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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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TALES about Filipinos tearing down one another are not rare in this side of town. It is in fact as common as help wanted ads asking for Pinoy domestics. Though most of these tales are petty, some manage to grow and become headlines.
It is such a pity to see ourselves gnashing our teeth at the sight of our fellow FilAms' successes. More often we are so driven to compete with our own kind that even if we know that our efforts are lost causes in the end, we still do it just for spite.
Such is the case of some group of FilAms that are known to organize happenings for the community. As soon as they discovered the perceived prestige and treasure chest in these events, they began to guard it like lions guarding their prey. They fight for bragging rights of who has the best happening in town.
These competing groups would go as far as mudslinging, back stabbing and even direct confrontations just to draw the line and impose their wills on each other. Horrendous. Why can't we just get along?
Could it be that it is in our very nature as Filipinos to be paranoid when it comes to our fellows' achievement?
We often go like: Family this or that became prosperous, perhaps the father is a corrupt official. Or like this: Their event is very successful perhaps because of their dirty tricks. It is depleting to see all these unfold before everybody, especially non-Filipinos. To think that the very purpose of FilAm events is to show the world how Filipinos are.
But Wait.
Now it is clear. If these happenings are meant to show how Filipinos are, then it follows that our crab mentality is just part of these happenings’ offerings like the lowly Puto Bumbong or OPM. Where else could we expose this trait than in FilAm these happenings.
Nevertheless, however grim this trait is, it is not to late for us to change . There is still time to unite and think good thoughts about our fellow Filipinos. We just have to do it.
If only we could muster all our wills and grab this crab by the neck, it would be better for all of us and our children’s children. If only we can steam this crab and eat it until it’s gone it would be delicious.
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O-1 Visa as an alternative to H-1 B Visa
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(Editor’s Note: REUBEN S. SEGURITAN has been practicing law for over 30 years. For further information, you may call him at 212 695 5281 or log on to his website at www.seguritan.com)
THE O-1 visa category may be considered as an alternative to the H-1B temporary workers’ visa.
The O-1 can be availed of by foreign nationals with proven extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics. This category is especially applicable to foreign artists, scientists, athletes, entertainers, high-end chefs, educators and even business people lacking professional degrees but who have exhibited extraordinary abilities, achievements or recognition in their respective fields, nationally or internationally.
“Extraordinary” ability or achievement is a high standard required to qualify for the O-1 visa. This can be satisfied by presenting proof of being a recipient of a major, internationally recognized award.
Any three of the following may also be submitted in support of the O-1 petition: (a) national or international prizes or awards; (b) membership in recognized organizations requiring outstanding achievement as judged by experts; (c) published material about the foreign national in professional or major trade publications or major media; (d) experience judging the work/ performance of others in the field; (e) original scientific, scholarly or business related contributions of major significance; (f) authorship of scholarly articles in professional journals or other major media; (g) employment in a distinguished organizations and establishments in a critical or essential capacity; or (h) high salary or remuneration as evidenced by contracts or other reliable evidence.
The above list is not exclusive. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may consider other comparable evidence.
The foreign national beneficiary cannot self-sponsor. A U.S. employer or agent must file the O-1 petition on behalf of the foreign national. Additionally, a peer/ labor union/ management group consultation regarding the nature of the proposed work and the foreign national’s qualifications is required before an O petition can be approved.
O-1 extraordinary aliens may be allowed to be accompanied by assistants or workers sponsored under the O-2 category. However, only those in the arts, motion picture, television productions and athletics are allowed to be accompanied by O-2 workers. The O-2 visa is not applicable to accompany scientists, educators or business people.
While in O-2 status, the O-2 workers cannot work separate and apart from the principal O-1 alien, otherwise they will violate their status. Dependents such as the spouse and minor children of the O-1 and O-2 workers can be petitioned under the O-3 category.
An O visa may be extended in one-year increments for an indefinite period of time. There is no cap for the O visas unlike the H-1 visas.
Finally, O-1 visas are what are known as “dual intent visas”, meaning that the O-1 alien-beneficiaries are not required to show a foreign residence they intend to return to. This also means that the granting or the extension of the O-1 visa or status cannot be denied even though a labor certification or a petition leading to permanent residence in the U.S. is filed on behalf of the O-1 alien.
The O-2 accompanying aliens, on the other hand, must be coming to the U.S. only temporarily and must show that they have a residence abroad that they do not intend to abandon.
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Thinking Different Instead Of Small
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"WHERE there's no bread, all is anger." This axiom explains much of the furious exchange, between 100-plus mayors who claim 16 new cities "pick their wallets", otherwise known as Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA).
IRAs are local governments' shares in taxes collected. Since 1991, the Local Government Code boosted stagnant cities and provinces, thru mandatory IRA transfers. "Between 1991 and 1994, IRA per person, in the provinces, almost tripled," an earlier Philippine Human Development Report noted. "The local share of public spending nearly doubled: from 7 percent to 12.6 percent."
Then and now, services plus infrastructure form the seedbed for economic growth. Dinero llama dinero, Mexicans say. "Money begets money." By 1998, IRAs reached P80 billion. Today, they've risen to P137 billion for provinces and cities", says the Commission on Audit. If the IRA share of 41,979 barangays' are tallied, the total adds up to P166 billion. COA's Annual Financial Report on LGUs reveals. Today, 67 centavos out of every local tax peso comes from IRAs. It was only 40 centavos a decade back.
IRAs repaired decrepit town halls, funded health centers, bought police equipment, etc. They spurred growth, not enough to root out massive poverty but adequate to unleash rising expectations. Much was wasted. In many provinces and cities, family dynasties bankrolled "personal services" with IRAs. Converting public treasuries into feeding troughs persists. Over a five-year period, LGUs spent, on average, 74 centavos out of every tax peso for salaries, COA reports.
"Personnel service expenditures are higher than officially reported," say World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Often, wages of temporary workers are charged against development projects. In contrast, private industry fires those who spend three bucks on wages to deliver a peso worth of service or products.
IRAs keep poverty-strapped provinces afloat on one end. Sulu earns only P13.4 million a year. On the other end is foreign debt strapped Cebu City. It pays P1million a day for its yen loans. IRAs shore up services shriveled by debt servicing. Thus, Cebu Mayor Tomas Osmena is among the most vocal critics of 16 towns, which sneaked thru the back door, into the roster of cities.
The 16 got Congress to exempt them from meeting minimum income and population criteria, so they could paint "city" on their town halls. That allowed them to dip into the common IRA pool -- by siphoning from others. A by-your-leave is not even required. In 1990, there were 60 cities. Today, we have 136 of them. Negros Occidental alone has 11. And in the wings is House Bill 24 to create 27 more
The furious protests were inevitable. . Tarlac's IRA, for example, will be pruned by P42-million. Tacloban will be clipped by P32 million, Bacolod by P41 million.. But it is Puerto Princesa that will bleed most. Total cut is P147 million.
Nothing is more divisive than money. Pag may salaping tangan, pusa ma'y napapasayaw, the old Pilipino axiom says. "You can make the cat dance when you have money." By recklessly ignoring criteria it set for cities, Congress invited this unneeded dispute.
How it will play out is unclear. One of the victims is the uphill effort, by scholars and financial agencies, to reform the IRA system. These grants were cobbled to give LGUs elbow room to reinforce their local tax base for sustainable growth. In Pampanga, for example, Gov. Eduardo Panlilio has more than quintupled local quarry tax collections – only to be derided by traditional politicians.
IRAs were never meant to substitute for local income, a United Nations study notes. Thus, the ideal sharing ratio should be 50-50. Locals raise half the revenues and national government, thru IRAs, chip in half. Then LGUs should whittle that down to 30 percent, the study adds.
Precisely the opposite is happening today. Why? Because our politicians, as Oscar Wilde said, "can resist everything but temptation."
IRAs are unconditional grants. They don't exact performance. They're, in effect, "blank checks." Our politicians can sniff such "temptation" miles away. Thus, many rigged IRAs into mini-pork barrels. Performance criteria must be welded in.
This quarrel is more than just about slicing IRAs. That's thinking small. The future requires we think different.
In this new century, cities need jettison the dominant 19th century model, the World Bank points out in it's study: "Making Cities Livable.". Under this obsolete model, city halls bankroll most services and infrastructure – the pattern most of our 136 city mayors still work by.
Overwhelmed by babies, migrants and poverty, this model fails to ease poverty, curb crime, ensure clean water, close housing gaps. Officials "cater to better-off part of a cify and, at best, benignly neglect the poorer sector… These make divisions deeper."
In the future, the cities that will succeed are those who cut back their role "as primary providers." Instead, they become "enablers": those who seek out the private sector, in innovative modes, to deliver basic services. This is the "quiet revolution in local governance" the world over, the bank says.
And there are enough success stories to prod city officials to rethink old ways.
Can our politicians quit, cold turkey, addiction to IRA doles? Or is that a no-brainer?
(E-mail : juan_mercado@pacific.net.ph )
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Catholic Bishops Issue Muddled Advice
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The recent pastoral statement that the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines issued last week is shot through with equivocations that we can say, they must presume every member of their flock has gone through the same moral theology like a priest studying in the seminary.
The moral decay that ails the country was blamed squarely by the hierarchy on the Filipino people. They don't place the blame on the leaders who run the government.
They say the governed are also just as guilty. They refuse to distinguish the two groups and assign the blame on the heads of government whom they nevertheless call "morally bankrupt."
Is this posture a cover up attempt to soften the serious degree of guilt they feel at their role in bringing about such moral bankruptcy?
We disagree. Our religious leaders must share the blame. But in the process, it must never lessen the degree of guilt that must rightfully be heaped upon those leaders who actively contributed to the moral ruin.
It is also wrong to adopt the posture that our moral leaders can extend critical collaboration to the corrupt government bureaucrats. This tendency to employ such a stance can be blamed for the moral degradation we witness in our national culture. It must stop. Such an attitude has been responsible for the hypocritical social acceptance accorded to a morally bankrupt official or civic leader when we choose them to sponsor a child in baptism or a couple in marriage.
When we say a leader is morally bankrupt, he must be treated as a pariah. He must never be held up as an example for the youth as an idol, to be treated with respect and admiration.
Fortunately, the sentiments expressed in the pastoral statement was not unanimous.
Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese asked, when a public official is branded morally bankrupt, what do you tell him? Stay?
The Catholic hierarchy was correct in advising that for a start, the people should start to look at themselves and see what they can do to reform ourselves. But beyond that, we are sure the reason they shy away from the obvious alternative is to get away from the alternative of resorting to violence to effect reforms.
There are examples in history where reforms were obtained without deliberately resorting to violence. We have our own very example with our bloodless revolution that set us free from the Marcos tyranny. Our very own hierarchy of the Catholic church in 1986 publicly called for the overthrow of the Marcos regime. Remember?
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THERE is an ongoing war in America's political arena and a big part of the ongoing campaign is how the continuing war and occupation of Iraq is being handled by the powers-that-be. While the Republicans claim that the recent Baghdad surge of military troops mandated by President George W. Bush has lowered the number of attacks and casualties, it cannot be denied that the over-all cost in terms of human lives lost in the American-led invasion and occupation (since March 2003) has been massive.
Consider this - according to CNN count as of January 23, 2008, there have been 4,237 coalition deaths (3931 Americans, two Australians, 174 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvian, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadorians, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukranians). Not to mention nearly 29,000 U.S. troops wounded in action. And then, the Iraqis - the body count of documented civilian deaths from violence (caused by roadside/suicide bombings and shootings) range from 80,621 to 88,044.
UPI also reports the alarming effects of the war on the wounded - one out of every 10 soldiers or 8 and 10 per cent of nearly 12, 000 soldiers from the war on terror are having psychiatric problems and brain injuries.
Furthermore, the four year old guerra is taking its toll not just on human lives but on the mighty dollar. Its not just costing the U.S. billions but may have hit the trillion mark by now.
So as it must be that the Democrats are at the forefront on how to end this devastating war.
Leading presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says if she becomes president (in November 2008), she will bring the troops home starting in the first 60 days of her administration. Her plan is to replace military force with
a new diplomatic initiative involving other countries (through the United Nations) in securing peace in Iraq and its future.
On the other hand, Senator Barack Obama, another presidential contender for the Democratic nomination,
who in 2002, opposed going to war in Iraq and has spoken against that war through 2003 and 2004, had called for a withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2005 and 2006, had introduced legislation in the Senate in January 2007, to remove all combat troops from Iraq by March 2008.
He has also detailed his plan to end the war. As president, he will immediately remove troops one to two combat brigades each month and have all U.S. combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months but would retain some troops to protect the U.S. embassy and personnel and target al Qaeda.
He would also engage Iraqi representatives from all levels of society to seek a new accord on Iraq constitution and governance. The United Nations will play a central role in the reconciliation process and will launch an aggressive diplomatic effort to include neighbors Iran and Syria and provide financial support for Iraq's reconstruction and service the displaced 2 million Iraqi refugees.
Fortunately, there are no Filipino casualties in this war for early on in July 19, 2004, the Philippines withdrew its troops from Iraq after an Iraqi militant group kidnapped truck driver Angelo de la Cruz and threatened to kill him if the Philippine contingent of 51 soldiers stationed in Iraq (part of the U.S.-led coalition), was not withdrawn. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the withdrawal to save the life of the Filipino hostage, and agreed to the kidnappers' demands, not to allow Filipino workers to go to Iraq.
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