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Volume 9 – Issue 12 • 16 Pages

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december 18-24, 2015

DATELINEUSAfrom the AJPress NEWS TEAM AcroSS AMEricA

IN THE GAME. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte shows his statement of withdrawal of candidacy for mayor while his daughter Sara holds her COC as substitute candidate at the Comelec regional office in the city. Philstar.com photo by Robinson Ninal Jr.

former President fidel V. ramos said that if mar roxas and rodrigo Duterte want to be President, they should act like one.

the 87-year-old ramos, whose term ended 17 years ago, said that roxas and

Duterte should realize that they would not only be compared to past Philippine Presidents but they would also be com-pared with other world leaders on the global stage.

“my advice, simple: Act like a Philip-pine President who must be competitive nationally because you will be compared with other Philippine Presidents. But this

is now the 21st century, and the Philip-pine President must be world-class. We are not anymore in the period of Anto-nio Luna, emilio Aguinaldo and Andres Bonifacio. our countrymen should not kill each other, they should unite to de-velop our nation,” ramos said.

the presidential candidates should realize that they would serve as a na-

tional model when they appear in in-ternational meetings such as with the United Nations, Asia Pacific economic Cooperation, and the Association of southeast Asian Nations, ramos said in a breakfast forum at Kamuning Bakery in Quezon City.

ramos also weighed in on the pos-

AMID DUTERTE-ROXAS WORD WAR

FVR: PH president must be ‘world-class’

the nation’s highest court has been debat-ing a landmark case regarding Us affirmative action in college admissions.

the supreme Court appeared sharply divid-ed last week, as conservatives, including Chief Justice John G. roberts Jr., believe that us-ing affirmative action in admission decisions is “unneeded and unconstitutional,” reported the Los Angeles times.

“What unique perspective does a minor-ity student bring to a physics class?” Justice roberts asked, when a lawyer spoke of the importance of diversity in the classroom. “In the past, when the high court has upheld affir-mative action, it did so with the understanding that it was a ‘temporary’ measure. When do you think your program will be done?”

the Court’s three liberals, led by Justice sonia sotomayor, argued in defense of race-based admissions policies at the University of texas, which was segregated by law and later opened its doors to minority students in 1950.

Supreme Court hears historic case on affirmative action

Asian Americans will benefit, experts say

As countries across the globe continue fighting against the Islamic state (Is), Presi-dent Barack obama on monday, Dec. 14, said the Us-led coalition is hitting IsIs “harder than ever.”

“IsIL leaders cannot hide, and our message to them is simple: you are next,” obama said at the Pentagon on monday, following a brief-ing from his national security team.

his announcement comes several days after a mass shooting in san Bernardino, California and nearly a month after multiple coordinated attacks in Paris, a time at which he faces pres-sure to convince Americans he is taking all measures to keep them safe. he is also pres-sured by Democrats and republicans to pick up the pace and intensity of the campaign against Is.

to date, obama said the United states has

Obama: US-led coalition is hitting Islamic State ‘harder than ever’

Former President Fidel V. Ramos

the Commission on elections (Comelec) on thurs-day, Dec. 17 said it accepted the certificate of candi-dacy (CoC) for president of Davao City mayor rodrigo Duterte amid issues on the legality of his substitution move as the standard-bearer of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) in the 2016 elec-tions.

Comelec Chair Andres Bautista said the poll body ruled to accept Duterte’s CoC in a 6-1 vote, adding that the tough-talking mayor had been added to the official list of candidates.

however, Bautista noted that the resolution was “en-tirely without prejudice” to the disqualification case filed by broadcaster ruben Castor against Duterte, or any other case against him.

Bautista said Comelec accepted Duterte’s CoC from

It’s official, Duterte now a candidate for president

mANILA—Beijing on Wednes-day, Dec. 16 denied reports that its construction activities on is-lands and reefs in the south Chi-na sea damage marine ecological environment.

this follows the report from BBC News that Chinese fisher-men are destroying coral reefs in the south China sea.

“the relevant report is severely biased and misleading. the Nan-sha Islands are China’s territory.

China cares about ecological pro-tection of relevant islands, reefs and waters more than anyone,” Chinese foreign minsitry spokes-person hong Lei said in a press conference.

hong stressed that China un-derwent scientific evaluation and argumentation before starting construction in the islands and reefs.

“Placing equal emphasis on construction and protection, Chi-na has taken into full account is-sues like ecological environment and fishery protection, strictly

followed environmental stan-dards and requirements during construction, and adopted many effective measures to protect eco-logical environment,” hong said.

on the other hand, BBC News correspondent rupert Wingfield-hayes reported how hundreds of white coral branches in the in the spratly or Nansha Islands have been damaged because of Chi-nese fishing activities.

Wingfield-hayes narrated how he went underwater and saw that the sea floor was covered in a

China denies damaging reefs in disputed sea

In this file photo, the alleged on-going reclamation of Subi Reef by China is seen from Pag-asa Island in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, western Palawan Province, Philippines. China’s campaign of island building in the South China Sea might soon quadruple the number of airstrips available to the People’s Liberation Army in the highly contested and strategically vital region. That could be bad news for other regional contenders, especially the U.S., the Philippines and Vietnam. File photo by Ritchie Tongo

JerseY CItY—A dozen firefighters – including filipino-American Jonathan Gamutan – were promoted to fire cap-tain last week during a simple ceremony at the City hall. two others rose to the rank of battalion chief.

mayor steven fulop, who led the list of elected officials and guests who witnessed the event, extolled the firefight-ers in short speech.

“I have seen first hand how our firefighters work – the work that they do, the intensity that they show, the team-work that they exude. It’s something,” mayor fulop said.

Fil-Am firefighter promoted as captain in Jersey City

the supreme Court (sC) on Wednes-day, Dec. 16, dismissed for lack of merit a petition against the “No Bio, No Boto” policy of the Commission on elections (Comelec) for the may 9, 2016 elections.

the petition assailing the policy was filed by Kabataan party-list rep. James mark terry ridon and several others,

mostly youth and student leaders.the ruling was announced by sC

spokesman theodore te.“Wherefore, the petition is dismissed

due to lack of merit. the temporary re-straining order issued by this Court on De-cember 1, 2015 is consequently dissolved. so ordered,” te said as he read the dis-positive portion of the ruling, which was penned by Justice estela Perlas-Bernabe.

Comelec data show a total of 3,059,601

registered voters remained without bio-metrics as of september 30 — the regis-tration deadline set by the poll body — and thus stand to lose their right to vote.

the Comelec lauded the decision.Its chairman, Andres Bautista, said they

are happy with the ruling, noting that the high Court considered their position in implementing provisions of republic Act (rA) 10367 or the biometrics law.

“We are, of course, very pleased that

the sC saw it our way. this will enable us to proceed with the finalization of the list of voters and project of precincts,” he noted in a text message.

malacanang also welcomed the su-preme Court’s decision.

“We note the resolution of the supreme Court dismissing the petition filed against the Comelec’s ‘No Bio No Boto’ policy,” Communications secretary herminio Co-

Supreme Court upholds ‘No Bio, No Boto’ policy for lack of meritby Jomar Canlas

ManilaTimes.net

the Department of Justice (DoJ) has started its probe into the criminal complaint filed against six airport personnel al-legedly involved in the tanim-bala (bullet planting) racket at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Prosecutor General Claro Arel-lano said the complaint filed by American missionary Lane mi-chael White and his stepmother eloisa Zoleta has been assigned to DoJ’s task force NAIA head-ed by senior Deputy state Pros-ecutor theodore Villanueva.

Arellano told reporters that the task force will designate a panel of prosecutor to conduct the pre-liminary investigation.

once a panel has been created,

DOJ probes ‘tanim-bala’ racket at NAIA

by TeTCh Torres-TupasInquirer.net

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by momar G. VisayaAJPress

by paTriCia lourdes VirayPhilstar.com

by Gil C. CabCaunGanInquirer.net

by yuJi VinCenT GonzalesInquirer.net

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Fire captain Jonathan Gamutan (center) flanked by Council President Rolando Lavarro (left) and his father, Paul Gamutan. AJPress photo by Momar G. Visaya

december 18-24, 2015 • NeW YOrK ANd NeW JerSeY ASIAN JOUrNAL http://www.asianjournal.com • (212) 655-5426A�

From the Front Page

sibility that two front-runners in the tight presidential race would be disqualified by the Commission on Elections (Comelec). “Let us give the benefit of the doubt to the people directly concerned. Let the people decide,” he said.

Ramos warned that that the public may be left with only one choice for President if “this pro-

cess of elimination” would contin-ue, referring to the disqualification cases against Duterte and Sen. Grace Poe.

“We may end up with only one candidate for President if we fol-low this process of elimination, which is not [how] the people want it,” he said.

Ramos, a former military chief and a health buff, did not find it

funny that Roxas and Duterte’s political exchanges would revolve around slapping, fistfights, gun-fights and mudslinging.

“Slapping, fighting, killing each other will not solve the problem. The real problem of the world to-day and the Philippines is fighting poverty, fighting natural calami-ties, or preparing for them if we cannot fight them; to mitigate cli-mate change,” Ramos said.

Ramos, who was perceived as supporting Duterte, advised the Davao City mayor to watch his mouth. “He should brush his teeth not with Colgate but with toilet pa-per,” he said.

He said, however, that voters should not look for a perfect Presi-dent because no candidate would fit the position perfectly.

What was important, Ramos said, was for the elected President to “transform” himself in office to be a better person. n

FVR: PH president must be ‘world…PAGE A1 t

an administrative point of view and as a ministerial process. How-ever, he added that an adverse decision from the poll body’s 1st division on Castor’s petition could still disqualify the mayor from the presidential derby.

Castor sought not to give due course to Duterte’s substitution

of Martin Diño because of a sup-posedly erroneous entry in the latter’s COC, making it “void, le-gally inexistent, and without legal effect.”

Diño, who later withdrew his candidacy for president, indicat-ed in his COC that he was running for Pasay City mayor.

The Comelec’s 1st division was

supposed to hold a hearing Tues-day on the disqualification case filed by Castor against Duterte and Diño, but the petitioner and his counsel did not appear in the hearing where the mark-ing of evidence was supposed to be conducted, which prompted Duterte’s camp to submit the pe-tition for resolution. n

It’s official, Duterte now a candidate for…PAGE A1 t

Also among those promoted was James Woods, a 44-year-old firefighter who died a day after Christmas last year.

An 18-year veteran with Jersey City’s Fire Department, Gamutan became the first fire captain of Filipino descent in the depart-ment’s 144-year history.

“I’m proud of my background and at the same time, I’m a proud American as well,” the 51-year-old firefighter told the Asian Journal moments before the cer-emony started.

Gamutan’s relatives - parents – Paul and Charito, wife Jane,

brother Anthony and children Sa-brina, Jonathan, Jr., Brandon and Derek – all came to witness the event. His parents migrated to the United States in 1969 when Jonathan was only five years old.

“Ang sarap ng pakiramdam. Masaya kami,” said Charito Gamutan, Jonathan’s mother. “We supported him all the way when he told us he wanted to be-come a firefighter.”

“Congratulations and thank you to our brave firefighters who were promoted today -- 2 to bat-talion chief and 11 to the rank of fire captain, including Jonathan Gamutan, the first Filipino Ameri-

Fil-Am firefighter promoted as captain in…can who enlisted to the JCFD and now its first Filipino fire captain af-ter nearly two decades of service,” said Council President Rolando La-varro. “Our deepest thanks to the family of firefighter James Woods, who passed away last year, and promoted posthumously today to the rank of Fire Captain.”

Promoted to battalion chief to-day were Stephan Drennan and Michael Nickerson. Promoted to captain were Jeffrey Batt; Robert Baykowski; Michael Budinick; Gerald Drennan; Gamutan; Dan-iel Healy; Vincent Manchisi; O’Keefe; Miguel Rios; Joseph Shastay; and Todd Tarrant. n

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Arellano said the respondents will required to answer the com-plaint filed by White and Zoleta.

Facing a complaint for viola-tion Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act spe-cifically Article V Section 38 (Li-ability for Planting Evidence) are OTS personnel Maria Elma Cena and Marvin Garcia.

On the other hand, facing com-plaint for violation of Article 293 of the Revised Penal Code for Robbery/Extortion, violations of Republic Act 7438 or the Act defining certain rights of person arrested, detained or under cus-todial investigation and duties of arresting, detaining and investi-gating officers and Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft Law are Senior Police Officer 2 Rolando A. Clarin, Chief Inspector Adria-no Junio, SPO4 Ramon Bernardo and SP02 Romy Navarro.

White was caught allegedly carrying a .22-cal. bullet in his luggage at NAIA on Sept 17. He, his father Ryan who is a Christian missionary, and stepmother Eloisa Zoleta, were about to fly to Coron, Palawan province, where they were planning to build a church.

After the Pasay Court dis-missed the case against him, he already left the country last Mon-day Dec. 14. n

DOJ probes…

loma Jr. said in a statement.Coloma added that it is now

up to the Comelec “to ensure that preparations for the hold-ing of the May 2016 elections are in place in accordance with its

timetable.”“We leave it to the Comelec’s

best judgment, as an indepen-dent constitutional body, on how to proceed in the light of the Su-preme Court ruling,” he said.

Malacañang earlier rejected

the possibility of postponing the elections, citing the consti-tutional requirement of holding the polls on the second Monday of May.

Ridon described the SC’s de-

Supreme Court upholds ‘No Bio, No Boto’…PAGE A1 t

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Fire captain Jonathan Gamutan with his family, taken after the ceremony at City Hall. AJPress photo by Momar G. Visaya

(212) 655-5426 • http://www.asianjournal.com NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY ASIAN JOURNAL • DEcEmbER 18-24, 2015 A�From the Front Page

EVACUATED. Evacuees feel comforted by the presence of different Christmas lanterns hanged in classrooms turned evacuation centers at the Cabangan Elementary School in Camalig town while Albay province is bracing for Typhoon Nona. Disaster and local government officials in Bicol have moved to safer areas nearly half a million people as the region, particularly Sorsogon and Albay provinces, brace for the entry of Typhoon ”Nona” (international name: Melor) by early evening Monday, Dec. 14. Inquirer.net photo by Michael Jaucian

thick layer of broken fragments of coral.

“I swam on and on. In every di-rection the destruction stretched for hundreds of meters, piles and piles of shattered white coral branches. It seemed so illogi-cal. Why would fishermen, even poachers, destroy a whole coral system like this?” Wingfield Hayes said in his report.

The BBC News correspondent

described the situation of the sea “complete devastation.”

During the hearing on the mer-its case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands, the Philippines hit China for interfering with fishing activities in the disputed South China Sea.

The Philippine delegation ar-gued that China’s construction activities in the region destroy the sea bed. n

China denies damaging…PAGE A1 t

cision as puzzling, considering that the court earlier ruled to grant their petition for a tempo-rary restraining order.

“The facts and law of the case had not changed in two weeks. It is unfortunate that the exagger-ated doomsday scenario foisted by the Comelec had worked on the Supreme Court,” he said.

The petitioners, in contesting the legality of the deactivation of the registration of voters without biometrics, have asked the SC to enjoin the implementation of the provisions of RA 10367 or the Mandatory Biometrics Law and nullify Comelec Resolutions 9721, 9863 and 10013, which are all related to the deactivation of voter registration records in the May 9, 2016 national and local elections.

The petitioners noted that de-spite the Comelec’s “No Bio, No Boto” campaign, official data from the poll body showed that only 3,599,906 registered voters have undergone the mandatory biometrics validation procedure as of September 30.

In disposing of the constitu-tional challenge to RA 7 and the Comelec resolutions, the SC dis-tinguished between the concept of “qualification” as far as suf-frage is concerned and the con-cept of “registration” where the latter is jurisprudentially regard-ed as only the means by which a person’s qualifications to vote is determined.

Registering is only one step

toward voting, and it is not one of the elements that makes the citizen a qualified voter.

“Thus, unless it is shown that a registration requirement rises to the level of a literacy, property or other substantive requirement as contemplated by the framers of the Constitution–that is, one which propagates a socioeco-nomic standard [that] is bereft of any rational basis to a person’s ability to intelligently cast his vote and to further the public good–the same cannot be struck down as unconstitutional, as in this case,” the ruling read.

The SC also ruled that con-trary to petitioner’s argument, the regulation passes the “strict scrutiny” test.

Under this standard, it said, the government’s interest must be compelling, not merely sub-stantial, and there must be no other less restrictive means to achieve that interest.

The SC sustained the regula-tion challenged on the ground of strict scrutiny, ruling that the ob-jective of cleansing the national voter registry so as to eliminate electoral fraud and ensure that election results are reflective of the will of the electorate consti-tute a compelling state interest.

As for the absence of less re-strictive means to achieve this interest, it noted, the regulation is the least restrictive means as it is a manner of updating registra-tion for those already registered under RA 8189 through technol-ogy.

The High Court said the regu-lation was narrowly tailored to achieve the compelling state interest of establishing a clean, complete, permanent and up-dated list of voters, and was de-monstrably the least restrictive means to promote that interest.

Congressional leaders were displeased with the decision, saying it could alter results of the 2016 elections.

House Minority Leader Ron-aldo Zamora of San Juan City (Metro Manila) and 1-BAP party

Supreme Court upholds ‘No Bio, No Boto’…

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The public university has al-ways had a selective admissions system that “sought to increase the minorities, using race and ethnicity as one of many factors in evaluating applicants,” report-ed NPR. Angered lower courts have ruled that UT could not con-sider race in any way in its admis-sions policies, but the university has still implemented it, guaran-teeing three-quarters of slots as reserved by law for students who qualify in the top 7 to 10 percent of their high school class.

Abigail Fisher, a white student who was not accepted to UT in 2008, challenged UT’s “holistic review” policy that combines race/ethnicity and class rank with SAT scores, independently-grad-ed essays, and extracurricular leadership, awards, and skills.

“There were people in my class with lower grades who weren’t in all the activities I was in, and who were being accepted into UT, and the only other difference between us was the color of our skin,” Fisher argued.

Denying her claims, the uni-versity said it was neither extra-curricular activities nor race, but Fisher’s grades and test scores were “simply too low” to get her in. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the school’s claims of good faith in its use of race in admissions, upholding the plan as constitutional by a 7-1 vote in 2013.

By contrast, Justice Antonin Scalia raised controversy when he questioned whether affir-mative action benefits African American students.

“There are those who contend

that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas, where they do not do well, as opposed to hav-ing them go to a less-advanced school, a slower-track school where the do well,” he said.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, of-tentimes the key swing vote for the Supreme Court, suggested that the case should be sent back to a lower court to give the uni-versity an opportunity to present more evidence about the plan. It felt “like we’re just arguing the same case,” he said.

Supporters of affirmative ac-tion in higher education are fear-ful that the court might issue a broad ruling in the case, that would curtail a public universi-ty’s ability to consider race in order to produce a more diverse student body, said CNN.

The outcome almost certainly turns on Kennedy’s vote. If Ken-nedy votes with the three liber-als, the court will be split 4-4, which would affirm the lower court’s ruling although without a majority opinion.

Justice Kennedy has long agreed that having a diverse stu-dent body is sufficiently impor-tant to justify consideration of race in admissions, but only if all other race-neutral systems have been tried and failed--such as economic status, NPR reported. During his career, Kennedy has never voted to uphold a race-based policy, but he has not joined with more conservative justices in a ruling that would flatly forbid affirmative action, said the LA Times.

If the court writes an opinion in Fisher vs. University of Texas,

it is not likely to be handed down until the late spring.

Jennifer Lee, a sociologist and professor at UC Irvine, said she hopes that Asian American par-ents who are against the concept understand that affirmative ac-tion represents a “net positive” for their community.

“They think it’s in their self-in-terest to fight affirmative action,” Lee, author of “The Asian Ameri-can Achievement Paradox,” told NBC News. “But it is only in a very narrow way, without thinking of their broader life course. We need affirmative action because we don’t have the institutional ad-vantages we think we do.”

She also pointed to data from the 2014 National Asian Ameri-can Survey that shows the major-ity of Asian Americans--69 per-cent of registered voters polled from California--are in support of affirmative action, mainly be-cause at some point, they may need such policies.

“This may come as a surprise because there has been a small, but highly organized, vocal mi-nority who opposes it. What’s important to note is that the sec-ond generation are more likely to support affirmative action than immigrants, most likely because the former understand how race affects their life chances, even as they attain high levels of educa-tion,” Lee continued. “The better question [isn’t self-interest, but] whether Asian Americans are willing to recognize our ethnic and class diversity.”

“Affirmative action policies al-low universities to consider the differential starting points while

Supreme Court hears historic case on…PAGE A1 t

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december 18-24, 2015 • NeW YOrK ANd NeW JerSeY ASIAN JOUrNAL http://www.asianjournal.com • (212) 655-5426A� Dateline USa

list Rep. Silvestre Bello 3rd gave the heads up as a result of the SC decision upholding the Comelec policy of No Bio, No Boto.

“Not all of the 50 million regis-tered voters will be casting their vote, so that number [2.4 million] is huge. The Comelec should just set aside one day to get an additional one million [voters to register their biometrics data].

As it is, the figure [of voters to be disenfranchised] is too big,” Zamora, who served as Execu-tive Secretary during the Estrada administration, told reporters in a chance interview.

“I don’t agree with that [Su-preme Court decision]. That would exclude 2.4 million vot-ers–a number that could affect the results of the presidential elections,” Bello said.

Zamora cited victories, includ-ing those races for high-ranking national posts, which are de-cided by fewer than a million votes.

In the 2010 elections, then Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay beat then-Sen. Manuel Roxas 2nd in the vice presidential race by at least 700,000 votes. (With Catherine S. Valente, Llanesca T. Panti and PNA)

Supreme Court upholds ‘No Bio, No Boto’…PAGE A3 t

also promoting diversity on cam-puses,” she added.

A May 2015 study by the As-cend Foundation, a non-profit or-ganization dedicated to fostering business leadership in the Asian-American community, which found that while Asian Ameri-cans made up 27.2 percent of professionals at major tech com-panies Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, LinkedIn, and Yahoo, only 13.9 percent of executives were Asian-American, pointing to a lack of representation in leader-ship positions.

“They make up less than 1 percent of corporate board mem-bers and about 2 percent of col-lege presidents. Asian Americans may be facing a ‘bamboo ceiling,’ not unlike the glass ceiling that women face. How to break down that ceiling? Affirmative action,

of course.”In her collaborated research

with UCLA professor Min Zhou, Lee explained that some lower-income Asian Americans were able to overcome class disadvan-tages by using what the research-ers called “ethnic capital”—the “communal knowledge, prac-tices, and institutions created by better-off peers to help oth-ers within their ethnic group. It includes academic enrichment and tutoring programs,” she explained. “Those communities with larger middle classes are in [a] position to leverage their edu-cation and financial resources to create it. But other groups like Mexican immigrants remain dis-advantaged. Not all groups have access to the same type of ethnic capital. This is why affirmative action matters.”

Across the country, universities

are making major efforts to diver-sify their campuses, whether af-firmative action makes it through the Supreme Court or not. In November of this year, Yale Uni-versity announced it would de-vote $50 million to retaining and recruiting a diverse faculty, and Brown University said it would spend $100 million.

“The racial tensions that have come to light on campus-es across the country, and the students’ non-violent protests show that race continues to matter in the lives of university students, even for those who are on the country’s most elite campuses,” Lee finished. “Stu-dents, faculty, and universities have made their positions clear: diversity matters, and insuring diversity is critical for all, not just certain groups.” (Allyson Escobar/AJPress)

Supreme Court hears historic case on…PAGE A3 t

dropped about 9,000 bombs; last month, the country hit more tar-gets than any other month since it began its attacks on the Islam State last year

“Our partners on the ground are rooting ISIL out by town, neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block. That is what this campaign is doing,” the presi-dent said.

Still, Obama acknowledged that progress needs to continue more quickly.

“This continues to be a difficult fight,” he said. “We recognize that progress needs to keep com-ing faster.”

The president also noted that there’s a particular problem in

urban areas controlled by IS, where militants often use civil-ians as human shield, USA Today reported.

“Even as we’re relentless we need to be smart, targeting ISIL surgically and with precision,” he said.

The White House said it has experienced more success in escalating the war through air strikes on oil smuggling -- a key source of revenue for the organi-zation -- and expanding the co-alition of 65 countries aiding the effort, rather than using ground troops or “carpet bombing” por-tions of Syria and Iraq controlled by IS militants.

Last month, the Pentagon said it would deploy approximately

100 more special operations troops to Iraq as a “specialized expeditionary targeting force” to conduct raids, free hostages, collect intelligence and capture Islamic State leaders in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Obama’s meeting at the Pen-tagon was the first since July 6, at which point he said there was progress in the fight against ter-rorism, but warned it would be a “long-term campaign,” accord-ing to USA Today.

On Thursday, Dec. 17, Obama will visit the National Counter-terrorism Center to learn more about its efforts to track terror-ism, before he departs for his annual two-week vacation in Ha-waii. (Agnes Constnate/AJPress)

Obama: US-led coalition is hitting Islamic State…PAGE A1 t

NEW YORK—Philippine Am-bassador to the United States Jose Cuisia (AJLC), accompanied by Consul General Mario L. De Leon, Jr., hosted a luncheon meeting for the officers and members of the National Federation of Fil-Am Associations led by NaFFAA Na-tional Chair Atty. JT Mallonga and Chairperson Emeritus Loida Nico-las-Lewis, at the Philippine Center Boardroom. Most of the attendees were from New York Tri-State and Washington D.C. area.

During the meeting, Ambas-sador Cuisia briefed NaFFAA on four important points that are the

Ambassador Cuisia dialogues with NaFFAA leaders on community issues

priority issues for US-PH rela-tions and Fil-Am concerns. They are: 1) Unifying the Filipino Com-munity in the US 2) Encouraging Filipino-American participation for US and PH elections 3) Sup-port for the Congressional Gold Medal for PH WWII Veterans and 4) Support for the PH relative to the West Philippine Sea issue. After his discussion, an open fo-rum took place where NaFFAA members provided suggestions and comments to support the Ambassador’s initiatives.

Ambassador Cuisia discussed with the NaFFAA leaders the

need for Filipino community or-ganizations to unite in lobbying for causes which would advance the interests of the Filipino-American community (FilCom) and the Philippines. He cited in particular the experience of the Embassy in shepherding the es-tablishment of the Philippine Hu-manitarian Coalition comprised of 33 FilCom organizations which were involved in the “After the Storm” concert. He recalled how the community got together for a specific target and all worked harmoniously in the end.

Foreign policy dominates fifth Republican debate

IN the fifth and final Republi-can debate of the year on Tues-day, Dec. 15, candidates largely tackled issues of national security and terrorism, following the mass shootings in Paris and San Ber-nardino, California.

Outside the Venetian hotel-casino in Las Vegas, protestors gathered hours before the two debates to criticize the GOP candidates for their “hateful” rhetoric. Many carried signs calling for topics, such as union rights and the Black Lives Mat-ter movement, to be discussed. Ultimately, domestic policies received little attention, as both sessions focused on foreign policy.

During the two-hour primetime debate on CNN, the nine White House hopefuls— real estate mogul Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich — sought to improve their standings in the polls, as the first caucus in Iowa is less than two months away.

by Christina M. Oriel and agnes COnstante

AJPress

Trump went in still at the forefront of the polls, despite his controversial proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. Bush, whose poll numbers have dipped to the low single-digits, took some swipes at Trump.

The former Florida governor called Trump “a chaos candi-date” who would be “a chaos president” and has portrayed him as one who is more con-cerned with scaring Americans rather than devising actual war solutions against the Islamic State (IS).

“Donald, you’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency – that’s not going to happen,” Bush said. “Leadership is not about attacking people and disparaging people. Leader-ship is about creating a serious strategy.”

“Banning all Muslims will make it harder for us to do exactly what we need to do, which is to destroy ISIS,” Bush added.

Trump dismissed Bush’s at-tacks, saying they were made due to his not-so-successful campaign.

“Jeb doesn’t really believe I’m unhinged,” Trump said. “He said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign. It’s been a total disaster. Nobody cares.”

Since entering the race in

June, Trump has belittled Bush’s strength and said during the de-bate that his opponent is simply too nice.

“I think Jeb is a very nice per-son, very nice person. But we need toughness,” Trump said.

Exchanges between Rubio and Cruz, who have seen their popu-larity in the polls rise and are now seeking the second-place spot after Trump, were also heated on Tuesday night. The two reflected on issues that the GOP is most divided on: immigration, foreign intervention and intelligence gathering.

Cruz — a Tea Party favorite — questioned Rubio’s conserva-tive credentials and his judg-ment on national security and immigration.

“One of the problems with Marco’s foreign policy is he has far too often supported Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama un-dermining governments in the Middle East that have helped radical Islamic terrorists,” Cruz said. “We need to focus on killing the bad guys, not getting stuck in Middle Eastern civil wars that don’t keep America safe.”

The Texas senator accused Rubio of working with Demo-crats to give President Barack Obama a “blanket authority” to accept refugees, CNN reported.

uPAGE A5

Over 190 countries adopt historic climate accord in Paris

AFTER 13 days of negotiations on addressing climate change on a global scale, 195 countries on Saturday, Dec. 12, approved a historic, unprecedented climate accord that seeks to address global warming.

Under the accord, known as the Paris Agreement, individual countries have committed to slash emissions and pledged to assist poorer nations to adapt to the damaging effects of a warm-ing planet. It also sets a long-term goal of capping the rise in global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, while calling on nations to try to limit that increase to 1.5 degrees C.

“This is a tremendous victory for all our citizens,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said during the final session of the summit, according to Mother Jones, a non-profit news outlet. “It’s a vic-tory for all of the planet and for future generations.”

by agnes COnstanteAJPress

Saturday marked the culmina-tion of more than two decades of international attempts to come to a collective agreement on how to tackle the global problem.

In 2009, discussions in Copen-hagen failed, as officials could not agree on a way to level the playing field for wealthy and poor nations. Prior to that, the 1997 Kyoto protocol, which the United States and China did not ratify, also failed. Additionally, it only addressed approximately 14 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.

The Paris Agreement marked a major foreign policy success for US President Barack Obama, who touted the agreement, call-ing it a “turning point for the world.”

“We came together around the strong agreement the world needed. Together we’ve shown what’s possible when the world stands as one,” he said.

Other commitments made un-der the deal include a global re-view of climate progress by 2018, and the reconvening of nations in

2020 to present climate targets that “will represent a progression beyond the Party’s then-current” target, Mother Jones reported.

“Countries have united around a historic agreement that marks a turning point in the climate cri-sis,” said Jennifer Morgan, global director of the climate program at the World Resources Institute, according to Mother Jones. “This is a transformational long-term goal that should really send clear signals into the markets” about the imminent decline of fossil fuel consumption.

After Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, many world leaders thought the United Na-tions process would no longer be effective in addressing global warming, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations told The New York Times.

But the Paris talks were differ-ent because of a shift in the geo-politics of climate change and a change in the perception of glob-al warming as an imminent threat rather than a warning. French di-

uPAGE A5

uPAGE A5

WASHINGTON, DC—The Mil-lennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board of Directors unani-mously re-selected the Philip-pines on 16 December 2015 for a second compact, and recognized the country’s continuing efforts to improve its performance on MCC’s scorecard, which mea-sures countries’ commitment to ruling justly, ensuring economic freedom and genuinely invest-ing in their people.

The formal re-selection of the Philippines to continue devel-oping its compact was recently announced by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent American aid agency created by the US Con-gress in 2004. The re-selection follows the Board’s decision last year that the Philippines was eli-gible for a second compact.

The second compact is ex-pected to succeed the first com-pact that is about to expire at the end of May 2016. Approved in 2010, the first compact provided the Philippines with US$262 mil-lion for the Secondary National Roads Development Project to improve access to markets and services for farmers, fishermen and small businessmen; US$120

US Millennium Challenge Corporation to provide 2nd grant package to PH

million for Kalahi-CIDSS that empowers communities by en-couraging their participation in poverty reducing activities; and US$54.3 million for the com-puterization and streamlining of business processes of the Bu-reau of Internal Revenue to bol-ster tax collection and reduce corruption under the Revenue Administration Reform Project.

“The re-selection of the Phil-ippines for a second compact is a recognition of President Aqui-no’s firm and continuing com-mitment to good governance,” Ambassador Cuisia said.

Ambassador Cuisia said Ma-nila’s re-selection came after the recent release of the lat-est MCC scorecard where the country passed 12 out of 20 indicators, including Trade Pol-icy, Land Rights Access, Rule of Law; and the “must-pass” indi-cators of Control of Corruption and Democratic Rights, both of which are considered “hard hurdles.”

“This is a strong vote of con-fidence by the MCC Board that will have important implications for maintaining investors’ con-fidence in the Philippine econ-omy and will complement the

great strides we have made in the economic front,” he added. “And I expect that the reforms and good governance that the Philippines has embraced un-der President Aquino will be sustainable even after June 30, 2016 because these have been institutionalized and the Filipino people will continue to be vigi-lant.”

Ambassador Cuisia also noted that the re-selection will provide further impetus to the work be-ing done by the Philippine Core Team, which is currently devel-oping concept notes on possible investment areas that will be proposed to the MCC. He also expressed confidence that the project designs of the eventual investments by the MCC could be finalized before a new Gov-ernment is inaugurated in June 2016.

It is expected that the MCC investments for the second compact will likely be in proj-ects addressing the constraints that have so far been identified, namely, government coordina-tion and implementation capac-ity, high costs of transport logis-tics, cost of electricity, and land and market failures. n

PH Ambassador to the US Jose Cuisia and Consul General Mario De Leon with the officers and members of NaFFA led by Chairperson Emeritus Loida Nicolas-Lewis

(212) 655-5426 • http://www.asianjournal.com NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY ASIAN JOURNAL • DEcEmbER 18-24, 2015 A�Dateline USa

SIMBANG GABI. Boholano Catholics have filled the churches like St. Joseph Cathedral in Tagbilaran City for the first “Simbang Gabi,” or “Misa de Gallo,” to affirm their faith. At least 600 residents attended the “Simbang Gabi,” held for the first time at the alternative church. Sto. Niño Parish Church, which was built in 1880 and made of coral stones, was damaged when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook the island-province of Bohol on Oct. 15, 2013. Inquirer.net photo by Leo Udtohan

However, Rubio struck back by saying Cruz is in support of legal-izing undocumented immigrants in the United States and pointed out that his colleague supported a contentious H-1B visa program that supports immigration of highly-skilled foreign workers.

Rubio also brought up Cruz’s vote to end the National Security Agency’s ability to collect bulk phone data, saying the Texas senator gave away “a valuable tool” to fight terrorism.

“I promise you, the next time there is an attack on this country, the first thing people are going to want to know is, why didn’t we know about it and why didn’t we stop it?” Rubio said. “And the answer better not be, ‘Because we didn’t have access to records or information that would have allowed us to identify these killers before they attack.’”

In the closing statements, most of the candidates reiterated their commitment to improving the state of the country and keeping it safe in the face of terrorism; meanwhile, Paul brought at-tention to the national debt and Kasich stressed the importance of winning Ohio in the national election.

WinnersReports from CNN and The

Hill put Jeb Bush as a winner of Tuesday’s debate. Despite polls indicating he has 4 percent of national support, the ex-governor of Florida gave his strongest per-formance to date.

Cruz and Rubio were also deemed top performers by both outlets, with Rubio demonstrat-ing his in-depth understanding of foreign policy and Cruz holding his ground.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also gave a strong performance, highlighting his executive expe-rience as a governor and how he prosecuted terrorism cases as a US attorney. Christie also poked at his senator rivals, who he said were “people who’ve never had to make a consequential decision in an executive position” and dispar-aged them as talkers rather than people who take action.

Trump, who was positioned center stage, avoided tangling with his opponents and gave a safe performance that wouldn’t impact his standing as the GOP front-runner, CNN said. Meanwhile, The Hill had him in a “mixed” category, noting his shortcomings in facts and details.

Trump also said that he would not run for president as a third-party candidate if he fails to se-cure the Republican nomination.

“I am totally committed to the Republican Party,” he said. “I am very honored to be the front-run-ner. I think I’ll do very well if I’m chosen.”

Carson, Fiorina Kasich were all categorized as losers in the debate by CNN and The Hill.

Carson, who was once a seri-ous challenger to Trump’s lead-ing status, has since declined in popularity after botching details of his personal history and national

security experience. Tuesday was a chance for him to prove himself, yet he failed to step up to the task.

“I have a lot of experience building things, organizing things – a national scholarship program,” the retired neurosur-geon said of the false narrative that has emerged about him. “Some people say, ‘You’re weak because you’re not loud and you’re not boisterous and you’re not rude.’ But the fact of the matter is, look and see what I’ve done, and that speaks volumes about strength.”

Undercard debateDuring most of the undercard

debate, the four candidates with lower poll numbers – South Caro-lina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former New York Gov. George Pataki and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee – agreed on American intervention against ISIS and also criticized Trump for his proposal to ban all Muslims.

Graham said Trump did not speak for all Americans when he suggested the ban, and said that declaring war on an entire religion plays into the hands of IS terrorists.

“Donald Trump has done the one single thing you cannot do: declare war on Islam itself. ISIL would be dancing in the streets, they just don’t believe in danc-ing,” Graham said. “This is a coup for them and to all of our Muslim friends throughout the world.”

The South Carolina senator also noted that at least 3,500 American-Muslims serve in the armed forces, and thanked them for their service.

“You are not the enemy. Your religion is not the enemy,” he said.

“To target a religion and say that regardless of whether you’re an American soldier who has fought on our side or allies we have overseas simply because of your religion we’ll ban you is un-American. It is unconstitutional and it is wrong,” Pataki said.

Despite Graham and Pataki’s statements, Huckabee and San-torum called for surveillance on American Muslims at mosques.

“I hear people act like that there’s something that terrible about going in and listening to sermons in the mosque,” Hucka-bee said. But, he said, aren’t the mosques open to the public? And don’t Muslims claim to be peace-ful? “Shouldn’t they be begging us to go and come and listen to these peaceful sermons.”

Santorum went on to call Islam not just a religion, but a “political governing structure…that is a big problem.”

Reactions Following the debate, Repub-

lican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus went on to highlight the differences be-tween the Republican candidates and the Democrats.

“It’s clear from tonight’s de-bate that our Republican field understands the threats we face from radical Islamic terrorism

and that we must change course from the failed Clinton-Obama foreign policy to destroy it. As President Obama’s Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was [the] chief architect of an agenda that has left our country facing a more chaotic world and our homeland at a greater risk of attack. Our candidates understand we must defeat radical Islamic terrorism, while Hillary Clinton refuses to acknowledge we’re at war with ISIS or even call the enemy by its name. The fundamental differ-ences between our exceptionally qualified candidates and the Dem-ocrat field couldn’t be more clear, which is why the American people will elect a Republican president next November,” Priebus said in a statement.

With the 2016 election less than a year to go, the RNC reaffirmed its commitment to secure minor-ity votes.

“Filipino-American voters across the country saw another robust debate among the most qualified and diverse candidates our country has ever seen. As voters continue to hear from our candidates, the RNC will continue to fight for the Filipino-American vote in Nevada and across the country,” Ninio Fetalvo, APA Press Secretary at the RNC said.

On the other side, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the debate a “complete dis-aster for the Republican Party.”

“It was clear that not a single one of their candidates has what it takes to keep our country safe. From suggestions to shut down the Internet, to calling for punch-ing Russians in the nose, to confu-sion about how to target ISIL -- or even where they are -- there were no serious proposals presented tonight. From Donald Trump on down, the Republican Party’s candidates have allowed their dangerous rhetoric to get them in way over their heads on national security,” Wasserman Schultz said, adding that “We need to keep America moving forward. Our country just can’t afford to take a risk on any of these reckless Republican candidates.”

Democratic presidential con-tender Bernie Sanders took to Twitter to criticize what the nine candidates discussed.

Sanders said the GOP proposals to handle ISIS would “undermin[e] our civil liberties and religious freedoms,” while pointing out the effects that a ground war would have on American troops — “PTSD and traumatic brain injury” — which none of the candidates mentioned. The demo-cratic candidate again showed his support for accepting refugees into the US.

“Like the first [debate], not one word about income inequality, climate change, or racial jus-tice,” he wrote. “The Rs are out of touch.”

Sanders, along with Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley, will participate in a third debate in New Hampshire on Saturday, Dec. 19. n

Foreign policy dominates fifth Republican debate PAGE A4 t

He urged NaFFAA to assist in increasing voter awareness among the FilCom throughout the U.S. by sponsoring voter education drives among Fili-pino communities throughout the U.S, as the recent registered voter turnout was relatively low compared to the Filipino popula-tion. He mentioned the current challenge in getting community members to exercise their right to vote, and to overcome that through voter education fora to be organized by the Consulates and to be held within their re-spective geographic jurisdiction.

The Ambassador also dis-cussed the need for NaFFAA to assist in ongoing projects and activities spearheaded by retired Major General Antonio Taguba which are part of the nationwide campaign in lobbying the U.S. Congress to give recognition to Filipino World War II veterans through the awarding of a Con-gressional Gold Medal. The tim-ing was urgent due to the upcom-

ing U.S. presidential elections scheduled in November 2016, he emphasized.

He as well underscored that NaFFAA continue its activities in spreading public awareness on the Philippine position in the ongoing Arbitration Case on the West Philippine Sea. He discussed the updates of the proceedings of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands and that the Filipino community in the U.S. should continue to present the details of the case for the Philippine argu-ment on the West Philippine Sea. He stated that Justice Carpio has been invited anew to the US next year to conduct his special lec-ture before the academe, Filcom, and mainstream US society in support of the arbitration process and added that countries such as Japan, US, EU, New Zealand, Australia and India support the arbitration process launched.

Consul General De Leon stated that the Filipino community or-ganizations should also do their

part to follow up on initiatives and issues brought up with US legis-lators after meetings with them are held, as it is the Post’s duty to “open the door” and facilitate a dialogue between Congressmen and the community. But that it would be the community leaders’ responsibility to follow through with their interests in order to showcase a “unified community” focused on promoting causes that advance bilateral Philippine-US political and economic rela-tions. He further cited a FAHSI report stating that Fil-Ams have a relatively high voter registration and voter turnout rate than other Asia-Americans, but only 35% of Fil-Am registered voters actu-ally voted in the past Philippine presidential elections. That infor-mation should be considered in “FilVote” campaigns, he added.

On their part, NaFFAA officials led by Atty. Mallonga and Mrs Lewis voiced their support on the advocacies of the Ambassador, as they align with NaFFAA’s pri-ority objectives for the year. n

Ambassador Cuisia dialogues with…

plomacy also contributed to the success of the global meeting, by helping reduce the chances that major points of contention might kill a deal again, accord-ing to the Times. Economist Lord Stern said that France brought openness, expertise in diplo-macy and mutual respect to the talks, The Guardian reported. He added that they took great care to ensure everyone was listened to and consulted with.

“It was a wonderful surprise that after the incredible disap-pointment of Copenhagen, these [countries] could come to an agreement more ambitious than anyone imagined,” said Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, who has been closely engaged in the talks, according to The New York Times. “This never happens.”

One word almost killed the climate deal

In Article 4 of the agreement, a line read that wealthier coun-tries “shall” establish economy-wide targets for reducing their greenhouse gas pollution. Pre-vious drafts of the document had the world “should” in place of “shall.” While the difference may appear small, the latter

term implies legal obligation, while the former does not. If the word remained, the Obama administration could have been obliged to submit the final deal to the Senate for approv-al, which the GOP-dominated chamber would have rejected, according to Politico.

“When I looked at that, I said, ‘We cannot do this and we will not do this,” Kerry told report-ers afterward, Politico reported. “And either it changes or Presi-dent Obama and the United States will not be able to support this agreement.”

The Philippines signs €1.5-million deal with France

Among deals reached in Paris was a grant agreement worth €1.5 million between France and the Philippines, which will take place throughout the next four years. Under the agreement, the Philippines will build ecosystems and community resilience in the central region of the country, ac-cording to Philstar.

Steps toward this goal will be-gin late this year with a focus on the coastal municipality of Con-cepcion in Iloilo, which will be jointly managed by Conservation International Philippines and the

Biodiversity Management Bu-reau of the Department of Envi-ronment and Natural Resources. Supported developments include both natural and man-made defenses, such as mangroves, coastal armoring and small le-vees.

While the targets agreed upon in Paris are not legally binding, Climate Change Commissioner Heherson Alvarez said that the Philippines, which chairs the Climate Vulnerable Forum that called for a 1.5C global cap on temperature, can lead highly vul-nerable countries to transition to a zero carbon economy, accord-ing to The Manila Times.

Alvarez also said the Philip-pines can begin to come up with policies to prepare the nation for a low carbon economy with the adoption of the Paris climate agreement, the publication re-ported.

“A low carbon economy in the long term will mean low energy cost, low cost for the manufacture of goods and services. Philippine products would be competitive and will open up opportunities for jobs and higher productiv-ity,” Alvarez said, according to the Times. n

Over 190 countries adopt historic…

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OpiniOn FeaturesMenacing

DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to stop crime and corruption if elected president of the Philippines in 2016. It seems that he will stop at nothing to get there. The no-nonsense presidential aspirant is on a mean streak lately and has been engaging his rivals in a political mudslinging.

His first target was Sen. Grace Poe, who is currently facing disqualifica-tion cases over her residency and citi-zenship status. Duterte said he was convinced to submit his bid for the presidency because he does not want an American to be the country’s next president.

“The president should be a Filipino,” Duterte said.Poe’s camp maintained the senator is a natural-

born Filipino and that the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET’s) favorable decision on the senator’s eligibility, rendered justice to Poe and all other foundlings. “In a democracy, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. We respect Mayor Duterte and we respect his opin-ion. But to reiterate, Senator Poe is a natural-born Filipino. International laws and covenants substanti-ate this fact,” Poe’s spokesman, Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian said.

However, Poe’s candidacy remains in limbo after the Commission on Election (Comelec’s) First and Second Divisions disqualified her from the presiden-tial race due to citizenship and residency issues. The Supreme Court will review and give the final verdict on the cases.

On Sunday, Dec. 13, Duterte lashed back at the Liberal Party’s standard bearer, former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and accused him

falsely of graduating from the pres-tigious University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

“I would like to ask the presiden-tiable [Roxas], you claim to have

graduated from Wharton School of Economics, that is a myth. You did not graduate from Wharton School of Economics, Mr. Roxas,” Duterte said. Roxas pre-sented his Wharton credentials, but Duterte remained adamant and said they were fabricated.

According to the university’s website, Roxas grad-uated with a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School in 1979 and is listed as one the institution’s notable alumni, which also include Don-ald Trump and Warren Buffett.

The word-war sparked when Roxas claimed that Davao City’s peace and order is a myth. Davao City was recently ranked the fourth safest place in the world by Numbeo.com, and the country’s most child-friendly based on a government ranking.

With neither one backing down on proving their claims, Duterte dared Roxas in a slapping match, while Roxas insisted a fistfight. The heated exchange ended with Duterte challenging Roxas to a gun duel, saying he is not afraid of anything.

While recent poll results are in his favor, Duterte should be reminded that there is a mul-

Editorial

ManilaTimes.net photo

WITH over 30,000 Filipinos living in Long Beach, conver-sations about raising the minimum wage and wage enforce-ment in the city are important issues to the Filipino commu-nity.

Most Filipinos in Long Beach have settled in Westside Long Beach, an area tucked in between the 710 freeway and the bustling Port of Long Beach. Fili-pinos living in Westside Long Beach largely work low-wage jobs in the health and service industries. Raising the minimum wage would undoubtedly create a positive impact in the Filipino community.

According to data from Long Beach Ris-ing: A City that Works for Everyone by the Economic Roundtable, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would affect 17,000 Long Beach residents who work in the city.

An increase in wages would help nearly over 6,500 Long Beach workers rise out of poverty by 2020. In addition to providing a living wage for residents working in the city, the minimum wage policy should include earned paid sick days so workers do not have to make the choice between going to work sick or staying home and not getting paid. Workers should also receive stronger

protection against wage theft, which includes being underpaid and being denied overtime or breaks.

In November 2015, the Filipino Mi-grant Center surveyed 110 Westside Long Beach residents about raising the minimum wage in Long Beach and their experiences with wage theft. Of the residents surveyed, 96 percent sup-port the raising the minimum wage in Long Beach.

More than half of residents (62 per-cent) shared experiencing at least one form of wage theft, including being underpaid, denied breaks, and work-ing overtime without pay. Respondents working as caregivers, restaurant serv-ers, and health care workers shared personal experiences with wage theft. 41 percent of residents reported know-

ing someone who has experienced wage theft.

The high percentage of respondents stating they have experienced wage theft is not surprising. Filipino immi-grants and migrant workers working low-wage service jobs are some of the most vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace. Long Beach Filipino resi-dents were overwhelmingly supportive of passing a policy to protect workers from wage theft.

As part of the Coalition to End Wage Theft and the Raise the Wage Coalition, the Filipino Migrant Center has been working collaboratively with other com-munity organizations and members in a growing movement to end wage theft and raise the wage in Long Beach. We believe that all workers in Long Beach

deserve better. As a part of a vibrant Filipino community, we must empower workers and uplift communities by pass-ing a policy in Long Beach for a living wage, strong wage enforcement, guar-anteed paid sick days, and no exemp-tions. Our families are depending on it.

Joanna Concepcion is the Executive Director of the Filipino Migrant Center, a non-profit organization based in Long Beach, California that serves Filipinos throughout Southern California and ad-dresses the issues and concerns they face in their daily lives. n

* * *Joanna Concepcion is the executive director of the Filipino Migrant Center, a non-profit organization based in Long Beach, California that serves Filipinos throughout Southern California and addresses issues and concerns they face in their daily lives.

Long Beach Filipinos support $15 minimum wage and protections against wage theft

“THE success of Donald Trump has so defied the conven-tional wisdom of political pun-ditry that a new genre of analy-sis has come into being. Call it Trumpology. It consists of reach-ing for exotic explanations from surprising sources. For example, Barton Swaim, who wrote ‘The Speechwriter: A Brief Education In Politics,’ hears magic in the Donald’s diction. Think word or-der. Think timing.”

Thus did American broadcast journalist Robert Siegel kick off a panel discussion on the mys-tique of Republican presidential aspirant and real estate mogul, Donald Trump, who currently leads the pack in the process of selecting the official GOP candi-date in next year’s US presiden-tial elections.

Participating in the discus-sion were PR specialist Mark McKinnon, vice-chair of Hill & Knowlton; political speech writer Barton Swaim; Scott Adams, the creator and cartoonist of Dilbert; and Rosalind Wiseman, a promi-nent parenting educator and au-thor.

The opinions came from left field, right field and center field, to use baseball idiom, but they all appear to arrive at the same conclusion: Trump represents the “anger” of American voters.

This has been exacerbated by the recent terrorist attacks, such as the one in Paris, which have made Americans feel vulner-able. The more impressionable are pining for a personification of Dirty Harry who will “make their day” by eliminating the threats to their security. Like a typical used car salesman, Trump has vowed to do that and

a whole lot more.We are witnessing a similar

phenomenon in the person of former Davao City Mayor Rodri-go Duterte, said to be leading in the recent public opinions polls among presidential aspirants.

Duterte’s promises are the kind that could come from the mouth of Clint Eastwood as the San Francisco cop who fought crime by being a criminal him-self—to the cheers of the movie audience. If elected president, Duterte would give the funeral parlors a windfall by liquidating drug dealers and assorted crimi-nals. He would literally make the Philippines peaceful by making them rest in peace.

Duterte is foul-mouthed, lac-ing his public remarks with vul-gar invectives. But that simply marks him as an over-aged ju-venile. What makes him particu-larly dangerous is his obsession with extra-judicial killings as a short cut to peace and order.

Like Trump, Duterte is exploit-ing the frustration of the Filipi-no people over everything that seems to be going wrong in the country, and the seeming incom-petence and cluelessness of the current administration. And like Trump, Duterte has one simple solution. Get rid of the crooks, the criminals, the incompetents and everyone who gets in the way of Duterte’s vision of a pro-gressive Philippines.

Apparently, Duterte considers the Law an obstacle to achieving peace and order. He may even suggest to the courts that the best way to clear the backlog of cases is to “shoot the suspects dead.” He hasn’t said it yet but Duterte, as president, may de-

cide to convert the Philippine National Police into the Philip-pine National Death Squad.

It’s classic used car sales-man talk and macho bluster, but even supposedly intelligent Metro Manilans are buying it. Of course, it also helps that the campaign team of Duterte and vice-presidential hopeful, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, has some hotshot communicators and cre-ative minds—with skills that can make black look white and bad sound good.

Duterte’s fans do not seem to care that Duterte’s reputed suc-cess as mayor of Davao does not necessarily qualify him to lead a country of over a hun-dred million people, the majority of whom are wallowing in pov-erty—and a large percentage of whom may be on the verge of turning to criminality in order to survive (would Duterte liquidate all of them?).

A Duterte fan enumerated on FaceBook what he described as “Ten P—Inang Achievements of Duterte in Davao.” The list consisted of ordinances covering smoking in public places, public intoxication, peace and order, using the karaoke after hours, vendors taking over sidewalks, etc. Aside from the incremental benefits created by these ordi-nances, nothing was said about job generation, the economy, foreign affairs, national defense, social welfare, health care, edu-cation and similar urgent nation-al needs. But this simple-minded

Duterte fan appears con-vinced that his favorite local executive is ready for prime time.

Concerning peace and or-der, his fans do

not seem to realize that Duterte’s promise to summarily liquidate criminals could one day see their own relatives and loved ones—even themselves—at the point of a gun, on mere suspicion.

Duterte has publicly boasted that he personally killed crimi-nal suspects, including setting one on fire—and to hell with due process (it makes you wonder if Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales has been sleeping on the job or has not been reading the postings on social media—otherwise, shouldn’t she go after Duterte with her usual hammer and tongs?).

Now, where do Nardong Putik and Adolph Hitler come in?

I happen to have written the screenplay of the film about that notorious Cavite bandit for Ramon Revilla. To say that his acting career was washed up at the time would be an understate-ment. But Revilla saw a chance to resurrect it by starring in a bi-opic on Putik.

His gamble hit the jackpot. Nardong Putik, the movie, was the biggest boxoffice hit that year, in spite of opening in the middle of a raging typhoon and floods in Metro Manila. But what followed next will give you an idea of how our people tend to confuse screen heroes with their perception of a real life knight in

shining armor.Encouraged by the box office

success of his movie, as well as his subsequent films, Revilla ran for senator. He lost because he made the mistake of using his real name, Jose Bautista, in his Certificate of Candidacy. In the succeeding senatorial election, he ran again, this time as Ra-mon Revilla. He won. And not only that, he bred a new politi-cal dynasty in Cavite, with fam-ily members winning provincial posts and his son, Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr., taking his seat in the Senate.

I could have used former Pres-ident and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada as an example of the confused perceptions among our people, but the anal-ogy of Nardong Putik, a killer, is more akin to the macho persona that Duterte has donned. Erap is regarded more as a woman-izer and, in this department, Duterte’s boast that he has two wives and two girl friends pales in comparison. Erap is smooth. Duterte is crude.

And what about Adolph Hit-ler? Isn’t comparing Duterte with Hitler like matching the neighborhood basketball team with an NBA franchise?

That may be the case, but the fascination with Duterte is grounded on the same sense of frustration and hopelessness that catapulted Hitler and the Nazi Party to a position of lead-ership in Germany.

An online write-up entitled, “Why was Hitler’s Nazi party so appealing to Germans in the 1930’s?”, is very instructive:

“The 30s was in the great depression and the monarchy

(was) seen to do nothing to alle-viate the problems of no money and short food supply. The Nazi party offered nationalisation and work, building the autobahns and other national projects, giving Germans a sense of self achieve-ment by completing such major constructions…The Nazi party preyed on the sense of German pride in their self-achievement, using a charismatic Hitler to tell them how good and how much better than the rest of the world the Germans were. And since the party had done such a great job of ending the depression, then maybe, just maybe, it would be better for the whole world if they too were helped by the Germans, ruling them for their ‘own good.’… Of course this was taken a little too far and the party was ruled by idiots, insane people and complete lunatics and megalomania (sic). In ‘39 when all the trouble started, the people went along for the ride, only to realise very shortly that they were on an unstoppable avalanche to hell.”

And as history tells us, it was hell, not just for six million Jews, but for all of Europe.

On social media, I cited the ex-ample of Hitler in an exchange of opinions about Duterte with some friends. Responded one of them, an advertising man, “If Duterte’s Jews are the rich, he’s my dude.”

I wouldn’t describe my friend as irresponsible. I think he is just getting carried away by the Nar-dong Putik, Trump and Hitler syndrome. I hope he realizes this before it’s too late (or his rich clients hear about it). (gregma-cabenta@hotmail.com)

Duterte, Trump, Hitler and Nardong Putik

GreG B. MacaBenta

Street Talk

Joanna ConCepCion

Commentary

titude of ills in the country that deserve more attention. Rather than trading barbs with his competition, he should elabo-rate on his platform instead to engage more voters to cast his

name on the ballot next year. Filipinos have unenthusiastic

assessments on the socio-po-litical situation in the country. As spectators to this current political drama, they owe it to themselves

to think objectively and look at facts instead of having prejudices and biases. With the presidency on the line, civic participation is encouraged now more than ever. (AJPress)

(212) 655-5426 • http://www.asianjournal.com NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY ASIAN JOURNAL • DEcEmbER 18-24, 2015 A�

Dateline PhiliPPines

MANILA—Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., chairman of the Sen-ate committee on local govern-ment, claimed Tuesday, Decem-ber 15, that the controversial Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) would not be passed during the term of President Aquino be-cause the Senate and House have not finished deliberations.

“We might pass it during the next administration because we really have no more time,” Mar-cos said.

The Senate went on recess for the Christmas break and recon-venes on Jan. 18 next year.

There are barely three weeks – from Jan. 18 to Feb. 5, 2016 – left during the third session of the 16th Congress before the campaign kicks off for the May elections.

Marcos said he doubts whether the two chambers could wrap up deliberations even after resump-tion of session next year, not-ing that the House had difficulty mustering a quorum.

“Today is the last session day for this year. Maybe we can rea-sonably expect a short session in January, but we don’t get quorum at the House of Representatives because almost all of the con-gressmen, I’m sure 99 percent of them are candidates for one thing or another so they need to campaign,” he said.Technically, Marcos said the BBL proceed-ings would be “back to zero” upon the resumption of the 17th Congress.

But once re-filed, Marcos said any member could ask that the work on the measure in the last Congress be taken into consider-ation by the committee.

Marcos, however, remains hopeful that the next administra-tion will continue efforts to attain peace in Mindanao.

“But the peace process must continue. We must continue try-ing. We must find the solution to the violence and the fighting in Mindanao. It is not a local issue. It is a national issue,” he said.

“So the next administration must continue the peace process and be serious in finding a solu-tion,” the senator added.

Asked what contributed to the failure of Congress to pass the measure, Marcos pointed to the delay in the submission of the draft BBL by the Palace, which

Bongbong Marcos: BBL is deadforwarded it to Congress in Sep-tember 2014 instead of April that year.

He lamented that the Senate worked very hard to have a “con-stitutionally-sound” basic law.

“The draft BBL reached Con-gress September 2014. It is now December of 2015. So we have been working on it for over a year and I can say I really gave my best effort to craft this substi-tute bill (Basic Law of Bangsam-oro Autonomous Region),” Mar-cos said.

Palace not botheredMalacañang is not bothered

that the House cannot pass the BBL bill before the Christmas break today despite appeals from President Aquino.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Her-minio Coloma Jr. said this should not be a cause for concern since they are coordinating with Con-gress to thresh out concerns.

Coloma and presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda ad-vised the public to just wait and see.

“Let’s wait,” was Lacierda’s short yet confident reply to Pal-ace reporters when asked about the possibility of the peace mea-sure being passed by Congress, considering the repeated ab-sence of quorum in the lower chamber.

Aquino said in an interview in Cebu City that he is very certain that despite the consistent lack of quorum in the House, a majority of legislators will definitely show up once voting on the BBL takes place.

The House leadership has been having quorum problems right after Aquino’s State of the Nation Address last July 27.

Coloma dismissed the claims of Marcos that the Palace and not him was to blame for the failure of Congress to pass the bill be-cause it submitted its proposed BBL late and had lots of ques-tions on constitutionality.

Marcos said he must not be blamed for the delay in the pas-sage of the proposal because they did work on it for over a year.

Nine former senators who au-thored the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) law have also urged Congress to pass the BBL.

In a joint statement released by

the Peace Process Media Bureau, ARMM law authors Heherson Al-varez, Teofisto Guingona Jr., Jose Lina, Orlando Mercado, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Santanina Rasul, Leticia Shahani, Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tañada called on congressmen and senators to ex-pedite the enactment of the BBL.

“We believe that members of Congress should rise to the chal-lenge of stopping the cycle of vio-lence and poverty that has stalled peace and progress in Mindanao for generations,” the group said.

They said that in addressing important issues that impact on national constituency, “we tried to prioritize the urgent need to address generations of inequity suffered by our Muslim brothers and sisters in Mindanao.”

The present lawmakers should take the opportunity to achieve lasting peace through the pas-sage of the BBL.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles is still hoping that Congress will pass the controversial BBL.

Reacting to the delay in the passage of the BBL in Congress, Deles said that the key towards achieving the Aquino administra-tion’s target to achieve peace in Mindanao is now in the hands of the lawmakers.

She said the House leadership had assured Malacañang that there is still time and a way to complete the interpellation pe-riod this December.

“It is a very critical period for peace advocates to let their voic-es be heard loud and clear by our representatives in Congress,” Deles said.

She said that last week, Presi-dent Aquino had clearly laid out the challenge to House members to pass the BBL.

Deles said Aquino reminded the lawmakers that this is the opportunity to bring a just and peaceful resolution to the armed conflict.

Aquino had stressed that peace in the Bangsamoro is not an is-sue of his personal legacy but the solution that would benefit the entire nation.

Opposition congressmen asked Aquino yesterday to leave the fate of the BBL to his successor. (Christina Mendez, Delon Por-calla, Aurea Calica, Jess Diaz, and Paolo Romero / Philstar.com)

FUGITIVE Dalia Guerrero Pas-tor is in Indonesia using fake IDs under the name Amanda Cruz, according to documents ob-tained by the family of slain car racer Enzo Pastor.

Dalia, who is charged with par-ricide and wanted for the killing of her husband Enzo, married an Indonesian national and is now using the name Amanda Maragit, Enzo’s father Tomas Pastor told the Inquirer on Wednesday.

“She bought a driver’s license from Recto using the name Amanda Cruz. After marrying an Indonesian, she’s now Amanda Maragit,” Tom Pastor said.

Recto refers to Recto Avenue in Manila, where fake documents like IDs, diplomas, passports, land titles and what-have-yous could be re-produced for a fee.

The Indonesian family card and resident card were given by an informant from Indonesia’s immigration office, he said.

The Indonesian documents put into question the notarized motion filed by Dalia’s lawyer in

Dalia Guerrero Pastor in Indonesia using fake IDs, say documents

the Court of Appeals to quash her arrest warrant.

“With this information, alam na natin kung nasaan sya. Alam na natin kung anong ID gina-gamit nya, hindi Dalia Guerrero. At yung notary sa Davao, imposi-ble. Kung papasok sya dito para magpanotary, hindi nya gagawin yun, kasi cancelled na passport nya,” Tomas said.

(We know where she is now. We know what kind of ID she is using, not Dalia Guerrero. And the notary

in Davao is impossible. If she’s en-tered [the country] for notary, she won’t be able to do that because of her cancelled passport.)

The CA petition was filed by Dalia’s lawyer Ruy Alberto Ron-dain and notarized by Charmaine Valentin in Davao City.

Dalia is accused of conspiring with her rumored lover Sandy de Guzman in the ambush of Enzo Pastor last year. De Guzman and alleged gunman PO2 Edgar An-gel are both detained. n

by Erika SaulErInquirer.net

Dalia Guerrero Pastor, who is charged with parricide and wanted for the killing of her husband Enzo, married an Indonesian national and is now using the name Amanda Maragit.

AFTERMATH. Children read rain-soaked school books being dried on a fallen coconut tree in Barcelona town, Sorsogon where Typhoon Nona made its second landfall last Monday, Dec. 14. In the background is one of the houses damaged by the typhoon. Philstar.com photo by Edd Gumban

december 18-24, 2015 • NeW YOrK ANd NeW JerSeY ASIAN JOUrNAL http://www.asianjournal.com • (212) 655-5426A�

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entertainmentdecember 18-24, 2015

2The Asian Journal NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY dEcEmbER 18, 2015

An Asian Journal Magazine

by AJPress

What’s on a Filipino Table on Christmas Eve?Kumain ka na ba? (Have you eaten?)In the Philippines, asking this question is

tantamount to saying Hi or Hello to somebody. Filipinos love to eat, and the smart phones and social media have only helped in proving that. If in the past people would gather and pray before a meal, now they transform into foodies search-ing for that perfect angle of any food served in front of them before taking a snapshot.

Although times have changed, what can be seen on a Filipino table during noche buena or on Christmas Eve has practically remained the same. After hearing the mass and completing the Simbang Gabi for some, the entire family gathers around the table like the knights of King Arthur, all in preparation for a palatable battle.

While dining customs in the Philippines do not usually adhere to the appetizer-entrée-dessert format of the West, we have organized the following Filipino Christmas foods to fit the menu of our kababayans abroad, particularly those second and third generations of Pinoys who grew up in the United States.

Appetizer• Castañas–These are, simply, roasted

chestnuts. The smell of these shelled delicacies is enough to give any Pinoy that Christmas feeling associated with the malamig na simoy ng han-gin. For some, the essence of eating the castañas is in the peeling, so savor that moment.

• MacaroniSalad–A small serving of this chilled pasta delight is enough to tickle those taste buds and ready them for the bigger treats ahead. Just be sure not to consume too much of this as it might ruin your appetite and lose inter-est in other Christmas cuisines.

• KesodeBola– Literally, a ball of cheese. This is actually an Edam or a semi-hard cheese that originated in the Netherlands. This can be paired with any wine of your choice or eaten together with the Christmas ham.

Entrée• Hamon–The Christmas ham (hamon for

most Pinoys) is considered the star and center of the table. Every grocery store is filled with boxes of this cured meat, made in different sizes, shapes, and types. But a typical ham must always, always, have a special sauce poured on top of it.

•Lechon– This roasted pig that usually comes with a red, succulent apple in its mouth is never absent in any special occasion being celebrated by Filipinos, so it’s only natural that this meat be served alongside other “sinful” food served on the Christmas table.

•Relleno– A special dish that is quite hard to prepare, this is a stuffed cuisine usually made with either a fish (a bangus or milkfish) or a chicken. Put this in any dining experience and automatically it turns any meal into something extra special.

•Paella–This is another meal that is difficult to prepare. Thanks to the Spanish colonizers, Fili-pinos learned to cook rice in a special way, what with all the rich ingredients mixed altogether to bring that exquisite blend, not to mention that it connoted wealth for some families.

Dessert•LecheFlan– Another Spanish-influenced

food, this dessert is more commonly known by outsiders as crème caramel or caramel custard. The heavenly sweetness and awesome creami-ness of the leche flan makes one ask for more and more... and more.

•Halaya–A Filipino dessert made of purple yam, many call it as simply ube. Westerners are probably more familiar with the Japanese taro. Well, this is its close relative, and the taste is rela-tively the same—sweet, creamy, and extremely satisfying.

•FruitSalad– In the Philippines, a fruit salad is a mix of all-purpose cream, condensed milk, and tropical fruits easily both in tin cans and is usually called fruit cocktail. To make it special, some add coconut meat shreds, nata de coco, kaong, and cherries.

Drinks•Tsokolate–Hot chocolate is a Filipino

favorite during Christmas Eve. A local recipe is called tablea, which is Spanish for tablet. It is hard chocolate melted into perfect viscosity and mixed using a tool called batirol, which is believed to bring out the flavor of the cocoa.

•Salabat– This is ginger tea, a strong brew that many Filipinos believe can help in soothing any throat malady and improve one’s singing voice. It is usually given free of charge when you buy puto bumbong or bibingka.

Breakfast/Snacks•PutoBumbong–Usually eaten after the

Simbang Gabi, this is a deep purple, seasonal rice cake made from galapong or sticky rice. The flour mixture is placed in a tube of bamboo or bumbong and cooked through steam. It is then served with margarine, sugar, and sesame seeds.

•Bibingka–A close friend of the puto bum-bong, this rice cake is yellowish orange in color and is cooked using an improvised oven—two clay pots filled with burning charcoals. A special bibingka is one that is “baked” with cheese and itlog na pula or salted egg.

Christmas ham

Bibingka Photos courtesy of Balikbayan Magazine

Puto bumbong

Keso de Bola

Pork Belly Adobo TacosThe Pork Belly Adobo Tacos, is served by Chef King Phojana-

kong at Tito King’s Kitchen at Jimmy’s 43 in the east Village. It can be served as a merienda while waiting for the Noche Buena or an appetizer. “It’s not traditional but it looks, tastes and feels like Christmas,” Chef King said.

Ingredients• 2 pieces Pork Belly, 1¾”-2” thick• 6 Garlic Cloves, crushed• ½ tsp Black Peppercorns, whole• 1 Bay Leaf• ½ cup Vinegar, rice wine• 3 oz. Soy Sauce• ½ cupWater• 6 oz. Rice Vinegar• 1 tablespoon Salt• 3 oz. Sugar• 1 cup Red Onions, thinly sliced• 10 Corn Tortillas, 4-5”• Your favorite salsa, to tasteMethod1. Combine all ingredients

(pork belly-water) and let stand for at least ½ hour. If necessary, add more liquids to cover.

2. Bring to a boil, reduce to

Yield: Serves 4-6

Bûche de Noêl (Yule Log) using Brazo de Mercedes

ThIS holiday make a Filipino inspired Yule Log or Bûche de noêl using Brazo de Mercedes based on a recipe courtesy of Créme Caramel. Decorate with toasted coconut, meringue mushrooms, cranberry/rosemary “holly” and you have a sweet and festive treat for your family to enjoy and admire.

Ingredients• 10 egg whites • 1 Tsp cream of tartar • 1 Cup superfine sugar (process granulated

sugar for 5 minutes in a food processor), sifted• Powdered suar• half sheet baking pan

(12” x 18”)• Baking spray• Parchment paper

MethodPreheat oven 350 degrees f1. Spray baking sheet with

oil and line with parchment 2. Beat eggs and cream of

tartar at low speed until foam forms, slowly add sugar in and mix until stick peaks form.

3. Spread egg mixture evenly on sheet.

4. Use a fork to score a design on the surface of the egg mixture and place in 350

Continued on Page 7

Continued on Page 7

Yule Log or Bûche de Noêl using Brazo de Mercedes. AJPress photos by Allyson Escobar

Pork Belly Adobo Tacos, Pickled Red Onions and “Ginger Scallion Noodles” Photo courtesy of Chef King Phojanakong at Tito King’s Kitchen

REVISED_AARP_15_Lacuesta Testimonial_HP_FIL_AJ_final.indd 1 10/23/15 11:17 AM

3The Asian Journal NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY dEcEmbER 18, 2015

An Asian Journal Magazine

Atty. MichAel

Gurfinkel, eSQ

ImmigrationCorner

(Part 1)FOR many people, attaining

US citizenship is the final step in achieving their “American Dream.” After getting a green card, they eagerly count off the years until they are finally eligible to apply for naturalization. However, for some people, applying for citizenship could cause problems, issues, and even being stripped of their green card and deported/removed. Applying for citizenship is not always a simple, straightforward task that a person should handle on their own. Instead, they may want to seek the advice or guidance of an attorney.

Here are just some of the many issues or problems a person must consider before filing for naturalization:

• Did the person obtain his or her green card lawfully? In some situations, people were able to obtain their green card, even though they were not legally entitled to it. For example, a person was petitioned by a parent as “single,” but they were already “secretly” married. They were able to get their green card, and now attempt to file for citizenship. In many cases, USCIS digs deep into

Some issues and pitfalls in pursuing US citizenship

PROVISIONAL WAIVER dispels the fear in going back to Manila for visa processing – on a Special Episode of CITIZEN PINOY! Cindy (2nd from left) was a crewman who jumped ship and had been a TNT for more than 10 years. After seeing a CITIZEN PINOY episode about a crewman who also jumped ship, Cindy and US citizen husband, Tom (left) decided to consult with leading US immigration attorney Michael J. Gurfinkel (right). Through Atty. Gurfinkel’s help, Cindy’s PROVISIONAL WAIVER was approved. She went back to the Philippines and was processed for her immigrant visa at the American Embassy in Manila and returned to the US as a legal permanent resident. Watch a brand-new episode on Provisional Waivers, which could benefit crewmen, those who entered the US without inspection, or K-1 who did not marry their US petitioner, on CITIZEN PINOY – this Sunday, December 13 at 6:15 pm (PST) on TFC.

their case, and can discover the secret marriage in connection with their naturalization application. Not only is their naturalization application denied, but they may be put in removal/deportation because they obtained their green card through fraud or misrepresentation.

• If a person obtained a green card through an employer’s petition, did the person work for that employer at the prevailing wage? Many people obtain their green cards through an employer’s sponsorship (PERM or labor certification). One requirement is a person must work for the employer for a reasonable time after obtaining their green card. Some people never really worked for the employer who petitioned them, or they quit working for the employer before they adjusted status or get the green card. If a person is applying for naturalization based on an employment – based green card, one of the first questions they will be asked is whether they ever work for the employer. If they did not, or quit before adjusting status, their green card could also be in jeopardy. Similarly, if they were being petitioned at a certain wage (the prevailing wage), but were never paid that wage, it could also

result in problems, as they may be asked to produce their tax returns and pay stubs, documenting they were paid the wage specified in the petition.

• Did the person commit any crime while a green card holder? After obtaining a green card, a person may have been arrested or convicted of a crime, such as shoplifting, domestic violence, DUI, etc. They may have even pled guilty, as some form of plea deal and later had the conviction expunged. However, certain crimes could make a person ineligible for citizenship, and may even affect their status as a lawful permanent resident. There have been many cases where a green card holder committed a crime, which “woke up” DHS when they filed for naturalization, resulting in them being placed in removal/deportation proceedings. If a person was ever convicted of certain crimes or pled guilty to those crimes, they are still considered convicted, even if they later had the conviction expunged.

As you can see, there are so many issues that could come up in connection with a person’s eligibility for naturalization. In my next article, I will discuss more issues and pitfalls that one may

encounter in pursuing his or her US Citizenship.

If you have any questions about your past, or eligibility for naturalization, you should definitely seek the advice of an attorney before filing for naturalization. This is because once you file, and USCIS starts digging into your past, you may have dug a hole for yourself.

* * *Michael J. Gurfinkel is licensed, and an

active member of the State Bar of California and New York. All immigration services are provided by, or under the supervision of, an active member of the State Bar of California. Each case is different. The information contained herein including testimonials, “Success Stories,” endorsements and re-enactments) is of a general nature, and is not intended to apply to any particular case, and

does not constitute a prediction, warranty, guarantee or legal advice regarding the outcome of your legal matter. No attorney-client relationship is, or shall be, established with any reader.

WEBSITE: www.gurfinkel.comCall Toll free to schedule a consultation for

anywhere in the US: (866)—GURFINKELFour offices to serve you: LOS ANGELES

· SAN FRANCISCO · NEW YORK · PHILIPPINES (Advertising Supplement)

Have a healthy heart for the holidaysContrary to common belief, Christmas is the most stressful time of the year

by Cory QuirinoInquirer.net

THE general notion is that the holidays mean feasting and merrymaking, plus the unwanted calories, added weight, and heart or high blood sugar problems.

Let’s focus on your heart, because if you keep it strong, everything else will follow. A point of reference: the No. 1 cause of death in the Philippines is heart attack, and the greatest predisposing factor is stress.

Unless and until it is urgently needed, most would-be heart patients fear having heart by-pass surgery. There have been many cases of successful heart surgeries but many people also experience side effects like changes in mood and personality, partial memory loss and disorientation.

Contrary to common belief, Christmas is the most stressful time of the year. According to Dr. Chris Enriquez, a cardiologist from the Yale School of Medicine and head of the Philippine-based Rapha Health (tel. no. 7573335), a lot of people are not merry, and instead are depressed.

The alarming revelation is that depression is the top cause of suicide worldwide. Medical emergencies during this season include heart attack, stroke, bleeding (from physical injuries caused by accidents), and allergic reactions to food or drugs.

So, how does one manage to celebrate Christmas minus the downside?

Balanced meal1) Family and friends—

bonding time is important,

especially being surrounded by those who love you.

2) Eat right—don’t forget your “greens.” You may eat your favorite dishes, whether they are dripping in fat or not—but always have a balanced meal. Never have one kind of dish more than the other.

- Whole foods—go for natural and unadulterated. This means fresh greens and fruits. If a certain food is available, for example, an apple, don’t go for the canned version. Or, instead of french fries, eat baked potato instead.

- Complex carbohydrates—they can help you lose weight. Include the following in your diet: salad, vegetables, onions, carrots, garlic, fruits, rice (brown, red, purple, black), and beans.

- Protein—keep it lean, and not

Monette

AdevA MAglAyA

ImmigrantLiving: 101 and Beyond

(This is a short version of a longer article on logging off and enjoying the moment.)

… I AM picking and choosing from the constant flow of messages in my inbox, only this one below. Some are for laughs, others inform while some can make you think harder or even take action.

Pet peeves are those that are pure drivel and chain emails with a punitive clause, like a curse of bad luck, if you fail to forward. For malevolent messages and all the rest of the junk from scammers promising riches, simplify your cyberlife and HIT DELETE. DO NOT ENGAGE.

Hot chocolate“… Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.”

Sometimes a golden nugget comes through that deserves to be amplified. So simple, it hits you right between the eyes. I searched for the author’s name but like many other pieces flung by anonymous, creative beings in Cyberville, authorship is largely unknown and unclaimed.

To the originator of this metaphor then, whoever you are and wherever you may be, please accept a profound thank you, from the rest of us. Here it is.

THE HOT CHOCOLATE STORYA group of graduates, well

established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor,

now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups-porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite -- telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: ‘Notice that all the nice looking; expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want

Continued on Page 6Continued on Page 7

AARP is a non-profit organization committed to enhancing your life at 50-plus by providing trusted and useful resources to help you stay active, engaged and vibrant.

Caregiving • Health & Wellness • Fraud Prevention • Volunteer • Life Reimagined

This could be my best move yet.Loida Nicolas Lewis, AARP MemberChair and CEO of TLC Beatrice, LLCPhilanthropist

Dahil sa Health and Wellness resources ng AARP, si Loida at iba pang katulad niya are now able to have as much fun in the ballroom as they did in the boardroom.

Loida has enjoyed a long career as a successful businesswoman, and she remains just as active today. Bilang miyembro ng halos 20 na taon, she keeps current with AARP publications on health, diet, exercise at iba pang activities that help her enjoy life and live it to the fullest. Not surprisingly, her boundless energy and generous contributions para sa Filipino community have made her a role model for many. Para kay Loida, walang hanggan ang mga posibilidad and the best is yet to come. AARP offers members a wealth of resources na siguradong makapagbibigay ng saya, sigla at importanteng impormasyon para rin sa inyo. To learn more, visit aarp.org/aapi or call 1-866-805-1986 today.

AARP_15_Lewis_Testimonial_HP_FIL_AJ.indd 1 10/9/15 12:08 PM

4The Asian Journal NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY DEcEmbER 18, 2015

An Asian Journal Magazine

A faultless chip of the old block that is Marion Aunor

BoBBy T. yalong

On thePEP FrontPeople, Events, Places

IndubItably a “chip of the old block” and admittedly a spitting image of her mom, lala aunor, a former movie-tV popular teen personality of the early 70s and 80s, multi-faceted singer Marion aunor is the niece of Philippine phenomenal Superstar nora aunor… no wonder she uncompromisingly carries on the legacy of excelling in the field where her predecessors had capably established a sterling foundation while having successfully carved their respective niches and strappingly

stamped their indelible marks. a typical arian (born april

10, 1992), Marion is innately ambitious but independent and capably armed with the necessary enthusiasm and energy she direly needs to achieve what she has earnestly decreed. She could occasionally appear stubborn but her open-mindedness and keenness on heeding advice from trusted friends and relatives could effortlessly placate her inevitable behavioral status.

Since a gamut of musical genes dominantly runs in her blood, Marion had demonstrated early signs of interest leaning towards show business particularly vocal performance. Singing predominantly runs in the family and in Marion’s case, she started way back when she was barely pre-school age… obviously influenced by her

Mom lala who conscientiously trained, scrupulously guided, and meticulously honed her latent inborn talent.

It wasn’t actually difficult for Marion to penetrate the limelight. Her foray into the topsy-turvy and anfractuous but glittery world of the entertainment industry since 1994 to 2011 fall short to provide luster to her star but eventually earned the long awaited recognition due her when her self-penned /composed entry, “If you Ever Change your Mind,” came out as one among the 12 finalists out of the more than 2,500 entries in the 2013 Himig-Handog Philippine Pop love Song that eventually won 3rd Place.

Following the moral-boosting honor was affixing her signature on Star Records’ dotted lines as its contract artist under the management of multi-awarded composer Vehnee Saturno.

Good luck comes in streaks. Her original composition, “do, do, do,” got the nods of the screening panel and ended (once again) as one of the 12 finalists of the 2nd Philippine Popular Music Festival but, sadly, she decided to withdraw from the competition as per her talent management’s decision.

On July 4 of the same year Marion released her self-titled album that became one of the most in-demand local releases in the tin-pan-alley while supremely ruling the airwaves. the versatile singer-composer left no stone unturned doing the rounds of radio and television stations and touring mall events promoting her album.

Striking the rod while hot, Marion accepted the offer to interpret Jungee Marcelo’s “Pumapag-ibig,” one of the finalist songs at the 2014 Himig-Handog. then she also became part of the Middle East leg World tour of abS-Cbn’s popular long-running television drama series, “be Careful With My Heart.”

One thing is certain though,

Mom lala is constantly by her side not only for support but to ensure that her taciturn privacy isn’t invaded at all and her already refulgent showbiz standing won’t just be an ephemeral status but an ubiquitously lasting career. Mom lala knows it quite well when it comes to this matter for she had been there once-upon-a-generation… and she still is!

Currently, the modestly trendy OPM-Pop singer-composer energetically juggles between recordings, tv guesting, road tours, and helping manage their family business.

Incidentally, Marion’s mom, Maribel “lala” aunor,” is Philippine Superstar nora aunor’s first cousin and a celebrity in her own right. although there was a general conception that the cousins have similar vocal timbre, still music authorities believed both have individual distinct style.

In 1977 entertainment impresario Ike lozada, then an influential radio-tv host of “dambuhalang dJ” and “big Ike’s Happening,” grouped equally promising young talents dondon nakar, Winnie Santos, lala aunor, and arnold Gamboa aptly called, “apat na Sikat.”

lala aunor’s popularity was made even more established with the formation of “apat na Sikat,” RPn Channel 9’s teenybopper quartet that defined that era’s pop culture and trends. later, the same exposure opened another opportunity for her… this time, hosting a show of her own: “the lala aunor Show.”

as a recording artist, lala was able to wax several ditties that were consistently patronized by her avid followers and occupied top slots in the local billboard chart but her songs from the album “dalaginding” by Mayon Records firmly nailed her status as one of the established recording artists in the annals of the industry’s roster of sales supremacy… particularly the

carrier single, “ah, Ewan!”It’s a given fact: that when

one is accepted and popular in a given quarter, it takes as easy as a finger snap to get into another field… and so lala uncomplicatedly penetrated the movies delineating roles that fit her age and off course, which required her to sing: “dindong” (1970), “big Ike’s Happening, the movie” (1976), “daigdig ng lagim” (1976), “ligaya Ko’y Inagaw Mo” (1976), and “High School Circa ’65” (1979).

For nothing is permanent in this world but change, lala’s showbiz career, and the rest of her contemporaries, inevitably nosedived during the period of political bedlam that massively displaced a lot in the industry and immensely affected the country’s economy.

but lala had been conscientiously clever about capital management especially in investing her well-merited earnings. Innately armed with a keen business acumen, well-guided, and driven, lala ventured into talent recruitment which was one of the highest investment revenues during that period. aware of the demands and pulse of the public lala was able to

supply the perfect batches of singers, dancers, musicians and bands to Japan that technically established her name as a reputable talent exporting agent.

lala was all along on the right track. an epitome of a perfect overseas worker, life has never been harsh and ruthless for this hardworking mother of two. She exactly knows the source for survival, masterfully manages the complexity of her balance sheet, sentient of what to procure or when to splurge, and most of all she’s aware of the need to save for the rainy days.

now lala enjoys what she has toiled for and derive pleasure from the company of her children.

“I feel blessed having not encountered any problem with my kids. Growing up, they were both God-fearing and family oriented. I try to raise them the way I was raised… and I cannot ask for more but for continued good health,” the former child singer-actress uttered with measured pride.

Certainly, the fruit won’t fall far from its tree! What you sow is what you reap!

For comments and suggestions, please email to: gemini0646@yahoo.com.

Former teen star & Marion’s mom Lala Aunor

Marion Aunor

REVISED_AARP_15_Taguba_Testimonial_HP_FIL_AJ_final.indd 1 11/4/15 9:37 AM

5The Asian Journal NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY DEcEmbER 18, 2015

An Asian Journal Magazine

The innkeeper’s untold storyBy Monette AdevA MAglAyA

[The following original story is a work of fiction meant as a Christmas gift to Asian Journal readers and everyone else who loves the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Its basis is the Nativity Story from the Gospel of Luke.

A Blessed and Merry Christmas to those on whom God’s favor rests!]

Joshua was excited with his new job at the inn. It sure beats having to herd sheep this time of the year when the cold nights chilled his bones on the hillside pasture where he tended his family’s small flock of sheep and cattle. The job fell to his younger brother.

Jacob, the owner of the inn, was his father’s friend. He had asked if Joshua could help him mind the inn for a period of time as he and his wife will be going on a long journey. Jacob liked and trusted Joshua like the son he never had. The young man was a good worker who quickly learned the ropes of the business.

Not long after, Jacob and his wife left for their journey to the town north of the country where they were born many miles away to comply with the Roman emperor Augustus’ decree that everyone be counted for the census. This is to determine the tax that can be collected for the empire’s coffers.

Few, if any, dared disobey the Roman conquerors.

The inn was busy. People for miles around were on the move, with many going back to their own hometowns. Joshua guessed that the few other inns in town were also humming with the brisk business brought by overnight travelers in their otherwise sleepy town. He was tired, yet he felt pretty proud of the work he was doing.

Today, just before sundown, he had filled the 12 modestly furnished rooms with tired and hungry travellers. He thought of meeting up with his shepherd friends in the pasture once he had turned over the inn’s affairs to the night attendant. He had heard his friends on night watch talk about an unusually bright star that has been moving slowly in the heavens for many nights now. They said it was a spectacle to behold and he wanted to see it for himself.

The gossip buzzing around Jerusalem was that the soothsayers studying the heavens in King Herod’s palace were cowering in fear. They were loath to face the wrath of the vengeful king if they told him the meaning of the star. The seers felt sure something earth-shaking was going to happen. The time has come for a prophecy foretold in ages past

them to the stable. Filled with awe, their hearts bursting with joy they themselves could not understand, they knelt before the child who was to be king.

Later on that night, three foreign men garbed in royal splendor and bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh came to pay the child homage. They had been travelling from afar, following the bright star hovering about the heavens for many nights leading them to that dusty town called Bethlehem. The men recounted how they had studied scripture and spent much of their lives watching the heavens, waiting for this greatest of prophecies to be fulfilled. The fullness of time had come on that very night in a lowly stable.

Years later in his old age, the memory of that night still stayed with Joshua. He had remained the innkeeper. Joshua met many people who travelled the hill country. He had become privy to many untold stories he kept hidden in his heart. One of the

people he met was a man called Luke with whom he had struck a friendship. He was a physician who stayed as a guest quite a few times at the inn. He was different from the others. Thoughtful, gentle and quiet as though on a mission, Luke was always writing on scrolls of parchment in his room.

Joshua was nearing the end of his life. He did not want the memory of that glorious night to be forgotten when he died. He opened up to Luke. As he recounted the story, Joshua carefully removed himself from the narrative. He meant for his tiny part to be left untold through the ages -- it was to be between him and God alone.

The light of that bright night burned in his soul forever. He could not have known he was one of the few favored to witness the unfolding of the greatest mystery of God’s love for men on earth.

* * *Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is

SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-mail monette.maglaya@asianjournalinc.com

‘Tis the season of giving: Alternative gift suggestions for this holiday

By MAlou liwAnAg-Bledsoe AJPress

by the prophet Isaiah to be fulfilled. The king to rule all kings from the line of King David was to be born very soon within the kingdom. Micah, another prophet, had foretold that Bethlehem is the place where it will happen.

Though fearful, the soothsayers had to tell Herod. It was no wonder the ruthless king who had ruled Judea for 30 years was in a vicious mood. He brooked no opposition to his reign. He had three sons he named after himself as heirs to the throne to continue his line of succession. He would remove all threats by all means fair or foul. It was bad enough he had to bow to the superior might of the Roman conquerors who had allowed him to be king in this corner of the empire.

Just as Joshua was about to lock up for the night, a couple came in. The man, visibly tired and leaning on his staff with one hand, was supporting the woman with his other hand. She was heavy with child. The woman looked to be in some pain. Still, Joshua noted there was a stately calm, grace and beauty about her. The man asked Joshua for a room and told him his wife was about to give birth. He said the other inns turned them away because there was no room for them. Alas, the last room has been let and Joshua told him so. The man’s face fell and his shoulders sagged.

Joshua glanced at the woman and his heart was filled with pity. He thought of his own home for them to stay for the night, but it was some distance away and it looked like the woman was about to give birth at any moment. Joshua had seen his own mother when she was heavy with child and he had helped his father deliver some of his brothers himself.

“Maybe, I have something for you. It’s not much, but it would get you through this cold night, at least,” he told them. “Come with me.”

Joshua gathered some blankets quickly. He gave instructions to the attendant to heat water. He then gathered food and other provisions. He moved in haste leading the couple to an empty stable a few yards at the back of the inn.

Earlier in the day before the

sun was up, he took to clearing the stable himself. He didn’t know why he did it. But now he was glad he did so. He thought the squalid stable with its walls and roof would shield this poor couple from the chilly night as the woman delivered her child.

Joshua gave the man the blankets, the warm water and some extra oil for the lamp to burn through the night. He set up a makeshift table for the bread, fish and wine and lit the lamp in one corner. Joshua helped the man make his wife comfortable. He could see the birth pangs seem to be stronger now. Beads of sweat lined the woman’s brow. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to meet up with his friends tonight. He was needed here for the long night ahead.

Just before he decided to go back to the inn to fetch a few more things, he said to them, “I’m Joshua. Let me know if you need anything else.” The man replied, “I’m Joseph and this is Mary. Thank you, Joshua. You have done more than you can possibly know. The Lord’s light burns brightly in you.” Mary looked up at Joshua and smiled through her pain. For as long as he lived, Joshua will never forget that smile.

Mary’s child was born that night. Joshua could not remember a night more filled with wonder, mystery and myriad points of light.

He remembered Mary wrapping her child lovingly in swaddling clothes and placing the child in a manger. The child was bathed in light. The entire stable was aglow. A sweet heavenly fragrance wafted through the air. It seemed the heavens were opened, the stars shone brighter and the world stood still that night.

Strains of celestial music can be heard from a choir of angels above the stable. An angel was heard praising God saying,

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Joshua’s shepherd friends came to visit the child. How could they have known? In hushed whispers, his friends said that an angel told them about the good news of great joy. Heavenly beings guided

Illustration by James Christer Francisco and Allana Santos

Sun Tropics gift basket Delano Manongs

Arkipelago books

WE all have to admit that we are all once guilty of recycling gifts. Although it may seem like we have lots of choices, in the end we tend to give the same kind of presents to our family and friends every year. Shopping malls have many things to offer, but with the holiday rush, we might just end up being frustrated with long lines at the counter and crazy crowds who are also trying to do their last minute shopping.

This year, the Asian Journal has a short—but sensible and memorable—list of alternative gifts that you can give to your loved ones.

The gift of knowledgeOne of the best times to spend

the cold nights is to have a cup of hot cocoa, sit on your favorite chair and read. Aside from the usual bestsellers you can find in mainstream bookstores, Arkipelago, The Filipino Bookstore recommends the following books:

A Taste of the Philippines by Ghillie Basan and Vilma Laus

Classic Filipino recipes made easy, with 70 authentic traditional dishes shown step by step in more than 400 beautiful photographs.

(ISBN 978-1-844760949-0, 180 pages, paperback with flap cover, US$19.99)

From Our Table to Yours: A Collection of Filipino Heirloom Recipes & Family Memories by Angelo Comsti

Treasured recipes handed down from generation to generation.

(ISBN 978-981-4398-56-5, 150 pages, paperback with flap cover, US$28.00)

Four Sparrows: A Tale of Race and Survival in the California Gold Rush by Daniel C. Roddick

In 1850, Tomas travels from the Philippines to strike in rich

in the California gold rush as a subconscious way to overcome racial barriers. In his struggle to gain legitimacy he progresses through various stages of racial identity development. He is not alone in this regard. John, an American, has remained in California after the Mexican War to police the camps. Cath has arrived from Ireland to escape her own experience with oppression. Jungdoo, from China, suppresses a painful past brought on by his own cultural hegemony. All fight for legitimacy in an effort to continue their own way of life, at the risk of not living at all.

(ISBN 979-150851-78-9-4, 300 pages, paperback, US$21.95)

Cool Don’t Live Here No More: A Letter to San Francisco by Tony Robles

In Cool Don’t Life Here No More, Tony Robles sings the music of the San Francisco Streets—that rhythmic sound that is being lost and that some pretend never existed. Through honest humility and with crisp magic, Tony gifts us the food and courage of his poetry, a life “tattooed on the tongue”. A pensive, penetrating study of the city that is being washed away but whose “smell ain’t never gonna come out.” - Benjamin Bac Sierra, Author of Barrio Bushido

(ISBN 978-1-943209-07-1, 180 pages, paperback, US$16.00)

Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area by Oliver Wang

“As a writer and scholar Oliver Wang is relentlessly insightful and compulsively readable. With Legions of Boom he has created something indispensable - a singular document of a forgotten yet influential era in West Coast

hi-hop and dance music, a rare and rich account of protean Asian American creativity, and a subtle, poetic work of ethnography.” - Jeff Chang, Author of Who We Be: The Colorization of America

(ISBN 978-0-8223-5890-9, 220 pages, paperback,US$25.95)

To Love as Aswang: Songs, Fragments and Found Objects by Barbara Jane Reyes

The Philippine Aswang is mythic, monstrous creature which has, since colonial times, been associated with female transgression, scapegoating, and social shaming, known in Tagalog as hiya. In the 21st century, and in diaspora, she manages to endure. Barbara Jane Reyes’ To Love As Aswang, the poet and a circle of Filipino American women grapple with what it means to live as a Filipina, or Pinay, in a world that has silenced, dehumanized, and broken the Pinay body. These are poems of Pinay tragedy and perseverance, of reappropriating monstrosity and hiya, sung in polyphony and hissed with forked tongues.

(ISBN 978-0-9763316-8-1, 90 pages, paperback, US$15.95)

The Brothers Luna: Madmen or Geniuses by Jules Delgallego

Two brothers. One cause. Both willing to die for the freedom of the Philippines from foreign rule. The Brothers Luna is a novel on historical facts intertwined with a compelling story of romance, passion friendship, intrigue, murder and espionage, war and the arts.

(ISBN 978-149-479-126-1,420 pages, paperback, US$21.95)

(Arkipelago Books, The Filipino Bookstore is located at 1010 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. For more information or inquiries, log on to www.arkipelagobooks.com or call (415)

553-8185.The gift of health and foodThe holiday is all about food

of course. However, for those who are want to give more than the usual peppermint bark, cookies and hot chocolate, why not consider a basket of natural fruit juices and products? SunTropics have a wide array of fruit products that you can choose from like their Pure Calamansi juice, Mango and Soursop, Coconut Water and dried fruits. All their products are made with real fruit puree, and definitely, no high fructose syrup is used. SunTropics products are available at all 99 Ranch supermarkets, Seafood City and Costco Northern California branches. (Sample gift basket cost is $27).

The gift of Fil-Am historyConsider giving a piece of

Fil-Am history to your family and friends this holiday season by gifting them a DVD copy of the Emmy-nominated documentary, The Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers Movement.

As told by director Marissa Aroy, the documentary positions the Great Grape Pickers’ Strike as a “last stand” for decent wages and working conditions. The manongs by mid-60s had been tolling in the farmlands and service industries of the West Coast for over 40 years but have been prevented from establishing families or owning property. The Strike, organized by Filipinos involved with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), was seen as a bold move for economic dignity. Legendary labor organizer and farmworker Larry Itliong appealed to Mexican laborer and leader of the National Farm Workers Association to join the strike, which they won five years later. That the Filipinos who instigated the years-long action

found themselves marginalized from this momentous victory is a sad footnote to this chapter of labor history, one that director Aroy seeks to rectify.

DVD copy is only $25 and can be shipped directly to your gift recipients. To order, log on to http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u= b37c4704f1a854fad4a973a6c&id=39e6c2534c.

The gift of compassion As we gather around the table

to give thanks for all our blessings, let us not forget that there are people in other parts of the world whose daily struggle is finding food to eat. This season, why not consider donating to a worthy cause whose main goal is to bring Noche Buena dinner packs to poor families in the Philippines?

Cassie Eng has been working with the non-profit Project Pearls since was 6 and has become increasingly involved in more projects since then. This summer she did her second Bag of Dreams Challenge and delivered 600 backpacks filled with school supplies to the kids of Project Pears.

Last year she gave out 300 bags to the Badjao kids in Lucena.

She has opened a fundraising page to be able to donate 167 Noche Buena dinner packs to the families (as part of Project Pearls’ 1000 dinner pack goal). A minimum of $10 or PhP 500 donation will feed a family of 6–8 with a meal of spaghetti noodles and sauce, canned meat loaf, bread, champorado (porridge) mix and hot chocolate mix.

Cassie has also been selling Christmas ornaments made by the mothers of Project Pearls to help fund her project. This is a perfect gift for those who want to donate in lieu of presents, which includes a note saying that a donation has been made in the name of the receiver.

Cassie’s Noche Buena project is trying to raise $10,000 and still has 14 days remaining until the campaign ends on December 31, 2015.

To donate and/or more information, log on to: http://www.projectpearls.causevox.com/cassie-eng

Cassie Eng with the children who will benefit her fundraising campaign with Project Pearls to deliver Noche Buena dinner packs.

6The Asian Journal NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY DEcEmbER 18, 2015

An Asian Journal Magazine

As compiled by RobeRt peRez de tAgle

2015 Simbang Gabi Services Metro NYC/NJ /CT

BB-8 ANA jet model aircraft on the red carpet at the world premiere of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’

THE cast of Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” hit the red carpet for the film’s global premiere on Monday, Dec. 14 in Hollywood. The cast and crew pose with one of the most talked about stars of the movie, BB-8—in the form of a jet plane. The aircraft is a scale model of the real BB-8 ANA JET that was announced earlier in the year alongside an R2-D2 ANA JET and Star Wars ANA JET.

Actor Harrison Ford signs the BB-8™ ANA JET model aircraft on the red carpet at the World Premiere of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” on Monday, Dec. 14 in Hollywood, California.

Actors John Boyega and Carrie Fisher pose in front of a scale model of the BB-8 ANA JET.

Actress Daisy Ridley (right) with an ANA flight attendant in front of the BB-8™ ANA JET model aircraft.

Hot chocolateonly the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each

One-day onlyDec 20 @ 7pm: St. Catherine of

Sienna, Franklin Square, NYC Full Simbang Gabi Novena

- New JerseyBergen CountyDec 15-23 @ 7.30pm exc Dec

16/23 @ 7pm and Dec 19/20 @ 5pm: Holy Trinity, Hackensack

Dec 16-24 @ 5am exc Dec 19 @ 5.30pm: St. John, The Evangelist, Bergenfield

Dec 16-24 @ 5:30am: St. Joseph, Lodi

Rotating Dec 18 @ 7pm: St. Anne, Fair

Lawn/ @ 7pm: St. Mary, Dumont/ @ 7pm: OL Queen of Peace, Maywood/@ 7pm: OL of Visitation, Paramus

Dec 19 @ 4pm: SMA Fathers, Tenafly/ @ 5:30pm: St. Leo, Elmwood Park/ @ 7pm: Ascension, New Milford

Dec 20 5pm: St. Peter, River Edge/ @ 5pm: St. Joseph, Bogota/ @ 6pm: St. Francis, Hackensack

Dec 21 @ 7pm: St. John, Leonia

Dec 23 @ 5:30 am: OL of Mt. Carmel, Tenafly

Burlington CountyDec 19 @ 7.30pm exc. Dec

13 @ 7pm and Dec 19 @ 6.30pm: Sacred Heart, Mount Holly

Camden CountyDec 16-24 @ 5.30am: Christ

Our Light, 402 N Kings Hwy, Cherry Hill

essex County Dec 18 @ 7pm: St. Valentine,

Bloomfield Dec 19 @ 7pm: St. Mary,

Nutley Dec 20 @ 5pm: Holy Family,

Nutley Dec 21 @ 7pm: Sacred Heart,

Bloomfield Dec 22 @ 7pm: Our Lady of the

Lake, Verona Dec 23 @ 7pm: St. Peter’s,

Belleville Hudson CountyDec 15-23 @ 7pm exc Dec

19 @ 5.30pm: St. Anne, 3545 Kennedy Blvd, Jersey City

Dec 15-23 @ 7pm: Immaculate Conception, 1219 Paterson Plank Rd, Secaucus

Dec 15-23 at 7pm: OL of Mercy, 40 Sullivan Dr, Jersey City

Dec 15-23 @ 7pm: St. Henry, Av C at 29th St, Bayonne

Dec 15-23 @ 7pm exc Dec 19

@ 5.30pm: St. Mary, Erie St & 2nd St, Jersey City

Dec 15-23 @ 7.30pm: St. Vincent de Paul, 979 Av C, Bayonne

Dec 15-23 @ 7.30pm exc Dec 19 @ 5.30pm and Dec 20 @ 1pm: St. Aloysius, 691 West Side Av, Jersey City

Dec 16-24 @ 5am: OL of Victories, 2217 Kennedy Blvd, Jersey City

Dec 16-24 @ 6am: St. Aedan, 800 Bergen Av, Jersey City

Rotating (Deanery 10 In Jersey City)

Dec 18 @ 7:30pm: St. Paul of the Cross, 156 Hancock St

Dec 19 @ 7:30pm: St. Nicholas, Central Av @ Ferry St

Dec 20 @ 7:30pm: St. Paul of the Cross, 156 Hancock St

Dec 21 @ 7:30pm: St. Nicholas, Central Av @ Ferry St

Dec 22 @ 7:30pm: St. Joseph, Pavonia corner Baldwin Av

Dec 23 @ 7:30pm: St. John, 3026 Kennedy Blvd

Mercer CountyDec 18 @ 7pm: Incarnation-St.

James, Trenton Dec 19 @ 7pm: St. Raphael,

Hamilton Dec 20 @ 7pm: St. Anthony of

Padua, Hightstown Dec 21 @ 7pm: St. David the

King, Princeton Junction Dec 22 @ 7pm: Holy Angels,

Hamilton Dec 23 @ 7pm: St. Ann,

Lawrenceville Metuchen Diocese Dec 18 @ 7.30pm: St. Matthew

the Apostle, Edison/ @ 7.30pm: St. Mary, Alpha/ @ 7.30pm: St. Bernadette, Parlin

Dec 19 @ 7.30pm: Sacred Heart, So. Plainfield/ @ 7.30pm: St. Bartholomew, E. Brunswick/ @ 7.30pm: St. Augustine of Canterbury, Kendall Pk

Dec 20 @ 4pm: Immaculate Conception, Somerville/ @ 5pm: St. Anthony of Padua, Port Reading/@ 7.30pm: OL of Fatima, Piscataway

Dec 21 @ 7pm: Queenship of Mary, Plainsboro/ @ 7.30pm: St. Cecelia, Iselin/ @ 7.30pm: Sacred Heart, New Brunswick

Dec 22 @ 7.30pm: Corpus Christi, So. River/ @ 7.30pm: Annunciation, Bloomsbury/ @ 7.30pm: St. James the Less,

JamesburgDec 23 @ 7pm: St. Helena,

EdisonOTHER: Dec 16-22 @ 5am: St.

Ladislaus, Plum St, New Brunswick (7 days only)

Monmouth CountyDec 18 @ 7.30pm: St. William

the Abbott, 2740 Lakewood-Allenwood Rd, Howell

Dec 19 @ 7.30pm: Holy Innocents, 3455 W Bangs Av, Neptune City

Dec 20 @ 7.30pm: St. Dorothea, 240 Broad St, Eatontown

Dec 21 @ 7.30pm: Holy Trinity, 408 Prospect St, Long Branch

Dec 22 @ 7pm: St. James, 94 Broad St, Red Bank

Paterson Diocese (Incl. Passaic, Morris, Sussex)

Dec 15-23 @ 7pm: St. Anthony of Padua, Passaic

Dec 15-23 @ 7pm: St. Paul, Clifton

Dec 16-24 @ 5am: Holy Face of Jesus Monastery, 1697 State Rt 3, Clifton

Plus: RotatingDec 18 @ 6:30pm: St.

Clare, Allwood Rd, Clifton/ @ 7pm: Assumption, Maple Av, Morristown

Dec 19 @ 5:30pm: St. Philip the Apostle, 797 Valley Rd, Clifton/ @ 7pm: St. Therese, Main St, Succasunna

Dec 20 @ 1:30 pm: OL of the Lake, 294 Sparta Av, Sparta/ @ 7:30pm: St. Paul, 231 2nd St, Clifton

Dec 21 @ 7pm: St. Joseph Church 216 Comly Rd, Lincoln Park/ @ 7pm: Annunciation, 45 Urban Club Rd, Wayne

Dec 22 @ 7pm: St. Peter, 179 Baldwin Rd, Parsippany/ @ 7pm: St. Andrew the Apostle, 400 Mt. Prospect Av, Clifton

Dec 23 @ 7pm: St. Clement Pope & Martyr, 154 Mt. Pleasant Av, Dover/ @ 7pm: OLC of Mt. Carmel, 10 St. Francis Way, Passaic

Union CountyDec 15-23 @ 7.30pm:

Immaculate Heart of Mary, 1571 Martine Av, Scotch Plains

Dec 15-23 @ 7pm exc Dec 20 @ 5.30pm: Christ the King,[411 Rutgers Av, Hillside

RotatingDec 18 @ 8pm: St. James the

Continued on Page 7

From Page 3 other’s cups.Now consider this: Life is the

hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate we have.

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything… They just

make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

And enjoy your hot chocolate! But first, LOG OFF.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!

* * *Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-mail monette.maglaya@asianjournalinc.com

SERVICES

LAW OFFICE

FOR SALEEMPLOYMENT

7The Asian Journal NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY dEcEmbER 18, 2015

An Asian Journal Magazine

Consolidate, strengthen and empower migrants: Philippine Forum NY

kicks off countdown to 20th YearPhiliPPine Forum, a new

York City-based organization which aims to make Filipinos aware of their roots, rights and responsibilities, will be holding PAKiKiiSA 2015, general assembly and annual holiday party on the 19th of December, 2015 from 2pm to 6pm at the Asian American Writers Workshop (AAWW) office located at 112 West 27th Street, nY.

“in the face of intensified attacks and neglect of migrant workers by governments, it is high-time that we consolidate our ranks and organize to stand up for our rights,” states Jonna Baldres, Philippine Forum President.

Baldres stated the case of Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina domestic worker who was accused of drug trafficking and who was almost executed by the indonesian government last April, as a reflection of the sad state of Filipino migrant workers across the globe.

“The Philippine government has been inept at giving protection to its migrant workers. We, the migrant workers, bring in the bulk of the national budget, but what do we get in return? The government only pushes its citizens out of the country to become its major commodity for export. had it not been for the strong collective action and international solidarity in the millions, Mary Jane’s execution

could have pushed through and her case could have gone down the drain without due process,” said Baldres.

lorena Sanchez-McRae, one of Philippine Forum’s executive Directors, said more trafficking cases have been emerging just this past year.

“Trafficked workers keep coming to us and we see more of these cases as the labor export Policy (leP) of the Philippine government continues. We are also coming across cases of wage theft which we are determined to fight against. The coming months and years will be a continuation of Philippine Forum’s legacy of fighting for im/migrant rights,” Sanchez-McRae said.

Since its founding on December 10, 1996, Philippine Forum has a track record of serving Filipino im/migrants and the community at large through its community programs and services, activities, campaigns, education, organizing work and mobilizations as well as through partnerships with allied organizations.

“We must remain vigilant, especially since the Asia Pacific economic Cooperation (APeC) just happened in the Philippines last november,” Rusty Fabunan, Philippine Forum Co-executive Director said.

“This introduces the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

(TPPA) which will pave the way for more government deregulation and privatization of basic services that will cause prices to shoot up and for employment to be more scarce, which in turn, will force more Filipinos to leave the country and work abroad. The cycle continues and we expect the conditions to worsen. To address and end these recurring conditions, we believe and support that national industrialization and genuine agrarian reform are key programs that need to be advanced in our motherland,” Fabunan ends.

PAKiKiiSA 2015 is a potluck event. Members, friends and families are also welcome to join the community exchange gift of not more than $10. There will also be games, cultural performances and solidarity messages.

Philippine Forum is a member of the national Alliance for Filipino Concerns (nAFCOn), the international Migrants Alliance (iMA) and Migrante international. The organization will also join the celebration of international Migrants Day on December 18 by holding the 5th lantern Festival in partnership with nAFCOn, iMA and the Migrant Center at Church of St. Francis of Assisi.

For more information, please email Philippine Forum at info@philippineforum.orgor call (646) 580-7598.

Pork Belly Adobo Tacosa simmer, and then cover and braise for 1 hour or until tender.

3. Remove from braising liquid and hold.

4. In a pot, combine the

Bûche de Noêl (Yule Log) using Brazo de Mercedesdegree oven – 18-20 minutes, remove and cool.

5. Sprinkle powdered sugar onto the top of the meringue and turn pan upside down onto a clean parchment.

FillingIngredients• 10 Egg yolks, beaten

From Page 2

From Page 2 • 14 oz condensed milk • 2 Tsp ube extract • Sauce pot• Heat resistant spatulaMethod1. Stir all ingredients until

combined and boil over me-dium high heat on the stove, continue to stir until thick spreadable paste.

2. Cool paste before spreading gently onto me-ringue. Gently roll cake using the parchment to help guide and cool in refrigerator for 2 hours.

3. Decorate with toasted coconut, meringue toadstools, and cranberry/rosemary “holly.”

Have a healthy heart for the holidaystoo frequent. eat one low-protein meal a day, if you cannot be a vegetarian once a day.

Give your heart a breakheart food—nutrition is the

single most important component for heart disease prevention. Julian Whitaker, M.D., author of “is heart Surgery necessary?” strongly emphasizes this fact.

if you go vegetarian twice a week, your kidneys will be less burdened. in short, you are giving them a break.

Water flush—drink 10-15 glasses of water daily. The best would be two glasses upon waking up, one glass between meals, two glasses 30 minutes before lunch, three glasses between lunch and dinner, one glass 30 minutes before dinner, and one to two glasses one hour after dinner.

Butter—while it is high in cholesterol and saturated fats,

Apostle, 45 South Springfield Av, Springfield

Dec 19 @ 8pm: St. Michael’s, 1212 Kelly St, Union

Dec 20 @ 5pm: Divine Mercy Parish, 240 Central Av, Rahway

Dec 21 @ 8pm: St. Joseph the Carpenter, 17 east 3rd Av, Roselle

Dec 22 @ 8pm: holy Spirit, 971 Suburban Rd, Union

Dec 23 @ 8pm: St. Mary of the Assumption, 155 Washington Av, elizabeth

Full Simbang Gabi Novena - New York

Bronx- Rotating (@ 7pm)Dec 18 @ 7pm: St. Theresa,

2855 Theresa Av, Bx Dec 19 @ 7pm: St. Clare of

Assisi, 1918 Paulding Av, Bx Dec 20 @ 6pm: St. Francis

Xavier, 1703 lurting Av, Bx Dec 21 @ 7pm: St. Benedict,

2969 Otis Av, Bx Dec 22 @ 7pm: St. Francis

Xavier, 1703 lurting Av, Bx Dec 23 @ 7pm: Our lady of

Solace, 731 Morris Park Av, Bx Dec 24- individual parishes to

complete the novena

2015 Simbang Gabi Services Metro NYC/NJ /CTFrom Page 6

From Page 3

Brooklyn Dec 15-23 @ 5.30pm exc Dec

18 @ 7.30pm/Dec 20 @ 2pm: Guardian Angel, 2978 Ocean Pkwy, Brooklyn

Dec 15-23 @ 7.30pm exc Dec 19 at 5pm: Our lady help of Christians, 1315 e 28th St, Brooklyn

Manhattan Dec 13-21 @ 5.15pm exc Dec.

14/16/21 @ 6.30pm: St. John the Baptist, W30th St, Manhattan

Dec 15-23 @ 6.15pm exc Dec 20 @ 4.30pm: St. Francis of Assisi, 135 West 31st St, Manhattan

Dec 16-24 @ 6am: immaculate Conception, 414 e14th St at 1st Av, Manhattan

Queens Dec 15-23 @ 7pm: Corpus

Christi, 31-30 61st St, Woodside Dec 15-23 @ 7pm: immaculate

Conception, 21-47 29th St., liC Dec 15-23 @ 7pm: St. Adalbert,

52-29 83rd St, elmhurst Dec 15-17 & 21-23 @ 7pm, Dec

18-19 @ 8pm, Dec 20 @ 7.30pm: St. Sebastian, Woodside

Dec 15-23 @ 7.30pm: Ol of lourdes, 92-96 220th St, Queens Village

Dec 15-23 @ 7:30pm: holy

Child Jesus, 111-11 86th St, Richmond hill

Dec 15-23 @ 7:30pm exc Dec 20 @ 5pm: Most Precious Blood, 32-23 36th St, Astoria

Dec 15-23 @ 7pm exc Dec 22 @ 7:30pm: Ascension, 86-13 55th Av, elmhurst

Rockland County St. Francis of Assisi, Dec 21-23

@ 8pm; Dec 19/20/24 @ 5am With the parishes of St.

Anthony, St. Paul - St. Ann’s, St. Augustine, St. Catharine, St. Joseph, St. Gregory / St. Peter’s, and Filipino associations

Staten Island- Rotating (@ At 8pm)

Dec 18 @ 8pm: St. Sylvester, 854 Targee St, Si

Dec 19 @ 8pm: St. Rita, 61 Wellbrook Av, Si

Dec 20 @ 8pm: holy Rosary, 120 Jerome Av, Si

Dec 21 @ 8pm: St. John neumann, 1380 Arthur Kill Rd, Si

Dec 22 @ 8pm: Our lady of Pity, 1616 Richmond Av, Si

Dec 23 @ 8pm: St. Peter’s, 53 St. Mark Pl, Si

Plus: Dec 24 Midnight Mass: St. Paul, 145 Clinton Pl, Si

it is better than margarine. Why? Because margarine is hydrogenated, raises your lDl (bad cholesterol) and lowers hDl (good cholesterol). hydrogenation is the process of converting a vegetable oil into solid form by introducing a hydrogen atom, which changes the fat molecule. Use cooking oil sparingly.

Best oil—flaxseed oils rank highest in omega 3 at 57 percent.

Go fish—make the fatty fish from the sea your main meal. Supplement with omega 3 or flax oil capsules to ensure heart protection. include coenzyme Q10 in your daily multi-vitamins and minerals regimen.

3) Stay calm—maintain an attitude of calmness in every way despite the stress of rush shopping, drawing up gift lists, the chaos of delivering these gifts, kitchen preparations—all these while having to appear in charge and in

control.4) Quiet time—give yourself

adequate “me” time. Sitting quietly in a corner to reflect on the blessings of your life is enough to lift your spirits.

5) Give—if you give with no expectations of receiving, your pleasant surprises will grow a thousandfold. Give, if only to see a smile on the face of the recipient.

6) Drink moderately—what is moderate to one could be lethal to another. Use your common sense. Drink to feel good but not up to the point of drunkenness.

7) Exercise—if you don’t have time to hit the gym, brisk walk for 24 minutes or jump 100 times on a rebounder. Go biking, you can enjoy it as a group or lone sport.

8) Change your scenery—exchange the asphalt jungle for a real forest or seashore. A change of surroundings guarantees cleaner air and a more relaxed you.

vinegar, salt and sugar . Heat to dissolve the salt and sugar.

5. Remove from heat, cool slightly and add to onions.

6. For pickup, grill or saute the pork bellies until caramalized

and heated through and slice.7. Brush the tortillas with

soybean oil and grill to warm.8. Assemble the taco with

your favorite salsa, pork belly and the pickled red onions.

8The Asian Journal NEW YORK / NEW JERSEY dEcEmbER 18, 2015

An Asian Journal Magazine