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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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THE REAL MEANING OF THE FOURTH OF JULY
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CONTRARY to popular myth, the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were not great Americans. Instead, they were great Englishmen. In fact, they were as much English citizens as Americans today are American citizens.
It's easy to forget that the revolutionaries in 1776 were people who took up arms against their own government. So how is it that these men are considered patriots?
Well, the truth is that their government didn't consider them patriots at all. Their government considered them to be bad guys -- traitors, all of whom deserved to be hanged for treason.
Most of us consider the signers of the Declaration of Independence to be patriots because of their courage in taking a stand against the wrongdoing and tyranny of their own government, even risking their lives in the process.
Yet not even the patriotism and courage of these English citizens constitutes the foremost significance of the Fourth of July, any more than the military victory over their government's forces at Yorktown does.
Instead, the real significance of the Fourth of July lies in the expression of what is undoubtedly the most revolutionary political declaration in history: that man's rights are inherent, God-given, and natural and, thus, do not come from government.
Throughout history, people have believed that their rights come from government. Such being the case, people haven't objected whenever government officials infringed upon their rights. Since rights were considered to be government bestowed privileges, the thinking went, why shouldn't government officials have the power to regulate or suspend such privileges at will?
The Declaration of Independence upended that age-old notion of rights. All men -- not just Americans -- have been endowed by God and nature, not government, with fundamental and unalienable rights. Governments are called into existence by the people -- and exist at their pleasure -- for one purpose: to protect the exercise of these inherent rights.
What happens if a government that people have established becomes a destroyer, rather than a protector, of their rights?
The Declaration provides the answer: It is the right of the people to alter or even abolish their government and establish new government whose purpose is the protection, not the destruction, of people's rights and freedoms.
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights must be construed in light of that revolutionary statement of rights in the Declaration of Independence.
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FASTER ROUTE TO GREEN CARD
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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
With the unavailability of visa numbers this month in the employment-based third preference category (EB-3) and the backlog in the second preference (EB-2) for India and China, attention is focused on the first preference category (EB-1).
This category has rarely reached the numerical limitation since October 1991 when the current immigration law took effect.
The processing for EB-1 is quicker since apart from the availability of visa numbers, there is no requirement for a labor certification to test the job market.
There are three sub-categories under EB-1 and they are also known as priority workers: persons of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers and multinational executives and managers.
This column discusses only the first sub-category of persons of extraordinary ability.
For EB-1 priority workers of extraordinary ability, the individual is not required to have a petitioning employer. He/she may petition for himself/herself without a job offer.
But whether a petitioner is an employer or the individual, evidence should be submitted to show that he/she will continue to work in his/her area of expertise. Such evidence may consist of a letter from a prospective employer or an explanation of how he/she will pursue work in his/her specific field.
Extraordinary ability refers to expertise in the sciences, arts, education, business or athletics as demonstrated by a major achievement of international or national renown
It is not limited to top awards such as a Nobel Prize. The requirement could also be satisfied by documenting recognition in other areas.
These include: lesser national or international award for excellence in alien’s field, membership in associations in a field that requires members to have shown outstanding achievements as judged by acknowledged experts, and published material about the alien in major publications or media.
Recognition could also include selection of alien to judge others in his/her field of expertise, original contributions of importance in his/her field, authorship of scholarly articles in major publications or media, display or exhibition of his/her work, performance of a leading role for distinguished organizations, comparatively high salary or remuneration in his/her field and/or commercial success in the performing arts.
Documentation must be in at least any three of the above. Other comparable evidence is also acceptable.
When filing Form I-140 (Petition for Alien Worker), either by an employer or by the individual, evidence of substantial benefit to the U.S. should be included. The form may be filed at either the USCIS Nebraska Service Center or the Texas Service Center.
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A HOME RUN FOR ARROYO OR
STRIKEOUT FOR THE U.S.?
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CHICAGO, Illinois (JGLi) – The dividend of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s ten-day working visit in the United States last week will pay off in the next few weeks if the U.S. Congress will calendar the Senate Bill No. 1315 (Veterans Enhancement Act of 2007) for floor debate.
However, if Speaker Nancy Pilosi will pussyfoot to make sure she has the vote needed to override any perceived presidential veto to the bill that will grant non-disability benefits to Philippine-based Filipino veterans and Filipino American veterans, the warmth of the presidential visit might grew cold.
And it could relegate the bill in the back burner as the presidential general election goes into over-drive until November.
The Speaker would be able to pass the bill if she succeeds in placing it under “suspension of bill” if she can rally the 290 Democratic House members and the 60 Republicans to vote for it on the House floor. If she will get these numbers, it will be a veto-proof bill that will ensure its passage even if President Bush assured Mrs. Arroyo of his support of this bill.
SUSPENSION OF RULES
Under a motion to suspend the Rules, a two-thirds vote of the House Members present and voting, and no amendments are in order unless submitted with the bill by its manager at the time the motion to suspend the Rules is offered. Bills are debatable for 40 minutes; and require a two-thirds vote for passage.
At the reception for the Philippines-US Friendship Caucus at the Veterans Committee Hearing Room at the US Capitol Building, the President appealed to the sense of justice of the House Members on the Filipino veterans’ role in WWII that “remains incomplete; the last chapter is yet to be written.”
She said it is not too late to “honor the service of all our fathers – American and Philippine – who fought for America and believed in the promise of America. To paraphrase another great American President, Abraham Lincoln: ‘We must now call on the better angels of our nature and set our sights high.”
FATHERS OF GREATEST GENERATION
Arroyo said that when then US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called on the Filipinos to serve in the US military after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, “our fathers of that greatest generation heeded the call. The President of the United States was our commander-in-chief.”
She thanked US Congressmen Bob Filner, a Democrat, and Darell Issa, a Republican, as two stalwarts in the “Filipino veterans equity movement.” She also thanked the general membership of the Philippine-US Friendship Caucus for their support for the Philippines and the Filipino WWII veterans.
In another forum, the reception with the Filipino community held at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., the President called on the Filipinos in the US to keep the fight for equity for the Filipino WWII veteran going.
THANKSGIVING
The President thanked the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations, the American Coalition of Filipino Veterans and other groups for pushing hard for the Veterans Equity Bill leading to the approval of the Senate version of the measure.
She wished them success in persuading opponents of the bill in the US House of Representatives to reconsider their position “so as to correct a lingering injustice to our WWII heroes.”
For the President Arroyo’s advocacy, she earned kodus from Maryland State Delegate Kriselda Valderrama “for your advocacy of the Filipino Veterans’ right; for controlling inflation, boosting employment and raising foreign investment in the Philippines; for strengthening the peso -- although I am not too happy shopping with a devalued dollar; and accelerating the Philippine economy into an all-time high of 7.3% in 2007.”
It might be a coincidence but when Mrs. Arroyo took this trip, she was also carrying a big stick should her nomination for Philippine Senator Merriam Defensor to be a member of the International Court of Justice succeeds.
Defensor’s presence in the ICJ may boost the advocacy of Los Angeles, California-based Catholic priest, Fr. Prisco Entines, that in case the U.S. Congress hesitates in passing S. 1315, he can make a case before ICJ or the United Nations’ Commission on Human Rights or the International War Crime Tribunal against the U.S. for committing the “War Crime of the Century.”
Father Engines insists that when President Roosevelt issued the Military Order, conscripting Filipinos to join the war under pain of death penalty for desertion, coupled with the passage of “Section 107” of the Recession Act of 1946, the U.S. Congress “vulgarly desecrated the U.S. Constitution.” This law is a “modern-day slavery by procedural, legislative, judicial and administrative conspiracy” of the United States. (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
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SAUCE FOR GANDER AND GOOSE
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Now and then, stories erupt that jog Filipino memories of the “New Society” dictatorship. Two incidents, separated by continents, did so this week.
In Malaysia, resurgent opposition leader, former prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, sought sanctuary in the Turkish embassy. Wobbly from it’s March poll trashing, government rehashed the rigged -- and dismissed -- 1998 sodomy charges against Anwar. That clones the faked communist subversion charges lodged against Senator Benigno Aquino..
In Zimbabwe, government thugs reduced elections to a sham, That forced opposition’s Morgan Tsvangirai to seek refuge in the Netherlands embassy. Remember our fraudulent 1986 snap elections? That declared Marcos “re-elected”—and triggered the first People Power revolt.
Anwar and Tsvangrai left their diplomatic havens, coincidentally, at about the same time this week.
Tsvangirai, who pulled out from run-off polls against the dictator Robert Mugabe, felt danger had lessened, a Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman said. “Tsvangirai is welcome to return if he feels unsafe again”.
On departing from the Turkish embassy, Anwar said : “Only after I received assurances of my safety did I leave of my own volition,” The likelihood of his winning a by-election, and toppling the Front, “unnerved the regime.”
The concept of asylum goes 3000 years back . By year 600, England’s King Ethelbert codified the first rules of sanctuary. They were scrapped by James I in 1623. But the concept of churches, and in later years, diplomatic havens, protecting people from arbitrary or sheer bad government, remains.
“The arrest of ( then ) Deputy Prime minister Ibrahim Anwar stokes deep unease here, specially among Filipinos who wish Malaysia well,” Sun Star said in September 1998. “The methods…and the jailing reopen still festering wounds in the Filipino psyche inflicted by the ‘New Society’ dictatorship.”
“Wan Azizah Wan Ismail complains she doesn’t even know in what prison her husband is held. ( Kuala Lumpur ) police shrug that off as ‘irrelevant griping by a mere housewife,” the paper noted.. “Filipinos don’t think so. In Mrs Anwar’s cry, they hear echoes of the demand made by ‘housewives Corazon Aquino and Carmen Diokno: Where are our husbands imprisoned?”
There’s a crucial difference today though. The physician-wife of Anwar is not a “mere housewife’. She's now a member of parliament. She also heads the opposition People’s Justice Party.
That clout is new. It stems from the opposition decisively trouncing, in the March polls, the ruling National Front coalition. The regime’s majority in Parliament crumbled. The ban against Anwar holding public office lapsed in April. In a by-election, Anwar could sweep back into office..
The Front, "which ruled Malaysia since it became independent in 1957, looks as if it might be on the verge of losing power,” the Economist notes. Economic turbulence buttresses that likelihood. In June, government slashed fuel subsidies. That jacked up the price of gasoline by 41%. Diesel bolted by 63%.
These stoke anger in a country festering with massive scandals a gagged press can not incise. Anwar indicated, in fact, he has hard evidence of abuse in key offices of the Police Inspectorate General and Attorney-General.
Rehashing old charges to stave collapse is a desperate unimaginative measure., Seperti si-buta kehilangan tongkat, says a Malay axiom. ( “Like a blind man who lost his walking stick.”)
Former President Aquino appealed, in 1998, on behalf of Anwar. Her plea remains relevant, given renewed assaults against the probable next Prime Minister of Malaysia:
National leaders may disagree on how best to govern their countries. But there is only one way to treat people, even political opponents. And that is with decency, fairness and non violence.”
Such sentiments cuts little ice with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. His re-election, by beating, threats and fraud, remind Filipinos of Ferdinand Marcos’ re-election hoax...
Mugabe left the 53-nation African Union Summit, in Egypt, after failing to get endorsement of his “re-election”. That’d have contradicted findings by three African monitoring groups : Zimbabwe’s polls “were flawed and lacked credibility”.
Africa’s most respected statesman Nelson Mandela earlier stressed “the tragic failure of leadership in Zimbabwe”. European Union president France flatly declared: EU would only recognize a Zimbabwean government led by Tsvangirai.
Negotiate with the opposition to form a unity government along the lines of pact Kenya adopted, the Sharm el-Sheikh conference said.. “It was an unprecedented rebuff to Mugabe, previously feted as a liberation hero,” New York Times noted.
Illegitimate rulers find the spin-offs persist long after meeting. Germany stopped printing bank notes currency for Harare, where inflation at four million percent, force people to pay three billion Zimbabwe dollars ( 30 US cents) for a tin of milk. This responds to EU’s call for sanctions.
Botswana demanded Mugabe be barred from the AU and the southern African regional body SADC. Kenya wanted Mugabe, 84, be suspended from AU.
There’ll be spillovers elsewhere. How will ASEAN, for example, handle the rigged referendum that the Burmese junta used to doll up it’s dictatorship? Participation in Asean meetings would give Gen Tan Shwe and his junta legitimacy by a process that is packed with farce.
Shouldn’t sauce for the gander ( Mugabe) be also sauce for the goose ( Tan Shwe)?
(E-mail: juan_mercado@prime.net.ph )
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