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Founded in 1986
Founding Publisher/Editor:
Lito A. Gajilan
Columnists:
Atty. Michael J. Gurfinkel
Joseph G. Lariosa
Gani P. Tolentino
Ted L. Reyes
Atty. Reuben S. Seguritan
Photographers:
Butch Gata
Sheryl Garcia
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not reflect the opinion of the paper nor that of the publisher
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For the past 20 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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To tell us what you think about Filipino Express Online or to comment on the stories published here, E-mail us at Filexpress@aol.com
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WHAT’S UP WITH THE MEDIA?
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IT has been nearly eight years since Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became president, and throughout her reign, many scandals have rocked her administration–some almostdamaging enough to remove her from office.
Yet, amidst talks of extending her term through charter change and more evidence of graft and corruption, little is being done to really make a change. The people in Manila are out on the streets almost daily to ask for her removal or beg Congress to impeach her, however with little success. The military did its part in creating enough chaos to destabilize Malacañang and force Arroyo out of her throne, but again, it all fell short. What could be lacking?
The answer, the media
The media or the press is fast becoming like a furniture piece in the Philippines– stationary, passive, and a non-factor. Perhaps the murder and abductions of journalists there have a lot to do with this passivity. On the other hand, perhaps it is just how the Philippine media works– merely lookers and not doers.
Consider Watergate. Watergate was the pinnacle of political journalism. It showed the world how the media can change the world, if it only does its job. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post were novice reporters who smelled something rotten with the Watergate burglary. Through creative means of investigating, they uncovered a conspiracy so vast that it altered the course of history. The press needed only one mistake for the Nixon administration to seal the deal. In the Philippines, this kind of reporting is a far-fetched dream.
Look at some of the scandals that have been uncovered in the past seven years against Arroyo: The Garcitapes. The Jueteng-gate, the ZTE/Lozada Scandal, and recently The Bolante Case. These are four major graft and corruption scandals against the administration, yet Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is still in Malacañang, sitting at a chance to govern for more years. It is so pathetic it is already funny.
Perhaps the media is doing its part but could not do anything against the power of politicians to block anything against the administration. If so, then the media’s effort is not good enough.
When the Watergate scandal blew out in the open, even allies of Richard Nixon vowed to impeach him. Party politics was buried for the sake of the greater good. But then again, these politicians were ‘turned’ by the tidal wave of pressure caused by the media. It was the media that made it happen.
When will this happen in the Philippines? When can the media blur the lines of party alliances to push the country forward? When can the media gain the respect and dignity that could sway a country towards the truth and lead them to a brighter tomorrow? Is never a frightening word?
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EXPEDITED PROCESSING FOR RNS RECOMMENDED BY OMBUDSMAN
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Last December 5, the Ombudsman of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued its recommendation on ways to improve the processing of visas for Registered Nurses (RN).
But it did not address the issue of visa retrogression which has delayed the recruitment of thousands of foreign nurses, mostly from the Philippines.
In its background report, the Ombudsman affirmed the worsening of the nursing shortage. It cited a 2007 study made by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which projected that the U.S. will need 1.2 million RNs by 2014.
The Ombudsman said that the immigration process should be expedited to address the critical shortage. He recommended that the RN applications be separated and prioritized and be processed by just one service center.
At present, there are two service centers that adjudicate RN applications. Because of the lack of regular communication between these two service centers, there have been inconsistencies in the number of USCIS requests for evidence and the processing time has become longer. The adjudication time for an I-140 petition is now more than one year in both centers.
The Ombudsman said that designating just one center to process the application would result in a more efficient, uniform and faster adjudication.
The recommendation will certainly go a long way in shortening the processing of RN visa applications but it will not lift the current retrogression of visa numbers.
RNs are categorized under the employment-based third preference. The December 2008 visa bulletin shows a backlog of three and one-half years for the Philippines. The backlog for India and China is even worse.
As the Ombudsman report pointed out, visa availability is the principal cause for the delay in the recruitment of foreign nurses. This issue can be addressed only by the U.S. Congress.
H.R. 5924, otherwise known as the Emergency Nurse Supply Relief Act, is intended to address visa retrogression. It was introduced in the House on April 29, 2008 by Rep. Wexler and Rep. Sensenbrenner. It has bipartisan support and it was approved by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration last August 7.
Under the proposed law, 20,000 visa numbers will be given to registered nurses and physical therapists every year through September 30, 2011. Their immediate family members will also be allowed to immigrate without being subject to quota limitation.
The USCIS will be required to review and act on the immigrant visa (I-140) petition within 30 days from filing. After approval of the I-140 petition, the file will be transferred to the National Visa Center (NVC) which would then request the submission of the biographic data of the alien and other documents. The last step is the immigration interview to be conducted at a U.S. embassy.
If the alien is in the U.S., he/she may file an adjustment of status. The proposed bill requires a fee of $1,500.00 for each petitioned nurse to fund future nurse training and development in health professional shortage areas.
Immigrant advocates remain hopeful that this proposed bill will pass and that the Obama administration will usher in a more vigorous and effective response to the nursing shortage crisis.
(Editor’s Note: REUBEN S. SEGURITAN has been practicing law for over 30 years and is included in the Marquis Who’s Who in American Law. A former law editor and professor, he is also the author of a book on immigrant experiences. He has spoken in international and national conventions and has been interviewed on radio and television, including the ABC Nightly News. He has participated in meetings with White House staff and the Immigration Commissioner to discuss immigration reforms. For his community service and advocacy, he has received numerous awards in the U.S. and abroad. For more information, you may log on to his website at www.seguritan.com or call (212) 695-5281.)
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“There’s an immeasurable distance between late and too late,” Og Mandino wrote.. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s decision to stop drafting child soldiers is 18 years late. It is welcome nonetheless. .
The world adopted, in 1990, the “Convention on the Rights of the Child”. Still, it not too late for our. mujaheden in short pants. They're to be mustered out under an MILF plan, says the UN Secretary-General’s special representative: Radhika Coomaraswamy. The plan is "time-bound, concrete, and verifiable”
This lady diplomat’s mandate is: “Children and Armed Conflict. She concluded talks with MILF's Mohagder Iqbal and other officials. The hope is these adolescent gladiators will leave the killing fields and troop back to school. .
Will they comply?, ask skeptical evacuees. They're still traumatized by massacres that MILF Commanders Kato and Bravo unleashed. "Rebel groups want legitimacy, Coomaraswamy told Inquirer.“They see themselves as legitimate leaders of their people…,"
There’s self interest too. That’d improve chances of the UN Security Council delisting from groups facing sanctions.: This news should also curb knee-jerk denials.. MILF spokesman Eid Kibalu, on October 19, still insisted : "We deny using child soldiers.”
“Use of child soldiers has become a feature of armed conflict in every region of the world.” ,Selma Brackman said at a 2002 Montreal meeting. The Optional Protocol for Rights of the Child convention came into force then..
“No one believes that only 350,000 children have been forcibly pressed into war, Brackman added. ”Compelled to kill and be killed, child soldiers are forced to give violent expression to the hatred of adults."
Often impoverished, the child soldier is invited or sometimes coerced. Normally, a third are girls,. Most are combatants. Oftentimes, they also serve as messengers, guards, camp servants, cooks, or as spies. They’re also vulnerable to sexual abuse.
“They learned early lessons of terror”. These de-humanizing experiences will haunt them even after they’re demobilized..The cost to a nation’s social fabric is staggering.
Five Filipinas were among 26 interviewed by Dr. Yvonne Kearins for her book: “Voices of Girl Child Soldiers.” The other 21 were from Angola, Colombia and Sri Lanka. “It would have been wonderful if the firing stopped, and we listened to each other,” a Filipina child soldier said. “We could just talk ands try not to use guns…”
The Philippines is a signatory to Rights of the Child convention...So are Afghanistan, Cambodia Burma, and Sri Lanka. These four account for the highest number of kid-warriors in the world. No less than 19 countries used, with impunity, children in hostilities between 2004 and 2007”, asserts the New-York based Human Rights Watch.
That includes us. The UN Secretary General, in fact, referred to the child abuse here in three earlier reports. But the din from other issues, from Jose Pidal, Garci tapes to broadband and fertilizer scams, drowned out the warning.
Rebel groups here enlisted up to 30 percent of children, in armed conflict zones, for combat as well as support operations, UN Children’s Fund estimates.. “Most are 12 to 17 -- old enough to carry automatic rifles now light enough for a 10-year-old.”AFP “guesstimates” about 1,500 are in MILF ranks. NPA accounts for another 1,200. Abu Sayyaf have 300.
“NPA continued to use minors in combat", says the annual US State Department on human rights . Estimates of child soldiers vary from 3 to 20 percent of NPA manpower..In April 2006, NPA adopted a policy that banned recruitment of those below. 18.
That hasn’t filtered down. “There were 33 cases of rescued, captured or surrendered children involved in armed clashes handled by the Department of Social Welfare from January 2005 to March 2007” Most of these were in Samar, Leyte and Negros Occidental. Nine NPA surenderees in Davao were minors, two of them 13-year olds
“We’re saddened that, in previous formal talks with rebel groups, government never raised the issue of underage combatants," snapped Cotabato’s Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza AFP troops rescued a teen-ager, following a .clash with NPA rebels in Tulunan town..
“Future peace talks should include demobilization of underage fighters”, she added. The military, meanwhile, should stop using children “as guides in unfamiliar territory in theaters of operation.”.
Legislation blocks AFP from recruiting those under 18. Republic Act 7077, for example, pegs minimum age for reservists at 18..But reports persist of children being used by government-linked paramilitaries, like..the Citizen’s Armed Force Geographical Units and Civilian Volunteer Organizations.
These units recruited children “to provide security against cattle rustlers, thieves and other armed bandits,”.notes the State Department report They’re “are also fielded to fight guerrilla insurgents...Vigilante groups set up by the military as village defence groups, recruited children from indigenous communities. notably in Southern Mindanao.
Government will issue a directive to all CAFGU commanders not to recruit minors, Commaraswamy said. “The order should go out soon.”
That is overdue. “For far too long, the use of child soldiers has been seen as merely regrettable,” the UN Secertary General said. . “This… is intolerable. Those who practice this form of child abuse should be held accountable.”
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By Nestor Palugod Enriquez
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67 years ago, Christmas was in danger in the Philippines. On Dec 8, 1941 the Japanese imperial forces started bombing the only Christian country in the Orient. The Philippines was a US possession and served under US Military Command. Filipinos were inducted into service by Franklin D Roosevelt. Almost a quarter million Filipinos served and fought for the next four years. The Rescission Acts of 1946 took away the rightfully earned benefits and the honor and respect due to these veterans however. There are now currently less than twenty thousand surviving veterans, a third living in the United States and the 2008 Christmas again is as blink as ever.
This year it started well with the overwhelming passage of S1315 in the US Senate in the spring of 2008. It was nicely gift wrapped to the US House to endorse. The veterans waited all summer but finally on the day of the Autumn Equinox (Sept 22) the S1315 was passed by voice vote just few minutes after the noon hour. I was with the group of Filipino Veterans inside the Capitol offices of the US celebrating already. We were all in the state of euphoria beyond anyone could believe. Just a day before, I was driving toward the Washington Beltway from Jersey City with WWII veteran Fred Diaz. He was silently murmuring his rosary of Hail Mary pass and now his prayer was answered. A sad reality set in as we opened the gift just released from the Office of the Veterans Affairs Committee. After 60 years history of being denied the rightful status, the S-1315 comprehensive Veterans Act of 2007, budget-neutral bill that would provide much deserved benefits to all veterans, their families, and their survivors. Among the provisions, it would recognize the services these brave Pinoy warriors and, based on that service, provide them with a limited pension and increased compensation. It was amended just prior to the introduction on that morning w/o the Equity provision. I felt being duped and this was probably an understatement.
The recent financial crisis came with fury and diminished any holiday hope. It is going to be a long winter. Meanwhile, the veterans are falling on the wayside. On December 8, 2008, a memorial service was conducted at the Philippine Embassy to honor the life and accomplishments of a Filipino WWII hero and veteran, the late Joaquin “ Tatang Jack” Tejada who passed away on the first of December. Commander Tejada has been one of the most consistent lobbyists of the Filipino WWII Veterans bill in the US Congress. He earned the title, "US-Philippines Freedom Fighter" and had closely and tirelessly worked through the years with the Filipino American community and the Philippine Embassy to attain justice and equity from the U.S. government for the sacrifices and services of the Filipino WWII veterans. (Phil Embassy release) Tejada fought for the United States even after WWII. He was in Vietnam that I tried to connect with. We did not cross our path in Saigon but I was not too far behind him inside the Capitol trenches. His son, Joaquin Jr now lives in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The Filipino WWII veteran (PAVO) of Jersey City also lost another hero from their rapidly diminishing rank this autumn, Victoriano Martin. He died on Oct 3, 2008 the last day of the 110th US Congress. He called himself the American’s little brown brother and of the greatest generation that I might add. We are now seeking the 111th US Congressional session and the 12th US president since the Rescission act of 1946 for remedy.
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