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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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Jersey City, NEW JERSEY --- For the second time, Ador Equipado, who worked as deputy mayor of Jersey City in the late 90s and early 2000s, was sworn in as the city’s deputy mayor last Thursday, August 18.
Equipado, 61, said he welcomes his appointment as a chance to serve the city and the Filipino American community again. “Not too many people are given the chance to serve two administrations. This makes it exciting,” he said.
“Serving the government is lovelier the second time around,” said Equipado.
He served as deputy mayor to then-Jersey City mayor Bret Schundler from 1997 to 2001.
“The biggest challenge is to bring out the best in Healy‘s administration and put the interests of Filipino Americans hand-in-hand with that of the city,” said Equipado.
Equipado’s appointment is seen as recognition of the contributions of Filipino Americans in the city’s socio-economic and political life.
Filipino American voters represent 10 percent of the voting population of Jersey City.
Equipado is the second deputy mayor to be appointed by Mayor Jerramiah Healy, after Leona Belvini who was named several months ago.
Before his appointment as deputy mayor, Equipado is an aide to Mayor Healy and has been tasked to act as a liaison and to recommend solutions to Jersey City’s water concerns.
During the bi-weekly constituent day, Equipado helps the mayor in dealing with residents’ problems such as disposal of debris and hazardous waste. He also represents the Mayor in some city functions. He will also oversee all mayoral ambassadors or honorary deputy mayors.
Equipado used to represent former mayor Schundler in various events held by the various ethnic communities in Jersey City. This experience is seen as Equipado’s strong point which can help Healy in dealing with multi-cultural groups of the city.
He said he enjoys working with Healy because “he thinks the way I think.” He described the Mayor as kind and fair.
When he was working as deputy mayor under Schundler, he became known for recruiting Filipinos to volunteer in 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia to serve drinks and food to politicians and supporters. He also used to ask Filipinos to volunteer and serve food in City events.
For these, he was roundly criticized. But Equipado considers these as acts of volunteerism. ”Volunteering is a noble act,” he said.
“Where I am now is because of hard work,” he said. “Nothing is easy in this world.”
Equipado started as an aide to Schundler in 1992 and rose to become the assistant director of the city’s department of public works from 1994 to 1997. He was also appointed as director of the water department of the city.
Prior to his appointment in government, Equipado used to work as a chemical engineer in private companies. He was a former president of the civic group Garden State Filipino Americans Association. He studied at Mapua and Feati Universities in Manila, and holds a degree in chemical engineering.
Equipado also tried his hand in electoral politics. He once ran as a Freeholder and as a Republican Assemblyman candidate, but lost in both instances.
He said he has no plans of running again in the near future.
Equipado believes the secret of his success is his practicing his PhD, which he says, stands for professionalism, honesty and dignity.
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MANILA --- Filipina-American Cristeta Comerford became the first woman executive chef at the White House, six months after US First Lady Laura Bush reportedly forced out the last organizer of the President’s state dinners.
The First Lady announced her choice of replacement in a White House statement.
“I am delighted that Cris Comerford has accepted the position of White House executive chef,” Bush said.
“Her passion for cooking can be tasted in every bite of her delicious creations.”
The key White House post has been vacant since March when Walter Scheib left after 11 years as executive chef.
According to the US media, Scheib could not adapt to the culinary demands of the Texan first lady.
The announcement was made after the New York Times printed an article telling how Laura Bush asked Scheib “to pick up his knives and leave” and the prolonged wait while chefs are interviewed and asked to make test meals.
President George W. Bush started his second four-year term at the White House in January.
Comerford, 41, had been one of Scheib’s two assistants in the White House kitchen since 1995. Her specialty has been “ethnic and American cuisine,” according to a White House statement.
Now a naturalized American, Comerford studied for a degree in Food Technology at the University of the Philippines and then gained experience serving as a chef tournant at Le Ciel restaurant in Vienna.
She had also worked at the top Washington hotels, the “Grand Bistrot” and “La Colonnade.”
Comerford prepared the menu for the White House dinner in honor of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2003 and this year for India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The menu included chilled asparagus soup, pan-roasted halibut with ginger-carrot butter, basmati rice with pistachios and currants, and herbed summer vegetables.
Comerford’s duties are to design and carry out menus for state dinners, social events, holiday functions, receptions and official luncheons. Her official salary is between $80,000 and $100,000 a year.
But the presidential couple are not known for the frequency of their official dinners. There were only four during the first term from 2001-2004 and only one so far in the second term, for the Indian leader.
Ronald Reagan held 50 official dinners during his eight years at the White House.
George W. Bush is not a known gastronome. Obsessed by his fitness, Bush eats only light meals. His wife takes a lot more interest.
“Mrs. Bush has said she wants someone who cooks American food but also someone who can make a mean enchilada as well as the more complex interior Mexican food that she prefers,” said the New York Times.
“And the chef had better know how to make the president’s favorite cheeseburgers,” it added.
“Plenty of chefs were interviewed, with only a few asked to cook for the Bushes,” according to the New York Times.
Comerford had been a favorite with Chris Ward, chef at the Mercury Grill, a restaurant at Dallas in the Bush’s home state. (MNS)
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NEW YORK --- Filipinos in the New York-New Jersey area will soon have a church of their own with the inauguration of the “Church of the Filipinos” in September.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who will be in New York next month to attend the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), will be the guest of honor when the church, named after the first Filipino saint, San Lorenzo Ruiz, formally opens.
Fr. Erno Diaz, coordinator of the Filipino Apostolate and the Philippine Pastoral Center, told The Filipino Express that New York Archbishop Edward Cardinal Egan has approved the setting up of the “Church of Filipinos.”
“I’m really happy for this. It’s a great beginning. The Italians, Irish, Polish, Spanish and others have their own churches, it’s time for us to have one,” said Fr. Diaz.
The San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel will be located at 378 Broome St., in the northern Little Italy (Norlita) neighborhood of Lower Manhattan.
Fr. Diaz said a church hall adjoining the San Lorenzo Ruiz Chapel will also be formally dedicated to the memory of the late Archbishop of Manila Jaime Cardinal Sin. The hall will be known as the “Cardinal Sin Memorial Hall.
Fr. Diaz said when he visited Manila last June during a memorial service for the late Cardinal; he got a pledge from Henry Sy, a billionaire and shopping mall magnate, to sponsor the establishment of the Cardinal Sin Memorial Hall.
The Manila-based newspaper Philippine Star reported that the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) wanted the Cardinal Sin Memorial Hall to be a center for culture and values education outreach for Filipinos abroad, especially in New York and New Jersey.
The San Lorenzo church in NY is the second church outside of the Philippines, after a church in Rome, to be dedicated to Filipinos.
“Through this new Filipino Church, the NCCA hopes to create a cultural link with Filipino communities overseas and touch base with them and their children, reminding them and teaching them of the rich cultural heritage of their motherland, also in line with NCCA’s effort to provide KALAHI Culture Services to Filipinos overseas,” the Philippine Star quoted NCCA director Cecille Guidote-Alvarez.
Fr. Diaz said the church is currently being renovated in time for the September blessing.
He said the plan is to move the Filipino Apostolate, the Philippine Pastoral Center, and the Couples for Christ meeting room in the rectory and meeting center of the new church.
Filipino religious traditions such as the praying of novena, rosaries, Santa Cruzan, Salubong, and other religious celebrations could be held in the chapel he said.
The site where the Church of Filipinos will be set up is an old, 1925 church originally designated to Italian parishioners.
San Lorenzo’s feast day is celebrated on the last week of September.
San Lorenzo was Filipino-Chinese, a faithful priest assistant who was falsely accused of crimes in Manila. His life was in danger and decided to join the Spanish missionaries in Japan to propagate Christianity in Asia.
In Japan, he was tortured, beaten and hanged to death by Japanese who persecuted Christians. But he remained strong and never gave up his faith even he was being tortured and up to his last hour.
People who were touched by his miracles claimed they were cured from cancer by praying to him. He was beatified as saint by Pope John Paul ll in Rome in 1997.
Fr. Diaz said this is the right time to designate a Filipino church considering that many nurses, doctors, professionals and other care givers live and work in New York area. Over 300,000 Filipinos, mostly Catholics and Christians, live in the tri-state area.
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