Pinoy WatchDog October 07, 2011 Issue by Pinoy WatchDog

Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs Dies at 56

VOL. 1

NO. 1

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20 PAGES

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LOS ANGELES COUNTY

Strange Bedfellows Emerging for 2016 elections

@PinoyWatchDog

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LIKE US

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My View

Column By Al Aquino | Page 4

Correspondent

TRANGE bedfellows will be the rule in the presidential campaign of 2016 where early horsetrading is already being

waged but vehemently denied. Old elites and family dynasties have learned to team up with nouveau riche showbiz celebrities, to clamp together their captive votes

LEGARDA from the poor but prolific classes to win another pivotal election in the country’s modern history. In a country up to now drifting in the sea of an identity crisis, having not

LACSON

“A Load of Crap”

SANTIAGO

By Francis Verdote | Page 5

yet fully learned to love and care for its own, every election is a pivotal exercise that either moves the national psyche forward or, as more often, backward. Cont’d to Page 14

No Holds Barred

PINOYS SUE ATTY BEIRNE FOR FRAUD, MALPRACTICE By Rene Villaroman Managing Editor

LENDALE -- A Filipino couple has filed a lawsuit against bankruptcy attorney James Beirne, alleging that his law office was retained to file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition to protect the couple’s house from being foreclosed, but Beirne allegedly never filed the bankruptcy petition, and the couple lost their home in Eagle Rock even though they reportedly paid Beirne the amount close to $8,000, Pinoy Watchdog learned after an investigation. The suit filed at the Superior Court, County of Los Angeles,

Photo by Rene Villaroman

Janet and Diosdado Duldulao, in front of their former house in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles. Central District, on June 29 this year was assigned to the Honorable Soussan Bruguera. It specified six counts of professional negligence,

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2011

From Our Pen

By Art Cariaga

Politics is the chief Philippine pastime – from the corridors of power in Makati and Binondo to the beer and karaoke sessions in barangay or village sari-sari stores -- so it would be unthinkable to have a newspaper without a political piece.

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breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, business code section 17200-fraudulent business practices; unlawful busi-

Column by Larry Pelayo | Page 6

Perryscope

Column By Perry Diaz | Page 7

Looking Back Column By Rene Villaroman | Page 6

ness practices; misleading advertising, and business and professions code, section 17500-false advertising. The lawsuit was filed by Diosdado Duldulao, originally from Piddig, Ilocos Norte; and his wife,Janet Duldulao, originally from Vintar, Ilocos, Norte. The Duldulaos said they first hired Beirne’s office in November 2008 for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and “lien stripping,” a term commonly referred to as eliminating a second mortgage on a residence. The lawsuit alleges that Attorney Beirne’s advertising guaranteed that “WE WILL help you keep your home,” and that “all services are supervised by an attorney.” Cont’d to Page 15

Balita’s Letter to Put Bander on Watch List an Attempt at Harassment and Retaliation

Lifestyle Essay On Baby Boomers By Vics Magsaysay | Page 10

Pacquiao’s Presidential Saga A Fiction Story

By Joel Bander | Page 12

Editor Rhony Laigo sought Bander’s placement in Immigration Watch List, but was reportedly unaware that complaint was filed by fictitious accuser

By Francis Johann Verdote, Larry Pelayo and Rene Villaroman PinoyWatchDog. Com Investigative Team

OS ANGELES -- In September 2009, Balita Media Editor Rhony Laigo traveled to the Philippines with a mission, to obtain an Immigration Hold Departure Order based on trumpedup criminal charges against Attorney Joel Bander. The ploy was part of his newspaper’s sustained campaign against Bander as the latter had so badly exposed Balita Media’s lies regarding its circulation figures in a Los Angeles Superior

Court litigation while representing Asian Journal Publications owned by Roger and Cora Oriel. (PinoyWatchDog.Com will be writing about this false circulation saga in future editions.) Photo by Jess Espanola Finally, in late Oc- Balita editor Rhony Laigo (left) after an interview with PinoyWatchDog.Com editors tober 2009, Laigo fi- Rene Villaroman (middle) and Larry Pelayo (right). nally achieved his goal by approaching a close friend of migration Commissioner Marceli- tion of President Gloria M. Arroyo. the highly discredited former Im- no Libanan during the administraCont’d to Page 3

Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs Dies at 56 CUPERTINO, California – Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs who invented and masterfully marketed ever-sleeker gadgets that transformed everyday technology – from personal computers to the iPod and iPhone – has died. He was 56. Cont’d to Page 16

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Expose

Friday, October 7, 2011

Balita’s Letter to Put Bander on Watch List an Attempt at Harassment and Retaliation Cont’d from page 1

In January 2011, Judge Joel A. Lucanan of Manila’s Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 37 acquitted Bander from an act of lasciviousness complaint filed by a fictitious accuser by the name of Cristina San Jose. Bander demonstrated to the satisfaction of the court that this complainant was a fake, who even provided a contact address that did not exist in a warehouse district in Metro Manila. During litigation, Bander retained the legal services of Filipino lawyer Sig Fortun. Although he was acquitted from the act of lasciviousness charges the individuals that created the havoc still remain free. The unwritten law of impunity is still in effect in the Philippines, and apparently also in Los Angeles as practiced by Mr. Laigo, who prided in calling himself a “practicing journalist.” “A Mockery of the Philippine Justice System” On October 1, 2011, at the opening of the Mt. Pinatubo photo exhibit at Carson Mall, PinoyWatchDog.Com editors personally interviewed Mr. Laigo to get his side of the story. Laigo claimed in a taped interview that Attorney Bander was avoiding a warrant of arrest, and he (Laigo) was just personally concerned at the “mockery of the Philippine justice system.” But the question is --- who was making a mockery of the system, Attorney Bander or Mr. Laigo? The Philippine court records indicate Attorney Bander’s attorneys appeared before the court in 2006 and were granted a ‘reinvestigation’ petition, as Bander was never informed of the fake charges. Bander personally appeared before a Manila Fiscal in 2007, but the complaining party did not appear. In October 2007, Bander filed a Petition for Review with the Arroyo Justice Department that never saw any action whatsoever. “I refused to bribe anyone,” Bander stated. “That’s why the case took so long.” And so the case languished. During all those years Mr. Laigo was unconcerned about the alleged ‘mockery’ of the Philippine justice system, at least until Bander exposed

Balita Media’s circulation representation lies. Mr. Laigo’s October 5, 2009, letter to Philippine Immigration bureau’s Libanan went so far as to state “our sources tell us that Mr. Bander fled the country after the judge found probable cause on Ms. San Jose’s complaint.” Bander countered, “that’s absurd, I always had well placed counsel representing me on this matter. I never altered my travel patterns to the Philippines because of this case at all.” Laigo also referred to a People’s Tonight (a Manila afternoon tabloid newspaper) article that was later retracted by the publishers as untrue and without basis. Indeed, the story spoke of illegal recruitment charges in Branch 78 of the Taguig Trial Court, which does not even exist. However, when interviewed for this story by PinoyWatchDog.Com editors, Laigo claimed to have no knowledge of the complete falsity of the underlying charges. How can a true journalist not be investigating all the nuances of a story unless there is a perceived agenda of mockery and impunity? A manual explaining the Philippines legal and political system would have made Bander’s and other foreigners’ lives in the Philippines easier. Sadly, such manuals are nonexistent and non-Filipinos have to experience first-hand the corrupt ways of traditional politics. Non-Filipinos do not even have to be in the Philippines to experience the system. But Filipinos bringing their old ways to the land of new beginnings could only weaken the moral fabric of some people. This same political system that denies equality and justice for all protects families like the Ampatuans and the Macapagal-Arroyos. Two years later, these families still have not been put on trial for their alleged crimes. But impunity in the Philippines or among Filipinos does not always concern massacres and other forms of killings. In Bander’s case, the well-connected Filipinos ask simple favors, perhaps with a bribe, such as placing a foreign lawyer of good standing in the Bureau of Immigration’s watch list. At the same time, the lawyer receives an arrest

warrant for a manufactured molestation of a fictitious woman. And Mr. Laigo is still permitted by his Balita Media patrons to act with impunity by their continued support of him. Mr. Laigo, who is the executive editor of Weekend Balita, covered the Ninoy Aquino International Airport beat as a photographer routinely, among others, during his newspaper career in Manila in the 1980s until the early 90s. After he arrived with his family in the United States, after a newspaper-editing stint in the US territory of Saipan, Laigo, was hired as

editor of the now defunct World Reporter, a midweek broadsheet weekly newspaper published by businessman-CPA Oscar Jornacion. A few years later, he and a couple of account executives of California Examiner (also published by Jornacion) and World Reporter, secretly founded a weekly tabloid newspaper called Diyaryo Pilipino. It was funded by a longtime friend of one of the original founders. Laigo eventually bought out the original owner, and the tabloid flourished under his editorship and management, until it too was forced to fold up a few years ago.

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Friday, October 7, 2011

Editorial

We all are the keepers of the metaphorical dog

INOYWATCHDOG.COM is committed to the highest level of factual, well written journalism that some Filipino media around the world routinely censor, denying you, readers, the whole truth, because of business, governmental and religious relations between news organizations and these institutional Goliaths. We will carry the banner, “Uncensored,” addressing issues of concern in our worldwide community, like corruption, injustice, freedom of the press, extra-judicial murders, divorce, family planning, abortion, women’s rights, and environmental issues. We will be reporting on dishonesty in all levels of our government, locally and in the old country, and we will stay determined not to be influenced by forces that would seek to divert us from our core mission of reporting the truth. Community members are innately endowed with a civic duty to serve as a sentinel, a Tanod Bayan, applauding virtue while condemning dishonesty, corruption, fraud and deceit. PinoyWatchDog welcomes differing views and challenges to our assertions of fact and opinion, welcoming lively debate and dissent, and walking hand in hand with same-minded believers in truth. To quote from the great book: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” John 8:32. PinoyWatchDog.com abhors the “cut-and-paste” journalism currently being practiced by some of the community newspapers in our midst, publishing safe, vanilla-flavored stories and staying away from stories that document systemic corruption and dishonesty in the Philippine government because doing so might negatively impact their publishing businesses. There will be no “cut and paste” stories from wire services and from Philippine newspaper sources. We will have only original stories, columns and commentaries, but we will also sprinkle our issues with humor, satire and parody that, hopefully, would entertain and cause everyone to reflect on the truth, which is our reason for being. We look forward to utilizing our canine-like eyes, ears and noses to work for the common good of the community and to challenge our readers’ senses to be active contributors to this journey. Truth is really our mantra, if you don’t mind our saying so one more time. We will be the temporary companions and stewards of the metaphorical dog. PinoyWatchDog.com

is published fortnightly by Tanod Bayan, Inc., mailing address at P.O. Box 91400, Los Angeles, California 90009, Telephone Number (213) 261-7467 and e-mail address at editor@pinoywatchdog.com Alfonso Gaerlan Aquino Executive Editor Rene Villaroman Lorenzo Pelayo Managing Editor Chief of Reporter Jenilene Francisco Staff Writer

Francis Johann Verdote Publisher’s Assistan

Sarah Lei Spagnolo Advertising Manager Lifestyle Editor Jess Espanola Photographer/Cartoonist

Arturo Cariaga, Winston A. Marbella Manila Correspondents Lay-out and Graphics by iSynerji Global

You’ve been dogged.

Our Reason for Being

T the outset, we would like to make the claim that we are committed to report information as news at its most factual state, with the expectation that it will aid us to arrive at the truth. In the light of this stance, we shall endeavor to hold every item appearing in this publication strictly in the spirit of fair and balance reporting. We shall welcome rejoinders and dissents, which are also designed to speak out the truth, but we reserve the right to reject any articles that will seek to use this paper as a venue for fomenting trouble. In short, we shall hold that truth is our reason for being. *** As the paper’s name indicates, we shall serve as the community sentinel determined at an instance to expose and denounce any form of wrongdoing. Rest assured, we shall seek to get to the bottom of controversies, so that the truth will prevail. Issues of corruption, fraud and deceit shall have the front seat. Nothing unites the Filipinos to activism than an expose of scandal and corruption. This is not to say, however, that our pages shall be occupied solely by the heavy and serious stuffs. We shall balance our reporting with informative and light, entertaining features. *** Here are a few examples: did you know that in these United States, life is not as rosy anymore as in the Clinton years? The number of people living in the poverty level is more than 46 million, and more than 22 million are children. The national average of unemployment is 9.1 per cent. The real unemployment rate is more than 20 per cent. The most precarious, ready to explode, group are the African-Americans, ages 16 to 19, whose unemployment rate stands at 47 per cent. This puts the situation as very dangerous because it could

erupt into riots and violence in the streets any time soon. As for our kababayans in the old country, not now is the time to be contemplating on moving to the United States. *** Also in our folders, we are focusing at the lawsuit filed by Diosdado Duldulao, Janet Duldulao, and their minor son Joseph, against James Geoffrey Beirne, Law Offices of James G. Beirne, 1 to 20 Does, inclusive. This suit is docketed as case no. BC445695, filed on June 29, 2011 and assigned to Honorable Soussan Bruguera, Department 71. The first amended complaint accuses the defendants for the following: 1. PROFESSIONAL NEGLIGENCE 2. BREACH OF FIDUCIARY DUTY 3. FRAUD 4. NEGLIGENT M I S R E P R E S E N TA TION 5. BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE 17200 for FRAUDULENT BUSINESS PRACTICES; UNLAWFUL BUSINESS PRACTICES; MISLEADING ADVERTISING. 6. BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE 17500 for FALSE ADVERTISING. The plaintiffs are members of the Filipino community and they are members in good standing, morally upright and fervently religious. They claim that as a result of these fraud and deceit perpetrated by the defendants, their lives are now in disarray, unsure of the future. We shall be reporting more as we get to the bottom. *** The exposures of scandals and wrongdoing are always welcomed fodder for any newspaper, but it is how these matters are handled, and if handled right, this will give credence and integrity to a publication. Certain papers may take opportunity to use these issues as grounds for a shakedown. We proclaim – NOT IN THIS NEWSPAPER once more. We hold that TRUTH is our only reason for being.

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Opinion

Friday, October 7, 2011

Isang Malaking Kalokohan Yan! (That’s a big load of bull crap) M

Many Filipinos take discussions about religion seriously. Filipinos could laugh at and understand political satire. Some Filipinos could tolerate other Filipinos laughing at their thick accents and grammatically incorrect sentences. Some can ignore Filipinos criticizing Manny Pacquiao’s over the top activities. But when it comes to religion, many Filipinos cannot take a joke and criticism. It does not matter which sect or denomination one belongs in. Religion is religion, and it must keep it’s sanctity pure from criticism. But where does the agitation to stand up for one’s faith originate? Spain’s colonization of the Philippines replaced the practice of Animism and other traditions with Roman Catholicism and Western mores. A handful of Filipinos defended their land and freedom against Spanish colonizers. Many Filipino freedom fighters did not want Spain’s presence in the Philippines. For a long time, Filipinos could not do anything and Spain’s influence grew. Aside from Catholicism, they brought to the 7,100-plus islands forced labor, exploitation of natural resources, the mestizo breed, and surnames for island inhabitants. Through three centuries of Spanish domination, religion in the Philippines has instilled fear, false hope, and prayers full of empty words. Religion is a slow yet consistent process of indoctrination. Philosopher Bertrand Russell said, “Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason.” Through baptism, confirmation, marriage, and other sacraments, religion and the belief in God have been implanted in our brains as if the idea has been with us since birth. But free-thinking Filipinos questioned the indoctrination process. Filipino dissenters such as Mariano Gomez, Jose Apolonio Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora (GOMBURZA) were executed for acting against the Church’s will. The three priests demanded Church secularization, Philippine independence, and empowered local priests. Novelist, patriot, and reformer Jose Rizal was not spared from cruelty either. During their time, the Catholic Church considered Rizal and the GOMBURZA as blasphemers and heretics. The executed heretics are now considered Philippine heroes and martyrs. For a country that prides itself of its Christian heritage, many Filipinos relapse and commit un-Christian acts. The Ten Commandments serve as the moral and ethical guidelines in life. In several schools, stu-

A gallery visitor looks at one of the art pieces in the Mideo-Cruz exhibit at CCP. dents memorize the Ten Commandments. The first commandment declares that we shall not have other gods before Him. Yet many Filipinos treat Saints, celebrities, athletes, and priests as gods and place them on a similar pedestal as God. Aside from the first two commandments of not worshipping false gods, many Filipinos tend to preach Christian morality, yet their actions contradict their words. In this article, contradictions between what is being said and done in relation to the Filipino experience and religion will be illustrated. Oftentimes, Filipinos with power and wealth infringe God’s Commandments. Through fear and religion, the powerful and wealthy Filipinos take advantage of the weak and powerless. The Ten Commandments stifle the poor and powerless Filipinos. They cannot steal and commit adultery and murder. The poor and powerless feel a rush of guilt and thoughts of punishments. The idea of hell as the kingdom of sinners permeates in the minds of hapless Filipinos. Moreover, the thought of God watching everyone scares many Filipinos. However, the wealthy and the powerful run freely in the country even though they commit similar crimes as the destitute Filipinos. With all the 21st century advancements, many Filipinos and even the Catholic Church still castigate other people as heretics and blasphemers for questioning religious dogmas. A few months ago, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) featured Mideo Cruz’s art in an exhibit entitled Poleteismo.

In his exhibit, Cruz juxtaposed pictures of Jesus Christ with wood carved penis ashtrays. Other found objects in the artwork include, rosaries, crucifix, campaign poster, pictures of heroes and celebrities. His controversial artwork brought back to life the dormant finger-pointing and name-calling of the Church and its loyal followers. The Catholic Church filed lawsuits, demanded for CCP officials to step down from their position and the artwork be taken down. Some people were shocked with the Cruz’s artwork. Through the controversy Cruz gained from his exhibit, the Catholic Church can add his name to the many so-called heretics and blasphemers. However, the problem is not Mideo Cruz or his artwork. The problem is the people’s reaction to the artwork. Cruz depicts sex, religion, and common folks’ daily lives. Mideo Cruz’s artwork illustrates to the Philippine art world the life experience of many Filipinos – that there is another world in Philippine society beyond aesthetics. Jeepneys and taxicabs in the Philippines are filled with objects seen in Cruz’s art exhibit. Inside the jeepneys, glittering stickers of half-naked women; on motorcycles are juxtaposed jeepney slogans saying, “God knows hudas (who does) not pay.” In the taxicabs, Jesus Christ’s pictures are taped beside cutoff pictures of porn stars. All the while we see large billboards of celebrities and politicians along the streets of Manila. In Catholic schools, teachers emphasize the moral lesson of not judging other people. The lesson is one of Christ’s many teachings. He said, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Yet when Mideo Cruz launched his art exhibit at CCP, many Filipinos joined the bandwagon of chastising Cruz as a blasphemer. What is taught in schools as children, contradicts the life we live as adults. It is fitting to say as the Eraserheads (the best Filipino band ever) once sung, “It’s so hard to believe/When everything you see is/ different/from the things that you’ve/been told.” What is taught in schools as children, contradicts the lives we live as adults. The religious community contradicts itself when they judged Mideo Cruz, without wondering whether or not they committed blasphemy. For the longest time in the Philippines, Catholic priests have been linked to several casesof child molestation. The Catholic Church has been criticized for turning a blind eye on the alleged accusations. At the same time, many believers raise priests in God’s stature, thinking priests cannot and do not commit sinful acts. Before becoming priests, they vowed to be celibate and to dutifully serve God. While preaching that premarital sex is a sin against God, many priests com-

By Francis Johann Verdote mit the same act they preached to be sinful behind closed doors. Furthermore, the believers venerate religious figures and images, as if the figures and images are God Himself. These acts contradict the Ten Commandments Moses found in Mount Sinai, do they not? Are not their actions as blasphemous and heretical than any piece of artwork Cruz created in Poleteismo? Similar to Mideo Cruz’s issue, the Philippine representative to the annual Miss Universe pageant posits a problem between religious belief and making judgments. In the pageant, Vivica A. Fox asks Ms. Philippines Shamcey Supsup whether or not she will change her religion to marry the man she loves. Shamcey Supsup confidently gives a “No,” confesses her devotion to her Creator, and devotes her love to God and not the man she loves. Some Filipinos pride themselves of her answer – of prioritizing God above anyone else. Whether she deserved to win or not is not the issue I pose. With all due respect to herreligious belief, my concern is her response and how it relates to my criticism of Filipinos and religion. After hearing her answer the question, the Good Samaritan parable quickly came to mind. The parable’s moral lesson is the Samaritan’s unprejudiced outlook in life. Comparing the parable to Supsup’s answer, the parable shows a nobler act of selflessness for helping a man in need. While Supsup’s answer reflects a selfish act for not marrying a man on grounds of religious difference. The parable shows more affinity to humanity than Supsup’s beliefs. Religions teach love, acceptance, and tolerance. For a religious person then not marrying someone s/he loves because of religious difference or lack thereof is a form of passive-aggressive bigotry. The act shows religious exclusivity and intolerance. Might as well legalize gay marriage, maybe heterosexual couples could learn a thing or two from them. Similar to many religious people, I am a flawed follower. However, one conversation changed the way I perceive religion and life, in general. My being a new man did not come from a religious servant or philosopher. For a religious person, the wisdom I gained would come from a doubtful source, my junky friend. When I told him about my girlfriend’s conversion from Catholicism to a born-again Christian and how it tore apart our relationship his initial reaction was, “Putang ina! Isang malaking kalokohan yan! (Son of a bitch! That’s a big load of bull crap!)” He said that a difference in religious beliefs should not be a hindrance to a couple’s relationship. And then for emphasis he ended his advice with, “Putang ina! Kalokohan ng tao talaga, o! (Son of a bitch! Oh, man’s foolishness!)” The article’s purpose is not to bash the religious community. This is not a religious tirade targeting the Catholic Church. Nor is this a ranting session about how conservative some Filipinos can be. It is acknowledged that many priests still act in good faith. It is acknowledged that many religious Filipinos act with utmost respect towards other people. The article does not intend to hurt Shamcey Supsup or offend her fans. Supsup’s perseverance of her craft is given utmost respect. The article’s sole intention is to critically assess the people’s relationship to religious dogma. In the age of Internet and social networking, a door has opened to a lot ofinformation – making it easier to pass judgment on people. There are other sources of information and wisdom aside from the Internet and canonical texts. There is also my junky friend. And ourselves. God gave us brains so we can think for ourselves. Better use it soon before He takes it away.

Friday, October 7, 2011

PinoyWatchDog.Com

The Asian Journal that I Used to Know

S I stare at a blank computer monitor this Sunday afternoon, about to write an inaugural column for Pinoy Watchdog (Pinoywatchdog.com), my memory goes back some twenty years to a modest office where my Los Angeles community journalism career had a humble start. That small office belonged to Asian Journal (AJ). AJ was barely a few weeks old when Roger Oriel, its publisher, invited me for lunch at a Filipino restaurant right across from the A J office. Roger offered me the position of managing editor to take the place of erstwhile managing editor Larry Zabala, who was balancing two jobs, a night job and the managing editor position at AJ. The offer to put a fledgling Fil-Am newspaper to bed once a week was too good to pass up. I accepted Roger’s offer and thanked him for considering me. We had one computer, a few desks and a couple of telephones. Our receptionist was Lisa Penaranda (as in Lisa Minelli) whose husband, Ver, an avid outdoorsman, owned a modest printing business. My first couple of issues was hit-and-miss, and one weekend night, we failed to finish production work and missed our printing schedule. But Cora Macabagdal, a principal in AJ, who was dating Roger Oriel at the time, did not raise her voice even an octave when she came in the office that morning. Blearyeyed for having worked over-

night, I acknowledged our shortcomings and took responsibility for the missed opportunity. After a couple of weeks, everyone sort of grew into their jobs; we settled into a cadence, and there was no more missed printing schedules. The Macabagdal-owned restaurant was a bistro, and it sits adjacent to a shop of well-known beautician-stylist Monet Lu. At lunchtime a group of Philippine Consulate people would drive the mile from the mid-Wilshire district to Beverly Blvd. to have their lunch at the bistro. It was the “in” Filipino restaurant that time. Cora, the Macabagdals’ oldest daughter, was one of my wife’s closest girlfriends. They both had worked with Oscar Jornacion, publisher of the then California Examiner and a former partner of Roger Oriel. When they were still partners, Jornacion and Oriel owned a one-floor brick building along Beverly Blvd. near the corner of Occidental Blvd. When they parted ways due to a dispute, the brick building was sold, and Jornacion rented a onefloor building along San Fernando Road, in the Atwater district of Los Angeles. He also purchased a used rotary printing press, which fit in the back of the San Fernando Road property. It would not be long after this move when Cora would part company with Jornacion. The speculation then was that, after parting ways with Jornacion, Oriel would establish his own newspaper and compete with his former partner.

So it was a not surprise that Asian Journal was born a few months after his split from Jornacion. Cora, not surprisingly, also left Jornacion’s California Examiner, where she was the top-grossing account executive, and no one was surprised when she joined Oriel’s Asian Journal early on. The match-up was perfection. Oriel, a certified public accountant and businessman and Corazon Macabagdal, easily the highest grossing account executive in the Fil-Am community publishing industry, with a charming personality to boot. For the Oriel-Macabagdal tandem, publishing a community newspaper that promises to be more progressive and innovative, compared to the sedate, but decades-old California Examiner would seem to be a sure thing. But it was doubtful at the outset whether Asian Journal would play a newspaper’s traditional role in social responsibility and advocacies for relevant social and political issues in the communities they serve. Inured to some Pinoys’ penchant for filing libel cases to shake down well-meaning and crusading journalists and publishers, it is not difficult to understand why would-be publishers like Oriel and others would shirk from their traditional mandates as advocates due to the costs of litigation that results from losing such lawsuits, even if some of these suits do not always reach the litigation stage every time. What be-

Foreword

HY are we here? Isn’t it too late for us to join the bandwagon of newspaper publication and print media in our midst? Do we have something new to give impact to our existence, or is it simply a desire to do some grandstanding, which ultimately may brand all our staff stupid and a bunch of misdirected fools from the Fourth Estate? Where are the breeds of younger journalists who can be the guardians of the truth and expose the anomalies victimizing our people? Do we have a shortage of media practitioners who will give priority to exposing the crooks in the society before their safety if only to help in the reduction of the glorified criminals in our midst? How can we stop the practice by some alleged journalists or pseudo-columnists who twist and reverse the truth for a few dollars to the detriment of their honestto-goodness peers? We are here to accept the challenges from the community who kept on asking, if there no more or other newspapers that will answer what we want? The Pinoywatchdog.com was born out of these challenges. We are committed to give you the facts as they happened. There will be no sacred cows that will block our way. We will give you the exact scenario. Oh yes, we will name names if needed.

And only print news or articles with community and news value. To wit, we will not publish anything that will serve as icing on the personalities of the undesirables in the community. Neither are we going to picture on our front page the car of our editor which was hit by a fallen acacia tree; nor shall we repeatedly trod on the footsteps of people to avoid trying them by publicity repeatedly by simply juggling or playing around with the same facts to show we are always on top of everything. We will not pay people to create situations, nor invent and script crimes to downgrade lawyers, medical professionals and others. We will not act like foolish dogs trailing people and preempt judgments to them on charges, which, more often than not, were fabricated. Neither shall we act as if we have the laws on our hands and say ergo…you are guilty even before conviction. Our staff will not do that. We will not publish the same news story by simply showing different pictures taken on the same spot if only to fill our space. We will give you what you need; what you ought to know and what we feel is the real news for you, our reading public. Let no holy cows scare us as we highlight the truth, for at the end we subscribe to the biblical dictum “You shall know the truth; and the truth shall set you free” John 8:32.

PINOY ARMAGEDDONS ARE DESTROYING OUR IMAGE The image of a Filipino is shattered and broken by a smorgasbord of negative traits not commonly seen in those living in the Philippines. We have a large pool of self-proclaimed leaders claiming unbelievable achievements, which if dated will extend even before their actual birthdays. So unbelievable are the ways that they project themselves. Given the opportunity, here comes a guy who claimed to be a lawyer back home but could not even speak properly. nor observe his grammar, thereby making Mr. Websters a laughing stock. This guy always says “I would like to make mention here;” rather than “I would like to mention here.” Many times he spoke without time limit and kept on repeating what he previously had spoken, only to stop when he heard the audience snoring all at the same time. A self-proclaimed mayor of a non-existing town, he showed his

comes paramount to publishers like Oriel, Jornacion and many others in involved in the industry is the commercial success and viability of the enterprise, first and foremost. On this score, I consider AJ a success story. But they have a long way to go from being recognized as an advocate for any kind of reform or social consciousness.

Cora Macabagdal and Her Quest for Financial Success During her career as an account executive with California Examiner, Cora had dated a few eligible bachelors including a well-known Jewish-American immigration lawyer and a young Fil-Am dentist who had his practice in Orange County. But this latter gentleman, reportedly, turned out to be gay. Cora, who was quite naïve in the ways of love, often turned to us for advice. A charming, soft-spoken and statuesque, but slightly overweight woman, Cora was the toast of upright single men looking for a good wife, and, occasionally, married Lotharios who were looking for fun. But she successfully defended her honor from the wiles of the playboys, and as far as we know, she never had to suffer a nervous breakdown as a result of having her heart broken. My wife, who attended her wedding to Roger (I was not invited as I had just resigned as managing editor), related to me that Cora’s father wept openly when he and Cora did the

ceremonial father-daughter dance during the reception. My family considered Cora one of our closest friends. She even coined a nickname (“Manay”) for our baby daughter Justine, whose birthday parties she had attended more than once when was still single and Justine was still a Teddy bear-loving toddler. Cora also has a sister, named Kristina, who is a few years older than my daughter. She still calls me “Tito.” Cora knew what she wanted to be, and listening to her talk about her goals, I concluded that she would like to achieve financial success, and who doesn’t? Only, in her case, I believe, it was an over-riding ambition. I remember in the late 80s after we bought our first brand-new Honda we took her and another California Examiner account executive with us for an overnight trip to Las Vegas. It was summer, and we arrived in Vegas a few ticks before midnight. After checking in at a motel, we hit the gambling casinos, and Cora and Rody TrinCont’d to Page 7

courage and lack of scruple by calling himself mayor at every opportunity. Comes now this man from Pandacan (as in pandak) who could not grow taller than a fire hydrant (bocay sendio) because of the weights of the different logos of the associations he joined. They are seen on all the souvenir program ads he paid as if these associations endorsed whatever he is doing. Mr. Pandak even went to the extent of going to the Philippines in order to “sumbong” to their provincial officer on several occasions a group of Pinoys that took over his chair and occupied his table. Behind it was the desire to sabotage the coming affair of this group this coming December. As expected, the government official did not go to the level of Pandak and claimed that his “sumbong” is childish and irrelevant. Not contented with the denials he received, his group of robots who kissed the butt and footmarks of Pandak everytime he walks, or who hang his pictures on their altars, joined Pandak in passing words around that a December anniversary by one group will not push through. Pandak himself passed feelers that he was the only one capable of doing the fiesta and no others. Be that as it may, why then did Pandak move heaven and earth (except hell where his friends reside), in order to stop the group’s affair; and have the other party’s activity under him? Plain and simple, they will not plan any more activity because the December affair by itself is super enough. This early, the man from Pandakan should wake up. Associations

he originally joined were divided because of him. Where are the Kalayaan groups now, where are the Kapampangans, and some others? Divided, right? Another man in the midst of the Pinoy community in Los Angeles is a guy who claimed to be Asia’s best balladeer. Susme, you cannot claim that title yet when you can only sing Kapampangan Ku and God Bless America. Baka peria or gloryeta balladeer puwede pa. Don‘t hurry up kabalen, You will soon be there. Before that, make up your mind: Which do you want, to be a singer, videographer or simply a robot of Pandak? Next week, we will expose and unearth Pinoys who made money, establishing foundations, concerts here and there with the performers having a lot of alalays in tow that court the suspicions of the government bureau. A Pinay singer was banned from entering the USA before because she brought fifteen manicurists and make-up artists on her show. The IRS stepped in and said, “How much was involved? Do you know a karate player who produced his own newspaper and advertised karate tournaments of Pinoy martial artists from Luzon flocked to the US embassy in Manila and obtained US visas. We did not know if the tournament pushed through, but the newspaper was closed and the publisher, instead of teaching karate, is now teaching ballroom dancing and selling herbal medicine. For those who were hit by our expose…you were dogged. The Pinoywatchdog had bitten you to the bone. He will always watch you 24/7.

Undocumented Workers Entitled to Decent Pay After Visa Denial and Termination

By Attorney Joel Bander

O, you have been working for about a year for an employer who has sponsored you for a H1-B or Labor Certification. You have been paid a flat weekly fee less than the minimum wage. You are working more than 40 hours a week and are not getting time and one-half. They have promised that once your visa application has been approved that then they will pay you at least a minimum wage, but that you should be grateful that they are hiring you illegally and sponsoring you. ‘Don’t complain,’ they say, because we could cancel your employment visa application and terminate you. So, you wait. Then, after all that waiting, and working for next to nothing your employment visa gets denied and your employer terminates you. Often, they will just start the same cycle over again, victimizing another hopeful alien. The reality is that they never intended for the application to be successful.

And to make matters worse, you are the one who has paid the lawyer for this ineffectual visa petition and/or an employment referral agency for finding the employer, and the employer required you to use that attorney as a condition for the undocumented employment and bogus visa application. What does that mean? Often, there is an ‘arrangement’ between the unscrupulous employer and unethical attorney/employment agency because an objective attorney would have told you that the visa application has no merit. Luckily, you have recourse. California, and most other states, has very employeeconscious wage and hour laws. These laws require that every worker, (with few exceptions) regardless of whether they are documented or undocumented, receive minimum wage and time and one-half for over time. If the employer has not paid them they are then liable for these amounts, interest and penalties. And they have to pay the worker’s attorneys fees! This means that even though your unpaid wages may only total $5000-8000, an amount usually considered too small for an

attorney to handle, the interest, penalties and attorney fees under law completely reverse that economic inequity. And do not worry if you were paid only in cash. That is actually a separate, actionable labor claim! Sometimes, these claims can total over $50,000! $300 owed a week over a year or more plus interest and penalties can really add up! And even though the example above discusses workers who have been sponsored by their employer, any worker is entitled to these benefits. ‘But attorney’, I hear often, ‘the employer said h e will turn me in to the USCIS if I sue him.’ This is an empty claim. The USCIS is working with the Labor Department to go after employers who abuse their employees as described in the column. And the employer is only exposing their own crimes by reporting the circumstances to a federal agent. Also, in California, the worker’s undocumented status is not even admissible in the court proceeding. The judge has been in-

Has buko juice’s time come?

Friday, October 7, 2011

PinoyWatchDog.Com

N 2004, I wrote an article titled, “Hey, do you want to buy buko juice?” (PerryScope, December 10, 2004). At that time, although buko juice – or Coco juice -- was then being sold in markets in the United States, it was mostly distributed in Asian markets. You couldn’t find them in mainstream markets then. The following is an excerpt of what I wrote in 2004: “Hey, do you want to buy buko juice?” “When I was attending high school at the San Sebastian College on Azcarraga Blvd. in Manila, I always treated myself to a glass of ice-cold buko juice -- peddled by street vendors -- while waiting for my JD bus to Quezon City. It was a good refreshing drink especially during the hot and humid months. This was in the late 50’s. “Today, buko juice is still being peddled in Manila in the same way they did 50 years ago. However, in the past five years, buko juice is now being peddled in Asian markets in the United States. Recently, I went to my favorite Filipino supermarket and looked for the canned buko juice. Eureka! I found it in several brand names. But none of which were processed in the Philippines. They were processed in Thailand or Vietnam. “Buko or coconut is grown rampantly in the Philippines. As a matter of fact, the Philippines is the world’s number one grower of coconut. A hardy tree, coconut can withstand the worst typhoons unleashed by Mother Nature and it can grow on just about anything, including water. “With the abundance of coconut, exporting processed coconut products -- from buko juice to ‘macapuno’ -- should not be a problem. However, the Philippines, due to lack of capital infu-

sion, does not have the means to process its huge deposits of natural resources -- from seaweeds to oil. “In a nutshell, the Philippines needs an infusion of capital to modernize its manufacturing industry. Local sources of capital are drying up fast. Foreign sources of capital is abundant; however, because of the 60/40 rule, foreign venture capitalists are not motivated to invest in the Philippines --- for a good reason. “The 60/40 rule applies to the ownership ratio of businesses including corporations; that is, Filipinos must own 60% of capital stock. There is nothing wrong with this provision in the constitution. The major problem is that foreign investors are required to capitalize and pay up their stock subscription 100% while Filipino investors are required to only capitalize 25% and pay up 20% of their capitalized stocks, which means that a Filipino investor needs to pay up only 5% of the subscribed stocks while a foreign investor has to pay up 100% of the subscribed stocks. However, dividends are distributed according to the subscribed stocks. To begin with, the corporation’s operating capital would be less than the subscribed stocks. There is not much to expect when a corporation is operating at 45% of its capitalization. “I brought this issue up with Speaker Joe De Venecia -- during the Ramos presidency -- when I arranged for him to speak to a joint session of the California Legislature, the first and only time that a Philippine congressional leader addressed the state legislature. He explained to me that it would take a constitutional change to do away, or modify, the 60/40 ratios. He further explained that a “charter change” convention -- known as Cha-Cha -- had to be convened to make a constitutional change.”

structed by the legislature to not consider that fact, and the jury will never hear you are undocumented. Indeed, the employer’s lawyer cannot even ask you about your immigration status. And let us not forget that money you have paid the attorney. You have a right to be reimbursed if there was no basis for the petition in the first place. In Los Angeles, and most other counties, the County Bar Association has a cheap and quick fee arbitration system that all attorneys are required to participate in. Once you win it is the attorney who must file a lawsuit to stop the refund of fees. (Atty. Joel R. Bander has over twenty five years of litigation experience. He has successfully handled numerous cases before Federal, State, Civil, and Criminal Judges and has participated in hundreds of arbitrations and trials. His office is in downtown Los Angeles Office; address: 801 S. Grand Avenue, 11th Floor, Tel: 213438-9692, , Email: info@banderlaw.com; www.banderlaw.com)

The Asian Journal that I Used to Know Cont’d from Page 6

Fast-forward to 2011 The Philippines has not changed much since 2004. It has yet to amend the constitution to make the country more attractive to foreign investors. The “60/40 rule” is still the “serial killer” that drives foreign investors away. And buko juice is still being sold on street corners. But today, canned buko juice – or “coco water” – is now being sold in some mainstream markets in the U.S. “Coco water” Recently, at an airport press conference upon his return from the U.S., President Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III said that he found out that Americans have discovered the joys of drinking buko juice. “Drinking what they call coco water and what we call buko juice is a growing trend in the US. Because of its nutrients, because it is natural and environment friendly, it is becoming the new natural sports drink in America and is now a hundred-million-dollar industry,” he said. He then announced that PepsiCola and Vita Coco are going to tap the Philippine coconut industry

Cont’d to page 16

idad, the account executive, played until the wee hours of the morning, and both lost a lot of money. On our way home, we stopped at Primm, and she and Rody continued to gamble at Whiskey Pete’s, and Cora had to whip up a credit card because she had lost all her cash earlier in a losing streak. That did not seem to faze her because she made a lot of money as the highest grossing AE of California Examiner. Besides, she was a single woman, and she could easily recoup her losses in one payday. The four of us also loved to eat Japanese food, and it was not beyond us to drive 15 miles down to Santa Monica, then the site of Todai, one of the best all-youcan-eat Japanese restaurants in the Los Angeles basin, at $12 buffet dinner per person. It was no pain because at the time, gas was like $2 a gallon. The marketing and advertising sales profession is fraught with dangers for beautiful women like Cora, and it is not uncommon for a few single women account executives and other female sales persons to get entangled in compromising relationships with some male clients who do not have scruples. So we were relieved when we heard the news that Cora was dating Roger. He was divorced from his first wife when he dated Cora, and the couple’s budding romance, more or less, coincided with the birthing pains of Asian Journal. Now, some twenty some-

thing years later after my short stint with Asian Journal, I find myself again at the helm of another fledgling newspaper that is full of idealism and fresh ideas. In between these two projects, I’ve been involved in the creation of two other news magazines from 1998 until 2005. These two monthly publications – LifeStyles and AWE Magazines – sadly had to fold up, not because of editorial incompetence but due to financial difficulties. I do not claim having made any significant contribution to Asian Journal’s success, having worked there only for about four years, first as a managing editor, and in 2007 up to the present, as a correspondent who was paid a paltry sum per article and picture(s) that I turned in and got published. In fairness to the Oriels, especially to Cora, I was the one who sought the correspondent position, and I am quite sure that she took me in because we still considered each other as friends. Even though I did not accumulate great wealth while under their employ, the experience of chasing the news almost on a daily basis gave me an adrenalin jolt every time my dispatches were published on the front page. Today, another opportunity to pursue what I really love has opened its doors one more time. I am excited to find what’s behind these doors. In the next issue of Pinoy Watchdog, I will continue my chronicle of the Asian Journal Story, the way that I witnessed and experienced it.

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Friday, October 7, 2011

Community

The Tumultuous Conception and Birth of Historic Filipinotown

By Rene Villaroman, Managing Editor HE creation of Historic Filipinotown by a resolution penned by Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti in August 2002 bestowed upon this former Filipino enclave the gift of reclaiming its historic birthright as the traditional home of Filipino immigrants during the early 1920s until the 1940s. Typically, the events that led to the creation of Historic Filipinotown had the imprints of acrimony, divisiveness and squabbling that sometimes accompanied the birth of an organization—whether it is a chamber of commerce, a non-profit association of Filipino-American citizens, or in this case, a symbolic Filipino enclave in Los Angeles. making him an honorary Filipino. Alam mo naman ang Pilipino kung sumipsip eh. Ang advocacy diyan 15 taon. Aba eh yung mga yun nanduon lahat sa harapan ng retrato,” Garcia said.

Historic Filipinotown sign on the 101 Freeway.

Filipinotown Becomes a Catalyst The creation of Historic Filipinotown has given a shot of fresh energy and outlook to Filipinos and Filipino-Americans who still call Hi Fi their home and place of business. Community leaders and business-owners, including Cecille Ramos, who owns and teaches at Burlington School, is one of those. So is Jocelyn Geaga-Rosenthal, whose mother was once the President of the Filipino-American Community of Los Angeles (FACLA). She told me a couple of years ago, that her parents “had the prescience not to sell their house on Temple Street.” Jocelyn had con-

Community activist Arturo Garcia was one of those Filipinos who got his hands dirty early on working for the creation of Filipinotown. “Ever since the 1990s, we’ve been advocating for Filipinotown,” Garcia told this writer during a brief interview at Bahay Kubo Natin, a popular Filipino eatery on Temple St. “Filipinos were always squabbling and involved in intramurals,” Garcia recalls. “The nearest point that we got to creating Filipinotown was in 1995, during the administration of Mayor Bradley.” Garcia, said, however, the Fil-Ams involved in the project “were at each other’s throat.” He relates that there was even an episode when some Fil-Am association members got involved in a fistfight when discussion for a name choice got heated up. Those incidents, no doubt, turned off the sensibilities of the powers that be at City Hall, and Mayor Bradley and the Councilmember involved in the project – Cathy Goldberg – dropped the ball. When Eric Garcetti was elected Councilmember in 2002. He proposed the creation of Historic Filipinotown again. “At that time walang gaanong sumabog. Bagamat may mga associations, yung mga associations wala na ring clout eh. Kaso, wala na ring naniniwala sa kanila eh. Ni wala nga silang base. Kaya from Unity, ginawa na lang Historic Filipinotown,” Garcia recounts. “Para wala na lang away.” Several names have been suggested by the different organizations, including Nayong Pilipino, Rampart Village Neighborhood Council President David Rockello. Little Manila, “at kung anu-ano pa,” says Garcia. “Ang nakakatuverted that ancestral home into an art gallery wa, nang naaprubahan yan, e alam mo na and event center. Leo Pandac, PhD, an officer naman ang Pilipino pag advocacy. Nuong of the Hi Fi Neighborhood Council, has his meron ng Historic Filipinotown, naglababusiness office here; and the Rotary Club of san silang lahat at nagpakuha ng retrato. Historic Filipinotown meets regularly at the Kami na nagtrabaho wala sa retrato,” Silverlake Medical Center on Temple Street. Garcia recalls. “Sabi ko nga sa mga bata, But the future is not so bright for Hi Fi hayaan ninyo sila, yun ang gusto nila. They if it is looking for validation from City Hall, were praising Eric Garcetti; they were even like receiving certification for its neighbor-

hood council. One of the reasons is its geographical location. This district belongs to the Los Angeles section of Echo Park, and as if by design, it sits on the south side of the 101 Freeway. Before its creation as Hi Fi, this district was simply called the TempleBeaudry corridor. “That was nine years ago. In that same year, Greater Echo Park-Elysian Neighborhood Council was certified in April 2002, and in August, Historic Filipinotown was created,” said David Rockello, a volunteer community organizer and President of neighboring Rampart Village Neighborhood Council. That is one of the reasons why Hi Fi will never get certified as a neighborhood council; it lies under the umbrella of Greater Echo Park-Elysian, according to Rockello. David and his Filipina wife, Erlinda Lim, both serve in the Board of GEPE. “Because of these mismatch of happenings, we got split up between two neighborhood councils – the GEPE and the Silverlake Neighborhood Council,” Rockello continues. “They (the two neighborhood councils) went into arbitration, and in the end, Silverlake said, ‘we don’t need you.’” That left the area from Benton Way in the east and Hoover Street in the west orphaned. At that time, there was in existence a loose organization called RUG or Rampart United Group, and it meets at the Rampart Division of the LAPD at the corner of Temple and Benton Way. “They wanted a neighborhood council, and so they started one and worked for three years in that direction,” says David. In short order, David, who worked tirelessly for the formation of the council, got elected its first president. David had lived in Echo Park, but moved to the district prior to its creation as Hi Fi. He has always believed that this was the low-rent area, and the area that he could afford to live in. “Then, suddenly, they changed the name to Historic Filipinotown, and I found that very interesting,” David smiled. “What I found more interesting later was how long it took the Filipinos to get recognized in the city of Los Angeles. It took 36 years!” David lamented. Rockello’s displeasure is partly directed at city government bureaucrats and officers of the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council. “The city didn’t help; the city sat on the sidelines and said, ‘as long as these people don’t have things together, we will just keep sitting on the side and do nothing for them,’” Rockello said. And so, in 2002, the city government let Historic Filipinotown

People’s CORE’s Arturo Garcia be torn between two areas: one orphaned area and one controlled by a very large neighborhood council, which is Greater Echo Park Elysian. “When I started going to GEPE meetings, they would spend two hours talking about Echo Park and, maybe, 15 minutes about the area south of the (101) Freeway. I was outraged, along with other people, that we had to be split into two areas; it didn’t seem right,” Rockello reasoned. As a result of that division, Hi Fi has two school districts, two different community plans, and two different senatorial and congressional districts. The electoral districts have since been reapportioned. How Come Rampart Village was Certified and Hi Fi was not? In 2007, after the Rampart Village Neighborhood Council was certified by the city government, the Rampart Division of the LAPD moved to a new headquarters on 6th Street in the Westlake District. “At Historic Filipinotown, we filed a petition for certification, but it was not approved,” Rockello said. “The reason was that most of the territory (that Hi Fi occupies) belongs to Greater Echo Park-Elysian, and with all the combined area, it still did didn’t have a contiguous population, so they denied our petition,” Rockello revealed. “We got all our paperwork in by mid-March, and because there was a movement and it was very strong at the time,” Rockello shared. “That (movement) pushed forward Rampart Village’s certification.” Unfortunately for Hi Fi, it didn’t secure certification. Rockello said that the city government decided that it was not going to diminish the Hi Fi’s fervor; that it would not die and roll over and just keep on going. So that’s what the Hi Fi leaders did. They applied for and got approved for 501 (C3) status. Rockello severed his relationship with Hi Fi in 2009 because he did not see Hi Fi getting certified as a neighborhood council in the future. “I did not see that there was a future as a real neighborhood council,” he noted. He also got elected in 2010 as Vice President of the GEPE Neighborhood Council, together with his Filipino wife, Erlinda Lim, who got elected to the Board. Rockello beat the incumbents. In the 2010 elections, Rockello ran in two neighborhood councils – GEPE and RV – at the same time. “Some people may think that as being a floating candidate. O.K? But with the help of my wife, Erlinda, we were able to get back a whole lot of votes to come in by utilizing the different church groups and social organizations,” Rockello recalled. I asked Arturo Garcia, who is now also Cont’d to Page 16

Friday, October 7, 2011

PinoyWatchDog.Com

“Up Against the Wall” Theater Reading Writers to Read Works at Echo Park Library and at Unidad Park in Filipinotown

Rene Villaroman Managing Editor

AINTER and muralist Eliseo Art Silva (www.eliseoart.com) and writer, novelist (www.seekingthirst.com) and teacher Carlene Bon-

nivier are meeting for the first time today. Although they had been communicating with each other for weeks through e-mails, the two had not met in person. So on this summer afternoon, Carlene arrives at Salakot Grill and Restaurant on Beverly Blvd., ahead of Eliseo, giddy at the prospect that she will finally meet the young, multi-awarded painter in person. Eliseo and Carlene are collaborating on a project dubbed “Up Against the Wall,” a theater reading event where Carlene’s writing students – present and former residents of Historic Filipinotown – will share their experiences while residing in the district in prose. The readings will be held at the Echo Park Library and in front of the Gintong Kasaysayan, Gintong Pamana mural that Eliseo painted on a wall at Unidad Park on Beverly Blvd. at Union Street, in Historic Filipinotown. Eliseo and Carlene’s works are rooted in a common place, a district in Los Angeles that has been designated Historic Filipinotown in 2002, in honor of the former enclave where Filipino immigrants lived during the early 1920s until the 1950s. Between the two artists, Carlene had a longer relationship with the place, having lived there as a young FilAm girl in the 1940s until the 1950s. Eliseo, now in his 30s, immigrated to the United States in the early 90s and studied art at the Otis College of Art and Design on 6th Street. He was 22 years old and a junior at Otis when he painted the 150 x 35-feet mural on a wall in what was then a large community garden called the “Candy Chuateco Community Garden.” The garden had 50 plots tended by residents of that neighborhood, including Filipino American WWII Veterans, and sponsored by Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) for 12 years, until the lot owners decided to sell the property to the City of Los Angeles, which it converted into a park. “That mural created the park,” Silva tells this writer. “If there was no mural, that would have been a parking lot.” Carlene had spent her growing years in the Temple-Westlake area in a lot that is now occupied by L.A. Derby Dolls Roller Derby Arena. She recalls that her mother was the only single Filipino woman she ever met in Los Angeles. “She’s the only one I ever saw,” she related to Pinoy Watchdog “And so, we’d be downtown, and she’d see some Filipinos, she’d be talking with some of them, and invite them to come over to our house,” Carlene recalls. “So happy they were to be home with the children and a Filipino woman in

this little house with one bathroom on Temple, and they then became friends.” She tells of the days when they would visit the Filipino farm workers on weekends in Delano with the older girls to dance and sell tickets for a school. “I know it sounds pretty cheap, but (laughs) we just did it to raise money. And when I saw where they lived, I was only, I think, 11 when I went there, I couldn’t believe it. I was shaking. I was so angry.” Tears begin falling down from her turquoise eyes. She recounts the Filipino farm workers were sleeping on mattresses that were not mattresses. “They were sleeping on springs or just hard wooden boards in bunks that were like those in Auschwitz. Filthy places, that didn’t have water; it was unbelievable.” When I interviewed them, Eliseo had just planed in from Sitka, Alaska, where he had painted a mural for that city on parachute cloth, and he explained in detail how he worked on the project and how he won the commission over 8900 competitors, about a 1000 of whom where Filipinos. I then steered the conversation toward Historic Filipinotown and its Unidad Park mural, and Eliseo launched a mini-discourse on his core patriotic beliefs. “In Filipinotown, we want to be visible, but we don’t want to do it because it’s hard – it’s easier to assimilate than to be visible,” he began. “I think being a muralist for me is an advantage,” Eliseo continued. “First of all, I like to look at the bigger picture; very few Filipinos are in that position where they are forced to look at the bigger picture. Then the other things too; you have to combine the images in the picture; they don’t go together because images have their own subjectivity; every image has its own interpretation.” Eliseo said that most of the time Filipinos “don’t create images; they write text; and the other thing is, we localize our history; our perspective is localized. We don’t see it in a global perspective.”

At the Unidad Park mural, Silva had to make that connection. The mural had to connect to the neighborhood; connect to the larger discourse. “In a way, mural is a minimuseum. How many pictures do you need to create a museum? It takes a lifetime to create one museum, but I am creating one museum after another,” Silva said. Silva had been commissioned to create more than 100 murals to date. He focuses on Jose Rizal, the Philippine national hero and one of the dominant figures in the Unidad Park mural. “He’s our national hero. He’s a key to being visible in the mainstream; but he is not visible in mainstream because we are not doing the job of making him mainstream. We don’t think like Americans. (Our idea of) being American is being a good citizen, being invisible and assimilated.” “Our perspective is so much localized,

which bound us all together….past secluded upstairs rooms in houses of “ill repute” and fragrant live poultry and fruit markets, five and dime stores….the dark, sticky and sweet smelling Granada Theater with two films and countless Mighty Mouse cartoons for 25 cents….a few empty lots with huge, fat and untended palm trees covered with Blue Bell flower vines which everywhere smothered fences, sheds, garages, whole houses and two story apartment buildings …. There at Colton and Beaudry was Holy Rosary Catholic Church and open air Martins Market (before they disappeared or were relocated across the street by the new five level interchange and the freeway). During fiestas, these streets were filled with multicolored kids and families along with mariachi music, toss games, all kinds of food and confetti filled eggs. At night we sat on front porches listening to the radio and watching hypnotized as the neon

Novelist Carlene Bonnivier and muralist Eliseo Art Silva in front of the mural at Unidad Park, Historic Filipinotown.

and our history has so much potential in the context of American civil rights,” Silva added. Carlene is capitalizing on her Historic Filipinotown roots by working to keep her experiences and others like her’s recorded in a collection of writings she has originally titled “Filipinotown, USA – Collected Stories and Neighborhood Maps, Los Angeles.” In a nutshell, Carlene had invited former residents of the area – a whole assortment of people of various ethnicities, including Mexican-Americans, European Jews, African-Americans from Louisiana “who spoke French and cooked a lot of French food,” Oklahomans, and people from all over the world, and Filipinos, of course, like two very prominent ones, Gerald G. Gubatan and Gregory Villanueva, to put into writing their experiences while living in the district during its heydays. Some of these writings will become part of the readers’ theater performance at the Echo Park Library and at the Eliseo Art Silva’s Mural at Unidad Park this month. The following is a raw example of a narrative submitted to the “Up Against the Wall” project by the author, Gregory Villanueva, the first Filipino-American elected to the College of Fellows of the American institute of Architects: “In my 1940’s world, where I never saw a Filipino woman, the future “Filipino Town” Impact Area ran from Main Street taxi dance halls, pool halls and bar shops… through murky and creaking Bunker Hill apartments … celebrating quietly but grandly with clinking coins in Macintosh suits at the corner Carioca Café on Figueroa… then along that very special spine of Temple Street

lights rose up and exploded atop the Richfield Tower. In the morning we were awakened from all directions with countless roosters crowing incessantly. There was Filipino Alley with integrated couples and a few kids along Boylston (which now lies under or looks over the controversial “new Belmont high School/now Academy/Park …Now, an unbelievable view of the city!). past active oil wells which punched through so many dirt filled back yards…down the backside western slope of Court Street to Glendale Blvd…. highlighted by the trolleys and that underwater diving/SMOG Suit Icon at Temple/ Glendale. I don’t remember ANY grass in ANY yards!!! I do remember those ubiquitous green/red painted grounds…and squatting Filipinos trying to grow bitter melon in gravel. In that day some Flips were dashing in white/maroon tennis sweaters and white pants coming in elegant polished cars from the country clubs near Santa Barbara as bartenders, chauffeurs, waiters and houseboys. They gathered like peacocks at the Echo Park Tennis courts behind that beautiful library! And there was Echo Park Lake…… ECHO PARK LAKE!!!! We can show our support to the unheralded efforts of these two Fil-Am artists by attending the “Up Against the Wall” event at the Echo Park Library on October 15 and at the Unidad Park on October 22. We could also make a donation to the fund for the restoration of the mural, which is on-going, by contacting Carlene at cbonnivi@gmail.com and Eliseo at eliseoart@earthlink.net.

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Lifestyle

Friday, October 7, 2011

Senior Pass: Your Ticket to Ride

Text and Photo:

Vics Magsaysay, Ph.D.

(Vics Magsaysay, Ph.D., is a fine art nature photographer, artist, alternative healer and holds a doctorate degree in clinical hypnotherapy. Website: yessy.com/vicsmagsaysay)

F you love to visit national parks and are 62 or more, National Park Service can issue you a Senior Pass for just ten bucks. This is certainly a small price to pay for a lifetime ticket to commune with and imbibe Mother Nature’s magnificence. Wow! That’s an awesome deal from Uncle Sam! Thank You! Recently it was called “Golden Age (how apropos for seniors) Passport.”

Yup, being a senior, despite the aches and pains, has its own reward. Actually, this “freebie,” is the least of the “passes” that the “young once” can have in the autumn of life. Hold your horses guys; you need to know more of the whole enchiladas. In hindsight, being a senior offers so many more freebies, that is, if we have learned some of life’s lessons—well. `Sounds like a tall order? At the age of 37, my body suffered so much pain from my love of foods that others fear to dunk in their mouths. I was sort of like Andrew Zimmern, you know, that Bizarre Foods guy. Lifestyle? Just short of livin’ la vida cuckoo. . Methinks I was a canary in a coal mine for the iPhone generation. Do you follow my drift? It knocked me off my rocker; and, in the end, the problem became the solution. With a radical shift in diet—from a poor one to something better—I was able to lessen the gnawing body discomforts significantly. Humans are an interesting species. Many of us, moi included, are incontrovertible masochists. At least penitents, during Easter, love flogging to wash away their “sins.” Isn’t it interesting that we love to suffer before getting around to taking corrective measures? Hats off to all you guys who learned so quickly. What’s good is that this attitude was not set in stone. Many decades of nagging pain and seething unease have given me some insights—dividends which I am able to enjoy now. These lessons learned—and still continuing—from the university of hard knocks have become my “passes” to a life of welcome peace. Gunning for these passes is not a stroll in the park guys; lotsa time and patience are needed. Anyway, it’s worth every moment and effort spent in the end. Here are some of the passes that are available to us:

just flow w ith the wind? “Against” means resistance. Salmons swim upstream and hurdle insurmountable odds just to spawn. But after spawning they are totally burnt out…and kaput. The Game of Blame makes us lame. You are driving along the highway and squash 7 critters crossing your path. Yike! Then you blame those squirrels. So much unwanted emotional turmoil shrouds anyone who always points a finger at someone, something or a situation. It keeps our minds glued to the past. Our wings are clipped. We’re stuck; we cannot move on. It’s like Peter Parker unable to free himself from his own spider’s web. Also, we don’t have to be Deepak Chopra to know that we only attract what we are. This isn’t New Age stuff. It’s as old as the Himalayas. Situations, people are attracted to us because of our consciousness. It’s the law of attraction. If you don’t like what’s around you, then change your thinking. We’ve to see the forest for the trees. Learn from experience. What we perceive as “bad” has tons of jewels

mentary—it lasts a lifetime. Past exists in our memory. Future is yet to come. Both of them are not in this moment. Looking at them this moment makes you cross-eyed. Besides, it’s only our mind’s construction. It helps to plan but, after that, enjoy this moment, savor it as if it’s the last day of your life. It’s the very reason why many people in the West find meditation or mindfulness so attractive and fascinating. Those nagging oscillating thoughts are kept at bay. One good technique is by focusing on your breath. Be mindful of each inhalation and exhalation. When life coach guru Tony Robbins was asked what was the best advice he could give, he said: “Just be here in this moment.” Yes, righty right, in the here and now. The Journey is more important than the destination. When we figure out a plan for our future, our main focus is the end result. Imagine driving a car at night thinking only

humanity or the world, that’s even greater. I have a friend whose life before was antilife. When he found his true calling—helping poor souls who have no roofs over their heads gain their own new, clean houses—the life he had turned 361 degrees. I love to capture alluring nature photos. This gives me a high. Sharing images of flowers and mesmerizing fine art nature photographs even ratchets up my enjoyment. The same thing goes in sharing learning experiences—body, mind or spirit—to others. Gosh! I bet I have found my niche! Surely, there comes a point in time when what we yearn to be, ought to be, and have a right to be gravitates to us like gold dust in a miner’s pan. Dance of Acceptance is gratifying. Whatever happens to us, it is good to know that it is perfect for us. Nothing could be any better. ‘Sounds alien? If we think it is “bad” so much of it could be gleaned to make us all victors. Those negatives we have had turn out to be our greatest redeemers, don’t you think? Surely, the lessons learned will lead us to a better life. Let’s boogie our way to this positive idea that what we are experiencing now is always good for us. I am sure Mr. Anxiety will find us an unlikely client.

“All of my knowledge is learned by standing on the shoulders of geniuses.” -Dr. Albert Schweitzer

Flowing with the wind. “We were young and strong, we were runnin’ against the wind,” say the lyrics of the song “Against the wind.” Bob Seger was young then—and had lots of testosterone to expend. It seems our energies were relentless during those years, weren’t they? Our machismo was like Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone, shooting high up in the sky ceaselessly. Yes, we didn’t care; we couldn’t care…and who damn well cared? As the years passed by, like wine, we mellowed. We could face the brunt of the wind, why not? But isn’t it more practical to

inherent in it. Break its hard shell open and, surely, you’ll have that eureka moment…or a cool, fresh coconut water to drink. It has dawned on me to exalt mea culpa, a good Latin word. It became my pass to understand the situation and learn from it. Instead of being a victim, I become a victor (Hey! Isn’t that my name? …And could be yours, too.) Being a victor uplifts your feeling while knowing you are a victim yanks you down. Life is all about choices. So, which one do you fancy? This Moment is important. “This magic moment…sweeter than wine, softer than a summer night…will last forever,” a song popularized by Jay and the Americans in the late sixties, is still in the minds of many baby boomers. This “Magic Moment” is not mo-

of our destination and not the road we are driving at that moment. Gosh! That’s disturbingly worse than texting while driving. Oh heck, that’s pretty scary, especially driving on a long and winding mountain road. Can we expect even a scrap of enjoyment on a journey like this? Nada. Zilch. At least the little box we call “GPS” shoehorns our mind to be mindful of driving—this moment. Enjoying the moment unfettered by results gives us, of course, joy and freedom. When the results manifest or the destination is there, they are but icing on the cake with lots of walnuts on the side. Mission keeps you on—joyfully. Yes siree, that mission possible in life is a positive contagion. If we are doing something fulfilling and enjoyable, great! But if it benefits

Simplicity, the right electricity and silver bullet. This is the last pass but oh soooh important for me. We are now living in the worst economic times. Hello! These conditions exist to teach us a lesson. Mega rich Warren Buffett, despite his awesome billions, knows how to live life as simply as possible. Even in my photography and design, I find the simplest composition the best. Less is more…yes, so much more. Think of all the pains, hurts, regrets, fears, anxieties, anger and other tumultuous emotions that we’ve encountered. As that song “Against the Wind” says, “We didn’t know then.” It was all worth it, if we learned. But these experiences are all past now. Learning from all of these life’s lessons is our ticket to ride to a life filled with songs, laughter, peace and well-being. Or, as the guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant belted out so well, “A Stairway to Heaven.”

Friday, October 7, 2011

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Husbands who shop fall prey to promo girls By Winston A. Marbella

ten shoppers like additional grams. More than a third likes product giveaways and price reductions. Almost one in four prefers raffles and free samples. Barely one percent participates in point accumulation and rewards programs, preferring instant gratification here and now.

ORE husbands are now shopping to help busy wives with their grocery chores, but she does not always welcome him with a hug. It all depends on whether or not he follows her instructions to the letter. A tracking study of consumer buying habits in supermarkets and grocery stores finds husbands are more prone to impulse buys, especially when prodded by promotional sales ladies. So he buys these things on top of the grocery list he got from the wife, ending up with a bigger bill. But the wife is not exactly blameless on impulse purchases. Three out of four brands she buys are decided in the store, although she generally keeps within her grocery shopping list. She lets her husband shop for groceries when she is too tired to do it after work. Lifestyle driven Lifestyle changes are driving the trend for husbands to do more shopping for the family. Higher consumer expectations

are also driving retailers to innovate and push quality standards even higher. Stores have stopped being mere warehouses of goods but are designing environments where shoppers can experience an ambiance conducive to buying more, the study found. One-stop shopping in gasoline

stations is increasing because of the rising cost of gasoline. Convenience stores open 24 hours are also enjoying more business. Shoppers like the easy access provided by convenience stores, their being “always cool and well-lit,” their faster checkouts, and their “helpful and friendly staff.”

Of the in-store advertising activities, three out of ten shoppers notice promo girls and almost the same number go for taste samplers. Close to half do not notice any advertising at all. Almost two out of ten pick up small items near the cashier. Of the product promotions offered on site, almost four out of

Moment of truth Because the buying decision---the marketing moment of truth---happens at the store, grocers are competing in creating the right shopping experience, outstanding customer service, product availability at all times, wider choices, creative merchandising, and persuasive special events marketing like the use of pretty promo girls. But these can go overboard. The wife may just decide to send the maid to the neighborhood sari-store store—there are over 200,000 of these nationwide—to buy regular household items for daily use. The prices may be a bit higher in mom and pop stores, but the total cost comes out cheaper, because the husband does not get the chance to indulge his urge to splurge.

The unsinkable Joseph Estrada: He may run for mayor of Manila By Winston A. Marbella

turn out to be good presidents---and highpotential personalities can turn out to be ANILA - It is not easy to sep- duds. Just like in the movies. arate the real Joseph Ejercito The presidency merely provides great from the reel Joseph Estrada. opportunity for historic action. It takes a Like the movie heroes he wise president to turn great opportunity portrayed, deposed former into historic results. President Joseph Ejercito Estrada is invinJoseph Ejercito Estrada had his chance cible: He keeps bouncing back from the after a landslide victory in 1998. He fritjaws of defeat, bloody but unbowed, his tered it away with wine, women and song. full head of hair seemingly glued in place He was lucky to get a second chance by a secret concoction of hair spray, gelatin in the elections of 2010—and he redeemed and pomade made hip by Elvis Presley in himself adequately the second time around. the style of the matinee idols of the Fifties, He may have lost his second chance--for and later by John Travolta in “Grease.” who could resist the Aquino juggernaut?-Manila’s coffee shops are abuzz with but at least he got to settle an old score with stories that Estrada is planning to run for Nacionalista Party candidate, Sen. Manuel mayor of Manila in 2013. As the stories Villar. go, he has purchased a house to establish A then Speaker Villar of the House of legal residency. Representatives had astutely railroaded an abrupt end to Estrada’s presidency in 2001 stronghold, Ilocos Norte province, in a resStoried dynasties by fast-breaking the transmittal of the im- toration of sorts of the Marcos dynasty. For the meantime, the former President peachment resolution to the Senate without Aside from his mother, Ferdinand Jr. who began his political career as mayor of floor debate. will have another ally in Congress, firstSan Juan is playing coy. He admits he has With his creditable performance as a cousin reelectionist Rep. Ferdinand Marroots in the poorer Manila district of Ton- candidate the second time around, Estrada tin Romualdez, son of former Ambassado, but he has not decided to run for mayor set the stage for the presidential ambition dor Kokoy Romualdez, Imelda’s beloved but is thinking seriously about it. of his son, Jinggoy , who ran neck to neck younger brother. For the storied political dynasties of with the popular actor, reelectionist Sen. The younger Romualdez will be in a the Aquinos, Arroyos, Marcoses and Es- Bong Revilla, for the top slot in the Senate. House populated by no less than President tradas, the elections of 2010 will go down The deposed president has also so- Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and her two in family history as their year of second lidified his own dynasty---another son, JV sons, Dato, representing a district in Camchances—and things have never looked Ejercito, has been elected to Congress and arines Sur, and the older Mickey, a party lovelier the second time around. is leaving his mayoralty post in San Juan to list representative. The First Gentleman’s For Liberal Party Sen. Benigno S. his mother, Guia Gomez. brother, Ignacio, was reelected congressCojuangco Aquino III, the road to the When the new senators take office, Jin- man in the fifth district of Negros Occidenpresidency has been magical. He went to ggoy Estrada will cross paths with another tal. Malacanang with a large mandate to rid presidential timber, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., It is too early to read Mickey’s future the country of graft and corruption and to who also won as senator. political plans, but the Senate cannot be complete the unfulfilled presidency of his ruled out in the off-year elections of 2013, mother and the martyred dreams of his fa- Restoration of sorts when Sen. Chiz Escudero will be running ther. His mother, the irrepressible Imelda for reelection prior to possibly running for Romualdez Marcos, was elected to occupy president in 2016, a quest he declared but Reshaped destiny her son’s vacated seat in the House, while abandoned in 2009. History has a strange way of reshap- his older sister Imee defeated a first cousIronically, Escudero looks headed for ing destiny. Unheralded personalities can in, Michael Keon, for governor of their a collision course with former Makati

Joseph Estrada in action as a moview star Mayor Jejomar Binay, whom he supported for vice president against Sen. Mar Roxas, who is likely to pursue the presidency in 2016. Roxas had given way to Aquino when his fledgling campaign failed to take off against early favorite Villar. Thrilla’ in Manila The way things are shaping up, the presidential campaign of 2016—like the one in 2010—will be a battle of old political names again, coming from traditional dynasties as well as new ones. This early, former President Estrada has ignited excitement with a storied rerun, possibly for mayor of Manila. Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier hadn’t seen a Thrilla’ in Manila the likes of which Estrada can produce---just like in the movies. (The author is chief executive of Marbella International Business Consultancy, a political risk management think tank. Comments are welcome at email mibc2006@gmail.com. He is a veteran of numerous presidential, senatorial and congressional elections since 1967.)

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Friday, October 7, 2011

Pinoy Insider

How President Pacquiao Created a New Economic Future for Filipinos and Brought Peace on Earth

By Joel Bander

UGUST 22, 2016, Manila, Philippines This summer of 2016 has been wilder than any of us could imagine. No one thought that when President Pacquiao made his campaign pledge earlier this ye ar to finally retire from boxing if elected to the top spot, the events of the last two months could occur in anything but fairy tales.

The pundits’ reality was Pacquiao would never be able to gather the necessary number of signatures for a constitutional petition to lower the presidential and vice presidential voting age, making his candidacy possible. But after the amendment process was stalled in Congress by opposition supporters and the entrenched national power brokers refused to call a constitutional convention so that their usual roles do not get diminished, Pacquio strategist Attorney Jeng Gacal masterminded an unprecedented national petition drive to amend the constitution while galvanizing Pacquiao supporters into a frenzy never before seen in Philippine politics, giving ‘President Manny’ his greatest championship belt: a national victory and residency in Malacanang. But then, everyone thought that the Pacquiao-Gacal petition drive was for the Vice Presidency, or was led to believe so. And we all saw how the national legend surprised us all (maybe not all) and declared a run for the presidential top spot instead. “Pacquiao Wins For The Philippines” was the grand campaign slogan that will be forever ingrained in the Filipino national psyche, but not just for the majesty of the grand campaign, but for how ‘President Manny’ brought winning into action this grand summer in and out of the boxing ring. President Pacquiao first promised the nation from the campaign trail that he would not return to the ring if elected. It was his ‘battle cry’. But the masses demanded that their hero fight Floyd Mayweather, seemingly, in unison for the very good of the nation, united behind their world champion; risen from the streets to an historic figure in both sports and politics. Now, for the first time, in the pages of Pinoy Watchdog, is the ‘Pinoy Insider’ story of how the great match-up finally came to be, and its wild aftermath that we all know from having lived it, and some of our own exclusive scoops using our team of investigative reporters. “If Elected President I Will Retire From Boxing” The Pacquiao camp thought that they made a masterful political stroke when the candidate sought to soften the announcement that he was in fact running for the presidency, not the vice-presidency, by stating; “If elected president I will retire from boxing,” to the saddened, but realistic, overflowing crowd at the newly opened Philippines Arena on Sunday, April 10, 2016. While his detractors said that his seventh round knockout of Rafael Marquez in London in December 2015, came more from wisdom, experience and guile than from speed and strength, our internal investigation revealed that his supporters urged the aging champion to retire almost three years ago, because wisdom and guile can only carry a fighter so far in the ring, and the Champ’s image would be tarnished with a career ending knock-out. Our ‘Inside Story’ investigation has revealed that when Floyd Mayweather first heard the Champ’s ‘conditional retirement’ campaign pledge he immediately sought

expert’s polling information from the Social Weather Station (SWS), a leading public opinion survey firm in the Philippines. Upon seeing the startlingly impressive poll numbers, Mayweather decided to make his challenge. The Mayweather Challenge On Monday, April 18, 2016, Mayweather gathered the press near his Las Vegas home and announced to a startled boxing world that he was abandoning his prior outrageous financial terms to fight Manny Pacquiao, with his now famous plan to have millions from the fight purse go to charities designated by both fighters. One Mayweather close friend who did not want his name revealed told ‘Inside Story’, “Floyd never expected Manny to accept the challenge. The whole camp always respected Manny as being a man of his word, a decent guy. If he promised Filipinos his boxing years were over Manny would stick by it. It was Floyd’s plan to keep putting

that it was true.” Marasigan said that he also felt a particular strain in the Champ’s voice that night. “In my heart,” Marasigan said, “I wanted him back in the ring, to win one more time for Filipinos. Nothing else matters.” The days that followed were among the most tumultuous the Philippines had known since the heady days of EDSA I. Fight Mayweather --For the Philippines The first rally the following day, when the nation had known as ‘fact’ Mayweather’s seemingly contemptuous ‘charity’ challenge, was outside the Binalonan, Pangasinan Municipal Hall. Candidate Pacquiao’s reaction was as predicted; he was sticking by his

“I wanted him back in the ring, to win one more time for Filipinos. Nothing else matters” Manny’s nose into the fact he wouldn’t fight, even for charity.” Upon hearing Mayweather’s challenge the Champ stayed close to his message and kept his promise, just as expected. Everyone understood as he spoke to a packed late night crowd at the Enverga Gymnasium in Lucena City, Quezon, that “running a country is not like being a congressman. I understand that. I will no longer be a boxer if elected president.” The crowd had heard that pronouncement many times before on television, radio and the Internet. They never liked to hear it, but understood the wisdom of the message. But this time there was, well ---inconsistently, both a greater conviction and a lack of certainty in the candidate’s voice, as if he was trying to convince himself to stay out of the ring. Manuel Marasigan, a 34-year-old auto mechanic from Batangas, traveled to Lucena to see Pacquiao speak that day. He recalls saying to himself that night, “I didn’t believe the rumors that Mayweather made the challenge. But I guess Manny knew at that time

promise to the people. He would not fight in the ring anymore. The business of governing was too serious. One ‘Insider Story’ source deep in the Pacquiao camp said that there was real agony among all the key staff members before that Binalonan rally, with some wanting to stay on message and others seeing it as a political opportunity. But the Champ continued to maintain the “no more boxing” promise. He was adamant. He instructed, “There will be no talk about returning to the ring.” The now well-trained candidate was in stride in the his stump speech, crying out for more services for the poor, better education and medical care, and staying away from the sensitive issues of divorce, women’s rights and family planning. “If elected president, I will retire from boxing,” the Champ cried out to the Binalonan masses. However, this time Oliver Julaton, a local fruit vendor and avid boxing fan yelled out “Beat Mayweather, For the Philippines!” He later told the Philippine Star, “I had no idea what was about to happen.”

The crowd began chanting, “Beat Mayweather, For the Philippines.” It took the Champ four to five minutes to calm the crowd down. Leaving his stump speech, he again admonished that the responsibilities of governing and being a champion prizefighter could not mix. Pacquiao went through the rest of his stump speech, but Pacquiao watchers agreed that something seemed to be missing from his cadence of the prior weeks. The candidate was definitely distracted. The Manila Bulletin said in its editorial the next day, “Senator Pacquiao is quickly learning the complications of being both a world class boxer and actually leading a nation of 100 million people. Will he stay the path of leader and decline the bout, or follow the masses towards certain calamity if he were to win the presidency?” ‘Insider Story’ has learned that Pacquiao read that editorial over and over again that night pondering what to do. And ‘Insider Story’ investigators learned that Pacquiao’s closest boxing advisers were, as long suspected, behind the unprecedented saga of media manipulation. Numerous media sources admit that the boxing promotion sides, not the political side, started planting the stories in the media that the Filipino people demanded the fight to occur. Also, one organizer from Cebu said, “It didn’t take more than 30 paid instigators to whoop the crowd up into a pro-fight frenzy.” Over the succeeding days the chanting of “Beat Mayweather, for the Philippines” started before the Champ even took to the stage. Speech after speech, location after location, Pacquiao was unable to address the issues because the crowd, the people, the masses, demanded that he fight Mayweather. “When Manny fights I feel good. All Filipinos feel good,” was the canned statement one day by coached (and paid) demonstrators for the fight. These high profile boxing public relation experts and promoters had learned the fine art of street theater. We all admit it made good television. And no other candidate was able to get serious airtime or coverage for his events. ‘Pinoy Insider’ has learned that the Mayweather camp was stunned by the Filipino nation’s response to the challenge. “We were watching the news report on someone’s laptop, and the scene was amazing. A nation rising up for its hero.” Another commented, “Floyd certainly got in over his head on this one.” Next issue: How the Champ made the decision whether to fight without his staff.

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Currents

Friday, October 7, 2011

OMG!

When did becoming is in OED a nurse get so difficult? Photo Credit by NUHW (National Union of Heath Workers)

By Winston A. Marbella

By Jenilene Francisco Staff Writer

O into any hospital and probability is very high that you would meet a Filipino nurse. Almost inherently, the word nurse has become synonymous with Filipinos. The ad nauseam stereotype pertaining to Filipino-American culture has become the punch line for many jokes. With the current economic conditions and dire future prospects for the youth, the high paying salary of nurses does appear to be the glimmer of light for secure and steady income. Putting aside any Florence Nightingale-like initiatives for entering the field, the thought of a two-story home with a swimming pool and an SUV to take the kids to soccer practice are appealing. And soon comes streaming in are the voices of aunts and family friends. In the all too familiar Filipino accent made for comedy, the salary, pension, and benefits lauded by your Aunties become ingrained in the mind. Given the rosy picture, is it really that clear and precise? Is nursing the key to success and financial stability for Filipinos in Los Angeles and back in the Philippines? I’m not one to talk about the situation of nurses in Los Angeles at the time of first generation Filipino immigrants. But let’s take a look at current situations going on within the medical field that has a significant amount of Filipino employees here in Los Angeles. On the 21st of this September, Kaiser nurses represented by the National Union of Health Care Workers (NUHW) conducted their third statewide strike; the first strike occurred on March and the second took place in May. Participation increased with the third strike as hospital employees continued to demand worker’s rights and quality patient care. Among key concerns regarding the rights of the workers is that of bargaining rights of unions. Since negotiations began last year, Kaiser employees, many of whom are veteran workers, are currently threatened with seeing their pensions and benefits being reduced or completely taken away. Yes. Those same beneficial securities that for so long have been accredited to becoming a nurse, and surprise surprise, many who are standing in the picket lines were Filipinos. Angry, elder Filipino nurses, many who are veteran employees of the hospital with from 13 to 34 years of medical assistance and service. To debunk the all too common stereo-

type of snotty Filipina nurses was the common theme of quality patient care. Those words were boldly written on placards, banners, and posters. Sybil Yu, who is not Filipino, but an NICU nurse and a 13-year employee for Kaiser, expressed this concern. “Our goal is to fix short staffing. We need more nurses and we need the management team to understand how critical it is for patients that we have enough staff to work,” Yu says. So back to the rosy picture and supposition that becoming a nurse assures prosperity. Are the promises and guarantees realistic? Is this a temporary problem that will soon give way to ongoing negotiations? Or does the macroscopic immensity of it all with austerity measures and healthcare debate paint a rather gloomy picture for medical assistance in the long run? It probably doesn’t help to include the figures of Kaiser’s profits. The budget cuts in Kaiser are occurring in a year when the hospital’s profits continue to rise. NUHW’s website claims that Kaiser’s profits have risen $5.7 billion since 2009 and $1.6 billion as of this year. Kaiser’s Southern California Regional President, Ben Chu, has seen a 31% increase in profits from 20082009. As stated by Registered Nurse, Irma Duffelmeir, “Kaiser is making megabucks. They’re earning $10million per day. They can afford it now, so why can’t they afford it in the future?” Duffelmeir has worked for Kaiser for 24 years. Thus, the backdrop of angry Filipina nurses. Often not reported during the second strike at Kaiser were the physical altercations that occurred. Conflict erupted around 4 a.m. as staff and supporters formed a human barricade to prevent Kaiser’s Chief Nursing Officer, Debra Gant, and “strikebreakers,” reportedly being paid $2,000 a day, from entering the hospital. I spoke with a Registered Nurse named Evangeline about the incident: “[Debra Grant] is willing for us to get hurt and then people are falling down … they will sacrifice for the bus to go in rather than our safety. They could have talked to us civilly!” Asked if she has ever seen anything like this during her 34 years of service at the hospital, she claims that “this is the worse I’ve seen what Kaiser has done.” Rosy picture decaying yet? Given the statements of nurses and other medical workers in Los Angeles, perhaps the days of Florence Nightingale has returned amidst the conflict and turmoil. The situation is still far from being re-

solved as Kaiser refuses to discuss the figures in their profits. Kaiser’s Los Angeles executive director, Mark Costa has stated that Unions have not put forth any other proposals and counteroffers. But let’s be clear that when all is said and done, these medical staff will be the ones to turn to when trouble and illness arise. And it should not be forgotten that these developing instances have direct impact on the Filipino-American community as well as the Filipinos back at home who seek a better life for themselves as well as their family. Let’s flip the script and focus on nurses and aspiring nurses back in the Philippines. Many college graduates and authorized nurses can be found working in the booming industries of call centers. I spoke with an unemployed nurse in the Philippines named Randy. At 39 and with two children, Randy now goes to various call centers in Manila seeking employment. When asked if he believes the situation for nurses and healthcare practitioners will get better anytime soon, he quickly responded no. “Maybe in 20 years. By then, established nurses [in the Philippines] will already retire and there will be room for employment,” he claims. Until then, call centers and work abroad are the usual options available to Filipinos back home. With dire situations in California, many seek employment in the Middle East. Oversees Filipino Workers (OFWs) often find work in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia ranks second to the United States in hosting OFW workers. Despite precautions of danger regarding the current ‘Arab-Spring’ and numerous accounts of mistreatment and violence, hopeful Filipinos still take that risk. Just recently, Philippine Ambassador to Bahrain, Ma. Corazon Yap-Bahjin, issued a statement to OFWs in Bahrain: “Stock up on food and water for at least two-weeks supply; medicine, flashlights, candles, mobile phones, radio, etc.” Recent news coming out of Bahrain centers around the doctors and nurses acting in accordance to their profession and treating the wounded during the bloody clashes between government forces and protestors earlier this year. None of those medical workers were Filipinos. Yet the event illustrates the growing threat towards the profession as well as the importance of highlighting the rather volatile areas that still accept Filipino nurses. So, 20 years huh? Perhaps Randy’s onto something.

T’S official: the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), the venerable gatekeeper of the English language, has accepted OMG (oh my gosh) and LOL (laughing out loud). Now it is perfectly all right to say, OMG, my BFF and I are LOL over this latest decision of OED, IMHO (in my humble opinion). BTW, BRB (be right back). Language reflects the subtle changes that happen in our lives---eventually. When it finally does we can be fairly sure the subtle changes have in fact become sea changes. When word of mouth was the main way we transmitted news, we asked ourselves, “Have you heard the news today?” And this was reflected in the idiomatic expression that news passed from mouth to mouth, much like gossip. Eventually radio became the chief carrier of news. But our language did not change. We still asked, “Have you heard the news today?” Language reflected a sea change when newspapers became the main purveyor of news: “Have you read the news today?” The invention of television radically transformed the news. Although TV was bred mainly as a medium of entertainment, its immediacy and intrusiveness (it sat in our living rooms and eventually our bedrooms, too) totally dominated our lives---and our culture. We were soon asking ourselves, “Have you seen the news tonight?”

History rewriten

Media historians say that if not for the daily carnage that primetime news brought home, the American people would not have turned against the US involvement in Vietnam so violently as they did. The pioneering 24-hour news channel, CNN, brought us the Gulf War up-close and personal. We watched in horror as the first massive terrorist attack brought down the towering symbols of the American century live from New York City on 9/11. For some time, print journalism seemed on its way to dying. But it bounced back and thrived with television, although network news became its Big Brother in audience reach and impact. Print journalists, however, retained their influence over the elite audiences that shaped opinion, the movers and shakers of politics, the arts, and much of literati and glitterati. Computers and the Internet soon introduced new technologies that would transform the communication landscape---not only how we got the news, but more importantly how we worked, played, and generally lived our lives. Cont’d to page 14

Friday, October 7, 2011

Strange bedfellows shaping up for 2016 presidential circus Cont’d from page 1

Hear now the first fearless forecast, not meant for the fainthearted among those who wish for maturity in Philippine pols. Setting aside the usual candidacies mounted more for personal fund-raising as we have seen in the Loren Legarda, Ping Lacson and Miriam Defensor forays in previous elections, it will be a three-cornered no-holdsbarred slamfest. Three odd combinations for president and vice president are in the lead in seeking to rewrite the political book – Bongbong Marcos and Jinggoy Estrada, Jojo Binay and Chiz Escudero, and Mar Roxas and Pia Cayetano. Surprise? Make no mistake about it: there is logic in this lunacy, method in this madness. At this point, Jojo Binay is widely touted even among Senate grunts as the man to beat. After slaying the dragon that Mar Roxas thought he was, Binay found his sea legs after initial stumbles that were irritating Noynoy, and showed skillful positioning that has earned him satisfaction ratings even higher than the President’s. But an early lead is a poor gauge of how the ratings will go, and often becomes a baggage as soon as the campaign heats up. Raul Roco and Manny Villar’s early dominance and spectacular fall in ratings come to mind. Bongbong Marcos, especially in a killer tandem with Jinggoy Estrada, will be the most formidable force as the Marcos bullions are largely intact and together with Erap’s slush fund from local taipans will give this duo the kind of money that would make the Macapagal – Villar cabal’s Php 10-billion campaign seem like a pauper’s parade. By the way, people not in the loop are wondering how GMA ended up being congresswoman of Pampanga when she had no apparent need for it. Actually, she had to run for congresswoman so that, in the Villar presidency that she and Manny had plotted, she will become the Speaker and protect her back (and her Swiss accounts) as Manny watches his. Given Villar’s betrayal of Erap, the Speakership play was GMA’S kontra- double cross gambit which Gibo Teodoro knew all along but pleaded ignorant of. He was busy drooling over his Godzillan fee for playing the charade of his candidacy based,

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ironically, on his “galing at talino” (smartness and intelligence). Bongbong and Jinggoy actually are not that excited about running in 2016 but must give in to their wheelchair-bound parents, Imelda and Erap, both prodding their dutiful sons for a last hurrah and recovery of lost pride and a shot at a Libingan ng mga Bayani burial for themselves and frozen Ferdie. For himself, Erap bought a Tondo house recently to establish his residency and is a shoo-in for Manila mayor in 2013 now that the ailing Fred Lim can no longer contest it. Graceful exit actually as nobody could beat Erap in most of the Metro cities as affirmed by his second-place finish to Noynoy in a national joust. Bongbong and Jinggoy both can count on the coast-to-coast fanatical support of the teeming D and E classes. In fairness, both have an undeniable charm radiating from their families’ telenovela history and their boyish-in-middleage cuteness. Loyalist quarters attest that, unlike their moms, they haven’t had stem cell injections and nip-and-tuck assists. This early, these two look unstoppable. They have taken seriously their public duties. They are young and open to new ideas. And whatever you think of their fathers’ excesses, why blame it on the sons! Still, expect thousands of Filipinos to begin dusting up their old immigration applications to Canada. Binay’s posturing as gun-toting Rambotito with his Alpha Phi Omega brods when Marcos had visibly lost his grip on Malacanang and reality during the Yellow Fever of 1986 had so charmed the impressionable Cory Aquino that she made him acting Makati mayor when she was installed as virtual dictator. He is already on provincial sorties. He knows he is the man to beat now and will likely be the man who gets beaten if he doesn’t sew up more sister-cities with Makati where his son, Junjun, is caretaker mayor. No matter how much Jojo has taken from the Ayalas and other business houses in Makati in disputed tax discrepancies and from ownership by proxy of unlisted units for every high rise that goes up in the premier city, he will not have the inexhaustible war chest of the Marcos-Estrada team. But he tends to gravitate to fellow wordsmith and UP alumnus, and companero Chiz Escudero.

It would be a good choice even if Chiz has very little stash in his Philippine bank accounts because Chiz, much like Jojo, is a natural politician and would put a chameleon to shame for his ability to assume the colors of his surroundings. Chiz looks, sounds, even smells like a starchy clean if baby-hugging pol, a man of the masses given to wearing t-shirts one size too small in his imaging of a huggable boynext-door that little girls can take home to their condos. It may be the reason why his wife left him. He has spellbinding skills in using simple street talk to explain complex legal issues and economic principles to jeepney drivers, fish vendors and state university scholars. But in reality his chief backers in recent elections were Imelda Marcos, Lucio Tan and Danding Cojuangco.He was jettisoned by kingmaker Danding only when Chiz insisted, correctly at hindsight,as the better bet than Loren Legarda. Of course, Loren had no real chance for the presidency but, given her own powers at pretense, she got Villar to fund her vice presidential bid when Villar refused to give in to Noli de Castro’s billion-peso blackmail of a budget to become his running mate. The amount asked was said to be much higher than what Kabayan got from Gloria when they teamed up or, for that matter, higher than what Ping got from the First Gentleman for refusing to withdraw in favor of Fernando Poe who was eventually cheated of victory by the Cebuanos in 2004. There is talk in Bureau of Internal Revenue pantries that somebody bought, not necessarily in her name, a Dasmarinas mansion for some Php 500 million, and while this could be idle palaver, it helps explain to Villar why his team went down in flames at the last leg of the country’s first computerized polls. The more annoying of pundits in breakfast forums say that Manny Paquiao is a closet president-wanna-be and might be hoodwinked, he being unschooled and dying to be accepted in erudite circles, into running as Jojo’s vice president.There is no denying that Paquiao has 99 per cent name recall – the 1 percent representing people in asylums -and can karaoke-croak his way to voters’ hearts. And the Php 2 billion he has in liquid form and paper assets wouldn’t hurt Binay either. But he is vulnerable on many fronts,

OMG! LOL is in OED Cont’d from page 13 The laptop, cell phone, and now the highly portable tablet computers gave technology a mobile platform to keep us informed on the go. It will not be long before all this technology will reshape also the way we keep abreast of the news. In fact, a technological threshold was breached last year with hardly anyone noticing it---for the first time in our habitation of this planet more people got the news on the Internet than from print. Transformed, transported This technological transformation was no less profound than when we first landed on the moon. In those days, the computers that made possible the first lunar land-

ing were housed in buildings. Today we carry more computing power in our smart phones. Things will surely begin to change more rapidly than we can blink an eye. Inevitably our language is beginning to reflect this sea change. In launching the iPad2 early this year, the naturally effusive Steve Jobs was brief, even terse. He delivered his launch spiel in 229 words! Hear ye: “I’ve said this before, but thought it was worth repeating: It’s in Apple’s DNA that winnie technology alone is not enough. That it’s technology married with the liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our hearts

among them Mommy Dionesia, his Hermes-touting Vicky Belo endorser wife Jinkee, his other women – he likes them with Brazilian fenders, front and rear -- and his friends and fans Chavit Singson, Lito Atienza, Manny Villar, and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, who are not very pleasant people to be with unless you can punch as heavily as Paquiao. Mar Roxas, smarting from the stealth bombing of his candidacy got from Binay and the residual fallout of his unpopular decision to marry Corina Sanchez, may arguably be the most intelligent, most qualified, and most deserving to become President. But Filipino voters are not famous for choosing the most deserving and Mar’s loser image has given him a huge handicap as many pollsters believe there has never been a successful comeback from electoral defeat for the presidency. This is why Mar’s handlers are looking with moist eyes on having him run for a Capiz congressional seat, which is his for the asking as the province’s favorite son although he is not that popular in Roxas City itself (Binay threatened to trounce him in his hometown) as Mar had no projects there to his name. Then, after he has regained the forgotten taste of victory, Mar will run for Speaker and win it hands down with Noynoy Aquino’s backing. Sonny Belmonte can run for the Senate but he will probably choose to reclaim his old seat at Quezon City hall that he continues to hold in absentia. Bistek Bautista is too much of a realist not to run instead for Congress, thereby clearing the way for Joy Belmonte to become Mayor after Dad gets tired of it. The problem for Mar with the Speakership is that it is cursed. Joe de Venecia and the late Ramon Mitra were highly popular and effective Speakers among what now has ballooned to 220 plus Congresspersons, including arrantly fake partylisters like Mikey Arroyo who supposedly stands for tricycle drivers and security guards. But the previous Speakers’ candidacies for President were disasters as they were betrayed openly by the Congress brats who used to genuflect in their path in the name of fat pork barrels and foreign junkets. So, is this a plot of Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa and the Balay group that wants Mar to get trapped in the trappings of the Speakership? Despite himself, Mar is a very likeable, decent, fully grown Mama’s boy to Manay Judy and will still have many people panting to become his Vice President, but if his recent defeat has shaved some

sing. “And nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices. “And a lot of folks in this tablet market are rushing in and they’re looking at this as the next PC. The hardware and the software are done by different companies. And they’re talking about speeds and feeds just like they did with PCs. “And our experience and every bone in our body says that that is not the right approach to this. That these are post-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC. That need to be even more intuitive than a PC. And where the software and the hardware nd the applications need to intertwine in an even more seamless way than they do on a PC. “And we think we’re on the right track with this. We think we have the right architecture not just in silicon, but in the organization to build these kinds of products.

of his hubris and made him wiser, his secret weapon will be in the person of Pia Cayetano. She has no money, yes, but Pia – respectable Senate performance, single mom, certified iron-man triathlete, Barby Doll good looks (a phrase she hates) in her slim, 5’6” stature inherited from American genes – she will bring in the thousands of starry eyed NGO-volunteer troops that formed the chief weapon of Noynoy and which Mar had alienated. Pia will also harvest the women’s vote, becoming more vociferous and organized by the day – consider the kitchen cadres who began the yellow ribbon stickers and baller ID’s that mushroomed into millions -- and the support of Makati business clubs and the American and European chambers’ blessings. She will be the unexpected bolt from the blue that will reinvigorate the lackluster Mar image that surfaced after he dismissed the PR genius Louie Morales who had coined the Mr. Palengke brand and ran away with the Parokya ni Edgar blockbuster song, “Mister Suabe,” that made him Senate topnotcher on his first-ever outing in the rough and tumble of political hustings. Luck, as the Chinese say, is when preparation meets opportunity. So luck will still be the chief arbiter of which candidates will take the pole position when 2016 rolls in. But as of this point, these are the viable jerseys at the starting gate. There are others waiting as blushing bridesmaids. Among them are Kiko Pangilinan, who apes Jack Kennedy when most voters can hardly remember Bill Clinton, but sadly Sharon has become too fat and KC might marry Piolo Pascual and run away to Paris when she discovers why people are saying he is gay; and Tito Sotto who fantasizes about a teamup with Bongbong, but is too laid back to learn Visayan (his namesake granddad was the highly respected Cebuano leader of the First Philippine Assembly which antedated Congress) so he could fill the vacuum of the humongous Visayan vote. The Bisaya Daku vote is much bigger than the Ilocano bloc, but orphaned by the ever-feuding Osmenas and corruption allegations against the Garcias and Duranos, who are among those suspected of rigging the vote for Gloria in 2004. And since senior citizens have been rising in number and the onset of Alzheimer’s has addled a lot of once-respectable brains, one should not ignore the kingmaker delusions of Fidel Ramos and the senile rantings of Joker Arroyo.

“And so I think we stand a pretty good chance of being pretty competitive in this market. And I hope that what you’ve seen today gives you a good feel for that.” Gone in days As usual loyal Apple fans stormed the stores and cleaned the shelves. We will have to wait for months to get ours. Meanwhile, the media mogul Rupert Murdoch is doing fine with his digital newspaper. The New York Times, too, has started charging for its digital edition. Many more will follow. When we start asking ourselves, “Have you browsed the news today/” we know that the future is here. Language eventually catches up---even if we have a lot of catching up to do on our ... browsing, IMHO. (BTW, comments? E-mail Marbella International Business Consultancy: mibc2006@gmail.com. BRB)

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Friday, October 7, 2011

Pinoys sue Atty Beirne for fraud, malpractice Cont’d from page 1

Lucanan Beirne even sent a letter to the Duldulaos, which said that “every decision concerning your case and every document related to your case will be personally reviewed by me.” The lawsuit included other allegations of fraudulent advertising against the Beirne law office, which advertises only in Weekend Balita. It has been long rumored that the non-lawyer owners of Weekend Balita also own the law firm. The Duldulao’s bankruptcy case languished in Attorney Beirne’s law office, even though the couple made frequent inquiries as to the status of the filing, the lawsuit alleges. The Duldulaos also alleged that a “consultant,” Ruby Sexon, was reassuring them that their case was going well. In reality, however, Attorney Beirne’s law office never filed the bankruptcy petition that could have saved their home from foreclosure. The lawsuit further alleges that even receiving the notice about a pending foreclosure and forwarding them to Attorney Beirne’s office, the law firm still failed to file a bankruptcy petition that they had paid almost $8000 for. The lawsuit alleges that the non-lawyer “consultant,” Ruby Sexon continued to assure the Duldulao’s that everything was fine. When the foreclosure sale notice arrived, the Duldulaos alleged in the lawsuit, they said they immediately called Ruby Sexon, who refused even to provide an appointment with Beirne. The couple visited Beirne’s office, anyway, and forced a meeting. “Until that time, Mr. Duldulao said, “I never even got to talk to an attorney.” During that meeting, Beirne reportedly told the Duldulaos, “You have to get over this and just move.”

This alleged legal malpractice case is particularly sad, as the Duldulaos’ son’s school was just across the street from their foreclosed home, and his uncle lived next door. They are now forced to live in a rented apartment quite a distance from their former home. “I just want to warn other Filipinos about our legal nightmare with Attorney James Beirne’s law office, said Janet Duldulao. “We just want the Filipino community to be aware that Attorney Beirne’s office was taking advantage of people like us, and instead of helping us, made our lives miserable,” Janet Duldulao said. “I don’t want other Filipinos to go through what we went through. What happened to us might happen to them.” The Duldulaos have retained the legal services of Atty Joel Bander, who did not make any statement regarding the lawsuit, which is still in its early discovery stages. Bander had previously testified in a federal bankruptcy proceeding that Beirne law office was owned by Luchie Mendoza and her husband, Anthony Allen, both non-lawyers. On Monday, October 3, this writer called Atty Beirne at his Glendale office, but he was unavailable. The receptionist named Tina, directed me to his voicemail where I left a message requesting his side of the story, then I left my cell phone number. Beirne returned my call on Thursday, October 6th, at around 4:32 p.m. and asked me to call his legal counsel, Atty Jack Lapedis. I called Lapedis’ office number and a receptionist again connected me to his voicemail. I left basically the same message that I left with Atty Beirne’s voicemail. I added that we would go to press the following day. As we go to press, we were still waiting for word from Atty Lapedis.

Friday, October 7, 2011

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Has buko juice’s Veteran Writer-Newsman Al Aquino Joins PinoyWatchdog time come? as Executive Editor & Columnist Cont’d From Page 7

ALFONSO Gaerlan Aquino, a product of Far Eastern University’s Institute of Arts and who cut his teeth in campus writing as a regular contributor to the university’s weekly student newspaper, Advocate, has joined Pinoy Watchdog as executive editor. He will work with managing editor Rene Villaroman -- who also had apprenticed with Advocate as an editor -- in charting the editorial outlook and direction of the fortnightly Pinoy Watchdog. “My forte at the time was literary writing, so I contributed short stories and poems to the Advocate, the official campus paper of the university, later in 1958 to 1959,” Aquino said. “ I wrote a column called “Of Arts and Literature,” collaborating with a fellow student named Marcelo Mercado, who went on to become a national artist,” Aquino recalled. When Aquino left school in 1960, he joined the broadsheet daily, Philippines Herald, as a cub reporter and left after barely 11 months for a higher paying job at the House of Representatives, Congress of the Philippines. “These years saw me going into politics (he served as Mayor of San Juan, La Union in 1976 to 1979, and Member of the Provincial Board in 1972 to 1976) and joining an underground newspaper called the Batasan Times

during Martial Law in 1984, until I decided to move to the United States in 1987,” Aquino said. Three months after he got settled in Los Angeles, he went to an interview for an editorial job at California Examiner, published by businessman-CPA Oscar Jornacion. Aquino said it was California Examiner’s editor-in-chief, Max Alvarez (now deceased) who interviewed him. “He told me that the policy of the paper was to avoid being involved in controversial issues and not to take sides in community wrangling and quarrels in organizations like FACLA (Filipino American Community of Los Angeles), no matter how obvious who was right,” Aquino related. Alvarez had asked him to bring in ads, “as if he knew I would answer ‘thank you, I am not joining.’” “Those were his parting words,” Aquino recalled. He then met community leader and freelance journalist Larry Pelayo, and they became friends. “Larry asked me to write for his paper, the Los Angeles People’s Journal, which did not last long,” Aquino related. “So I was without a venue again.” The last writing position that he held was with the Los Angeles Monitor, which was published by former FACLA president Meng Gatus. “My early exposure to the

printed media led me to set my sights on becoming a writer, or at least, a newsman, when I was in my elementary schooling,” Aquino told Pinoy Watchdog. “I had a father who was very fond of reading books of literary writers like Theodore Dreisser, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Philippine newspapers and the Philippine Free Press Magazine,” the former FEU debating team member said. “In my sixth grade, I found myself picking up the papers and reading them after my father was through. In my senior year in high school, I became the school paper’s editor,” Aquino told PW. So when he began attending college in 1953, he was determined to become an English writer. While a student writer at his alma mater, FEU, Aquino also joined the College Editors Guild (CEG). Aquino is married and retired and still lives in Los Angeles. He also brings to the position of executive editor years of experience in government service and civic and community involvement – he served as Vice President of FACLA in 1996 to 2000, Acting Mayor of Philippine Town, Inc. in 2008 to 2009; Chapter Commander – Order of the Knights of Rizal in 2007 to 2009; and Member-Moderator of Media Breakfast Club. – Rene Villaroman.

The Tumultuous Conception and Birth of Historic Filipinotown Cont’d from Page 8

a Project Coordinator of People’s Community Organization for Reform and Empowerment (People’s CORE), and Coordinator of Justice for Filipino American Veterans, to validate Rockello’ claims. “They did not go through the proper process, so they cannot represent the neighborhood council,” Garcia said. “Way back 1999 – I arrived here in 1997 – we advocated for a neighborhood council. Sad to say that the political system in America doesn’t reach down to the lowest level, just like in the Philippines, where it reaches the barangay,” Garcia opined. “They stopped at the city council.” This necessitates the formation of neighborhood councils, whose primary function is to advice the city council. Even before it was designated as Historic Filipinotown, this Los Angeles district had aspired to organize a neighborhood council, but it failed because it did not go through the motions. “Wala, kasi, they did not even follow the law. So how can they apply for neighborhood council (certification)?” Garcia asked. Hi Fi has applied for and was granted a 501 (C3) status as a non-profit organization. They need that status in order to raise funds for some of their projects. “Malaki ang problema sa His-

toric Filipinotown Neighborhood Council na ‘yan. Number 1, they want to have their cake and eat it too. Kasi a neighborhood council is not a 501 (C3). According to the law, the neighborhood council is an advisory council to the city council,” Garcia said. Garcia left Hi Fi a few years ago because he got “tired” of volunteer work. He said that the organization had become a debating club, made up mostly of retired people. “We could not even advise the city council. The youth was not represented. It’s supposed to be a symbol of democracy, but you could get elected by as few as a hundred voters, when the district had as much as 100,000 to 150,000 voters. It was not representative democracy,” Garcia lamented. Garcia revealed that Rampart Village won neighborhood council certification because its leadership followed the law. They had the petition, the required number of stakeholders; they did their outreach, unlike at Historic Filipinotown. “And it’s funny because the outreach person (at Hi Fi) was David Rockello,” Garcia noted. “Cecille Ramos (of Hi Fi NC) hired him to do the outreach, but he was unable to sign up even 200 stakeholders. That’s one of the requirements. Two hundred.” A lot of horse-trading was going on when Hi Fi Neighborhood Council was being organized, according to Garcia. Hi Fi wanted

to secede from Greater Echo Park-Elysian as one of its five districts. “But they were appeased by GEPE Chairman Jose Sigala, a Hispanic, who promised that he would try to quash Rampart’s ambitions to organize its own neighborhood council. “Magaling din si Jose Sigala,” Garcia said. But later on, after Hi Fi was pacified, he reneged on his promise.” The city government annually gives $5,000 to each of the different neighborhood councils in the City of Los Angeles. “Filipinotown is fragmented,” Garcia asserts. “This is the only district that has three neighborhood councils inside it, two congressional districts, two senatorial districts, two assembly districts, and two school districts.” Perhaps the only characteristic that aptly describes Historic Filipinotown, says Garcia, is that it has the longest name in all the ethnic communities of Los Angeles. Less surprising is the fact that it took more than fifteen years to get the FilipinoAmerican community’s consensus on the name choice; two Los Angeles Mayors to push the project forward and get it passed by the Los Angeles City Council, and have that green Historic Filipinotown sign erected at the west and east boundaries of the district on the 101 Freeway.

for the production of coco water. He said that New York-based Vita Coco, in a business venture with Philippine-based Fiesta Coco Equity, had committed $15 million in capital investment. Vita Coco is being advertised in the U.S. as “the nation’s best-selling coconut water and one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in the U.S.” Vita Coco is currently sold at over 14,000 retailers in the U.S. Therefore, a Vita Coco-Fiesta Coco joint venture would insure the influx of Philippine-produced coconut water into the U.S. market, a boon to coconut farmers in the Philippines. Coco Levy Fund But even with Vita Coco’s presence in the Philippines, the coconut farmers are suffering financially from lack of government support. The multi-billion Coco Levy Fund would have been a great source for financial aid that the coconut farmers need to sustain and maintain their farms. However, it is still sequestered by the government since 1987 when the late President Cory Aquino confiscated and sequestered all known assets of the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos and his cronies. The Coco Levy Fund was created during the Marcos dictatorship purportedly to provide financial assistance to coconut farmers. The fund was raised from taxes forcibly

collected from coconut farmers. However, to this day, only the former cronies of Marcos have benefitted from the Coco Levy Fund. One them who arguably benefitted the most was P-Noy’s uncle, Danding Cojuangco, whose 20-percent ownership of the shares of stock in San Miguel Corporation are being claimed by coconut farmers as rightfully theirs. Today, the Coco Levy Fund is reportedly estimated to have ballooned anywhere in the range of P100-150 billion in assets. Time to act Recently, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that the government should use the Coco Levy Fund and not wait for the Supreme Court’s decision on the case to help the local coconut industry. Yes, it’s time for the government to use the Coco Levy Fund for what it was originally intended for; that is, financial assistance to coconut farmers. With coconut growing in 69 of the 79 provinces covering some 3.3 million hectares -- which is about 30% of all farmlands -- and comprising 1.4 million farms, expanding and marketing buko juice for worldwide distribution could become the country’s number one agricultural industry. Has buko juice’s time come? Mr. President, we heard you talk. Now it’s time to walk the talk. (PerryDiaz@gmail.com)

Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs Dies at 56

Cont’d from page 1 “We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” the company said in a brief statement. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.” Jobs had battled cancer in

2004 and underwent a liver transplant in 2009 after taking a leave of absence for unspecified health problems. He took another leave of absence in January – his third since his health problems began – before resigning as CEO six weeks ago. Jobs became Apple’s chairman and handed the CEO job over to his hand-picked successor, Tim Cook.

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Off Hours

Friday, October 7, 2011

(A)musing

The Snake By Sarah Lei Spagnolo

NE of the things I loved most about having a room of my own as a teenager was the privacy it gave me. I considered it a luxury in our little two-story house in a crummy part of the the city. It’s where I would write. It’s where I would think. It’s where I would dream. Tonight I was doing neither of the three. I was simply starring off into space. It was getting late but I didn’t feel the least bit sleepy. The silence of the night engulfed me, drenching my spirit with a bucket of inner peace and causing goose bumps to travel up my arm towards the base of my neck. It was so quiet I began to hear the silence – a high, but not high-pitched frequency in my ears ringing louder and louder until it became almost deafening. In that moment I was reminded that absolute silence didn’t exist, particularly not where I lived. In my neighborhood, silence was but a momentary pause between random jumbled noises constantly traveling through the paper-thin walls of houses. I could hear when a neighbor was washing dishes, arguing with a family member or flushing the toilet. Somewhere in the distance a woman was coughing uncontrollably. A raw, searing cough ricocheted through her chest in between gasps for air. Cooooooooooouuuugh, coooooooooouggggh. I grimaced when she repeatedly attempted to expel phlegm from her throat. This went on for almost a minute until a window slid open and she let out a loud spit. I heard it land solidly on the pavement. Splat! Hopefully, it will all be dried up tomorrow before someone steps on it while walking down the street. She cleared her throat a few more times, slammed the window shut, and then it was quiet again. Although I was grossed out by it, in my mind

I couldn’t help but visualize what the woman’s phlegm might have looked like. Was it green? White? Yellow? Runny? Sticky? The size of a peso coin? Eeeeeyyyuucck! I wiggled my entire body in disgust. Why do I even want to know? The steady humming of a flickering lamp across the street took over the woman’s vociferous coughing and hawking, but not for long; it was interrupted by the myriad clicks and pops of a man snoring in his sleep. I tried to guess which neighbor it was, but I was uncertain. I sat up straight with my legs tucked under my tailbone, leaned my head against the wall and stared out into the darkness. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the guava tree in our neighbor’s front yard, its branches stretching out over the wall of cement separating our houses. A light suddenly came on in one of the rooms next door and interrupted my reverie. I leaned forward, curious. Because the window was slightly open, I could make out the silhouette of a man and a woman draped in the yellow glow of a floor lamp. The woman whispered something in the man’s ear, planted a kiss on his lips and disappeared. Hmmm…I couldn’t recall ever seeing a couple living next door. They must be new tenants. The man moved towards the window and stood right by the crack. He then pulled out a long black object from down below and appeared to be massaging it with his hands. Up and down. Up and down. I counted ten times. Then pressing it between his palms he rolled it sideways. The repetitive motion reminded me of a baker kneading bread dough on one of those cooking shows on television. My curiosity piqued. I stared and stared. What was he doing? Why did the woman leave the room? Why was he doing whatever he

Illustration by Mark Joseph Magno

was doing at this time of the night? Then it dawned on me. Gasp! He must be caressing his pet snake! What else could it be? I felt tiny vellus hair rise from the bottom of my spine all the way up to my neck. What if the snake escapes and somehow made its way into our property? I would hate to find a slithering cold-blooded reptile in my room. His hand movements went faster and faster until he found a rhythm steady enough to compete with the African tribal drums. There was an abrupt pause then I saw him drop the snake on the floor. He peered outside the window as if he sensed my presence making me fall backwards into my bed in panic. Oh no. Did he see me? I placed my hand on my chest trying to calm my heart, which was already beating out of control. Raising my head slightly, I looked out to see if he was still there but the light was already off and it was pitch black again. I woke up the next morning with only one mission in mind: report to my mom what I’d seen from my bedroom window. Over sausage and eggs, I described to her every detail I’d observed. She laughed it off like I wasn’t making any sense. “Honey that’s ridiculous,” she said, scooping another spoonful of rice to her mouth with her right hand. “What for? Besides,” she said, “exotic pets are expen-

sive. I doubt they’re able to afford it.” To prove it to her, I called her into my room at about 9 o’clock. We didn’t have to wait long before everything unfolded in front of us as if I’d pressed ‘replay.’ Seeing what I’d described to her early this morning in great detail, my mom’s eyes grew wide in disbelief and a curtain of disgust fell over her entire face. “Dear Lord! That’s repulsive. Close the window and go to bed!” she whispered angrily, leaving the room with such haste that the door banged shut behind her and shook every corner and space. That night, I didn’t look out the window again. The weekend arrived and I wanted to desperately forget what had happened but inside there was something about my mom’s words from last night that troubled me. As I sleepily made my way down the stairs, I overhear my mom talking to someone on the phone. I stopped midway just in time to catch the end of the conversation. “Bastos! If he wants to do that have him close the windows and turn off all the lights,” my mom pleaded. “Please Mrs. Gonzales, talk to him. You must understand. I have teenage daughters in the house and they can’t be seeing nasty things.” Whatever it was she was referring to, I had a funny feeling it wasn’t about a snake at all. www.sarahleispagnolo.com

PAE Live Presents “The Romance of Magno Rubio”at Ford Theatre

OS ANGELES – October 4, 2011 – The Winter Play Season at [Inside] the Ford kicks off with Lonnie Carter’s OBIE award-winning The Romance of Magno Rubio in English – plus the world premiere of Ang Romansa ni Magno Rubio, a new translation into Tagalog. PAE Live! in association with Good Shepherd Ambulance Company presents five performances each week, three in English and two in Tagalog, with both versions directed by the translator, acclaimed Filipino actor, director, performer, writer and producer Bernardo Bernardo. The Romance of Magno Rubio opens on November 4, and Ang Romansa ni Magno Rubio follows on November 5. A high-energy stage adaptation of Carlos Bulosan’s seminal short story about a love struck Filipino migrant worker in 1930s California, The Romance of Magno Rubio uses clever word play, rhymes, rhythms and Philippine love songs (“kundimans”) to reveal the lives of migrant workers, their struggles and dreams, and their longings for home and a better life. “The play traces the story of five different ‘Manongs’ (members of the first wave of immigrants who came from the Philippines to America in the 1920s and ‘30s),” explains executive producer Ted Benito. “It’s a story about hope, disillusionment, betrayal and love. There are original songs,

guitar playing and martial arts. But it’s really a lesson in Filipino American history, and it’s personal to me because my dad was a Manong. He came here in 1930 at the age of eighteen and worked the canneries in Alaska and the farmland of California, Washington and Oregon.” He continues, “There are so few plays written by or about Filipinos. Something on this scale has never been done before, to present a play in both English and Ta g a l o g . And Bernardo has a wonderful new vision for this play that’s a bit darker than previous productions have been and more in keeping with the tone of Bulosan’s original story.” Agrees Bernardo, “I wanted to better balance the humor and romance with the grittier side of reality faced daily by mud-encrusted stoop laborers pursuing the American dream in the 1930s. A huge, hand-painted graffiti will be the dominant

backdrop, evoking the iconic discriminatory signs posted in some American establishments in the 1930s: ‘No Dogs and Filipinos Allowed.’” Jon Jon Briones (Magno Rubio), Antoine Diel (Prudencio), Elizabeth Rainey (Clarabelle), and Muni Zano (narrator) each appear in both the English (E) and Tagalog (T) casts, while Giovanni Ortega (E) and Frederick Edwards (T) share the role of Nick; Erick Esteban (E) and Gelo Francisco (T) are Claro; and Eymard Cabling (E) and Jet Montelibano (T) double as Atoy. Musical direction for The Romance of Magno Rubio/Ang Romansa ni Magno is by Gelo Francisco; choreography is by Peter De Guzman; fight choreography is by Felix Roiles; scenic design is by Akeime Mitterlehner; lighting design is by Gerry Linsangan; sound design is by Rani de Leon; projection design is by

John Geronillo; costume design is by Dori Quan; production stage manager is Jaclyn Kalkhurst; associate producer is Lorely Trinidad; producer is Ed Ramolete; and executive producers are Ted Benito and Paul Policarpio. The Romance of Magno Rubio / Ang Romansa ni Magno opens on Nov. 4 and continues through Dec. 11. Performances in English take place on Thursdays and Fridays @ 8pm and Sundays @ 3 pm. Performances in Tagalog take place on Saturdays @ 3 pm and 8 pm. The performance on Sunday, Dec. 4 (in English) will be signed for the hearing impaired. There is no matinee on Saturday, Nov. 5, and no performance on Thursday, Nov. 24. Tickets are $25, except opening nights (Nov. 4 & 5) which are $34 and include a reception with the actors. Full-time students with ID are $12. Two previews, on Nov. 2 (in Tagalog) and Nov. 3 (in English) @ 8 pm, are pay-what-you-can. [Inside] the Ford is located in the Ford Theatres complex at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068, just off the 101 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios. On-site, non-stacked parking is free. For reservations and information, call the Ford Theatres Box Office at 323.461.3673 (323.GO1.FORD) or go to www.FordTheatres.org.

Friday, October 7, 2011

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Ver Penaranda (left) member of Frontliner Media Group, explains the centerpiece picture in the Pinatubo @ 20 Exhibit to Zen Lopez, curator and former Culture and Arts commissioner of Glendale, California. Photo by Rene Villaroman

Albert Garcia (seated, left) with photographers Ernie Sarmiento (standing, left), Robert Gamo, Boy Gabrido, and Nikki Arriola (right, standing) after the Pinatubo @ 20 Exhibit Opening.

PinoyWatchDog.Com

Friday, October 7, 2011

Iconic Image of Volcano’s Eruption by Bulletin Photographer Alberto Garcia is Centerpiece in “Mt. Pinatubo @ 20” Exhibit

Albert Garcia, Manila Bulletin photographer (7th from right) presents a framed copy of his award-winning Mt. Pinatubo eruption photo to Carson Mayor Jim Dear ((6th from left) during a courtesy call at the Carson City Hall on Sunday, October 2. Other in photo are Manila-based photographers participating in the exhibit and members of the city council of Carson. Photo by Robert Gamo/F7 CARSON – The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, a long-dominant volcano in the Luzon province of Zambales 20 years ago, was captured in the camera of Albert Garcia, a photographer of Bulletin Today, a Manila daily broadsheet newspaper. That photograph shows the fury of Mt. Pinatubo a few short minutes after it erupted. The photograph acknowledged as one of the greatest images of the 20th

century by Time Magazine, and one of the 100 best pictures of the 20th century by the National Geographic Magazine. This year, the 20th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption, organizers of the Tambayayong (Bayanihan in Visayan) Festival put together a photo exhibit, which consists of photographs of the eruption and its aftermath taken by other Manila-based newspaper and magazine

photographers. Garcia, who is now based in Canada, did not make in time to grace the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Carson Mall on Avalon Blvd. On Sunday, October 2, however, Garcia personally presented a framed photo of the award winning volcano eruption to Carson Mayor JIm Dear and members of the Carson City Council. Consul General Mary Jo Bernardo Aragon, Mayor Dear, and Carson City

Coucilmember Elito Santarina were among the government dignitaries that graced the opening of the Tambayayong Festival and the “Mt.Pinatubo @ 20” Photo Exhibit at the Carson Mall last Saturday, October 1. The photo exhibit next will travel to Bay Area for a two-day show on October 11-12 at the Philippine Consulate, located at 447 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94108.