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Volume 11 – Issue 25 • 16 Pages

APRIL 6-12, 2018

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Pres. Duterte accepts Aguirre’s resignation

by DANA

SIOSON AJPress

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday, April 5, announced that he has accepted the resignation of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. “I accepted the resignation of Vit Aguirre, my fraternity brother, as Secretary of Justice. I am now in the hustings looking for a replacement,” the president said in a speech, without expanding details.

Aguirre, for his part, has not made any personal statement about his resignation yet.

Hours before Duterte’s announcement, Palace Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said that “there was no indication” about Aguirre leaving his position during the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, April 4.

Weeks before the president’s announcement, there were already talks about Aguirre’s impending departure. This was after

USA

DATELINE US gov’t: Corruption in PH continues to hamper trade

Resigned Justice Secretary Viataliano Aguirre II Philstar.com photo

the Department of Justice (DOJ) panel of prosecutors dismissed the drug charges against self-confessed drug dealer Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr., alleged drug lord Peter Lim, and several others in mid-March.

Duterte, who’s waging a crackdown on narcotics, expressed displeasure over the

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NEW JUSTICE SECRETARY,. President Rodrigo Duterte signs the appointment of Ad Interim Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra at the Malacañang Palace on Thursday, April 5. Witnessing the signing are Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence Go, the newly-appointed Ad Interim Secretary of Justice and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

Malacañang photo by Ace Morandante

Marcos on poll recount: Some ballots in CamSur pre-shaded for Robredo

by DANA

SIOSON AJPress

FROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA

THE issue of corruption in the Philippines continues to obstruct the trade and investment relations between Manila and Washington, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

In its 2018 National Trade Estimate Report of Foreign Trade Barriers, the USTR pointed out that corruption is a “pervasive” and “longstanding” problem in the Philippines.

“National and local government agencies,

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Pastor Apollo Quiboloy

Inquirer.net photo

FBI investigating Apollo Quiboloy’s Hawaii church for ‘aggressive fundraising’, human trafficking

THE camp of Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo scoffed at the reported discovery of “pre-shaded” ballots amid an ongoing poll recount, calling it “ridiculous” and a possible attempt to “confuse” the public.

Revisors of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) have reportedly found several unused or excess ballots with pre-shaded votes for Robredo during the third day of the recount of votes in the 2016 vice presidential race.

The manual recount and revision of balFormer Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice Pres. Leni Robredo

Philstar.com photo

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President Rodrigo Duterte approved on Wednesday the closure of Boracay for six months during the 24th Cabinet meeting in Malacañang on Wednesday, April 6.

Inquirer.net photo

PH seen to prosper as ‘upper Duterte orders closure middle-income’ country by 2019 of Boracay for 6 months THE Philippines can become an upper middle-income country by 2019, according to the state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

Citing the country’s sustained robust growth, NEDA said the Philippines is poised to reach the upper middle-income status earlier than the initial target of 2022.

“The strong economic growth performance of the country in 2017 enabled us to achieve gross national income (GNI) per capita growth rate of 4.8 percent, higher than the target of 4.5 percent,” NEDA said in its Socioeconomic Report 2017 launched Tuesday, April 3.

In 2017, the Philippine economy grew by 6.7 percent—among the fastest in Asia.

“This would make it possible for us to reach the upper middle-income country standard def-

inition of just below $4,000 income per capita by end2019,” NEDA added.

World Bank classifies countries with a GNI per capita between $4,036 and $12,475 as upper middle-income economies. Lower middle-income economies, meanwhile, are those with a GNI per capita between $1,026 and $4,035.

The Philippines is currently classified as a lower middle-income country. As of 2016, the country’s income per capita stood at about $3,500.

In a press conference, NEDA Undersecretary of Policy and Planning Rosemarie Edillon noted that the government’s massive “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program “will really propel our economic growth rate even faster and we’ll reach that upper middle-income status.”

Under “Build, Build, Build” program, the admin-

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by AJPRESS PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the closure of Boracay island for six months, starting April 26.

According to Palace Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr., the president gave his approval on the recommendation to close the top tourist destination during his meeting with his Cabinet officials on Wednesday, April 4.

“Boracay [is] closed for six months effective 26 April,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said in message to reporters.

The six-month closure of the island was jointly recommended by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DOJ), Department of Tourism (DOT), and De-

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Pacquiao, Matthysse set for July showdown in Malaysia

Quiboloy’s lawyer denies the allegations of human trafficking

The FBI is conducting an investigation into the Hawaii chapter of Filipino televangelist Apollo Quiboloy’s church on accusations of “aggressive fundraising” and possible human trafficking.

As first reported by Hawaii News Now, the investigation is centered around Felina Salinas, the business manager of the Waipahu chapter of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) of which Quiboloy is head.

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Manny Pacquiao’s much-awaited fight against World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse is officially set on July 14 in Malaysia.

Philstar.com photos

MANNY Pacquiao’s muchawaited fight against World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse is officially set.

In a Twitter post, promoter Oscar De La Hoya confirmed that the Filipino boxer will challenge Matthysse on July 14, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

“Proud to officially announce that WBA welterweight world champion @MatthysseLucas will put his title on the line against @ mannypacquiao in Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia on Saturday night July 14,” wrote De La Hoya on Tuesday, April 3.

Pacquiao, also in a social media post, said he “can’t wait” for another title shot.

“It’s on! Can’t wait to challenge Lucas Matthysse for another world title on July 15 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - July 14 U.S. time,” Pacquiao said.

The upcoming match against Matthysse (39-4, 36 KOs) comes a year after Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) lost his WBO title to

Jeff Horn last July in Brisbane, Australia.

As for who will handle the Filipino boxer’s training, Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz told ESPN that it would not be Freddie Roach.

According to Koncz, Pacquiao has replaced Roach, who’s been his trainer since 2001, with Buboy Fernandez, his lifelong friend and the career-long assistant trainer.

“That’s Manny’s decision.

Manny has told me Buboy will

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A APRIL 6-12, 2018 • NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY ASIAN JOURNAL

http://www.asianjournal.com • (212) 655-5426

From the Front Page

Pres. Duterte accepts Aguirre’s...

PAGE A1 t dismissal of charges, and even “joked” about putting Aguirre behind bars.

Aguirre was also linked in other controversies, such as when he recently put alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles under provisional state protection.

He was likewise tagged in a bribery scandal involving immigration officials Al Argosino and Michael Robles, who were charged for allegedly extorting money from Chinese businessman Jack Lam. Roque earlier said Aguirre continues to have the trust and confidence of Duterte amid controversial issues. But he also relayed that Duterte was unhappy with the performance

of some of his officials, hinting possible changes in the Cabinet.

Welcoming Aguirre’s resignation, Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV stressed that what the Filipino people deserve is a “credible, capable, and respectable” justice secretary.

“Sa mata ng taumbayan, pawala na nang pawala ang kredibilidad ni dating Justice Secretary Aguirre sa bawat kapalpakan at palihis na kilos nito (Outgoing Justice Secretary Aguirre has lost credibility before the public with each blunder he committed),” Aquino pointed out.

While Aguirre’s departure from office a “clear victory against injustice and impunity,”

Senator Risa Hontiveros, meanwhile, said that his resignation was a “hollow gesture” considering the supposed “damage” he has done to the DOJ. “The damage is done. By being allowed to stay in his post for the longest time, Mr Aguirre turned the justice department into a leading purveyor of fake news, a manufacturer of fake legal cases to harass the opposition, and a refuge for drug lords, plunderers, and other high-profile criminals,” Hontiveros said.

She continued: “Our justice system is now in shambles, with more and more people trusting it less and less. Mr Aguirre’s resignation is a hollow gesture.

Sorry, but ‘too late the hero for ‘justice zero.’” n

Marcos on poll recount: Some ballots in...

PAGE A1 t

lots started last Monday, April 2.

This was in connection with the poll protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. against Robredo. He lost to her by only 263,473 votes.

According to Marcos’ camp, the pre-shaded ballots were from the municipality of Baao in Camarines Sur—which is among the three pilot provinces Marcos tagged in his poll protest. The other two were Iloilo and Negros Oriental.

“Pre-shaded ito at ibinilang kay Mrs. Robredo (It was preshaded and counted as vote for Robredo),” Marcos’ lawyer, Vic Rodriguez, claimed.

The number of shaded unused and excess ballots, however, remains unclear.

Robredo’s camp, meanwhile, tagged the reported discovery as “ridiculous,” “We find the report ridiculous, since at that time, only one

ballot box was opened and this report surfaced immediately,” said Maria Bernadette Sardillo, Robredo’s lawyer.

“How can this be reported that quick if no telephones or any mode of outside communication is allowed inside the revision area?” she added.

Sardillo also suggested that the supposed pre-shaded ballots could have been “rejected ballots” that were wrongly stored.

“These could be rejected ballots that were mistakenly placed inside the envelope for unused ballots. Based on experience, due to the conditions inside the precincts where our BEIs (Board of Election Inspectors) are awake as early as 4 a.m., mistakes happen,” she remarked.

She went to say: “This should be another attempt of the camp of losing candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to throw shade in the recount process and further

confuse the public.”

Revisors quit A day after the start of VP poll recount, four head revisors resigned. The news was confirmed by both Rodriguez and Sardillo on Tuesday, April 3.

A head revisor is in charge of recounting the contested ballots and recording objections, claims, and other notes by either Marcos or Robredo’s representatives.

In a statement, Marcos expressed hope that the resignation of four head revisors “will not result in another round of delays especially now that we have started to uncover clear signs of fraud.”

“They are no ordinary revisors, having undergone rigid psychological test and meticulous screening by the PET. They must have a compelling reason for backing out and I am one with the Filipino people in asking why,” he added. n

Duterte orders closure of Boracay for 6...

PAGE A1 t

partment of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Also confirming the closure, Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo said: “DENR/DOT/ DILG proposal approved after an exhaustive discussion.”

Guevarra said calamity funds

would be used to assist residents in Boracay whose livelihood will be affected by the closure.

The move to shut down the world-famous island comes amid efforts to fix the area’s environmental issues. Duterte, in a previous speech, even likened Boracay to a “cesspool” due to

the island’s dysfunctional sewerage system.

According to the DOT, the island of Boracay generates around P50 billion in annual receipts.

Malay Municipal Tourism office records also showed that more than two million tourists visited the island last year. n

TRIBAL GIFT. President Rodrigo Duterte leads the unveiling of the project marker of the Lisap Bridge during its inauguration in Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro on Tuesday, April 3. Joining the President are Socorro Mayor Maria Fe Brondial, Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar, Oriental Mindoro Second District Representative Reynaldo Umali and Oriental Mindoro Governor Alfonso Umali Jr. Malacañang photo by Albert Alcain

Pacquiao, Matthysse set for July showdown...

PAGE A1 t be handling the training on this fight,” Koncz told ESPN. “What’s important to Manny is that he has one voice to listen to in the corner that he trusts, and I

guess that’s Buboy for this fight,” he added.

Asked why Pacquiao made such decision, Koncz replied: “There was some concerns Manny had in the last fight and some statements Freddie made to the media

that Manny wasn’t very pleased about.”

In a separate statement, Koncz told the Los Angeles Times that Pacquiao’s MP Promotions will be the Malaysia bout’s lead promoter. n

US gov’t: Corruption in PH continues to hamper...

PAGE A1 t particularly Bureau of Customs (BOC), are beset with various corruption issues,” the USTR said.

Just like in its 2017 report, the USTR also mentioned anew that both foreign and domestic investors have expressed concern about the “propensity of Philippine courts and regulators to stray beyond matters of legal interpretation into policymaking, as well as the lack of transparency in judicial and regulatory processes.”

Investors, likewise, have raised concerns about “courts being influenced by bribery and improperly issuing temporary restraining orders to impede legitimate commerce.”

Data from the USTR showed that U.S. goods exports to the Philippines in 2017 were $8.5 billion, making Manila Washington’s 31st largest goods export market in 2017; while imports

from the Philippines were $11.6 billion.

On the other hand, U.S. exports of services to the Philippines were an estimated $2.6 billion in 2016, while imports were $6.1 billion.

The U.S. goods and services trade with the Philippines totaled an estimated $27.0 billion in 2016.

Other barriers Concerning technical barriers to trade, the U.S. continues to press the Philippines to remove “unjustified requirements” that treat frozen meat differently from fresh meat The report further said that U.S. continues to ensure that the Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA)’s requirements for importers “to obtain a sanitary and phytosanitary permit prior to shipment of any agricultural product and to transmit the permit to the exporter” will not hamper trade.

In terms of intellectual property rights protection, the report stated that U.S. rights holders have expressed concerns about the “continued availability of pirated and counterfeit goods in the Philippines, slow investigation of IPR related cases by the Department of Justice, and judicial inexperience in handling IPR enforcement cases, both civil and criminal.”

The USTR also discussed barriers to digital trade, particularly internet services.

“The Philippines requires government agencies to procure cloud computing services from the Government Cloud (GovCloud), a cloud infrastructure set up by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT),” the report read.

Such restrictions, according to USTR, “could prevent Philippine government agencies from accessing best-in-class cloud services.” (AJPress)

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Dateline USa

NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY ASIAN JOURNAL • APRIL 6-12, 2018

A

‘DACA is dead,’ says Trump ahead of policy change announcement

by Rae

ann VaRona AJPress

THE program that protects the roughly 700,000 young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children was declared “dead” by President Donald Trump on Monday, April 2.

His comment was among a series of tweets that raised new questions on what would become of the said undocumented young immigrants known as “Dreamers.”

“DACA is dead because the Democrats did not care or act, and now everyone wants to get onto the DACA bandwagon,” tweeted Trump on Monday, blaming Democrats for the situation.

“No longer works. Must build Wall and secure our borders with proper Border legislation. Democrats want No Border, hence drugs and crime!” the president added.

At the annual White House Easter Egg Roll later that Monday, the president continued to point his finger saying “they had this great opportunity, and Democrats have really let them down.”

“It’s a shame,” he added. “Now people are taking advantage of DACA. It should have never happened.”

Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) responded on Twitter and said that it was Trump who was at fault.

The Trump administration ended the Obama-era Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program last September, giving Congress a now passed March 5 deadline to find a solution for the Dreamers. Court rulings have allowed the program to temporarily remain, but no new applications have been or can be accepted.

Durbin said, “The President is blaming everyone under the sun, but he only has to look in the mirror to find the person who turned down six different bipartisan DACA deals from Congress - a few that included funding for his useless wall.”

Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) echoed Durbin and wrote on Twitter, “He walked away - not Democrats.”

On Twitter last month on the March 5 deadline, Trump called Democrats out saying, “the Democrats are nowhere to be found on DACA. Gave them 6 months, they just don’t care.”

The tweet continued, “Where are they? We are ready to make a deal!”

The Trump administration said last month that it would extend DACA for two-and-a-halfyears in exchange for $25 billion border wall funding which Democrats did not agree to.

Democrats gave a counteroffer of funding for the wall in exchange for giving the approximately 1.8 million Dreamers a path to citizenship, which Trump’s administration refused.

Policy plans to address backlogs, quotas

Pres. Donald Trump

White House officials added to the anti-immigration theme and said Monday that the Trump administration has begun a new legislative push on immigration.

“DHS is working on another legislative package, obviously we’ve been talking about this for many months now, including when we sent the immigration priorities over to Congress back in October that would basically close these loopholes so we can have a lawful immigration system and save a lot of lives on both sides of the border,” said one official.

The proposals include changing laws to make applying or being granted asylum more difficult, allowing longer detainment of families waiting for their immigration decisions through a change in “catch and release” policies, and removing protections for unaccompanied minors arriving illegally in the U.S. so they can be deported or be turned back at the border more quickly.

“If you oppose those fixes, as Democrats do, you’re basically saying you want endless numbers of new waves of illegal immigrants,” said the official.

Hours after the White House statement, Trump tweeted Monday, “As ridiculous as it sounds, the laws of our country do not easily allow us to send those crossing our Southern Border back where they come from.

The tweet continued, “A whole big wasted procedure must take place. Mexico & Canada have tough immigration laws, whereas ours are an Obama joke. ACT CONGRESS” According to the New York Times, a senior administration official said the asylum changes were meant in part to address a backlog of hundreds of thousands of immigration court cases, which often result in undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. while waiting for their case to process.

More than 617,500 cases were backlogged in 2017 which is almost double the amount from 2009. Average wait times often range from one to five years depending on the state, with immigrants many times having to represent themselves.

The Justice Department told immigration judges Monday that it would impose new quotas on how quickly cases are closed starting October 1. Judges will have to complete 700 cases per

FBI investigating Apollo Quiboloy’s...

PAGE A1 t On February 13, Salinas was arrested by federal authorities after U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement found $350,000 in cash and military-grade rifles on a private plane at the Honolulu airport that was to leave for the Philippines.

According to a complaint filed by a special agent of the United States Dept. of Homeland Security, Salinas lacked to declare that they were transporting thousands of “neatly bundled” $100 bills in black socks.

Quiboloy, along with six other people including Salinas, was temporarily detained while Salinas was charged with attempted smuggling. According to legal experts, the allegations have opened up discussion on whether human trafficking was involved.

According to an official report, complainant Kristina Angeles said she came to Hawaii from the Philippines on a religious visa when Salinas made her raise funds and sell “manapua and Krispy Kreme” donuts for hours “rain or shine.”

“We’ve been slapped or yelled at,” Angeles wrote in a police statement. “The last time, I received punches over my arms and legs.”

Salinas was previously arrested in 2015 for an alleged assault on a fellow church member who said she was forced to raise funds for the church, Hawaii News Now said.

Hawaii attorney Clare Hanusz told Hawaii News Now that that church member’s allegations indicated “some of the classic signs of human trafficking and people who come under religious worker visas before have sometimes been connected with human trafficking.”

Angeles also wrote that while at a church compound in the Philippines, the church forced her to shave her head and wear an “orange t-shirt.”

Children’s Joy, the church’s foundation, was also accused of “aggressive fundraising” as well as misrepresentation. Many of the church’s younger members were often forced to sell baked goods at a local Costco to raise funds for the church.

On Tuesday, Quiboloy’s lawyer Israelito Torreon denied that the church was involved in human trafficking and that the pastor’s legal team had not received notification of the FBI investigation.

He also proposed that an outside party pushed that claim to take down the church.

“That is shocking,” Torreon told ABS-CBN on Tuesday, April 3. “Somebody must be orchestrating all of these. I hope that person will be enlightened by the Lord Almighty to stop this because that’s really not true. The congregation of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy is a religious congregation. It is not engaged in human trafficking.”

Quiboloy — who has called himself the Appointed Son of God and has said his self-proclaimed immaculately conceived birth resembled that of Jesus Christ — began his religious leadership in Davao City in 1985.

In the last 33 years, he has garnered a cult-like following and now claims that he has 6 million “followers” around the world.

Quiboloy has remained a close friend of President Rodrigo Duterte since the latter was the mayor of Davao. Duterte said that Quiboloy has gifted Duterte expensive gifts throughout their friendship, including three properties in and around Davao City.

(Klarize Medenilla/AJPress)

Photo from Twitter/@WhiteHouse

year — the average being only 678 in the last five years.

While immigration judges are part of the Executive branch, they are supposed to have full independence.

Those critical of the proposed quota system say that creating numerical targets would create an even messier system.

Dana Leigh Marks, an immigration judge and union spokesman of the National Immigration Judges Association described the metric standards as “completely, utterly contrary to judicial independence.”

“We believe assessing quality is fine, not quantity,” said Marks.

Many times, undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. in seek of asylum or refugee status, and risk facing violence or murder upon returning to their home countries.

She once said in a PBS New-

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PUV MODERNIZATION. (From left to right) Department of Transportation (DOTr) Undersecretary Thomas Orbos, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Chairman Atty. Martin Delgra III, Land Transportation Office (LTO) Assistant Secretary Edgar Galvante, Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Danilo Lim and LTFRB Board Member Atty. Aileen Lizada flash the signature pose of President Rodrigo Duterte during the launching of the Public Transport Modernization Expo held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City on Tuesday, April 3. President Duterte is pushing for the public utility vehicle modernization program.

PNA photo by Avito Dalan

PH seen to prosper as ‘upper...

PAGE A1 t

istration of President Rodrigo Duterte is rolling out P8 trillion-worth of road networks and other infrastructures to enhance the mobility in different parts of the country.

Through massive public investments in infrastructure and social services over the medium term, the government hopes to

transform the country into an upper middle-income economy by the end of Duterte’s term in 2022.

“Actually, the target for the PDP (Philippine Development Plan) is that we will be an upper middle-income country by 2022.

But we think we will get to that status much, much earlier,” Edillon said.

She continued: “We also looked at the performance of the economy last year, where our gross national income increased by 6.5 percent—that’s really a very high growth path. And if I’m not mistaken, the threshold for the upper middle-income country is $4,100.

So I think we will breach that as early as next year.” (Dana Sioson/ AJPress)

A APRIL 6-12, 2018 • NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY ASIAN JOURNAL

Dateline USa

http://www.asianjournal.com • (212) 655-5426

Democracy alive in PH, Medialdea tells UN

by DJ

Yap Inquirer.net

BRIEFING. Senator Panfilo Lacson, chair of the Senate Committee on Accounts, stresses the need for an “iconic, secure, functional and green” design for the proposed new Senate building, during the executive briefing held between senators, Senate Secretariat officials and representatives for five architectural firms held on Wednesday, April 4. Lacson said that the design for the new building must be flexible, so that it could properly accommodate any possible increase in the number of senators and their staff due to proposed revisions or amendments of the 1987 Constitution. Also in photo are Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, along with Senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Gregorio Honasan II, Senate Deputy Secretary for Administration and Finance Arnel Bañas, Senate Secretary Lutgardo Barbo, and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms M/Gen. Jose Balajadia Jr. Senate photo by Cesar Tomambo

DEMOCRACy continued to be alive and well in the Philippines, according to a top Malacañang official in a statement issued apparently in reaction to remarks made by a Filipino United Nations (UN) rapporteur, who had been branded as a terrorist by the Duterte administration for alleged links with the Left.

“Democracy in the Philippines is vibrant and strong,” Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said in a statement.

“All the branches of the government are functioning and the rule of law thrives,” the statement added.

He said comments made by UN Special Rapporteur Victoria

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea Inquirer.net photo

Tauli-Corpuz during the Human Rights Festival in Milan, Italy on March 25 “show how detached she is with the realities happening in the Philippines.”

Tauli-Corpuz, a leader of the Kankanaey Igorot people, is the UN rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.

She was one of 600 people named by the Department of Justice as communist guerrillas in a court petition seeking their declaration as terrorists.

The UN official had denied the government’s allegations and sought the support of the international community.

Speaking at the Milan event, Tauli-Corpuz said the Philippine government had “become very authoritarian.” n

Americans have mixed feelings about Google honors Balagtas with ‘doodle’ of epic poem the ACA’s future — but like their plans by catheRine

MoDesto ManilaTimes.net

INTERNET giant Google on Monday, April 2, celebrated the 230th birthday of Francisco “Balagtas” Baltazar with a doodle of his literary masterpiece “Florante at Laura.”

An epic poem that symbolizes Baltazar’s own life journey, “Florante at Laura” was written in dodecasyllabic quatrains, which means it has 12 syllables per line, four lines per stanza, according to Google.

The choice of language for “Florante at Laura” was “a bold and unusual choice, since at the time most writings were in Spanish,” it said.

In honor of Baltazar, Google altered its logo to show his famous epic poem, which he wrote while in prison for supposedly order-

ing a servant girl’s head to be shaved.

Aside from “Florante at Laura,” Baltazar also wrote three-to-fourpart comedies such as “Orosmán at Zafira,” “Don Nuño at Selinda,” “Clara Belmorem,” and a one-part short play entitled “La India Elegante y el Negrito Amante.”

Baltazar learned to write poetry from José de la Cruz (Huseng Sisiw), one of the famous poets of Tondo.

In 1835, Baltazar met María Asunción Rivera, who eventually became the muse or inspiration of his future works.

Twelve years later, Baltazar married Juana Tiambeng, with whom he had 11 children. Only four of them survived to adulthood.

Baltazar was the son of a blacksmith. He studied Canon

Law, Philosophy, Latin and the classics at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and Colegio de San Jose.

Baltazar was born on April 2, 1788 in barrio Panginay, in the town of Bigaa, (now Balagtas in his honor) Bulacan. He died on February 20, 1862 at the age of 74.

Baltazar’s gift of gab and poetry gave birth to “Balagtasan,” a form of debate in extemporaneous verse.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared April 2 as a special nonworking day in the province of Bulacan.

Baltazar’s birthday serves as the opening of the month of April as Buwan ng Panitikang Filipino or Philippine Literature Month, under the auspices of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino or the Filipino Language Commission. n

Artwork on search engine Google depicts scenes from Francisco Baltazar’s epic poem ‘Florante at Laura.’

by Rachel

Bluth California Healthline

MOST Americans are happy with the insurance they buy on the individual market, yet those same people think the markets are collapsing before their eyes.

A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, released Tuesday, April 3, found that 61 percent of people enrolled in marketplace plans are satisfied with their insurance choices and that a majority say they are not paying more this year compared with last year’s premium costs. yet, more than half of the overall public — 53 percent — also think the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces are “collapsing.”

(Kaiser Health News, which produces California Healthline, is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)

Experts have warned that some policy actions supported by the Trump administration would undermine the market, including repealing the penalty for going without insurance and giving people the option to buy shortterm plans. Such plans are often less expensive but cover fewer benefits. They are not automatically renewable, and insurers are able to charge people with medical conditions more — or exclude them altogether.

But only about one-fifth of people who obtain coverage on the individual market were even aware that the mandate penalty had been repealed as of 2019, according to the poll. It is still in effect this year.

Nine in 10 enrollees said they

would still buy insurance without the penalty, and 34 percent said the mandate was a “major reason” they chose to buy insurance at all.

“They may have been prompted to buy the coverage in the first place because of the mandate,” said Sabrina Corlette, a professor at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. “But now that they’ve got it, they clearly value it.”

Most of the people who buy plans because they don’t get coverage through work or the government, 75 percent, said they bought insurance to protect against high medical bills, and 66 percent said peace of mind was a major reason.

In February, President Donald Trump eased some of the restrictions on short-term insurance plans, allowing them to cover people for 12 months instead of three.

Critics worried this alternative would draw people away from traditional insurance plans and weaken the individual market.

According to the poll, though, only 12 percent of respondents buying on that market said they’d be interested in buying one of the short-term plans.

Georgetown’s Corlette cautioned that these numbers could change when people are faced with an actual choice next open enrollment season.

“If you look at how these things are marketed, your average consumer will not be able to tell that these products are any different from a traditional health plan,” she said.

Most people said they didn’t face a premium increase this year. Thirty-four percent said their premiums were “about the same” as last year and 23 percent said they actually went down.

That’s not surprising, said Joseph Antos, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute who follows the health industry. Many consumers saw their premium subsidies rise too.

Thirty-five percent of people said one of the major reasons they bought insurance was because government subsidies made it affordable.

The subsidies that people receive, Antos noted, went up to offset the premium increase in many cases, especially if consumers took the advice of experts and shopped around for coverage.

“They’re buying because they feel they need insurance and that their net premiums and deductibles add up to something they’re willing to buy,” Antos said.

The poll was conducted Feb. 15-20 and March 8-13 among 2,534 adults. The margin of sampling error is +/-2 percentage points for the full sample, +/-7 percentage points for all nongroup enrollees and +/-9 percentage points for marketplace enrollees.

Kaiser Health News senior correspondent Julie Appleby contributed to this report.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. n

‘DACA is dead,’ says Trump ahead of policy...

PAGE A1 t

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shour coverage of immigration courts that they were in essence, “processing death penalty cases in a traffic court setting.”

Judge A. Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges said that it would make an “appealable” issue and legal challenges a possibility, reported The Washington Post.

She said,” “It could call into question the integrity and impartiality of the court if a judge’s decision is influenced by factors outside the facts of the case, or if motions are denied out of a judge’s concern about keeping his or her job.”

“We don’t know of any other court whose judges are subject to individual quotas and deadlines as part of performance reviews and evaluations,” she added.

Easter Sunday immigration tweets The Monday remarks came after Trump took to Twitter early Easter Sunday expressing his stance on immigration and DACA. “Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. ‘Caravans’ coming.

Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!,” read one tweet that raised awareness on his latest stance on DACA..

“Caravans” refer to a group of around 1,500 people — primarily from Honduras — reportedly heading towards the border together as a way to ensure better protection from the often dangerous route.

The caravan is organized by the U.S.-based immigration advocacy group called Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders in English. How many actually plan to reach the U.S. or seek asylum is unclear.

Trump suggested on Twitter that the caravan travelers would attempt to benefit from DACA. He said, “These big flows of people are all trying to take advantage of DACA. They want in on the act!”

But aside from the fact that DACA is not taking applications, the program required applicants prove they had been living in the U.S. since 2007.

Expressing frustration with what he called “ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws”, Trump put blame on a “catch and release” policy which refers to the approach of allowing migrants remain free until an immigration judge hears their asylum

requests.

In another Tweet that criticized Mexico for not blocking people coming in through their southern border, Trump also mentioned the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which he called a “cash cow” for Mexico.

“Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!” NAFTA is the world’s largest free trade agreement and is a treaty between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Trump has before called NAFTA the “worst trade deal in history”, and has blamed it for the Rust Belt’s loss of jobs in manufacturing.

Luis Videgaray Caso, foreign secretary of Mexico, responded to Trump’s tweets and said: “Every day Mexico and the U.S. work together on migration throughout the region. Facts clearly reflect this. An inaccurate news reports should not serve to question this strong cooperation.

Upholding human dignity and rights is not at odds with the rule of law. Happy Easter.” n

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PHILIPPINE BRAND. Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Ramon Cualoping II (with microphone) introduces the “Philippine Branding” during the First Technical Working Group (TWG) Meeting held at the Kalayaan Hall in Malacañang, Manila on Thursday, April 5. Cualoping said the national brand will be “all-encompassing”, promoting the Philippines as an education, culture and investment hub, and as a tourist destination.

PNA photo by Joey Razon

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A

Dateline PSereno hiliPPines to face colleagues in ouster oral arguments

by EDu

Punay Philstar.com

AMBASSADORS VISIT MARAWI. Tarlac Heritage Foundation co-founder Dr. Isa Suntay (right) briefs Singapore Ambassador Kok Li Peng, Sri Lanka Ambassador Aruni Ranaraja, India Ambassador Jaideep Mazumdar, Vietnam Ambassador Ly Quoc Tuan, Pakistan Ambassador Aman Rashid, Thailand Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission Urawadee Sriphiromya, Laos Ambassador Phoxay Khaykhamphithoune and Russian Ambassador Igor-Khovaev, who personally visited the immediate shelters of the internally displaced people at the Bahay Pag-Asa Phase 2 in Barangay Mipaga, Marawi City.

PNA photo by Avito Dalan

Duterte: If my plane explodes, ask CIA

by Dana

SioSon AJPress

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday, April 5, dropped fresh hints that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is out to eliminate him, as he continued blasting the United States for being critical of his anti-illegal drugs campaign.

Speaking before a group of farmers and fishermen at Malacañang, Duterte said people should look into the CIA should anything bad happens to him.

“At least kung pumutok ‘yang eroplano ko o pumutok ‘yang roadside bomb (if my airplane explodes or a roadside bomb goes off), maybe you can ask the CIA,” Duterte said.

This was not the first time Duterte accused the U.S. agency of plotting against him.

In September 2016, the president disclosed that he has received reports of CIA’s alleged plans to

“kill” him. In October last year, he also pointed to CIA as the one to blame for his possible untimely death, saying: “If I die, it’s America (that’s behind it). It’s the CIA.” The CIA has denied that it was planning to eliminate the Philippine president.

During his Thursday speech, Duterte also berated the U.S. for blocking the sale of firearms to Philippines because of alleged human rights violations related to his drug war.

He said the Americans “really do not honor their word.”

Duterte recalled how he asked China and Russia for help in acquiring rifles amid the five-month long Marawi siege last year, when the Philippine forces clashed with Islamic State-inspired terrorists.

“To this day, Russia and China have yet to ask even a piece of paper or pencil. There was no military alliance. I am not prepared for that. I’d just like to go neutral,” he

added.

Duterte further warned “loudmouth” Americans that they would someday realize that the drug problem in U.S. is “one hundred times more serious” than in the Philippines.

He took note how U.S. President Donald Trump, who assumed office last year, is now praising the drug war in the Philippines, in contrast to the critical stance of his predecessor, former U.S. President Barack Obama.

“One day, to your horror, your problem is one hundred times more serious than what we have.

It came to pass. Si Obama yun (That’s Obama). Ngayon pagsabi kay Trump ngayon (But now Trump), he’s declaring a national emergency,” Duterte said.

He continued: “So Americans, what values are you trying to impose on us? The values of Obama, the values of Trump, or your own national stupidity?” n

Garin, other Health execs charged over ‘Dengvaxia deaths’ CRIMINAL charges were filed by the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) on Thursday, April 5, against former Health Secretary Janette Garin and other former officials of the Department of Health over the death of four children inoculated with Dengvaxia.

Charged at the Department of Justice were Garin, Socorro Lupisan and Maria Rosario Capeding of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM); and other officials involved in the purchase of the vaccine– Vicente Belizario Jr., Kenneth Hartigan-Go, Gertardo Bayugo, Lyndon Lee Suy, Irma Ascuncion, Julius Lecciones, Joyce Ducusin, Rosalind Vianzon, and Mario Baguilod.

Also included in the charge sheet were Sanofi Pasteur Inc. and distributor Zuellig Pharma Corporation.

Sanofi officers named in the complaint were Carlito Realuyo, Sanislas Camart, Jean Louis Grunwald, Jean-Francois Vacherand, Conchita Santos, Jazel Anne Calvo, Pearl Grace Cabali, and Marie Esther De Antoni. Those from Zuellig were Kasigod Jamias, Michael Becker, Ricardo Romulo, Imran Babar Chugtai, Raymund Azurin, Nilo Badiola, John Stokes Davison, Marc Franck, Ashley Gerard Antonio, Ana Liza Peralta, Rosa Maria Chua, Danilo Cahoy, Manuel Con-

cio III, Roland Goco, and Ma. Visitacion Barreiro.

They were charged with four separate complaints of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide under Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code and violation of Republic Act No. 9745 (Anti-Torture Act) and torture.

PAO chief Persida Acosta said the complaints were filed by the families of victims Aejay Bautista, 11; Angelica Pestilos, 10; Lenard Baldonado, 10; and Zandro Colite, 11.

Acosta was tapped by the DoJ to conduct a conduct fact-finding probe and build up cases on criminal liabilities of government personnel and private individuals for the children’s death.

“After inoculation of Dengvaxia, Respondents Garin, et al. did not initiate a full-fledged, active and aggressive monitoring and surveillance of Dengvaxia recipients so as to immediately address any report of serious adverse and lifethreatening reactions and events among the latter, thus, resulting to the increasing number of deaths including that of herein victim,” the complaint stated.

Dr. Erwin Erfe, PAO forensic expert, said the victims had severe bleeding. Four of the victims died of organ failure.

“Based on the admissions and

declarations of respondents Sanofi Pasteur, Inc., if Dengvaxia is administered to a person who has not yet contracted dengue, that person will have a greater risk of developing severe disease, which would have been otherwise had Dengvaxia not been administered upon him,” the complaint read.

“In so doing, they (respondents) displayed grave recklessness, utter bad faith, lack of foresight, lack of skill, want of care, gross neglect and deliberate, arbitrary and even malicious disregard of the safety and lives of thousands of Filipino children,” it added.

As to the charge of torture act, the PAO pointed out that the respondents “intentionally inoculating the Dengvaxia recipients with an unsafe product undergoing clinical trial, which caused them not only severe pain, exhaustion, disability or dysfunction of one or more parts of the body, but untimely death.”

“We have established the strong link between the mass vaccination and the untimely deaths of the victims,” Acosta told reporters.

“The deaths are not just mere coincidental, the deaths are unusual.

The mass vaccination was highly suspicious because the children affected were appeared to be healthy.” (Jomar Canlas/ManilaTimes.net)

MANILA — Embattled Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno will face her colleagues in the Supreme Court (SC) who compelled her to temporarily leave office while facing impeachment proceedings in Congress.

Sereno has decided to abide by the order issued by her fellow justices for her to “attend personally and answer questions from the Court.”

“The Chief Justice will attend the oral arguments to answer questions from justices,” Sereno’s spokesman lawyer Jojo Lacanilao said on Wednesday, April 4.

The appearance of Sereno was set by the Court as a condition in granting her plea for oral arguments.

But Lacanilao stressed that while the chief magistrate will appear at the hearing set for April 12 in Baguio City, it does not necessarily mean that they have conceded to the propriety of the quo warranto proceedings against her.

“Her appearance is without prejudice to our jurisdiction challenge,” the lawyer clarified.

It was also learned that Sereno’s camp will seek the inhibition of Associate Justice Teresita Leonardode Castro and other justices in the case. Her lawyers will file motions before the SC within the week for this purpose.

De Castro was among the justices who testified against Sereno in the earlier impeachment hearings before the House justice committee.

It will be the first time a sitting chief justice will face fellow justices in an oral argument – not as head of the high court but rather on the other side as a respondent in the case.

Meanwhile, Sens. Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV rallied behind Sereno in seeking the dismissal of the quo warranto petition through a petition for intervention before the SC. “Any proceeding whose aim is to remove an impeachable public officer outside an impeachment trial in the Senate is a palpable violation of the Constitution; it is a diminution of the Impeachment Clause, a circumvention of the exclusive character of an impeachment and incompatible with the design of the Constitution,” the

two senators argued.

“With due respect, the honorable court should not allow itself to become a party to a patent transgression of the Constitution,” they added.

With this, De Lima and Trillanes asked the SC to dismiss the petition against Sereno for lack of jurisdiction.

The SC has already denied the two petitions for intervention filed by the Makabayan bloc of partylist lawmakers led by Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate and a group of private individuals led by running protest Fr. Robert Reyes. But it took note of the similar intervention filed by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. n

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Former Pres. Benigno Aquino III and Former Health Secretary Janette Garin

PNA photo

Jinggoy Estrada inclined to run for senator again

by RoSEttE

aDEl

Philstar.com

MANILA — Former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada on Thursday, April 5, express intent to run for senator in the 2019 national elections.

“I’m inclined to run again for the Senate,” Estrada said on CNN’s “The Source”.

Estrada, who is identified with the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, said he is keeping his options open on what political party he will join. He said he is open to joining the administration Partido Demokratiko Pilipino- Lakas ng Bayan, since he is supportive of the current administration.

He, however, said he might not

join “The Force”, the slate that half-brother Sen. JV Ejercito will be running under.

Asked why he wants to run for the Senate again, Estrada said he feels like he still have a lot of things to do in the Senate. “[There are] bills that haven’t been passed. There is still several unfinished business,” Estrada, a former Senate president pro tempore, said in mixed Filipino.

Estrada also countered Ejercito’s statement that he wants to run for vindication after his release on bail.

“That is not true,” Estrada said.

“I’m sure I will be vindicated so please don’t spin the story,” he added.

The former senator said that

he was jailed in 2001 for plunder charges and was released in 2003.

He immediately ran for Senate in 2004. He was acquitted in 2007 and ran again in 2010, when he won.

Estrada was released on bail last September after being detained for more than three years for graft and plunder charges over his alleged role in the anomalous “pork barrel” scam.

Meanwhile, Estrada is confident that if he runs in the 2019 polls, the votes for the him and Ejercito would not be split because they use different surnames.

He said he went to court to have his name legally changed to Estrada and he has been using the name in official documents since. n

A6 APRIL 6-12, 2018 • NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY ASIAN JOURNAL

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FEATURES

OPINION

Beyond a shadow of a doubt

“WET ballots” and “audit logs” are becoming household phrases as the manual recount of votes in the vice presidential race in 2016 gets underway. The camp of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., which sought the recount, is claiming fraud in the race that saw him losing by a narrow margin of 219,127 votes to Leni Robredo.

The fraud allegations are expected from any candidate seeking a vote recount. Robredo, who ran under the Liberal Party, has denied winning the nation’s highest post through cheating.

On the first day of the recount, Marcos questioned the wet ballots and missing audit logs from 38 out of 40 ballot boxes from Bato town in Robredo’s home province of Camarines Sur, as discovered by revisers involved in the recount.

Yesterday, four revisers of the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, quit for still unspecified reasons. The camps of both Robredo and Marcos expressed concern over the resignations, particularly in the possible delay that might result.

With Marcos contesting the results in only three pilot provinces, the recount is expected to be completed quickly. Obviously, the most important requirement in the recount is credibility. This is the

first manual review of votes since the restoration of democracy in 1986, and its outcome will have a major impact on political stability.

While Marcos was the running mate of the late senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, he and his family are known to be close to President Duterte. In several public engagements, the President has cited Marcos’ eldest sister Imee as one of a handful of individuals who supported his bid for the nation’s top post in 2016.

Robredo, on the other hand, belongs to the ruling party in the previous administration, toward which the President has shown undisguised disdain. The Vice President was eased out of the Cabinet and there are no indications that she would be recruited again. This is a politically charged recount, especially because the only son and namesake of the late dictator is directly involved. The outcome of the recount must not be tainted by any shadow of a doubt.

(Philstar.com)

Editorial

Philstar.com photo

Our hope for the Two Koreas in a confederation

PeaceMaker FORMER SPEAKER JOSE C. DE VENECIA, JR. A FAST-MOVING initiative for peace and hopefully, the beginnings of rapprochement, is underway in the Korean Peninsula between the two separated Koreas, North and South.

We hope it is to be followed by a larger three-way Summit with the U.S., most likely in April or May between the two Korean leaders, potential Nobel Peace Prize winners, President Moon Jae-In of the South and Kim Jong-Un of the North, with President Donald Trump.

The objective is to establish the main agenda and hopefully achieve the difficult but long-desired result — the beginnings of peace on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone, along the 38th Parallel which partitions Korea at the waist — for the peoples of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) of the North, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) in the South.

Over the years, since we first travelled to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital in 1990, as a younger congressman, as then Acting Chairman of the

Foreign Relations Committee of the House of Representatives, our visit and talks with North Korea’s founding President Kim Il-Sung immediately resulted in a return visit to Manila by then North Korean Vice Premier Kim Dahl Hyun, and the rapid establishment of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and North Korea (DPRK), with the active support of the late President Corazon Aquino and the late Foreign Secretary Raul Manglapus.

In the last two years, as Chairman of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), now with some 350 ruling, opposition and independent parties as members, we had since moved from Manila to Seoul the headquarters of ICAPP, which we founded in Manila in 2000, in the hope that we could help bridge the gap between the two Koreas by helping promote the feasibility of establishing the Korean Confederation for the Two Koreas, ideally working with the North’s sole political organization, the Korean Workers Party.

We envisioned that South and North would keep their independent countries separate but in peace and join in a loose Confederation, normally trading

and doing business, engage in cross-trade and tourism, developing their agriculture, industries, fisheries, highways, airways and railways system, and connect from Pusan in the deep south, (gateway to Japan), all the way to the North, in a TransSiberia Railway leading to Russia and to Europe.

This is of course possible and probable if there is common will, with the support of the U.S., China, Russia and Japan, with ASEAN, the European Union, and U.N. providing guidance and active support.

It is not fair to ask North Korea now to give up its nuclear weapons because it will not, but the relations between the Two Koreas can and should develop normally, if they start preparing for it now.

In previous speeches in the region and in previous news columns we had pointed out: “We believe that the lingering conflict and potentially dangerous flashpoint in the Korean Peninsula with North Korea, now nuclear-armed and continuously testing improved nuclear weaponry, and perhaps even the potential of missiles launched from submarines, could be resolved peacefully through diplomacy, cooperation

and bilateral and/or multilateral dialogue. No matter how most difficult, it must be constantly tried and pursued, and we claim its eventual success, for the sake of the two Koreas, Asia, and the world.

“We urge the revival of the long-postponed Six-Party talks among the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, and North Korea, and even better, the sustained direct talks between North and South that would directly contribute to enhancing political stability and security not only in the Korean Peninsula but in the Asia Pacific region, but most importantly lead to unite the two Koreas, forswear war, and together build a strong, united prosperous, eventually first-world nation for the Korean peoples in the second or third decade of the 21st Century.

“Perhaps, the successful dynamics of North Korea’s nuclear development could be channelled to economic mobilization.”

“And the Six-Nation Talks (long-suspended) could have a business-focused auxiliary to develop economic joint-ventures for deployment in the Korean north.

We also noted that in a speech at the former East German city

of Dresden in 2014, the former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, now unfortunately in prison, said: “Just as the German people secured freedom, prosperity and peace by tearing down the Berlin Wall, we too must tear down barriers in our march towards a new future on the Korean Peninsula.”

At the time we also said: “We agree that for our peoples, the age of ideological conflict is over. All our countries now need to move beyond containment and confrontation toward cooperation and collective prosperity. Indeed, there is no other option.”

We had much earlier pointed these out to our two close friends in Seoul: our ICAPP CoChairman and former SecretaryGeneral Chung Eui-yong and current ICAPP Secretary-General Park Robyug, former South Korean Ambassador to Russia.

Of course our capable Co-Chairman Chung is now on leave from ICAPP, has been appointed South Korea’s National Security Adviser, who a few weeks ago flew to Pyongyang, successfully conferred with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and went on non-stop to brief President Trump in Washington, Chinese President XI Jinping in Beijing,

and Japanese National Security Adviser Shotaro Yachi.

Now to secure the deal with North Korea (DPRK): the key is to forge initially a respectable Confederation between North and South, no harm to the South, which is far bigger, already industrialized and wealthy, and for the North, to begin to build its economy, industries, agriculture and trade, and a common North-South railway extending all the way to Pusan in the south, to Russia and onwards to Europe.

In earlier days, atomic powers like Kazakhstan, which is almost as large as Western Europe, also voluntarily demilitarized and gave up its nuclear weapons and today leads in Eurasia.

Indeed North Korea could leverage and give-up its nuclear weapons in exchange for largescale cash and economic assistance and rapidly build up its economy and be equal in status as sovereigns with South Korea.

In a Confederation, North and South would be co-equal sovereign nations, with some centralizing connectivity, and in the fullness of time, could decide to unite as one nation-state like the two Germanies and the two Vietnams. ■

We build casinos, not tech and innovation hubs

Opinion

CIVIL society, if such a thing really exists in the country, should try to measure the floor space allotted to serious research and MARLEN RONQUILLO development (R&D) work in the government agencies and public research universities. Then measure the space allotted for casinos and other forms of organized and officially sanctioned gambling in the urban areas and the tourist zones.

The result would make the citizen who loves the country weep.

For he/she will come face to face with the grim reality. There is more space for casinos and officially sanctioned gambling than for serious research and development work.

If we add the space occupied by cockpits, online gambling joints, the minor casinos and other gambling sites, the total space occupied by gambling would reduce the floor area devoted to R&D to a minor blip in the Philippine universe.

The lover of the country will realize that the dream of attaining First World status is just an official scam, parroted through generations via official public statements and national aspirations, but never actually pursued and funded.

Why is the goal of attaining First World status an official scam?

What are the numbers?

Singapore, the first in the ASEAN region to attain true First World status, allocates 2.1 percent of its GDP to research and development.

Per one million residents, the number of scientists and researchers is more than 7,200. It is no wonder that when we speak of cuttingedge developments in a knowledge society, the ASEAN’s pride is Singapore.

What about us, what is our place in this very critical area? I will use a Tagalog word – kulelat. The Philippines is the ASEAN laggard in research and development.

Over the years, the national allocation to R&D has never breached the embarrassing 0.14 percent of GDP. To us, a 1 percent R&D budget has been a dream on the scale of Mt. Everest, a goal never scaled.

On the number of serious researchers per one million residents, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Dado Banatao, the chair of Phildev, admitted in an interview that the Philippines is not a country for serious STEM people.

We have more lawyers than high-quality scientists and engineers involved in world-class research and development work. We don’t even have the expertise to survey the riches of our own Benham Rise.

The Global Competitiveness Report for 2017-2018 tells the same story. We are eighth in ASEAN, behind Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam. It is the only country that slid in the regional ranking, eighth from its previous rank of sixth.

Where are we in the ranking of “smart cities“ – the cities most prepared for today and the future? The answer?

Nowhere. We are in the usual place down, along with the usual suspects, cities with traffic gridlocks, pollution and political chaos.

The IESE, the graduate school of business of the University of Navarra, regularly ranks “smart cities” across the globe and Metro Manila has always been on the low-rank category.

A country that pays little attention to R&D work usually drags down the reputation of its university system and the Philippines is not an exception. The latest QS Global World Ranking placed the UP System at number 367, which is a major demotion from its place in the global university ranking two decades ago. In the old days, UP was always in the Top 25 Asian universities.

Ateneo, La Salle and UST were ranked, but they were so deep down in the global rankings that they were barely noticed. Ateneo was in the 551-600 bracket. La Salle was in the 701-750 bracket while UST was on the 801-1000 list.

The other prestigious survey, the World University Rankings, placed UP only in the 601-800 bracket, a harsher verdict. It was the only Philippine university ranked by the WUR. So, what is the solution offered to reverse this laggard status? Is it allotting 2 percent of Philippine GDP to research and development?

Is it the frenzied and ambitious development of technology and innovation hubs? Is it the massive funding of our public research universities? Is it a springtime — funding-wise — for the DOST. The answer? More casinos.

The Macau Galaxy Entertainment, a giant operator of casinos in that haven for casinos, has teamed up with a local group, the Leisure and Resorts World Corp., to build a giant casino in, of all places, Boracay. After Mr. Duterte condemned Boracay as a “cesspool,“ and after the local authorities and the DENR have teamed up to sup-

Inquirer.net photo

posedly rid the place of illegal hotels and other structures, beaming executives of Galaxy Entertainment signed a deal with PAGCOR to build a giant casino at Boracay.

After the supposed cleaning and cleansing process, a casino.

Wow. After the giant casino project in Boracay was green-lighted, we can only wonder about what the priorities of government are. Filipino-owned establishments are torn down to give way to a casino owned by a foreign gambling entity. What kind of priorities enter into the decision-making process?

A marine research center would have been ideal there. On second thought, however, a research center would have been an anomaly in a country hooked on gambling, not on the promotion of the knowledge economy. (ManilaTimes.net)

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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Dateline PhiliPPines

NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY ASIAN JOURNAL • APRIL 6-12, 2018

A

Abu Sayyaf hunter, peace advocate named new AFP chief

by AudRey

moRAllo Philstar.com

AGENTS SEND-OFF. Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar shares a light moment with special agents of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) at the sidelines of their send-off ceremony held at Malacañang, Manila on Monday, April 2. The agents will be deployed in different provinces around the country which has had cases of media killings.

PNA photo by Avito Dalan

Duterte ready to certify Bangsamoro Basic Law as urgent

by Alexis

RomeRo Philstar.com

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte has said he is willing to certify the Bangsamoro Basic Law urgent as he urged lawmakers to consolidate their versions of the measure.

Duterte and some lawmakers discussed the BBL during a meeting in Malacañang on Wednesday, April 4 .

“The president asked them to finalize already their version of the BBL to consolidate all pending versions, and he will certify it as urgent to fast track the passage of BBL,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said on Thursday, April 5.

If a measure is certified urgent, it will not be covered by a rule which states that a bill needs to be read on first, second and third reading on separate days.

Roque stressed that Duterte is committed to achieve lasting peace with Moro groups and

communist rebels.

Duterte reiterated his promise to support the enactment of the BBL during an agriculture event in Malacañang on Thursday.

“I will comply with the BBL. Give me time,” the president said.

The BBL aims to create a new Bangsamoro political entity with greater political and economic powers.

Last Monday, Duterte admitted that he is racing against time to have the proposed BBL passed

by Congress,saying the measure should be enacted within the year.

“I am racing against time. The MILF is in a hurry and has placed on us the burden of a timeline and I have agreed to that period.

I gave my solemn promise and I assure you, I am working hard to meet the deadline,” the President said during the distribution of certificates of land ownership award in Sultan Kudarat.

Court grants Mike Arroyo’s travel plea THE Sandiganbayan’s Seventh Division has granted former first gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo’s plea to let him travel to Japan and to Hong Kong.

Arroyo filed a motion asking the court for permission to travel to Japan and Hong Kong from April 21 to 27.

“Over the objection of the prosecution, the instant motion was granted during the hearing on the motion, subject to the usual terms and conditions imposed by the Court…,” the court said in a resolution dated March 26.

In granting his motion, the court said in part “[t]hat his itinerary of travel shall cover only Tokyo, Japan and Hong Kong” and that he “shall leave not earlier than April 21, 2018 and shall be back in the Philippines not later than April 27, 2018.”

He must also “personally pres-

ent himself,” with his passport, to the Sandiganbayan Seventh Division Clerk of Court within five days after his expected date of return, regardless of whether or not he was able to undertake the trip.

The court is enforcing a hold departure order in connection with a graft case filed in 2012 against former Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Jesus Verzosa and other individuals, including Arroyo.

A hold departure order bars respondents from leaving the country without the court’s permission.

The case is in connection with the PNP’s procurement of two supposedly second-hand helicopters that were allegedly passed off and paid for as brand new. (Reina Tolentino/ManilaTimes.net)

Agreement to protect El Nido signed

by RhodinA

VillAnueVA Philstar.com

government, will support them,” Cimatu said.

Aracel Bacolod and Ricky BalMANILA — The Department lena, chairpersons of Barangays of Environment and Natural Re- Bucanan and Buena Suerte, sources (DENR) and the local respectively, Policarpio Ramos government of El Nido in Pala- of the Pagkakaisa Pagtutulungan wan recently signed an agree- Kalikasan Pakaingatan Ecotourment to protect natural resources ism Service Cooperative and on the island.

Plennie Candelario of Samahan Alexander Mancio of the El ng Nagkakaisang Magsasaka, Nido-Taytay Managed Resource Mangingisda, at Kababaihan Protected Area and Mayor Nieves Tungo sa Maunlad na KinabuRosento signed the renewal of kasan ng Pamayanan also signed the conservation agreement. the agreement.

“This covenant… is the right Signatories are expected to step toward achieving sustain- implement environment-friendly ability in El Nido, one of the most programs, including the estabbeautiful and biodiverse ecotour- lishment and maintenance of ism destinations in the Philip- materials recovery facilities as pines,” DENR Secretary Roy Ci- well as tree and mangrove seedmatu said. ling nurseries.

“This partnership aims to Regular coastal and sea cleanimplement and sustain ecotour- up and patrol of the seas and forism and other livelihood activi- ests of El Nido will also be conties for the people of El Nido. ducted.

The Malampaya Foundation Inc., Cimatu said the agreement another signatory, will train and goes hand-in-hand with the misprovide livelihood programs for sion of Task Force El Nido to the people while our local of- protect the 90,321-hectare key ficials, together with the local biodiversity area. n

El Nido, Palawan

Inquirer.net photo

“It has to be this year because that was what was agreed upon,” he added.

The president said he would meet with MNLF founding chairman Nur Misuari this week to discuss a possible peace settlement. This, despite a final peace agreement between the government and the MNLF signed in 1996.

Misuari is opposed to the peace agreement signed by the government and the MILF in 2014. (Philstar.com)

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday, April 5, named Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez of the Western Mindanao Command as the new chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the second significant change the chief executive announced to his security officials today.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said that the start of Galvez’s term of office and that of Director Oscar Albayalde as Philippine National Police chief, the president’s other major security appointment, would be on April 14.

“The president just said that please announce that it is Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez as the next AFP chief of staff,” Roque said in a press conference in the Palace.

Galvez is the chief of the Zamboanga City-based Western Mindanao Command, the area command that covers Marawi City, the scene of intense five-month fighting between government forces and Islamic State-inspired Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists last year.

He is also an Army Scout Ranger officer and a veteran of operations against the Abu Sayyaf. He is the overall commander of the military’s anti-terrorism campaign against militants in Marawi and the rest of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Westmincom told Philstar. com that is has yet to issue an official statement on the appointment.

Galvez will replace Gen. Rey Leonardo Guerrero as military

In this Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017 photo, Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief Maj. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., gestures to then Armed Forces chief of staff General Eduardo Año and his predecessor Lt. Gen. Mayoralgo dela Cruz during the turnover of command rites inside the military camp in Zamboanga City.

Philstar.com photo

chief, whose term of office was supposed to end in December but was extended by four more months.

Galvez and Guerrero were the top two contenders to replace AFP chief Eduardo Año when he retired last year.

The president eventually opted for Guerrero, who was then the military commander in charge of Duterte’s hometown of Davao City and was the more senior officer.

Under Galvez’s command, several top commanders of the Abu Sayyaf group were captured, the most recent of which was militant leader Nhurhassan Jamiri, who was wanted for bombings and kidnappings in several towns and cities in Mindanao.

‘Soft-hand approach’ Despite his image as an Abu Sayyaf hunter, Galvez also espouses a “soft-hand approach” in dealing with militants.

He said that killing a terrorist might result in three or four relatives taking up arms for themselves.

“If you will be able to reform one hardcore terrorist, all of his followers and his relatives will be reformed also,” Galvez said, adding that this was the best way to break the chain of violence committed by the Abu Sayyaf group.

Galvez, while commander of the 6th Infantry Division, was also instrumental in the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with the government in 2014.

The announcement of Galvez as the new military chief capped a day of whirlwind announcements of resignation and appointments.

Duterte announced that he had already accepted the resignation of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and appointed Menardo Guevarra as his replacement.

The president also announced that National Capital Region Police Office Director Albayalde would replace Director General Ronald Dela Rosa as the Philippine National Police head. n

A APRIL 6-12, 2018 • NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY ASIAN JOURNAL

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APRIL 6-12, 2018

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An Asian Journal Magazine

The Asian Journal N E W YO R K / N E W J E R S EY A p R i l 6 , 20 1 8

Consul General Theresa Dizon-De Vega bids the community a fond farewell

by MoMar

C

oNsul General Ma. Theresa Dizon-De Vega bade the Filipino communities of Northeast usA goodbye, for the second time in five years. And just like the first time in 2013 as Deputy Consul General, she was not able to finish her tour of duty as she was recalled back to the home office for a higher position. This time, rumor mills here and Manila say that Foreign Affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano is appointing her as one of the DFA undersecretaries.

“We have this dictum in the foreign service, no one is indispensable, because we come and go and I’m sure, I’m confident that the consulate will be just as active as it has always been and more so,” the self-confessed accidental diplomat shared in her last chat with the media. “I think when you leave an institution and you move on to other things, you will always want your successor or the team that comes after you to do better, because otherwise you won’t grow.”

This last Con Gen Hour – a regular meeting with the media that the Philippine Consulate General began in 2011 – became

G. Visaya/AJPress

a free-for-all, with the well-loved consul general responding to questions that ranged from politics to foreign policy to economics to Broadway and beyond.

Asked about her journey to becoming a diplomat, De Vega said it was not in her plans.

“I’m an accidental diplomat,” she shared smiling. “I took the foreign service examination, out of respect, out of filial duty, because a close friend of my mother’s, a retired ambassador and she’d been pestering my mother to have me take the exam and so I just took the exam, I didn’t even review, I didn’t even prepare.”

That was in 1994, when she joined the Department of Foreign Affairs after placing first in the Foreign service officers Examination. she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree major in English (cum laude) at the university of the Philippines. she joined the faculty of uP Diliman’s College of Arts and letters after her graduation in 1989. she completed her Masteral Degree in English at Queen’s university in Canada in 1991 and obtained her Juris Doctor Degree

UP Alumni Association in America (UPAAA) led by its president Nelsie Parrado led in organizing leaders of different associations such as Handang Tumulong Foundation, Inc., ANCOP, UPMASA NY-NJ-CT Chapter, UPAA-NJ and UPNEC in honoring Consul General De Vega at a Filipino brunch held in Jersey City.

Photos by Troi Santos

Consul General Tess De Vega with the Resolution presented by the Jersey City City Council led by its President Rolando Lavarro.

Photos by Troi Santos

(JD) from the Ateneo de Manila university school of law and passed the Philippine Bar in 2000.

“I decided to make a go of it and see, my initial plan was, I’ll probably stay for two years, I’ll see how it goes but I ended up staying,” she said. “I’ve always been interested in history, in politics, it’s always been something that I’ve constantly read up on, current events and culture. I think it is very important for a diplomat to have a good knowledge of culture and the arts, being a lawyer is very helpful also.”

The initial two years flew by and now, 24 years later, she is at the top of her game.

De Vega has served in various offices in the DFA as well as foreign postings in Mexico (as Third and then second secretary and Consul), Hong Kong sAR, China (Consul), the united Kingdom (Minister and Consul General) and New York (Deputy Consul General and Manager, Philippine Center New York). she speaks spanish, French, and Kapampangan in addition to English and Pilipino. she is married to Eduardo Jose A. de Vega, currently the Philippine Ambassador to Belgium and formerly the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Philippine Mission to the united Nations. They have a daughter, Montserrat.

Asked about what she’d miss in the Big Apple, she mentioned the dynamics, the community and the work that they do.

“I will miss the people, the community, the work, probably the pace. The dynamics of the community, the city, the representation with local officials, members of the Congress,” she said.

“There are a lot of things we do in New York, we do a lot of community networking but we also do a lot of networking with local officials, state officials, members of Congress and the states that we represent and members of the senate.”

“I will miss not being able to serve for a longer period of time under the new Philippine ambassador who I think is a very good ambassador and will prove to be so in the coming months and years. I will miss the diversity of New York. on a personal level, the access to the things that I enjoy outside of work, books, film, theatre, classical music, all sorts of music actually, arts and culture, because you really get everything you need here in New York,” she added.

At the Philippine fiesta-

themed despedida attended by hundreds of community leaders coming from the ten state jurisdiction of the Philippine Consulate General New York, Con Gen Tess thanked the community, calling it the “secret sauce” for welcoming her with open arms and for being generous with their time in working together for the consulate’s various projects.

“The secret sauce in the level of engagement and presence in the Fil-Am community in the Northeast is you guys. You who are gathered here and those who are not with us but who are in different professions who put their best foot forward wherever they may be,” she said.

The consul general received citations from the New York state Assembly and the Manhattan Borough President. Aries De la Cruz represented Gail Brewer, President of the Borough of Manhattan, and gave her a Proclamation declaring February 28 as “Ma. Theresa DizonDe Vega Day” in Manhattan. steven Raga, on the other hand gave her a Citation from New York state Assemblyman Brian Barnwell.

Prizes were also given to participants who knew – or were able to guess – De Vega’s favorites and some trivia about her. Broadway musical? Book of Mormon and Avenue Q. Color? Blue.

Aries de la Cruz presents a proclamation on behalf of the Borough of Manhattan President Gale Brewer.

Photos by Troi Santos

The position she took after leaving New York back in 2013? Chief Coordinator. one of the many despedida parties tendered to honor Con Gen Tess gathered various organizations one saturday morning for a truly Filipino breakfast spread of tuyo, longganisa, tapa and tocino, served with garlic fried rice and eggs of course. uP Alumni Association in America (uPAAA) president Nelsie Parrado led in organizing leaders of different associations such as Handang Tumulong Foundation, Inc., ANCoP, uPMAsA NY-NJ-CT Chapter, uPAA-NJ and uPNEC. “Despite numerous changes in dates and venues, here we are today, gathered to wish our consul general a great farewell,” Parrado said.

“You will be sorely missed

Consul General De Vega with guests (from left) with Ambassador Leslie Gatan, Ms. Debbie Gatan, Joey Chanco, Ms. Louie Locsin, Ms. Dading Clemente of Rajah Tours and Tourism Attache Susan del Mundo.

by the community. We would like to congratulate you on your promotion,” Jersey City City Council President Rolando lavarro said.

The Jersey City Council also presented a resolution thanking and honoring the outgoing consul general for her career in diplomacy and public service. “[The Consul General] has been committed to encouraging constructive civic and political engagement among the Filipinos and the Filipino American community by encouraging them to serve in various boards and associations in New York, New Jersey and other states under the consul general’s jurisdiction, contributing to the development of the localities they live in,” Council President Rolando lavarro said, reading the city council’s resolution.

Ambassador Teddy Locsin

Con Gen De Vega with some University of the Philippines graduates at the festive community appreciation event. AJPress Photos by Momar G. Visaya

Regine Velasquez says she never Brillante Mendoza: Netflix series put in her mind that she is famous shows ‘necessary’ Duterte drug war

by CeCil Morella

by Clarizel G. abanilla

Philstar.com

Inquirer.net

oDD for someone as famous as her to say such but Asia’s songbird Regine Velasquez said she really never realized how famous she was. she even joked about not thinking of herself as if she’s a supermodel.

“I accepted the fact that I am older. Saka more than anything else, I’m a wife, I’m a mom. Priority ko ang pamilya ko kaya hindi ko na masyadong naiisip na supermodel ako,” she said in a recent interview with select members of the entertainment press at the first audition leg of her newest singing contest, “The Clash.”

“Never ko inisip na sumikat ako. For me it was a job, it was my dream I was very thankful that I got it. ‘Yun ‘yung kabataan ko pero hahit nu’ng bata ako, looking back, basta mag-iisip lang ako ng concept, hahayaan ko na sila tapos i-stress ko ‘yung sarili ko may manood ba? Then ngayon na I’m older I’m more realistic,” she

Regine Velasquez

added.

Velasquez has had a stellar singing and acting career that spans 30 years now. she started in the late ‘80s winning singing contests and even represented the Philippines in the international scene.

But it was until the ‘90s that she rose to fame as among the most successful Filipino singers of all time. Her incredible vocal

THE deadly drug war waged

by President Rodrigo Duterte is to be dramatized in the first Netflix series by award-winning director Brillante Mendoza, who says the internationally condemned crackdown is “necessary.”

“Amo,” which premieres April 9, is about a high school student who starts selling crystal meth and ends up tangled in a nightmarish world populated by violent kingpins and corrupt officials.

It is the latest up-close GMA photo examination of the dark side of Philippine life from Cannesprowess made a mark in the pop honored Mendoza, who is a culture that her songs and way Duterte supporter and has filmed of singing became a benchmark two government advertisements for promising singers wanting to promoting the president’s antimake their way into showbiz. drug campaign. she has popularized among “Yes, it (the drug war) is the most powerful and endearing necessary for the Philippines—not songs and has filled out concert only for the Philippines but also stages and arenas whenever she other countries afflicted with the held concerts. drug problem,” the 57-year-old Her talent also paved the Continued on Page 3 Filipino told AFP in a telephone

Briallante Mendoza

Philstar.com photo

interview.

“The reason why I did this is so people can see the other side of the coin,” he said—from the point of view of the “victims” as well as the “victimizers.”

Philippine police say they have killed roughly 4,000 drug suspects who fought back during arrest since Duterte launched the war nearly two years ago, promising to rid his nation of narcotics.

But rights groups allege the

actual number is three times higher and accuse authorities of slaying unarmed slum-dwellers in a nation where a quarter of the population lives in poverty.

“Amo,” Filipino slang for “master,” explores the drug problem as experienced by different characters, including a student and his policeman uncle.

Mendoza said he would not like the series “to look like propaganda for the government...

It is not.”

Nonetheless, the filmmaker stressed he remained an “advocate” against illegal drugs.

Netflix did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

‘Based on real events’ In a Filipino film industry dominated by syrupy, star-driven productions, Mendoza runs an independent production outfit that stands out for its choice of controversial topics.

He crafts stories of ordinary people in situations ranging from Continued on Page 5

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An Asian Journal Magazine

The Asian Journal N E W YO R K / N E W J E R S EY A p R i l 6 , 20 1 8

Trump wants to speed up deportations

CONQUERING THE FEAR OF UNCERTAINTY AND SIX ICE AGENTS KNOCKING AT THEIR DOOR ON THIS SUNDYA’S “CITIZEN PINOY”! After they were offered jobs as caregivers, Danilo (left) and Millet (center) took a big gamble when they decided to stay in the U.S. to pursue their American dream. It was not easy, especially after their hard-earned money was lost to a lawyer who hardly did anything to move their case forward. They eventually went out of status, and even had I.C.E. agents come knocking on their door.

The couple then consulted with Atty. Michael Gurfinkel, who took over the case, and helped them acquire their green cards. Leading U.S. immigration attorney Michael Gurfinkel (right) was also able to help their two daughters avail of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and getting approval on their green cards the same day President Trump cancelled DACA. Watch this encore episode of “Citizen Pinoy” – on Sunday at 6:15 p.m. (PST) on TFC.

Choices: Sowing and reaping

Immigrant Living: 101 and Beyond

“Wise men learn from other people’s mistakes; fools, from their own.”

— Plautus

Monette AdevA MAGlAyA WE live in the land of mindboggling choices. We exercise the freedom to choose in nearly every aspect of our lives: from the mundane and trivial to the profound and significant. We choose which detergent to use or what color of hair dye your salon colorist will apply to your tresses this week.

Those are the easy ones. It is the profound, life-changing choices that stump us often, such as choosing a career, choosing a mate, which lifestyle to adapt or where to live. If we are to live fully, it is imperative to learn this one critical skill of knowing how to make the right choices.

Without this skill, life will just be a pathetic series of what-mighthave beens.

It is, at best, an intuitive skill.

How does one acquire it? There are no simple, cut and dried steps.

It helps to have a few essentials tucked in your belt such as: a broad knowledge base, a sound noggin, a good upbringing, a good heart, time and propensity for deep reflection and study to think things through, guidance from both the mortal and the spiritual realms and the ability to extract the lessons from one’s own experiences or better yet, from the collective pool of other people’s experiences.

It is a tall order. No one can say for certain how the ability to choose wisely ever comes about in anyone’s life. More often than not, this gets developed late in life when all the lessons from a lifetime of experiences reach a critical mass and congeal. Things finally click and everything seems clearer.

It could be a combination of nature and nurture where

heredity may play a tiny part.

Even the wisest of men can have fools for children just as there are children seemingly born with old souls, far advanced in their wisdom, who can have fools for parents. It is enough to know that you learn this skill yourself acquiring it layer upon layer with every season of your life from birth to death. At the highest levels, the intuition to make the right judgment calls at every turn, works like a sixth sense. This skill belongs to the most highly evolved human beings.

Why is this skill so important?

It is because for as long as the world turns, our choices determine our results. The law of cause and effect like the force of gravity that holds the universe together, rules human life. To understand intimately how the

Madaba, Mt. Nebo, Petra, Aqaba, Jordan

(Tiberias, Ceasarea, Haifa, Meggido,Magdala, Nazareth, Cana, Mt Carmel, Capernaum, Mt. Beatitude, Jericho, Bethany, Mt.Tabor, Mount Zion, Mt. of Olives, Old & New Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Qumran, Masada Dead Sea, Allen by Bridge, Madaba, Mt Nebo Petra, Aqaba Jordan)

OCTOBER 18 to NOVEMBER 1, 2018 SPIRITUAL CHAPLAIN: REV. ANTONIO FLORES Oct. 18, 2018( Thursday) Day 1 – MNL HKG, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL Oct. 25, 2018 (Thursday) Day 8 - Jerusalem Trans-Atlantic flight from LAX to Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv, Mass at the Holy Eucharist Church of St Peter in Gallicantu “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” (John 1:14) Israel. (Meals served in-flight) We will walk to view the Dome of the Rock from the outside, and visit the Oct. 18, 2018 (Friday) Day 1 – Arrive at Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv/ Western Wall, ( Wailing Wall ) the only part of the Herodian Temple still Tiberias standing and the most sacred place in the world for Jews. Then, we will Arrival from Manila still Oct. 18,2018 late in the evening. After we clear drive to Mt. Zion, to visit the Upper Room, revered as the site of the Last Immigration and Customs, will be met by our driver for transfer to tiberias . Supper, then survey the Dormition Abbey, and the Church of St. Peter in enjoy the panoramic view of the Mediterranean. We will spend our first night Gallicantu, the site where Peter denied Jesus three times. After the day’s in Tiberias. Dinner and overnight (D). Gai Beach Hotel (Oct. 19, 2018) Holy tour, we will return to our hotel for dinner and overnight. Jerusalem (B, D) Eucharist Notre Dame Vatican Hotel Oct. 20, 2018 (Saturday) Day 3 - Tiberias/ Meggido/ Nazareth/ Cana / Oct. 26, 2018 (Friday) Day 9 - Mount of Olives/Gethsemane/Bethlehem/ Mt Tabor Jerusalem (New City)/Ein Karem We will have short stop in Meggido and the Plains of Armageddon, known in Mass at the Church of Nativity Hebrew as Meggido, a giant fortress and City built by King Solomon. In the New “O mountain of God, receive me, a mother, with my child.” (Protoevangelium Testament book of Revelation, it is referred as the sites of the “final battle”. of James 22:3) From there, we will continue our drive into Nazareth, where we will have Mass We will arrive at the Mount of Olives, to enjoy another view of Jerusalem, in the Church of the Annunciation, the Cave of the Annunciation and visit the Chapel of Ascension, Pater Noster Church and the Dominus visit Joseph’s Workshop and Then we will move on to Cana of Galilee, where Flevit (“God wept”) sanctuary. Next, we’ll walk the Palm Sunday Road to the Our Lord performed His first miracle: changing water into wine at the wedding Garden of Gethsemane, and visit the Rock of Agony and the Church of feast. We will invite couples to Bless their marriage vows, Continue to Mount all Nations. In the afternoon, we’ll drive to Bethlehem, a city whose name is Tabor, site of Jesus Transfiguration Afterward, we will head to Tiberias. Dinner recognized around the world. After celebrating Mass at the Church of Nativity, and overnight in Tiberias. (B/D).Gai Beach Hotel. we will see the Manger; visit the Church of St. Catherine, the Grotto of St. Oct. 21, 2018 (Sunday) Day 4 - Tiberias/Mount Beatitude/ Multiplication / Primacy/ Capernum/Boat Ride “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” Early AM departures to Mt. Beatitude Drive up to Mount Beatitudes, visit the site of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus preached to the people. Eucharistic Celebration. Enjoy a scenic boat ride across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, home of Our Lord during his ministry.

After visiting the Synagogue where he taught, proceed to Tabgha, the site of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Then to the Church Primacy of St Peters.

Overnight Magdala ( BB, D)

Jerome and the Shepherds’ Fields. Then we will return to Jerusalem (New City), to view the Temple Model to see how it looked during the time of Jesus.

Here, we will gain a better understanding between the old and new cities of Jerusalem. Up next is a trip to Ein Karem, birthplace of St. John the Baptist, to see the Visitation Church, where Mary proclaimed her famous “Magnificat”.

We will end our day by returning to our Hotel. (B/D).

Oct. 23, 2018 (Tuesday) DAY 6 - Jordan Valley/Jericho/Bethany/ Jerusalem Mass at the Church of St. Lazarus MAGDALA, Israel – 2009 Discoveries from a new archaeological dig are creating excitement in the area where Jesus began his ministry. The village is called Magdala (Migdal in Hebrew), and it’s the home of Mary Magdalene.”She lived here and she met Jesus here and she continued with Him. Yes, it’s that place The most important discovery in Magdala has been a synagogue dating back to the time of Jesus. According to archaeologists, it’s the first one discovered in the Galilee.

famous mosaic map of the Holy Land. Then we will drive down to Aqaba.

Overnight in Aqaba (B/D). Movenpick Resort & Residence.

Oct. 27, 2018 (Saturday) Day 10 - Jerusalem/ Dead Sea/ Qumran/ Masada Mass at the Church of all Nations After breakfast, we will celebrate mass at the Church of all Nations and then we will drive to Dead Sea, the lowest spot on earth. Visit Qumran; see the Oct. 22, 2018 (Monday) Day 5 - Magdala Full day retreat , Focus will Include programs based on the historical caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered. Continue to Masada, visit Herod’s fortress and the Jew’s last stronghold against the Roman. Return to and Religious value of the Magdala sites Jerusalem for dinner and Overnight (B, D) More info coming up as we get closer to the dates MAGDALA, Israel – 2009 Discoveries from a new archaeological dig are Oct. 28, 2018 (Sunday) Day11 - Jerusalem/Allenby Bridge/Madaba/ creating excitement in the area where Jesus began his ministry. The village is Jordan/Mt. Nebo/ Aqaba called Magdala (Migdal in Hebrew), and it’s the home of Mary Magdalene.”She Mass at Mount Nebo lived here and she met Jesus here and she continued with Him. Yes, it’s On this day, we head to Allenby Bridge and cross into Jordan. We will go to that place The most important discovery in Magdala has been a synagogue the Baptismal Site at Bethany, which Pope John Paul II visited in 2000. dating back to the time of Jesus. According to archaeologists, it’s the first one Then, it’s on to Mount Nebo, where Moses viewed the Promised Land. Our discovered in the Galilee. next stop will be the Church of St. George in Madaba, which hosts the

Oct 29, 2018 (Monday) Day 12 - Aqaba/Petra Mass at Stella Maris Church – Aqaba After breakfast, we will journey through the Siq, until we get our first glimpse of the Khazneh (Treasury). Then will we walk down to visit the Temple and view the many caves all around the Theater. At the end of the tour, we will drive back to Aqaba for overnight and dinner (B/D). Movenpick Resort & Residence Oct. 30, 2018 (Tuesday) Day 13 - Aqaba/ Jerusalem We Cross the Jordanian Border to return to Jerusalem. Dinner/Overnight Oct. 31, 2018 (Wednesday) Day 14 - Jerusalem /Yad Vashem Museum/ TLV/ LAX After breakfast, we will visit the Yad Vashem Museum,is Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the dead; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future. After the Western Wall, Yad Vashem is the second-most-visited Israeli tourist site. Return to the hotel for lunch and relaxation in preparation for our return flight back to the USA after early dinner will be transferred to the airport for flight Oct 31, 2018 8:45 PM departure from TLV End of Our Memorable Pilgrimage to Jesus Home Land!!!

Immigration Corner Atty. MichAel Gurfinkel, eSQ Federal law enforcement agencies combined. This includes the FBI, U.S. marshals, etc.

• Eliminating administrative closure and reopening previously closed cases to complete deportation\ removal.

Administrative closure and motions to terminate remove cases from a court’s docket and are used as a means of increasing court efficiency, reducing backlogs, allowing courts and courtrooms to focus on serious cases, such as felons, terrorists, and those who pose a threat to society. Previously, ICE attorneys would often agree to admin close cases that were not considered enforcement priorities. Now, under the Trump administration, they have been instructed to oppose motions to terminate and admin closure. In addition, the Trump administration wants cases that were previously admin closed to be reopened and recalendar, to resume a person’s deportation, even though they had been previously found eligible for prosecutorial discretion, or even if they may have a form of relief that might be soon available (such as a U.S. citizen child just about to turn 21 years of age to petition them, or they are already under petition and just waiting for the approval of the petition, etc.). If you had a deportation\ removal case that was admin closed, don’t be surprised if the ICE attorneys will now seek to reopen your case and resume your deportation.

I know that so many people

are afraid and anxious about their future in America. Even if they’re otherwise “law abiding” and pay taxes, but have simply overstayed, they are now considered enforcement priorities. What should you do?

As the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) states, “Data shows detained immigrants who have legal counsel are ten times more likely to be granted asylum or other relief from the court. Forcing immigrants to move forward without an attorney eliminates any meaningful chance at a fair day in court. We should not sacrifice due process for speed and make an already rushed deportation process even more unfair.” Therefore, if you have immigration issues, you may want to consult with an immigration attorney before ICE knocks at your door. *** Michael J. Gurfinkel has been an attorney for over 35 years and is licensed, and an active member of the State Bar of California and New York. All immigration services are provided by, or under the supervision of, an active member of the State Bar of California. Each case is different. The information contained herein including testimonials, “Success Stories,” endorsements and re-enactments) is of a general nature, and is not intended to apply to any particular case, and does not constitute a prediction, warranty, guarantee or legal advice regarding the outcome of your legal matter. No attorney-client relationship is, or shall be, established with any reader.

WEBSITE: www.gurfinkel.com Follow us on Facebook.com/GurfinkelLaw and Twitter @GurfinkelLaw Call Toll free to schedule a consultation for anywhere in the US: (866)—GURFINKEL

Four offices to serve you: LOS ANGELES · SAN FRANCISCO · NEW YORK · PHILIPPINES (Advertising Supplement)

Regine Velasquez says she never put in...

From Page 2 way for her to sing with different international artists like Bryan McKnight, 98 Degrees, David Hasselhoff and Mandy Moore, Continued on Page 5 among others.

FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS

Oct. 24, 2018 ( Wednesday) Day 7 - Jerusalem (Old City)/Via Dolorosa/ Mount Zion Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher “And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.” (John 19:17) We will enter the Old City of Jerusalem and will follow the Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross) and say the Station of the Cross to the holiest shrine in Christendom, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, visit Golgotha and the Tomb of Our Lord. After mass, we return to the hotel for breakfast. After breakfast, we will enter the Old City, sing a hymn in the Church of St. Anne and view the Pool of Bethesda. Then we will visit the Chapel of Flagellation, Lithostratos (where the soldiers played the Game of Kings) and the Arch of the “Ecce Homo”.

Dinner/Overnight Notre Dame Vatican hotel

SINCE becoming president, Donald Trump has made several significant changes to make it easier for the government to deport more people. In fact, when he originally announced he was running for president, he stated that there were over 11,000,000 people in the U.S. illegally, and he wanted to deport them all.

Among the changes he has implemented or is proposing are: • Hiring more immigration judges, to reduce the backlog of cases, and deport people faster.

• Establishing quotas on the number of deportation cases handled by immigration judges as part of their performance evaluation. The more cases they handle, the better their evaluation.

So, many judges may feel the need to rush cases through, resulting in a person being denied a chance to be heard or their case properly presented, especially if they are representing themselves.

• Restricting the use of prosecutorial discretion.

Prosecutorial discretion is where the ICE attorneys have the ability or discretion to prioritize certain cases, and to leave other people alone, who may be deportable, but do not pose a threat to society. Before Trump was elected, enforcement priorities included criminals, terrorists, or those who pose a threat to public safety. Now, it seems everyone is considered an enforcement priority if they are simply removable. This could include someone who merely overstayed, had a prior removal order (from an old asylum case) or even a green card holder with a minor crime.

• Increasing the budget for immigration enforcement to over $20,000,000,000. This is more money than the funding for all other

McKnight has even been quoted as saying Velasquez is one of the best singers he’s ever sang with.

But even though she has achieved such level of success, it

never got to her mind that she is who she is.

“Dati nga hindi ko inisip na sikat ako ngayon pa ba na hindi na ko masyado sikat iisipin ko pa ba sikat ako?” she ended.

Marian Pilgrimage France, Spain & Portugal September 8 to September 21, 2018 Spiritual Director: rev. John Duy nguyen Still one of the great pilgrimages shrines in the world, visited by thousands of pilgrim’s. Arrive in Lourdes in the late afternoon, orientation to the shrines and spends some time in the sanctuary.

Dinner & overnight.

Sept. 9, 2018 - (Sunday) Day 2 - Paris (CDG) Arrived Paris CDG, Then after we clear immigration and collect our (BB, D) Luggage,. you will proceed to your hotel and have mass and dinner.

Sept. 15, 2018 - (Saturday) Day 8 - Lourdes Overnight in Paris. (D) You will have early morning bath at the healing water of Lourdes.

Then return to the hotel for breakfast. There after attend Holy Mass Sept. 10, 2018 - (Monday) Day 3 - Paris Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, also at the Grotto. continue the day with a walking tour of the shrines and known as the City of Light. Full day touring with local guide, including places associated with the life of St. Bernadette. Spend some time visit of the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Basilica of Sacre meditating on the passion of our Lord through more than life size Coeur, The chapel of the Miraculous Medal in Rue de Bac is the site exotic way of the sacrament and prayers. Afternoon will be free time of Marian Apparitions and contain the reliquaries of St. Catherine for private devotion. Dinner/overnight (BB, D) Laboure and St. Louise De Marillac. The shrine of St. Vincent the Paul is within walking distance, a few blocks from Rue De Bac, visit Sept. 16, 2018 - (Sunday) Day 9 - Lourdes / Zaragoza the chapel which houses the relic of St. Vincent the Paul. Overnight After Breakfast, you’ll continue your drive towards Zaragoza, Spain. Visit the shrines of Our Lady of Pillar, the 2nd most popular in Paris (BB/D) pilgrimages sites in Spain. See the Magnificent altar in the Basilica, built on site where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the apostles Sept. 11, 2018 - (Tuesday) Day 4 - Paris/Lisieux After breakfast, Full day in Lisieux, home of St Therese, who at age St. James, before her assumption into heaven. Dinner/overnight 15, entered the convent and became Carmelite nun, she took the Zaragoza (BB, D) religious name of St Therese of the child Jesus and the Holy face. The spirituality of her little ways was not about extraordinary things, but Sept. 17, 2018 - (Monday) Day 10 - Zaragoza / Salamanca rather about doing simple things of life well and with extraordinary After breakfast you will embark on a trip to Salamanca. You will have love. She believed and taught that “Everything is Grace”, God’s face a short stop and panoramic tour of Avila. Upon arrival in Salamanca, and presence could be experienced in every person and situation of you will visit the Old Cathedral and tour the city. Dinner /overnight our lives, if we just attend with love and expectancy. She died at the Salamanca (BB, D) age of 24 believing that her life was really the beginning for God, promising to spend her heaven doing good on earth, her promised” Sept. 18, 2019 - (Tuesday) Day 11 - Salamanca / Fatima shower of Roses” began and have become a torrent in the church After Breakfast, you will spend the first half of the day touring ever since. Return to Paris, Dinner in a restaurant near the hotel. Salamanca. You will visit the new cathedral with a short stop at Plaza Mayor for lunch. After lunch you will continue to Fatima, the Overnight in Lisieux (BB, D) famous Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. Upon arrival you will have a Sept. 12, 2018 - (Wednesday) Day 5 - Lisieux / Nevers / Paray- short orientation tour of the Sanctuary. Attend the nightly Candlelight procession at the Shrine. Dinner and Overnight Fatima (BB, D) Le-Monial After Breakfast, Continue your drive to the picturesque Loire valley to Nevers, visit the convent of St. Gillard, where St. Bernadette’s Sept. 19, 2018 - (Wednesday) Day 12 - Fatima incorrupt body miraculously preserved since her death in 1879. Breakfast, then Visit the Museum dedicated to the Blessed Virgin At the conclusion of the eighteen apparitions of the Virgin Mary Mary followed by Mass at the Apparitions chapel, Full day Guided in Lourdes, St. Bernadette lived for 12 years as a member of the tours includes the Shrines ground, visit of the tombs of Francisco congregation of the sisters of charity of Nevers. St Gildard convent and Jacinta in the Basilica, In Aljustrel and Valinhos, you see the is her final resting place. After she was blessed with the apparitions two homes of the shepherds, site of Our Lady’s fourth apparitions. of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, St. Bernadette retired in Nevers. She Stop at the Parish church where the seers were baptized, and the received her religious habit in 1866. Continue to Paray-Le-Monial for cemetery where Francisco and Jacinta were once buried. You will do the station of the Cross. We encourage everyone to spend some time Dinner & Overnight (BB, D) in the Blessed Sacrament, which is open every day. Dinner/overnight Fátima. (BB, D) Sept. 13, 2018 - (Thursday) Day 6 - Paray-Le-Monial After Breakfast, you will tour Paray-Le-Monial. Your first stop is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and here you will celebrate Holy Sept. 20, 2018 - (Thursday) Day 13 - Fatima / Lisbon Eucharist. Then you will tour and admire the Romanesque basilica After breakfast ,you will proceed to Lisbon with stops at Santarem and see the Chapel of Apparitions. After the Basilica, you will proceed to visit the church of the Holy Miracle containing the Glorious to the Monastere e la Visitation. Visit the reliquary of Saint Margaret 13th century Eucharistic Miracle of Santarem .Then you will do a Mary of Alocoque at the Chapel of Visitation. Still to see and visit after panoramic city tour of Lisbon, with a visit to the Basilica of St Anthony lunch is the Park of the Chaplain and the Chapel of St. Colombiere. de Padua, St Jeronimo’s Monastery and the famous Belem Tower.

Dinner/Overnight Lisbon (BB, D) Dinner & Overnight (BB, D) Sept. 8, 2018 - (Saturday) Day 1 USA/PARIS Transatlantic flight from USA to Paris (CDG )Meals serve on board.

Sept. 14, 2018 - (Friday) Day 7 - Paray-Le-Monial / Lourdes Sept. 21, 2018 - (Friday) - Early AM transfer to Lisbon After breakfast you will continue your pilgrimage to Lourdes. Lourdes, Airport for flight home to USA celebrating 160 Years of apparitions of Blessed Virgin to Bernadette. Full of wonderful memories of Our Pilgrimage

An Asian Journal Magazine

Why Kyla is a happy wife

4

The Asian Journal N E W YO R K / N E W J E R S EY A p R i l 6 , 20 1 8

by Boy ABundA Philstar.com

MoST people, if not all, will agree that Kyla is very well deserving of the title as the country’s Queen of R&B for her the unparalleled achievements of clear-as-a-bell vocal tone. She is On the today’s female high fliers. among the few who possesses an Last Saturday, March 24, 2018 at impressive vocal control and that PEP Front the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Newark, means Kyla can sing every note People, Events, New Jersey, PACCAL once again specifically for the intended musical Places raised the bar for deserving women effect. in various fields of endeavor via a But did you know that she BoBBy T. yalong pompously celebrated recognition experienced a sudden voice loss? It and awarding rites aptly capped happened a long time ago in one give women the full with jovial dancing and socialized of her singing engagements in the recognition they truly deserve partying. province. She was singing with her the month of March was fittingly PACCAL did not only duplicate mouth wide open when a moth earmarked as International successful events that manifested accidentally landed straight inside Women’s History Month. In its worth-praising advocacy in the her throat. The audience witnessed this regard, the Pan American past but more so duly empowered how Kyla had been choked by the Concerned Citizens’ Action the status of womanhood in our insect while she was in the middle League, Inc. (PACCAL) never fails PACCAL Awardee for Progeria & Autism of a performance. Thankfully, current socio-economic setting.

PACCAL WHM Entertainmet Awardee Excelsa advocacy Doc Ime Cruz-Banting also to honor outstanding women In today’s ever-changing nothing serious happened. Her De Jesus performed her original composition in the community if only to world, a great number of women’s voice has remained in perfect pitch demonstrate its perpetual support aspirations take various forms while still able to rise and resume the predictable but women constantly and, truth is, she is now celebrating to the revered legacy of the great other’s lofty dreams sometimes her 18th year in the music industry challenge. They say men’s existence create encouraging challenges women leaders and duly identify fail and hopes dwindle… but with the release of her new while sustaining precise strength is easily felt and their roles are album, Queen of R&B, under Star and empowerment in myriad Music. It has 18 tracks, including ways. Women have not only painstakingly acquired every man’s bonus ditties that became theme songs of some of ABS-CBN’s muchasset and facet while they (also) loved drama series. masterfully penetrated the world Lately, Kyla earned another where men initially dwell and title that has absolutely nothing dominated. to do with her singing yet not PACCAL is mighty proud to a single word of protest was be the only Filipino-American heard either from her or her avid organization in the east coast supporters whose been there that consistently observes and since the beginning of her music celebrates Women’s History Month… with this year’s theme as: career. She is now also known as the Queen of Knock-Knock Jokes.

“Empowering women in their vital Since when and how, you may ask. role in dismantling the structural, Her being a hurado in one of It’s cultural, and legal forms of Showtime segments called “Tawag discrimination, abuse, and related Ng Tanghalan” suggests a strong issues.”

Hon. Con-Gen. Tess Dizon-De Vega (seated center) with PACCAL Honorary Chair Madam Consuelo Almonte with model-escort connection to it.

The prevalent rise of women officers and members Chayanne Quintana of course, no one could better empowerment catapulted majority of the female species to a level where they encompass every single field and activity on equal footing with their male counterparts. The then regarded as the “weaker sex” is no longer applicable in our modern-day living for today’s women could openly declare: “What men can do, we can do (even) better!”

Incidentally, women have strategically used and relentlessly conceived various methods and schemes to break barriers and untiringly promote gender equality that they may stand at par with

International Women’s History Month Gala, PACCAL style

Continued on Page 6

2018 WHM Awardees with PACCAL officers and male models

EMPLOYMENT

FOR RENT

Kyla with husband Rich and their son Toby.

SERVICES

Kyla

Photos from Instagram/@kylaalvarez

tell how that amusing title was bestowed on her than Kyla herself, who sat for an interview in “Tonight With Boy Abunda.”

“Aksidente lang na nadiscover nila na may talent pala ako sa ganyang bagay,” began Kyla.

“There are times when everyone in ‘Showtime’ has to share a knockknock joke. And with me, saliwa talaga ‘yung knock-knock ko at hindi swak, ‘yung parang may maibigay lang and they would end up laughing and laughing because my jokes were not funny, kaya ako natatawa na rin.”

Kyla has also admitted that she is a happy wife of former PBA star-turned-assistant coach Rich Alvarez whom she described as a perfect husband. “You know, I still do not know what good I have done for the Lord to give me a perfect husband. Perfect po s’ya for me, napakabait po.”

Between the two, Rich is the jealous type. It was after they got married when Kyla learned that her husband was jealous of Jay-R, her former onscreen partner.

Continued on Page 6

Health@Heart

The day I died

could measure his/her own health status and progress. Any deviation from the parameters PHILIP S. CHUA, shown by all the tests done could MD, FACS, FPCS alert the person accordingly.

THIS is a story of a 4. The tests, depending gynecologist as he related in on the complaints, signs, and MedScape: symptoms, could include a “When I began experiencing complete blood count, blood chest pain that was different from chemistries (comprehensive my usual heartburn symptoms, metabolic panel, electrolytes, I denied I could possibly be lipid profile, liver and renal panels, having a heart attack, but and thyroid functions), urinalysis, chewed four baby aspirins just in chest x-ray, EKG; and other more case. Of the more than 350,000 specific tests the physician individuals who experienced an might determine necessary out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in after the interview and physical 2016, only 12 percent survived. examination.

Bystander recognition of cardiac 5. For those with chest or arrest and prompt intervention upper abdominal discomfort with cardiopulmonary where the physician suspects resuscitation (CPR) and rapid gastroesophageal reflux diseases defibrillation is essential for out(GERD), upper GI endoscopy of-hospital survival. (telescopic visualization of “While exiting the expressway the throat, food pipe and on my way to perform scheduled the stomach) might be surgeries that morning, I came to recommended. If the findings a complete stop in the left-hand point to a non-cardiac condition, lane of the exit ramp with three it is managed accordingly. cars ahead of me. The indigestion 6. If the family physician I had been experiencing thinks the chest discomfort or overnight was different from other symptoms could be due the heartburn symptoms I’d to coronary heart artery disease, had in the past. I declined my the patient would be referred to a wife’s suggestion to go to the cardiologist, who might perform emergency department, but any of the following: Thallium compromised by taking four baby Stress EKG, an ECHO, or Cardiac aspirins, and planned to followCatheterization to view the heart up with a previously scheduled function and the integrity of appointment that afternoon with the heart valves, and Coronary my internist. At the age of 53, on Angiogram to see if any heart August 29, 2016 at approximately arteries are blocked by cholesterol 7:40 a.m., I died waiting for the deposits, which is the main cause traffic light to change.” of heart attacks.

Luckily, a school bus driver 7. When Coronary Angiogram who witnessed the accident shows significant blockages (more called 911. This physician was than 50 percent obstruction) in successfully resuscitated. any major coronary arteries, an This is not an isolated angioplasty with stent may be story and it illustrates some done. If more than two blockages fundamental principles we could are found, coronary bypass learn from. surgery would be recommended.

Medical facts and lessons The usual 1 to 2 percent risk 1. After age 40, chest for this procedure worldwide is discomfort should be suspected clearly outweighed by the 50 to be an impending heart attack, percent risk of heart attacks and till proven otherwise, and must potential death of those refused be attended to ASAP. Denial surgery. could be fatal. It could well be 8. Obviously, prevention indigestion or stomach acid is the key. The vital factors reflux, but erring on the safer side include lifestyle and behavior: is the wiser choice. Heart attack a low carbohydrate diet of fish, is treacherous. It could happen vegetables, nuts, some fruits, among persons with pain in the occasional or no red meat, with jaw area and arm, with no actual as little or no rice, bread, sweets, chest pains. Hence, routine annual as possible, more of protein; medical check-up is essential. abstinence from smoking 2. A history of chest pain and substance abuse, severe should be investigated, even moderation in alcohol intake, among younger individuals. I doing daily physical exercises, and have done heart bypass on a stress management with weekly 25-year-old woman, who was R&R, mini or full vacation with a diabetic and hypertensive, family and/or friends. with high cholesterol level, who 9. Since dental problems smoked heavily. Heart attack cause inflammation which victims are getting younger and adversely affects our immune younger. system and contributes to heart 3. A visit to a family physician, diseases, a visit to the dentist if not a cardiologist, even before every six months would be very any medical problem arises for beneficial to overall health. those beyond 40 will establish 10. When one feels a baseline, upon which one irregularity or rapid heart beat

From Page 3

on the ceiling of the chapel.

Twenty years after he completed the ceiling, he undertook the painting of the last day on the altar wall.

It is a jaw-dropping, massive work with about 400 human figures swirling about with Jesus and Mother Mary at the center. It shows in terrifying graphic detail how everyone shall be judged accordingly on the last day. It shows an angel with the Book of Good Deeds and an angel with the Book of Evil Deeds. The good book is less than half the size of the other one. The good of the earth are given their reward as they seem to float heavenward in God’s presence and the evil ones, twisting in torturous agony and pain are ferried by Charon on the river, Styx into the depths of hell to wallow in grief and misery for all eternity.

The idea of reward and punishment is much easier to comprehend when viewed instead as the natural, predictable consequences of every conscious choice that we make. Choices determine how results come into being. It is the choices made by an individual of sound body and mind that determine his life.

On a national level, history has shown that it is the collective choices over a long span of time made by the leaders of men and by the millions of individuals of a nation through their representatives on vital issues, that shape the way a country’s history plays out over time.

Ultimately, our choices determine how our own karmic story plays out. Karma is that ancient principle common

Pablo Kaestli: Curly French boy takes on the Los Angeles fashion scene

BY MONET

LU

THERE’S no looking back for this 6’2” model with gorgeous curly locks as he embarks on his journey to the fashion world of ‘La La Land.’ Lucky for me, I got an exclusive before he conquers this side of the town.

I met Pablo Kaestli through a common friend and renowned photographer, Filbert Kung. Needless to say, the Montreal-born-and-raised kid has potential to make it big.

He has the looks (bone structure, posture and very noticeable curly hair) plus the attitude it takes to be a supermodel. So what’s a columnist and fashion enthusiast got to do but share the pleasure of knowing the ‘next big thing.’

First off, tell us how you were “discovered” and how your modeling career all started?

I was scouted a couple of times in Montreal and one day, while getting home from work doing a 16-hour shift, somebody looked at me and asked me if I ever considered modeling. Then two years later, I’ve decided to cut bridges with Montreal and try my shot in Los Angeles. I’ve recently signed with Next Models LA and couldn’t be happier!

Was modeling something you always wanted to do, or did it just kind of happened?

I wanted to see the world and be able to pay for it at first, so modeling seems like a real opportunity to achieve that. Now I see it the full potential of this career and I really want to see where it will lead me.

What has been your favorite shoot / campaign / work to date?

I have to say that I love working as a model in general, but my best shoots are for editorial usually, where I can use my creativity to conceptualize a creative project. The photoshoot I did in Malibu/Bel Air is one of my favorite so far and got published by Podium Magazine Latin America.

How would you describe your personal style, where do you pull your inspiration from?

I like very simple. Playing with black and white suits me well; this look is ageless and *** always fashionable. Thought to be Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac completely honest, I spend most of

Choices: Sowing and reaping

intricate workings of this law apply to our own lives, imagine it as borrowing heavily from the principles of accounting.

Visualize an invisible, unerring and indisputable ledger of one’s life being recorded—its highs and lows, its pluses and minuses, the volume of both good and bad, both beauty and horror which one has generated through the course of his life, the amount and range of happiness and the depths of pain, misery and tears one has caused in others.

And yet unlike human accounting, that same invisible ledger takes into account such intangible, unquantifiable factors, both human and divine, such as love, kindness, forgiveness, redemption, generosity of spirit and tender mercies.

At the end of it all, one is presented with the bottom line— either in red—what one owes life, a deficiency or a debt that must be paid—if not in this lifetime— then in successive ones or if one has lived life well and has reached the highest rungs of nirvana—in the black, on the plus side with profits to show, with a wealth of positive contributions to the self, to others and the world at large — a life well lived, a life well spent. It is a thought-provoking parallel that should give everyone cause to take a long hard look at one’s own precious life.

On the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is the story of the last judgment.

Michelangelo, more than half a millennium ago, painted man’s spiritual history, beginning with creation to the fall from grace to redemption by Jesus Christ

The Asian Journal N E W YO R K / N E W J E R S EY A P R I L 6 , 20 1 8

or thumping in the chest and dizziness anywhere, or while driving, taking a very deep breath and coughing as hard and as often as you can every two seconds or so could being your heart beat back to normal.

Without delay, drive to the nearest emergency room. A false alarm might be embarrassing, but at least, you are alive.

11. When alone at home and chest pains develop, dial 911 for emergency help and notify a family member or neighbor, and take four baby aspirins (81 mg each) if previously recommended by your physician for such an event. As a home remedy for headache and pains, the usual dose is two tablets of regular aspirin (325 mg each, or a total of 650 mg) every 4 to 6 hours, so taking 4 baby aspirin tablets is like taking only one regular tablet. Aspirin is a mild blood thinner. This will prevent a severely blocked coronary artery from being totally obstructed by a blood clot and cause cardiac arrest. Those with a history of stomach ulcer/bleeding should not take aspirin, unless instructed by their physician.

12. In addition to the above, do not eat anything. Unlock your front door to allow paramedics to get in, and sit up by the front door (do not lie down as this would flood your heart and lungs with more blood, while your heart is having a hard time beating from the insult of the heart attack).

Scary statistics In the United States alone, a person suffers a heart attack every 20 seconds and one dies from heart disease every 34 seconds, one every 5 minutes (close to 300 every 24 hours) in the Philippines. Each day, more than 2,700 Americans die from heart disease. About quarter of a million Americans die of a heart attack annually before they reach the hospital. Those who are under-educated have a higher risk of suffering a heart attack.

Countries with the highest death rates from heart diseases include Russia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia, and the lowest are Japan, France, Canada, Spain and Switzerland.

Notwithstanding our genes, our health and longevity, to a greater extent, are intricately linked to our lifestyle and behavior.

Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States.

Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com

to Hinduism and Buddhism that upholds the natural law of moral cause and effect. It is grounded on the belief that a man’s collective thoughts and actions of the present determine his future. Everything that is happening at the present moment is a result of the choices that were made in the past. Many people, at different stages of their lives, believe and subscribe to the laws of karma and are guided by them accordingly.

Except for those well publicized yet highly unusual and extremely rare twists of fate and flukes of nature that occur in some charmed lives — the purpose of which will forever remain mysterious and incomprehensible to the human mind — the law of moral cause and effect simply means that what we sow is what we reap.

For those of us who pray fervently for specific outcomes in our lives, there will be times when we may end up bitterly disappointed when what we ultimately get from our petitions to the Almighty is not exactly what we are asking for. Rest assured that God always answers our prayers. The answer, like a good parent to a child who is asking for something, may be yes or no and even, maybe. But if we keep the faith and refrain from acting like spoilt brats who throw tantrums when rebuffed, one might see clearly in hindsight the wisdom of God’s choices for our lives and the exactness of his timing. *** Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-mail monette. maglaya@asianjournalinc.com

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my day in athletic clothes because I am always ready to go to the gym.

Do you get to travel a lot for your work?

If so what’s your favorite city that you have visited? I travel sometimes but I really prefer living somewhere for a while to really understand the city you live in. That’s why I am getting familiar with Los Angeles since I am based here. For the best cities I ever seen, I have to say Paris since France has a particular place in my heart because I was born there and spend most of my childhood over there.

Sometimes the modeling industry gets a bad rap with the jealousy and egos encountered between other models and agencies. Was this true for you?

Have you managed to tough it out and make good friends?

There is a lot of drama.

In Montreal, I had such a bad experience with the modeling world in general, but I really don’t pay attention to negativity anymore. I wish everyone the best and I am so focused on building myself that all that noise really doesn’t bother me anymore.

Is modeling an easy job or more strenuous than people realize?

(How so) At the start, you feel a lot of pressure when there is nothing to be afraid. If somebody want to shoot with you, they just want you as true to yourself as possible. All you have to do is adapt to directions and be confident.

Do you have any hidden talents?

I box pretty well and I am a good swimmer. I am trying to develop

myself on a lot of secret abilities so I can answer those question better :) Lol! Favorite movie?

Tough question. I have to say “The Untouchables,”“The Artist” and “Schindler’s list.”

Five things you can’t live without?

The gym, my kitchen, coffee, Netflix and Books Give us five facts about you people may not know.

I am super competitive, I read a lot, I am still working to be an athlete someday, I work a lot on my acting and I never eat sweats.

If you weren’t modeling what would you see yourself doing?

I would probably still study Business in Montreal.

Cats or dogs? Do you have any pets?

Dogs! I have a dog that still lives in Montreal with my family. It’s in my projects to bring her here because I am missing Loulou so much!

Good luck Pablo! I have no doubt that you’re going to make a name for yourself. Stay driven and fun as you are now and you’ll go places, and of course, keep your feet on the ground and enjoy the ride! *** Monet Lu is a Marikina-born, award-winning celebrity beauty stylist with his own chain of Monet Salon salons across Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada. Ultimately, Monet is known as an all-around artiste who produces sold-out fashion and awards shows as well as unforgettable marketing campaigns. Monet is also the founder of the revolutionary all-natural beauty products such as Enlighten, your solution to discoloration . To contact Monet, please visit www.monetsalon.com or email him at monetsalon@aol.com

Brillante Mendoza: Netflix series...

From Page 2 prostitution to corruption.

His “Kinatay” (Butchered), a gritty film that graphically depicts the rape, murder and dismemberment of a sex worker, won him the Cannes best director award in 2009.

His films have been well received in Europe and in 2014, Mendoza became the first Filipino director to receive one of France’s highest honours, the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters).

Mendoza earlier told AFP he learned about the full extent of the

nation’s drug problem while doing research for the 2016 film “Ma’ Rosa”, which won the Cannes best actress award.

The director said he did not want to comment on the current state of Duterte’s drug war, or the preliminary examination announced by the International Criminal Court over the crackdown that critics say amounts to war crimes.

“I think my work, including the series I’m doing, speaks volumes about what I want to say. I’d rather have my work do the talking,” he said.

Mendoza said “Amo” was

Calendar of Events across

originally shot for a Philippine television station that contracted him to make a series of films.

But he convinced the network boss to “explore... platforms other than free TV” for the series, and sent two of the episodes to Netflix.

“I think one of the reasons why they were interested in the material, in the story, is the way it was shot. It looks very realistic, like a documentary-style shoot and unlike your typical TV series,” Mendoza said.

“This is something based on research, and the police had their input too. Our story was based on real events.”

America

A P R I L 1 1 -1 3

Advancing Justice Conference in Washington, DC The Advancing Justice Conference is the signature event in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community focusing on civil rights and social justice happening on April 11-13, This three-day, bi-annual convening is hosted by Asian Americans Advancing Justice. It provides a unique forum to learn from issue area experts and community leaders, discuss common challenges and opportunities, share best practices, and find more effective ways to work collaboratively. This year, community leaders from across the U.S. will come together in Washington, D.C. at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. To register, please visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2018advancing-justice-conference-april-11-13-registration-39652865789.

APRIL 14

SALIDA: Simbolo at Kultura in Queens, NY AFTA presents its latest fundraising event - “SALIDA: Simbolo at Kultura” – a cultural dinner show featuring the internationally recognized dance troupe from the Philippines, the Leyte Dance Theater, which will kick off their USA TOUR 2018 in NYC. The event is on April 14, 2018, 3:00 pm at the Rock Church in Woodside, Queens. “Salida” aims to raise funds and awareness to support the flagship projects of the Association of Fil-am Teachers of America, Inc. (AFTA) with their partners: The Rock Churches Worldwide and the Leyte Biliran & Samar Federation.

Proceeds of this fundraiser will finance AFTA’s projects in the Philippines like Adopt a School (Marawi City, Biliran and Albay, Adopt a Scholar, and Balikturo). For Sponsorship opportunities, contact Roxanne at 347-932-6631 or Nitz at 862-368-1706 or any AFTA officer/board member.

Philippine Medical Association of Southern CA to hold inaugural ball in Anaheim, CA The Philippine Medical Association of Southern California (PMASC) and its auxiliary will be holding its biennial inaugural ball on Saturday, April 14 at the Anaheim Marriott (700 W Convention Way, Anaheim, CA). This grand occasion will be attended by several Filipino physicians and its guests to raise funds for humanitarian purposes, specifically its outreach programs including medical missions to the Philippines and Southern California. The association has been conducting such purposes for 46 years since its founding in 1971. For more information and tickets, please contact Dr. Emma Arella at (661) 794-3322, Dr. Ellen Abejuela at (909) 859-4865 or PMASC Executive Office at (562) 572-2481.

If you have an upcoming event and would like us to post it, please email us the details at info@asianjournalinc.com or calendar@asianjournalinc.com

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Philippine dive sites take centerstage at ‘Beneath the Sea’ dive show

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Madrid Fusion Manila might still push through, TPB says THE Tourism Promotions Board on Wednesday, April 4 clarified that Madrid Fusion Manila might still push trough this year.

In a statement, TPB Chief Operating Officer Cesar Montano said the board management initially considered the deferment of the international food event until 2019 due to the nonavailability of participating international chefs and exhibitors.

“However, in light of new developments and change in logistical requirements which are advantageous to the government for the International Gastronomy Congress and the Fusion Manila International Gastronomy Expo; the Tourism Promotions Board is assessing the possibility of staging the fourth edition of Madrid Fusion Manila later this year,” Montano said.

The TPB made the statement in response to reports that Madrid Fusion Manila will no longer push through.

Madrid Fusion Manila, the only Asian edition of Madrid Fusion, was supposed to be held in Manila this month.

The food event is “the single

In this Dec. 20, 2016 photo, Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo swears in Cesar Montano as Tourism Promotions Board COO. DOT photo

most important international gastronomy congress in the 21st century” and is a gastronomy event celebrated annually in Madrid, Spain since 2003.

The Department of Tourism last January announced that Philippines will host the international food event, which has been drawing tourists to the country for almost thee years.

The TPB said it “continues to recognize the impact of Madrid Fusion Manila in the promotion of our country as a focal point of gastronomic interest worldwide.”

On Tuesday, April 3, another food event, World Street Food Congress announced that it is canceling this year’s event citing that it is the presenter, TPB’s decision.

NEW YORK – The Philippine Department of Tourism Office in New York led the promotion of premiere Philippine Dive Sites at the

Beneath the Sea Dive Show held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, New Jersey from March 23-25.

Philippine Tourism Representative in New York Susan Del Mundo (1st from left) with Dive Tour Operators at the Philippine booth at Beneath the Sea Dive Show.

Photos courtesy of PDOT-NY

Why Kyla is a happy...

From Page 4 “I was clueless that he was jealous of Jay-R before because he would always suggest that I hold Jay-R’s hand when we sing onstage or he would tell me to be sweet with Jay-R. Sinabi lang nya nung mag-asawa na kami pero hindi ko talaga nahalata na nagseselos na pala sya. But when I asked Rich, why he didn’t tell me right away, he said it’s not a big deal.”

Was there an attraction between Kyla and Jay-R before?

“With Jay-R on stage, our chemistry was undeniable probably because we shared the same influence pero off stage, para talaga kaming magkapatid.”

At present, Jay-R and Kyla are both Cornerstone artists under manager Erickson Raymundo. And while Kyla has Rich, Jay-R is happily going steady with Mica Javier.

Kyla agreed that it’s normal for couples to disagree on certain things. In her and Rich’s case, the two are not in sync when it comes to raising their son Toby. Kyla said Rich grew up in the U.S. so they tend to be different in some aspects.

“His ways are different from Pinoy gaya ng paglagay ng lampin sa likod. Me, I always make sure that Toby has a lampin on his back but Rich hates seeing it. ‘Wag daw lagyan, ako naman lagyan natin kasi baka matuyuan ng pawis. He believes that it is better if we just change his shirt.”

Kyla added that between them, it is Rich who acts as the disciplinarian. But what makes Kyla feel so special is her husband’s loving gesture of preparing breakfast for her every single day.

“Yes, he cooks for me every

morning. Grabe, I can’t ask for more but say thank you Lord and I promise to be the best person that I can be.”

During the late-night program, Kyla shared five things not many people know about her in 5 on 45: “First, before I go to work for ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ in ‘Showtime,’ I’ve done everything that needs to be done — I’m done with my laundry, I folded the clothes and I already ironed Toby’s clothes.

“Second, we do not have a househelp so Rich and I do everything at home and we do not have a yaya.

“Third, I don’t eat onions.

“Fourth, I love kakanin (rice cake).

“And fifth, sobrang mahilig ako sa gatas ng kalabaw na may asin at mainit na kanin.”

Susan Del Mundo and Joey Chanco of PDOT-NY pose with Dive operators at the Travel Show.

Beneath the Sea is the U.S. largest consumer scuba and dive travel show in the U.S. It not only aims to provide a venue for different countries and the travel industry to present services and products related to Dive and Underwater adventure tourism but also has educational programs about responsible underwater and ocean tourism.

Around 300 exhibitors take part in the annual event which kicks off the Spring travel season in the U.S. Eastern Seaboard. Over 70 workshops and seminars are likewise held on the sidelines of the travel show to educate the public and dive travelers in particular on ocean tourism. Several well-known figures in Dive travel and photography are likewise invited to give presentations. Some of these experts have visited and taken photographs or video footage of dive sites in various parts of the Philippines.

The Department of Tourism in New York Team led by Tourism Representative Susan Del Mundo, together with Dive Operators offering tours in the Philippines, and representatives of Philippine Airlines (PAL) were on hand to provide information on Philippine Dive destinations.

Ms. Del Mundo noted that there is an increasing interest in Philippine dive sites cutting across generational lines in the U.S. with tour packages ranging from beginner to children and youth as well as specialty dive tours.

Ms. Charisse Arboleda of Philippine Airlines assists visitors at the Philippine booth.

International Women’s History Month Gala...

From Page 4

their male counterparts.

More women are climbing the ladder… giving men a run for their status and consistently accumulating unprecedented accomplishments while simultaneously exhibiting domination and headship in various fields of endeavor. They are unquestionably independent, gutsy, and focused while being competent and career-oriented.

Their unremitting determination to succeed is a stark contrast to men’s dawdling progress that put their equiponderant achievements at par and sometimes even above with the latter’s.

In today’s ever-changing world, a great number of women’s aspirations take various forms while other’s lofty dreams sometimes fail and hopes dwindle… but were able to rise and resume the challenge. They

say men’s existence is easily felt and their roles are predictable but women constantly create encouraging challenges while sustaining precise strength and empowerment in myriad ways. Women have not only painstakingly acquired every man’s asset and facet while they (also) masterfully penetrated the world where men initially dwell and dominated.

Raising the bar to a level where majority of ambitious and strongly driven dreams were to achieve, PACCAL is honored to have Dr. Angelina Ricafrente and Madame Consuelo Almonte as this year’s Honorary Chairs.

Both quintessential epitomes of seasoned and empowered women, Dr. Ricafrente and Madame Almonte are armed with concrete personal and professional strategies that sustained their careers and catapulted them to

Miss RP-International 2018 Excelsa De Jesus with her sentinel of escorts

Model-escorts Chayanne Quintana, Racco Maristela, fashion designer-couturier Bobby T. Yalong, Steven Tomas, Daniel Cabezas and Hernan Cabezas.

the pedestal where they are worth emulating.

This year, only two well-revered women were highly honored with the most coveted titles as Influential Women of the Tri-state Area: Rosemarie Parreno and Lynne Ciocon. Lavishly decorated with awards of distinction while remarkably laden with various recognitions, the two grand honorees had considerably placed themselves behind their advocated community service that justifiably made a huge difference.

Despite the paucity of enormously successful and revered key players deserving to be recognized as unswervingly achievers in so many ways. With impressively marked personalities that could vitally influence the youth and the next generation, these Women Achievers know how to negotiate, communicate, and persuade others to the things worthy of hard work with veritable accomplishments. Their ideas may initially be something far from taking off but the grandiose effect of its outcome is undoubtedly worth their clever attempt.

PACCAL has decided to collectively recognize the three alumnae of the Philippine Women’s University’s world famous Bayanihan Dance Troupe. After having been methodically taught, skillfully oriented, and professionally trained, Virginia Alvarez, Marissa De Guzman, and Nina Garjo were individually bestowed with the Cultural Proponent Awards for their culturally dexterous advocacy to distinctly disseminate and effectually propagate the rich culture of the Philippines across the miles and seas through various performances in Filipino-American

events.

Other Women Achiever Awardees were Begonia Jensen for Education, Dr. Marra Alcantara for Dental Profession, Helen and Jenny Kho for Business, Lenn AlmadinThornhill for Media Practice, Virginia Mayo-Policarpio as an IT Specialist, Dr. Ime Cruz-Banting for her Autism and Progeria Advocacy, Dr. Francia De Vera for Medical Profession, Emilia Quidit as Mother of the Year, Nieva Quezon Burdick as Senior Citizen of the Year, and Excelsa De Jesus for Entertainment.

A special reenactment of Excelsa De Jesus’ winning the Miss RP-International title in Manila last January undeniably added shimmer to the already glittery event. The grandiose coronation ceremony earned for her another trophy for Pageantry and Youth Education Advocate.

Innately equipped with a munificent heart especially for the less privileged children, Excelsa has single-handedly raised funds that benefited our young kababayans who were deprived of formal education.

To break the monotony of female-dominated ambience and add a dash of masculinity to the supremacy of feminine pulchritude, five dashing young male models were introduced to escort Queen Excelsa. The upcoming Broadway singerperformer with distinguished scholastic standing was duly provided with a court of sentinels composed of freshly recruited and trained male mannequins: Puerto Rican Chayanne Quintana, Ecuadorian Daniel Cabezas, Guatemalan Steven Tomas, Fil-Am Racco Maristela, and Ecuadorian Hernan Cabezas.

Excelsa was crowned by Miss

Dashing escort-models in intricately embelished Barong Tagalog

The hon. Con-Gen. Tess Dizon-De Vega flanked by PACCAL Exec. Director Bobby T. Yalong, PACCAL Prexy Ramona S. Gapasin, 2018 WHM Chair Rose P. Javier, and Project Consultant Lumen Castaneda.

Jeanette Marco of Marco Not Polo and DJ Chinita Na Pogi of Kabisera Kape while her parents Pastor Willie and Dianne De Jesus pinned the sash, and grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Marcial and Excelsa Milliam offered a bouquet of blooms..

Contrastingly stamping its dissimilar mark from other popular beauty pageants, Mr. & Miss Republic of the Philippines is a “Scholarship Pageant”… a revolutionary approach to pageantry with emphasis on scholarship … an engaging concept to cultivate a positive image among Filipino youths through empowered education, nurtured culture, and global interaction. After undergoing various changes since its inception and years of inactivity, Miss Republic of the Philippines has resurrected, reformatted, and reemerged with a brandnew image under the headship of fashionable and thriving entrepreneur Miss Lynette Padolina at the totem pole and Dr. Romulo Alcalde Aromin, Jr. Media awardee Lenn AlmadinThornhill delivered an intellectually conceptualized acceptance speech on behalf of her fellow honorees followed by a fitting finale via a choral rendition of Rosemarie Parreno’s original composition (specifically composed for PACCAL’s the 2018 WHM), “I Am A Woman Of The World.”

World-class entertainment was provided during the buffet-style dinner by fast rising singer-host Jerome Robielos (with his vocal interpretations of “Perfect” and “Havana”), Dr. Ime Cruz-Banting (who rendered her original composition “Talk To Us,” dedicated to autistic children), and Excelsa

Singer-Host Jerome Robielos with beauty pageant winner Excelsa De Jesus

De Jesus (who brought the house down with “The Girl in 14 G” and “Rise Up.” Ably chaired by Rose P. Javier and Mae Legaspi with Lumen Castaneda and Ramona S. Gapasin as Project Advisers and Tony Abellar as Assistant Production Coordinator, PACCAL 2018 WHM gala was adeptly hosted by radio veteran announcer Fiorello Salvo and most in-demand lady host Amira Arcangel while notably graced by the amiable Hon. Con. Gen. Tess Dizon-De Vega as its Guest Speaker.

Incidentally, every awardee was duly recognized with a Citation from the Office of the City Council of the City of Jersey City courtesy of Council President Rolando Lavarro.

In conclusion, here’s a powerful quotation by a concerned woman to her peers: “Do not follow where the path may lead…Go instead where there’s no path and leave a trail!”

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

An Asian Journal Magazine

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The Asian Journal N E W YO R K / N E W J E R S EY ApRil 6, 2018

An Asian Journal Magazine

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The Asian Journal N E W YO R K / N E W J E R S EY ApRil 6, 2018