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Volume 18 - No. 17 • 2 Sections – 16 Pages

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DATELINE Family takes legal action for death of Fil-Am Navy veteran who died in Antioch police custody FROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA

A FILIPINO American family in Antioch, California has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city arguing that their 30-yearold son died after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost five minutes.

Angelo Quinto, a Navy veteran who was born in the Philippines, was suffering a mental health crisis on the night of December 23, 2020, prompting his sister to call 911 for help.

But what transpired is renewing questions about whether police are equipped to respond to such episodes.

“I was just hoping they could deescalate the situation,” Isabella Collins, Quinto’s younger sister, said during a press conference on Thursday, February 19.

His family reported that his behavior changed after sustaining a head injury earlier last year, which led to him experiencing bouts of paranoia and anxiety.

When police arrived at the house, Quinto was holding onto his mother, Cassandra Quinto-Collins, and reportedly would not let

F E BR U A RY 2 6 - MA R C H 4 , 2 0 2 1

Also published in LOS ANGELES, ORANGE COUNTY/INLAND EMPIRE, SAN DIEGO, LAS VEGAS, NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY

Gov. Newsom signs relief package with stimulus checks, small business aid

by AJPRESS NEARLY a year into the coronavirus pandemic, California Governor Gavin Newsom this week signed a $7.6 billion relief package that will give one-time payments to over 5 million low-income residents and grants for small businesses.

Newsom on Tuesday, February 23 signed several

bills that will fast-track relief to Californians, including one that will give $600 one-time payments to an estimated 5.7 million Californians with incomes below $30,000 or those who were excluded from federal stimulus payments.

This comes after the California Legislature approved the payments on Monday, February 22.

Other ways Californians can qualify for the state

$1.4 million allocated to track anti-Asian incidents

by CHRISTINA

PH FLAG MAKER. A mural of Doña Marcela Mariño Agoncillo is on the walls of the Quezon City Pre-War Water Towers at the corner of 15th Ave. and Col. Bonny Serrano, Barangay Socorro in Quezon City on Wednesday, February 24. Agoncillo is known as the principal seamstress of the first and official flag of the Philippines, gaining her the title of “The Mother of the Philippine Flag.” PNA photo by Rico H. Borja

M. ORIEL

AJPress

A FILIPINO American small business owner and father of three in Vallejo, California is expected to recover and walk again after being shot multiple times during an attempted robbery earlier this month.

Marc Quidit, 49, was discharged from the hospital and greeted at home with flowers and balloons as family members led a prayer on Sunday, February 21.

His homecoming comes five days after two armed suspects

CALIFORNIA legislators this week are seeking to address the recent surge of hate and violence against members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community with proposals to increase funding and resources for victims.

Through Assembly Bill 85 — a fiscal measure to provide more resources as part of the state’s pandemic response — Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) secured $1.4 million to help track and collect data on anti-Asian hate incidents.

“The rise in hate incidents against Asian Americans during the pandemic is alarming. But, we can’t solve a problem without knowing how big it is,” Ting, chair of the Assembly Budget Committee, said in a statement on Monday, February 22.

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Backlash ensues after PH offers nurses in Foreigners with long-term exchange for COVID vaccines from UK, Germany visas can now enter PH

by RITCHEL

MENDIOLA AJPress

THE Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is under fire after one of its officials said that the agency is open to lifting the cap on the deployment of Filipino health care workers in exchange for COVID19 vaccines from the United Kingdom and Germany.

International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) director Alice Visperas on Monday, February 22, said that Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III asked the United Kingdom and

Germany to donate vaccines in exchange for the deployment of more Filipino health workers.

“Secretary Bello’s request is for our (Overseas Filipino Workers), these are the OFWs that were repatriated, who are here in the country including those who will be deployed. It is important, especially those who are set to leave since many countries who are hiring migrant workers want workers that have been vaccinated,” she said in a virtual forum.

“Also, Secretary Bello requested for their

entered his store, Dollar Plus & Party Supplies along Sonoma Blvd., and shot him five times.

His family had feared the worst and that he wouldn’t be able to walk again. But with physical therapy, a video taken at the hospital shows Quidit using his legs with the help of a walker and being able to walk up to 100 feet.

He is expected to fully walk again within two months.

Quidit, who is known to work seven days a week, remarked how he was ready to return to the store.

“Despite all the circumstances,

my uncle has a positive attitude about his recovery. He was saying to his wife, ‘Honey, did you see that? I can go back to work next week,’” Quidit’s niece, Joanne Pomares, told the Asian Journal. “I think that’s what’s helping him with his quick recovery because he seems so positive about everything, making sure to have high spirits, and being thankful he’s alive.”

Surveillance footage from 7:20 p.m. on Tuesday, February 16 shows Quidit vacuuming while his sister stood behind the register. Then, two hooded and

by RITCHEL

MENDIOLA AJPress

THE Philippines is now allowing foreigners with valid longterm visas to enter the country, but tourists are still barred from entering.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF)’s revised Resolution 98 allowing foreign nationals who have visas u PAGE A2 issued as of March 20, 2020 to

Vallejo Fil-Am store owner in recovery after being shot multiple times during attempted robbery

by CHRISTINA

M. ORIEL

AJPress

US tops 500K COVID deaths

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California lawmakers introduce measures to combat hate crimes

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HALF a million people in the United States have lost their lives to the novel coronavirus.

According to a Reuters tally of public health data, the country logged more than 28 million COVID-19 cases and 500,264 fatalities on Monday, February 22.

The grim number of deaths “matches the number of Americans killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined,” the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. recorded an estimated 405,000 deaths in World War II, 58,000 in the Vietnam War and 36,000 in the Korean War. “These numbers are stunning,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said in a “Good Morning America” interview.

“If you look back historically, we’ve done worse than almost any other country and we’re a highly developed, rich country,” he added.

To mark the grim milestone, U.S. President Joe Biden held a sunset moment of silence

relief are: if they claimed the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit in 2020; are enrolled in the state’s cash assistance service CalWORKS; receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI)/State Security Payments (SSP); or are enrolled in the state’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants.

Additionally, those who use an individual taxpay-

masked men enter with guns in an attempt to rob the store.

One of the suspects opened fire, hitting Quidit’s lower body five times, before they both took off.

His sister, who was not harmed in the attack, screamed out for Quidit. Thinking she had also been injured, he found the strength to make it toward the counter, Pomares said.

Quidit was airlifted to John Muir Medical Center’s trauma center in critical condition. He underwent surgery and had four

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enter the country, Malacañang announced on Friday, February 19.

Under the revised resolution, foreigners “with valid and existing visas at the time of entry and who were not permitted to enter the country under previous IATF resolutions, and holders of valid and existing special resident and retiree’s visas and Section 9A visas provided they present an entry exemption document

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Photo shows Marc Quidit (far right) and his wife Nina (left) and their three young children.

Quidit, who owns Dollar Plus and Party Supplies in Vallejo, California, is expected to walk again after he was shot in an attempted robbery on Tuesday, Feb. 16.

Photo courtesy of Joanne Pomares

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february 26-march 4, 2021 • NOrcaL aSIaN JOurNaL

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From the Front Page

Gov. Newsom signs relief...

PAGE A1

er ID number to file income taxes and earn less than $75,000 a year after deductions can qualify.

ITIN taxpayers who also qualify for the California EITC would receive a total of $1,200.

The package also includes $2 billion in grants to struggling small businesses and fee waivers to businesses, such as restaurants and salons, impacted by the pandemic.

“The backbone of our economy is small business. We recognize the stress, the strain that so many small business have been under,” Newsom said at a billsigning ceremony at Solomon’s Deli in Sacramento. “And we recognize as well our responsibility to do more and to do better to help support these small businesses through this very difficult

and trying time.”

The package also allocates $400 million in federal funds for child care providers. Stipends of $525 per enrolled child for all state-subsidized child care and preschool providers, serving approximately 400,000 children, will be given.

Amid the surge in anti-Asian attacks in the state, $1.4 million will be provided to track and collect data of such incidents and support the efforts of Stop AAPI Hate, an online reporting site.

Other provisions include $24 million for financial assistance and services through Housing for the Harvest, a program providing support for agricultural workers who have to quarantine due to COVID-19. The effort also provides a combined $35 million for food banks and diapers.

Low-income college students can qualify for $100 million in emergency financial aid and $20 million to reengage students who have either left their community college studies because of the pandemic or to engage students at risk of leaving. Another $6 million is also allotted for University of California, California State University and California community college students who are newly eligible for CalFresh, the state-administered federal program for supplemental food assistance.

Another $2 billion in tax relief for small businesses is still under negotiation.

On a national level, Congress is debating a $1.9 trillion COVID19 relief bill as Americans across the country continue to face the effects of the pandemic. n

Foreigners with long-term visas can...

PAGE A1 to the Bureau of Immigration upon arrival” are now allowed in the Philippines.

“Lahat po ng long-term visas na na-issue natin pupuwede na pong pumasok. Antayin na lang po natin kailan papayagan ang mga turista (All foreigners with long-term visas that we have is-

sued can now enter. Let’s just wait for now when tourists will be allowed),” said Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque during an interview with People’s Television Network.

The spokesperson added that among the travelers who can enter include investors, workers, and foreigners with Filipino

spouses and their children.

Arriving foreign nationals must have pre-booked accommodations for at least six nights in an accredited quarantine hotel or facility. They must also undergo a reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) test six days after their arrival. n

COMMAND VISIT. National Capital Region Police Office chief Maj. Gen. Vicente Danao holds one of the new firearms donated by the Pasay City government during his Command visit at the Southern Police District (SPD) headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City on Tuesday, February 23. Danao also led the inauguration of SPD Medical Clinic and the destruction of seized video karera machines.

PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan

California Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) speaks during a press conference at the state Capitol on Monday, February 22 to introduce AB 886, a measure to address the recent surge in hate attacks with community-based solutions. He was joined by representatives of the Asian, Latino, Black, Jewish and LGBTQ legislative caucuses.

Photo courtesy of Assembly Democratic Caucus

California lawmakers introduce measures...

PAGE A1

The funding will support the efforts of Stop AAPI Hate, an online reporting site started by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action and San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies department to gather incidents of xenophobia, racism and discrimination.

“New state funding allows the data gathering to continue, and the research will ultimately lead us to solutions that will make all communities safer,” Ting added.

The bill was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, February 23 as part of the Golden State Stimulus package.

From March, when Stop AAPI Hate was started, to the end of 2020, the center received over 2,808 firsthand accounts of antiAsian hate, ranging from shunning to physical attacks. During the same period, 126 accounts involved Asian Americans over the age of 60.

California accounted for the highest number of reports with 43% or more than 1,200 incidents.

However, community leaders and activists say that the number of incidents targeting AAPIs is underreported due to factors like language and cultural barriers that prevent victims from speaking up.

In the first two months of this year alone, several unprovoked attacks against AAPIs, particularly elderly individuals, have been documented in the Bay Area.

Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84year-old immigrant from Thailand, died of injuries after being shoved to the ground during his morning walk in the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco on January 28. The 19-year-old suspect was arrested on suspi-

cion of murder and elder abuse.

Another viral video shows an unidentified 91-year-old man pushed in Oakland’s Chinatown.

The suspect, 28-year-old Yahya Muslim, was later arrested and accused of assaulting two other seniors that same day.

Incidents have also been recorded elsewhere, showing an alarming trend nationwide.

Noel Quintana, a 61-year-old Filipino man, was riding the New York subway on his way to work when he was slashed in the face by another passenger, requiring almost 100 stitches.

“Because of hate, our Asian American community has been yelled at, spat on, shoved down and beat up, punched in the face, slashed and disfigured, and murdered,” Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) said during a press conference at the south steps of the state Capitol on Monday.

Bonta, the state’s first Filipino American legislator, recounted how the recent attacks reminded him of when his mother was shoved to the ground and robbed while leaving work years ago.

“I haven’t thought about that in a while. The surge in hate crimes has reopened old wounds and created new ones,” he said.

“Our community is in pain. We’re hurting. Many are scared and many like me are angry.”

Bonta blamed former President Donald Trump for using terms like “China virus” and “Kung flu” to describe the coronavirus, which has fueled the rise in incidents since the beginning of the pandemic.

The lawmaker was joined by representatives of the Asian, Latino, Black, Jewish and LGBTQ caucuses as they introduced several bills. Among the proposals include providing cultur-

ally sensitive support for victims, increasing training for law enforcement to document and collect data, and establishing a state government commission to monitor hate crimes.

Bonta’s bill, AB 886, seeks to fund community-based organizations that provide culturally competent mental health services for victims of hate violence and restorative justice programs, and to expand eligibility for victims of hate violence to access compensation funds even if they do not file a police report.

The measure also addresses prevention through “to proactively increase the likelihood that an individual who caused the harm would not do additional harm,” Bonta said.

Assemblymembers Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and David Chiu (D-San Francisco) also introduced AB 557, a bill that would direct the state’s Department of Justice to establish a tollfree hotline and an online reporting system that would make it easier to report hate crimes and incidents.

Last week, House Democrats came together to denounce the attacks and pushed for more action from the Department of Justice to prevent future incidents.

President Joe Biden on January 26 signed an executive order to combat xenophobia and racism against AAPIs, which includes a directive for the Department of Justice to expand the collection of data and public reporting of hate incidents.

While the order was welcomed, many AAPI organizations and advocates said the administration can take bolder action to stop the incidents and address other pandemic-related issues the community is experiencing. n

Backlash ensues after PH offers nurses...

PAGE A1 government to give us vaccines especially for our OFWs,” she added.

However, the plan was met with criticism from medical workers as well as labor groups.

“We are disgusted on how nurses and health care workers are being treated by the government as commodities or export products,” Jocelyn Andamo, secretary-general of the Filipino Nurses United, told Reuters.

The Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) expressed a similar sentiment.

“Hindi namin gusto iyong the way it is being expressed na as if ‘yung ating mga nurses ay like a commodity. Para kaming ba-

gay na pwedeng ipagpalit to any goods na magbe-benefit ‘yung traders (We do not like the way it is expressed that as if our nurses are like commodities that can be traded for any goods to benefit traders),” said PNA President Melbert Reyes Meanwhile, the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition stressed that the “dignity of our Filipino health workers [is] not for sale.”

Philip Jamilla, public information officer for Karapatan, also described DOLE’s plan as “dehumanizing.”

“This dehumanizing policy of exporting our own labor as barter—which Neferti Tadiar refers to as ‘new-industrial slavery’— has long been ‘a component part

of the conditions of globalization,’ but it is more glaring now that we are bartering our own healthcare workers for vaccines,” he said.

Former senatorial candidate Erin Tanada, on the other hand, blamed the government and its supposed failure to procure vaccines.

“Human Trafficking… Barter Trade… is this the way we look at our health care workers or workers in general?” he said in a tweet.

“Or is the bigger story the FAILURE of the government to procure the right number of vaccines for our country so they had to resort to embarrassing measures…” he added. n

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Dateline USa

NORCAL ASIAN JOURNAL • febRUARy 26-mARCh 4, 2021

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Slow coronavirus vaccine distribution highlights social disparities in health care

by Klarize

Medenilla AJPress

FOR many people in the United States, confirmation of the COVID-19 vaccine late last year was a beacon of hope and a signal for the end of the global nightmare.

But the rollout of both the Pfizer and Modern vaccines has left a lot to be desired, especially in Los Angeles County where cumulative COVID-19 deaths and positive cases have exceeded 20,000 and 1.18 million, respectively, as of Tuesday, Feb. 23 “The COVID-19 pandemic has shed so much light on the racial and disparities and the inequities of our systems of power that are largely divided along demographic lines,” said Myla Ramirez, a Filipina American nurse at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

Ramirez told the Asian Journal that there is very little data disaggregation related to who is getting the vaccine. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation only 23 states in the U.S. share disaggregated vaccination data categorized by race, which, according Ramirez, tells “us almost nothing” about which specific Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities are actually getting vaccinated.

“How many Filipinos are being vaccinated? Are Filipinos willing to get vaccinated? What about the other communities that fit under the Asian Pacific Islander umbrella, many members of which don’t speak English?”

Ramirez pondered.

The language barriers, specifi-

cally, make it difficult for many patients — from both the massive Spanish-speaking communities and API, a community that consists of more than 50 unique languages — to receive health care in general, and COVID-19 assistance and treatment, specifically.

Adam Carbullido, director of policy and advocacy at the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO), said during a Feb. 12 press briefing with ethnic news outlets that Congress should priority and implement more funding and resources for community-based organizations, which have largely been “in the frontline providing care and services when government and private institutions have fallen short.”

Carbullido said, “These clinics need more interpreters and materials translated into different languages. It is important to have providers on hand who can speak the patient’s language of choice.”

Referencing the recent spike in anti-Asian assaults and violence throughout the country, Carbullido acknowledged the fact that APIs are not as likely as other ethnic minorities to seek out mental health services.

Along with the generationslong stigma of mental health care among the API community, the lack of resources available to certain ethnic communities does nothing to help the communitywide emotional toil that the API community at large has endured throughout the pandemic.

“Patients report fear of seeking health and the care they

Family members remember Angelo Quinto, a 30-year-old Navy veteran, as someone who enjoyed fishing, scuba diving and video games. Quinto died on Dec. 26, 2020, three days after a police officer reportedly knelt on his neck during a mental health episode.

Photo courtesy of Quinto family

Family takes legal action for...

PAGE A1 go.

A cellphone video shot by Quinto-Collins — presented by the family’s attorney on Thursday — shows him unresponsive on the floor after an officer pinned and subdued him with a knee to the back of his neck for nearly five minutes, while another officer held him by the legs.

The former sailor repeated, “Please don’t kill me,” as he lost consciousness. The video then shows a handcuffed Quinto turned onto his back with blood streaming out of his mouth.

“The most tragic part of this is the ‘George Floyd hold,’” said John Burris, a civil rights attorney representing the family. “On the way down he said, ‘Please don’t kill me’ and they muttered some words like ‘We’re not going to kill you,’ but in moments they had.”

Quinto never regained consciousness and was taken by an ambulance. He died at Sutter Delta Medical Center three days later.

The family has filed a wrongful death claim against the Antioch Police Department and is seeking answers after minimal information has been released.

The police department has not given an official cause of death and has not revealed the officers’ names and whether they were wearing body cameras at the scene.

Supporters and family rallied on Thursday for more humane treatment of people in mental distress, as well as for a ban on the controversial chokehold.

“This is wrongful death in the sense that their conduct caused the death of this person. This was a healthy person before, and now his life is gone,” said Burris.

Family members remembered Quinto for his love of video games, fishing and scuba diving. He was medically discharged from duty in 2019 because of a food allergy, the family told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Quinto’s sister said she has remorse about calling the police and that she hopes no one has to regret “doing what they think is the right thing.”

With Quinto gone, they are seeking justice and changes to the police department, such as the end of the knee-to-neck restraint used on Quinto as well as in other high-profile cases, such as in the death of George Floyd last year.

“I want to bring him back, but if we can’t do that, we want justice in any way we can get it,” Collins said. “We want a new number to call, someone who can help us with mental health crises and other related domestic incidents.”

They also are calling for a mental health crisis response team that can respond to similar situations, and body cameras and dash cameras for police officers in the department.

The police department has not provided any new information regarding the case, as of press time.

Meanwhile, the Contra Costa District Attorney is conducting an automatic and procedural investigation. (Christina M. Oriel and Ritchel Mendiola/AJPress)

Isabella Collins, Angelo Quinto’s younger sister, speaks during a press conference outside their Antioch, California home on Thursday, February 19. Photo courtesy of John Burris Law Offices

need,” Carbullido added. “It is a true emotional trauma in Asian American communities and the mental health consequences will have long-standing complications for health.”

The Kaiser Family Foundation vaccine monitor shared last week that there is a pattern of Black and Hispanic people getting vaccinated at low rates across the country. In Delaware, where Black individuals comprised of 24% of the infections, the Black community comprise of only 6% of all vaccinations.

Among the Latino community, only 6% have been vaccinated in Colorado despite infection rates exceeding 37% as of Tuesday; in Oregon, only 6% have been vaccinated with a steady 35% infection rate and in Texas, which is experiencing statewide panic over power outages and freezing temperatures, only 16% have received vaccinations even though Latinos comprise of almost half the state’s infections.

“This needs to be immediately corrected. We need a gigantic digital patient engagement project,” Dr. Daniel Turner-Lloveras, MD said during the Feb. 12 briefing. “If we are to measure and quantify the disparity, it is very difficult to find a solution [in vaccine distribution].”

As of mid-February, LA County has administered 1,676,900 doses of the COVID vaccine. Of that figure, 19.1% of Asian residents have received at least 1 dose of the vaccine. n

RELIGIOUS ITEMS. A vendor (left, seated) sells different kinds of religious items on the sidewalk in front of the Saint Jude Church Manila on Tuesday, February 23. Several vendors are allowed to sell their merchandise as long as they observe the health protocols such as wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease.

PNA photo by Rico H. Borja

USCIS reverts to 2008 version of citizenship test

by AJPress THE United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will be reverting to the 2008 version of the naturalization civics test beginning March 1, 2021.

The agency on Dec. 1, 2020 revised the civics test as part of a decennial review and update but it “determined the 2020 civics test development process, content, testing procedures, and implementation schedule may inadvertently create potential barriers to the naturalization process,” according to a news release on Monday, Feb. 22.

The civics test is administered

to applicants who apply for U.S. citizenship through naturalization and is one of the statutory requirements for naturalizing.

Applicants must demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of the history, principles, and form of government of the United States.

Applications who filed their application for naturalization on or after Dec. 1, 2020 and before March 1, 2021 will be given the option to take either the 2020 or 2008 tests.

The 2020 version of civic test asks applicants 20 questions from a list of 128 possible questions. Applicants are required to answer at least 12 of the 20 questions correctly to pass.

The 2020 test will be phased out on April 19 for initial test takers. Meanwhile, those who file for naturalization after March 1 will take the 2008 test.

Those who take the 2008 test will need to study 100 questions about American government and history and must answer correctly six of the 10 questions (or 60%) to pass. All questions on the test are asked orally.

Applicants are given two opportunities to pass the naturalization test. If they fail any part of the naturalization test during the first interview, they will be retested only on the portion of the test that they failed failed, between 60 and 90 days from the date of the initial interview. n

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SF moves to Phase 1B of COVID-19 vaccinations, expands eligibility to educators, child care, emergency services, food and agriculture workers Vaccine supply remains limited, but more San Franciscans and workers are now eligible to make appointments for vaccination as they become available

HALF A MILLION. U.S. President Joe Biden marked the grim milestone of 500,000 Americans killed by COVID-19 with the somber ceremony on Monday evening, February 22 at the White House. He was joined by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff during the candle-lighting ceremony and a moment of silence.

White House photo

US tops 500K COVID...

PAGE A1 and a candle-lighting ceremony at the White House. He also ordered the American flags lowered to half-staff on public buildings and grounds until February 26.

Bells also tolled at the National Cathedral in Washington to honor the lives lost.

“As a nation, we can’t accept such a cruel fate. We’ve been fighting this pandemic for so long. We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow,” said Biden.

He added, “We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur or on the news. We must do so to honor the dead, but equally important care for the living, those they left behind.”

Biden urged Americans to stay

vigilant and follow safety protocols amid the pandemic.

“I ask all Americans to remember, remember those we lost and those they left behind. I also ask us to act, to remain vigilant, to say socially distant, to mask up, to get vaccinated,” he said.

“We have to fight this together as one people, as the United States of America,” he added.

The president was joined by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff in marking a moment of silence in front of 500 candles representing the death toll.

In a separate tweet, Biden said: “500,000 lives lost to COVID-19.

It’s an unfathomable number, but each one represents a family that will never again be whole. To

those who have lost loved ones: I know no words can numb the pain, but I hope you find some solace in knowing the nation grieves with you.”

The U.S. has reported more COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other country in the world.

However, average daily deaths and cases have plummeted in the past few weeks, as reported

by AP. The fatalities have fallen from more than 4,000 reported on some days in January to an average of fewer than 1,900 per day.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also said that about 19.4 million Americans have been fully vaccinated as of Sunday, while more than 44.1 million Americans have received their first dose. n

SAN FRANCISCO — On Wednesday, February 24, San Francisco moved into Phase 1B, of the State’s COVID-19 vaccination prioritization plan. This move to Phase 1B expands vaccine eligibility to people who live or work in San Francisco in the following sectors: education and childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture. Despite this expanded eligibility, vaccine doses remain in short supply, and healthcare providers have been advised to prioritize second doses in the coming weeks. As such, appointments for first vaccine doses are limited, and people who are eligible may not be able to get appointments right away.

Phase 1B includes more than 168,000 individuals who live or work in San Francisco, in addition to the approximately 210,000 healthcare workers and people 65 and older who are already eligible. People who are eligible to be vaccinated can sign-up for an appointment as they become available at: SF. gov/getvaccinated.

“Getting people who live and work in San Francisco vaccinated as quickly as possible will help us keep our entire community safe and save lives,” said

Mayor Breed. “We’ve been dealing with this pandemic for a year now, and throughout that time, our workforce has kept the City going. From the grocery store clerks, child care providers and teachers, to emergency workers and restaurant cooks and waiters, these frontline workers have showed up for all of us, and I’m glad we’re able to move forward with expanding vaccine eligibility to include them. While appointments are still very limited due to supply, we’re ready to ramp up our vaccination sites and open up appointments as we get more vaccine doses.”

In partnership with the healthcare providers in San Francisco, which are receiving the majority of the vaccine doses from the state, the City is facilitating the quick and efficient delivery of vaccines through high-volume vaccine sites, neighborhood vaccine access sites, community clinics, pharmacy partnerships, and mobile vaccination teams.

This network of COVID-19 vaccination sites in San Francisco provides the capacity to vaccinate at least 10,000 people per day, pending supply.

The insufficient and inconsistent supply of COVID-19 vaccine continues to be the biggest barrier for vaccinating people quickly in San Francisco. The increase in second dose appointments puts additional strain on San Francisco’s COVID-19 vaccination network. As more people become eligible for their second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and yet supply does not increase significantly, health care providers are unable to offer as many first dose appointments.

Over the last week, an average of 4,000 to 4,500 second and first vaccine doses a day have been administered in San Francisco. Although this rate of vaccinations is lower than what San Francisco is capable of, health care providers and DPH are still making good progress, with 18% of San Franciscans 16 and older having received their first dose, and are ready to ramp up vaccinations as supply increases and becomes more predictable.

“By making the COVID vaccine available to the essential workers of Phase 1B, we acknowl-

edge those who have bravely continued to risk their safety to care for our children, patrol our streets, and stock our shelves with food throughout this pandemic,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of Public Health. “And as we offer the protection of the vaccine to these individuals, many of whom are low income earners, people of color, and immigrants, we will also be advancing racial and social equity through access to the vaccine.”

In addition to expanding vaccine eligibility to people in Phase 1B, San Francisco health care providers and the Department of Public Health continue to vaccinate people 65 and older. Todate, San Francisco has vaccinated 80% of the approximately 210,000 healthcare workers and people 65 and older who are eligible under Phase 1A. 58% percent of San Franciscans 65 and older have received at least one dose.

San Francisco also remains committed to an equitable vaccination strategy, with a specific focus on reaching populations that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

To that end, the San Francisco Department of Public Health has been focused on reaching communities that have been hard-hit by the pandemic, including the Latino community and neighborhoods in the Southeast of the city. San Francisco has located high volume sites and neighborhood vaccine access sites in areas that have carried the burden of the virus, and is implementing other strategies to reach the most vulnerable populations where they are, including mobile vaccination teams.

San Francisco’s COVID-19 Command Center recently published a new vaccine dashboard that shows DPH-controlled vaccine distribution, including by age and race/ethnicity. This data includes vaccinations administered at Laguna Honda Hospital, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco Health Network clinics, as well as neighborhood vaccine access sites operated in partnership with community-based organizations. The dashboard shows that DPH’s focus on racial equity

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Vallejo Fil-Am store owner in recovery after being...

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bullets removed from his body.

The morning after, his wife Nina took time off from her other job to reopen the store.

“They had to open up the store the next day because that’s pretty much how my uncle and his family support [themselves] with three kids and they rely on it as a source of income,” Pomares said. “It’s a testament of how strong-willed they are.”

Quidit was born in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines and migrated to the United States in his teens, his niece said. He worked several jobs before he took over Dollar Plus & Party Supplies from his other sister, Pomares’ mother, about 14 years ago.

The Feb. 16 incident is not the first time the store had been A video shared by Quidit’s niece shows him robbed. being able to walk up to 100 feet with the “It’s not fair that families have help of a walker. to be terrorized with these types and flowers to the family. of instances because they were The investigation into the robso desperate for money or what- bery is still ongoing and suspects ever it was that they were look- have not been identified. The ing for,” Pomares said.

Vallejo Police Department has Quidit’s eldest daughter, who not returned a request for comis 14 years old, expressed worry ment, as of this writing. about the medical bills the family It is also unclear whether it will would face. be classified as a hate crime as it This prompted Pomares to comes during a surge in attacks start a GoFundMe page, which against Asian American commuhas reached over $84,000, as of nity members. this writing. All of the donations “If anyone has any informawill go toward her uncle’s medi- tion regarding the incident that cal expenses and rehabilitation. night, come forward and help Pomares said Quidit was emo- bring justice to what happened. tional to see the financial support That’s only fair to the family and and that other community mem- can bring peace to the incident,” bers have been bringing food Pomares said. n

Quidit returned home on Sunday, Feb. 21 after five days in the hospital. Family members say he will be able to walk on his own within two months. Photos courtesy of Joanne Pomares

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Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto recognized

by US as anti-corruption champion by riTCHel

MendiOla AJPress

PASIG City Mayor Victor “Vico” Sotto is one of the 12 individuals recognized by the United States Department of State as an international anti-corruption champion.

The Biden administration launched the International Anticorruption Champions Award to recognize individuals who have worked to defend transparency, combat corruption, and ensure accountability in their own countries, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Monday, February 23.

“Around the world, corruption threatens security and stability, hinders economic growth, undermines democracy and human rights, destroys trust in public institutions, facilitates transnational crime, and siphons away public and private resources,” said Blinken.

“The Biden Administration recognizes that we will only be successful in combating these issues by working in concert with committed partners, including courageous individuals who champion anticorruption efforts and countries working to fulfill their commitments to international anticorruption standards,” he added.

According to the U.S. Department of State, Sotto is “a standard-bearer for a new generation of Philippine politicians who prioritize anticorruption and transparency initiatives in their election campaigns and in office.”

The agency noted that Sotto was just 29 years old when he broke the 27-year rule of a political dynasty in Pasig City in 2019, adding that his prior work as city councilor resulted in a freedom of information legislation.

“Sotto has sought to solidify his reputation as a fresh voice with a new, more transparent approach to governance,” the U.S. State Department said.

“He pledged to avoid any kickbacks in the awarding of city contracts, established a 24/7 public information and complaints hotline, formally involved civil society organizations in the city’s budgeting and policy making, and mandated that the value of all city government contracts be reduced by at least 10 percent – a measure intended to reduce bribery in the contract awarding process,” it added.

The other recipients of the International Anticorruption Champions Award are: Ardian Dvorani of Albania; Diana Salazar of Ecuador; Sophia Pretrick of the Federated States of Micronesia; Juan Francisco Sandoval Alfaro of Guatemala; Ibrahima Kalil Gueye of Guinea; Anjali Bhardwaj of India; Dhuha A. Mohammed of Iraq; Bolot Temirov of the Kyrgyz Republic; Mustafa Abdullah Sanalla of Libya; Francis Ben Kaifala of Sierra Leone; and Ruslan Ryaboshapka of Ukraine.

“The State Department continues to stand by citizens around the world calling for transparent, accountable governments. We proudly recognize these international champions of anticorruption and all those who have taken a stand against corruption,” the department said. ■

Survey: More women hold senior corporate roles in PH by riTCHel

MendiOla AJPress

THE Philippines has the most number of women holding senior leadership positions in midmarket businesses among 29 other economies, according to a new report.

Grant Thornton’s annual Women in Business report found that Filipino women hold 48% of senior corporate positions in the country, which is five points higher than the 43% in 2020 when 32 economies were sur-

veyed.

In the Philippines, 100 midmarket businesses participated in the survey.

Globally, women have taken 31% of positions in senior management teams, surpassing the important 30% threshold, which research shows is the minimum representation needed to change decision-making processes.

All countries surveyed have surpassed the 30 percent threshold except for China (29%), the United Arab Emirates (26%),

South Korea (18%) and Japan (15%).

Following the Philippines in the list are South Africa, India, Brazil, and Vietnam. Germany ranked 6th, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria and Canada.

“Ranking first globally in terms of women in senior roles in the Philippines is an important milestone for businesses in the country, but not the end goal. Those businesses that want to reap the benefits of a better gender bal-

Did you know you have safety and health protections from COVID-19 at work?

Workers in California have the RIGHT to: • Protection from safety and health hazards, including COVID-19 • Report an unsafe workplace • Refuse to work in an unsafe condition To file a confidential complaint about an unsafe workplace, contact your nearest Cal/OSHA district office. It is illegal for your employer to reduce your hours, fire you or otherwise retaliate against you for filing a complaint.

Learn more about your RIGHTS and how to contact Cal/OSHA at dir.ca.gov/covid.

Your Actions Save Lives

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FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 4, 2021 • NORCAL ASIAN JOURNAL

http://www.asianjournal.com • (650) 689-5160

OPINION

FeATUres

Shuttered businesses

PASAY City expanded on Tuesday, February 23 from 34 to 55 the number of barangays under granular lockdown because of a surge in COVID cases. The Pasay government has also sent an SOS to the Department of Health amid fears that the city is facing a transmission of the coronavirus variant first detected in the United Kingdom, which is said to be highly infectious.

One of the confirmed UK variant cases in the Philippines is a Pasay resident, a 46-year-old mother of a worker at the Metro Rail Transit-3 depot where a cluster of COVID-19 infections has been reported.

The growing problem in Pasay illustrates the continuing unpredictability of COVID-19. It also shows that President Duterte’s decision to maintain the quarantine status in Metro Manila and several other areas is sensible.

The President decided that without a vaccine rollout, areas under general community quarantine including Metro Manila could not be eased to the most lenient modified GCQ by March 1, as suggested by the National Economic and Development Authority. The President, apart from deferring the shift to MGCQ, also rejected proposals for limited face-to-face classes.

While some business leaders acknowledged the issues that were considered in the President’s

decision, they also expressed concern over the possibility that full economic reopening might have to wait until 2022. Last year, at least 119,596 registered businesses were forced to shut down, costing the government P7.767 billion in “forgone revenues,” the Bureau of Internal Revenue told the House of Representatives.

Apart from revenue losses from shuttered business enterprises, livelihoods in the informal economy have been decimated by the COVID pandemic. With the shift to MGCQ in Metro Manila, the country’s economic center, rejected by the President, NEDA is revisiting its 2021 target for gross domestic product growth, as analysts warn that recovery will be slow for the Philippines.

Protecting lives and reviving livelihoods will depend heavily on the start of mass COVID vaccination. Even President Duterte, according to nomic prognosis and the risks posed by the more Malacañang, is becoming impatient. The eco- infectious COVID variants should provide more

Editorial

Philstar.com photo

impetus for speeding up the vaccination rollout.

(Philstar.com)

Supreme Court ruling schools Trump: No president is above the law

The Fil-Am Perspective GEL SANTOS-RELOS DONALD TRUMP might have been “acquitted” by his powerhungry Republican minions in Congress twice after being impeached by the House of Representatives twice despite his abuse of power and obstruction of justice in 2020 and for inciting January 6 insurrection in the nation’s Capitol.

But the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that reminded Donald Trump that no one, not even the president of the United States, is above the law.

As the New York Times broke the news on Monday, February 22: “The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a last-ditch attempt by former President Donald J. Trump to shield his financial records, issuing a brief, unsigned order that ended Mr. Trump’s bitter 18-month battle to stop prosecutors in Manhattan from poring over his tax returns as they investigate possible financial crimes.

The court’s order was a decisive defeat for Mr. Trump, who had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep his tax returns and related documents secret, taking his case to the Supreme Court twice. There were no dissents noted.”

Yes, NO DISSENT. Not even from the justices he appointed to the highest court. These honorable justices did not betray their oath just to please Trump, who has demonstrated consistently his “quid pro quo” style of lead-

ership.

The Washington Post reported that the Supreme Court also “turned away Republican challenges to the presidential election results in Pennsylvania, refusing to take up a monthslong dispute over extending the deadline in that state for receiving mail-in ballots.”

The Post further reported: “It was part of a purge of sorts. The high court formally dismissed a range of suits filed

by Donald Trump and his allies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Arizona — all states won by Democrat Joe Biden. The court’s intent in most of those had been signaled when it refused to expedite consideration of them before Biden was inaugurated as president.

The case about deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots was different, though. Three justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch — said it deserved the court’s attention, even though the number of votes at issue would not call into question Biden’s victory.”

These are great signs that justice is still alive in the United States, and that more democratic institutions are doing their role of checks and balances and demanding accountability from former President Donald Trump, after his efforts to trample on our democracy to feed his insatiable greed for power, money and ego.

Now that Trump is no longer in power, he has lost the shield he had been desperately trying

to hold onto in order to protect himself from all the legal battles that await him, on both personal and political fronts.

Congress has also started hearings to investigate deeper into what led to the January 6 insurrection, make people accountable, and write legislation to prevent this tragedy from happening again.

Another reason to be optimistic that the rule of law will be upheld again pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution is President Joe Biden’s nomination of Merrick Garland to be the United States’ attorney general.

In his Senate confirmation hearing on Monday, February 22, Garland vowed “to keep politics out of the Justice Department and to fully prosecute the “heinous” crimes committed in the attack on the U.S. Capitol in the deadly riot on January 6,” CNN reported Garland was former President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court in 2016, but the Republican-led Senate never even got to have confirmation hearings for his nomination.

As the National Public Radio (NPR) chronicled: “Widely regarded as a moderate, Garland had been praised in the past by many Republicans, including influential senators such as Orrin Hatch of Utah.

But even before Obama had named Garland, and in fact only hours after Scalia’s death was announced, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared any appointment by the

sitting president to be null and void. He said the next Supreme Court justice should be chosen by the next president — to be elected later that year.”

Lo and behold! We knew what happened: The Senate Republicans went against their rationale that denied Garland any confirmation hearing. Instead, on September 25, 2020 — an election year — Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. The Republicans in Congress rushed the confirmation hearings despite the urgency of COVID-19 issues and on October 26, 2020, Barrett was confirmed.

The confirmation of Garland as attorney general means finally, after four years of having AGs whom Trump used as his own lawyer, we will have in Garland someone who will represent us, the American people.

“If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government,” Garland says in his opening statement.

Garland “plans to stress that the role is meant to “serve the Rule of Law and to ensure equal justice under the law,” noting that July 2020 marked the 150th anniversary of the Justice Department’s founding in the aftermath of the Civil War and that its core mission was to se-

cure the civil rights promised by the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. “The mission remains urgent because we do not yet have equal justice,” CNN quoted Garland in a report. “Communities of color and other minorities still face discrimination in housing, education, employment, and the criminal justice system.”

In his confirmation hearing, Merrick Garland assured Congress that he would remain independent of partisan influences if he is confirmed to the post.

“I do not regard myself as anything other than the lawyer for the people of the United States. I am not the President’s lawyer. I am the United States’ lawyer,” Garland said.

This is consistent with what Biden said he told Garland when announcing Garland’s nomination. “You won’t work for me.

You are not the president’s or the vice president’s lawyer.

Your loyalty is not to me. It’s to the law, the Constitution.”

As TIME reported, “Garland would oversee a wide-reaching department that has a hand in everything from the prosecution of rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to the nation’s broken immigration system. He’s set to take over the Department at a particularly fraught moment, with a crisis in confidence about the DOJ’s impartiality spurred

by Donald Trump’s presidency and numerous hot-button political investigations underway, including one into the financial dealings of Biden’s son Hunter

and another into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. How Garland navigates the tricky partisan environment could have huge consequences for public faith in the Department.”

We have seen how Trump’s AGs politicized and weaponized the position to serve him, in betrayal of the law and of the public trust accorded to him.

“I would like for the time that I’m in the Justice Department to turn down the volume on the way in which people view the department. That the Justice Department not be the center of partisan disagreement. That we return to the days when the department does its law enforcement and criminal justice policy, and that this is viewed in a bipartisan way,” Garland said in his closing remarks on Monday as reported by TIME. “I know these are divisive times.

I’m not naive. But I would like to do everything I can to have people believe that that’s what we’re doing.” *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.

*** Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at gelrelos@icloud.com, or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos.

The lines between us

Commentary

How upcoming redistricting will shape Asian American communities for the next decade SONNI WAKNIN

AND ALEX

DE OCAMPO

IF there is one takeaway from the Presidential and Georgia Senate elections of 2020, it is the power of communities. Organizers all across the country, from the Navajo nation in Arizona to African American and Southeast Asian voters in Georgia, mobilized their communities to flex their political power and show that they will have their voices heard. While federal elections are two years away, those very communities — and your community — could be at stake this year because of redistricting.

From your county school board to your state legislative and Congressional districts, every ten years election district lines are redrawn through the redistricting process.Redistrict-

ing is how we ensure that, as population densities change, we maintain roughly equal populations in each district.

Using the decennial Census numbers, each state’s population is totalled and each state receives their Congressional district allotment. Additionally, the Census provides the population numbers to each state for their own state level district apportionment. From there the real challenge begins: drawing the districts.

District lines can be drawn by politicians, advisory commissions, or non-partisan citizen commissions. No matter who draws them, district lines determine resources, funding, and even what constitutes a neighborhood. More importantly, when lines are drawn without community input, ex-

isting neighborhoods or communities can be split up. That means that during redistricting your community could be put into a district with a community that has nothing in common with yours.

Take, for example, what happened in New York state in 2011. The Census had just been completed, and the state of New York had drawn new district lines. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), however, filed a complaint in a Brooklyn, NY federal court on behalf of four Asian American voters stating that the redistricted map that the state was proposing to adopt would have disenfranchised that area’s AAPI community.

The court sided with AALDEF, and an independent “Special Master” was designated to re-

draw the maps, using neighborhood maps, ethnic data, and a “unity map” from the plaintiffs, resulting in a district in the Queens neighborhood that was 40% Asian American. This district ultimately went on to elect Grace Meng to represent them in Congress, making her the first AAPI Congressmember from the state of New York.

District lines matter because representation matters.

So what can be done to keep communities together? In your area, local redistricting commissions will soon be hearing public testimony to inform how district lines are drawn.

This is your chance to make sure that your community is represented and stays intact.

Attend (or log on to) these meetings and give public comments about the importance of

your community and that you do not want it to be split up.

Organize your neighborhood and make sure that you let the redistricting commissioners know about the social and historic importance of where you live, and that you intend to keep it unified.

In 2021, we are all exhausted. From a pandemic that has kept us inside and isolated for a year, to a seemingly never ending Presidential and then Senatorial election, we all just want to relax. But the effects of redistricting are not like an election-- they will last for the next ten years and have far reaching consequences. So for the future of your community, take an active part in the redistricting process and make your voice heard. To learn more about redistricting in your community

and our work, go to https://latino.ucla.edu/votingrights, or visit FVEP at www.fvep.org. *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.

*** Sonni Waknin is the Managing Attorney and Voting Rights Counsel at the UCLA Voting Rights Project. Her legal scholarship has been published in The California Law Journal, UCLA Law Review Discourse, and the Northwestern University Law Review of Note.

*** Alex De Ocampo practices Philanthropic Advisement for a private family foundation.

In 2017, he was one of three co-founders of the Filipino Voter Empowerment Project which boosted voter turnout through direct voter contact and online/terrestrial media strategies.

The views expressed by our Op-Ed contributors are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the predilection of the editorial board and staff of Asian Journal.

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‘Delay in face-to-face classes worsens learning crisis’ by cecille

SueRte Felipe and Roel paReño Philstar.com

MANILA — Further delay in the resumption of face-to-face classes would worsen the situation of the country’s education system and the economy, according to advocacy group Philippine Business for Education (PBEd).

The PBEd on Tuesday, February 23 renewed its call for the government to open schools in areas where the risk of COVID19 transmission is low, a day after President Duterte rejected the proposal while there is no vaccine rollout.

“Our country is already in a learning crisis, and the longer we wait for schools to open, the heavier the losses will be for the students and the economy,” PBEd executive director Love Basillote said. “We appeal to the government to find ways to open schools safely so that students can resume their learning.”

Like the President, Basillote said they also do not want to endanger the lives of students and teachers.

She stressed that the government was able to safely reopen the economy, with health protocols still in place.

“What is preventing us from safely reopening our schools?

We have around three million students who have dropped out this year because they could not keep up with learning requirements,” Basillote said.

“With no alternatives left, we are abandoning a generation of young people. This has a grave impact on national development,” she added.

Basillote said the Philippines could look at models of safe reopening of classes abroad, citing those informed by science and are limited to areas where the prevalence and transmission rates of COVID-19 are low.

She also cited the link between the country’s education sector and the economy, saying it is important to look at the issue from a bigger perspective.

“We cannot expect an economic expansion with our companies going under because they cannot find skilled workers,” she said, noting that students who have dropped out of school would find it difficult to find employment.

The Department of Education (DepEd) has yet to issue a statement on the President’s decision.

Earlier, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said she would provide Duterte with an update on the current situation to help him decide on whether to allow the pilot implementation of faceto-face classes in low risk areas.

Briones also cited a survey the DepEd conducted, which showed that more than 50 percent of students prefer face-toface classes.

“We are the only one in Southeast Asia that has not yet implemented face-to-face classes,” she said, adding that their proposal would be limited and contextu-

alized based on the situation in schools and communities.

Duterte previously allowed the pilot implementation of face-toface classes in low-risk areas. He cancelled it due to the threat of the more infectious United Kingdom variant of COVID-19.

College reopening The decision of President Duterte to defer the physical reopening of schools does not cover universities and colleges, according to Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman J. Prospero de Vera III. De Vera said the President’s decision would have no effect on the joint guidelines issued by the CHED and Department of Health (DOH) regarding the gradual reopening of colleges and universities for limited face-to-face classes.

He said Duterte’s decision to defer the reopening of schools covers only basic education.

On Feb. 10, the CHED and DOH issued a joint memorandum circular outlining the process for higher education institutions (HEIs) intending to hold limited face-to-face classes.

For the gradual reopening of universities, priority should be given to selected health-related degree programs regarded as vital in providing additional manpower support in the health system during the pandemic.

These include medicine, nursing, medical technology or medical laboratory science, physical therapy, midwifery and public health. n

SF moves to Phase 1b of COVID-19 vaccinations...

PAGE A4

in vaccine distribution has been successful. A higher proportion of the DPH-administered vaccinations have gone to people of color than the total citywide vaccinations. For example, 16.6% of the DPH vaccine allocation has gone to the Latinx population compared with 8.8% of citywide vaccinations.

“Our workforce has been maintaining our critical infrastructure, keeping us safe and providing the vital services our city needs since Mayor Breed’s emergency declaration in February 2020,” said Carol Isen, Acting Human Resources Director. “Now that we have a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine to help put an end to COVID-19, I am in full support of taking this essential step of vaccinating our

emergency services workforce, for their protection and for the safety of the entire San Francisco community. I am thrilled that the employees who are essential to keeping the City’s basic life safety systems and activities will now be eligible to get the vaccine.”

“San Francisco’s emergency service workers, teachers, childcare professionals, and food service workers are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This is an exciting and important milestone in the fight against the virus,” said Mary Ellen Carroll, Executive Director of the Department of Emergency Management. “I am especially thankful that San Francisco’s 911 dispatchers, emergency managers, police officers and the hundreds of disaster service

workers at the COVID Command Center or in the field supporting operations can now have access to vaccine. Since January 2020, these dedicated public servants have answered the call of duty to perform lifesaving work in our collective fight against COVID. Starting today they will have the opportunity to be vaccinated, and protected from the virus, so they can continue serving residents and workers of the City and County of San Francisco.”

Anyone who works or lives in San Francisco can sign up for a notification when they are eligible for vaccination atSF.gov/ vaccinenotify. The City will continue to provide regular updates to the public about the vaccine in San Francisco at:SF.gov/covidvaccine.

(SF Mayor’s Office Release)

Former Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle

CBCP photo

Cardinal Tagle appointed to Vatican’s central bank

by Ritchel

Mendiola AJPress

CARDINAL Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, has been appointed by Pope Francis as a member of a powerful body that acts as the Vatican’s “central bank.”

Tagle was appointed as a member of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), which acts as the equivalent of a treasury and also oversees real estate holdings and other sovereign assets, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) announced on Tuesday, February 24.

The office also administers payroll and operating expenses for Vatican City. It is currently headed by Italian Bishop Nunzio

Galantino.

Also appointed to the body as a member is Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

“APSA has around a hundred employees and collaborators, and a commission of eight cardinals who work alongside the president,” said the CBCP. “Pope Francis has recently brought under the control of APSA the financial investments and real estate holdings owned by the Secretariat of State — the central administration of the Vatican,” it added.

Tagle has been in the Vatican since February 2020 when he was appointed as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, usually referred to by its historic name of Propaganda Fide.

According to Catholic News Agency, the Propaganda Fide is one of the largest curial departments, with a size and scope exceeding almost any other. It is also the most financially autonomous curial department.

As the Propaganda Fide, Tagle is tasked with the Church’s missionary works and territories.

In May 2020, Tagle was promoted by Pope Francis to the rank of cardinal-bishop, the highest position within the Church’s College of Cardinals.

He is the first Filipino to be named cardinal-bishop.

In July 2020, Tagle was named member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

He is also currently serving his second and last term as president of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of Catholic charities around the world. n

Survey: More women hold senior corporate...

PAGE A5 ance, must continue to take action to enable women to realize their ambitions,” said P&A Grant Thornton chair and CEO Marivic Españo in a statement.

She added, “Becoming the number one ranking country in terms of the proportion of women in senior management certainly does represent progress — having grown from 39 percent five years ago when we first started tracking this — but these gains can easily be lost.”

The survey found that the number of Filipino women in

operational C-suite roles has been growing, with the proportion of female chief executive officers up 16 percentage points to 38%, and female chief operating officers up four percentage points to 27%.

On the other hand, the proportion of female chief financial officers went down three percentage points to 35%.

In addition, 42% of the respondents said that the new working practices like remote work adapted in response to the pandemic will benefit women’s career trajectories long-term,

despite potentially hindering factors which may be down to the flexibility that remote working offers.

Launched in 1992, the IBR provides insights into the views and expectations of around 10,000 businesses across 29 economies.

The 2021 survey was conducted from October to December 2020 through online and telephone interviews with chief executive officers, managing directors, chairperson or other senior executives from all industry sectors. n

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Friday, February 26, 2021

INSIDE >>> L I F E S T Y L E • C O N S U M E R G U I D E • C O M M U N I T Y • M A R K E T P L A C E Immigration Corner

Biden’s new US Citizenship 9 books by Fil-Am authors to Act of 2021 – key highlights put on your 2021 reading list

U.S. citizenship for the approximate 11 million undocumented noncitizens in the U.S. I will not go through the entire ON February 18, 2021, Pres. bill in this column, but will discuss Biden and the Democrats formally some of the important highlights introduced the “U.S. Citizenship that may apply to you or someone Act” of 2021. It is a massive bill, you know. over 350 pages long, covering a First, the U.S. Citizenship Act is variety of immigration issues, and still only a PROPOSAL. It is not yet reforms, including a pathway to a law. There is nothing for anyone

ATTY. MICHAEL GURFINKEL, ESQ

WHO BENEFITS FROM PRESIDENT BIDEN’S NEW “U.S. CITIZENSHIP ACT OF 2021?” THE ANSWERS ON A SPECIAL EPISODE OF CITIZEN PINOY THIS SUNDAY. Leading U.S. Immigration Attorney Michael J. Gurfinkel has already discussed the key points of President Biden’s bill on his YouTube channel, US Immigration TV. And since so many Kapamilyas could benefit, Atty. Gurfinkel devotes a whole episode of Citizen Pinoy to explain important key points of the bill that could affect Kapamilya viewers. Be sure to watch this special episode of “Citizen Pinoy” this Sunday, February 28 at 5:30 pm PST (8:30 pm EST thru select Cable/Satellite providers).

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to file or apply for at present.

Turning to the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, the key sections of the bill include: 1. Earned path to citizenship and other reforms; 2. Addressing the root causes of migration and responsible managing of the southern border; 3. Reform of the immigrant visa system; 4. Immigration courts, family values, and vulnerable individuals; 5. Employment authorization and protecting workers from exploitation.

Here are key highlights of the bill that will interest many of you: 1. Removal of word “Alien”.

The Bill removes the term “alien” from immigration law. From now on, people who are not U.S. citizens or nationals will be referred to as “noncitizen.” So people who are out of status will no longer be referred to as “illegal aliens,” but noncitizens.

2. Earned path to citizenship.

One of the most important aspects of this bill is the earned path to U.S. citizenship. It applies to noncitizens who have been in the U.S. continuously from January 1, 2021, until the date their application is approved. Certain noncitizens who were deported on or after January 20, 2017 (when Trump took office) may also be eligible if they had been in the U.S. for at least 3 years before being deported.

A person will first be classified as a “lawful prospective immigrant” (LPI) for six years, which can be extended. The person would need to pass background criminal checks, would receive

BY

aJpReSS

LOOKING for your next quarantine read? Here is a roundup of several books — from fiction to food — by Filipino/a American authors that hit shelves in the new year or are slated to be released later in 2021.

“The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata” by Gina Apostol (Jan. 2021, Soho Press) Award-winning writer Gina Apostol’s novel “The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata” — for which she won her second Philippine National Book Award in 2010 — has been rereleased in the United States by Soho Press.

It’s structured as a memoir by Raymundo Mata, a half-blind bookworm and revolutionary, who narrates his childhood, his education in Manila, his love affairs, and his discovery of writer and fellow revolutionary, Jose Rizal. The 19th-century story features footnotes from three fiercely quarrelsome and comic voices: a nationalist editor, a neo-Freudian psychoanalyst critic, and a translator, Mimi C. Magsalin.

“Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice” by Dr. Kevin Nadal (Feb. 2021, Wiley) Dr. Kevin Nadal, a New York-based psychology professor, queer activist and author, has published the second edition of “Filipino American Psychology,” a resource for understanding the mental health PAGE B3 of the second largest Asian

American group and fastgrowing demographic. From exploring cultural values to historic traumas, Nadal’s text is a must-read guide for working with the community and a conversation starter to help decrease mental health stigma across generations.

“With You” by Michelle Lopez Clark (March 2021, Mascot Books) Michelle Lopez Clark, a psychotherapist from Southern California, makes her debut as an author with a children’s picture book about the loving relationship with dogs. “With You” is a relatable story of rhymes and representation that promotes the value of fosTwo-time “Top Chef” finalist tering an emotional connecand three-time James Beard tion with children.

“Cook Real Hawai’i” by Award nominee Sheldon SimeSheldon Simeon (March 2021, on takes at-home cooks at any Clarkson Potter) PAGE B2

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celebrityworld

Duggan’s Serra Mortuary president Dan Duggan heads list of March birthday celebrants

By Ferdie Villar DAN Duggan, the president of Duggan’s Serra Mortuary, heads the list of prominent personalities celebrating their birthdays in the month of March. Dan will celebrate his birthday on Saturday, March 27.

Duggan’s Serra Mortuary is where many Filipino Americans honor and pay their last respects to their loved ones before leaving this world. It is located conveniently in Daly City, which is known to all kababayans as the Adobo City.

Other prominent celebrities who will be celebrating their birthdays in March include: March 1: Royal Dynasty Foundation founder Nelly Cojuangco Tuazon, Premiere Appliances in Daly City owner Tony Premiere; March 3: Dr. Tita Martinez Picache of Danville, United Airlines employee Edward Teofilo Cabrera; March 4: Beauteous actress Dawn Zulueta, Pedro (Jonjing) Ejercito de Castro [nephew of former Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada]; March 6: Kapamilya actress Gretchen Barretto, Isabelle Diaz Daza-Semblat who is the daughter of the Philippines’ first Miss

Universe Gloria Diaz; March 7: Star Cinema actor Gerald Anderson; March 8: The late former Senator Ramon Revilla, Actor/host/ dancer Archie Alemania of GMA Network; March 9: Veteran actress Rosemarie Gil, Atty. K.J. Petsas; March 10: Philippines Today co-publisher Marilyn King Camilosa, Kapamilya actor J.C. de Vera, former Miss Universe winner Gloria Diaz; March 11: Internationally known singer/songwriter Jose Mari Chan; March 14: Kapuso actor Paolo Contis, Homeland Security officer Ermin Apolinario, Pittsburg community leader Mathie Roldan Velasco; March 16: Pop Diva Kuh Ledesma; March 17: Former Mr. United Nations-USA winner Roberto (Bobby) Tuason, retired Navy captain Jimmy Velasco; March 18: Kapuso rising star Klea Pineda, Kapuso actress Bianca King; March 19: Kapamilya Channel 2 actress of primetime teleserye Asintado, Julia Montes; March 20: Batangueños of

Gloria Diaz, the first Filipina to win the Miss Universe title in Julia Montes, one of the stars of The Filipino Channel, 1969, celebrates her birthday on Wednesday, March 10. celebrates her birthday on Friday, March 19.

Kapuso star Geoff Eigenmann celebrates his birthday on Tuesday, March 23.

Northern California best-dressed matron Liza Manalo; March 21: GMA Network artist Rocco Nacino, Statewide Realty proprietress Alice Gabriana Atienza; March 23: TV and movie actor Geoff Eigenmann; March 24: Actor/model/singer/ dancer Aljur Abrenica; March 25: Asian Journal Publications president Cora Macabagdal-Oriel, photoman Ray Guarin;

Retired Navy captain Jimmy Velasco (Wednesday, March 17) and his wife Mathie Roldan Velasco (Suhday, March 14), a Pittsburg community leader, are both March celebrants.

Dan Duggan, president and owner of Duggan’s Serra Mortuary, heads the list of prominent personalities who are March birthday celebrants.

United Airlines employee Edward Cabrera celebrates his birthday on Wednesday, March 3.

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Alicia Gabriana Atienza, proprietress of Statewide Realty in Daly City, celebrates her birthday on Sunday, March 21.

Lerma de la Cruz, an entertainment producer, celebrates her birthday on Wednesday, March 31.

March 26: Kapamilya actor/singer Matteo Guidicelli, US Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi; March 28: Carousel Productions Inc. founder/president Ramon Monzon (the organization that owns and runs the Miss Earth beauty pageants); March 30: The late Thomasians USA founder Alice Pena Bulos, Samtrans employee Eugene Cabugao; March 31: Entertainment producer Lerma de la Cruz, GMA Network actor Benjamin Alves.

To all March birthday celebrants, many happy returns of Ray Guarin, a photographer who covers the day! Also, advanced Happy Filipino events, celebrates his birthday on Easter greetings to all!

Tuesday, March 23.

9 books by Fil-Am authors to put on...

PAGE B1 skill level on a tasteful journey through Hawai’i and the influences that shape its culinary traditions in his forthcoming cookbook. Simeon, the chef and owner of two restaurants in Maui, shares 100 uncomplicated recipes from wokfried poke to charred huli-huli chicken while providing poignant stories and historical accounts.

“In a Book Club Far Away”

by Tif Marcelo (April 2021, Gallery Books) Tif Marcelo, a former Army nurse turned best-selling author, offers a look into the dynamics of a military family with her latest novel, “In a Book Club Far Away.” The story follows three Army wives who bond during a book club, but must later overcome their differences when one of them is desperate for help.

“Maybe, Maybe Marisol Rainey” by Erin Entrada Kelly (May 2021, Greenwillow Books) Newbery Medal-winning author Erin Entrada Kelly is set to release an illustrated novel loosely based on her biracial identity as a Filipina American growing up in a small Louisiana town. “Maybe, Maybe Marisol Rainey” introduces readers to Marisol, an imaginative, yet cautious girl who learns how to overcome her fears. With witty humor and nuanced childhood friendships, it’s a must-read for early elementary grade students.

“When Lola Visits” by Michelle Sterling (May 2021, Katherine Tegen Books) Inspired by childhood summers with her lola (grandmother) visiting from the Philippines, author Michelle Sterling and illustrator Aaron Asis come together for a children’s picture book that captures this special lola-apo bond. Expect pages that bring the sights and senses as well as traditions that mark the Filipino American experience.

“Manifest Technique: Hip Hop, Empire, and Visionary Filipino American Culture” by Mark R. Villegas (July 2021, University of Illinois Press) From DJs to successful artists like Apl.de.Ap of the Black Eyed Peas, Filipino Americans have undoubtedly made their imprint on hip hop. But in “Manifest Technique,” Mark

Chef Angela Dimayuga is set to release her debut cookbook “Filipinx” in October 2021.

Photo by Guang Xu

R. Villegas — an assistant professor of American studies at Franklin & Marshall College — takes the genre’s significance to the Fil-Am community within the context of decolonization and racial identity.

“Filipinx Cookbook” by Angela Dimayuga (Oct. 2021, Abrams) Chef Angela Dimayuga — a James Beard Award nominee for Rising Star Chef who previously served as creative direc-

tor of food and culture at the Standard hotels — will release her debut cookbook in time for Fil-Am History Month. “Filipinx” is filled with more than 100 deeply personal dishes and stories that trace “how she learned to cook from her mother in Southern California and became a classically trained chef of French cooking before finally learning to love to cook food from the Philippines.”

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President Biden’s US Citizenship Act of 2021 will be World’s first all-civilian mission to space, Inspiration4, names second crew member discussed on a special episode of Citizen Pinoy this Sunday Two remaining seats on mission still available to the general public until February 28

MEMPHIS Inspiration4, the MEMPHIS – Inspiration4, world’s first mission to world’s first all-civilian all-civilian mission space, has announced space, has announced its second second crew member, crew member, Hayley Hayley Arceneaux Arceneaux of Memphis, Memphis, TN, TN, aa 29-year-old 29-year-old physician assistant assistant at at St. physician St. Jude Children’s Children’s Research Research Hospital® Hospital® who was treated as a child child for bone cancer cancer at St. St. Jude.

Jude. ArceArceneaux joins neaux joins Inspiration4 Inspiration4 mission mission commander commander Jared Isaacman.

Isaacman. She She will occupy will occupy the mission mission seat reprepresenting Hope. resenting Hope.

“It’s an an incredible incredible honor honor to join “It’s join the Inspiration4 Inspiration4 crew. crew. This This seat represents the the hope hope that St. Jude represents gave me—and continues continues to give families from from around around the world, families world, who, me, find find hope when who, like like me, they walk through the doors doors of St. St. Jude,” Jude,” said said Arceneaux.

Arceneaux.

“When II was was just 10 years “When years old, old, St. Jude gave me the opportuSt. Jude opportunity to grow grow up. up. Now Now II am am fulfillfulfilling my dreams dreams of working working at the research hospital hospital and traveling research traveling around around the world. world. It’s It’s incredible incredible to be aa part part of of this this mission mission that is is not only only raising raising crucial crucial funds for work of of St. Jude but the lifesaving lifesaving work St. Jude also also introducing introducing new supporters supporters mission.” to the mission.”

Isaacman, the 38-year-old Isaacman, 38-year-old founder and chief founder chief executive executive officer ficer of of Shift4 Shift4 Payments Payments [NYSE: [NYSE: FOUR] and and an FOUR] an accomplished accomplished pilot, donated two of the four pilot, donated four seats on Inspiration4 seats Inspiration4 to St. St. Jude, Jude, including the seat filled by including the

by ArceArceneaux. The neaux.

The mission mission name name InspiInspiration4 ration4 recognizes recognizes the four-perfour-perpurpose –– to send a son crew’s crew’s purpose humanitarian message of possihumanitarian message possibility and inspire bility inspire support support for St. St. Jude – and and represents represents the the pillars pillars of Leadership, Leadership, Hope, Hope, Generosity Generosity and Prosperity.

Prosperity.

“Assembling aa unique unique and di“Assembling verse verse crew crew whose personal personal stories and values will ries will inspire inspire people everywhere at the heart of everywhere isis at the Inspiration4 Inspiration4 mission,” mission,” said said Isaacman.

“As I’ve I’ve spent spent time Isaacman. “As with Hayley Hayley in the earliest earliest days days of mission mission prep, prep, she’s she’s everything everything we want our our team team to to represent represent – she’s in the world she’s interested interested in world around her, her, devoted devoted to caring around caring for others and hopeful others and hopeful for a better future for all of future of us. us. She She already already inspires me, and I’m inspires me, I’m certain certain she’ll inspire inspire many many others others as as they she’ll get to know know her her in the the course course of mission.” our mission.”

Isaacman has committed committed to Isaacman has million to St. give $100 $100 million St. Jude and is everyone to join him is inviting inviting everyone in support support of of St. St. Jude’s Jude’s multi-bilmulti-billion-dollar lion-dollar expansion expansion designed designed to accelerate accelerate research research advanceadvancements ments and save save more more children children worldwide. The The fundraising worldwide. fundraising ef-

Health@Heart Health@Heart PPhiliP ChuaC,hua, hiliPS.S. MD, FPCSFPCS MD,FaCS, FaCS, HUMOR is healthy, HUMOR is healthy, especially especially during We all need during a pandemic. pandemic. We it, it, together together with a positive positive attitude, tude, in this world world calamity calamity that has has afflicted afflicted almost 113 113 million million people and claimed claimed about 2.5 2.5 million livesaround aroundthe the globe. million lives globe.

Perhaps find some some of the fake Perhaps II find fake news news on social social media media amusing amusing because because II am a physician physician – more more scientific and objective objective in in my scientific and thinking, totally relying relying on evithinking, totally evidence-based dence-based data about about diseases, diseases, and can can separate separate medical medical facts facts from fictionmore morereadily. readily. from fiction A few examples examples of these these riridiculous claims include include the the foldiculous claims lowing: That there there is actually lowing: That actually no coronavirus, no pandemic; coronavirus, no pandemic; that billionaires like Bill Bill Gates Gates are are fibillionaires like nancing to lessen nancing a “project” “project” to lessen the world world population; population; that masks masks and distancing do not work; distancing do work; that getting the the COVID-19 COVID-19 vaccines vaccines will will change change the person’s person’s DNA; DNA; that the vaccines vaccines contain contain fetal fetal tissues, tissues, microchip, and that it causes microchip, and causes infertility; that the vaccines infertility; that vaccines are are causing brain and spinal causing brain spinal cord cord injuries; that isis itit safer safer to to get COinjuries; that COVID-19 instead of of receiving VID-19 instead receiving the “dangerous” vaccine; that that after “dangerous” vaccine; after receiving the shots, shots, people people do receiving the not need need masks masks and and distancing distancing any more. more.

The goes on The misinformation misinformation goes and on. Adding Adding insult insult to to injury, injury, all these false data are are e-blasted e-blasted on the internet internet to to countless countless viewviewers around the world. ers around world. And many many have disseminated disseminated the same same falsehood falsehood to millions millions more, more, and so the the cycle cycle continues. continues. Of Of course, course, wrong wrong information information is is dangerous. dangerous.

During During aa pandemic, pandemic, itit could even be deadly. deadly.

The The other popular popular assertion assertion is is that we, the people, people, are are being being used used as guinea pigs in this this masmassive sive experiment, experiment, which further further stokes fear among the innocent, stokes fear innocent, ignorant, gullible people people who ignorant, gullible think think everything everything on social social media media is gospelofoftruth. truth. is aagospel From point of From the medical medical point view, yes, to some extent the curview, yes, current therapy/vaccination therapy/vaccination adminadministered istered to people is is partly partly an an “ex“experiment,” an exploration exploration to to find periment,” an out more facts, facts, the truth about

PEOPLE are are excited excited about PEOPLE President Joe Biden’s President Biden’s “U.S. “U.S. CitiCitizenship Act Act of 2021” zenship 2021” - the the legislalegislative bill proposed by the the president president hisfirst firstday dayofof office. on his office.

Leading U.S. Leading U.S. Immigration Immigration Attorney Michael torney Michael J. Gurfinkel Gurfinkel has has already covered covered this this on his Youalready YouTube channel: Tube channel: US US Immigration Immigration TV, some some weeks weeks back, back, but but he will TV, will important points points on be explaining explaining important

this topic on aa special this special episode of CitizenPinoy.

Pinoy.

Citizen Atty. Gurfinkel Atty.

Gurfinkel will will discuss discuss the of the bill key highlights highlights of bill that would be most most useful useful to to many many KapamiKapamilyas out there, lyas there, especially especially those who might be hoping hoping for for amnesty amnesty pathto tocitizenship. citizenship. and aapath While the the bill is still in its While its early early stages, itit is an stages, an encouraging encouraging first first step towards towards what could poten-

tially be an opportunity tially opportunity to reform reform the current current immigration immigration system. system.

Many Kapamilyas could stand stand to Many Kapamilyas could benefit from fromthis thisbill. bill. benefit Learn about about the key points of Learn Act of 2021” the “U.S. “U.S. Citizenship Citizenship Act 2021” on this this special special episode episode of of “Citizen “Citizen Pinoy” this this Sunday, Pinoy” Sunday, February February 28 at 5:30 5:30 pm pm PST PST (8:30 (8:30 pm pm EST EST thru selectCable/Satellite Cable/Satelliteproviders). providers). select

PAGE B1 employment authorization, employment authorization, would be eligible eligible for for aa Social Social Security Security number and card, number card, may travel outside the U.S. side U.S. on advance advance parole, parole, and could be eligible eligible for health health coverage. coverage.

Even though LPI Even LPI status is grantgranted for for six six years, years, after after a person person has been an has an LPI LPI for five five years, years, the person can can apply apply to adjust person adjust stastatus to that that of of aa lawful lawful permanent permanent resident. So So itit seems to the resident. seems similar similar to way green green card card holders holders naturalize: naturalize: green card green card holder must must maintain maintain that status for at least least five years years to naturalize, an an LPI naturalize, LPI must maintain maintain status for five years status years before they apply to be apply be aafull full“permanent” “permanent” imimmigrant. Three migrant.

Three years years after being being a permanent permanent resident, resident, the person person could apply applyfor forU.S. U.S. citizenship. could citizenship.

3. DACA 3.

DACA legalization legalization & expanexpansion of age sion age requirement. requirement. The The U.S. Citizenship Citizenship Act Act also also calls U.S. calls for the legalization legalization of DACA DACA recipirecipiand others ents (green (green cards), cards), and others who entered the U.S. entered U.S. before before their 18th birthday. Right Right now, now, DACA birthday.

DACA rerequired the person quired person to have have entered entered before their 16th birththe U.S. U.S. before birthday. This means there there might might be day.

This means more individuals more individuals who can can qualify qualify for legalization legalizationasasDreamers.

Dreamers.

4. Legalization 4.

Legalization of of agricultural agricultural workers.There Thereisis also also a provision workers. provision for the the legalization legalization of of agricultural agricultural workers, who who have demonstrated workers, demonstrated that they they performed performed agricultural agricultural labor or services for at least labor services for least 2,300 2,300 hrs. in in the five hrs. five years years before before their their application. This This isis similar similar to to an application. agricultural program program back back in in the agricultural ‘80s called ‘80s called SAW SAW or special special agriagriculturalworkers. workers. cultural 5. Hope 5.

Hope for for people people with with exexpunged criminal This bill punged criminal record. record. This bill also provides provides hope hope for for people who also been convicted have previously previously been convicted of certain crimes.

Right now, certain certain crimes. Right certain crimes could could be be a barrier crimes barrier to their their being legalized, even if the convicbeing legalized, even conviction was was expunged. expunged. This This bill propro-

vides that aa “conviction” vides “conviction” would not include include “an “an adjudication adjudication or judgment of guilt that has been judgment dismissed, expunged, dismissed, expunged, deferred, deferred, annulled, invalidated, annulled, invalidated, withheld, withheld, or vacated.” vacated.” Therefore, Therefore, anyone anyone who had aa conviction conviction that was was exexpunged, while while it still is held punged, held against against you today, if this this bill bill passes, passes, depending on the type pending type of of crime, crime, there could couldbe behope hopefor foryou. you. there 6. Reclassification for fami6.

Reclassification for families of lies of immigrants immigrants as as immediate immediate relatives. This This bill bill also relatives. also re-classire-classifies spouses fies spouses and minor minor children children of green card holders green holders as as “immediate “immediate relatives,” which which isis the the same relatives,” same as spouses and children spouses children of U.S. U.S. citicitizens. At present, zens. present, they they are areclassified classified But if they as F2A. F2A. But they are are considered considered immediate relatives, an advantage immediate relatives, an advantage is if they overstayed is overstayed and are out they would would be able to of status, status, they apply for their green cards in the apply cards in U.S., versus versus having having to to depart depart the U.S., U.S. and and apply apply abroad, U.S. abroad, which is is presently the the case presently case for spouses spouses and childrenofofgreen greencard card holders. children holders.

7. Repeal 7.

Repeal the 3/10-year 3/10-year bar. bar. As As for “promoting “promoting family family unity,” unity,” this this bill repeals bill repeals the 3 and and 10-year 10-year bar, bar, (which provides provides that that ifif a person (which person is is out of status status for over 6 months and departs the U.S., they could could be departs U.S., they barred from from returning returning for for 33 or 10 barred years.) Therefore, Therefore,ififaa person person is is not years.) eligible to adjust eligible adjust status status in in the theU.S., U.S., because they they are are out for example, example, because of status status and and don’t don’t have have 245(i), 245(i), entered as a crewman, entered crewman, or K-1 K-1 and didn’t marry didn’t marry the American American who petitioned them, them, they could petitioned could travel travel abroad for their abroad their immigrant immigrant visa visa about the 3- and without worrying worrying about 10-year bar bar or or having having to apply for 10-year provisionalwaiver. waiver. a provisional 8. Children 8.

Children of of Filipino Filipino World World War IIII veterans.

There isis a secWar veterans. There section called called the the “Filipino “Filipino Veterans Veterans Family Reunification Family Reunification Act,” Act,” which which provides that adult provides adult children children of of FiliFilipino war war veterans, veterans, whether whether single single (F1 or or F3), are not subor married married (F1 F3), are sub-

ject to to direct direct numerical numerical limitations limitations Right now, now, there there is is a 10 on visas. visas. Right to 20-year 20-year wait for for adult adult children children because they they are subof Filipinos Filipinos because subject to the the numerical numerical limitations limitations or annual annual allotments allotments of of visas. visas. This This law may make them eligible eligible to go frontofofthe theline. line. to the front As I stated in As in the the beginning, beginning, this is only aa proposal, this proposal, and and Biden Biden is expecting from the is expecting pushback pushback from Republicans and and negotiations Republicans negotiations and changes. ItIt is is not yet changes. yet law, law, there’s there’s nothing to apply for yet, but there nothing there will be developments will developments in the coming coming weeks and months. I will weeks will continue continue to keep you updated on the latest latest developments of this proposal developments proposal as well as other well other areas areas of of immigration immigration law, which which you might find helpful law, helpful either for yourself, either yourself, your family, family, or your friends. your friends. Visit Visit my YouTube YouTube channel at US channel US Immigration Immigration TV TV for importantnews newsand andupdates. updates. important

shut off if you to leave leave your your utilities utilities shut don’t send them money money immediimmediately.But Butthose thoseare are ately. allall lies.lies. you get one of IfIf you of these these calls, calls, texts, or emails, here are some texts, emails, here thingsyou youcan cando: do: things you get a call, ••IfIfyou call, thank the thecaller caller and hang up. up. Never Never call a number number left in aa voicemail, voicemail, text, text, or or email. email.

Instead, if you’re Instead, you’re worried, worried, contact contact the utility utility company company directly directly using using bill or or on the the number number on your bill company’s website. website. Verify Verify ifif the company’s messagecame camefrom fromthem. them. message you get get aa call call out out of the blue •• IfIfyou you have have to and the caller caller claims claims you pay a past past due due bill bill or or your your serservices will will be shut vices shut off, off, never give banking information over the banking information over

To pay pay your your bill bill over over the phone. To phone. phone, always always place place the the call call to to a phone, numberyou youknow knowisislegitimate. legitimate. number Utility companies companies don’t don’t de•• Utility mand payment information information by email, text, text, or phone.

And they email, phone. And won’t force you you to pay by phone won’t force youronly onlyoption. option. as your the caller caller tells tells you you to pay •• IfIf the gift card, by gift card, cash reload reload card, card, money transfer, transfer, or or cryptocurcryptocurrency, it’s it’s a scam. scam. Every Every time. rency, time. No No matter what whatthey theysay. say. matter It’s cold cold out there.

It’s there. Help Help protect protect your community your community by reporting reporting any scams you see scams see atatReportFraud.ftc.

ReportFraud.ftc. gov.

(Emily Wu/Attorney, (Emily Wu/Attorney, Federal Federal TradeCommission) Commission) Trade

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Information on the Embassy reopening Biden’s new US Citizenship Act...

Hayley Arceneaux of Memphis, TN, a 29-year-old physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® who was treated as a child for bone cancer at St. Jude, will be a crew member for Inspiration4, the world’s first all-civilian mission to space.

Photo courtesy of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

fort will continue continue through through the missionlaunch launchlater later this year. mission this year.

“It has has been a personal “It personal honor honor grow up and fulto watch watch Hayley Hayley grow fulfill As a patient, an fill her dreams. dreams. As intern and then then in in the intern at ALSAC, ALSAC, and Pediatric Pediatric Oncology Oncology Education Education program program at St. St. Jude Jude Children’s Children’s Research Hospital, she she was was alResearch Hospital, always ways aa rising rising star,” star,” said said Richard Richard C. C. Shadyac Shadyac Jr., Jr., President President and CEO CEO of ALSAC, ALSAC, the the fundraising fundraising and awareness awareness organization organization for St. “From the beginning, St. Jude.

Jude. “From beginning, St. Jude has has been at the St. Jude the forefront forefront of innovation innovation and and inclusion, inclusion, leadleading in in cancer cancer research, research, and treattreatment for some some of of the theworld’s world’s sicksickest children children regardless regardless of race, race, ethnicity, or aa family’s ability to ethnicity, or family’s ability pay, pay, so that that children children like like Hayley Hayley can live full, healthy healthy and aweaweinspiring lives. She She will will be be an inspiring lives. incredible incredible ambassador ambassador through through this this mission mission and inspiration inspiration to children children fighting cancer cancer and andsursurvivorsworldwide.” worldwide.” vivors The mission is being tarThe mission is targeted for the fourth fourth quarter quarter of this year. this year. Arceneaux, Arceneaux, Isaacman Isaacman and the the Inspiration4 Inspiration4 crew will will undergo commercial undergo commercial astronaut astronaut training by

by SpaceX on the Faltraining SpaceX on Falcon 9 launch launch vehicle vehicle and Dragon Dragon spacecraft, including including a specific spacecraft, specific focus on orbital focus orbital mechanics, mechanics, operating in microgravity, erating microgravity, zero zero gravity, and and other forms gravity, forms of of stress stress testing. They testing.

They will receive receive emeremergency preparedness gency preparedness training, training, spacesuit and spacecraft spacesuit spacecraft ingress ingress as well well as and egress egress exercises, exercises, as partial- and full-mission partialfull-mission simulasimulations. The tions.

The mission mission will launch launch from historic from historic Launch Launch Complex Complex 39A at 39A at NASA’s NASA’s Kennedy Kennedy Space Space Center in Florida and will Center Florida and will be carefully monitored monitored at at every carefully every step

control as as the

by SpaceX SpaceX mission mission control spacecraft orbits orbits the the planet every spacecraft every 90 minutes minutes along aa customized customized flight path. Upon flight Upon conclusion conclusion of the multi-day multi-day journey, journey, Dragon Dragon will reenter will reenter Earth’s Earth’s atmosphere atmosphere for a soft water landing landing off the coast of ofFlorida.

Florida. coast The remaining The remaining two seats seats reprepresenting Generosity resenting Generosity and ProsProsperity are are available perity available to the general general public through February public February 28, 28, with details available available at the details the mission mission website, Inspiration4.com. website, Inspiration4.com. The The Generosity crew crew seat seat can can be seGenerosity secured by by a member of the public cured public who enters for an opportunity opportunity to join join the the flight flight to to space. space. The The Prosperity seat seat is is available available to to any Prosperity deserving entrepreneur entrepreneur who who utideserving lizes the new lizes new Shift4Shop Shift4Shop eComeCommerce platform platform to submit merce submit their their idea and be selected idea selected by a panel panel of distinguished distinguished judges. judges. The The Shift4Shop platform platform is designed Shift4Shop designed to empower empower entrepreneurs entrepreneurs to build and grow build grow successful successful eComeCommercebusinesses. businesses. merce To learn more To more about about InspiraInspiration4, how how to support and potention4, tially join tially join this historic historic journey journey to space and the space the specific specific conditions conditions of the the promotions, promotions, visit visit InspiraInspiration4.com and and follow tion4.com follow the mismission on social sion social media on on Twitter Twitter (@inspiration4x), Facebook Facebook (@ (@inspiration4x), (@ inspiration4mission), Instagram inspiration4mission), Instagram (@inspiration4) and and YouTube (@inspiration4) YouTube (@Inspiration4) to to receive receive the (@Inspiration4) latest news on latest on mission mission training training and preparation. preparation. Individuals Individuals who are are interested interested in in learning learning how to enter enter for for an an opportunity opportunity one of the two seats to secure secure one seats WINTERoften often brings brings the blues, WINTER blues, still available still available should should visit InInbut when it brings Arctic blasts, when it brings Arctic blasts, spiration4.com and and review review the spiration4.com burst pipes, power outages, outages, and Official Rules Rules for for the applicable Official applicable burst pipes, icicles indoors, scammers even icicles indoors, scammers promotion. promotion. aren’t far aren’t far behind behind with with weather-reweather-rescams. lated scams.

Scammers know know severe weather Scammers weather may have shut shut off off your your electricity, electricity, heat, water and might pose as ing more people around the world world heat, and water your utility company. your company. They They might to get get infected infected and and exponentially exponentially call say that they’re sorry your raise the number raise the number of deaths deaths from from call to say that they’re sorry your power out and offer offer aa reimreim2.5 million to 50 million 2.5 million million or more more power went bursement, but but first first they need your your while waiting, like like the the death toll bursement, while waiting, account information.

They bank account information.

They from from the 1918 1918 Spanish Spanish Flu. Flu. After After email to say say that that there’s there’s two years years of of added added “experimen“experimen- might email you error in their system, you an error system, and tation” and observation of the tation” and observation of to give give them them personal personal inforinforlaboratory laboratory animals, animals, the answers answers have mation they can turn turn your your gas gas we do not know know today, today, we would mation so again. They could even threaten threaten know then. But But by then, we could could on again. They most likely lose billions and not likely lose billions and only millions millions of lives lives globally. globally.

This would be This would be irresponsible irresponsible and inhumane. inhumane.

So, So, it is obvious obvious that after the extensive R&D and and three phases extensive R&D phases of clinical clinical trials trials and due due diligence diligence on the the vaccines, vaccines, we cannot cannot afford afford to wait wait until until they they are are perfect perfect or 100 percent That is is a fantasy SAN 100 percent safe. safe. That fantasy SAN MATEO MATEO — Beginning Beginning March 15, 15, San San Mateo County – an an unwise unwise and aa misguided misguided op- March County LiLition. The The reality reality isis that that there there is tion. is no braries braries will will assume assume operational operational medication or or vaccine today that responsibility responsibility for for the Fair medication vaccine today Fair Oaks Oaks is perfect Library— —aa move move that will is perfect or 100 percent percent without Branch Branch Library will possible side-effects among some increase public public service service hours hours of possible side-effects among some increase people. Even has poten- operation people.

Even aspirin aspirin has operation and expansion expansion of proprotial side-effects which have killed grams. tial side-effects which killed grams. some people. The The follows approval approval of some The remaining remaining unThe transfer transfer follows knowns about the vaccines knowns vaccines today a new new cost-sharing cost-sharing agreement agreement bewill be obvious will obvious in a few months months tween the San San Mateo Mateo County County LiLibrary Joint Powers or a year year or two. That That is the rere- brary Powers Authority Authority and ality. We We simply simply have have to be Cityof ofRedwood RedwoodCity.

City. ality. be wise, wise, the City understanding,and andpatient. patient.

Under the terms of the understanding, Under the Library Library Our imperfect Our imperfect vaccines vaccines against against JPA JPA Agreement, Agreement, the minimum minimum SARS-CoV2 virus virus of COVID-19 number of service SARS-CoV2 COVID-19 number service hours hours will will be are not perfect to the are perfect or or 100 100 percent percent 60 hours hours per week. week. Prior Prior to temporary closure without risk, risk, but they are are already already temporary closure of City City facilities facilities They have have been due to doing wonders. wonders. They to the the COVID-19 COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic, administered to to around was open 50 hours of administered around 70 milmil- the library library was lion people in the per week. lion the United United States States service service per week. The The County will will continue to own and maintain (about 21 percent percent of its more more continue maintain the as it has than 332 332 million million population). population). building building as has since since 1995 1995 when Globally, over over 300 million Globally, million doses doses the County and City City partnered partnered to fundthe thenew newlibrary. library. have been given given in in 110 110countries, countries, jointly jointly fund “This library library isis a community with the world world population population of of 7.85 7.85 “This community billion. Too Too slow, said San San Mateo billion. slow, indeed. indeed. There There treasure,” treasure,” said Mateo County County is no doubt that getting Supervisor Warren is getting the vacvac- Supervisor Warren Slocum.

Slocum. “With “With cines, in in spite spite of their hours both for cines, their potential potential increased increased hours for curbside curbside side-effects, isis wise… wise… aa lot safer service, and and for for when when it fully side-effects, safer service, fully rerewill serve than getting infected infected with this this opens, opens, this this library library will serve and killervirus. virus. killer meet the needs needs of the the families families in The country country with with the most effiOaks – particularly The effi- North North Fair Fair Oaks particularly the cient COVID-19 children.” cient COVID-19 vaccination vaccination propro- children.” gram is Israel The which will will be regram Israel (with almost almost 8.743 8.743 The library, library, which remillion in in population).

It has vacnamed North million population). It vac- named North Fair Fair Oaks Oaks Library, Library, cinated more more than 35 percent cinated percent of will will continue continue to serve serve North North Fair Fair Oaks residents as well as City its population, population, the world’s world’s highhigh- Oaks residents as City resiresiest per capita capita rate rate of of vaccination, vaccination, dents located in in nearby nearby neighborneighborwhich has hoods. The transition which has lowered lowered its cases cases and hoods. transition will otherotherdeaths by 93 percent deaths percent because because of wise wise be seamless seamless for for community community and the members. members. the people’s people’s discipline discipline and vaccination. Israel Israel is is expected The location will will continue continue to ofvaccination. expected The location fer a robust to have have herd herd immunity immunity by next next fer robust print print and and digital digital colcolmonth, most probably month, probably the first first in lection lection with no late late fees. fees. Patrons Patrons will still still be be able able to connect connect and PAGE B4 will

People: Guinea pigs? the long-term effects of the vaclong-term effects vaccines cines to protect the public, public, with no better better clinical clinical alternative alternative than using using us as as “guinea “guinea pigs,” pigs,” metametaphorically speaking. But But itit is is not phorically speaking. in the theevil evilsense. sense.

Before drugs or vaccines Before drugs vaccines are are released for public public use, use, they have released for to undergo undergo extensive extensive sophissophisticated ticated research research and developdevelopment, ment, and at least least three three phases phases of clinical clinical trials trials using using thousands thousands of human human volunteers volunteers until the sciscientific results show show the drugs or entific results vaccines are effective effective and and safe for vaccines are human use. On On top of this, human use. this, they have to pass pass the the rigid rigid and and strinstringent FDA even for FDA requirements, requirements, even emergency use, like like the current emergency use, current COVID-19 vaccines.So, So,ifif we, we, the COVID-19 vaccines. people, people, are are being used used as as “guin“guinea pigs pigs in in this this experiment,” experiment,” it is is for observation of the long term observation of term (future) behavior of the (future) behavior the vaccines vaccines we received.

This isis the the only way received. This to get those thosefacts. facts.

Since these vaccines Since these vaccines are new, new, the only things we know about them are that they they are are safe safe for majority of people and 52 majority of 52 percent percent effective after the first dose, and effective after 95 percent percent after the second second dose, dose, both for for the thePfizer-BioNTech Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. We We also also know Moderna vaccines. that those with a history history of alallergies could develop aa sensitivlergies could sensitivity reaction to the reaction (some (some serious) serious) to vaccine vaccine within within 30 minutes. minutes. These These patients are advised advised to seek a patients are consultation consultation with an an allergist/imallergist/immunologist prior to to getting the munologist prior vaccine. vaccine.

How How long after after receiving receiving the first first shot will itit confer confer immunity immunity to prevent prevent the person person from getting infected infected and could aa vaccivaccinated individual still be be able able to individual still transmit transmit the virus, virus, science science still still does not know yet. How about after after the second second shot? shot? These These data would be available only with the available only passage passage of time, time, the reason reason why I said, said, to this extent, this is an “experiment,” using us us people “experiment,” using as “guinea But this this is “guinea pigs.” pigs.” But is only proper, and prudent. proper, necessary, necessary, and prudent.

We We need the the vaccines vaccines soonest as an urgent urgent measure measure for our our survivsurvival. al. And there is is no no other other scientific scientific way.

The unwise unwise option option below is way. The is unacceptable andcriminal. criminal. unacceptable and The alternative isis not not to use The alternative use the vaccines vaccines now among people; people; limit limit it to to laboratory laboratory animals animals for another another 2 years years from from now, and know all the the answers answers first, first, allowallow-

*** Michael J. Gurfinkel has been an attorney for over 40 years and is licensed, and an active member of the State Bars 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, and results may depend on the facts of the particular case. The information and opinions contained herein (including testimonials, “Success Stories”, endorsements and re-enactments) are of a general nature, and are not intended to apply to any particular case, and do 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.com Follow us on Facebook.com/GurfinkelLaw, Twitter @GurfinkelLaw and YouTube: US Immigration TV Call Toll free to schedule a consultation for anywhere in the US: 1-866-487-3465 (866) – GURFINKEL Four offices to serve you: LOS ANGELES ∙ SAN FRANCISCO ∙ NEW YORK ∙ PHILIPPINES (Advertising Supplement)

Utility scams are snow joke

SMC Libraries welcomes Fair Oaks Branch Library to its family of libraries; City of Redwood City to continue financial support learn learn at engaging engaging library library programs programs and have access access to new online online reresources and all the sources and thecomprehensive comprehensive offered by and innovative innovative services services offered San San Mateo Mateo County County Libraries.

Libraries.The The North Fair North Fair Oaks Oaks Library Library will will reremain main a part part of of the the Peninsula Peninsula LiLibrary System System and users brary users will still still be able able to to access access materials materials from from public libraries public libraries throughout throughout San San Mateo County.

Mateo County.

“The County, “The County, Library Library JPA, JPA, and the City City all have have aa shared shared interest interest in providing providing the best best possible possible lilibrary brary services services to the the community,” community,” said Anne-Marie said Anne-Marie Despain, Despain, DirecDirector of of Library Library Services.

Services. “San “San MaMais thrilled teo County County Libraries Libraries is thrilled to include North Fair Fair Oaks Oaks into our include North family of libraries and build build upon family libraries and the great great services services provided provided by RedwoodCity.”

City.”

Redwood “We are proud proud of the “We are the services services has delivered our Library Library has delivered and the relationships they have built relationships they with the North North Fair Fair Oaks Oaks comcommunity munity over several several decades, decades, and we look forward forward to this new approach for the proach to library library services services for neighborhood’s residents. neighborhood’s residents. RedRedwood City City Public Public Library Library and San San Mateo County Libraries have had Mateo Libraries have a valuable valuable longstanding longstanding partnerpartnership, and and we look forward ship, forward to youth and families benefitting from from the families benefitting enhanced services enhanced services the North North Fair Fair Oaks will offer,” Oaks Library Library will offer,” said Diane Diane Howard,Mayor Mayorofof Redwood City.

Howard, Redwood City.

Redwood City will will continue Redwood City continue to provide curbside provide curbside services services on MonMonday and and Wednesday Wednesday afternoons afternoons through Wednesday, through Wednesday, March March 10.

10.

Beginning Tuesday, March March 16, 16, the Beginning Tuesday, North Fair North Fair Oaks Oaks Library Library will will offer offer curbside curbside services services weekly weekly Tuesday Tuesday through Saturday, through Saturday, 11 a.m.–4 a.m.–4 p.m. p.m.

These These services services include include curbside curbside pickup and no-appointment pickup no-appointment needneeded walk-up walk-up service. service. Patrons Patrons will will also be able to also to explore explore San San Mateo Mateo County Grab && Go Go book County Libraries’ Libraries’ Grab bundles for children bundles children and adults adults and Take Take&&Make Make craft kits. craft kits.

V ii ss ii tt hh tt t p s :: / / s m c l . o r g / V curbsideservices/ more inforcurbsideservices/ forfor more information or contact mation contact the the Library’s Library’s Customer Care Team Customer Care Team by calling calling 1-833-YES-SMCL (1-833-9371-833-YES-SMCL (1-833-9377625), texting at 7625), texting at (650) (650) 851-0147, 851-0147, Get in or emailing emailing through our our Get Touch form.

Touch form.

San Mateo San Mateo County County Libraries Libraries is is a Joint Joint Powers Powers Authority Authority that comprises the the cities comprises cities of Atherton, Atherton, Belmont, East Palo Palo Alto, Belmont, Brisbane, Brisbane, East Alto, Foster City, Foster City, Half Half Moon Moon Bay, Bay, MillMillbrae, brae, Pacifica, Pacifica, Portola Portola Valley, Valley, San San Carlos, Woodside, Woodside, and and the uninCarlos, unincorporated areas of San corporated areas San Mateo Mateo County. San Mateo County.

Mateo County County LibrarLibraries ies ignite growth through through transtransformative experiences. formative experiences. Visit Visitsmcl. smcl. org for for information information about about our community libraries, community libraries, extensive extensive digital digital and and physical physical collections, collections, curbside services, services, and and our numercurbside numerous online online resources resources and virtual virtual events. events.

Through Through its Downtown Downtown Library, Library, Redwood Shores Redwood Shores Branch, Branch, and Schaberg Redwood City Schaberg Branch, Branch, Redwood City Public Library Public Library cultivates cultivates comcommunity munity by welcoming welcoming all people to experience experience the shared shared joys joys of literacy literacy and learning. learning. Visit Visitwww. www. redwoodcity.org/librarytoto learn redwoodcity.org/library learn more more about our our locations, locations, robust robust online programs online programs and and activities, activities, digital digital and and physical physical collections, collections, curbsideservices. services. and curbside (San (San Mateo Mateo County County Libraries Libraries Release) Release)

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A ‘new life begins’ for John Lloyd Toni sees Seve as ‘next Direk Paul’ after 4-year break from showbiz

by Iza IglesIas Manilatimes.net

By MarInel

Cruz

Inquirer.net

CONTROVERSIAL actor John Lloyd Cruz described his almostfour-year sabbatical from mainstream show biz as a “necessary pause.” He also said that his absence did not mean he actually stopped working.

The 37-year-old actor likewise said his being a father to actress Ellen Adarna’s son, Elias, felt like he was “given a new life.”

The elusive actor recently agreed to an interview with Rachel Arenas, chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board for the agency’s weekly online talk show titled “Uncut,” which streams every Friday afternoon on the MTRCB Facebook and YouTube channels.

While Arenas did not ask about Cruz and Adarna’s estranged relationship, which undoubtedly prompted his decision to take a leave of absence in 2017 from his being a contract artist of ABSCBN, the MTRCB chair managed to make Cruz talk about his aspirations for Elias.

“My biggest dream for him?

For me, this is already big, but I’m sure his dreams will be so much bigger: I want him to be able to fulfill what his heart desires. If he wants to become an astronaut or simply a tambay (loiterer), I will support him. I guess that’s the only thing you can wish for your son or for anyone—that he would be able to do what he wants.”

Cruz also stressed that even though he was “not physically present,” he still felt he was working. The actor did not elaborate, but this could mean the film he shot for multiawarded indie filmmaker Lav Diaz titled “Servando Magdamag,” from a short story by Ricky Lee; or this could also mean the much-talked-about commercial he did for a shawarma brand; or his cameo in Alvin Yapan’s period drama “Culion,” also from a script by Lee. These days, John Lloyd is part of the creative team working on a sitcom under Brightlight Productions for TV5 that was supposed to air last December, but problems in casting delayed its production.

“It had been a very necessary pause. It all boils down to what I’ve learned while I was doing things I needed to do in order to

EMPLOYMENT

John Lloyd Cruz Photo from Instagram/@johnlloydcruztm

fulfill my responsibilities and obligations in life. In the end, it still felt like work,” Cruz explained.

“To be honest, how could you say ‘no’ to an opportunity to be with people like Lav Diaz and Ricky Lee?,” said Cruz when asked what made him agree to star in “Servando Magdamag.”

“Apart from the privilege to work with them, before I agree to a project, I would always ask for the script, or in the case of ‘Servando Magdamag,’ it was in the form of a short story by Sir Ricky. It was a difficult read in the beginning, but later I realized that I just couldn’t put it down. I read the screenplay shortly after, and I must say that it’s the best one I’ve ever read in my life,” he declared.

As an actor, Cruz said he has nothing more to ask for. He has portrayed numerous roles that challenged him. However, he claimed to still have a long list of people he wanted to collaborate with, “especially when I heard from a friend who has long been totally immersed in film and music about the potential of a lot of young artists we have today. This actually excites me. I don’t want to miss the chance [to be able to collaborate with them].”

Regrets? Cruz has none.

“There isn’t any, only lessons learned,” he stressed.

As to his plan of going back to

the “usual grind” and giving his time to show biz 100 percent, Cruz replied: “What is ‘usual’?

What is ‘100 percent’? The answer to these varies, especially since we are in a pandemic. I consider now as the perfect period to learn. The things that did not work for me before, I want to be able to correct now that I am given another chance,” he began.

“I want to know what else I should improve on, especially in terms of management. Whatever the outcome would be, that’s my 100 percent,” he added. “Although we have to admit that during these difficult times, we encounter a different set of challenges. For example, we are trying to put up a sitcom, but we find it difficult to finish casting.

That’s the same problem I’ve experienced while trying to put up a film. We’ve long been in the planning stage. It’s taking a while for us to begin actual work.”

Cruz turned metaphorical when asked how he felt about his home network ABS-CBN’s failed bid to have its franchise renewed.

“I was surprised with what happened. I questioned why it happened during such a difficult time. My surprise led me to more questions. As I tried to answer them, I finally saw the bigger picture,” Cruz said. “I realized that [the issue] is not merely onedimensional. We need to understand that this is how the world revolves these days.”

As the interview drew to a close, Cruz was asked to share his aspirations for the local entertainment industry. To this, he said: “I felt that [in my absence] so much time has passed, like one generation has passed. Don’t get me wrong, I will not exchange what I’ve experienced ‘out of cinema’ for anything. Hindi siya matatawaran. I wish that what I went through would also be experienced by others.”

Cruz explained further: “Having said that, I see that there’s still so much that we need to improve on, especially in terms of how we protect the people, particularly the staff and crew, we work with in this industry. I wish we could find industry leaders who truly care for us; those who will collaborate with the government in order to come up with laws that would protect the TV and movie industries.”

EMPLOYMENT

REAL ESTATE

THE public has always been aware of actress-host Toni Gonzaga’s successes throughout her career. Besides a lengthy and impressive string of box-office hits and top-rated TV shows to her name, she is also known for championing family values as supportive wife to husband and film director Paul Soriano and loving mom to son Seve. But just like any parent, the celebrity mom insists she has her fair share of challenging moments as the lady of the house, which she openly shared in her latest digital interview with media.

It may not look it, but according to Gonzaga, she always finds it difficult to balance life as wife and mother with her career as a multi-media personality. She had no choice but to set her priorities at the onset and strive to keep them in their proper order to be her possible best on and off the camera.

“When you know your priorities, somehow you [are guided by] a plan and your decisions [are made with] direction [whether] about work or family and of course with raising your child. I think it’s just a matter of setting your priorities straight, and I don’t there’s a mom who can perfectly balance everything because we always have so much on our plate,” related the 37year-old.

“As long as you’re doing the best you can, as long as you see your child happy, healthy and having the best life that you can give him, I think that’s more than enough for us as mommies.

There’s need to compare yourself

PAGE B3

to other moms,” she added.

What matters most Relatable as ever, Gonzaga went on to talk about the challenges of raising a toddler at the height of last year’s coronavirus pandemic.

“The biggest challenge was not being able to go outside. Because of the restrictions, Seve couldn’t go out and explore the world like other children. But looking back at the experience, I think it helped me change my perspective in a way and shift it toward a different light. I chose to look at it as a blessing rather than a difficulty,” she shared.

“I truly treasure the memories we built here inside our home.

No matter how chaotic it is outside, as long as your kid still feels everything is ‘normal’ in the house, I don’t think he’ll remember the gravity of the situation. What he’ll remember is that mommy and daddy were present 24/7 in the house and that’s what matters to me.”

Next Paul Still with more family time in their hands as the pandemic continues to loom a year into the outbreak, Gonzaga is thrilled at how her four-year-old son keeps getting better in communicating with them and other members of the household.

“The biggest revelation in this whole lockdown was how Seve was able to converse with us straight. He can really carry a conversation now because we’re always home talking to him,” she chimed. “His dad also came up with this thing they do every night called ‘Reflection Time.’ He asks Seve, ‘What did you like the most about today?’ That really

Just like any parents, Toni Gonzaga has also been through both cheerful and challenging moments in her familial journey.

Photo from Instagram/@celestinegonzaga

encourages him to talk more and converse, which really surprise and delight other members of our family.”

The toddler also seems very interested in following his father’s footsteps, intently watching the noted director when he’s working on a story and even when trying out different angles.

“I see so much potential in Seve! Even in the way he picks up the phone to take pictures or videos of me which he sees with his dad,” Gonzaga excitedly narrated. “When we’re doing interviews at home, he really looks and helps out when they’re putting up the lights and in other parts of production. Parang sumusunod siya sa yapak ni Paul, ganu’n.”

Asked for the tried and tested advice she can give fellow toddler moms like her, Gonzaga finally said, “Raising a child really takes a village as the old proverb goes. Aside from me and Paul, be open to help and advice from your own moms and of course the experts in nutrition and son on. That’s how we can be our best for our kids.”

People: Guinea pigs?

the world. The next three on the list of highest vaccination rate includes the United Arab Emirates, followed by UK, and then the U.S., in that order.

Facts: The vaccines are effective and safe. The Benefit/Risk Ratio (Vaccine versus COVID-19) is crystal clear: The benefit from the vaccine is high, 95 percent or better; the risk very low, less than 1 percent. The benefit from getting COVID-19 is zero; it is all risks, at least 50 percent among seniors. Do your math. How many (of the more than 300 million around the world who got the shot) died from the vaccine? How many died from COIVID 19, glob-

ally? Your answers are correct! I rest my case.

Let us all do due diligence and get the facts straight, and not help the apocalyptic scaremongers on social media spread false data (pouring gasoline on the fire) because forwarding the fraudulent disinformation could get people infected and killed. Let us help end this pandemic soonest. Together, we can do this. *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff. *** The main objective of this column is to

SERVICES

educate and inspire people live a healthier lifestyle to prevent illnesses and disabilities and achieve a happier and more productive life.

Any diagnosis, recommendation or treatment in our article are general medical information and not intended to be applicable or appropriate for anyone. This column is not a substitute for your physician, who knows your condition well and who is your best ally when it comes to your health. *** Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international medical lecturer/author, a Health Public Advocate, and Chairman of the Filipino United Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian and antigraft foundation in the United States. Visit our websites: philipSchua.com and FUN8888.com Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com

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