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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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Washington, D.C., December 23, 2004 --- President Bush on Monday spoke at length of his plan to fix early next year the country’s broken borders and help undocumented immigrants to gain legal working papers, despite an uphill battle in the Congress.
“We want our Border Patrol agents chasing crooks and thieves and drug runners and terrorists, not good-hearted people who are coming here to work,” he said at a press conference here.
Bush has wanted a temporary guest workers program since taking office four years ago. But the idea was sidetracked by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and then left on the sideline because the White House did not want to tackle such a controversial issue during an election year.
But although the plan faces a tough fight with some of the Republican members, Bush said he will have to persuade them that his program does not amount to amnesty for the estimated 8 million to 12 million illegal immigrants, and negotiate with Democrats who want any plan to provide workers a path to legal status.
“I fully understand the politics of immigration reform,” he said.
The President’s temporary workers plan will allow illegal immigrants with jobs in the US to keep them under a new visa for three years. An extension for another three years would be available.
“The system we have today is not a compassionate system. It is not working. And as a result the country is less secure than it could be with a rational system,” he said. “I’m passionate about this because the nature of this country is one that is good-hearted and our people are compassionate.”
Bush also asked Congress to guarantee those who will be granted “temporary workers visa” the same rights as US workers, including a minimum wage and legal recourse if their employee rights were violated.
And he asked for the expansion of the legal permanent resident program, now capped at 140,000 people a year.
In the name of national security, Bush said creating a program where foreigners who want to work can legally enter the country will take some of the pressure off Border Patrol agents whose jobs have taken on greater importance since Sept. 11 tragedy.
He also said the program will recognize a reality that foreigners are “doing jobs Americans won’t do; take the pressure off of employers so they’re not having to rely upon false IDs; cut out the coyotes who are the smugglers of these people.”
However, Bush stressed that he does not favor automatic citizenship for immigrant workers.
“If somebody who is here working wants to be a citizen, they can get in line,” he said.
With the hope that the guest workers program will soon be approved, some immigration advocates touted the move of the President.
Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, a leading immigration advocacy organization based in Washington, was optimistic that a comprehensive immigration reform will be one Bush’s top priorities for 2005.
“Immigration reform will be politically difficult but vitally necessary to enhancing our national security, improving our economy, and fixing a broken immigration system,” Kelley said in a statement sent to The Filipino Express. “The President's diagnosis of the problem is dead on. The current system has collapsed and does not function for employers, workers, families, the American people, or immigrants.”
She said thatthe US immigration system must be modernized to bring the management of migration into the 21st century.
Four broad elements, Kelley said, would make Bush’s immigration plan more effective: 1.) more worker visas; 2.) more family visas; 3.) path to permanent residency; and 4.) realistic enforcement.
Other supporters and immigrant groups of the planned immigration reform concurred.
They say that people come illegally because negotiating the legal immigration system is next to impossible for so many immigrants and the employers who hire them, and therefore, the U.S. must develop "break-the-mold" temporary worker programs to widen legal channels for the future flow of needed workers.
“Restrictive laws and bureaucratic delays too often undermine this cornerstone of our legal immigration system. Millions of immigrants have been waiting patiently for legal immigration, but unless we reduce backlogs for close family members within realistic and enforceable limits, we will not have fixed the system,” Kelly said.
Bush’s plan, according to advocates must create legal channels for undocumented immigrants and their families. If it is to work and be sufficiently attractive to undocumented immigrants to participate, it must include a meaningful path to permanent residence over time for those who choose to make America their home.
“In the coming year, we will see how much political capital he is willing to spend to fix our immigration system. If he continues to lead forcefully, reaches out to leaders from both parties, and maintains his focus on comprehensive fixes, we have confidence that the American people can come to agreement on how to tackle this vexing issue and fix immigration for generations to come,” Kelley said. -- Editor Anthony D. Advincula contributed to this report.
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Legions pay last respects to Fernando Poe, Jr.
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A horse-drawn carriage carries the remains of film idol and former presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. during a funeral march joined by tens of thousands supporters in Manila. Supporters cheer as the funeral cortege inch its way to teh North Cemetery. (MNS)
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MANILA, December 23, 2004 --- Fernando Poe Jr., who was buried Dec. 22 in Manila, was one of the Philippines’ best known and best loved tough-guy actors who topped a successful acting career with a failed bid for the presidency.
Supporters of Poe, who was 65 when he died following a stroke, worshipped him as the champion of the underdog, a role he perfected on the silver screen.
But his critics mocked him as a dim-witted film star who would have led the Philippines to ruin if he had become president.
In a country in love with celebrity, Poe was the biggest movie star around, a self-made millionaire who was loved by the man-in-the-street for his depiction of heroes who overcame huge odds to protect the oppressed.
Known simply as “Da King” or by his initials “FPJ”, Poe dropped out of school at 15 and built a successful movie career and film business. His production company, FPJ Productions, is one of the biggest in the country.
Outside of the Philippines, Poe was a relatively unknown figure until he decided to stand in this year’s presidential election despite his total lack of experience in politics.
He promised very little to the voters.
“Breakfast, lunch and dinner” was the slogan of his faltering campaign, which saw the actor blow a huge opinion poll lead to arrive at election day trailing incumbent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
To the half of the Philippines’ population who live on under $2 a day, Poe’s simple message offered hope and brought back memories of Joseph Estrada, the movie star president forced out of office in 2001 by a military-backed revolt.
Estrada, in detention fighting corruption charges, had endorsed Poe and was believed to have backed his campaign financially in the hope of winning a pardon if his friend was elected.
Poe’s campaign was more about showbiz than politics. His aides were film stars, his bodyguards stuntmen and he liked to pepper his election speeches with some of his most famous one-liners.
But he proved to be a disastrous candidate and lost the election to Arroyo by more than one million votes.
Some of his closest friends have said that he was reluctant to stand for the presidency and only did it as a favor to his old acting buddy Estrada.
Born Ronald Allan Kelley Poe, the son of film star Fernando Poe and an American mother Elizabeth Kelley, Poe always seemed destined for a life in the movies.
He changed his name to Fernando Poe Jr. to bank on his father’s popularity.
He dropped out of high school after his father died and took a job as a messenger in a film exchange office.
Later, he took bit parts as a stuntman before being given his first real acting role in the film “Anak ni Palaris” in 1950.
Poe’s biggest break was in the film “Lo Waist Gang” in 1956. It marked the local cinemas shift from the fantasy world of costume productions to the trendy realism of action movies.
He starred in some 200 films specializing in Robin Hood-style guerrillas and honest cops who overcame fearsome odds, corrupt politicians and gangsters to secure victory for the common man.
Just as Arnold Schwarzenegger was “The Terminator,” Poe was “Panday,” a working class hero who struck down challengers with a giant magic sword modelled on King Arthur’s Excalibur.
Through his years in the spotlight, Poe guarded his privacy and tried to cultivate an image of incorruptibility, revealing little about his marriage to fellow movie star Susan Roces. (MNS)
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NEW YORK, December 23, 2004 --- For many working Filipinos here who couldn’t visit their children or family members in the Philippines because of immigration concerns, the gifts and salary bonuses that they receive are not enough to make their holiday season complete.
“Christmas and New Year celebrations are for families enjoying time together. But it’s so sad that I cannot be with my family this year,” said D. Carmen, 44, who has not seen his children and family members for eight years now.
When he sees friends who are coming home for the holidays, Carmen, of Jersey City, said he had wished he could do the same.
“Sending Balikbayan boxes full of shoes, bags, shirts and chocolates would be more meaningful if I were the one carrying it,” he said.
Because of new stricter immigration rules, many Filipinos and other immigrants awaiting their papers have been separated from their loved ones.
But to some who don’t have any applications and have been overstaying, the only hope is an immigration reform for them to keep their jobs here. They also hope to get the chance to see their family members in the Philippines and come back to the US without restrictions.
“When I left my nieces and nephews, they were asking me to send them Barbie dolls and GI Joes. Now they are all grown-ups and I haven’t seen them since I left in 1990,” said 46-year-old Nelia Guazon (not her real name), of Brooklyn, NY.
She thought she will get used to the feeling being away from home, but every Christmas time, Guazon said, “it hits me rock bottom.”
“I’m praying that there will be hope even I’m seemingly on a dead-end street. I’m praying I will be with my family in the Philippines next year,” she said.
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MANILA, December 23, 2004 --- Filipinos holding dual citizenship may now enter the country without a visa.
All they have to do is to present their valid Philippine and foreign passports, and an identification certificate showing that they have Filipino and foreign citizenship to the immigration officer at the port of entry.
A Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) official said these Filipinos do not need a visa because they have become Filipinos again after applying for dual citizenship in accordance with law.
Under new rules issued by the BID, entry and exit stamps must be placed on the Philippine and foreign passports of these Filipinos upon their arrival and departure from the country.
Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr. said the new rules would take effect immediately to facilitate the arrival and departure of Filipinos holding dual citizenship.
The new rules were issued following reports of misunderstanding between Filipinos with dual citizenship and immigration officers at the port of entry, he added.
Fernandez said a valid Philippine passport and the original copy of his or her identification certificate shall be considered as substantial proof of the holder’s Filipino citizenship.
Filipinos with dual citizenship will be allowed to stay in the country indefinitely, he added.
They will no longer be required to surrender a certificate, exit permit, or proof of payment of immigration fees -ñ all of which are pre-departure requirements for aliens, Fernandez said.
Congress had passed the Dual Citizenship Law to enable Filipinos to retain their Philippine citizenship after they have been naturalized in a foreign country.
The law also allows former natural-born Filipinos who have lost Philippine citizenship to become Filipinos again while retaining the citizenship of their adopted country.
An identification certificate will be issued by the BID, or any Philippine embassy or consulate to former natural-born Filipinos who apply for dual citizenship after presenting the necessary documents. (MNS)
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