainee
other absences, saying it is each respective country's set of
nonimmigrant trainees. The new
U.S. under an H-3 visa to receive
is made on Form I-129. The
commitments to climate action that is important, the reality is less
guidance consolidated previously
training provided he meets the
petition must be accompanied by a
congenial. The summit was convened precisely in recognition of
issued guidance on the program.
basic H-3 trainee requirements, is
statement describing the training
the nature of the climate change negotiations: Everything boils
The H-3 visa is for foreign
not on an H-1 status, and has a full
program, the supervision to be
down to political will. If the leaders of some of the countries most
nationals coming to the U.S. to
and unrestricted license in the
given, the proportion of time
crucial to the negotiations did not bother to show up, what is the
participate in training programs
country where he obtained his
devoted to productive employment
message being sent to those countries' negotiators?
with U.S. employers. The training
nursing education or such
and the number of hours spent on
Even more disquieting are the consequences of climate
program may be in any field
education was obtained in the U.S.
classroom or on-the-job training.
change, which become more and more obvious with each passing
including agriculture, commerce,
or Canada.
The statement must also
season.
communications, finance,
The petitioner seeking H-3
include the reasons for training the
The international community long ago reached consensus on
government , transportation,
classification for a nurse must
beneficiary and why such training
the 2-degree mark: that if global average temperatures rose more
among others. It must not be
certify that under the laws of the
cannot be obtained in the foreign
than 2 degrees (or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-Industrial
available in the foreign national's
place where the training will be
national's country, the benefit the
Age levels, the result would be calamitous. At current rates, and
home country and must benefit his
conducted, the nurse is fully
beneficiary's training will bring to
despite the progress of the environmental movement in many
career or employment outside the
qualified to receive training and the
the petitioner, and the amount and
countries, the world will breach the 2-degree mark well before the
United States.
petitioner is authorized to give
source of the beneficiary's
end of this century.
Although H-3 trainees are
such training.
remuneration.
Indeed, as the Global Carbon Project's annual report, released
allowed to receive compensation
The petitioner must also certify
The USCIS will scrutinize the
just in time for the summit, shows, carbon dioxide emissions
while training, they cannot engage
that there is a genuine need for the
training program and may not
in productive employment unless
nurse to receive training and that
approve the program if the
reached a new record high last year, and are expected to rise even
necessary to the training and
the training is designed to benefit
u
Page 12
further this year. “Carbon dioxide … emissions from fossil fuel
burning and cement production increased by 2.3 percent in 2013
… 61 percent above 1990 emissions (the Kyoto Protocol reference
year). Emissions are projected to increase by a further 2.5 percent
in 2014.”
Those numbers should shock us. In the quarter-century since
the landmark Kyoto Protocol was reached, which encouraged
u
Page 12
Nonimmigrant Visa
for Nurse Trainees
Other prisms
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief: Lito A. Gajilan, Jr.
Columnists: Reuben S. Seguritan, Esq.,
Juan L. Mercado, Joseph G. Lariosa
Correspondent: Grace G. Baldisseri
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do
not reflect the opinion of the paper nor that of the publisher.
Email: filexpress@aol.com
Phone: 201-434-1114 Fax 201-434-0880
2711 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ 07306
A different prism on martial
law came, over the weekend, from a
Filipino who grew up in Argentina.
To mark the 42nd anniversary of
Marcos' saving “democracy by
bayonets,” Bino A. Realuyo wrote
about “my belated awakening
(that) came mostly from a Buenos
Aires education.”
A poet and novelist, Realuyo
worked as community organizer,
then as educator. He recalls “seeing
historical parallels,” while studying
“La Guerra Sucia”: Jorge Rafael
Videla and Ferdinand Marcos were
“great architects of repression.”
In Argentina's “dirty war,”
thousands of dissidents were
kidnapped, tortured and killed.
Under Marcos, 3,257 were
“salvaged” and 737 disappeared or
were made “desaparecidos.”
“Marcos was the only Filipino
president I lived under. Books and
news were sanitized even then. I
remember curfews, power
outages, little else. My love for
books began in readings of history
and encyclopedias. I joined and
won history quiz bees in high
school, my young mind having the
capacity to memorize dates and
fa c t s . B u t t h e re wa s l i t t l e
understanding of why history
happens.
“I didn't know I lived in a
climate of repression. People like
us lived too far from the inner
circles of politics, as many Filipinos
d o e v e n n o w. L u c k i l y, m y
international education allowed
me to become more critical of the
world around me, search for truth,
and increase capacity to
understand.”
Why did martial law happen?
How did it impact the country?
Why does the Philippines continue
to be beleaguered by graft and
corruption?
Some answers came years later.
Realuyo today reluctantly accepts
that Filipinos don't grasp the
power of these two words: “nunca
mas” (never again).
Many Filipinos confuse
(Catholic) Forgiveness with these
two wrought sisters: Denial and
Powerlessness. That “history
repeats itself” axiom was nurtured
in the Philippines is beside the
point. Perhaps, it is totally moot at
this historical impasse: “There is
very little room to move in this
discourse. History is tight, and
fast.”
u
Page 14
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 11
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
The month that changed Filipino-American history
By Rodel Rodis
agricultural history.
From the time Filipinos first
landed in Morro Bay, California on
October 18, 1587 to the present, no
other month has held more
significance for Filipinos in
America than September 1965,
when three major historic events
occurred.
The most celebrated of them
began in the early morning of
September 8, 1965 when 1,500
Filipino farm workers in Delano,
California arrived at work to cut the
grapes off the vines as they had
been doing since they first arrived
in the United States in the 1920s
and 1930s. But after placing the
grapes in boxes at the base of the
trees, they walked off their jobs to
picket the grape farms. It was the
first day of the Delano Strike of
1965, perhaps the most significant
labor action in American
The Delano Strike of 1965
It was the strike that led to the
formation of the United Farm
Workers of America, AFL-CIO; the
strike that caused sweeping
changes in U.S. farm labor laws; and
the strike that led to the formation
of the first national political
organization of Filipinos in the U.S.
But it almost did not happen.
Earlier in the week, about 150
Filipino farm workers crammed the
Filipino Community Center in
Delano to hear labor leader Larry
Itliong describe how he and Pete
Velasco had successfully organized
1,000 Filipino grape pickers in
Coachella Valley, just south of
Delano, to go on strike on May 3,
1965.
The strikers protested the
disparity in wages between the
$1.40 per hour paid to “braceros”
Making
life worth
living
Ellen Tordesillas
All these investigations on the
alleged corruption of Vice
President Jejomar Binay are
primarily to level the playing field
for the 2016 presidential elections.
That's because surveys showed
that Binay is way, way ahead of
o t h e r p o l i t i c i a n s wh o h ave
ambitions to run for president in
2016.
When Pulse Asia asked 1,200
representative adults, 18 years old
and above last June 24 through July
2, who they would vote for
president if elections were held at
that time, 41 percent said, “Binay.”
That's a good number. Analysts say
that a presidential candidate has to
have at least 40 per cent of the votes
cast to win the presidency.
After Binay was Sen. Grace Poe
Opinion
By Rodel Rodis
(migrant workers brought from
Mexico under a government
program) and the $1.10 per hour
paid to Filipino farm workers.
Itliong narrated that soon after the
strike began, the Coachella growers
relented and agreed to pay the
Filipino farm workers the same as
they paid the Mexican braceros.
“We can get the same result
here,” Itliong assured the Delano
Filipinos. But many were
unconvinced, fearing that they may
offend the growers who provided
them with free housing in labor
camps during the grape season.
When the vote came, only one hand
was raised to support the call for a
strike.
This meeting is recounted in the
newly-released documentary
“Delano Manongs: Forgotten
Heroes of the United Farm
Wo r k e r s ” b y M a r i s s a A r o y
(DelanoManongs.com). An
eyewitness relates how Itliong
regretfully accepted the result of
the vote but implored the workers
to return in a few days to reconsider
their vote.
A f e w n i g h t s l a t e r, o n
September 7, 1965, the workers
returned to the community hall to
hold another vote. Only this time,
the vote was unanimous as they all
enthusiastically voted to go on
strike.
Itliong asked them all to spread
the word and get all the workers to
go to work at 4 a.m and then, when
the whistles are blown, to stop
work and set up picket lines outside
the grape farms. The amazing fact
that 1,500 Filipinos would act in
such a unified and organized
manner should lay to rest all the
s te re o t y p e s o f F i l i p i n o s a s
hopelessly afflicted with the crab
mentality and incapable of uniting
on any issue.
Larry Itliong had prepared for
this historic moment since he first
landed in California in 1929 from
San Nicolas, Pangasinan, In 1956,
he formed the Filipino Farm Labor
Union and in 1958, he was the main
organizer of the Agricultural
Workers Organizing Committee
(AWOC) of the AFL-CIO. Among the
early members of AWOC were
Carlos Bulosan and Philip Vera
Cruz. When the Delano Strike
began, Itliong hoped that the
u
Page 14
Disqualify Binay to level playing
field for 2016
with 12 per cent. As of now,
however, Poe remains unconvinced
about running for the top post
especially if it's primarily to
prevent Binay from becoming
president.
Third was former president and
now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada
w i t h n i n e p e rc e n t . T h i s i s
something to be concerned about
which we will take up in future
columns.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas,
the Liberal Party's candidate,
presumably the candidate also of
Aquino, was preferred only by
seven percent of the respondents.
He had the same following as
senators Chiz Escudero and Miriam
Defensor-Santiago.
Senators Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
and Alan Cayetano, both vying to be
the Nacionalista Party's standard
bearer for 2016, were each
preferred by only five per cent of
the respondents.
Given what seems to be the
overwhelming advantage of Binay,
the other presidential aspirants
know that they have to improve
their appeal to the voters in the next
20 months. They also have to pull
down Binay.
Or better yet, eliminate Binay
from the race to level playing field.
If one is to believe coffee shop
talks about institutionalized
corruption in Makati, Binay is one
smart politician to have gotten
away with it the past so many years.
But his political opponents
want to make sure that this time
they will get him. In the Senate,
Cayetano together with Senators
VP Jejomar Binay did not present proof to debunk corruption allegations
Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino
against him.
u
Page 14
Wanna bet?
They say you should put your
money where your mouth is. But
they also say it's unsporting to bet
on a certainty.
Regardless, let's make a
friendly wager out of this, if you,
dear reader, are up to it. Because
I'm willing to bet that President
Noynoy Aquino will not fire his
good personal friend and national
police chief Director General Alan
Purisima, whatever happens.
It's a bet I'd be perfectly happy
to lose. But I'm so certain of victory,
even if I'm not a betting man, that
I'm willing to put some of my
meager journalist's pay on the line.
Regular readers already know
about my belief that Aquino will
never fire any of the people he
personally picked for a government
post. That's because, not having any
real executive experience in the
past, the President naively believes
that he cannot be mistaken about
any of the friends he appointed to
high office.
The other Aquino trait that
informs his refusal to fire even the
most obviously corrupt of his
people - a title that Purisima is now
seriously in the running for - is his
stubbornness in the face of even the
clearest, most credible evidence.
The more people demand that he
fire someone (see Budget Secretary
Florencio Abad), the more Aquino
digs in and refuses to budge.
As for Purisima, I'm sorry to say
that the latest word from his friend,
protector and Commander-in-Chief
in New York (where he really
should be enjoying his favorite
Sabrett's street frankfurters
instead of worrying about what's
going on back in Manila) only
makes me more confident of
winning the wager. “I do not know
him [Purisima] as someone who is
extravagant or greedy,” Aquino said,
continuing a defense of the national
police chief that began even before
he left on his pleasure tour of
Europe and the US.
Aquino's defense of Purisima
already crossed over to the surreal
once, when the President declared
that the national police chief and
his men were responsible for
cracking the recent robbery case on
Edsa involving a group of Quezon
City police officials. As everyone
with an Internet connection knows,
the police would not even have
heard of that incident had an
eyewitness not taken a picture of
the crime as it was happening and
posted it on Twitter.
A n d Aqu in o ha s a lrea dy
admitted that he has known
Purisima since 1987, when the
officer became his personal closein aide as a member of the
Presidential Security Group during
his mother Cory's administration.
In the unofficial ranking of Aquino
relatives and close friends, that
makes Purisima a bona fide, lownumbered member of the so-called
“KKK,” the inner circle of Aquino
sycophants who are also longtime
friends or favored relatives of the
President.
It matters little that corruption
charges have been filed against
Purisima, for a supposed illegal
firearms deal, for accepting
improper donations to refurbish
the official residence of the PNP
chief in Camp Crame also known as
the “White House”and, soon, for
owning a San Leonardo, Nueva
Ecija mansion and a Cabanatuan
City poultry farm that he may or
may not have declared in his official
statement of assets and liabilities. It
matters little that a proadministration senator, Grace Poe,
has asked Purisima to step down,
not only over the corruption
charges hanging over his head but
also because of the perceived
corruption of the police force in
general.
It doesn't even matter if the
most damaging exposes about
Purisima's alleged corruption have
come from an influential television
network that is overly friendly with
the Aquino administration. And it
matters even less that, inside
Malacanang, Purisima is reported
to have made a powerful enemy in
the person of his direct superior,
Interior and Local Government
Secretary Mar Roxas, who
reportedly wants to replace the
national police chief with his own
protege.
Aquino is not going to fire
u
Page 12
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 12
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Aquino at
Harvard ...
From page 7
years, was “perhaps the fiercest
fiscalizer of Mr. Marcos, in
conformity with the concept of
checks and balances in
government.”
By sheer irony, Aquino
began his official working visit
in Boston on Sept. 21, the 42nd
anniversary of Marcos'
declaration of martial law.
As he was only 23 years old
when his father was killed, the
President remarked that he
c o u l d h ave s a i d “ t h ey ' re
(Filipinos) probably not worth
fighting for, not worth living for,
[for] they allowed this tragedy
to happen to my dad.”
But despite the
assassination, “there really
seems to be that plan that will
prepare you for the next step,
that will help you overcome it,”
Aquino said.
When his mother, former
President Cory Aquino, died in
2009, there was a clamor that
the Aquinos' only son seek the
presidency after the nine-year
administration of then
President Gloria MacapagalArroyo, which was tainted with
allegations of massive
corruption.
He said in his policy speech
that starting in 2001, Arroyo
“instead of learning the lessons
of martial law, seemingly
adopted Mr. Marcos' handbook
of how to abuse the democratic
process.”
“At the end of her regime,
our people were so apathetic to
all the scandals and issues
affecting her, and government's
inability to effect change, that
the overwhelming ambition of
so many was to leave the
country. Now, an estimated 10
million of our countrymen
reside abroad,” Aquino said.
When he assumed the
presidency in 2010, Aquino said
that he wanted to eliminate
corruption to eliminate poverty.
Freedom from hunger
This echoed the lesson he
learned from his father who had
told him that the “most basic
freedom is the freedom from
hunger, and until that is resolved
eve r y t h i n g e l s e b e c o m e s
irrelevant.”
Aquino said his
administration's efforts to
reform a “broken-down
government that Filipinos had
once accepted as the norm,” had
led to an “effective and efficient
government working to uplift
the country.”
He gave as an example four
case studies that “illustrate the
adherence to our bedrock
p r i n c i p l e s o f i n t e g r i t y,
inclusiveness and justice based
on the rule of law.”
4 case studies
The first was about a young
girl of 16 whom he met on the
campaign trail, pregnant with
her second child. To Aquino, she
represented the problem of
government's failure to
empower its people, considered
a nation's most valuable
resource.
Thus, his administration
stepped up programs that
would invest in “the wellbeing of
the people” to ensure that “no
one will be left behind.”
The second case involved
the impeachment trial and
conviction of Chief Justice
Renato Corona, which the
President said, showed the need
for public officials to be held
accountable for their
wrongdoing. Third was his
secret meeting with Moro
Islamic Liberation Front chair
Murad Ebrahim in 2011 that
paved the way to a peace
agreement with the secessionist
group.
And fourth was seeking a
peaceful resolution to the
territorial dispute with China.
Aquino stressed that to have
prosperity, there needed to be
“peace and stability within our
own borders and in our part of
the world.”
Transformation
The President said the
“transformation” of the
Philippines happened because
his administration refused to
give up on the reforms it sought
and chose to change the status
quo instead of settling for or
enduring it.
“Today, even the political
opposition grants that we have
made tremendous progress,
which the Filipino people, of
course, have seen for
themselves,” he said.
Despite criticisms, Aquino
said he would not give up
because it would mean
“allowing the shameless and the
unscrupulous to have free reign
over the fate of everyone else.”
“My administration's
mandate lasts six years, and I am
determined to make the most of
it. Our challenge today is to
make the gains even greater, and
to ensure that the
transformation becomes an
enduring mainstream of justice
and inclusiveness,” he said.
The President expressed
hope that the Philippines'
experiences would motivate
those in the audience to be
“influencers” that would inspire
other communities and
institutions. Inquirer.net
Aquino ... From page 8
Going to No. 175 Commonwealth
Avenue on Chestnut Hill, an affluent
neighborhood in this town, was perhaps
the highlight of the President's
homecoming to Boston since returning
to the Philippines in 1983 to bury his
slain father.
Emotional
In a speech at Boston College on
Sunday, Aquino said he knew that going
back to Boston for the first time after 31
years would be an emotional moment
for him. The three years he spent with
his father, mother Cory and four sisters
in the red brick, two-story house were
obviously the happiest moments they
had as a family.
Boston and the friends they made
there, Aquino said, gave his family a
Wanna bet?
From page 10
Purisima before the police officer retires
as scheduled in November 2015.
Purisima is just too close to Aquino - and
knows too much about the President
from way, way back - to ever be let go.
Wanna bet?
***
Oh, and if some people are really
interested in going after the national
police chief, here's a free tip: look into
the business dealings of Purisima's son.
The PNP chief's son is involved in
several businesses, actually, but the
most unethical of them all is an outfit
that provides the required neuro-
Nonimmigrant
visa ... From page 10
following features are present: it deals
with generalities and does not have a
fixed schedule, objective or means of
evaluation; it is incompatible with the
petitioner's business or enterprise; the
beneficiary already has substantial
training and expertise in the field of
nursing and his training will unlikely be
used outside the U.S.
In addition, the training program
may not be approved if it results in
“productive employment, unless
necessary to the training”; it is designed
to recruit and train foreign nurses for
staffing of U.S. hospitals and other
healthcare facilities; the petitioner has
no venue or sufficient staff to provide
proposed training; and it is designed to
extend the total allowable practical
training allowed a nonimmigrant
student.
An H-3 trainee is admitted for the
duration of the program but for not
sense of normalcy amid “abnormal”
times, referring to the brutality of
martial law. It was a “home away from
home,” he said.
His father, one of the leading
o p p o s i t i o n f i g u re s a g a i n s t t h e
dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, was
in jail for seven and a half years, before
an urgent heart surgery in 1980 became
the family's ticket to seek exile in the
United States.
Formative years
The time he spent in Boston was also
his formative years, Aquino said, in
imbibing his father's fight for freedom
and democracy.
Before going to Commonwealth
Avenue, the President shared a pizza
with US Rep. Joseph Kennedy III at Bill's
Pizzeria, said to be one of Mr. Aquino's
favorites when his family lived in exile in
Boston. Inquirer.net
psychological testing of policemen,
security guards and others in the public
safety sector. The police chief's son is so
uncaring about what people may think
about his business dealings, I'm told,
that he actually signs the clearances of
people who have undergone neuropsychological tests with his outfit.
Now, which police official would
cast doubts on the legitimacy of the tests
given by the younger Purisima's
company if the son of his boss is the
earlier signatory? And, as everyone
knows, these psychological tests are
often given - if they're given at all - by flyby-night outfits simply out to make a
quick buck.
That story may break real soon. But
it's still not going to get Purisima fired.
more than two years. Extensions may be
obtained if their original period of stay
under H-3 status was less than two
years. After two years, an H-3 trainee
may not seek extension, change of
status or be readmitted to the U.S. under
H or L status unless he resided and had
been physically present outside the U.S.
for the preceding six months.
There are a few exceptions to this
general rule. One exception is where the
H or L status of the H-3 nonimmigrant
was seasonal, intermittent, or lasted for
an aggregate of 6 months or less per
year. Also, an H-4 dependent may
change status to H-3 and vice versa. The
time spent as an H-4 dependent does
not count towards the maximum period
of stay under H-3 status.
There is no annual limit for the H-3
category. The spouse and children of the
H-3 visa holder may enter the U.S. under
the H-4 visa.
(Editor's Note: REUBEN S. SEGURITAN has
been practicing law for over 30 years. For
more information, you may log on to his
website at www.seguritan.com or call (212)
695-5281.)
World’s heavy burden ... From page 10
developed economies to reduce emissions but allowed developing economies a
virtual free pass, the annual level of carbon dioxide emissions has soared.
Today, two of the largest developing economies exempted under the Kyoto
Protocol account for over one-third of all emissions: China with 28 percent, India
with 7. Any disinterested observer would suggest that any new global
arrangement require major restrictions on China, India and the United States,
which did not sign the Protocol and which today accounts for 14 percent of all
carbon dioxide emissions.
But no one on this planet is, or should be, disinterested. The very future of the
human race is at stake, and those of us who live in disaster-prone zones are
especially at risk. As President Aquino emphasized in his short speech at the UN
Climate Summit: “It would not be an exaggeration to say that Filipinos bear a
disproportionate amount of the burden when it comes to climate change.”
Supertyphoon “Yolanda” and the typhoons that have wrought havoc on oncestorm-free Mindanao are howling reminders of that disproportionate burden.
Inquirer.net
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 13
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
A Smile of Hope
By Daryl Dano
One hundred year-old Badjao
Sawira Biddin, otherwise known as
Babu, which translates as
grandmother in Sinama language,
sits contentedly outside her new,
seafront home. Asked the reason for
her beaming smile, she waves at the
new hut made of pandan leaves that
she shares with six others.
“Them,” pointing to her greatgrandchildren tossing coins on 'dry
land' now that it is low tide. “And
them,” referring to her neighbours,
who stop by to buy cooking
ingredients or to simply have a chat
with her.
Babu was among the people
displaced during the September
2013 Zamboanga City crisis, which
was due to weeks of armed clashes
between the government forces and
the rogue elements of the Moro
National Liberation Front.
Earlier this year, the Philippine
government signed a final peace
agreement called the
Comprehensive Agreement on the
Bangsamoro - a peace deal that
would create an autonomous
political entity bigger than the
current Autonomous Region of
Muslim Mindanao, concluding 17
years of negotiations.
Meanwhile, Babu and her family
were among the first 49 families
transferred to a new transitional site
in Buggoc, located in the northcentral part of the city, where
shelters were built specifically for
Badjaos, whose lives, cultures, and
traditions are closely tied to the sea.
The Buggoc transitional site, built in
respect and in accordance to the
group's traditions, is a realization of
the community's wishes.
Babu and some of the Badjaos
who moved to Buggoc, as tradition
dictates, sailed in vintas, traditional
boats with sails of distinctive
vertical bands and triangles of
kaleidoscope colours, which
represent the community's rich
culture and history.
The Philippines' Department of
Social Work and Development,
together with its partners, is
currently building 900 transitional
shelters in Buggoc and Mampang
alone. An additional 1,300 more
(transitional shelters) are to be
constructed to accommodate the
remaining displaced families.
Meanwhile, the National Housing
Authority's Zamboanga Road Map to
Reconstruction and Recovery plans
to build a total of 6,900 permanent
shelters through June 2015.
The government recognises the
diverse cultural needs of the
displaced (indigenous) peoples. An
essential part of the resettlement
process is a series of community
consultations, which often lead to
inter-faith and peace-building
dialogues. The International
Organization for Migration's
displacement tracking matrix shows
that the displaced population
includes 75% Tausug, 18% Sinama,
4% Bisaya/Cebuano, 2% Chavacano
and 1% other ethno-linguistic
groups, including Yakan, Subanen,
Elanon, Maranao, Maguindanao.
The biggest challenge faced by
Photos by Daryl Dano
the government and its partners is
the complex dynamics of identifying
land for durable shelter solutions
and land use rules relating to
identified sites, not to mention the
complex ethnic and cultural
composition of Zamboanga.
But Babu is just happy to be in
her new home and out of the
sweltering heat in the recently
closed evacuation site along the
narrow stretch of shoreline known
as Cawa-cawa, which hosted more
than 1,000 families during the peak
of displacement.
Adjacent to Cawa-cawa is the
Joaquin Enriquez Sports Complex,
the largest evacuation centre in the
city, where over 2,000 families,
mostly Badjao and Tausug Muslim
280 Luis Munoz Marin Boulevard
Jersey City, NJ 07302
ethno-linguistic groups, have been
housed for the last 12 months, since
after the conflict erupted.
“It is good to be beside the sea
and to have fresh air. I am happy it
has been peaceful for a year now,”
she says. “Panggi and fish also make
Badjaos happy,” she adds with a
smile.
Panggi is cassava, a staple food
of the Badjaos, which they roll into
small balls on the right hand, while
holding a (usually dried) fish on the
other hand. For Badjaos, rice, the
staple food of the Philippines, is
reserved for special occasions or for
dessert. They have no regular meals,
as they eat whenever they are
hungry or when there is food.
Consequently there is no equivalent
word for breakfast, lunch or dinner
in their language.
Badjaos, a close-knit community
whose lives revolve around the Sulu
Sea, pride themselves as Godfearing individuals and guardians of
the seas. Their search for answers to
penetrating questions to life is by
reading nature. They are also noted
for their extraordinary free diving
skills, enabling them to dive longer
and see better underwater. It is said
that some Badjaos intentionally
rupture their eardrums at a young
age to 'ease' diving and fishing.
“Badjaos only take what the sea
gives,” says Babu. “If the sea gives us
this,” lifting her right palm, “we are
grateful. But if the sea gives us this,”
u
Page 19
201-333-8060
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 14
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
The month that
changed ... From page 11
Delano growers would accept the
demands of the workers as the
Coachella growers had done. But
unfortunately, the Delano growers
refused to negotiate and, instead,
moved aggressively to recruit scab
Mexican labor to replace the striking
Filipino farm workers.
For the Delano strike to succeed,
Itliong knew that he needed the
support of the Mexican workers.
“That's when I went to see Cesar and
asked him to help me,” Itliong told a
reporter. “Cesar” was Cesar Chavez,
the head of the National Farm
Workers Association (NFWA), who
was also based in Delano. He was the
Larry Itliong of the Mexican farm
workers.
When Itliong asked him to join
the strike, Chavez said no, it was not
yet the right time to go on strike. He
asked Itliong to wait three more
years and then his group would
gladly join the Filipinos. Itliong
replied that the Filipino
farmworkers could not wait three
years. They were already in their
60s. No, the time was now, he
insisted. It was now or never.
Filipinos vs. Mexicans
Chavez and Itliong both knew
that forging a united front between
the Filipinos and the Mexicans
would not be easy as the growers
had historically used Filipinos to
break Mexican-led strikes and
Mexicans to break Filipino-led
strikes. Divide and conquer had
proven to be an effective growers'
strategy.
“For 80 years prior to 1965,
every organizing attempt had been
defeated, every strike had been
crushed, the only law they knew was
the law of the jungle and abuse and
contempt and violence against farm
workers was commonplace,” wrote
Other prisms
From page 10
Fact: the Marcoses have been
back in office for years. Fact: Many
are rallying to revise historical
truths, creating heroes and fairy
tales out of the 14 years of Marcos
(abuses). Fact: Many of the new
generation of Filipinos, in the
motherland or beyond, don't
understand a drop of the martial law
concept, much less its corollary.
Realuyo's prism, however, skips
o v e r, s a y, m o t h e r s o f t h e
“disappeared” in Argentina.
Every Thursday, since 1977,
desaparecido mothers, in white
head scarves, walk around Plazo de
Mayo. How do they differ from
mothers of still unaccounted for
activist Jonas Burgos, and UP
student leaders Sherlyn Cadapan
and Karen Empeño? Both groups are
aging, their ranks dwindling.
His prism throws no light on
Chile or El Salvador. Is there
relevance between the paramilitary
killing of Bishop Oscar Romero and
Fr. Fausto Tentorio who served
indigent tribal people in North
Cotabato for 39 years?
A UN commission later
established that death squad leader
Roberto D'Aubuisson ordered a
sniper to kill Romero who had
denounced junta abuses. The probe
into who gunned down Tentorio in
October 2011, stalled as the Armed
Forces of the Philippines' Eastern
Mindanao Command washed its
Marc Grossman, a Sacramento
political consultant.
After his meeting with Itliong,
Chavez spoke to the Mexican farm
workers at the Our Lady of
Guadalupe Church in Delano on
S e p te m b e r 1 6 , 1 9 6 5 , wh i c h
happened to be Mexican
Independence Day. From the pulpit
of the church, Chavez delivered an
impassioned speech urging the
Mexican workers to join their
Filipino brothers in the field and to
go on strike with them. When he
called for a vote on whether to join
the Filipino-led strike, the estimated
1,200 Mexican workers started to
chant “Huelga! Huelga! Huelga!”
After combining their forces in
the picket lines, Chavez and Itliong
agreed to merge their organizations,
AWOC and NFWA, to form the United
Fa r m Wo r k e r s O r g a n i z i n g
Committee (UFWOC), with Chavez
as Executive Director and Itliong
second in command. First VicePresident was Dolores Huerta,
Second Vice-President was Philip
Vera-Cruz, and Third Vice-President
was Andy Imutan with Pete Velasco
as Secretary-Treasurer of the union.
Four of the top six leaders of UFWOC
were Filipinos.
Despite this merger of forces,
the growers were winning as they
succeeded in getting scab labor to
replace the striking workers. It was
then that UFWOC launched a
national boycott of all Delano-grown
table grapes, forging alliances with
students, churches, consumers and
members of unions throughout the
US. Chavez appointed Itliong as the
UFW's national boycott coordinator.
At its height, more than 14
million Americans joined the grape
boycott and it eventually forced the
Delano growers to sign historic
contracts with the UFWOC in 1969, a
first in American farm labor history.
What did the Delano Strike of
1965 achieve? According to writer
Rick Tejada-Flores, “there was an
hands.
Tentorio “sought justice for
lumad or indigenous people,
dispossessed of their land, harassed
by armed men, when government
s e e m e d t o a b a n d o n t h e m ,”
Kidapawan Bishop Romulo de la
Cruz recalls. Siding with the
oppressed “can earn you enemies
who go after even the kindest of
men.”
“Punishment is not revenge or
even justice,” the late Jesuit
sociologist John Carroll wrote. It is
the community reaffirming values
seriously violated. Not to react as a
community would be to reduce a
“common conscience” to personal
preference and invite collapse.
Willingness to forget Marcos'
crimes reflects weakness of
common conscience. “We forget at
the cost of betrayal…. Unless (the
country reaffirms) those values, it
may be condemned to forever
wander in the valueless power plays
among the elite.”
Is there a middle ground
between tragic sentimentality and
common sense, asks
Realuyo. Is there a place where
people who don't think and those
who do, and the many who don't
care, can meet?
The Philippines is a country of
either rain or shine. A day after Sept.
21, we move on to a next topic.
Celebrity controversies have more
lasting power in our conversations
than issues of national interest. “No
lessons learned. No real life
applications.”
end to the abusive system of labor
contracting. Instead, jobs would be
assigned by a hiring hall, with
guaranteed seniority and hiring
rights. The contracts protected
workers from exposure to the
dangerous pesticides that are
widely used in agriculture. There
was an immediate rise in wages, and
fresh water and toilets provided in
the fields. The contracts provided
for a medical plan, and clinics were
built in Delano, Salinas and
Coachella.”
The UFW also set up the Pablo
Agbayani Retirement Village in
Delano for retired farm workers,
many of the first residents were
Filipinos who participated in the
1965 Delano Strike. The village was
named after a Filipino farm worker
who died of a stroke while picketing
during the strike.
The Filipino food caravan of
1965
The 1965 Delano strike made
the front pages of the national
newspapers and was featured at the
top of the TV network news. The
media interviews of Larry Itliong
countered the widespread public
image of Filipinos as docile
houseboys and obedient navy
stewards. There was now a new
positive image of an assertive Pinoy
who was articulating the just
demands of the Filipino workers
“I'm an SOB when it comes to
fighting for the rights of Filipino
farm workers,” Itliong said.
The Delano Strike was the talk of
the town among Filipinos all over
the U.S. but none more so than in San
Francisco where Filipino
community leaders, led by Alex
Esclamado, publisher of the
Philippine News, and Ariston
Armada, president of the Iloilo
Circle, mobilized the Bay Area
Filipino community to gather
canned goods to support their
kababayans in the picket lines in
How can we move the populace
out of poverty and bring them to the
educated middle class with power
and decision-making? The
powerlessness of the poor is the
root of social putrefaction. Indigents
are meaningless to the powerful few
and the so-called Catholics who live
off them.
We see this reenacted in Filipino
movies all the time. Except that it is
not fiction. Like other dictatorships
in the world, Marcos' “New Society”
was all about using the poor as
pawns. The bigger the poverty, the
longer the party.
Granted that the Marcos years
deserve to be relegated to the evil
sections of history, what has really
happened since? Have we had great
leaders? Have we improved
governance? Or have we bred more
crooks, more thieves, and more
corrupt officials?
Joseph Estrada became the first
Philippine president ever to be
convicted of plunder. Former
president Gloria Arroyo is in
detention, facing corruption trial.
Former presidents Fidel Ramos and
Corazon Aquino, as well as
incumbent President Aquino are
perceived to be personally clean.
“The Marcos clan returned
because they know they could,”
Realuyo notes. The question is not,
why did they? It is, why would they
not?
(E-mail: juanlmercado@gmail.com)
Delano.
Emil Heredia of the Filipino
Professionals group, Celestino
Alfafara of the Caballeros de
Dimasalang, Mike Magdaluyo of the
Filipino Community of San
Francisco and other community
leaders asked the members of their
organizations to collect canned
goods among their friends, relatives
and neighbors to help their
manongs in the fields of Delano.
After two weeks of collecting
canned goods, the San Francisco
Filipinos drove in a convoy to Delano
to the Filipino Community Center. It
was billed as the Filipino Food
Caravan of 1965, the forerunner of
future Filipino community efforts to
help other Filipinos in need whether
victims of natural calamities in the
Philippines or locally in labor
strikes.
Los Angeles ProTem Judge John
Armington, the son of Mariano
Armington, recalled eating corned
beef for several weeks at the Filipino
Community Center and thinking
that it was a native Philippine
delicacy because San Francisco
Pinoys had brought tons with them.
Filipino American Political
Association
While the Bay Area Filipinos
were in Delano, they joined the
striking farm workers in the picket
lines to express their solidarity.
They also sat down together at the
Filipino Community Center to form
the Filipino American Political
Association (FAPA), the first
national political organization of
Filipinos. Larry Itliong as
unanimously elected the first
national president of FAPA.
There had been national Filipino
cultural, religious, military, masonic,
professional community
organizations in the past, but no
national political organizations had
been formed. This was a national
organization that would develop
Disqualify
Binay ...
From page 11
Pimentel III are leading the
investigation against the alleged
overpriced Makati City Hall
building 2.
Plunder charges have been
filed against the Vice President
and his mayor son over the
Makati City Hall building 2. The
Office of the Special Prosecutor of
the Ombudsman has also revived
graft and malversation charges
against Mrs. Binay in connection
with overpriced hospital beds in
the Ospital ng Makati during her
tem as the city's chief executive.
Aquino, who has made the
anti-corruption crusade his
administration's banner
program, has tried to keep a
distance from the demolition job
on Binay saying only that “the
truth will set us all free.”
However, he has stressed
several times, in the presence of
Roxas that he wants someone
who will continue his “Tuwid na
Daan” crusade to succeed him.
But it seems that even in his
camp, Aquino cannot get
everybody to join the “Demolish
Binay” campaign. House Speaker
Feliciano Belmonte Jr. doused
cold water on impeachment
plans against Binay saying a vice
president cannot be impeached
and advance the Filipino political
agenda of opposing discrimination
and working for the election of
Filipinos to elective office.
In just a few years, FAPA
established 39 chapters throughout
the US. Its members were elected to
various elective positions in
California including Leonard
Velasco as mayor of Delano, Monty
Manibog as mayor of Monterey
Heights, and Glen Olea as Mayor of
Seaside. Mark Pullido, the current
Fil-Am mayor of Cerritos, California
is spearheading a revival of FAPA in
time to celebrate its golden
anniversary next year.
The National Federation of
Filipino American Associations
( N a F FA A ) , a t i t s N a t i o n a l
Empowerment Conference held in
San Diego on August 8-10, 2014,
approved a resolution to celebrate
the golden anniversary of the three
September 1965 events the Delano
Strike, the Food Caravan and the
founding of FAPA in September of
2015. There will be commemorative
events in Filipino communities
throughout the US.
Larry Itliong died in 1977, at age
63, leaving a wife and 7 kids. At his
funeral, Cesar Chavez eulogized him
as “a true pioneer in the farm
workers movement.”
But Fred Cordova, a past
president of the Filipino American
National Historical Society (FANHS),
believes he should be considered
more than just a pioneer.
“I'd like to see his grave site
included as a national shrine and the
name Larry Itliong mentioned in the
same breath as Cesar Chavez. His
impact on the Filipino American
ex p e r i e n c e i s u n s u r p a s s e d ,”
Cordova said.
(Rodel Rodis taught Philippine History and the
History of Filipinos in America at San Francisco
State University. He is the General Counsel of
NaFFAA. Send comments to
Rodel50@gmail.com or mail them to the Law
Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue,
San Francisco, CA 4127 or call 415.334.7800).
for acts he did as mayor.
This is not surprising. It will
be recalled that in the 2010
presidential elections, one faction
in the Aquino camp was Noy-BI (
Pnoy for president and Binay for
vice president).
T h e N oy - B I s u p p o r te r s
included Executive Secretary
Paquito Ochoa, Jr., who worked as
city administrator when
Belmonte was Quezon City mayor.
Justice Secretary Leila de
Lima last Sept. 19 told media she
was not pleased that Renato
Bondal, one of the witnesses
against Binay who was placed
under the Witness Protection
Program, held a press conference
reacting to the speech of Binay
last Thursday, without the DOJ's
permission.
Binay, in his Sept. 18 speech,
did not present proofs to dispute
the allegations of corruption in
the Makati City Hall Building II.
Since congressmen are not
eager to impeach Binay, another
option to disqualify him from the
presidential race is to convict him
of plunder. Not just charge and
imprison him because unless
convicted, he can still run for
president. He might even get
sympathy votes. He has to be
convicted and the conviction
deemed final and executory
Those who want a level
playing field for the 2016
elections have about one year and
half to do that.
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 15
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
October is Filipino American History Month
New Jersey in the Filipino American History
By Nestor Palugod Enriquez
The tie-breaking vote in the US Congress in
1898 changed world history and the Filipino
people.
It was delivered by Vice President Hobart;
he only cast his tie-breaking vote once, using it
to defeat an amendment which would have
promised self-government to the Philippines one of the possessions which the United States
had taken from Spain after the war.
What's really more interesting was the
Vice President was from New Jersey, law
graduate of Rutgers.
In the late 1897 and early 1898, many
Americans called for the United States to
intervene in Cuba, then a Spanish colony,
revolting against the mother country. These
calls greatly increased in February 1898, when
the American battleship MAINE sank in
Havana harbor after an explosion. McKinley
sought delay, hoping to settle the disputes
peacefully, but in April 1898, Hobart told the
President that the Senate would act against
Spain whether McKinley liked it or not.
McKinley gave in; Congress declared war on
April 25, beginning the Spanish-American War,
and Hobart sent McKinley a pen with which to
sign the declaration. McKinley was not the
hawk, but rather a very religious veteran of the
US Civil War.
Hobart was more assertive as Senate
president than his predecessors had been. It
was customary for the vice president not to
rule on disputed points, but to submit them to
a vote. Hobart, with his experience as a
presiding officer in the New Jersey Legislature,
took a more assertive role, ruling on disputes,
and trying to expedite legislation. Hobart was
initially diffident in his role, feeling himself
unproven besides longtime national
legislators, but soon gained self-confidence,
writing on a letter that "I find that I am as good
and as capable as any of them. If they know a
whole lot of things, I don't know, I also know a
whole lot of things they don't know. And there
is a common humanity running through them
all that makes us all as one, after all." Hobart
was so successful at guiding the
administration's legislative agenda through
the Senate that he became known as the
"assistant President".
He died before the end of 1899, we would
always remember his successor. The young
lion NY Governor Theodore Roosevelt, who
took Hobart's place on the Republican ticket in
1900 and succeeded as president after
McKinley's assassination in 1901. The faith of
the Filipino with the new American empire
became history as we know now.
Garret Hobart was buried in Patterson, he
could have been the US President. The only
president from New Jersey was Grover
Cleveland, who was currently in the White
House when Jose Rizal arrived in New York in
1888.
Filipino scientist helps make
cooking on Mars possible
Cornell team develops device for cooking in zero gravity
UP Los Banos scientist is in postdoctoral program that made it
By Anthony Advincula
NEW YORK -- For the next NASA
space explorations, astronauts
would soon be able to cook as if they
were in their own home kitchen,
without worrying about their
ingredients floating away when they
stir-fry in a zero gravity spacecraft,
thanks in part to a Filipino scientist.
According to Apollo Arquiza, a
postdoctoral research associate at
Cornell University, it is now possible
to cook on the moon or Mars without
having the shredded potatoes and
sizzling oil travel a greater distance
from the pan.
Does it seem like a scene from a
George Clooney movie? Yes. But can
it really be done with modern-day
technology and applied research?
Absolutely.
“Even daing [dried fish] can now
be fried, if there's a Filipino aboard
the spacecraft,” Arquiza, 45, said in
an exclusive phone interview with
INQUIRER.net. “No one in the world
has ever done anything like this
before.”
Arquiza was part of the team
that designed the first low-gravity
space galley ever recorded in
history.
After a series of rigorous
research and testing that started
since 2011, the team led by Jean
Hunter, assistant professor and
director of undergraduate programs
at Cornell's College of Biological and
Environmental Engineering
unveiled the result early this year: a
prototype cooking device which, to
the untrained eye, may just look like
an ordinary oven enclosed in a giant
stainless metal box.
Last April, the team boarded a GForce 1 space simulator aircraft to
test the effectiveness of the galley. In
a series of four flights from Houston,
they sautéed tofu and potatoes in a
frying pan.
Although the experiment was
described as “a bit messy,” with oil
splatters floating away, Arquiza said
the results were crucial steps to
improve the design of future
terrestrial and extraterrestrial
cooking technology.
“Gravity on Mars is only onethird as that on Earth,” he said. “The
biggest challenge here is how to
control the oil splatter from
traveling.” Under low-gravity, he
added, oil droplets are much bigger,
more numerous and do travel more.
Mission to Mars in 2030
How significant is this new
cooking innovation for space
missions?
The U.S. government has
reportedly been working on a NASAled manned mission to Mars in 2030.
With plans of establishing a
permanent base on the Red Planet,
Arquiza says, astronauts may have
to stay there for a year or longer.
Traveling alone from Earth to
Mars could take up six to eight
months, depending on planetary
alignments. That means that
astronauts need to have the right
amount of food for the entire
duration of their mission.
“If they [astronauts] eat the
same food over and over again, they
could experience some kind of food
fatigue,” he said. “So, if they are going
to be on Mars for a long time, they
may have to cook at some point.”
Astronauts today eat prepackaged and freeze-dried meals
that they get from the International
Space Station. Yet experts are
concerned that such diet has
inadequate nutrition, making them
malnourished, and that it may be
difficult on their minds and bodies to
sustain longer space visits.
From Los Baños, Laguna to
Ithaca, NY
Before he came to Cornell
University, an Ivy League school
located in Ithaca, New York, to earn
his doctoral degree in biological and
environmental engineering, Arquiza
was an adjunct professor at the
University of the Philippines-Los
Baños (UPLB) College of
Engineering.
“My goal at the time was just to
earn my PhD,” he said, “and,
hopefully, get tenured and have a
guaranteed permanent teaching
position at UPLB.”
But during the course of his
studies, he said, Professor Hunter
became his academic adviser, and
she then asked him to be part of the
Reduced Gravity Program team,
including another Cornell
University research associate, Bryan
Caldwell, and Susana Carranza, a
scientist engineer from Makel
Engineering in Chico, California.
“Getting accepted into Cornell's
PhD program is already a huge
opportunity for me. Everything is
free, and I get a monthly allowance,”
Arquiza said. “But to be part of the
team was a much bigger
opportunity. I just feel very lucky.”
In most premier US universities,
where there is a higher endowment
Apollo Arquiza (center), with Bryan Caldwell (right) and Susana Carranza, aboard
the G-1 Force space simulator aircraft. NASA photo
to cover financial costs for doctoral
a n d p o s t d o c t o ra l p ro g ra m s ,
admitted students are offered free
tuition fees and living allowances.
Named by his parents after
Apollo 11, the spaceship that NASA
launched to the moon in 1969, the
year he was born, Arquiza feels at
times that “everything seems
coincidental.”
Nevertheless, each time he gets
introduced in relation to his
research on low-gravity cooking, he
says that people would give him a
smile, alluding that his name is
meant for his job.
“Nakakatuwa din [It's quite
amusing],” he said.
Back to the future
While there could be more
future opportunities that await him
in the United States, Arquiza admits
that staying or going back to the
Philippines after he finishes his
postdoctoral work is “a hard
decision to make.”
Considering the resources of the
Philippine government for science
and research, he is aware that a
landmark project, like the one that
he has been currently involved in,
might not be available.
“Perhaps, if I decide to continue
working in the US, it would be a
short-term consulting work,” he
noted. “I can't just tell, for now. Pero
hindi rin siguro ako magtatagal [But
I guess I won't stay that long].”
Arquiza is committed to giving
back to his country. The Philippine
government, he says, paid almost his
entire academic life, from his years
at the Philippine Science High
School to UP-Los Baños as a
recipient of the Department of
Science and Technology (DOST)
scholarship program.
“I owe our country a lot. I have
already gained here [United States]
the research expertise I needed, so I
can teach again and share that with
fellow Filipinos,” he said. “I can use
my training and expertise on food
security and food processing.”
Since he started his doctoral
program seven years ago, Arquiza
has not had a chance to go back to
the Philippines. He said that his wife,
Amy, who is also teaching at UPLB,
had visited him a few times, and that
they were able to spend time
together and see some tourist-spots
in New York City.
“Some of the people I know back
home, when I told them that Cornell
is in New York, they immediately
think of New York City,” he said. “It's
funny because they are surprised
when I told them, 'No, I'm in a rural
area.'”
Still, for Arquiza, being away
from his native Laguna province
seems like a million light years away
from home. “Yes, I miss my family,”
he said. Inquirer.net
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 16
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Exhibit culled from more than two dozens of art works selected by five curators. Photos by Dexter R. Matilla
MET Open 2014 sure to elicit both
approval and head-scratching
By Dexter R. Matilla
In keeping true to its aim to make art
accessible to all, the Metropolitan Museum of
Manila has launched a benefit exhibition
gathering more than 200 art pieces in
different mediums.
The MET Open 2014, which opened Sept.
21 and will run until Oct. 4, will feature
paintings, sculptures, mixed-media works,
ceramics, art installations and performance
art that reflect, enable and challenge the
current state of Philippine art.
The exhibit is a mish-mash of both
contemporary and modern art that is sure to
elicit nods, applause, and of course its share of
head scratches.
But as curator and art critic Cid Reyes puts
it, how one interprets an artwork is a
reflection of one's personality.
“It's only you and the artwork,” Reyes said
during the exhibit's press preview. “The artist
is no longer involved.”
Other curators include Patrick Flores,
Joselina Cruz, Yael Buencamino and Dannie
u
Page 19
Alvarez.
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 17
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 18
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Arvin Amatorio for Bergenfield Council
By Grace G. Baldisseri
Attorney Arvin Amatorio
New Jersey -- I met ATTY. ARVIN
AMATORIO on September 10, 2014 during
a monthly meeting of the Jersey City
Filipino American Chamber of Commerce
(JCFACC) held at Hudson RehabSpa,
Hudson Mall, JC, on September 10, 2014. I
did not know that he was the special guest
of the evening.
Upon his arrival, he was introduced as
an immigration lawyer and had been
serving the Filipino community for several
years now. The host announced that ATTY.
AMATORIO is a candidate for the
Bergenfield Council and the election will be
in November this year.
I was intimidated why he was running
for a public office that does not earn him
more money considering the fact that he is
doing good as a Counsel of Vctor G. Sison's
Law Office in New Jersey and in New York
City. I also heard that he had helped a lot of
our kababayans got their green card pro
bono, helped women get their path to
citizenship via VAWA. and a lot more
stories of defending our less fortunate
brethren in court who cannot afford to pay
a lawyer.
After that wonderful party composed
of businessmen, community leaders and
friends, I asked Atty. Arvin Amatorio for an
interview. He agreed and I was so happy to
get that 'special time' for getting to know
more about the Bergenfield Borough
candidate.
The Filipino Express was there for two
reasons: Our Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
Jersey City businessman and
leaders commend ABS CBN
Foundation International
By Grace G. Baldisseri
JERSEY CITY -- Ms. Jo Ann
Kyle, Managing Director of ABS
CBN Foundation International,
who was introduced by Mr.
Sonny Austria of The Filipino
Express, met with business
leaders in the Jersey City area
for the purpose of presenting
what the Foundation had done
in the devastated area in
Tacloban City.
Through video clips and
graphics, Ms. Kyle made a
substantial report on what help
they gave as an outreach
program of ABS CBN to the less
fortunate families from medical
missions for those who were
shocked, sick and suffering
from skin diseases to
distribution of rice, water,
clothes and goods for the
residents while waiting for the
arrival of government support.
They also built some shelter for
all of the homeless.
A B S C B N Fo u n d a t i o n
reported that a total of 3.5
million dollars came from
Filipino Americans all over the
U.S. She assured the audience
that all the donation in cash
went to providing services to
the victims of Yolanda.
There was a Question &
Ms. Jo Ann Kyle, Managing
Director,ABS CBN Foundation
International
Answer portion where Ms. Kyle
a n s w e r e d t h e a u d i e n c e'
questions. The group was one in
saying: "Job well done!" It was a
very interesting mixture of
celebrities, community leaders,
businessmen, communit y
organizers, artists and friends.
Hosted by businessman
Lito A. Gajilan, Jr., publisher and
editor of The Filipino Express,
the event was held at Pal Inasa
Resto Grill, 663 Newark Ave.
J e r s e y C i t y o n F r i d a y,
September 19, 2014 at 6 PM.
The guests include the
following Michael Florendo of
Hudson Rehab Spa, Mario V.
Garcia, Edwin Solano, Helen
Castillo, Ledy Almadin & Paulita
Ong of PAFCOM, Don Tagala of
ABS CBN News with friend Paul
Cheon, Johnny Rustia, AARP;
Michael Urbino, Pal Inasal, Fred
Cacho of Kapatiran, Victorino
Lontoc; Luz Burke, Jean Daniel
& Chuchi Calingasan of Catholic
Action of Mary, Eloisa A. Porto
of the Ladies for Rizal, Gani
Puertollano of the Knights of
Rizal Union NJ Chapter, Sir
Francis D. Sison - Knights of
Rizal Regional Commander for
USA, Bert Aguilera of Fil Aid,
Rose Javier of PACCAL, Martha
Baltazar of The Handmaiden
Services and Joy CalupitanBirsin.
The event was capped by
delicious food specially
prepared by Mike Urbino's staff.
Lito A. Gajilan is the president of the
JCFACC and I was there to cover the Event.
Interviewing Atty. Arvin Amatorio is,
indeed, a bonus!
This is an excerpt of The Filipino
Express (TFE) and Arvin G. Amatorio's
(AGA) interview:
TFE: Hi! I am Grace of The Filipino
Express and I am honored to have this
exclusive interview.
AGA: Thank you, Grace. The pleasure is
mine.
TFE: What made you run for Councilor
of Bergenfield when you are already good
in your profession and by being a lawyer,
you are already serving our community?
AGA: You are definitely right but you
know, Grace, the Council only meets on
Tuesday evenings. I saw a lot of issues that
are in need of improvement. I want to be
part of the solution to Bergenfield's
problems. And to make that happen is to be
a voice in the Bergenfield Borough Council.
TFE: How do you define your
candidacy? And how is politics in your
area?
AGA: I am offering myself to be a voice
in the Bergenfield Borough Council and
craft policies that would enable everyone
in the community whatever race, religion
or culture he is. Bergenfield is under the
New Jersey municipal government which
elects a Mayor and six council members
that form the Borough Council.
TFE: Is it true that in Bergenfield, the
Council is more powerful than the Mayor?
Why?
AGA: I do not want to say that, Grace.
In Bergenfield, it is true that the council
members act as the legislative body. The
mayor presides at meetings and he only
votes when there is a tie. He also makes
committee and liaison assignments for
council members and appointments are
made by the mayor with the advice and
consent of the Council. Maybe, that is what
makes the Council more powerful than the
Mayor to some political observers.
TFE: If you and your teammate are
elected to the Bergenfield Borough
Council, what difference would you make
for your constituents?
AGA: Our platform of government is of
fiscal responsibility. We will make sure that
the money of the people is well spent in
projects that will benefit everyone. We will
work for the safety of the kids in the
schools by having school safety zones.
These are just some of the things we want
to do for the people.
TFE: Thank you so much, Atty.
Amatorio for your time and honest-togoodness answers. We hope to be there for
your kick-off rally. When will this be?
AGA: You are welcome, Grace! Yes, the
Kick-Off Rally is on Saturday, September
27th at 2:00-5:00 PM at Bamboo Grill,
Bergenfield, NJ. We are inviting all our
supporters, friends, businessmen,
community leaders, FilAm Press Club
members and the working press.
Talking to Atty. Arvin Amatorio is
enough to endorse his candidacy as he is
aggressive, sincere, intelligent ,
approachable, nice and sincere.
PIDCI Election of
President and Board
Members Set Oct. 4
N e w Yo r k - - N o n - p r o f i t
organization best known for the
largest Philippine Independence Day
parade outside of the Philippines,
Philippine Independence Day Council
Inc. (PIDCI), will hold its election of
president and seven members of the
Board at the Philippine Center (556
Fifth Avenue, between 45th and 46th
Sts.) on Saturday, October 4, 2014 from
12 noon to 6 p.m.
PIDCI Committee on Elections
2014, chaired by Board Member
Prospero Lim, MD, says Fe Martinez,
the ninth president of PIDCI, is
running unchallenged for a fourth oneyear term.
Additionally, six candidates are
vying for seven Board of Director seats
that will be vacated. Candidates are
Helen Kwong LaBarbera, Antero
Martinez, Nonoy Rafael, Maryann
Sanagustin, Margie Wisotsky, and
Tambi Wycoco.
PIDCI spearheads the annual
c o m m e m o ra t i o n o f P h i l i p p i n e
Independence in New York City, which
will include next year's grand parade
on Madison Avenue on June 7, street
fair and cultural festival, Mrs. Kalayaan
and Diwa Ng Kalayaan pageants,
G ra n d M a r s h a l G a l a , a n d t h e
Philippine Independence Ball.
PIDCI's more than 200 member
organizations are highly encouraged
Fe Martinez is running unchallenged for
a fourth term. Photo by Oliver Oliveros
to exercise their right to vote on
election day.
For more information, contact Dr.
P r o s p e r o
L i m
a t
prosperoalim@aol.com or phone
number (1) 718-727-9340.
The Philippine Independence Day
celebration in Manhattan includes not
only New York but also the 12 states
under the jurisdiction of the Philippine
Consulate General in New York,
namely Connecticut, Delaware,
Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and
Vermont.
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 19
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Nocturnal”
“Better than Leather Muzzle”
“Prudent Wife
Kevin Yirin: An Artist to Look Out For
By Erika Barretto
No matter where a person is, art is a
universal language. Painting or sculpture or
whatever kind of art, whether it is
understandable or not, it will catch a person's
attention. Art can entertain you. Art can make
you think. It will undeniably leave a viewer
with a new experience every time he or she
appreciates it. As for the artist, it is a way of
expressing his views of the world.
With this being said, art must be really
special then. It must be done then by a lot of
people to create that “magic” of experience,
both for the viewer and the artist himself. It
must be done then to create a bond, as if the
artist is talking to the audience on how he sees
things in his own perspective.
Enter Kevin Yirin, a new artist trying to
actualize this dream and the beauty of
experiencing his artworks.
Kevin Yirin is a 25 year old artist from
Olongapo City. He is currently residing in
Cubao to look for fellow artists and
connections to fulfill his dream of being a fullfledged artist. Surprisingly, he was not
A smile of hope
From page 13
lifting her hand into a metre stretch, “we
praise in thanks,” she heartily laughs.
However, Babu's community is slowly
fading into cultural endangerment. As with
many other groups in contact with dominant
cultures, many of the Badjao's oral literature
and traditional ways are slowly being
replaced with new beliefs and practices. The
houseboat tradition is slowly vanishing into
extinction as many Badjaos have moved into
homes in nearby larger Sama settlements
where they become more sedentary.
Nearby, a group of Badjao men work
together to erect stilt foundations from
mangrove remnants for a soon-to-be home of
another Badjao family. The bayanihan, a
Filipino tradition where neighbours help
each other in fulfilling seemingly impossible
tasks through the power of unity and
cooperation, is dubbed as the “Buggoc
MET Open 2014 ...
From page 16
In making sense of the vast collection of
works for the inaugural staging of the MET
Open, director Sandra Palomar-Quan praised
the curators for sorting out the submissions
from artists, art students and galleries for the
exhibit.
She also mentioned the importance of
academic institutions that nourish the arts
including but not limited to the University of
Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines,
Philippine Women's University and Far Eastern
interested in the arts before. His father is a
baker and his mom is unemployed. He is
currently the only one in his family who
paints.
He studied at Olongapo City National High
School and at UST College of Fine Arts.
Obviously, when you are studying in a college
with art courses, you are bound to find an
artist friend. Most of Yirin's friends are into
music but they also paint.
He only got interested in the arts when he
was invited by his friend to an exhibit in 2009.
It was his first time and then he was inspired
to take up painting, motivating himself to do
better than what he had seen. After that, he
taught himself to paint.
His paintings are mostly about surrealism
because he wants to fully translate his unusual
thoughts and ideas into his works.
“Surrealism is a style in which fantastical
visual imagery from the subconscious mind is
used with no intention of making the work
l o g i c a l ly c o m p re h e n s i b l e .”
(artcylopedia.com) His paintings may be hard
to understand but he says that his paintings
reflect his experiences in life and his love for
Challenge,” a livelihood programme to people
affected by conflict. The Challenge is a
collaboration of various stakeholders from
public and private sectors, as well as private
individuals, in providing manual, moral and
financial support for the construction of
temporary shelters.
While pounding hammers continue to
make discordant sound in the new
neighbourhood, the laughter of children
wafted across the water from a docked fishing
boat.
“The only thing I wish in my last few
breath is peace,” said Babu, with conviction, as
she shifted her gaze from the men to me. “I've
seen enough war to destroy lives. I can only
hope the younger ones learn to take care of
the sea and to talk to each other to resolve
their differences.”
The road to recovery may be long and
winding, but Zamboanga has hope. - Daryl
Dano works for Communications with
Communities International Organization for
Migration based in Makati City, Philippines
University.
Established in 1976, the Metropolitan
Museum of Manila's principal program involves
the exposure of its audience to quality art
exhibitions and the liberal exchange of ideas.
And with the MET Open 2014, proceeds should
benefit this program and the museum's other
programs.
The MET Open 2014 is being launched in
cooperation with Rolls Royce, Del Monte
Philippines Inc. and media partners. The
Metropolitan Museum of Manila is located at
the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Roxas
Blvd., Manila. Inquirer.net
religion. His paintings can relate to chapter 3
of John Dewey's work, Art as an Experience, in
which he says that, “In an experience, flow is
from something to something. As one part
leads into another and as one part carries on
what went before, each gains distinctness in
itself.” His experiences in life transpire into his
paintings and when the viewers look at
contemplate on them, they will develop a new
experience, a new perspective on life and
possibly religion. The themes of his works also
revolve around human behavior and the Bible.
He says he also paints about politics
sometimes. His reason was that he wants to
show what reality is at this time. Since he gets
his inspiration from the Bible and his religion,
Ang Dating Daan, he also paints about the
stories and moral lessons written in there. An
example is his work entitled, Better than
Leather Muzzle. The painting shows a man
and a beast. He says that this artwork means
that one must not fight back with his enemy
but instead retaliate with the power of the
Bible. The paintings may be hard to
understand, but surely, there lie deep
meanings underneath the subject matter,
colors and all. It is quite surprising for a young
artist to paint about these things. You can say
he is very mature and bound for greater
things.
His works are usually of dark shades of
colors or of earthly tones like, burnt amber,
raw amber, and burnt sienna. He says that his
paintings use chiaroscuro effects. He also says
that he likes using these colors because they
have the strongest pigments. I think his choice
of colors also dramatically enhances the
subject matter of his works.
Besides being a mature and fantastic
artist, he is also ambitious. He says that he
wished to have an impressive solo exhibit one
day.
With his humility and determination, no
doubt he will shine in the coming years. He is
still young so he will have more time to hone
his craft. He does not need to brag about
himself because his paintings speak about
themselves. He may be unpopular these days,
but surely he will get the last laugh. - Erika
Barretto is a fourth year Humanities student at
the University of Asia and the Pacific in Manila,
Philippines.
Got hurt at work?
LISA A. ARKIN, ESQ.
NO CHARGE CONSULTATIONS
“Dedicated to helping
injured workers”
201-444-1078
Wwww.lisaarkinlaw.com
www.lisaarkin.com
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 20
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
New wave cities seen as
alternate business sites
to decongest Metro
By Matikas Santos
The Philippine government should consider other mass transit solutions to address worsening congestion
in Metro Manila, including a $700-million subway system on Edsa to complement the busy Metro Rail
Transit Line 3, said an official of Japan International Cooperation Agency. INQUIRER.net file photo
PH urged to implement
P2.6 Trillion infra plan
Rail, road, airport, seaport projects to decongest NCR
By Miguel R. Camus
The Philippine capital may be grappling
with worsening congestion issues but for the
first time in decades, the country has the
financial means to fully address the problem
and should act soon, an official of the Japan
International Cooperation Agency (Jica) said.
Jica was the agency tapped to craft a socalled transportation dream plan, a P2.6trillion proposal mainly comprised of massive
railway, road, airport and seaport that would
solve costly congestion issues in Metro Manila
by 2030.
Shizuo Iwata, chair of Japan's Almec Corp.
and among the team that crafted the dream
plan, said various funding options were now
available amid a resurgence in the Philippine
economy. The country, also due to investmentgrade rating upgrades in recent years, could tap
cheaper debt, avail itself of overseas
development assistance (ODA) loans or
implement deals with the help of the private
sector.
“Before, in 1996 and the 1980s, whenever
we had a dream plan [the Philippines] always
lacked money. So we had to reduce the size of
the plan,” Iwata told reporters last week. “So
now there is money. This [situation] is a first
time in the history of a master plan for Metro
Manila,” he added.
Traffic congestion comes with high costs, or
about P2.4-billion daily, according to Jica. That
figure would balloon to P6 billion a day in 2030
if the government failed to intervene, he said.
“If nothing is done, the situation in 2030 will
become a nightmare. All roads will be saturated.
Negative impact on economic, social and
environmental aspects will be so large,
deterring the function and livability of Metro
Manila,” a part of Jica's roadmap, presented
with the National Economic and Development
Authority (Neda), showed. As an immediate
u
Page 22
DOTC woos UK
investors for PPP deals
By Miguel R. Camus
MANILA -- The
D e p a r t m e n t
o f
Transportation and
Communications made a pitch
to British investors and trade
officials Sept. 18 as it seeks to
drum up interests for
upcoming infrastructure
d e a l s u n d e r t h e
administration's publicprivate partnership program.
Transportation
Undersecretary Rene
Limcaoco made the
presentation in Manila as
President Aquino was in
Europe on an official visit,
partly to promote about $20
billion worth of PPP deals still
in the pipeline.
Part of the department's
MANILA -- The expansion of
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
companies in several “next wave cities”
outside Metro Manila may soon help
decongest the Philippine's capital
region, an international real estate
services firm said.
KMC MAG Group said that there is a
growing demand for BPOs to expand to
sites outside of Metro Manila driven
primarily by the desire to lower attrition
rates, which in some companies are up
to 100 percent annually.
“There are sites here in Metro
Manila where they lose a thousand
employees resigning every month,”
Gerold Fernando, KMC MAG Associate
Director, said in a recent roundtable
discussion with reporters.
“If you put a site where these people
live, [attrition is] cut down to a
significant number, a tenth probably,
because the cost of living is cheaper and
you work where you live,” Fernando
said. “It's a win-win situation for the
company and for majority of the BPO
workers.”
Among the potential Next Wave
Cities around Metro Manila are in
Laguna, Cavite, Pampanga, Bulacan, and
also Clark.
Meanwhile in the Visayas region,
Iloilo and Bacolod are seen as the Next
Wave Cities around Cebu. In Mindanao,
Cagayan de Oro is being eyed as a Next
Wave City near Davao.
“[Expanding to the Next Wave
Cities] promotes decongestion of Metro
Manila and promotes uplifting the
economy of these Next Wave Cities. It
increases middle income earners
making it advantageous in all aspects,”
Fernando said.
Michael McCullough, Managing
Director of KMC MAG, however, noted
that several key components are still
missing in these Next Wave Cities to
m a ke t h e m m o re a t t ra c t ive to
international investors.
“Educational institutions are there,
the labor is there, but there's not a whole
lot of available office space there. If
you've been driving in the province you
don't see a grade A office space just
waiting to be leased,” McCullough said.
“You can't fly some Americans in and
take them to a grassy patch of land and
say 'this will be your office, I promise it
will look like this picture.' They don't
buy it. They have to see something that
exists and those are mostly always in
Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Davao
now,” he said.
Some BPOs however are bold
enough to take the risk in building sites
in Next Wave Cities and some get
rewarded when their gamble works,
McCollough said. But when they do
succeed in expanding to a site outside
Metro Manila, the big BPO companies
are sure to follow suit in that location.
“The people are easiest for BPOs to
find, they already have [them] inside
their company. The Human Resources
team says that a percentage of
workforce actually live in Bulacan, for
example. So if they locate to Bulacan
they can just promote them or transfer
them,” McCullough said.
“They can make the same amount of
money and they will have a shorter
commute, they're gonna be happier and
less stressed. It's a win-win for a lot of
people. The idea is to help with that
trickle down effect by improving the
local economies,” he said. Inquirer.net
own pipeline on Sept. 18
involved big-ticket airport and
railway deals, as the
department seeks to address
an infrastructure gap needed
to support the current pace of
economic growth.
The DOTC, for example,
said that about P109.6 billion
would be invested in various
airport projects across the
Philippines, partly to attract
more tourists, Limacaoco said.
“We n e e d i n te re s te d
bidders. To enthuse interested
companies to bid, we commit
to a fair, transparent and level
playing field,” Limcaoco told
participants during the UK
Transport Solutions forum on
Thursday.
In terms of PPPs, the
government was seeking final
SBMA bent on giving
Subic a facelift
The Subic Bay Metropolitan
Authority (SBMA) is bent on revitalizing
the tourism industry at the Subic Bay
Freeport and bring it at par with other
popular tourist attractions found in
Singapore
and Guam.
approval for at least six
In a statement, SBMA chair Roberto
provincial airport deals, or
Garcia explained that, under “Operation
those in Laguindingan, Bohol,
Facelift” program, the agency hopes to
P u e r to P r i n c e s a , I l o i l o ,
restore the natural beauty of Subic, long
Bacolod and Davao. Limcaoco
AFP file photo
known
for its lush natural resources like
Subic Port. Inquirer file photo
said these would be ready for
rainforests, pristine beaches and native
rollout in the fourth quarter of
wildlife.
in painting street curbs, planting trees
2014.
The SBMA's tourism development
and flowering plants, repainting
The government was
program will also make use of
building walls, and cleaning the streets,”
confident in airport PPPs,
technology to enhance and preserve
Garcia added.
after drawing strong interest
Subic's resources, for example, by
He likewise urged business locators
for the P17.5-billion Mactan
replacing the existing grass with the
and residents of the freeport to support
Cebu International Airport
“frog grass” variety, and planting
the beautification drive by keeping their
deal, which was won by the
particular types of trees that require
areas orderly and clean.
consortium of Megawide
little maintenance.
With its natural and man-made
Construction Corp. and India's
“As years went by, some of the
attractions, Subic was named the
GMR Infrastructure last April.
structures and spaces seem to have
“Premier Convention Capital of Central
“We want to expand
been neglected or left unattended, and
Luzon” by the Department of Tourism in
Philippine tourism. Tourism is
have become eyesores,” Garcia said,
October 2012.
a low-hanging fruit that will
citing the reason why the SBMA started
In December 2012, Subic was also
s o p
u p
e x c e s s
the program.
identified by the DOT as one of the top
underemployment that the
“We hope that volunteers from
destinations in the country, due to the
u
Page 22
companies, civic organizations and
quality of its facilities and high level of
schools, as well as residents, will help us
tourist arrivals. Inquirer.net
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 21
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Record sales expected for this
year amid strong economy
Automakers see continued robust PH demand
By Amy R. Remo
MANILA -- Members of the
Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers
of the Philippines Inc. (Campi)
unveiled new models and concept cars
at the 5th Philippine International
Motor Show on Sept. 18, as local
automotive firms seek to tap the
continued and robust growth in
demand for vehicles in the country.
Total vehicle sales this year are
even expected to reach more than
260,000 units, much higher than the
forecasts made by Campi, Toyota Motor
Philippines Corp. president Michinobu
Sugata said on the sidelines of the fourday motoring event.
This, Sugata said, was assuming
that the Philippine sector will be able to
generate double-digit growth
consistently, as seen over the past eight
months.
Campi has already raised its sales
forecast this year to 250,000 units from
the 230,000-unit target announced
earlier this year. Last year, total
automotive industry sales reached
over 210,000 units.
Campi president Rommel
Gutierrez noted that the 17
participating companies at the 5th
PIMS are looking to maintain this
“glorious” growth momentum, as
members continue to be “one with the
government in empowering the
Philippines to greater mobility.”
To y o t a M o t o r P h i l i p p i n e s
showcased a concept car called Toyota
Fun-Vii, an electric vehicle with a LED
screen for its exterior panel, while its
unit, Lexus Philippines, featured the
NX, the brand's first entry into the
luxury compact crossover segment.
Lexus is also set to launch a sports car
next year, Sugata added.
Ayala Auto Holdings Corp.,
meanwhile, provided Thursday a
sneak preview of Golf GTI and the T5
multivan, the modern Kombi - two
President Benigno S. Aquino III and French President Francois Hollande delivers their statements during the
models that will add to the growing
Joint Press Statement at the Ground Floor of the Palais de L'Elysee. RYAN LIM/Malacañang Photo Bureau)
lineup of Volkswagen vehicles in the
Philippines.
John Philip S. Orbeta, chair and
president of Ayala Auto Holdings,
declined to disclose any sales targets as
they are still in the process of ensuring
a stable supply of VW branded vehicles
in the country. He, however, noted that
the market reception is good,
prompting the Ayala firm to open a
total of four dealerships this year. The
first dealership was opened earlier at
By Christian Esguerra
the country is expected to hit year. Aquino said the integration
the Bonifacio Global City, to be followed
next year with a big proportion would also open doors of
by the Cebu branch next week, and
PARIS -- President Benigno of the population entering opportunity to France and the
Quezon City and Alabang before
Aquino III has declared 2015 as working age.
rest of Europe.
yearend.
a “ b a n n e r ye a r ” f o r t h e
“We have been investing in
“This is a milestone in the
u
Page 29
P h i l i p p i n e s o w i n g to i t s our greatest resourceour evolution of Asean as we pursue
economic “turnaround” and in p e o p l e , r e s u l t i n g i n a n the common prosperity of our
time for the Southeast Asian expanding, productive labor peoples and foster the peace
regional integration.
force now even more prepared and stability fundamental to
“Given the unprecedented to seize all the opportunities. continued development,” he
confidence enjoyed by our We have a strategic location, and said.
country, we expect 2015 to be a vast potential to be a crucial hub
“This is a timely
banner year,” he said in a speech of trade, investments, and d e v e l o p m e n t . G i v e n t h e
at the French Institute of services.”
recovery of markets in the
International Relations
The President said the Western Hemisphere, increased
Thursday night.
P h i l i p p i n e s ' “ e c o n o m i c cooperation can only redound
“After all, the factors that can turnaround” was “especially to a healthier global economy,
allow us to build on our significant” with the formal and the promise of further
momentum are in place,” he integration of the Association of growth and development for
added, citing the so-called Southeast Asian Nations into all.” Inquirer.net
“demographic sweet spot” that “economic community” next
Aquino declares 2015
'banner year' for PH
“YLANG-YLANG” trees line the road to the small town of Anao in Tarlac province. Photo by
Willie Lomibao
Anao seeks ways to tap
the export market
Tarlac town profits from 'ylang-ylang' oil
By Gabriel Cardiñoza
ANAO, Tarlac -- One knows he is
already in Anao town in Tarlac province
when he sees “ylang-ylang” (Cananga
odorata) trees lining its roads.
Anao (pop: 10,873 as of 2010), the
province's smallest town, has about
10,000 fully grown ylang-ylang trees in
its 18 villages, making it the province's
“ylang-ylang capital.”
“We used to have more but many
trees were felled in the last two years
because of the construction of the
TPLEx and road [widening] projects in
our town. We lost about 30 percent of
our trees,” says Maria Rosette Bagayas,
the town council secretary and the local
government's coordinator on the ylangylang livelihood project.
TPLEx is the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La
Union Expressway, an 88.85-kilometer
PH, Germany ink tech-voc pact
By Jeannette I. Andrade
MANILA -- The Technical
Education and Skills
Development Authority
(Tesda) has hooked up with its
counterpart in Germany to
boost technical-vocational
education and training (TVET)
in the Philippines.
Tesda Director General
Joel Villanueva, who joined
President Aquino in his fournation European trip, signed in
Berlin a cooperation
agreement with the Federal
I n s t i t u te fo r Vo c a t i o n a l
E d u c a t i o n a n d Tra i n i n g
(BIBB), an international center
o f e xc e l l e n c e f o r T V E T
research, for collaborative
research and development.
Villanueva witnessed on
Sept. 19 the signing of a joint
declaration of intent between
Germany and the Philippines
on “furthering technicalvocational education and
training through consultancy,
“ I n G e r m a n y, m a n y
students take vocational
training, and for those not yet
ready, an intensive preapprenticeship program backs
the youth. Their government
has been investing massive
amounts of talent and money
on TVET and it is paying off,”
Villanueva said.
“The challenge we face in
skills development is the need
to increase the permeability of
the TVET. Since the issues in
the TVET are now global in
nature, the more we should
consider external support in
the design of our training
programs,” he said.
With the cooperation
agreement, the agency will be
able to take concrete actions
for capability-building,
research and development and
dual training as the BIBB can
open up channels to fund
research projects in the
country, Villanueva said.
Inquirer.net
four-lane toll road from Tarlac City to
Rosario town in La Union province. The
highway cuts through 17 towns,
including Anao, and two cities in the
provinces of Tarlac, Pangasinan and La
Tesda Director General Joel
Union.
Villanueva. tesda.gov.ph photo
Bagayas says TPLEx hit the town's
1.7-hectare ylang-ylang mini-forest in
technical assistance, exchange
Barangay San Francisco West.
of information, experiences,
Anao, an agricultural town in the
best practices, joint research,
eastern boundary of the province, has
s t u dy t o u r s a n d ex p e r t
been producing and selling essential oil
meetings.”
extracted from ylang-ylang flowers
Both initiatives, he said,
since 1994. The oil is used in the
would further improve the
manufacture of perfumes, bath soap,
TVET so it could provide the
lotion and shampoo.
skills needed by the graduates
The town used to produce 36 liters
and make them eligible for
of the oil a year and hopes to double the
w o r k ,
r e d u c i n g
production with an upgrade of
unemployment and
extractors, Bagayas says. Extraction is at
underemployment.
its peak when ylang-ylang flowers are in
season from March to May. u
Page 22
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 22
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Rebecca Bustamante: The maid who made it
By Nestor Corrales
But her promise to her mother to
change her family's fortune kept her
on course. While her girlfriends went
to discos looking for rich husbands,
Bustamante continued her work as a
nanny until she was able to secure a
permanent residency and with her
savings established a recruitment
agency to help fellow Filipino
workers.
She was born poor. But for
Rebecca Bustamante, it was the
beginning of a journey that was to be
inspired by a promise she made to
her late mother: To improve herself
so that she can provide education
and the life her siblings deserved.
Extreme poverty
Before becoming president of
Charle Associates and Asia CEO
Forum, Bustamante, born the
seventh of 11 children in Pangasinan,
spent her childhood living in homes
of families as an unpaid servant in
exchange for food and money to pay
for school fees.
She went to Bataan where her
aunt promised to send her to high
school. While there, her mother was
diagnosed with cancer.
She recalled how they were
discriminated against whenever
they would bring their mother to the
h o s p i t a l w h e r e t h e d o c t o r,
oftentimes, would not immediately
attend her because they did not have
means to pay for her medical needs.
Seeing the plight of her family
fueled her determination to change
their life. But even before she could
start, her mother passed away.
No option but to leave
Months after, Bustamante left the
Philippines at the age of 19 to
work as a domestic helper in
Singapore.
“I was so determined to improve
myself to be able to help my brothers
Anao seeks ...
From page 21
The Anao government buys
flowers from residents at P60 a
k i l o . A n yl a n g - yl a n g t re e
produces an average of 3 kilos of
flowers a week. During peak
months, extraction is done three
times a week, with the rest of the
week designated as buying days.
The town now has two
machines, each capable of
extracting oil from 50 kilos of
ylang-ylang flowers. Three
smaller extractors from the
Korean Intellectual Property
Office in South Korea will be
delivered to the town to improve
its capacity, Bagayas said.
She says Mayor Edgardo
Felipe plans to put these
machines in remote villages as
satellite extractors. This is to
immediately process the flowers
right after picking them, she says,
and sisters because I promise my
mom to give the education and the
life my brothers and sisters
deserved,” she said.
In Singapore, Bustamante
worked as a nanny. She said she only
had one day off per month and
usually slept late at night.
She said she sent her earnings to
her siblings in the Philippines but left
20 percent of her salary as her
savings. Bustamante said she wanted
to study but her employer told her
that she was there to work and not to
study.
She, however, found a way to
resume her schooling without the
knowledge of her employer.
“Working as a domestic helper
and studying, giving up never came
to me,” she said.
A Singaporean teacher agreed to
support her while she studied
accounting at the Open University of
Singapore Institute of Management.
Undeterred by challenges,
adding that ylang-ylang flowers
are quick to wilt.
Twenty years after the town
extracted its first essential oil
from ylang-ylang flowers, the
industry has not moved far,
business-wise. This is because
the income that the ylang-ylang
flowers bring to the town only
comes to about P200,000 a year.
Bagayas says the town
government has decided to use
the essential oil in producing its
own brand of perfume, “Aroma
Anao,” which is sold in the town's
display center, treasurer's office
and in trade fairs in Central
Luzon region.
In the past, she says, they
produced other products, such as
bath soap, hair conditioner and
lotion, but these were made by
manufacturers outside the town.
“Because we have no
chemists, we just supplied
essential oil to manufacturers.
Then they returned them to us as
Bustamante said she remained
focused and was inspired by her
Singaporean teacher who assured
her that “someday she will be
successful.”
Bustamante said she was able to
read Dale Carnegie's “How to Stop
Worrying and Start Living.” She said
the book influenced her a lot.
Migrating to Canada
After she finished college in
Singapore, she decided to migrate to
Canada where she also worked as a
nanny. She pursued her graduate
studies in Accounting and Marketing
at the Ryeson University.
While working and studying, she
found out that there were a lot of
other job opportunities like selling
cookware in Toronto.
Her hardworking attitude was
criticized by friends who questioned
her second job when there was one
“that provides for your family in the
Philippines”.
finished products,” she says.
Even in the manufacture of
perfumes, town hall employees
have to turn the conference room
of the mayor's office into a
perfume-making plant.
“This is just a micro
[industry] and our production is
manual. The Department of
Trade and Industry is helping us
acquire a mixer for the perfume,
and printing and filling machines
to mechanize operations,”
Bagayas says.
“Manually, we have limited
production. On the average, in an
eight-hour work, we produce
about 300 60-milligram bottles
of perfume,” she says.
“Our vision is for Anao to
produce ylang-ylang essential oil
for the world. We want to export,”
s h e s ays . “ We h ave b e e n
receiving inquiries from abroad.
Our problem is, we cannot meet
the demand.” Inquirer.net
Love of her life
At the age of 27, Bustamante
thought it was time to think of herself
especially since her brothers and
sisters have finished college.
She wanted to marry but did not
have any experience with men so she
asked her friends to help her find a
suitable husband.
One of her friends introduced
her to Richard Mills who after going
out on a date passed her strict
criteria of what her husband should
be.
And after a year of being
together, the two got married and
have since been blessed with two
sons Chris and Alex.
Giving Back
Having been poor, Bustamante
wanted to share her success with
others who were as less fortunate as
she was years ago.
As part of giving back,
Bustamante started to buy
computers and distribute it to
schools in her province.
“When these children are able to
learn more, to be educated more,
imagine the outcome from our
country,” she said.
“Basically the purpose is to
increase the education in the
province,” she added.
She said she would also buy
books and distribute them to schools
in the province and have plans of
setting up mobile schools for a wider
coverage of her education program.
Lessons shared
Going through many challenges
as a child and as an OFW, she had this
advice to fellow OFWs and those who
were born poor.
“You have to really ask yourself.
What do you really want? Find out
what you want. Whatever you want,
follow that,” she said.
“It doesn't matter who you are if
you want to be successful,” she
added.
She shared a quote from Hillary
Clinton saying, “In life, no matter how
good you are, there will always be
people who don't like you. Never
mind. Don't think about them. Ignore
them.”
Bustamante also shared a most
important principle to her financial
success:
“Know how to save. Don't borrow
money if not necessary.”
Bustamante hopes that her story
will help OFWs strive for a better life
for themselves and those they left
b e h i n d . H e r b o o k , “ Re b e c c a
Bustamante: Maid to Made”, was
launched September 17 at the Dusit
T h a n i H o t e l i n M a k a t i C i t y.
Inquirer.net
Puerto Princesa airport is one of six provincial airport deals that will be ready for rollout in the
fourth quarter of 2014 under the public-private partnership program. The Department of
Transportation and Communications made a pitch to British investors and trade officials as it
seeks to drum up interests for upcoming infrastructure deals under the administration's PPP
program.
DOTC woos ...
From page 20
Philippine economy also has,” Limcaoco
said.
Big-ticket railway deals also include
the operations and maintenance of Light
Rail Transit Line 2, the $1.5 billion
North-South Commuter rail line, a $3
billion mass transit system loop and the
LRT-1 Dasmariñas extension.
Limcaoco said the existing railways
PH urged ... From page 20
solution, Jica said that about P520 billion
should be spent between 2014 and 2016.
The figure includes P164.7 billion for
new expressways, including a proposed
Calamba-Los Baños tollroad, and P178.8
billion for new railways like the
proposed Mega Manila subway study.
Airports were also a crucial part as a
study was ongoing for a massive $10billion international airport in Sangley
Point, Cavite, which would eventually
replace the congested Ninoy Aquino
serving Metro Manila account for only 6
percent of trips today but the figure is
seen to increase to 17 percent to 18
percent after new and expansion railway
projects are built.
“In the Philippine transportation
sector, the biggest challenges include the
need to fill the infrastructure gap and
deliver services to ensure mobility in a
fast growing country,” Transportation
Undersecretary Jose Perpetuo Lotilla said
in a prepared speech. Inquirer.net
International Airport in Pasay City.
Jica also noted that the dream plan's
economic benefits justified its massive
cost as savings from vehicle operating
costs and travel time was expected to
reach P4 billion a day, or P1.2 trillion a
year, for Mega Manila.
“If a set of proper interventions are
made, traffic congestions can be
removed from most of the road sections.
Compared to the present situation,
overall transport cost can be reduced by
13 percent and air quality improved in
Metro Manila,” Jica said. Inquirer.net
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 23
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Hot mama Jodi shares
secrets to being sexy
By Jojo Panaligan
Sleep and stairs are her friends, stress and
sweets are her foes.
“Be Careful With My Heart” star Jodi Sta. Maria is
down to her ideal weight of 105 lbs and it comes with
realizations about things that don't work for her, and
those that serve her in good stead.
“Hindi pala totoo na kapag kulang ka sa tulog,
automatic na papayat ka. Minsan yun pa ang nagtritrigger sa yo kumain ng kumain. Ang stress din, hindi
laging nakakapayat so dapat iwasan yan, lalo na ang
mga sweets,” said she in a recent interview.
Admitting that she doesn't always have time to go
to the gym to exercise because of regular tapings for
her TV show, and having just shot a movie, Jodi makes
do with simple exercises at home including brisk
walking and “panic-panaog sa hagdan” to help her
stay fit.
“Especially kasi tabain yung mukha ko onscreen
so I have to watch my weight. Besides, when you're
comfortable in your weight, masaya ka, iba yung
fulfillment na nararamdaman mo.”
She doesn't aim to be reed thin unlike some stars
because she looks “unhealthy” when down to just
skin and bones.
Being a mother single handedly raising her son
Thirdy, Jodi needs to be in optimal health at all times.
She recalled a time when her weight would “yo-yo”
on the scales so she's now happy to have had that
consistency.
“Hindi naman porket nanay ka na, magpapabaya
ka na sa yong katawan, that we'll forget about
ourselves. When we feel good about ourselves, we
become a confident person,” she said.
Jodi endorses Cosmo Body, a weight loss
supplement that claims to be effective in increasing
metabolism which helps sheds pounds. Manila
Bulletin
Charice Pempengco with her family (Photo from Racquel Pempengco's Facebook account)
How Charice and Mommy
Raquel finally put aside
their differences
By Mikee Delizo
Charice Pempengco's feud with
her mom, Raquel, was among the
most controversial family spats in
2013, said to have been caused by the
former's coming out as gay woman.
After more than a year of
estrangement, the two have patched
things up.
On “The Buzz,” the singer shared
that her mom tried to reach out to her
in February via an email account she
no longer uses. They finally
reconciled in June.
“Nakasulat nga po (sa email) na
kinakamusta po ako and
kinakamusta niya si Alyssa (Quijano,
her girlfriend). First time ko na nakita
na she mentioned her (Alyssa). I
messaged her and five minutes after,
nag-reply na siya,” Charice said. “And
that night, nag-Skype kami the first
time po na nagkita po kami sa Skype,
nakita namin ang isa't isa tapos alam
mo 'yung feeling na wala ng
awkwardness?”
It could've been a more
emotional video call, but Charice
controlled her feelings so as not to
mar the “happiness” of the moment.
Raquel and Alyssa have also
settled their differences.
“Eventually daw po kasi, nu'ng
nakita niya (mom) na talagang hindi
Jodi Sta. Maria (Photo by Jojo P. Panaligan)
kami naghiwalay, nag-joke siya sa
amin na sabi niya, para daw kaming
Romeo and Juliet. Nakita naman daw
po niya na inaalagaan namin 'yung
isa't-isa and talagang nakayanan
namin na kami lang dalawa,” Charice
u
Page 24
explained.
Piolo Pascual told to
keep mum on quitting
By Marinel R. Cruz
ABS-CBN contract artist Piolo Pascual said at a recent
media gathering organized by E! News Asia that he had been
“scolded by someone of authority” for publicly declaring that
he wanted to quit show biz.
“I was advised to stop talking about retirement anymore.
Eventually, I realized that I should be grateful for what I have.
I am still offered different projects, which I should welcome,”
said Piolo.
“I'm very candid in all my interviews. I guess that's why I
sometimes get in trouble. I don't exactly plan what to say.
This is because I've dealt with local writers for so long that
they've already become my friends,” the actor explained. “I
simply answer questions that I'm asked. At this point in my
career, what else is there to keep hidden?”
Kris Aquino
Piolo said he was going through a tough time at work and
was feeling drained when that eventful press interview took
place. “Like most people, I was going through a certain phase
in my life then. Being an actor can sometimes be
overwhelming, but I should no longer say I'm tired of my
profession,” he pointed out.
“I'm currently tackling a father role. Then there's another
film being developed for me and a concert.”
Piolo told the Inquirer that he wanted to be a better
City Mayor Herbert Bautista ended,
father to his son Iñigo, 17, whom he finally allowed to join
she denied dating the man
show biz. “I'd like to spend more time with him. He wants me
mentioned.
to stay with him in the United States, where he is based, but I
"The man in the article has been
want him here. I guess it's just time management. We're
thoughtful, to the point that my
going to have to come up with a compromise.”
home could be a flower shop
Asked whether it was tough being dad to a teenager, the
already, but I politely told him that
37-year-old replied: “I used to think it would be hard, but it's
even if I'm single, I am not
not, actually. Not now, when we get to talk more. We are able
interested," she wrote. u
Page 24
to discuss serious subjects. I'm thankful that he is a good kid.” The actor says he is thankful that his son
Iñigo is a good teenager. Rodel Rotoni
Inquirer.net
Kris: No time for a
'lasting relationship'
MANILA -- Television host Kris
Aquino denied a report claiming she
has an "ardent" suitor who will
gladly "give her the moon if she asks
for it."
The "My Little Bossings" star
admitted that while she went on a
couple of "casual dinner dates"
since her relationship with Quezon
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 24
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
'We're no longer
Bench vows to uphold
amused by anarchy'
dignity of women amid
Show biz folk seek justice for slain
The Naked Truth outrage mom
of actress Cherry Pie Picache
By Aries Joseph Hegina
By Erika Sauler and Marinel R. Cruz
MANILA -- Bench Clothing
issued a public apology
Tuesday, Sept. 23 on its
Facebook page for “offensive
elements” shown during its
fashion show entitled “The
Naked Truth” last September
20.
“We will take all these
concerns seriously and will
serve as a lesson learned when
we plan our next show,” Bench
said.
The clothing company also
maintained that they shall
“continue to uphold the dignity
of women.”
The show earned the ire of
netizens when a scene during
the show depicted actor Coco
Martin pulling a female model
on a leash.
Coco Martin and his ‘Pet’. Screengrab from Facebook Account
G a b r i e l a Wo m e n' s
partylist group in a statement
slammed the particular scene
as “a disturbing throwback to
concepts of enslaving and
subjugating women to male
fantasies.” Inquirer.net
Gabriela to file House
resolution vs 'anti-women'
T-shirt, Bench fashion show
By Aries Joseph Hegina
Representatives from a
women's party-list plan to file
a resolution in the House of
Representatives to condemn
the sale of a t-shirt allegedly
promoting rape in a giant
shopping mall chain and a
scene in a fashion show where
a male actor pulled a female
model on a leash.
Representatives
Luzviminda “Luz” Ilagan and
Emerenciana “Emmi” De Jesus
of the Gabriela Women's Partylist said that they will file a
House resolution urging the
House Committee on Women
and Gender Equality and the
Committee on the Welfare of
Children “to jointly investigate
current government programs
and agencies that monitor and
enforce violations of laws that
protect women and children
committed by private parties
such as shopping malls and
event organizers.”
The Gabriela party-list
representatives are referring
to a t-shirt sold in the boy's
section of SM Department
Store which states “It's not
rape. It's a snuggle with a
struggle” and a scene during
the “The Naked Truth” fashion
show of Bench clothing that
showed actor Coco Martin
pulling a female model on a
leash.
T h e p a r t y - l i s t
representatives slammed SM
for selling the t-shirt which
trivializes rape and implies
Screengrab from Karen Kunawicz Facebook Account
that “women are merely
playing coy to men's sexual
advances”.
“The shopping mall had
the gall to market that
offending shirt in the boy's
section, and what message
does this send to teen men
about taking liberties with
women? The managers of the
mall should realize that
exploiting this wrong message
just to maximize profits can
perpetuate anti-women
attitudes and violent
behavior,” De Jesus said in a
statement.
Also, Gabriela said that the
scene in the Bench fashion
show was a “disturbing
throwback to concepts of
enslaving and subjugating
women to male fantasies.”
On Tuesday, Sept. 23, SM
said that it had withdrawn
stocks of the shirt from all its
stores and launched an
investigation on how it got into
their inventory.
“We do not tolerate such
action. SM does not support
such irresponsible and
malicious acts that mock
important and sensitive social
issues,” SM said in a statement.
Netizens expressed their
outrage as a picture of the said
offensive shirt made rounds in
the social media. Inquirer.net
MANILA -- The tragedy that befell
the family of actress Cherry Pie Picache
gave rise to fresh waves of indignation
over what one of her show biz
colleagues called “the anarchy
prevailing in our country.”
Picache's 75-year-old mother
Zenaida Sison was found dead with
several stab wounds inside her Quezon
City residence Friday (Sept. 19) night, in
what the police later ruled as a robbery.
The break-in at the victim's twostory house on Scout Dr. Lazcano Street,
Barangay Paligsahan, apparently took
place amid the heavy rains. With two
sisters living in the United States, Sison
lived alone though she had employed a
housemaid, a laundrywoman and a
gardener who reported for work only
during the daytime, the Inquirer
learned.
Police said the body was discovered
by Picache and her driver, after the
actress became worried and rushed to
the place when her mother did not pick
up her phone call earlier that day.
Picache and driver Mateo Mago
Kris ... From page 23
Aquino also explained a photo of a
bouquet of flowers she uploaded on her
social media account, which she
downplayed.
"Mali ako to have posted the flowers
because it may have sent the wrong
signal, wrong move on my part. Of
course I still pray to not grow old alone,
to have a partner who will marry me in
Church and who will be someone who is
comfortable with my past, accepts my
two sons, and who will want to build a
good future together," she added.
Aquino continued: "But I realize
with my job, my schedule, and my
responsibilities at present, a lasting,
loving relationship is not possible. Kaya
bakit ko ipipilit ang alam kong hindi pa
pwede?"
She also revealed that while she may
How Charice ...
From page 23
Now reunited, the two, along with
other members of the family, are taking
the time to catch up with one another.
Just recently, they sprang a swimming
party surprise on the girlfriend of
Charice's brother, Karl.
“This time parang pinagtatawanan
na lang namin (iyong mga nangyari) and
I think hindi lang ako 'yung nagbago.
Lahat, the whole family, all of us
changed,” Charice said.
On Sunday, Charice and Raquel sang
a duet on “ASAP 19.”
Their reconciliation, according to
Charice is “the best achievement that I
could ever have in my life.”
“(Sana) maging role model tayo sa
kanila na kahit anong problema sa
mundo, basta pamilya kayo, walang
problemang hindi maso-solve,” Charice
said in tears.
Cherry Pie Picache
arrived at the house around 6 p.m. and
found the gate and main door forcibly
opened. Mago was the first to go
upstairs and find the victim dead inside
her bedroom.
Chief Insp. Rodel Marcelo, head of
the Quezon City Police District (QCPD)Criminal Investigation and Detection
Unit, said investigators found in the
house a blood-stained knife and a piece
u
Page 26
not be perfectly happy about being
single, she is "content" and that she
believes that the right man will come at a
right time.
"My mom used to always remind me
that it's impossible to have it all, that I
should prioritize and be grateful for
what I do have. Bongga ang career, happy
and alagang alaga ang mga anak ko, close
and loving kami ng mga kapatid ko. For
now okay na yun," she added.
Aquino ended the message by saying
that she lied on an episode of "The Buzz,"
admitting that he has yet to move on
from her relationship with Bautista,
which only lasted a few days after being
made public.
"Further truth, I lied when I said sa
Buzz before the ice bucket challenge that
I've moved on, I haven't. May bubog pa sa
puso. So I'll repeat, all in God's time," she
said. MNS
One-on-one with Oprah
Charice had a one-on-one interview
with Oprah Winfrey during her concert
tour in the US and the former said that
the popular TV host was “proud” of her.
“Kinakabahan ako kasi nu'ng
pagpasok ko pa lang sa studio, sabi ko,
'I'm really nervous.' Sabi niya (Oprah),
'Don't be! This is your homecoming,'” she
recounted. “Sa studio, kami lang pong
dalawa so mas intense. Siguro po nu'ng
interview, it sounded like 'yun 'yung
parang nag-come out naman ako sa US
and yet she made me feel comfortable
with everything and I'm excited for
everyone to see kasi ibang side na 'to,
ibang side ni Charice.”
Her taped interview on “Oprah” will
be aired on Oct. 19. Charice is set to
release an album next year.
“I just look forward for more
blessings. I don't wanna ask for anything
kasi parang andito na lahat ng
pinapangarap ko dati pa,” she said.
Manila Bulletin
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 25
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
MARIAN Season 2
on GMA Pinoy TV
Witness the new look of the
Philippine's primetime dance party
MARIAN as it opens its second season
on September 20. Hosted by the
Kapuso primetime queen Marian
Rivera, brace yourselves as she
displays her versatility in a fast-paced
season opener where she attempts to
do three quick costume changes in
front of the camera.
Together with co-hosts Julie Anne
San Jose and Christian Bautista, put
your hands together as the UAAP
Cheerdance Competition 8-time
Champion, UP PEP Squad, performs
their much talked about routine on
the newer and bigger stage that will
accommodate the 30-strong squad.
On Celebrity Showdance,
Starstruck Ultimate Survivors go up
against the Avengers. Kapuso stars
Mark Herras and Kris Bernal team up
against equally strong dancers Sef
Cadayona and Diva Montelaba.
Celebrity Showdance is a season-long
dance battle of the stars to be judged
by the stunning Ms. Lucy TorresGomez.
Moreover, the beautiful dance
diva will give the viewers updates on
her royal wedding preparations.
GMA Pinoy TV airs
Hiram na Alaala
Kapuso primetime queen Marian Rivera
Catch the Season 2 of MARIAN
every Saturday on GMA's flagship
international channel, GMA Pinoy TV.
TFC 20 Ambassador Gary V draw a capacity crowd at the recently held Pistahan Parade &
Festival in San Francisco. He continues his global tour this September in Atlantic City,
New Jersey, Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia.
Gary V. goes on a hot streak in
US, New Zealand, Australia
DALY CITY, California -- To
celebrate a very successful 30-year
career Gary” Mr. Pure Energy”
Valenciano is touring the US, New
Zealand and Australia.
He has performed at the Mark J
Ettes Hall, Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic
City, New Jersey on September 20. He
then will go on stage at the Victory
Convention Centre in Auckland, New
Zealand on September 26 followed by
a show at the Rosehill Gardens in
Sydney, Australia on September 28.
Gary V has been touring the world
since last year as the Ambassador of
ABS-CBN's The Filipino Channel (TFC)
for its 20th anniversary celebrations.
After an explosive performance
with son Gab in New York last year,
Valenciano performed Toronto, San
Francisco and London for TFC. He is
set to visit Singapore, Saudi Arabia and
Guam.
He received a standing ovation
GMA Network presents
HIRAM NA ALAALA, another
innovative primetime series
that will captivate the hearts of
viewers as it showcases how
the power of shared memories
can cause great love to become
real. The show premiered
September 22 on GMA Pinoy
TV.
Hiram na Alaala narrates
how one soldier's trauma
becomes instrumental in
sustaining and bringing back
great love between man and
woman.
This unique intertwining of
lives and love stories fostered
by shared memories will prove
that GMA is determined to lead
in primetime TV while
showcasing the versatility of its
stars led by Drama King Dennis
Trillo as Ivan Legaspi and
Kapuso drama sweetheart Kris
Bernal as Andrea Dizon,
together with multitalented
actress Lauren Young as
Bethany Sandoval and awardwinning actor Rocco Nacino as
Joseph Corpuz.
The series also stars
respected movie and TV actors
and actresses, Jackielou Blanco
as Regina Legaspi; Nina Ricci
Alagao as Martina Sandoval;
Shyr Valdez as Araceli Corpuz;
Dexter Doria as Ola Dizon;
Antonio Aquitania as Benedict
Corpuz; Allan Paule as Xander
Dizon; and Lotlot de Leon as
Annabelle Sta. Cruz.
Completing the
powerhouse cast are Julia Lee
as Gelai, Kenneth Paul as Chris
Corpuz, Jenny Rose as Krissy
Corpuz, and Rap Fernandez as
Bruno.
In the series, Ivan (Dennis)
and Joseph (Rocco) instantly
became friends when they are
deployed to war. They endure
the ravages of armed conflict
with Joseph's tales of great love
for Andrea (Kris), highlighting
shared memories of their years
together as lovers, much to
Ivan's amusement.
However, in an encounter
with rebels, both men are
captured, imprisoned and
tortured. Fate separates them
as Joseph is left in captivity
while Ivan is rescued by the
military.
The suffering Ivan
experienced triggered him to
assume the identity of Joseph,
u
Page 26
Carmina Villarroel:
Tax case shocking
By Marinel R. Cruz
Actress-TV host Carmina
when he performed for over 25,000
Villarroel is urging the Bureau
people in London. He also staged a
of Internal Revenue (BIR) to
powerful five-city tour of Australia
conduct a more extensive
(Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne,
information campaign about
Brisbane) with son Paolo in July just
everything there is to know
before staging the successful repeat of
about taxes.
his ARISE Gary V 3.0 concert franchise
The BIR filed a P4.45this year at SM MOA Arena. He filled up
million tax-evasion case against
the Smart Araneta Coliseum for two
her husband, actor Zoren
nights in April before that.
Legaspi, in June. “We were
Paolo and Gary received a trophy
shocked. We didn't expect that,
for co-directing the concert series,
since Zoren and I have always
which won Best Concert of the Year at
been diligent taxpayers,”
the recent 6th PMPC Star Awards at
Carmina told the Inquirer
the Solaire Grand Ballroom. Aside
during the launch of her latest Carmina (left) and Zoren (right) explained everything to their kids Maverick
from receiving countless nominations
e n d o r s e m e n t , S m a r t and Cassandra. Cebu Daily News
that night, Gary also received three
Communications' Sulit IDD
other awards for Best Male Recording
Card.
efficiently. “I bet very few very hard. We should know
Artist for his WITH YOU album as well
people understand this. We where every peso goes.”
as Best Male Star of the Night and Best
All's well
need someone to spell things
Carmina said all is well now
Male Celebrity of the Night.
She said that she hopes the out.” She added, “Many of us between her family and BIR
In the US, Valenciano sold out the
bureau will conduct lectures don't know how much is being Commissioner Kim Henares.
Chumash Resort in Santa Barbara,
and seminars to help people deducted from our paychecks “She's just doing her job. I love
handle their finances more for taxes every month. We work
u
Page 26
u
Page 27
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 26
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Alden Richards' skin
‘darkened' for Rizal role
By Oliver M. Pulumbarit
CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Alden
Richards talked about
portraying Jose Rizal in GMA 7's
coming series “Ilustrado” at a
press conference here for the
network's “Kapuso Fiesta”
event.
It was difficult to imagine
the mestizo actor in the role
because of his fair skin, but he
whipped out his phone and
showed the Inquirer an
unreleased photo of himself in
full “darkening” makeup and
costume.
“Ilustrado,” he said, is the
network's first bayaniserye and
will air nightly in October. “It's
also a movieserye. We use film
equipment and shoot in HD.
'Ilustrado' is about Rizal's love
for his mom, Teodora Alonso
(Eula Valdez), for Leonor Rivera
(Kylie Padilla) and for the
country.”
Alden, 22, is here for the “Bet
ng Bayan” provincial
showdown. The talent tilt will be
on TV, a show he will cohost with
singer Regine Velasquez.
“It's a nationwide reality
talent search… different from
other talent shows because we
bring the venue to those who
cannot go to Manila to audition,”
he said.
he recounted. “And I enjoy
hosting segments in (the variety
show) 'Sunday All Stars.' Before I
became an actor, I hosted a
school pageant. So maybe [the
execs] said, why not give him a
project that involves hosting. I
also enjoy the perks; I'm going
white-water rafting later. I just
deliver lines [in different places]
but it's so rewarding.” But, made
to choose between hosting and
acting, Alden added, “I'd still
choose acting.”
Three years and eight
months into the business, Alden
said, he still pinches himself
sometimes, incredulous about
the quick ascent of his career.
Really fast
“It's gone really fast, thanks
to GMA and my supporters,” he
Alden Richards top-bills TV's first said, gushing. “I've learned to
bayaniserye.
stay humble and true to myself.
That's how people started liking
The actor admitted that he me, and it keeps me grounded.”
took the cohosting gig because
He is aware that it's a
he does not have a regular show mindset not shared by some
at the moment: “I asked GMA for new actors. “I won't name
this. I told them, while I'm able, names, but there are newbies
please keep me working.”
who let a little taste of success go
Alden, whose real name is to their heads.”
Richard Faulkerson, feels
As for why he's currently
“blessed” that the network single, Alden explained, “I'm not
trusted him with these big looking for love right now. I have
projects. “It started with other priorities. It's very cliché,
'Carmela,' with Marian (Rivera),” but that's the truth.” Inquirer.net
Gary V. Goes ...
From page 25
California, and filled Harrah's Rincon in
San Diego, California last February.
For his concert “Gary V Live at the
Taj Mahal,” Gary shared the stage with
the same special guests headed by
international super-selfie king Gab
Valenciano, who recently graduated
from Full Sail University with an
associate's degree in Recording
Engineering. He also featured the best
female quartet in the country, Top 10 of
The X Factor Philippines and Top 3 for
Showtime's “Bida Kapamilya” for 2013,
AKA JAM. The group is composed of
four talented ladies, Suklay Diva
Katrina Velarde of the “Trenderas”
soap opera, Monique Lualhati, Ashley
GMA Pinoy TV ...
From page 25
while losing memories, perception and
awareness of his own life and past. With
this regained freedom and assumed
identity, Ivan finds great love in the
arms of Andrea as Joseph.
Meanwhile, Andrea was devastated
when she found out that Joseph was
missing. But she will be surprised when
Ivan claims that he is Joseph. Andrea
eventually falls for Ivan because
through him, she feels Joseph is still
around. She carries on her great love for
Joseph by allowing herself to relive her
shared memories with her missing
lover.
Joseph is eventually saved only to
find out that Ivan and Andrea are
We’re no longer ...
From page 24
of wood believed to have been used to
attack the victim, and a crowbar that
may have been used to pry the door
open.
The victim's family later reported
that several pieces of expensive jewelry
had gone missing, Marcelo said.
The QCPD has to yet to come up with
suspects at press time Saturday.
Expressions of sympathy and
outrage have since poured out from the
entertainment industry.
Multi-awarded screenwriter and
director Jose Javier Reyes said: “I met
Cherry Pie's mom. She was a feisty,
independent woman. It goes to show
that anarchy is prevailing in our
country.”
“My prayers and heartfelt
condolences to Pie Picache and her
family for the loss of her mother. May
justice be served and the perpetrators of
this heinous crime be given the
punishment they deserve. And again let
this be a wake-up call to the people we
have entrusted the responsibility of
ensuring peace and order as well as
sustained by the taxes they so dutifully
collect from us,” Reyes said, adding:
“We, the ordinary citizens, are no
longer amused by the anarchy around
us. Neither are we entertained by their
rah-rah self-serving speeches and
politicking. We are not stupid or numbed
by your cheering squads.”
Writer-actress Bibeth Orteza
recalled: “Her mom was kind. I've
spoken with her on the phone one time
To advertise
please call
Campbell and Jhelsea Flores. Acclaimed
m u s i c p ro d u c e r / a r ra n g e r M o n
Faustino is the concert's musical
director. Filipino fans around the world
can look forward to seeing one of the
country's greatest artist perform his top
hits live and in person.
In the course of over 30 years,
Valenciano has produced and recorded
countless hit songs that helped define
the history of Pinoy pop culture. He has
also inspired millions of people around
the world as UNICEF's Philippine
National Ambassador for 15 years.
For more on Gary Valenciano, check
w w w. m a n i l a g e n e s i s . c o m
www.garyv.com and his Facebook site
Gary Valenciano Official, as well as his
Twitter site @GaryValenciano1 and
@therealgaryv for Intragram.
Inquirer.net
already in love with each other. He
thinks that he is betrayed by his best
friend and girlfriend and is now left
with the daunting challenge of bringing
back Andrea's great love for him.
The same holds true for Bethany
(Lauren), Ivan's girlfriend. Upon Ivan's
return, Bethany is surprised to find out
that her boyfriend is claiming that he is
Joseph. What makes things worse is the
fact that Ivan doesn't remember her and
he thinks he is in love with someone
else. Bethany will then become
determined to do everything to get Ivan
back.
Under the helm of the highly
acclaimed director of Temptation of
Wife and My Husband's Lover, Dominic
Zapata, Hiram na Alaala began airing on
September 22, Monday to Friday on
GMA Pinoy TV.
when she was arranging for a surprise
birthday party for her daughter.”
Orteza suspected that “the crime
(was) an inside job. I know the area
where she lived. The security there is
strict. I remember that my driver would
always have to surrender his ID to the
guard. I also know that at a certain
(time), access to one of the gates is no
longer allowed.”
Veteran TV host German Moreno
said he found the crime “unimaginable.”
“Why was this done to a woman of that
age? I could not believe that people
would go kill someone so helpless just to
earn a living.”
Moreno asked the government to act
quickly on the case and “show people
that they're serious about what they do.”
Director Adolfo Alix Jr. expressed
“hope that justice will be served so that
she'll have peace of mind. Prayers for her
and her family.”
In a statement, Picache said: “My
family is very aggrieved by this
unfortunate event that happened to our
mother. We trust that the QCPD together
with the Scene of the Crime Operatives,
through their vigilance and effort, will
apprehend the person or persons who
committed this gruesome crime against
our mother and family and against our
society.”
The actress thanked Quezon City
Mayor Herbert Bautista and his sister,
former actress Harlene Bautista Tejedor,
for their immediate action and
assistance; as well as QCPD homicide
section head Insp. Elmer Monsalve,
Kamuning station commander Chief
Supt. Lemuel Obon and other police and
barangay officials. Inquirer.net
201-434-1114
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 27
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
THE CHART-BUSTING R&B group from the 1990s performed their hits, except for one.
Magic Liwanag / Ovation Productions
Boyz II Men can still make 'em
sigh, swoon and sing along
By Allan Policarpio
If there was one singular moment in
Boyz II Men's recent concert at the
Smart Araneta Coliseum that best
illustrated the effect of the band's music
on its fans, it would be the R7B group's
ardent performance of the megahit, “I'll
Make Love to You.”
It's been 20 years since it was
released and stayed at the No. 1 spot of
the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 14
consecutive weeks, but the saccharine
ballad has not ceased to make giddy
teenage girls out of grown women. And
there were a lot in that night's crowd.
Toward the end of the show
mounted by Ovation Productions, the
three remaining members of the former
singing quartet - Nathan Morris, Wanya
Morris and Shawn Stockman - emerged
onstage with bunches of long-stemmed
roses in their hands. Sensing what was
about to happen next, a lady made a
mad dash toward the stage, only to be
intercepted by two burly bouncers.
One for her
Hysterically, the woman motioned
to the men in front of her to look at
Nathan, who had already knelt on the
edge of the stage, one arm outstretched,
handing her a rose. The excited fan was
eventually allowed to get close, and,
before long, a swarm of squealing ladies
had flocked around the stage, too,
flailing their arms in a bid to get the
attention of the trio, who wore
matching white shirts. All the while,
Boyz II Men serenaded the rapt
audience with passage upon passage of
lush, soulful harmonies, the kind that
made it among the bestselling vocal
groups of the 1990s.
Bickering bridesmaids
Shawn, tossing the final rose,
spurred what could only be described
as a throng of bridesmaids fighting over
a bridal bouquet. Despite having
performed for more than two decades,
the men's individual vocals remain
remarkable and showed no signs of
deterioration: Shawn's falsettos and
belts were smooth and bright; Nathan's
baritone was sensuous, but could also
dredge for the low notes that former
member Michael McCary used to sing;
and Wanya can still perform vocal
Carmina ... From page 25
her! She has my respect, understanding
and patience. I learned a lot from the
whole experience. Zoren and I
discovered that someone else is using
his TIN (tax identification number).
We're fixing everything,” she said.
Carmina said the BIR case has
affected their kids. “We had to assure
them that their parents didn't do
anything wrong. We explained what
happened.” Twins Maverick Peter and
María Cassandra are 12 years old.
Both love sports, the proud mom
calisthenics - riffs, runs, growls - with
little difficulty.
The three sometimes looked as if
they were singing over prerecorded
tracks, but Nathan, Shawn and Wanya
erased all doubts when they huddled
together to dish out a resonant, gospelinflected a cappella version of “It's So
Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday,”
which melded their voices' contrasting
tones and textures.
They sang of love and its many
forms, facets and stages; and the
crowdfrom the VIP section to the rafters
- diligently sang back: “The Color of
Love,” “A Song for Mama,” “4 Seasons of
Loneliness,” “Water Runs Dry,” and
Journey's “Open Arms.”
Motown tribute
Another well-applauded song was
“On Bended Knee,” which toppled “I'll
Make Love to You” from the top spot
years ago. (The feat made Boyz II Men
the only music act, aside from Elvis
Presley and The Beatles, to replace their
incumbent No. 1 hit with another of
their own.)
Slick steps
Meanwhile, Boyz II Men pulled off a
series of slick and delightfully campy
dance steps that hark back to that of The
Temptations' and other doo-wop
bands, during the group's tribute to
Motown.
The group had everyone dancing
and grooving to renditions of Barrett
Strong's “Money (That's What I Want)”
and a mashup for Four Tops' “It's the
Same Old Song” and “Reach Out I'll Be
There.”
The only letdown we could think of and we're nitpicking - is that the show
felt a tad short. Not a few fans were
hoping that the boys would perform
their collaboration with pop-R&B
superstar Mariah Carey, “One Sweet
Day” - which remains the longestrunning No. 1 song in the history of
Billboard, at 16 weeks.
They didn't . But the song's
recording was blasted from the
speakers soon after the R&B group left
the stage. And so, the fans, relishing the
romance and nostalgia, spilled out of
the coliseum, still singing
enthusiastically along. Inquirer.net
said; Maverick is into basketball;
Cassandra, volleyball. “They're not so
much into the arts, although Cassy
writes poems.”
About time
Asked for her comment on the
rumored reunion of the cast of the 1990s
top-rating sitcom “Palibhasa Lalake,”
Carmina exclaimed, “It's about time! It's
been two decades since I last played
Cathy. I feel so old! If I get to play her
again, I think she will have become more
mature, but still childlike. She'll forever
be the baby of the family.” Inquirer. Net
“China Airlines NexGen Plan”
China Airlines to Introduce Family
Couch in New B777 Aircraft
China Airlines will offer an
innovative service in the
Economy Class cabin of its new
B777-300ER aircraft starting
September 2014. By booking
three adjacent Family Couch
seats on long-haul flights,
families and couples can enjoy
the comfort of lying flat on their
backs. Each aircraft has a total of
30 Family Couch seats in the first
10 rows of Economy Class,
where a set of three seats turns
into a sofa bed.
The First of its Kind in Asia, a
Cost-Effective Alternative to
Business Class
China Airlines' Family Couch
works by raising a specially
designed footrest 90 degrees,
which fills the legroom space
and together with the seat
cushion, three seats convert into
a single sofa bed. The Family
Couch comes with a mattress,
pillows, blankets, and specially
designed seatbelts to give
passengers a comfortable,
flexible personal space. Either at
the time of ticketing or during
airport check-in, a family of
three with one child under the
age of 12 can purchase the
Family Couch product for
US$200 in addition to airfare;
the cost is an additional US$500
for a group of two and an
additional US$1,000 for a solo
traveler. Family Couch is based
on Air New Zealand's Skycouch
technology, and China Airlines is
the first airline in the world to
license Skycouch from Air New
Zealand. Family Couch gives
passengers a cost-effective
alternative to the full-flat beds in
Business Class, and they can
even enjoy a promotional rate
when China Airlines launches
the service in September.
Brand New Economy Class
Cabin Enhances Comfort
China Airlines' new B777300ER aircraft features a new
seat design. The seats have slim
seatbacks and recline 120
degrees to give passengers both
more legroom and space to
stretch out in. In addition, fourway adjustable headrests and
side cushions provide more
support to passengers during
their sleep.
The new aircraft is equipped
with the Panasonic eX3 in-flight
entertainment system, which
features touchscreens, replacing
traditional control units for
selecting movies, shows, music,
or games; and a social
networking function called
“Seat Chat”, which allows
passengers on the same flight to
m e s s a g e o n e a n o t h e r.
Passengers can also enjoy Wi-Fi
service for a fee starting at
USD$11.95 for one hour,
USD$16.95 for three hours, and
USD$21.95 for 24 hours. These
services enhance the flying
experience by seamlessly
integrating entertainment and
communication.
China Airlines will introduce
a total of 10 B777-300ER
aircraft, starting with three
aircraft by the end of 2014,
which will be dedicated to North
American routes. China Airlines
is committed to continually
upgrading its fleet and
launching next-generation
cabin products to enhance the
passenger experience.
China Airlines to Debut Advanced
In-flight Entertainment System
China Airlines' new B777300ER fleet, equipped with
brand new in-flight
entertainment systems, is
scheduled to be delivered
starting from September 2014.
The in-flight entertainment
system features an industryleading high-resolution 18-inch
screen and can be used to watch
movies, listen to music, play
games, use social media, read emagazines and news, as well as
shop for duty-free products. Inflight Wi-Fi is also available to
add more fun to the flying
experience.
18-Inch Ultra Big Screen for
Ultimate Enjoyment
China Airlines' NexGen Plan
introduces the most advanced
Panasonic eX3 in-flight
entertainment system that
features multi-touch
technology, so passengers can
swipe the screen just as they do
with their smart devices.
Passengers can choose from
hundreds of movies, short films,
and more than 20 video games.
China Airlines' in-flight
entertainment system will have
an upgraded “My Favorite”
function, which allows
passengers to save their favorite
shows in “Personal Playlist” for
continuous viewing after a rest
or meal.
Social Networking in the Air
China Airlines' B777-300ER
in-flight entertainment system
is also equipped with a powerful
social networking feature called
“Seat Chat”, which allows friends
on the same flight to message
one another. A “Share” function
also enables passengers to share
their favorite music, movies, or
games with their friends on the
u
Page 29
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 28
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Filipino fighter Chris Cariaso
to compete for UFC title
By Tom Gerbasi/UFC.com
Daniel Parantac competes in the men's Wushu Taijijian category. AFP file photo
Wushu bet Daniel Parantac gives
PH first medal in Asian Games
By Mark Giongco
MANILA -- The Philippines finally barged into the medal tally of the 17th
Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea with wushu bet Daniel Parantac bagging
the silver medal in the men's tajiquan event Tuesday, Sept. 23.
Parantac, a Southeast Asian gold medalist in the same event, wound up with
a score of 9.68 - a close second to Zhouli Chen of China, who registered a 9.78.
Parantac also edged Myanmar's Chan Ko Ko Nyein, who ended up with a
bronze medal after posting a 9.65. Inquirer.net
WBC sees Pacquiao,
Floyd fight happening
By Nick Giongco
The World Boxing Council (WBC)
is not losing hope that Floyd
Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao
will finally get it on in the not-sodistant future as the Mexico Citybased governing body is calling on the
two “to sit down and make the fight
happen.”
In a statement released Sept. 23,
the WBC, headed by Mauricio
Sulaiman, a matchup between
Mayweather and Pacquiao, “clearly
and simply, (is the fight) the world
wants to see.”
Mayweather has won several
WBC titles in a legendary career,
while Pacquiao has also done the
same thing in racking up eight world
titles the last 16 years.
The WBC came out with the stand
following Mayweather's successful
defense against Marcos Maidana of
Argentina last week and the
impending clash between Pacquiao
and unbeaten US fighter Chris Algieri.
Pacquiao and Algieri are set to
face each other on Nov. 23 in Macau
and the WBC feels there is no other
alternative for the two but to agree
and give the world the fight they all
want to see.
Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum
said it's all up to Mayweather to
decide if a Pacquiao match can be
made as the Filipino has agreed to
almost everything that he has
demanded.
Besides, Arum pointed out that
HBO, which is aligned with Pacquiao,
and Showtime, which has
Manny Pacquiao
Mayweather, are dead-serious in
setting aside differences for the sake
of making the fight happen.
But recently, Mayweather came
out smoking again, saying for the fight
to take place, Showtime has to call the
shots in the promotion and Arum has
to be left out in the cold.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao is not giving
a Mayweather much thought as he is
deeply focused on surviving Algieri
when they slug it out in Macau.
Trainer Freddie Roach is expected
to reunite with the 35-tear-old
Pacquiao early next month in General
Santos City to begin the most crucial
phase of the preparation.
Pacquiao is the huge favorite
against Algieri, who earned a shot at
Pacquiao on the strength of his upset
victory over Ruslan Provodnikov of
Russia last June. Manila Bulletin
While boxing's hold on the
Philippines is more than secure
thanks to the accomplishments
of the likes of Manny Pacquiao
and Nonito Donaire, mixed
martial arts has been making its
move into the hearts of fight
fans over the last several years,
with Filipino-Americans Mark
Munoz and Brandon Vera
embracing their new
popularity.
Yet what Munoz, Vera, and
other fighters of Filipino
descent haven't done in the UFC
- the leading promotion in MMA
is wear championship gold.
That could change on
September 27 though, as Fil-Am
Chris “Kamikaze” Cariaso
challenges Demetrious “Mighty
Mouse” Johnson for the UFC
flyweight title.
The five-round bout, which
headlines UFC 178 at the MGM
Grand in Las Vegas, marks the
first time a fighter of Filipino
descent will challenge for a
world title in the Octagon, but
the 33-year-old Cariaso is cool
under pressure heading into
the biggest fight of his career.
“I'm actually in full-on
obsessed mode right now,” he
Chris Cariaso (right). Photo courtesy of Zuffa, LLC./Getty Images
said. “Right now my main focus
is this fight. I've been putting
100-percent into this; it's what
I'm going for.”
A veteran of more than
eight years as a professional,
the southpaw paid his dues on
the regional circuit before
making it to the UFC in 2011.
Formerly competing at the 135pound bantamweight limit, the
San Jose, California native made
the move to the flyweight
division (125 pounds) in 2012,
and after a rough 1-2 start, he
has won three straight, earning
him a call to face Johnson, the
promotion's first and only
flyweight champion, and a man
considered to be among the
best in the world, pound-forpound.
Cariaso, who was already
scheduled for another fight at
the time, didn't turn that call
down though.
“A lot of people ask me
about the call,” he said. “I was
a l re a dy b o o ke d t o f i g h t
s o m e o n e e l s e , s o I wa s
surprised at the time, but then I
was like 'I'm for sure taking this
fight' and I've been excited ever
since. My goal has always been
to win it. When I finally got it
u
Page 29
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 29
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Filipino fighter
Chris Cariaso ...
From page 28
(the title fight) I was like 'it's my
time, it's my destiny.'”
Preparing to beat a dominant
champion like Johnson is no easy
task, but with his busy striking
style and underrated ground
game, Cariaso is confident that
while he's the underdog, he has
the tools to pull off the upset. And
if he needs any further
inspiration, he looks to T.J.
Dillashaw's May 2014 win over
Re n a n B a ra o fo r t h e U FC
bantamweight crown, a victory
dubbed one of the biggest upsets
in MMA history.
“I think about that all the
time,” Cariaso admits. “I definitely
feel like everyone has always been
beatable, especially looking at
M i g h t y M o u s e . H e' s b e e n
dominant in his last few fights,
but I see holes in his game and I
definitely think he's beatable.”
And should the soft-spoken
Cariaso put another major upset
win in the books on September
27, he is more than eager to
assume the mantle of MMA
ambassador to the Philippines
and the rest of the world.
“I'm myself, and when I'm the
champ I'm just going to continue
being myself and continue being
an ambassador for this sport and
our division,” he said. “I'm not the
loudest, I don't talk trash; I let my
actions in the cage do my talking
for me.”
From page 27
friends. In addition, the brand new
entertainment system offers other
convenient services such as dutyfree shopping, e-magazines, news
updates, and in-flight menus.
same flight . The new social
networking services even make it
possible for passengers to make new
In-Flight Wi-Fi
China Airlines provides Wi-Fion
the new B777-300ER aircraft on
both a complimentary and fee basis.
Passengers with personal mobile
phones, laptops, or tablets can
access the weather, and tourism
information for free. Alternatively,
for unrestricted access to the
Internet, passengers can choose
from 1-hour, 3-hour, or 24-hour
options for surfing the Internet, with
Record sales
expected ...
subcompact car segment, which is
being led by the Mirage.
Columbian Manufacturing Corp.,
the exclusive distributor of Daewoo,
showcased newly designed
commuter vehicles manufactured
locally. Among those unveiled were
the BV115 and BS106 Daewoo bus
models, and three jeep variants
namely the Conqueror, Explorer and
the Socialite.
Leading truck body builder
C e n t ro M a n u fa c t u r i n g C o r p .
meanwhile disclosed that it is
bringing into the market a locally
designed and mass-produced
“mikrobus,” the Mitsubishi L300 XV.
Using the longer L300 FB Exceed
chassis cab as its platform, Centro
designed then converted it into a
single-body, 17-seater L300 XV
mikrobus for sale at an affordable
price of less than P1 million.
“We saw the upsurge in the
nationwide demand in the shuttle
segment of the mass transport
industry and realized that most of
the reliable Japanese shuttle models
have only 15 seats or less yet have
price tags of over P1 million.
We therefore saw the demand
for a mikrobus converted from a
Japanese chassis cab with over 15
seats yet costs less than P1 million.
Our answer is the L300 XV as it has
17 seats (including driver) at an
introductory SRP of only P898,000,”
said Centro president Raphael T.
China Airlines
to debut ...
From page 21
Mitsubishi Motors Philippines
Corp. (MMPC) gave a sneak preview
of the new Outlander, which will be
made available in the second quarter
of next year, and formally introduced
the new Pajero; the ASX, a compact
SUV; and the concept GR at the
motor show, said the company's vice
president for marketing services
Froilan Dytianquin.
According to Dytianquin, MMPC
is highly optimistic of the growth
prospects, particularly for the local
EXPRESS SUDOKU
HOW TO PLAY: Place a number from 1 to 9 in each empty cell so that each
row, each column and each 3x3 block contains all the numbers from 1 to 9
Solution to Issue 38 Sudoku
Solution to Issue 38 Crossword
prices starting at NT$300. To
celebrate the launch of the in-flight
Wi-Fi service,
China Airlines will offer a
promotion giving passengers a free
trial of unrestricted Internet access.
Please visit http://www.chinaairlines.comfor more information.
Juan. “PIMS is the perfect
demonstration of the successes that
the Philippine motoring industry
has achieved over the years. We
enjoyed double-digit growth since
2011, and we have no plans of letting
up,” Gutierrez said.
“We plan to maintain this
momentum by doing what we do
best - providing the Filipino
motorists with only the best
automotive products and services
that suit their needs and lifestyles.”
H o n d a p r e s i d e n t To s h i o
Kuwahara, meanwhile, formally
launched the Brio and the Brio
Amaze, as well as presented the NSX
sports car. Inquirer.net
EXPRESS CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1. Persists
6. Hens make them
10. Applications
14. Hello or goodbye
15. Certain
16. Following
17. Preachy
19. A style of design
20. Superior to another
21. Explosive
22. Biblical garden
23. Stitched
25. Laconically
26. A song for 2
30. Greek god of darkness
32. Beguile
35. Ecstasy
39. Cling
40. A rational motive
41. Welcome mat
43. In lieu
44. System of weights
and measures
1. Young sheep
46. Makes a mistake
2. Found in some
47. Ancient Hebrew
lotions
vestment
3. Classify
50. Chasm
4. Not this
53. God of love
5. The general
54. Deep-dish or
activity of selling
meringue
6. S
55. Die
60. Violent disturbance 7. Trough
8. A type of milling
61. Indecipherable
machine
63. Greek letter
9. Religious offshoot
64. Bridle strap
10. Downplay
65. Birdlike
66. At one time (archaic) 11. Squalid
12. Surpass
67. Historical periods
13. Obdurate
68. Homes for birds
DOWN
18. Fury
24. Damp
25. Fools
26. Deceased
27. Annul
28. Reflected sound
29. Thermoregulator
31. Farm building
33. Possessing a weapon
34. Tidy
36. End ___
37. Lion sound
38. Terminates
42. Coach
43. Frozen
45. A European
peninsula
47. Creepy
48. Earlier in time
49. Owl sounds
51. Health resort
52. 4-door car
54. Unadulterated
56. Rant
57. Nile bird
58. Thin strip
59. Female chickens
62. N N N N
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 30
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Rentals
u
Help Wanted u
Jobs u
Personal u
Services
We place:
Nannies-Housekeepers-Companions
NATIONWIDE PLACEMENTS
Live in Live Out Full Time Part Time
MANDATORY SCREENINGS
TOP SALARIES
Complete your online application today!
www.householdstaffing.com
610-664-5233
LIVE-IN
BABY SITTER
NEEDED
Energetic live-in
baby sitter needed
Friday morning to
Monday night.
Full Time
Westchester, NY
Driving a plus.
Please call
848-232-6278
CONDO FOR
RENT
September 30, 2014
September 30, 2014
Well furnished
2 bedroom, 2 bath
condo in Makati City
for rent.
Accessible to church,
shopping malls and
entertainment.
Weekly, Monthly
and Six Months rates
reasonable.
Please call
917-379-4478
MED-TECH
WANTED
PROPERTY
FOR SALE
Wanted Med-Tech
with experience.
Part time
(10 am to 6 pm)
CP Medical Lab
33 Bowery Street
New York, NY 10002
Property 4 Sale on
EAGLE ROCK
GOLF COURSE
PENNSYLVANIA
32 Free Rounds
Free Skiing Lot on
14th Green
Please call
917-578-4260
Reduced
$62,500/BO
Fax Resume’ to
212-625-9338
Call 6098121940
The Filipino
Express is only
$40 (52 copies) for
one year.
That’s only 77
cents per copy and
mailed right to
your home !
For details, call us
at 201-434-1114
or send an email to
filexpress@aol.com
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 31
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS
Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2014
Page 32
THE FILIPINO EXPRESS