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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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THERE’S a surprising twist in the saga of all Filipino doctors, who are fighting the damage caused by a slur against them by the ABC 7 show Desperate Housewives. As they battle to restore their reputation, some doctors of Vicente Sotto Memorial Hospital in Cebu managed to live up to Terri Hatcher’s insult.
The travesty by these doctors was caught on camera, and it can be seen on Youtube.com. The video clip is now known as the Vicente Sotto Memorial Hospital Scandal. The video shows doctors and nurses operating on an unidentified male. The identity of the patient was not disclosed, but it was obvious that the medical team was performing an emergency procedure on the patient’s rectum.
As seen on the video, the doctors and nurses were removing a foreign object stuck inside the patient’s rectum– a spray can.
It could also bee seen on the Youtube clip that these medical practitioners were making fun of the individual and the circumstances that the patient was subjected to. They were laughing, taking pictures and videos of the patient during the removal process. More disturbing was when the doctors removed the spray can from the rectum, they all howled and laughed at the sedated patient.
Now, the patient is filing a lawsuit against the hospital and the doctors and nurses for the abuse, In a press statement by the Vicente Sotto Hospital administration, they disclosed that the management suspended the offenders and barred them from any medical assignments.
This is a shame. Although we cannot generalize all Filipino doctors, it is still a great case for haters of Pinoy medical education like the writers of Housewives.
How could this thing happen? How can these hospital administrators in the Philippines regain the trust of their future patients if things like this happen? How can we trust these doctors again?
We all know that once inside operating rooms, patients are heavily sedated and have no inkling to what is actually gong on. How certain are we that we won’t experience the same horrific predicament as the patient on the Youtube clip? How can we be certain that we are not going to be violated by doctors when we are under their knives?
This is a very frightening precedent worthy of congressional inquiry. We should have laws that should prevent this gross invasion of privacy and abuse. We should have something to the effect of not allowing any procedure to be done without a representative of the patient as a witness. Akin to having the husband present during child delivery,
There is no excuse for this horrible incident. Everyone involved should never be allowed to practice surgery or medicine again. They have violated the Hippocratic oath and the general rule of goodwill. We pray that these unethical doctors and nurses be jailed. They are a big disgrace not only to doctors, but also to the country.
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Expedited Naturalization in the Military
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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
Since September 11, 2001, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has granted U.S. citizenship to over 37,250 members of the U.S. Armed Forces. 111 posthumous citizenship has also been given as a result of military service.
Military service refers to service in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, certain reserve components of the National Guard and the Selected Ready Reserve.
As of 2007, there were about 40,000 non-citizens serving in the U.S. military. The Philippines is currently second to Mexico for the highest number of enlisted non-citizens. In 2003, the Philippines stood as the largest source of enlisted non-citizens in the U.S. armed forces.
Under current immigration rules, qualified members of the above military branches are accorded special treatment in their application for naturalization. They do not have to comply with the residency and physical presence requirements imposed on other applicants.
To qualify for U.S. citizenship on account of military service, the member of the U.S. Armed Forces must show that he or she has 1) good moral character, 2) knowledge of the English language, 3) knowledge of U.S. government and history (civics) and 4) attachment to the U.S. by taking of the Oath of Allegiance to the U.S. Constitution.
Under Section 328 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (which refers to service in peacetime) servicemen/women may qualify for naturalization if he/she has served honorably in the military for at least one year, has a green card (lawful permanent resident status) and filed an application while still in the service or within six months of separation.
Under Section 329 (which refers to service in wartime), all immigrants are eligible to file for immediate citizenship provided they have served honorably on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces or in the Selected Ready Reserve on or after September 11, 2001. There is no specified period of service required prior to application. This section of the law also benefits veterans of designated past wars.
Section 329A also provides for posthumous U.S. citizenship to members of the military who died during a designated war or died as a result of injury or disease incurred in or as a result of that war. The next of kin or the Secretary of Defense must request this posthumous citizenship within two years of the service member’s death.
The qualified family member including spouse (unless he or she remarried), children and parents may also file for U.S. citizenship if he/she meets the naturalization requirements, other than physical presence and residence.
The military has installed point-of-contact assistance in military bases to assist military servicemen in filing their naturalization packets which consist of the Application for Naturalization, the request for military certification and biographic information. Members of the military are not charged filing fees. Once complete, these packages are sent to the USCIS Nebraska Service Center for expedited processing.
There are many incentives for U.S. citizenship and these include: the right to vote; the right to apply for federal benefits and jobs; the right to run for public office; ease of travel in and out of the U.S. using U.S. passport; automatic granting of citizenship to dependent children; ability to sponsor and petition family members to permanently reside in the U.S. and be U.S. citizens as well; and providing derivative benefits for surviving family members for those awarded U.S. citizenship posthumously.
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CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – When US President Roosevelt signed the emergency military order, conscripting Filipino soldiers to help U.S. beat its imperial enemy of Japan during World War II, the order was also used to raid the Philippine treasury to bankroll the unfunded emergency mandate
I hope the United States Senators led by Chairman Daniel K. Akaka (D.-HI), Harry M. Reid (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Barack Obama (D-IL), Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), and Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), who championed the passage of the grant of benefits to Filipino WW II veterans under the Senate Bill 1315, will use these startling revelations to tell the few remaining doubting Senators and Congressmen still opposing the bill that the benefits being sought by the Filipino veterans are partly the Filipino people’s money, not just the US’.
Senate Bill 1315, also known as Veterans Enhancement Act of 2007, is comprehensive veterans bill that was overwhelmingly passed by the U.S. Senate, 96-1, Thursday, April 24, that rejected the Burr amendment that would have removed the benefits for the Filipino World War II veterans living in the Philippines.
The bill, the first time it was introduced on the Senate floor, provides for a flat rate of $3,600 annual non-service disability pension for single Filipino veterans living in the Philippines ; $4,500 annually for married veterans; and $2,400 annually for surviving spouses. (The House of Representatives version (H.R. 760) of the Filipino Veterans Equity bill pending before Chairman Bob Filner seeks higher benefits).
OTHER BENEFITS
S. 1315 also establishes a new program of insurance for service-connected veterans;
* Expands eligibility for retroactive benefits from traumatic injury protection coverage under the Service members' Group Life Insurance program;
* Increases the maximum amount of Veterans' Mortgage Life Insurance that a service-
connected disabled veteran may purchase; * Recognize that individuals with severe
burn injuries need specially adapted housing benefits; and
* Extends for two years the monthly educational assistance allowance for apprenticeship
or other on-the-job training.
“ This is by no means a comprehensive recitation of the eight titles and 38 provisions
that are in this omnibus legislation. However, I hope it gives our colleagues an overview of the types of benefits that service members and veterans stand to gain by passage of this legislation, according to Senator Akaka, chairman of the US Senate Veterans Affairs’ Committee when he presented a motion to invoke cloture last Tuesday, April 22, which was passed by a unanimous vote of 94-0.
In joining Mr. Akaka and other senators in supporting the bill, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) on the Senate floor said, “restoring veteran status to the Filipino veterans who served alongside American soldiers in World War II is long overdue. There were 470,000 Filipinos who answered President Franklin’s Roosevelt’s call and stood shoulder to shoulder with America ’s bravest.”
Only 18,000 of those Filipinos remain, mostly in their mid-80’s.
SENATOR OBAMA ALSO HAILED THE VOTE
Aside from the senators, the campaign to get the bill passed in the Senate also united the Filipino American community, who had to call every two senators in their respective states to support the bill. Even Senator Obama, who is running for the White House, came out with a statement after the vote that “our veterans and service members have made incredible sacrifices for our nation, and today, the Senate honored their service by providing them with the care and benefits they deserve.”
According to transcripts of the hearings before the Committee on Insular Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives’ first session of the 77th Congress held at the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. between Oct. 6 and 9, 1941 obtained by this columnist, when President Roosevelt signed the order July 26, 1941 to mobilize and train the Philippine Army following the “outbreak of war between Germany and Russia and the possibility of hostilities extending to the Far East,” “the approval of the (U.S.) President, the Secretaries of the Treasury, of the Interior, and of State, and the United States High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands, a program of expenditure for the emergent mobilization and training of the Philippine Army and related defense activities, totaling some $52,000,000, was prepared in June 1941, in joint conference of Army and Navy Officers in the Philippines of the United States High Commissioner and (Philippine President Manuel L.) Quezon” and the “subject legislation was presented to the Congress recommending its enactment.”
H.R. 5722 was subsequently introduced as a bill to “amend section 19 (A) of the Philippine Independence Act of March 24, 1934, as amended by the Act of Aug. 7, 1939, and to amend the Act approved June 19, 19324, so as to authorize certain sugar excise tax funds and other funds to be used for military and naval defense purposes in the Philippine Islands.”
EMERGENCY FUND
According to Brig. Gen. L. T. Gerow, assistant chief of staff, War Plans Division of the U.S. War Department, the bill, H.R. 5722 would allocate $10-M to be sourced from President Roosevelt’s emergency fund that will be reimbursed when the U.S. Congress provides funding.
However, the War Department led by General Gerow agreed to the suggestion of President Quezon and his representative, J.M. Elizalde, Resident Commissioner of the Philippine Islands to the United States, to fund the bill from the $57-M Sugar excise tax collected by the U.S. government from the Philippine sugar exports to the United States and the $23-M gold devaluation, which consists of Philippine deposits in various banks in the United States that were supposed to be earmarked for “economic readjustment of the Philippines” when it becomes independent in 1946 from America.
Rep. Fred L. Crawford of Michigan , Insular Affairs Committee member, said that while he had no objection to the “use of $23-M for military purposes if it is appropriated. … I do seriously question our interfering with the excise tax.”
Crawford was informed by General Gerow that the $57-M from the Sugar tax “would probably take care of the needs of the Army for a year.”
So, if the Filipino World War II veterans living in the Philippines will be granted benefits by the passage of Senate Bill 1315, these veterans are merely getting partly the Philippine money used to fund the expenses incurred by the Philippine and American forces during World War II. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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A “demographic dividend”, offered by the young population here and in other developing Asian countries, could kick-start and sustain a badly-needed economic surge. But if sloppily managed, it could U-turn into a “demographic curse”, Asian Development Bank warns.
Weak governance, myopic policies and instability tamped down “investment and growth the young could have produced” in Latin America, “ ( But they ) “largely wasted their demographic dividend”, notes the new study titled : “Young Asians: A Squandered Talent”. Could similar wastage happen here?
Asian youngsters are cascading into country workforces at numbers unseen before. The Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India account for close to half the young in this region . UN estimates the proportion of Asian young workers, to total population, would top 72% three years from now. In the 1970s, it already exceeded 57%.
So, how many 20-years-below Filipinos are there today? Few have seen the just-released national census. But the tilt towards the young, in this two-year late headcount, will resemble most Asean nations.
Demographers dub this the “youth bulge”. Tremendous potential is crammed into this knob of youngsters. If taught skills and supported by policy, they can spur enhanced growth, over the long pull.
Academic shorthand for this potential is the “demographic dividend”. This tag recognizes what Disraeli once observed : “Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.” .
But “redeeming this ‘demographic dividend” is by no means automatic,” writes report author, Shikha Jha of ADB. “If enabling factors are not in place, the demographic dividend can turn into a demographic curse.”
To exorcise that blight, Asian countries, including the Philippines, must cobble into place an enabling policy environment”. They have to streamline institutional frameworks. Youthful workers need this support if they’re to meet spiraling skill standards set by today’s modernizing economies.
This policy-package requires overhauling obsolete school curricula; buttressing vocational training; and job schemes that impart useful skills, says “Asian Development Outlook 2008 ( ADO). Crippling shortages in books, schoolrooms, teachers, etc. have to be met. And Asia’s underperforming higher education systems have to be retailored to match actual needs.
This task is complicated by an ironic paradox.. Over two-fifths of the world’s population cluster in Asia But shortages of skilled workers -- from geologists to computer specialists and pilots -- persist amidst a glut of youngsters, whose lack of education, locks them into low-wage peon-like tasks. .
“The supply of highly skilled and professional workers has not been able to keep up with Asia’s booming demand,” an ADB official stressed. “This skills’ gaps is widening and raises costs for businesses. It also hobbles productivity of industries and can constrain growth of the wider economy.”
These overhauls take time . A “serious problem of school dropouts, particularly in rural area,” hobbles the Philippines, World Bank notes. Over a six year period, the percentage of kids enrolled in elementary school slumped from 97% to 84%.
Education in the Philippines gets the biggest chunk of the budget. But it’s share of GDP wilted from 4% to only 2.4% In contrast, Indonesia and India allocate 3.8% of their GDPs . “Notwithstanding the size of public spending, the education systems in India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines suffer from common weaknesses: from outdated curricula to high drop out rates.
Elbow room is narrowing. The number of jobless Indonesians, Thais and Filipinos have increased. Most are women. Lacking education, they drift into insecure menial jobs.. “These do not guarantee escape from poverty,” the report says. “Young people without a job or low wages remain at risk of poverty”…
Pressure stemming from jobless youth, is partly vented, by internal migration of Fiipinos. ”Family networks in the country side support large flow of migrants, attracted by better prospects of better education and higher wages in the towns and cities… From 75 to 80% of first time migrants lodge with relatives or friends.”
El tiempo da buen consejo, the Spanish proverb says. “Time gives good counsel.” Changing demograhics compel to “redeem this demographic dividend within the short span of a generation”.
The ‘youth bulge’ will begin to shrink in Asia as a whole, by 2010, scientists forecast. The number of elderly will also rise. And the youngsters’ share, in total population, from thereon could dwindle to about 14% by 2040.
This “window of opportunity” is starting to close in Indonesia and Thailand, the report notes. “It will peak in the Philippines around 2010 – when leaders will be obsessed with presidential elections. When the ‘youth bulge” disappears, the burden of elderly peoples will rise. So will the dependency of those of children. “The growth opportunity must be harvested within the next two or three decades,” says ADB Chief Economist Ifzal Ali.
“Age considers. Youth ventures,” wrote the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.. Unfortunately for our youngsters, most Filipino leaders today can not see anything beyond the “2010 dividend” is all That blindess could yet send our “demographic dividend” skidding into the U-turn of a “demographic curse.”
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Squandering Educational Opportunities
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The Philippines is a country that can ill afford to squander our resources. But in the field of education, such wastage is happening repeatedly. For a nation that is piss-poor, such wastage is almost criminal.
The present Secretary of Education, former Land Bank President Jesli Lapus, is a friend of ours. We once worked with him at the Land Bank. We wish to clarify that the problem antedates his tenure at DECS by a two or three years. We hope he could do something about the problem during his term.
The problem is one of supply and demand. It involves an imbalance of the number of professionals produced by the school system and the number that the country needs. There is an oversupply for some courses and hence, we are wasting a lot of badly needed resources.
Take the legal profession. For so many years before, many of our youth were drawn to the glamor of the legal profession. Perhaps the attraction for our young people was that many politicians or those who come to run our government are lawyers. We are sure many of these lawyers are honest and serve the community and the government conscientiously. Unfortunately, the few bad eggs who become successful and rich are wrongly idealized by our young people.
For example, it had become a joke that at the City Hall of Manila the number of lawyers and law graduates has overflowed even to the corridors of the long train-like building. On the corridors, we don't know if it's still true now, but before we saw so many lawyers and law graduates in their white "barong" seated in their portable stool paired with a small desk on which they typewrite and notarize legal documents for their itinerant clients. A notary does not have to be a lawyer.
It became a status symbol for parents to have a son or daughter who is a lawyer who could hang a house sign that says "Attorney-at-law" or even just "notary public". The latter sign suggests that possibly the son or daughter might be a fullfledged "abogado".
So it came to pass that some years back, there was actually a large oversupply of lawyers. Not all of them practice the profession though. He could be a legal clerk in a private company or a public office. What a waste of national resource. One time we asked a law student about his prospects as a future lawyer. His proud hopeful reply: "There will always be a place for a bright young lawyer in the market."
Today, we hear the situation has changed very much. Reality has finally caught up with our young people. There are now fewer enrollees in the law schools.
The same situation exists in most other professions. Take teaching. Even medicine, especially after the US started to restrict the admission into the country of medical graduates from other countries like the Philipines. Nursing is another profession that is getting crowded.
When overcrowding plagues a profession, it takes a lot of time before the situation can be corrected. Before the problem is recognized, those businessmen in education have already invested a lot of capital to set up the necessary educational facilities. We believe we could prevent the wastage of capital in advance. We have seen the management and business skills of Secretary Lapus and we are sure he can come up with the right solution, if he has not done so already.
It is unfortunate but this distorted sense of values among the young has had the effect of encouraging many of them to take up law as a profession. Even if the law course is a long one, although it is not as expensive as medicine, many law schools opened up. Hence there is an oversupply of law graduates. Unfortunately again, quality did not follow quantity.
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Christel Simms, Competing in Beijing Olympics' Swimming Event
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The 2008 Beijing Olympics is very much in the global news though its 4 months away August 4 thru 24. The symbolic Olympic world torch relay has been interrupted in Europe (London and Paris) and even here in San Francisco by protesters against its host, China, for its human rights record recently magnified with its violent crackdown on Tibetans who have been increasingly rallying for their independence. Undaunted, Asia's superpower plans for the torch to reach Mount Everest, even as there are those who are intent on disrupting the torch's climb to its final destination.
Two Wednesdays ago, during its only North American run, San Francisco's police force scuffled with pro-Tibet protesters and diverted the flame away from spectators and activists (pro-Tibet and pro-China) lining the 6-mile route near the waterfront. The torch is on a 130-day run around the world which began in Greece and will culminate in China. It was on a smooth run in Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires over a week ago.
There have been threats from some countries including the United States, to boycott the Opening although that is unlikely given that China and the U.S. are trading partners. Notice how "Made in China" goods have flooded the cities across the nation? In fact, President George W. Bush is still set to attend the Beijing Ceremonies. After all, with the weakening US dollar, it would be folly to ruffle the feelings of the great funder.
Getting back to the torch relay and its beginnings. Historically - the torch run started in the 1936 Berlin Olympics with a 12-day run and went global in 1984 when it reached Los Angeles, California.
And, here's the good news. Fil-Am swimmer, Christel Simms has passed the Olympic qualifying standard for the 100-meter freestyle swimming event on August 8, 2008 at the USA Junior National Swimming Championships at Indianapolis. She has been chosen by the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (PASA) to represent the Philippines in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games' 100-meter freestyle swimming event. Christel is 17 years old and a native of Hawaii. A remarkable athlete, she has broken 54 individual Hawaii State records since she was nine years old. PASA president Mark Joseph is confident that the incredibly talented athlete will help put the Philippines on the map for swimming.
I recall that two years ago, former Congressman Jose "Peping" Cojuangco who heads the Philippine Olympic Committee, came to California to raise funds for the training of Philippine athletes to the Beijing Olympics. I was able to attend and contribute to the fundraising dinner hosted by a friend, Marlene Robertson at her Bradbury residence. Some $35,000 was raised for the cause. Hopefully, other concerned Filipinos and expats did the same so that our athletes would be fit and able to shine in the forthcoming global sports competition.
The Philippines has less than 20 delegates to the event. And its best bet is the swimming competition. Aside from Simms, others in the same competition are Miguel Molina, Daniel Coakley and James Walsh. There are two divers: Shiela Mae Perez and Rexel Ryan Fabriga. Taekwondo bets are Toni Rivero and Tshomlee Go.
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