|
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.
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEW YORK --- Facing impeachmentmoves in the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will attend the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting as the country will take the center-stage anew next month when it assumes the presidency of the Security Council.
The Philippine Mission to the United Nations are also working to have Arroyo convene and chair a summit of the leaders of the 15-member states that make up the most powerful organ of the United Nations.
The Philippine Mission said in a statement that the Security Council summit Filipino diplomats proposed would be the focus of several high-level meetings that President Arroyo and other Philippine officials would be attending here in September.
“A successful Philippine presidency of the Security Council in September, including a possible summit meeting, will cap our two-year membership in this vital organ of the United Nations,” said Ambassador Lauro L. Baja Jr., Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
He added that this would be the second time the Philippines will be holding the rotating presidency of the Security Council since assuming its elected seat in January 2004.
The Security Council is considered as the most important policy-making body in the UN because it’s the only organ whose decisions are enforceable and binding among the member countries. Under the UN Charter, the Security Council has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
President Arroyo will also be joining other heads of state and governments in the 2005 World Summit; the 60th Session of the United Nations General Assembly; and the ASEAN-United Nations Summit, that are scheduled to take place from 12 to 16 September, Baja said.
The move signals the Philippines’ bid to rebuild Arroyo’s international image by taking charge of the UN Security Council temporarily. It reflects an effort of the Philippines to make Ms. Arroyo shine in international politics despite dwindling popularity back home.
Arroyo is facing impeachment in Congress and protests in Manila and abroad for alleged vote-rigging and corruption. Here in New York City, various advocacy groups like the Philippine Forum and the NY Coalition for Gloria’s ouster (NY 4 Glo) are preparing protests to coincide with Arroyo’s visit.
The ambassador said that other Philippine initiatives will be highlighted in September, particularly the Informal Summit on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace, which President Arroyo will chair and the Second World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments which House Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr. and Senate President Franklin Drilon will participate in.
Baja said at least 16 heads of states or governments who support the Philippine initiative on inter-religious dialogue as proposed by Speaker de Venecia last year, will attend the informal summit on interfaith cooperation.
The summit is an offshoot of the successful Tripartite Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace held on 22 June 2005 and chaired by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo.
In the General Assembly, Baja said that the Philippines will advocate the debt-for-equity proposal of Speaker De Venecia. “The vision has been gaining wide reception and acceptance in various fora,” he said.
“Expectations from the Philippines have been raised but we will build upon our previous successes,” the ambassador said. “The Mission is now in full swing with negotiations and preparation of position papers and outcome documents.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NEW YORK CITY --- Gloria Canonizado, the Filipina who on July 25 got her dying wish to become a United States citizen, passed away four days later on Friday, July 29.
She was 59. She died at the Calvary Hospital in the Bronx where she has been confined since June 8.
The Calvary Hospital treats only patients with advanced cancer.
Canonizado, who is from Metro Manila, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996 (not 1976 as earlier reported). She was transferred to Calvary Hospital from an acute care facility where she was treated for severe shortness of breath. Canonizado’s cancer has spread to her lungs. During her last days, she had to be on oxygen 24 hours a day.
Canonizado is unmarried and childless. She has four sister still living in the Philippines.
Her only family in New York is her sister Remedios, who lives in Jamaica, Queens and who has provided Gloria with constant care.
As a nanny and housekeeper, Canonizado used to send her earnings to her family in the Philippines.
Canonizado’s lifetime wish became a reality a few days before she died.
On Monday, July 25, New York Congressman Charles Rangel presented Canonizado with a special congressional certificate giving her honorary citizenship status.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you. A million thank you to all of you for helping me. I am so very grateful,” Canonizado, who was too weak to speak, wrote in a note to Rangel and the staff of Calvary Hospital upon receiving the certificate of her citizenship.
The family that she worked for as a housekeeper sponsored her for US citizenship but her fingerprints were rejected by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly INS) and had to be redone.
She told Calvary Hospital staff that she had a July 16 appointment with the USCIS for her fingerprinting.
Luckily for Canonizado, Calvary Hospital has a policy of granting patients’ request.
Dr. Michael Brescia, medical director of Calvary Hospital, asked the hospital’s director of family care Debbie Feldman to make Canonizado’s wish a reality.
As a result, Canonizado’s social worker, Laurel Kinney, accompanied her to USCIS to serve as her advocate and make sure that she was treated with respect and that necessary care was taken for her condition.
A senior news anchor at NBC, Gabe Pressman, learned about Canonizado’s plight and visited Calvary Hospital to speak to her and to feature her story on his nightly news segment. Pressman was so touched by Canonizado’s story that he contacted the Department of Homeland Security to see if they could expedite her citizenship, but was told that the process could take up to five years.
Pressman then contacted Congressman Charles Rangel to see if he could help expedite Canonizado’s citizenship. Like Pressman, Rangel was touched by Canonizado’s story. On July 25, he visited Calvary Hospital and made Canonizado’s wish of becoming a US citizen a reality. Rangle presented Canonizado with a special congressional certificate that bestowed her honorary citizenship status.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MANILA --- International drug syndicates have been tapping Filipinas looking for work abroad as drug couriers, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
The DFA said the number of Filipinas caught carrying drugs has been on the rise, the latest involving a five-kilo shipment of cocaine intercepted at a Malaysian airport.
The DFA said that as of December 2004, its missions abroad had reported 116 Filipinos involved in drug-related cases.
Of this number, 35 were in the Americas, 32 in the Middle East and Africa, 26 in Europe and 23 in Asia and the Pacific. The Philippine Embassy in Brazil said there were 15 Filipinos in Brazil caught smuggling in drugs from Thailand and Turkey.
The DFA said drug syndicates usually offer jobs in an Asian capital. On arrival the victim is told to stay in a hotel and get in touch with a contact person by telephone.
The contact man meets the victim and tells her she is to deliver a package to another destination, usually a Latin American country via Europe. The victim is provided with a round-trip ticket.
After delivery, the victim returns to the Asian capital and receives a payment of $4,000.
The victim risks imprisonment of two to six years, depending on the volume of the contraband, if arrested at her destination.
The DFA said it is extending help to Aquiline Niño Quiemno, 25, who was caught with five kilos of cocaine at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Quiemno, who arrived from Johannesburg, South Africa on June 29, carried the contraband inside her bag.
The Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said cooperation by Quiemno with investigators has led to several arrests. (MNS)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
