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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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California gov writes letter to President Bush
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NEW YORK --- A month ago, Filipino American veterans held protests in California because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would allow public school teachers in California to include the heroism of Filipino American World War ll veterans in their textbooks.
This week, Filipino war veterans are lauding Schwarzeneger for writing a letter to President Bush endorsing the passage of a legislation in Congress that seeks to provide equity benefits to Filipino World War ll veterans.
“These benefits were promised to and earned by these veterans, but the promise was not fulfilled after the war. This inequity exists today,” Schwarzenegger said in his letter.
Schwarzenegger said urgent action was needed because the number of surviving Filipino veterans of World War II decreases with each passing year. “ I feel the United States government should recognize the military service of these veterans and provide them the benefits they deserve”
In 2003, President Bush granted health care benefits to Filipino American World War ll veterans.
The California governor’s action was the latest support the veterans’ cause received recently.
On the 64th anniversary of World War II on December 8, three Republican leaders pledged to work for the full US recognition to Filipino war veterans’ equity rights next year.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista CA) told 10 visiting leaders of the American Coalition for Filipino Veterans (ACFV) that he would reintroduce the new “Filipino Veterans Equity Act” this week and would take the lead to pass it next year.
Issa is the chair of the Philippine Friendship Caucus with about 70 members in Congress.
Issa pledged to reintroduce next year the Equity Bill filed last year by Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Escondido CA), who had resigned.
In the Senate, Sen. George Allen filed Senate Resolution 307 that “recognizes, and honors the Filipino World War II veterans for defense of American democracy.”
The bill was unanimously passed in the Senate on November 10, Veterans Day.
“We are quickly fading away,” said Alfredo Diaz, 89, New Jersey veteran coordinator of ACFV, and a defender in the Battle for Bataan who escaped from the Death March in 1942.
“Gov. Schwarzenegger, Mr. Issa and Mr. Allen gave us these Christmas gifts,” Diaz said.
“It’s very frustrating. We’ve been waiting too long. I’m old. I may not be able to live to get the benefits,” Diaz told The Filipino Express.
In his letter to President Bush, Schwarzeneger said less than 30,000 Filipino veterans live in the United States and the Philippines. Most of these veterans are not entitled to the full array of benefits offered to fellow American veterans, such as the Disability Pension benefits.
An estimated 300,000 Filipino veterans served in the U.S. Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) and fought side by side with American troops in the Philippines and Asia during World War II.
A 1946 law known as Rescission Act rescinded the Filipinop soldiers’ eligibility for veteran’s benefits.
“Gov. Schwarzenegger’s letter to President Bush can help us terminate the 1946 Rescission Act. The passage of the Equity bill in 2006 will erase the dishonorable decision of Congress six decades ago,” said Eric Lachica, director of American Coalition for Filipino Veterans (ACFV), a son of a Filipino World War ll veteran
“We can restore the full US veterans status to our Filipino heroes and provide them with a decent $200 VA monthly pension in the Philippines”
The coalition representatives in Washington will present a copy of Governor Schwarzenegger’s letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson on December 15.
The veterans group and supporters will hold a nationwide actions, including rallies, on the 60th anniversary of the Rescission Act to convince President Bush to support the Equity Bill with a White House budget allocation of $22 million.
Lachica said it the aim of the veterans is to make President Bush demonstrate the same commitment then President Harry Truman made when he said: “I consider it a moral obligation of the United States to look after the welfare of the Philippine Army Veterans.”
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Chicago, ILLINOIS --- Former Manila Congressman Mark B. Jimenez was released Tuesday, December 13, from prison but he is being held under continued detention, Carla Wilson, a spokesperson of the US Federal Bureau of Prisons disclosed Tuesday.
Wilson, a member of the Public Affairs staff of the office of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., said that Jimenez is being released from the Allenwood FCI (Federal Correctional Institution) (Low) Security complex in White Deer, Pennsylvania. But he is now detained at a separate facility in the complex “under the INS,” which is processing his ‘INS Detainer.”
A Detainer is an order that places someone under detention without bail for immigration purposes while being processed for deportation from the United States.
Anybody, who is not a US citizen, who served out a sentence stemming from a felony charge, has been routinely deported under the Patriot Act passed by Congress following the 9/11 terrorist attack.
In Manila, Ric Diaz of the National Bureau of Investigation’s Interpol division earlier said Jimenez will arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 aboard Northwest Airlines flight 1891 on December 17, 10:50 p.m. The flight leaves Harrisburg, Virginia on December 16.
Diaz said the US Embassy in Manila confirmed Jimenez’s arrival through a faxed statement. The statement, in turn, is based on information from the Department of Homeland Security in the US.
Diaz, chief of NBI-Interpol, said Jimenez will have no security escorts upon arrival. He said that Jimenez’s criminal offense in the US is considered as a “white collar” case and would not require armed escorts upon deportation.
Jimenez, a permanent US resident, served 21 months and nine days of prison time after pleading guilty to felony charges – two counts of tax evasion and one count of conspiracy. His original sentence was for him to serve time for 27 months. But the judge took three months off when he was placed under arrest for the same period and two months off for each year of good behavior.
Court records show that Jimenez was able to get back his passport as early a January 29, 2004 based on the order of Southern Florida US District Court Judge Patricia A. Seitz.
On March 11, 2005, he was able to comply with all the terms contained under the plea agreement. Among the terms of the agreement was his payment of $1.2-M restitution to the government.
Jimenez, 58, as former chief executive officer and majority shareholder, was found to have used Future Tech International, Inc. (FTI) to commit the fraud.
Jimenez was originally charged with 47 counts of superseding indictment in April 1999, stemming from his creation of Kalisol, S.A., an Uruguayan company, as part of his scheme to transfer approximately $5 million of income out of the United States without paying income taxes.
Jimenez admitted that he used Kalisol to create false invoices to FTI for services that Kalisol never performed, and thereafter directed FTI employes to conceal the true nature of the FTI payments to Kalisol from the accountants who prepared his 1995 and 1996 personal income tax returns.
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Honolulu, HAWAII --- The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution honoring Filipino migration to the United States.
Hawaii Congressman Ed Case says the action gives ``richly deserved’’ recognition to a people and culture that personify the essence of the American experience.
The Democrat congressman from Hawaii sponsored the resolution.
He says it will help this week’s launch of year-long festivities to celebrate Filipino contributions to the state and to the rest of the nation.
The first wave of Filipino immigrants arrived in Hawaii on the Big Island in 1906 to work on a sugar plantation south of Hilo.
In a speech on the House floor, Case estimated the number of Filipinos in the US at 2.4 million, including 1.1 million in California alone.
“The modern-day Filipino American immigrant experience which has given rise to our current-day Filipino American community traces its roots to December 1906, when fifteen Filipino contract laborers, or ‘sakadas,’ arrived from Luzon aboard the ship Doric and began work in the sugarcane fields of Keaau on the Island of Hawaii.” Case said.
It was also in 1906 that the first class of “pensionados” arrived from the Philippines to gain an education with the intent of returning home, although many stayed on.
“These early sakada and pensionado roots sparked a sustained emigration from the Philippines to the United States which, over the last century, has numbered upwards of 60,000 a year, marking Filipinos as our second-largest immigrant group from the Asia-Pacific region,” said Case.
Many continued to emigrate to Hawaii to work in the sugar fields. Hawaii Sugar Planters Association records reflect over 125,000 up to 1946 alone - and formed the base of today’s 275,000 Filipino Americans living in Hawaii, well over 20 percent of the state’s total population.
“And it is not just my Hawaii that has benefited from the growth and maturity of our Filipino American community,” Case said in his speech.
Case then went on to name a few Filipino Americans who were able to make significant contributions to the political, economic and social lives of the US, Hawaii in particular: Benjamin Cayetano, Hawaii Governor; Benjamin Menor, Mario Ramil, and Simeon Acoba, justices of the Hawaii Supreme Court; Daniel Kihano and Robert Bunda, Speaker of the Hawaii State House and President of the Hawaii State Senate, respectively; Angela Baraquio, Miss America; Antonio Taguba, General, United States Army; Eduardo Malapit and Lorraine Rodero-Inouye, Mayors; Emme Tomimbang, TV news anchor; Benny Agbayani, professional baseball player.
He also extolled the contribution of Filipino Americans in the US military, who he said have demonstrated decades of bravery and loyalty to the United States.
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MANILA --- AMID persistent reports of coup plots against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a retired general has proclaimed himself president of a transition government.
General Fortunato Abat described his action as peaceful takeover, even as he called on police and military forces to withdraw support from President Arroyo and “protect the sovereign right of the people.”
The 80-year-old retired general made the announcement before an audience of about 300 people at the Club Filipino in the municipality of San Juan, in Metro Manila.
He also appointed former budget secretary Salvador Enriquez cluster head of public service sector, former ambassador Roy Señeres as head of the justice sector, and Emmanuel Cruz as head of the political sector.
But a team of police officers from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG)subjected him to a “citizen’s arrest” at the Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan and brought him to the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame.
Abat, who was told that he was merely being invited for questioning, calmly went with the CIDG team. There was a bit of scuffle between the policemen on one hand and Abat’s supporters on the other.
Seneres was also asked to go with police, along with former budget secretary Salvador Enriquez and lawyer Carlos Serapio.
The CIDG team, numbering around 15 men wearing jackets, went to the Waling-Waling Room of the Club Filipino just before 11 a.m., where Abat had been holing up since Tuesday night when he declared a revolutionary transition government.
Abat was taken to the CIDG headquarters.
Outside the CIDG office, Philippine National Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil told reporters that Abat was actually arrested.
When asked why there was no warrant of arrest, Bataoil said the police officers were implementing a “citizen’s arrest.”
“There can only be one government, there can be no provisional government,” Bataoil said in explaining why Abat was taken in.
He said an arrest warrant was still being processed and that Department of Justice prosecutors were in the CIDG office with Abat.
“[PNP Chief] Lomibao is in constant communication with the DoJ [Department of Justice] and this action of the CIDG is legal,” Bataoil said.
Abat and his men will remain at the CIDG “for successive legal action that will be undertaken,” he added.
“They will be charged with inciting to sedition,” Bataoil told reporters, corroborating statements made by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez on ANC television.
In an interview with the same network minutes after he boarded a CIDG vehicle bound for Crame, Abat said he was not being arrested and was only being brought in for questioning.
In a statement he read at the historic Club Filipino in suburban San Juan City on Wednesday, Abat declared “the existence of a revolutionary transition government and the formation of a transition government council to administer the affairs of government.”
Abat, a former Army chief and defense secretary, is convener of the right-wing Coalition for National Solidarity which has been calling on Arroyo to step down.
When the wiretaps scandal broke out in June, Abat called for the establishment of a civilian-military junta and offered himself to head it.
“This is a peaceful takeover of power by people motivated by nothing else but sense of patriotism,” Abat said on Tuesday.
He said a recent “congress” of 300 delegates of his supporters nationwide mandated him to “form a government to confront this crisis that we are in now.” (MNS)
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