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Palace: PH travel restriction...
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again is under rigorous study. “Pero alam naman po natin na napakaraming mga Pilipino nakasalalay din sa turismo para sa hanapbuhay. So iyan po ay maigting na pinag-aaralan na dahil marami na rin pong mga bansa ang nagbubukas ng kanilang mga teritoryo para sa turismo (But we know that a lot of Filipinos are depending on tourism for their livelihood. So it’s now being studied since many countries are also opening their territories to tourism),” said Roque. He urged everyone to exercise patience, noting that nearly 90% of Metro Manila residents are now vaccinated against COVID-19. According to Roque, the country will allow international tourists again once the Philippine population gets ample protection. “So antay na lang po tayo dahil encouraging nga po na mahigit
90 percent na ang bakunado sa Metro Manila, at inaantay lang po natin na makahabol iyong ating mga karatig-probinsiya (So let’s just wait for it since it’s encouraging that nearly 90% of Metro Manila are now vaccinated, and we’re only waiting for the nearby provinces to catch up),” he said. “At tingin ko naman po, hindi naman po para ipagkait iyong ganda ng ating bayan sa mga turista kung mayroon nang sapat na protection ang ating mga kababayan (In my view, we wouldn’t deny tourists the opportunity of seeing our beautiful country once our people get ample protection),” he added. Last week, Roque said that the country will reopen to international tourists “in due time” as Metro Manila relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions. “We will open tourism in due time. At ngayon nga po na alert
level 2 (And now that we’re under alert level 2), that’s very encouraging,” he said Friday, Nov. 5. “Titingnan din po natin iyong mga karanasan ng ibang bansa na nagbukas na po para sa international tourism (We will also look at the experience of other countries that have reopened to international tourism),” the spokesman added. The country’s Bureau of Immigration, for its part, said that it is ready to accept foreign tourists should the government decide to lift the country’s travel restrictions. “Should the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) and the Office of the President see that the country is ready, we will be happy to welcome again foreign tourists to our shores,” Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said Monday, Nov. 8. n
Vaccine proof mandate takes effect in... PAGE 1 • Documentation of a COVID19 vaccination from a healthcare provider. Individuals age 18 and over will also be required to show identification with their proof of vaccination. Further, the ordinance will also require attendees of outdoor events with 5,000 or more people to show proof of vaccination or that they’ve recently tested negative for the coronavirus. An individual can be exempted if they have medical conditions that restrict their ability to get vaccinated or a “sincerely held religious belief,”’ according to the ordinance. However, they will be required to use outdoor facilities or show evidence of a recent negative COVID-19 test to come inside if no outdoor area is available. Meanwhile, unvaccinated patrons or those who have no proof of vaccination can still opt to use outdoor areas of any establishments. They will also be allowed to briefly go inside the location to use the restroom, place an order, or pick up an item if they’re masked.
The SafePassLA ordinance will apply to: • Restaurants, bars, fast food establishments, coffee shops, tasting rooms, cafeterias, food courts, breweries, wineries, distilleries, banquet halls and hotel ballrooms. • Gyms and fitness venues, including recreation facilities, fitness studios (including for yoga, pilates, dance, and barre), boxing gyms, fitness boot camps and facilities that hold indoor group fitness classes. • Entertainment and recreation venues including movie theaters, shopping centers, concert venues, performance venues, adult entertainment venues, commercial event and party venues, sports arenas, convention centers, exhibition halls, museums, malls, performing arts theaters, bowling alleys, arcades, card rooms, family entertainment centers, pool and billiard halls, play areas and game centers. • Personal care establishments, including spas, nail salons, hair salons, barbershops, tanning salons, estheticians, skin care, tattoo
VACCINATION. Health workers check the information on the vaccination cards submitted by minors aged 12-17 to get their first dose of Pfizer vaccine at the Ugnayang La Salle in De La Salle University-Dasmariñas, Cavite on Tuesday, November 9. At least 1,600 individuals were inoculated with their first dose of Pfizer jabs. PNA photo by Gil Calinga
PH winning COVID-19 battle...
PAGE 1 Duterte assured Filipinos that shops, piercing shops and massage therapy locations, his administration is committed to secure safe and effective unless medically required. Starting Nov. 29, businesses COVID-19 jabs. “I acknowledge the strong that won’t comply will be issued a warning for the first violation, a efforts of the Department of $1,000 fine for a second violation, Health, the Department of $2,000 fine for a third violation, Foreign Affairs, the National and a $5,000 fine for a fourth Task Force against COVID-19 and other institutional partners and subsequent violations. According to public health for ensuring a steady supply officials, 80% of eligible Los of vaccines in this country,” Angeles County residents have Duterte said. “Amidst the threat of variants, received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 71% of those you attended to the prompt, safe and effective delivery, eligible are fully vaccinated. In October, LA City Council distribution and administration voted 11-2 for the ordinance that of the vaccines across the will require proof of a COVID- country. Let us work together to 19 vaccination to enter indoor put an end to this disease and its harmful effects to our people establishments. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who and economy for nearly two recently tested positive for years now,” he added. The President thanked Russia COVID-19, stressed that the mandate will encourage more for supplying the Philippines people to get vaccinated and with pandemic shots, saying the make businesses safer for arrival of more than 2.8 million doses of Sputnik V vaccines employees and customers. “Vaccinating more Angelenos “gives us reason to be thankful is our only way out of this for the strong support of our pandemic, and we must do friends from the international everything in our power to keep community in overcoming the pushing those numbers up,” he pandemic.” “Let me express my gratitude said. n
to the Russian government for the continued supply of lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines to the Philippines. These deliveries affirm Russia’s commitment to (achieving global) vaccine equity and improving vaccine accessibility to countries, especially the Philippines,” Duterte said. “I deeply appreciate Russia’s efforts in fostering cooperation in various areas, including the fight against COVID-19. Goodwill initiatives, such as this vaccine donation and others, demonstrate the strong ties and friendship between Russia and the Philippines,” he added. Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the more than 2.8 million doses of Sputnik V shots procured by the government – the biggest shipment of Russian-made vaccines – would benefit about 3.5 million individuals. The arrival of the Sputnik V vaccines was also witnessed by Russian Ambassador Marat Pavlov, Sen. Bong Go, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, Chief of Presidential Protocol Robert Borje, Health Undersecretary Ma. Carolina Vidal-Taiño and
Special Envoy to Russia Olivia Limpe-Aw. Sen. Bong Go, meanwhile, expressed his support for the three-day National Vaccination Day from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 and called on Filipinos to “be a hero, get vaccinated, save lives!” The second day of the three-day event falls on Bonifacio Day. “Let us be heroes in our own way and put a stop to the spread of this virus by getting vaccinated. I encourage everyone to get vaccinated, especially since the program is open to the general population,” Go, chairman of the Senate committee on health, said. “So let’s show concern for our frontliners and set a schedule for your jab at your nearest vaccination site. Don’t be afraid of the vaccine because it is the only solution that can help us gradually return to our normal life,” he added. Go said the government has administered 64.2 million doses as of Nov. 7. A total of 34.7 million individuals have received their first dose while 29.5 million Filipinos are already fully vaccinated. n
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Patients went into the hospital for Voting rights is the civil rights issue... care. After testing positive there for COVID, some never came out. PAGE 1
by Christina Jewett California Healthline
THEY went into hospitals with heart attacks, kidney failure or in a psychiatric crisis. They left with COVID-19 — if they left at all. More than 10,000 patients were diagnosed with COVID in a U.S. hospital last year after they were admitted for something else, according to federal and state records analyzed exclusively for KHN. The number is certainly an undercount, since it includes mostly patients 65 and older, plus California and Florida patients of all ages. In California alone, nearly 2,200 patients were diagnosed with COVID after seeking care for conditions from sepsis to schizophrenia, based on an analysis for KHN by the California Department of Health Care Access and Information. In the scheme of things that can go wrong in a hospital, it is catastrophic: About 21% of the patients who contracted COVID in the hospital from April to September last year died, the data shows. In contrast, nearly 8% of other Medicare patients died in the hospital at the time. Steven Johnson, 66, was expecting to get an infection cut out of his hip flesh and bone at Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Florida, last November. The retired pharmacist had survived colon cancer and was meticulous to avoid contracting COVID. He could not have known that, from April through September, 8% of that hospital’s Medicare COVID patients were diagnosed with the virus after they were admitted for another concern. Johnson had tested negative for COVID two days before he was admitted. After 13 days in the hospital, he tested positive, said his wife, Cindy Johnson, also a retired pharmacist. Soon he was struggling to clear a glue-like phlegm from his lungs. A medical team could hardly control his pain. They prompted Cindy to share his final wishes. She asked: “Honey, do you want to be intubated?” He responded with an emphatic “no.” He died three days later. After her husband tested positive, Cindy Johnson, trained in contact tracing, quickly got a COVID test. She tested negative. Then she thought about the large number of hospital staffers flowing into and out of his room — where he was often unmasked — and suspected a staff member had infected him. That the hospital, part of the HCA Healthcare chain, still has not mandated staff vaccinations is “appalling,” she said. “I’m furious,” she said. “How can they say on their website,” she asked, “that the safety precautions ‘we’ve put into place make our facilities among the safest possible places to receive healthcare at this time’?” Blake Medical Center spokesperson Lisa Kirkland said the hospital is “strongly encouraging vaccination” and noted that it follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and federal and state guidelines to protect patients. President Joe Biden has called for all hospital employees to be vaccinated, but the requirement could face resistance in a dozen states, including Florida, that have banned vaccine mandates. Overall, the rate of in-hospital spread among Medicare and other patients was lower than in
other countries, including the United Kingdom, which makes such data public and openly discusses it. On average, about 1.7% of U.S. hospitalized COVID patients were diagnosed with the virus in U.S. hospitals, according to an analysis of Medicare records from April 1 to Sept. 30, 2020, provided by Dr. James Kennedy, founder of CDIMD, a Nashville-based consulting and data analytics company. Yet the rate of infection was far higher in 38 hospitals where 5% or more of the Medicare COVID cases were documented as hospital-acquired. The data is from a challenging stretch last year when protective gear was in short supply and tests were scarce or slow to produce results. The Medicare data for the fourth quarter of 2020 and this year isn’t available yet, and the state data reflects April 1 through Dec. 31, 2020. For California, the state Department of Health Care Access and Information provided data for patients of all ages in general, long-term and psychiatric hospitals. That data showed seven general hospitals with more than 5% of patients PAGE 4
across the country is due to two recent Supreme Court decisions gutting the 1965 Voter Rights Act, combined with the “Big Lie” frenzy stoked by former president Trump, still trying to overturn the 2020 election. “We still have tools available to us, but fewer than we once did,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, of Brennan Center’s Democracy Project. And even in those two recent rulings that gutted the Voting Rights Act – 2013’s Shelby v. Holder and July 2021’s Brnovich v. DNC — the Supreme Court acknowledged Congress’ ultimate responsibility for setting federal voting standards, Morales-Doyle pointed out. “We actually do have two pieces of legislation that would help us get us past this moment,” Morales-Doyle pointed out. “The Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.” On Nov. 3, Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, was the 51st “yes” vote for discussing the proposed John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Jacqueline DeLeon, of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), noted that Murkowski was elected, in part, thanks to native Alaskan voters traveling long distances to get to polling places to vote in the pitch-black dark in the snow after learning how to spell her name to support her write-in election in 2012. But filibuster rules in the Senate meant that 51 of 100 possible votes was not enough. Because of the filibuster, it takes 60 votes to do most things. There are currently 50 Republican senators, two Independents and 48 Democrats. But 51 votes would be enough to change that filibuster rule, for example, by making an exception for voting laws, similar to the exception made for Supreme Court nominations in 2017. “All eyes are on Congress and the Senate,” Morales-Doyle said. Meanwhile, in Indian Country, change is long overdue. DeLeon described how some reservations have no polling places at all, forcing impoverished voters to drive 100 miles on dirt roads into sometimes inhospitable, racist border towns to exercise their voting rights.
Lousy mail service, too, can make registration and absentee voting difficult-to-impossible, she said. “Natives vote if they’re provided a fair opportunity, but they’re too often not given that fair chance.” “We need to get away from the framing that the voting rights is a Democratic ask,” she concluded. “This is about protecting American citizens from racist abuse and denying them their right to participate in the American political process.” John C. Yang, of Asian Americans Advancing JusticeAAJC, also emphasized the nonpartisan importance of seeing that everyone’s voice is heard. “Then we have an argument on the values, on the issues. We try to persuade the voters that our policies make sense. That’s the beauty of democracy.” “Our community is quite diverse,” he said. Asian Americans have become the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country. “We have individuals of all different political stripes.” “For us, it is about making sure that every citizen that has the right to vote has the opportunity to do so in a most efficient and effective manner.” He described how voter-ID laws sometimes run afoul of language barriers. And once a person has secured their right to vote, having multi-lingual voting materials and mail-in voting is also important. “It is about having communities not feeling that they are less of a citizen because of their immigrant status or because they have limited English proficiency, or because they have different socio-economic means that don’t allow them to vote during a 9-5 period.” Henderson pointed out how 13 of the same senators who stopped the Lewis Act last week, such as John Conryn of Texas, had all previously voted in favor of continuing the VRA. “We have to take the fight to them,” he said. “This is a right and we should demand it and we should generate the political heat necessary to obtain it.” The Leadership Conference has prepared 14 reports documenting the state of voting rights in 13 states across the country: Alabama (second Alabama report), Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. “The way forward is through Congress, and Congress needs to be told that over and over and over again,” Morales-Doyle said. In the meantime, he and other voting rights advocates are using what tools they still have to take the battle to the courts. The Justice Department recently joined a suit by the Brennan Center, Mexican American Defense and Educational Fund and others against new rules in Texas. “None of the work stops while we’re waiting for Congress to act, but we still need Congress to act,” Morales-Doyle said. “Apart from suing, we need to keep up the work to change the public narrative on this. And people DO want an expansive democracy!” (Mark Hedin/ Ethnic Media Services)
LOS ANGELES COUNTY METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (LACMTA) REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL LACMTA will receive Proposals for PS80741-2 Federal Advocacy Professional Services electronically at bids@metro.net. A Pre-Proposal conference will not be held. All Proposals must be submitted to LACMTA, electronically at bids@metro.net, on or before 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, November 30, 2021. Proposals received after the above date and time may be rejected. For a copy of the Proposal/ Bid specification visit our Solicitation Page on our Vendor Portal at https:// business.metro.net or for further information email Victor Zepeda at zepedav@ metro.net. 11/10/21 CNS-3526974# ASIAN JOURNAL (L.A.)
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Patients went into the hospital for care... Fil-Am charged, fined $53,000 for disrupting flight, punching attendant A FEDErAL grand jury indicted ryan Cajimat, 21, a Filipino American from Kapolei, Hawaii, with two federal crimes for his disruptive and violent conduct on a flight from Honolulu to Seattle. Cajimat must appear for arraignment on November 18, 2021. Cajimat was on a Dec. 24, 2020 Delta Airlines flight from Honolulu to Seattle when he allegedly became disruptive. About two hours before landing in Seattle, Cajimat tried to open the cockpit door and struggled with flight attendants was trying to restrain him. The Federal Aviation Administration fined Cajimat $52,500, and Delta Airlines banned him from further travel on that airline. One flight attendant was punched in the face twice. Cajimat was restrained for the rest of the flight and was removed from the plane on arrival in Seattle. Cajimat is charged with
interference with flight crew members and attendants and assault within a special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States. Interference is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Assault on an aircraft is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The case was investigated by the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Natalie Walton-Anderson. The incident is one of many that have happened on planes during the past year as Americans return to the skies after staying close to home in 2020. Just days before Friday’s announcement from the Justice Department, an American
Airlines passenger allegedly punched a flight attendant in the face twice, forcing a New York-to-Southern California flight to make an emergency landing in Denver. CBS News transportation correspondent Errol Barnett reported a flight attendant bumped a first-class passenger during Wednesday’s flight and quickly apologized. Later, the passenger went to the galley and allegedly punched the same crew member, breaking bones in her face, before returning to his seat as if nothing happened. American CEO Doug Parker said it was one of the worst acts of unruly behavior he’s seen. “This type of behavior has to stop, and the best deterrent is aggressive criminal prosecution,” Parker said. Brian Hsu, 20, has been charged with interference with a flight crew and assault within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States in that case. (Inquirer.net)
Duterte urges Comelec to give 2022 candidates... PAGE 1 campaign by just shouting at one corner,” he said in Filipino. “You have to have a place
where maybe they would limit the attendants or the number of people there. That’s Comelec’s problem,” he added.
Comelec earlier said that the final list of the candidates for the 2022 elections would be released by December. n
US State Department, Philippine envoys... PAGE 1 holders know they have rights in the United States, and that if they need help, there are resources available to provide assistance,” Kelley said. Her office also encouraged the attendees to either contact them directly for all concerns regarding their employment or seek the intervention of the Philippine Embassy or POLO. Consul General Iric Arribas also assured support and assistance
from the Philippine Embassy and POLO-WDC, especially on matters concerning their personal security and wellbeing. “We underscore the importance of continued collaboration between the Philippine Embassy and the US Department of State to educate our Filipino domestic workers of their rights in the United States and the Philippines and ultimately to protect the latter from any form of abuse,”
Arribas stressed. “As this webinar is being in the same month that the Trafficking Victims Protection Act was passed in the United States, all the agencies here present in this webinar commit to provide help, assistance and support to those who are victims or are potential victims of trafficking, including labor trafficking,” POLO-WDC Labor Attaché Angela Trinidad added in her closing statement. (Inquirer.net)
Sara Duterte withdraws COC for Davao... PAGE 1 move gave more energy to talks that she would run for president in the May 2022 polls. She has long been rumored to take on the presidency and has maintained
her lead in presidential surveys. But she has repeatedly said in the past that she will not run for president. She even claimed that she wanted to finish her term as Davao City mayor.
The Commission on Elections has set the November 15 deadline for political parties to replace or make substitutions of their candidates until November 15. n
PAGE 3 diagnosed with COVID after admission. Statewide, the percentage of patients diagnosed with COVID after admission was 1.3%. At Garfield Medical Center in Los Angeles County, 44 out of 399 patients, or 11%, were diagnosed with COVID during their hospital stay. Last year, KHN examined three staff deaths and more than 60 staff COVID cases in the hospital. Workers there said they struggled to get tests and protective respirators, and noticed that the virus seemed to spread among patients. The hospital did not respond to requests for comment last year or in recent weeks. A KHN review of work-safety records, medical literature and interviews with staff at highspread hospitals points to why the virus took hold: Hospital leaders were slow to appreciate its airborne nature, which made coughing patients hazardous to roommates and staff members, who often wore less-protective surgical masks instead of N95s. Hospitals failed to test every admitted patient, enabled by CDC guidance that leaves such testing to the “discretion of the facility.” Management often failed to inform workers when they’d been exposed to COVID and so were at risk of spreading it themselves. Spread among patients and staffers seemed to go hand in hand. At Beaumont Hospital, Taylor, in Michigan, 139 employee COVID infections were logged between April 6 to Oct. 20 last year, a hospital inspection report shows. Nearly 7% of the Medicare patients with COVID tested positive after they were admitted to that hospital for something else, the federal data shows. A hospital spokesperson said tests were not available to screen all patients last year, resulting in some late diagnoses. He said all incoming patients are tested now. Tracking COVID inside health facilities is no new task to federal officials, who publicly report new staff and resident cases weekly for each U.S. nursing home. Yet the Department of Health and Human Services reports data on COVID’s spread in hospitals only on a statewide basis, so patients are in the dark about which facilities have cases. KHN commissioned analyses of hospital billing records, which
are also used more broadly to spot various hospital-acquired infections. For COVID, the data has limitations. It can pick up some community-acquired cases that were slow to show up, as it can take two to 14 days from exposure to the virus for symptoms to appear, with the average being four to five days. The records do not account for cases picked up in an emergency room or diagnosed after a hospital patient was discharged. Linda Moore, 71, tested positive at least 15 days into a hospital stay for spinal surgery, according to her daughter Trisha Tavolazzi. Her mother was at Havasu regional Medical Center in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, which did not have a higherthan-average rate of internal spread last summer. The hospital implemented “rigorous health and safety protocols to protect all of our patients” during the pandemic, said hospital spokesperson Corey Santoriello, who would not comment on Moore’s case, citing privacy laws. Moore was airlifted to another hospital, where her condition only declined further, her daughter said. After the ventilator was removed, she clung to life fitfully for 5½ hours, as her daughter prayed for her mother to find her way to heaven. “I asked her mom and her dad and her family and prayed to God, ‘Please just come show her the way,’” Tavolazzi said. “I relive it every day.” When Tavolazzi sought answers from the hospital about where her mom got the virus, she said, she got none: “No one ever called me back.” Two negative covid tests, then ‘patient zero’ As the second surge of COVID subsided last September, doctors from the prestigious Brigham and Women’s Hospital published a reassuring study: With careful infection control, only two of 697 COVID patients acquired the virus within the Boston hospital. That is about 0.3% of patients about six times lower than the overall Medicare rate. Brigham tested every patient it admitted, exceeding CDC recommendations. It was transparent and open about safety concerns. But the study, published in the high-profile JAMA Network Open journal, conveyed the wrong message, according to Dr. Manoj Jain, an infectious-
disease physician and adjunct professor at the rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. COVID was spreading in hospitals, he said, and the study buried “the problem under the rug.” Before the virtual ink on the study was dry, the virus began a stealthy streak through the elite hospital. It slipped in with a patient who tested negative twice but turned out to be positive. She was “patient zero” in an outbreak affecting 38 staffers and 14 patients, according to a study in Annals of Internal Medicine initially published Feb. 9. That study’s authors sequenced the genome of the virus to confirm which cases were related and precisely how it traveled through the hospital. As patients were moved from room to room in the early days of the outbreak, COVID spread among roommates 8 out of 9 times, likely through aerosol transmission, the study says. A survey of staff members revealed that those caring for coughing patients were more likely to get sick. The virus also appeared to have breached the CDC-OK’d protective gear. Two staff members who had close patient contact while wearing a surgical mask and face shield still wound up infected. The findings suggested that more-protective N95 respirators could help safeguard staff. Brigham and Women’s now tests every patient upon admission and again soon after. Nurses are encouraged to test again if they see a subtle sign of COVID, said Dr. Erica Shenoy, associate chief of the Infection Control Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, who helped craft policy at Brigham. She said nurses and environmental services workers are at the table for policymaking: “I personally make it a point to say, ‘Tell me what you’re thinking,’” Shenoy said. “‘There’s no retribution because we need to know.’” CDC guidelines, though, left wide latitude on protective gear and testing. To this day, Shenoy said, hospitals employ a wide range of policies. The CDC said in a statement that its guidelines “provide a comprehensive and layered approach to preventing transmission of SArS-CoV-2 in healthcare settings,” and include PAGE 7
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DATELINE PHILIPPINES
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3 years since graft conviction of Imelda Marcos, Martial Law victims appeal affirmation of verdict by Kristine JOY
Philstar.com
ASSISTANCE. A beneficiary of the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Displaced/Disadvantaged Workers (TUPAD) program receives cash assistance at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City on Tuesday, November 9. TUPAD is a community-based package of assistance that provides emergency employment for displaced workers, underemployed and seasonal workers, for a minimum period of 10 days to a maximum of 30 days, depending on the nature of work. PNA photo by Avito Dalan
Palace: Wait for IATF final decision on face shield mandate by ritCheL
MenDiOLa AJPress
shields would no longer be required in the city except in medical facilities. THE mandatory use of face roque also reminded local shields in closed spaces and chief executives that they are crowded areas will remain until “under the control and supervithe pandemic task force makes sion of the President in the exits final decision on the matter, ecutive branch of government.” according to Malacañang. “IATF exercises derivative Presidential Spokesperson authorities from the President Harry roque on Monday, No- because it was created through vember 8, urged local govern- an executive order. Halos lahat ment units (LGUs) to wait before naman po ng desisyon ng IATF issuing ordinances since the is either ratified or binigyan ng Inter-Agency Task Force for the Presidente ang kapangyarihan Management of Emerging In- ang IATF na mag-desisyon (Alfectious Diseases (IATF) is still most every decision of the IATF studying the existing policy. is either ratified or the President “So ang desisyon po ngayon gave the IATF the power to deay kinakailangan ipatupad muna cide),” he said. ang face shields habang pinag“Dahil lahat po ng mga mayor aaralan naman po. Hindi na- ay nasa control and supervision man po natin sinasabi na hindi pa rin po ng ating Presidente, tatanggalin ‘yan pero antayin kinakailangan po lahat ng mga naman po natin ang desisyon ng mayor sumunod pa rin po sa IATF (So for now the mandatory mga polisiya ng IATF hanggang use face shields should be im- hindi po nababago (Since all posed while it is being studied. mayors are under the control We are not saying that we will and supervision of the Presinot remove that, but let’s wait dent, they need to follow the for the IATF decision),” he said policies of the IATF until they in an online briefing. are changed),” the spokesman The statement was issued after added. Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Further, roque said that the Moreno” Domagoso signed an Manila City government’s execexecutive order that said face utive order was “null and void.”
“Another way of looking at it is null and void po siya (it is null and void) for being in violation of an existing executive policy decreed by the President himself, in the exercise of police powers,” he said. Likewise, the country’s Department of Health urged LGUs to wait for the IATF before issuing orders to drop the face shield requirement. “We urge local governments to just hold their executive orders or issuances so we can all be uniform in our implementation and we are all aligned,” said Health Undersecretary Maria rosario Vergeire. The IATF first issued the use of face shields outdoors in December last year. In September this year, Philippine President rodrigo Duterte limited the use of face shields in places that fall under the “3Cs” category: crowded, closed, and close contact. The Philippines is the only country in the world that requires using face shields in addition to masks. To date, there are a total of 2,805,294 COVID-19 cases in the country, with 44,521 fatalities and 2,728,696 recoveries. ■
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MANILA — Three years since the Sandiganbayan’s guilty verdict on former rep. Imelda Marcos (Ilocos Norte), a group of Martial Law victims appealed to Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo to “affirm” the graft conviction of the wife of the late dictator. Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) wrote to Gesmundo on Tuesday urging the chief justice to upheld the conviction of Marcos, noting that their inquiry on the appeal status in 2020 went without answer. They were referring to Marcos’ appeal to the SC to reverse the anti-graft court’s fifth division conviction on three counts of violation of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in connection with her alleged financial interest in a private local corporation during her government tenure. The trial of this specific case already lasted for 17 years, until the ruling of the Sandiganbayan division on Nov. 9, 2018, but Marcos has yet to serve any prison time three years since. Danilo Dela Fuente, SELDA vice chairperson, told Gesmundo: “Sir, we, the victims of the atrocities during Marcos’ martial law, have suffered enough. We continue to suffer as we witness Mrs. Marcos, the principal conspirator of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. is still out of jail, living a profligate lifestyle, shamelessly luxuriating with the money she and her family stole from the Filipino people, despite this conviction by the Sandiganabayan.” In a separate statement, Campaign against the return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CArMMA) also pointed out that pending the resolution of the appeal, Marcos remains free. “In the meantime, we Filipinos continue to pay for the Marcos regume’s massive loans — loans for government projects which were embezzled and funneled to the Marcos’ own fraudulent Swiss foundations,” they added.
Return to power SELDA, in its letter to the chief justice, also pointed out that Marcos son, Bongbong, is running for president in the 2022 polls, and suspicions were raised that funds for the cam-
paign may be obtained from the nation’s coffers. “In the interest of justice for all victims of human rights violations during the martial law period, we again appeal to this u PAGE 7
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Resilience after Yolanda EIGHT years ago after Super Typhoon Yolanda flattened large swathes of Eastern Visayas including much of Tacloban City, leaving over 6,300 people dead and 1,800 others missing, there was a lot of talk about building back better. That objective of building for climate resilience remains relevant as survivors and those left behind by the dead and missing commemorate the disaster. Yolanda, the most powerful storm recorded in the world in 2013, made the first of six landfalls before dawn on Nov. 8 in the coastal town of Guiuan in Eastern Samar. The Category 5 storm, packing winds of up to 314 kilometers per hour, spawned powerful storm surges up to 15 feet high that ripped out about 1.1 million houses and even concrete structures and laid waste to approximately 33 million coconut trees – a major source of livelihood in the affected areas. The disaster disrupted the livelihoods of an estimated 5.9 million people. A serious humanitarian crisis was averted only because of an ava-
lanche of support from the international community. Even with outside help, rising from the ashes took time, especially for those who lost their loved ones. This week survivors lit candles and laid wreathes to remember the dead, even as they continue the challenging task of rebuilding with climate resilience in mind. Yolanda’s fury is remembered amid the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP26, which is being held until this Friday in Glasgow, Scotland. The death and destruction caused by Yolanda showed the damage that extreme weather can unleash. Commemorating that tragedy should firm up commitments to boost climate resilience. (Philstar.com)
Editorial
The Fil-Am Perspective
Another reason to be thankful: Congress just passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill that will also address climate change, add more jobs!
our global challenges that affect not only us in America, but the whole world. AFTER a better than expected Our bridges, roads and railjobs report and lower unemploy- ways are antiquated; our airports ment rate (4.6%) last Friday, No- and seaports are old and worn vember 5 — coupled with a very out; our public transit system encouraging news about the con- pales in comparison with other tinuing rise of vaccination rates nations, making us depend more in the United States (now at 77% on private vehicles that lead to as of mid-October) — we now more traffic congestion, gas have more reasons to be thankful dependency, and pollution; our for and look forward to. broadband internet access has A bipartisan infrastructure bill yet to benefit so many remote we thought would never happen counties around the nation; our has passed! health and safety have been Late Friday, November 5, 13 compromised by our own abuse Republicans joined 215 Demo- of our ecosystem, threatening crats in support of the legislation, our water and food supply, and the National Public Radio (NPR) the sustainability of life in our reported. planet as we know it. “After months of tense negoAs the White House website tiations, the House of Represen- explained: tatives has passed a $1 trillion President Biden’s Bipartisan bipartisan infrastructure bill, Infrastructure Deal passed by 228-206, fulfilling a major priori- Congress will strengthen our ty for President Biden’s domestic nation’s resilience to extreme agenda,” the report stated. weather and climate change Indeed this is long overdue. while reducing greenhouse gas We have been left behind by emissions, expanding access other industrialized nations and to clean drinking water, buildwe urgently need to be competi- ing up a clean power grid, and tive in the 21st century in facing more. When coupled with the the ever-changing landscape of Build Back Better Framework,
Gel SantoS-ReloS
these historic investments will help reduce our emissions by well over one gigaton this decade – ensuring we meet President Biden’s commitment to reduce U.S. emissions by 5052% from 2005 levels in 2030, create a 100% carbon pollutionfree power sector by 2035, and achieve a net-zero economy by 2050. Together, these once-in-ageneration investments will unlock the full potential of a clean energy economy that combats climate change, advances environmental justice, and creates good-paying, union jobs. The Build Back Better spending package originally had a price tag of $3.5 trillion, the NPR reported. But with strong opposition from Republicans and some Democrats, the bill had to be trimmed down, choosing priority and urgent projects to keep the bill alive. According to the NPR report, “the slimmed-down spending package includes universal pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds, investments in affordable housing, premium reductions under the Affordable Care Act, major investments aimed at address-
Philippines: Five hundred years without love Commentary
eRnie D. Delfin MARCH 16, 1521 is one date that is known by students of Philippine history, as it’s the date when Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese national but worked as a mercenary of Spain, “discovered” the Philippines that put the country onto the map of the world powers (Spain and Portugal) then. Due to this discovery, Filipinos could claim that the country has been “Christianized” over five centuries this year. However, to this day, the country is still searching her own place in the sun! In his book “Why are we poor,” the national artist F. Sionil Jose’s attempted to give valid reasons and enumerate many factors why. His other novels like “Po-on” or “Ermita” also contained fictional characters that represented leaders in business and politics, the rich and poor, and the exploiters and exploited in Philippine society. Reading F. Sionil Jose’s epic novels can move nationalistic readers to tears. Fast forward to January 2021, while “imprisoned” at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this writer just finished reading a 368page book, titled “Five hundred years without love,” a novel by Atty. Alex Lacson, a best-selling author of a series of small books “12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country.” The novel is a painful journey of several tragic events and human drama that a poor family in Negros suffered profoundly as a result of a
Philstar.com photo
dysfunctional political system and unjust social-economic system that have become debilitating cancers with origins during the Spanish colonial times. The narrations of the main character, Atty. Anton Hinirang, are so graphically alive to this day that you the sensitive reader (like this columnist) can feel the pains and lamentations of his family. Anton’s father, a poor farmer was mysteriously killed by “hired goons” to expedite the land-grabbing goals of corrupt politicians to expedite their family business expansion. Months after the old man’s death was followed by another tragic murder of Anton’s brother, Teodoro, an honest-to-goodness policeman, whose killers remained unsolved as of the book’s publication. It is assumed by many residents of the town that the murders were premeditated as both father and son killings were carried out by two unknown men riding in tandem in motorcycles. The latter’s murder was to prevent the uncovering of his father’s murder. As tragic events often go by threes, Anton’s sister Phebe, a teacher-turned OFW in Saudi who worked as a domestic helper, mysteriously died purportedly by an exploiter-employer who hid his crimes for months. The OFWs are commonly known to be the “unsung heroes” of the Philippines as they are the #1 exports of the country that kept the nation afloat for decades. Although many of these OFWs are college graduates, like Phebe millions of them opted to leave (the country) to live as their salaries/income in the Philippines as minimum wage earners cannot support a family to live decently as human beings as they always dreamed when they were in college.
A great percentage of these 11 million OFWs are compelled to leave their families to have a better life. The OFWs suffer much sacrifice work long and hard work just to earn more money to provide for the economic needs of the family that is left behind. Filipinos leaving home to work as OFWs, however, creates many predictable social problems of the family as the children are forced to be taken care by other people who are not the parents (many times husbands and wives become OFWs too). Oftentimes, only one parent becomes an OFW, and both husband and wife suffer tremendous pressures to maintain a good happy family due to sheer absence. In the case of Anton’s sister, Phebe, she opted to leave her teaching position to leave a very unhealthy working environment that was controlled by political benefactors! She left an employer that was corrupt only to suffer the ultimate sacrifice, coming home in a casket. Anton’s other brother “Manong Jose” became a priest who tried very hard to “spiritually” rationalize or to create a defense mechanism to cope up with the family’s tragedies, until he himself, considered joining the NPA (New People’s Army) underground. He felt very sadly as a failed priest in his human mind. His expectations as an ordained priest were very high to cause tangible progress and better changes in his province. However, the reality seemed worse as the social environment is mired deeper in the mud of corruption, exploitation and extreme greed of those in power. Atty. Anton’s readings of history revealed that the exploitation and corruption remain remained alive and even became worse in so many areas of Philippine so-
ing climate change and an additional year of the expanded child tax credit.” Here’s a closer look at what’s in the infrastructure bill that now heads to Biden’s desk for his signature: Transportation Roads, bridges, major projects: $110 billion Passenger and freight rail: $66 billion Public transit: $39 billion Airports: $25 billion Port infrastructure: $17 billion Transportation safety programs: $11 billion Electric vehicles: $7.5 billion Zero and low-emission buses and ferries: $7.5 billion Revitalization of communities: $1 billion Other infrastructure Broadband internet: $65 billion Power infrastructure: $73 billion Clean drinking water: $55 billion Resilience and Western water storage: $50 billion Removal of pollution from water and soil: $21 billion How do we pay for this in-
vestment in our future? There are already public funds allocated for infrastructure. The NPR report said “that includes nearly $550 billion in new spending above what Congress was already planning to allocate for infrastructure over the next eight years.” “The plan will be financed in a number of ways, including repurposing unspent emergency relief funds from the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening tax enforcement for cryptocurrencies. The CBO has predicted the bill will add about $256 billion to projected deficits over the next 10 years,” the report added. With other spending bills to invest in our future and in ordinary hardworking Americans, the White House and Democrats are pushing to tax the billionaires their equitable share after growing in wealth exponentially even and because of the pandemic, as the basic and essential needs of ordinary families are threatened and compromised. So far, the Biden Administration have delivered on its promise to work on priorities to help
our nation build back better. Actions to control the COVID19 pandemic, provide economic relief, and now tackle climate change - these are all work in progress. We have to see more action to the promise “to advance racial equity and civil rights, as well as immediate actions to reform our immigration system and restore America’s standing in the world”. We will get there. We are in the right path. The future is brighter. We all should work together, not just the government. We can do this. ***
ciety today. The only things that changed are faces of the corrupt and greedy oppressors: from the mestizos with Spanish last names and whiter skins and now the Filipinos themselves! The root cause of the metastasized cancer of the Philippines is too much greed from top to bottom of society: from politics to business and also the “forgiving” attitude and short memory of the Filipino people. Even commonly known corrupt politicians are “idolized” and even asked to be the honored “ninong or ninang” of the people’s children. As it is the practice of many, politicians dole out money far beyond their “nominal” salary, while having the power to “budget” public expenditures, that are padded to include kickbacks to the pockets of the politicians’ families. The money given to poor people is considered a good investment for their (lucrative government) business. This common practice creates many family political dynasties all over the Philippine archipelago. The political positions are held by family members: from one position another, father to mother to son and daughter, like a musical chair. Mr. Alex Lacson, the author, speaking in the mouth of Professor Atty Anton blames and indicts the corrupt politicians, business people who are self-serving leaders as the # 1 culprit of the malaise of the Philippine society where millions of a vast majority of people are just existing, not living their full potential as God wants His children to live their full potential. Mahatma Gandhi summed up seven major causes of the world’s social cancer, the great inequality of human resources and wealth, dividing deeply the lives of the few HAVES and the billions of HAVE NOTS, namely: Politics without principle, business without ethics
Wealth without works, pleasures without conscience Science without humanity, knowledge without character Religion without honor This columnist agrees with the great Servant Leader, Mahatma Gandhi. Furthermore, I also agree with the book author, Alex Lacson who I admire greatly for his exceptional optimism which I find very hard to totally embrace. I feel that the current crap — oops, crop — of leaders in the Philippines today do not have the political will to provide or initiate real and pragmatic solutions to make the country progress as the author dreams and hope. Simply because many will not kill the golden goose that preserves their centuries’ old power and wealth. No one among them will destroy their “future!” Of course, no one including this columnist claims to have the right answer. However, I can posit a possible solution. If self-serving leaders were the culprit, let’s change them with true servant leaders like Mother (now Saint) Teresa and many missionaries like the Missionaries of the Poor (MOP) founded by Father Richard Ho Lung from Jamaica where many Filipinos are now joining. These kinds of servant leaders already exist but they are not in the political or economic or business arena yet! In religious orders or communities, their “economic” system (although some deride it as communistic or socialistic) is much better as the members of the community are assigned where their talents, be in the classroom, kitchen or in the hospital or in the garden or even assigned as missionaries in other parts of the world like the U.S. Peace Corps that was created during the administration of President John F. Kennedy. With genuine servant leaders, we can educate, motivate and develop the youth’s moldable young
minds to have the common good always as the national mantra to transform the country economically and ethically to follow Gandhi’s formula. If the young minds are not polluted and they are not trained to be greedy and self-serving like the generations before them, when their time to become leaders of the country, then we have a very good chance to have genuine servant leaders in a generation or two. That is my hope and dram for the country, to attain Gandhi’s ideal place where politics with principles, business with ethics, and knowledge with character exist. Along with this ambitious strategy, I am proposing to flood Mr. Alex Lacson’s books in as many high school or college libraries as possible, to be read by the youth, and then “create” regional essay contests after reading the book on a relevant topic like: “Youth can do little things to to help their country” and provide great prizes and awards as big enough incentives for the youth to read, think and write their ideas as young men and women as the hope of the motherland. Last, but not least, I urge every Filipino to read “Five Hundred Years Without Love” and think and challenge himself about what he can do for his country. By reading the novel, you can also find out what happened to Atty. Anton Hinirang in the book! Happy reading. Good luck and God Bless the Philippines! God Bless all of us during these challenging COVID times! ***
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
*** Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at gelrelos@icloud.com, or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel. Santos.Relos.
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
*** ernie.delfin@gmail.com
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Date lin e Ph iliP P in e s
Patients went into the hospital for care... PAGE 4 testing patients with “even mild symptoms” or recent exposure to someone with COVID. Infection control policies are rarely apparent to patients or visitors, beyond whether they’re asked to wear a mask. But reviews of public records and interviews with more than a dozen people show that at hospitals with high rates of COVID spread, staff members were often alarmed by the lack of safety practices. Nurses sound the alarm on covid spread As COVID crept into Florida in spring 2020, nurse Victoria Holland clashed with managers at Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, where Steven Johnson died. She said managers suspended her early in the pandemic after taking part in a protest and “having a hissy fit” when she was denied a new N95 respirator before an “aerosol-generating” procedure. The CDC warns that such procedures can spread the virus through the air. Before the pandemic, nurses were trained to dispose of an N95 after each patient encounter. When the suspension was over, Holland said, she felt unsafe. “They told us nothing,” she said. “It was all a little whisper between the doctors. You had potential COVIDs and you’d get a little surgical mask because [they didn’t] want to waste” an N95 unless they knew the patient was positive. Holland said she quit in midApril. Her nursing colleagues lodged a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in late June alleging that staff “working around possible COVID-19 positive cases” had been denied PPE. Staff members protested outside the hospital in July and filed another OSHA complaint that said the hospital was allowing COVID-exposed employees to keep working. Kirkland, the Blake spokesperson, said the hospital responded to OSHA and “no deficiencies were identified.” The Medicare analysis shows that 22 of 273 patients with COVID, or 8%, were diagnosed with the virus after they were admitted to Blake. That’s about five times as high as the national average. Kirkland said “there is no standard way for measuring COVID-
19 hospital-associated transmissions” and “there is no evidence to suggest the risk of transmission at Blake Medical Center is different than what you would find at other hospitals.” In Washington, D.C., 34 Medicare COVID patients contracted the virus at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, or nearly 6% of its total, the analysis shows. Unhappy with the safety practices which included gas sterilization and reuse of N95s — National Nurses United members protested on the hospital lawn in July 2020. At the protest, nurse Zoe Bendixen said one nurse had died of the virus and 50 had gotten sick: “[Nurses] can become a source for spreading the disease to other patients, co-workers and family members.” Nurse Yuhana Gidey said she caught COVID after treating a patient who turned out to be infected. Another nurse not managers doing contact tracing told her she’d been exposed, she said. Nurse Kimberly Walsh said in an interview there was an outbreak in a geriatric unit where she worked in September 2020. She said management blamed nurses for bringing the virus into the unit. But Walsh pointed to another problem: The hospital wasn’t COVID-testing patients coming in from nursing homes, where spread was rampant last year. MedStar declined a request for an interview about its infection control practices and did not respond to specific questions. While hospitals must track and publicly report rates of persistent infections like C. diff, antibiotic-resistant staph and surgical site infections, similar hospital-acquired COVID rates are not reported. KHN examined a different source of data that Congress required hospitals to document about “hospital-acquired conditions.” The Medicare data, which notes whether each COVID case was “present on admission” or not, becomes available months after a hospitalization in obscure files that require a datause agreement typically granted to researchers. KHN counted cases, as federal officials do, in some instances in which the documentation is deemed insufficient to categorize a case (see
data methodology, below). For this data, whether to deem a COVID case hospital-acquired lies with medical coders who review doctors’ notes and discharge summaries and ask doctors questions if the status is unclear, said Sue Bowman, senior director of coding policy and compliance at American Health Information Management Association. She said medical coders are aware that the data is used for hospital quality measures and would be careful to review the contact tracing or other information in the medical record. If a case was in the data KHN used, “that would mean it was acquired during the hospital stay either from a health care worker or another patient or maybe if a hospital allowed visitors, from a visitor,” Bowman said. “That would be a fair interpretation of the data.” The high death rate for those diagnosed with COVID during a hospital stay — about 21% — mirrors the death rate for other Medicare COVID patients last year, when doctors had few proven methods to help patients. It also highlights the hazard unvaccinated staffers pose to patients, said Jain, the infectiousdisease doctor. The American Hospital Association estimates that about 42% of U.S. hospitals have mandated that all staff members be vaccinated. “We don’t need [unvaccinated staff] to be a threat to patients,” Jain said. “[Hospital] administration is too afraid to push the nursing staff, and the general public is clueless at what a threat a non-vaccinated person poses to a vulnerable population.” Cindy Johnson said the hospital where she believes her husband contracted COVID faced minimal scrutiny in a state inspection, even after she said she reported that he caught COVID there. She explored suing, but an attorney told her it would be nearly impossible to win such a case. A 2021 state law requires proof of “at least gross negligence” to prevail in court. Johnson did ask a doctor who sees patients at the hospital for this: Please take down the big “OPEN & SAFE” sign outside. Within days, the sign was gone. KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber contributed to this report. n
problem DEALING WITH INSURANCE CLAIMS? We’ll take it.*
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Veritas poll: Robredo leads in upholding Catholic values by RobeRtzon
RamiRez
Other presidential aspirants – Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Manny Pacquiao MANILA — Vice President – got one percent each. Four Leni Robredo led in a survey percent of the respondents that asked 2,400 respondents said they were undecided. who among those running in Radyo Veritas said the rethe presidential race adhere to sults of the survey, which “Catholic values and beliefs” was conducted from Oct. 1 to centered on the sanctity of 31, were based on the peolife. ple’s perception of the “serThe poll, dubbed as “Veritas Truth Survey” (VTS) and initiated by the Catholic churchrun Radyo Veritas, showed 37 percent of respondents saying Robredo will follow Catholic values and beliefs. She is followed by former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (27 percent), Sen. Panfilo Lacson (19 percent) and Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno (nine percent). Philstar.com
3 years since graft conviction of Imelda...
PAGE 5 honorable Court to affirm Mrs. Imelda Marcos’ conviction by the Sandiganbayan,” they said. “We call on the sense of truth and justice the members of this honorable Court and decide with dispatch to dismiss Mrs. Marcos’ appeal,” they added. CARMMA also stressed that their reasons for protest and indignation against the Marcoses remain even with more than three decades since the historic ouster of the patriarch. “We continue the call for justice - for all of us who suffered under the Marcos dictatorship that imprisoned, tortured, and killed thousands of Filipinos. Decades may have passed, but not the memory of the Marcos’ reign of terror, the wanton plunder of our nations’ coffers and the disregard for the voices of the people,” they said. “Plundered money by the Marcoses should be returned to the people, instead of being held by this dynasty for their political rehabilitation and ambitions. They should be held accountable for their crimes. We should oppose all attempts of their return to Malacañang,” they added. n
vant leadership persona” of the presidential hopefuls in the May 2022 national and local elections. VTS head Bro. Clifford Sorita said the survey does not serve as a “voting preference survey” but an insight on how the Catholic faithful reacts to the values and beliefs of the 2022 presidential candidates. n
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Fil-Am breaker wins Red Bull BC One World competition By Ritchel
Mendiola AJPress
FILIPINA American Logistx is the first B-Girl from the United States to be crowned champion at the 2021 Red Bull BC One World Final. The breaking tournament invited 16 B-Girls and B-Boys to compete at the world final on Saturday, November 6, at Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland. Logistx dominated in the B-Girl event, defeating Yell from South Korea, Japan’s Ayumi, and Russians Nadia and Vavi. At the age of 18, the Fil-Am breaker became the youngest B-Girl to win the Red Bull BC One title. “I’ve definitely dreamed about winning this belt many times, but what means the most to me from this experience isn’t the belt. It isn’t even the title. It’s deeper for me,” Logistx said after claiming the title. “I wanted to win, because if I did, I knew that whatever I have to say, people are going to listen to me. What I want to say first is that everyone is capable of winning, because I lost and I had to come back from that,” she added. In the B-Boy event, Amir of Kazakhstan secured the title, beating Flea Rock of the U.S. and Canadian Phil Wizard. The Red Bull BC One World Final, for the first time ever, featured a top 16 B-Girl line-up. Logistx, whose real name is Logan Edra, was born and raised in California.
Jennylyn Mercado and Dennis Trillo Photo screengrabbed from YouTube/Jennylyn Mercado
Jennylyn and Dennis reveal past plans to freeze eggs, attempt at surrogacy By dana
cRuz Inquirer.net
Photo from Instagram/@logistx_ugh
She started breaking in 2011 in San Diego after watching a youth breaking class taught by a B-girl. Logistx got her B-Girl name from her father. Her first mentors were B-Girl Val Pal, B-Boy Villn, and B-Boy Mpact. She has competed in various tournaments, winning the 2018 Silverback Open B-Girl solo competition and the junior
breaking Seven to Smoke battle at the 2019 Radikal Forze Jam. She also joined and won season 2 of NBC’s World Of Dance with The Lab. Logistx also performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2019. Currently, she is a member of the crews Underground Flow, BreakinMIA, and Red Bull BC One All Stars.
What Maureen learned from JK By MaRinel
cRuz
Inquirer.net
“HE just does his thing. He doesn’t really care about other people’s opinions of him. That’s one of the things I admire about him.” Thus said actress-beauty queen Maureen Wroblewitz in response to Inquirer Entertainment’s question about what makes her click with singersongwriter JK Labajo, her boyfriend of two years. “I always say opposites attract,” said the Filipino-German actress. “We’re opposite of each other but then we kind of complement each other, too. He can be very loud sometimes, while I’m timid because I want to reserve my energy. He is the kind of person who likes to take on the conversation when we’re outside. I just let him have that.” Musicians think very differently, Maureen observed. “I love art. I used to draw and paint. Seeing him and seeing how creative he is with his songwriting amazes me. I guess with him, my creative side comes out as well,” she explained. “He thinks out-of-the-box. He doesn’t want to fit into a mold. He wants to live his life the way that he wants to. He always wants to be himself—that’s one thing that I learned from him,” pointed out Maureen, who is currently an ABSCBN contract artist. “I’m now trying to get out of my comfort zone even more. I’m now really pushing myself and not trying to just fit in because that’s one thing that I wanted to do while growing up—to please everyone. “I learned from him that the comments that should matter are from people who matter to me. I have to remind myself of that all the time, and he is kind of a reminder of that,” the 23-year-old said. Maureen had a 30-minute chat with Inquirer Entertainment where she also bravely talked about how she battled mental illness as a teenager, how she coped with her mom’s breast cancer and her eventual death, and her experience competing in the 2021 Miss Universe Philippines pageant where she eventually placed first runner-up. Excerpts from our chat: Will you try to win the crown again next year? If yes, what do you think you should improve on? What was funny was that on the day of the coronation, I told one of the girls that this was my first and last pageant, but I’m still 23, I might still change my mind. I do see a lot of things I can improve on like my walk and maybe a little bit on
Maureen Wroblewitz and JK Labajo Photo from Instagram/@mauwrob
my conviction when I speak. What have you learned from competing in “Asia’s Next Top Model” that you were able to apply to the beauty pageant? It’s ‘fake it till you make it.’ It’s not as bad as it sounds. I only use it to describe the confident persona that comes out when I’m on stage or in front of the camera. It’s this person that is totally me but only comes out when I have to be in difficult situations. Dealing with your mom’s cancer, and eventually, her death, are both painful experiences. You were still too young then. What did the whole journey leave you with? When I lost my mom, I had lost my best friend. I was left feeling confused. There was also a time when I lost my faith in God. I remember feeling so alone that I reached a point when I didn’t want to live anymore. I felt her presence throughout this journey. She would give me a lot of signs. She advocated for breast cancer awareness when she was still alive. She was a volunteer at I Can Serve. Today, I also work with I Can Serve so that I can save lives, too. You’re very vocal about dealing with anxiety and depression. How did that start for you and what are you doing about it? I just felt like I didn’t want to live anymore. I would look in the mirror and would say ‘I hate my life’ or ‘I’m ugly.’ It took me really long to get over that because, after my mom passed away, I also had to deal with an eating disorder. I lost a lot of weight, unwillingly… I was just 13. I’m so glad that I had my younger sister, who I am very close to. She was the one who told my parents and I was able to get professional help. My dad also gave me this book. The first chapter talks about this guy who doesn’t have any legs and arms. He talks about this experience of him wanting to drown himself in the bathtub, but he was so glad that he didn’t. Now, he’s so successful and is able to help and inspire so many people as a motivational speaker. After reading that, I remember thinking, I’m still young and I have not lived my life yet. Being born and growing up in Saudi and then transferring to Germany seemed to be a major adjustment. Can you share something about that time in your life? I lived in Saudi Arabia for 12 years. When we went to Germany, it had been the first time for me to be the new kid. It was nerve-wracking because I remember not being good at German yet. I fell into a toxic friendship for two years. This girl took advantage of me… and that was one of the reasons I got into a very dark place. Finally, there was one girl, Ina, who helped me get out of that toxic friendship. She eventually became my best friend. It was really hard adjusting to a new culture because I grew up in a family that is very Filipino. I also knew about the culture in Saudi Arabia but wasn’t familiar with German culture. There were a lot of things that I had to get used to and it took me two years to come out of my shell. You have been living in the Philippines for five years now. What’s that like so far? My mom made sure we can understand Tagalog, but I only started speaking the language in 2019. I’m really more comfortable with Tag-lish. While growing up in those places, I always knew that I wanted to live in the Philippines, that it’s my home, that I wanted to move here. I always felt more connected to the Philippines and its culture.
JENNYLYN Mercado and Dennis Trillo opened up on the procedures they went through to try to get pregnant, before finding out they are expecting their first child. Part of their initial plan was to freeze the actress’ eggs back in 2018. The couple narrated their surrogacy journey in Mercado’s YouTube channel, in a vlog titled “The Surrogate” last Friday, Nov. 5. They explained why they changed their plan from egg freezing to surrogacy. Egg freezing is a procedure that allows a woman to get pregnant at a later date, according to non-profit medical center Mayo Clinic. “Noong 2018, ang plano namin ni Dennis ay magpafreeze lang ng eggs, ng specimen. Noong mga time na ‘yon, hindi pa rin ako handa talagang mag-carry ng baby,” Mercado recalled. “Pwede pa akong mag-trabaho.” (Back in 2018, Dennis and I planned to freeze my eggs, specimen. At that time, I was
really not ready to carry a baby. I could still work then.) Trillo added that they tried egg freezing twice in the Philippines, but nothing came out of it. “Parang sinabi sa ‘min na, ‘Hindi pa kayo ganoon kaready,’ kaya hindi siguro sa ‘min binigay ‘yon,” Mercado said. (It’s like we were told, “You’re not that ready yet,” so maybe that’s why it was not given to us.) The couple’s friends suggested that the two try surrogacy, an arrangement where a woman agrees to give birth to a baby on behalf of another person. Mercado and Trillo began exploring this process in the United States, since it is yet to be legal in the Philippines. The two went through checkups, ultrasounds and numerous injections in their attempt to have a baby via surrogacy. They also told fans that they were fortunate to have nurse friends since they were able to teach Trillo how to inject Mercado’s medication, which was given to her thrice
a day. “Imagine, three times a day, bugbog na bugbog na yung tiyan ko. Parang ayoko na ako yung gumawa kasi sakit na sakit na ako, so kailangan ibang tao na kasi hindi ko kaya itusok sa sarili ko,” Mercado recounted. (Imagine, three times a day, my stomach was already beat up. It’s like I did not want to do it anymore because it was too painful, so another person had to do it because I could no longer inject it on myself.) The couple also gave fans a glimpse of their announcement to family members, where they showed a sonogram of their baby. Mercado and Trillo, confirmed they are expecting a baby in an exclusive interview with “24 Oras” last Oct. 29. They also got engaged last month. The couple both have children from previous relationships. Trillo has a son with beauty queen Carlene Aguilar while Mercado has a son as well with actor Patrick Garcia.
LJ is slowly moving forward with life in New York By Boy
aBunda Philstar.com
IT was great to finally see LJ Reyes after a long time. We recently met for an interview at The Buren, the café bar owned by her mom and sister in Brooklyn, New York. LJ and her two children, Aki and Summer, have been staying in New York for more than a month now. “Masaya dito. The kids are okay,” she said. LJ took time to see her friends there. “When I arrived, they gave me a call. I told them that I’m staying here for quite some time.” On her Instagram post, LJ looked gorgeous in an all-black ensemble when she attended her first New York Fashion Week. “It was an extraordinary experience for me. It was my first time. I had it documented kaya may ganoong mga photos.” The actress is slowly moving forward after her breakup with Paolo Contis. She is always grateful for the love and support she has been receiving from her loved ones. “My mom and sister are very supportive. They tell me to relax and do what I want to do with the kids. Iba talaga pag sinabi ng nanay mo na ‘Sa akin ka na muna.’ Iyong feeling mo na di ka ilalaglag at bibitawan kahit anong mangyari. It’s been a very great family time for us the past month.” The heartfelt messages from friends empower her. “When I feel low, I pray and then I look at people’s messages saying that I can do it.” She knows that God blesses her with a great support system. “That overflowing love and support, alam ko na si God iyon. He touched a lot of people’s hearts and lives to assure me that I will be okay.” LJ remains optimistic that in God’s perfect time, whatever she is praying for will happen and everything will turn out well. “I strongly hold on to His promise. He has made it a relatively easy transition for us.” She also revealed that Paulo Avelino reached out to her. “He’s been there for Aki. He sent me a message. Nag-sabi siyang I know you’re going through a very difficult time. He thinks about Aki. He told me that if I need anything when it comes to Aki, I can always tell him.” Here are excerpts from my conversation with LJ on The Interviewer on the Boy Abunda Talk Channel on YouTube. Read on: Looking back, are there times when you still find yourself crying? “Tito Boy, honestly, meron. Yes, there are days when I find it difficult like nandito kayo ng mga bata, ito ang sitwasyon mo, at kailangan kayanin mo. I pray almost every minute. I think it will be a very long journey, a difficult one, but I really cling on to God.” Is LJ coming back to the Philippines? Magaartista pa ba?
LJ and her two children, Aki and Summer, have been staying in New York for more than a month now. She is always grateful for the love and support she has been receiving from her loved ones. Photo from Instagram/@lj_reyes
“I’m thinking about life one day at a time. Ang hirap magsalita na hindi, dito na lang ako or oo, babalik ako. Oo, pagbalik ako, I’ll be back in show business. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I think it’s okay that you don’t know. It’s okay to take your time. It’s okay to give time to yourself in order to heal and figure out things. Kasi mahirap po kung mamadaliin ang mga bagay-bagay. I have two kids who rely on me. I can’t make wrong decisions anymore.” Did you have another conversation with your son Aki when you arrived in New York? “Yes, actually every now and then, we would talk about sensitive matters and important things. I also encourage him to speak out and be open. Gusto ko lagi siyang nagkukwento.” A lot of people who watched our previous interview would say that LJ couldn’t directly explain her points. I saw the struggle and some people even said that you were protecting Paolo. Your reaction to that. “I protected my kids.” Has Paolo reached out to you? “No, Tito Boy. No efforts.” LJ, have you forgiven? “It’s a work in progress. I am praying that I can forgive him because I know that if I don’t forgive him, this very dark emotion would just eat me up. I won’t be able to move forward with my kids. There’s pain. Hindi mawawala iyon. For me to make at least decent decisions that will benefit my kids, I really have to set aside all Continued on Page 10
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The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - November 10, 2021
SFIO: A new age company addressing the ‘new normal’ needs THE COVID-19 pandemic has turned out to be one of major events that we all have witnessed together. Everyone had different approaches to deal with the crisis which led to the situation of lockdown. And then the process of vaccination was initiated along with several new norms of social distancing and remote working to counter the crisis. The majority of industries went under deep distress on how to handle the pandemic. Thus, there was a beginning of new normal where the business had to adapt to changes such as remote working and rapid digitalization. Alongside, companies had to face a challenging situation to establish a new model of managing remote working. This was the same time when several companies began restructuring and remobilizing the business. As a market leader, SFIO saw the opportunity to restructure its business model to suit the new behaviors and needs of its loyal customers in the market. Expressing his views, Jeths De Jesus Lacson, Chairman and CEO of SFIO says, “We are introducing new models that are suitable for the new normal and may disrupt the traditional way of doing business.” Identifying Capabilities Incepted in 2021, SFIO is in the progress of renaming
to Starfleet Innotech, Inc. The story of SFIO began with its pilot project, the Epiphany Cafe brand. Epiphany Cafe brand is a franchise business in New Zealand which the founders started from scratch. The founders of Epiphany Cafe are the same founders of SFIO. The leadership has identified capabilities that will enable Epiphany Cafe to be successful in the global market. This has helped them to integrate into the Epiphany Cafe model through the strategic acquisitions of the partner companies within SFIO. The mission of Epiphany Cafe in providing diverse opportunities to people has carried on in SFIO. The experience at Epiphany Café helped the founders to lay a stronger foundation at SFIO. It assisted the company to innovate and understand the demands of today’s customers. To sustain in this challenging environment, it is important to constantly evolve with the demands of the market. The Technology and Software division of SFIO works closely with the Franchise and Food Manufacturing divisions as it develops business solution applications focused on Small and Medium-Sized (SME’s) businesses which will make the business operations seamless through the use of AI technology and Data Analytics.
SMART-FREEZE Technology The inclusion of advanced technology allows the food manufacturing division of SFIO to develop the SMART FREEZE Technology. It enables the product to be frozen for up to 3-6 months. Once thawed within an hour at an ambient temperature, the products like donuts are with ‘fresh like quality in terms of appearance, texture, and taste.’ This tech addresses the end-of-day wastage on-site and could eliminate the “limiting” factor to expand a brand in a given region or country. A central commissary can meet the demand of the entire region or country. SMART-FREEZE has enabled the traditional franchise business to become a diversified model where micro-business concepts can be integrated into. Business operations in these companies are on-site to make the products are no longer required. The four-core product model (Donuts, Coffee, Cakes, Bread) of Epiphany Cafe provides a value proposition not only to the business partners such as franchisees but also to customers who are looking for premium quality products in one store. Identifying and analyzing the gaps The nature of the business environment is such that no one can avoid challenging situations, especially with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, a franchise start-up business has to encounter other challenges which include maintaining a good profit for its business partners (i.e., Franchisees) without compromising on the product quality and branding. A franchise business is affected by several key aspects such as branding, product quality, and profitability which makes it successful to expand a brand on a global level. SFIO has experience from its Epiphany Café business which helped the company to identify the root causes and develop the necessary technology. Moreover, the company has updated its business models to suit the needs of the customers and ensure the stability of the
business. SFIO understands the importance of staying in the business for the long run. To maintain its success in the coming years, the company has been studying detailed industry and market analysis. This has helped to identify and analyze the gap where it needs to be the focus. “We have considered the customer behaviors 10 years ago and predicted their behaviors in the next 10 years. This has provided insights as to how we should structure and position our business,” says Jeths. A leader with a positive mindset Since the beginning of his career, Jeths has been an influential leader with ample years of experience backing his leadership skills. He is also the co-founder of Epiphany Cafe, Ardent Bakers, Gorgeous Coffee, and A+ Electrical. Furthermore, he is a Chartered Professional Electrical Engineer and a Certified Asset Management Assessor with over 15 years of professional experience in different industries. His expertise is in Asset Management and Business Development. While expressing his views on how important a leader’s mindset is on the success of the company, he states, “Absolutely! While leaders only repre-
sent the entire organization, leadership influences culture, culture drives behaviors within the organization which yields results. Leaders provide the direction where the company is heading and at the same time, paint the vision in such a way that everyone will be on board. Ultimately, leaders need to ‘build leaders’ within the organization as part of the succession plan to ensure stability and ‘consistency of culture’.” Empowering small and medium enterprises As aforementioned, COVID-19 has definitely changed the market landscape and behaviors of the customers in the majority of the industries. Jeths and his team at SFIO have structured and positioned their businesses within the company to address the current challenges and needs. In the retail industry including Food and Beverage, the key focus is empowering small and medium enterprises. Hence, its business models are upgraded to enable SMEs through its diversified and multi-layered business model which will bring in the “Shared ownership model” into these types of businesses. “One key area in the business that COVID has taught us so far is in terms of collaboration even with our competi-
tors. In the past, this was seen as ‘threats’ to a business not until COVID happened where businesses have worked or collaborated together not only to survive but more importantly to adapt to the new playing field in the market,” says Jeths. A very detailed roadmap for the future With a positive outlook and under strong leadership, the company is optimistic about the coming years. SFIO is introducing a disruptive innovation in the market where it can do a hypergrowth expansion enabled by its SMART FREEZE Technology and the diversified business model. Utilizing the shared-ownership model, the company has also a very detailed roadmap in line with its strategic global expansion in Australia, Asia, and the U.S. in the next 3 to 5 years. The key to this is ‘speed’ with high ‘precision’ in terms of project execution of the detailed plan. SFIO will be launching its global fundraising and marketing campaign from August 2021. Jeths encourages everyone to consider becoming part of SFIO by way of investing in SFIO through its authorized brokers or becoming one of its business partners in the businesses.
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Can a divorcing couple agree to pay for their adult children’s college How’s the housing market? expenses in their divorce judgment?
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The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - November 10, 2021
Ask the Realtor
JAson AgcAoili EnDIng the month of october 2021, the Southern California housing market continued to appreciate in comparison to the prior year (oct 2020)*. Los Angeles County showed an increase of 6.7% with a median sales price of $880,000 and an average sales price of $1,315,782 (+11.6%) for single family homes. orange County had an increase of 12.4% with a median sales price of $1,000,000 and an average sales price of $1,359,855 (+22.7%). riverside County had an increase of 21% with a median of $563,500 and an average sales price of $648,306 (18.9%). San Bernardino County had an increase of 18.8% with a median sales price of $475,000, and an average sales price of $527,652 (+16.6%).
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Average days on market (DOM). Days on market continued to be strong. Homes for sale in LA County were listed on the market an average of 22 days before closing. orange County had an average of 20 DoM, riverside County had an average of 22 DoM, and San Bernardino County had an average of 22 DoM. Why does the market keep going up? Although the market continues to increase, keep in mind that real estate is hyperlocal, and demand depends on your local area market, the local zip code, and neighborhood. The main factors currently driving up real estate prices in Southern California are: 1) shortage of homes for sale, and 2) low finance rates. Is it still a good time to buy or sell? Yes, both. It’s a good time to buy because of low mortgage rates. If you are currently renting but you can purchase a home and have a similar monthly debt payment, then for most people it would make sense to purchase. If you’re currently a homeowner and your home’s value has increased, then you might want to look at the option of
selling to reinvest the profit for a larger home or downsize and pocket the net profit. Location, location, location. Why is location so important? The comment I hear the most is “I can buy a home outside of California that’s less expensive.” That is true to a certain degree. But also realize that the cost of any product, and especially real estate, is based on market demand. We have what we termed in California the “weather tax.” The closer you live to the coastal areas with the most ideal weather all year round, expect to pay the higher cost of real estate and higher cost of living. Additionally, California has the largest economy in the U.S. made up of a diverse and broad range of industries providing employment and business opportunities. There are areas within the state of California that have homes priced like what you find out of state, however, the question to ask yourself is— do you really want to live and work there? What’s the trade off? You can buy an inexpensive home in the Midwest, or even in the High Desert, Central valley, and rural areas of California, however if doesn’t meet your needs for your career, business, your children’s schools, or personal lifestyle, then an inexpensive priced home can be costly in terms of loss in opportunities for you and your family. What is your goal? When you’re planning to buy or sell your home, always ask yourself— what is your goal? Do you want to invest in real estate for additional income and longterm wealth? Is it time to stop paying your landlord and invest in your own home? Is it time to sell and purchase a larger home? Do you need to downsize? Is it time to move on? Is it time to finally retire? There are things in life that can’t be bought
Barrister’s Corner Atty. Kenneth UrsUA reyes DIvorCIng couples with children sometimes worry about who is going to pay for their children’s college education after the divorce once their children graduates high school. They want a guarantee that their soon to be ex-spouse will share in the college expenses of their children. This is specially the case when the other spouse has moved on with a new family. The old family becomes less of a priority. In California, there is no legal basis for a spouse to request the family court to order the other spouse to pay for their adult children’s college expenses. However, the divorcing couple can agree to pay for their adult children’s college education as part of a marital settlement agreement. Family Code section 3587; In re Marriage of Rosenfeld and Gross, 225 Cal. App. 4th 478 (2014). Pursuant to statute and court cases, college expense payment provision in a stipulated marital settlement agreement, as incorporated into a Court’s judgment, constitutes adult child support
such that court had jurisdiction to modify the provision in light of the settlement’s failure to specifically provide that adult child support was not subject to modification. In re Marriage of Rosenfeld and Gross, 225 Cal. App. 4th at 488 (2014). Providing for payment of adult children’s college expenses is recognized more of an “add on” to adult child support. Family Code 4062(b)(1). However, the parties may “opt out” or restrict the court’s jurisdiction to modify an adult child support order (including college expenses) but the parties must expressly and specifically state in their marital settlement agreement that any resulting adult child support order will not be subject to modification or termination by the Court because the adult child support order is rooted in the parent’s contractual agreement. Cal. Family Code Section 3587, 3651(a). So if you are concerned about your spouse sharing for the college tuition and expenses of your children after the divorce, you should negotiate a provision in your marital agreement that both of you will share on the college tuition and expenses of your children. In doing so, you should also think about whether you want this provision to be non-modifiable or not. In the absence of a specific provision limiting adult child support
*** Please note that this article is not legal advice and is not intended as legal advice. The article is intended to provide only general, non-specific legal information. This article is not intended to cover all the issues related to the topic discussed. The specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you. This article does create any attorney client relationship between you and the Law Offices of Kenneth U. Reyes, APLC. This article is not a solicitation. *** Attorney Kenneth Ursua Reyes is a Board Certified Family Law Specialist. He was President of the Philippine American Bar Association. He is a member of both the Family law section and Immigration law section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He is a graduate of Southwestern University Law School in Los Angeles and California State University, San Bernardino School of Business Administration. He has extensive CPA experience prior to law practice. LAW OFFICES OF KENNETH REYES, APLC. is located at 3699 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 747, Los Angeles, CA, 90010. Tel. (213) 388-1611 or e-mail kenneth@kenreyeslaw.com or visit our website at Kenreyeslaw.com. (Advertising Supplement)
LJ is slowly moving forward...
From Page 8 those negative emotions, which is very difficult. I always pray that if I make decisions, they will always be based on god’s will. Whatever is best for my kids. I really do believe that. I really have to forgive. not forget but forgive.” Paolo also issued a statement taking full responsibility, asking for forgiveness from you and the kids. Did you come across that? “I know that eventually he would have to release a statement. He would have to speak up but it’s something na parang hindi ko na po binigyan ng atensyon masyado. I mean hindi po madali baka akalain ng mga tao madaling gawin iyon na i-disregard na lang kung ano iyong mga nababasa namin or mga nakakarating sa amin. Continued on Page 11 It’s really a very difficult process para marinig at
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as non-modifiable and nonterminable, the default is that child support is modifiable. Sometimes, leaving the adult child support provision as modifiable protects the spouses from unforeseen future events such as a disability or retirement which limits the earning capacity of a spouse and ability to comply with the adult child support provision in the MSA.
makita, it’s really just gonna break you. When it really feels bad to hear some things, dasal na lang. I told myself that it’s just a process, dadaanan mo talaga ito pero basta dasal ka lang. You ask god for strength, wisdom, and favor, then it will be better.” Sometime in the future, would you go to Baguio with someone as friends? “Yes, Tito Boy. Why not? I’m proud of Baguio as a Filipino. Maraming pwedeng puntahan doon. Maraming pwedeng kainan. Actually, Paulo Avelino is from Baguio. So, may family doon si Aki. Pupunta talaga kami doon.” Malay natin, you and Pau can see each other there, with Aki, as friends. “Yes as friends, Tito Boy.”
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‘Help! Can I file bankruptcy again?’ I’VE been asked this question a few times lately, so I decided to write an article on it. If you have filed bankruptcy before, you may be wondering whether it’s possible to do it again. Generally, the answer is that you can file bankruptcy as often as needed BUT subject to some limitations such as the following. I will try to simplify but here are the general rules: Consecutive same Chapter filings: If you are filing under the same bankruptcy “chapter” (7 or 13), the timing is critical. If you are trying to file a Chapter 7 after you’ve already filed another Chapter 7 in the past, you need to wait 8 years from the date your last case was filed. For consecutive Chapter 13 filings: If you received a prior discharge in Chapter 13, you cannot receive a second discharge in any Chapter 13 case that is filed within 2 years from the date that your last case was filed. Chapter 13, then Chapter 7: If you obtained a prior discharge (i.e., a “debt wipe out”) under Chapter 13, you will not be allowed a second discharge in a subsequent Chapter 7 filing unless 6 years have passed from the filing of the Chapter 13 to the filing of your Chapter 7 case. There is however an exception to this rule: You will be allowed a discharge in your current
Minding Your Finances Atty. RAymond BulAon Chapter 7 case if you either paid all unsecured creditors in your past Chapter 13 case or you paid at least 70% of the unsecured claims and the plan represented your “best effort” and proposed in “good faith”. Chapter 7, then Chapter 13: If you discharged your debts in a prior Chapter 7, you cannot obtain another discharge in a subsequent Chapter 13 filing unless four years have passed since your Chapter 7 filing date. This doesn’t mean, however, that you cannot file a Chapter 13 if your intention is to pay creditors the best you can. It only means that since there is no discharge available, whatever is not paid through your Chapter 13 plain will still be your liability. Now you may ask: Why file a Chapter 13 then if a discharge is not available under these circumstances? The answer is that it depends on what your goals are in filing the current Chapter 13. For example, one reason for filing may be to get court protection while consolidating non-
dischargeable debts such as IRS taxes. Or it may be to stop a foreclosure and pay back the arrears through a 3-5 year payment plan. There are other “tricky” rules you need to know about that apply to dismissals and conversions from one chapter to another but I could just imagine how your head may be spinning by now trying to make sense of all these rules. The best thing to do if you are in a situation where you may need to file bankruptcy again (although you’ve already done so in the past) is to consult with a knowledgeable bankruptcy attorney who can analyze your case and provide correct guidance. For a free consultation, call Toll-Free 1-866-477-7772. If you’re considering filing bankruptcy for the first time, or even if this is a second or a third filing for you, I‘d like to help you so please call my office. *** NOTE: Due to virus safety concerns, I am offering free consultations BY PHONE OR VIDEO to anyone who needs help in dealing with their debt problems. *** None of the information herein is intended to give legal advice for any specific situation. Atty. Ray Bulaon has successfully helped over 5,000 clients in getting out of debt. For a free attorney evaluation of your situation, please call RJB Law Offices at TOLL FREE 1-866-477-7772. (Advertising Supplement)
community 11 Andi shares weight loss journey T h e A sian Jou r n al MDW K MA GA ZINE - No ve mbe r 1 0 , 2 0 2 1
By Jan
Milo Severo Philstar.com
ACTRESS Andi Eigenmann revealed that she lost 16 kilos of weight in eight months. On Instagram, Andi posted her photos on IG story when she was 75 kilos with 39-inch waistline in March and now weighing 59 kilos with 29-inch waistline in November. Andi said that she’s been busy with homeschool and will work out again soon. “First progress report in agessssss! Been busy with homeschool but now that we’ve picked up a good pace, can’t wait to work out again,” she wrote. It will be recalled that Andi’s ex-boyfriend Albie Casino trended online recently after he said that he’s “super happy” now that Andi is
The curious case of Stephen C. Davis: Ghost story Immigrant Living: 101 and Beyond monette AdevA mAglAyA (ContinueD from last week …) Half a lifetime later and half a world away, I have forgotten much about the murdered American soldier. Buried in the mists of time, his story would have remained shelved, tucked away in my memory banks and promptly forgotten until I came across an account of that incident long ago on the internet. Written by Virgilio Lacaba, I read a long, detailed article, perhaps a reprint, on “Strange Occurrences at the UP” and like a flood, everything came rushing back as though it happened yesterday. Weeks after the session, I remember being interviewed for an article in a then popular weekly magazine, Mr. & Ms., by Neni Santa Romana Cruz, a wellknown Filipino writer who also happened to be the elder sister of a good friend from St. Scholastica’s College, the kind and gentle Chona Santa Romana, who incidentally and sadly, I learned much later, was herself a tragic victim of murder and domestic foul play, sometime in the late eighties. I had left the country for America by then and lost touch. I do remember that during the interview for the article I have had to be careful in how the story is presented because I was living, working and studying in an academic environment, which by default should place reason and scientific explanation on everything that happens in the world. Paranormal phenomenon is an entirely different ball of wax that supposedly rational beings do not normally subscribe to, something that would raise skeptical brows. Yet I have found that life is not entirely rational, a lot of things don’t make sense and we have only begun to chip away at the great mysteries of life that lay before us. I am thus convinced that quite possibly, I am just one of the multitudes the world over who believe that there are things in the universe that are far beyond the scope of reason and known science to explain and things that are far beyond human intelligence to comprehend fully. Quite plainly, there are things in this world that cannot be defined, completely
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“…he was no more than a lonely soul whose young life was cut down so suddenly and so tragically one dark moonless night…” understood and pegged in a nice, neat box. The curious case of this murdered American soldier reaching out from the grave is probably one of them. As a postcript decades later, Lacaba updated the account by verifying the information about Stephen Davies with the American Battle Monuments Commission (http: //www.abmc. gov/search/detailwwnew.php). Something may have been lost in the spelling and translation during the sessions, for there were two entries for Stephen Davis (there was no e though in the Davis) — one was Stephen E. Davis, a US Air Force officer who was killed in Hawaii and whose remains were never recovered and a Stephen C. Davis. The latter was listed as Seaman, First Class, U.S. Navy, with Service # 3759920 and that he had entered the service in California. The approximate date of death was December 15, 1945 in Manila, Philippines. Davis earned a Purple Heart Award posthumously. Just like the other Davis in Hawaii, there were no remains recovered. The name of Stephen C. Davis is inscribed in one of the hemicycles on the west side in the American Cemetery near Forbes Park and what used to be Fort Bonifacio, a military camp sold to private real estate developers during the nineteen nineties and now known as The Fort in Global City. There is absolutely no way to verify every minute detail of this cold murder case unless one is a tenacious private investigator with the mixed pedigree of a bloodhound and a bulldog. One thing that comes across clearly, at least to me, is that the ghost of Stephen C. Davis, whether real or conjured by hypnotic suggestion, didn’t seem to be obsessed with vengeance or justice although he did seem knowledgeable about his killer’s whereabouts. Underneath the bone-chilling poltergeist tactics his restless soul employed to reach out from beyond the grave, he was no more than a lonely soul whose young life was cut down so suddenly and so tragically one dark moonless night. Stuck in a nebulous, nether world between the living and the world beyond, nothing
seemed to be as important to this murdered American soldier as being remembered. It didn’t matter even if the remembrance is by a motley crew of curious, Andi Eigenmann with Philmar Alipayo total strangers. Photo from Instagram/@andieigengirl With a sigh of relief over the realization that the spirit was neither malevolent nor malicious, Stephen C. Davis would probably have to deal with an incensed group of total strangers who would gladly take turns putting their hands around his poltergeist neck and choking him, if they could, for scaring them half to death while using the rest rooms. The ghost simply wanted to call attention to his plight, to being stuck in limbo or trapped in a dimension that defies time and space. Scaring mortals was one heck of a way to do it. If you remember the movie “Ghost” there was one such paranormal being who was practically forced into mentoring Patrick Swayze’s character in the ways of poltergeists. The movie character is a disembodied soul trapped in one dimension. He inhabited a New York subway because he was pushed on the path of a train and died. He was stuck and could not cross over to the other side because his time had not yet come. So he spends his time morosely bent on mischief scaring the living daylights out of subway commuters. Because his approximate death anniversary is supposedly December 15, Stephen C. Davis is again reaching out from the grave one more time from another century, so that he may be remembered and included in prayers just once more until he reaches final closure and eternal rest. Do pray for him if you can. If Stephen Davis’s story holds up, it is clear that to be forgotten as though one’s life didn’t matter is indeed tragic. *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
*** Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-mail monette.maglaya@ asianjournalinc.
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From Page 10 or replenished, and that’s time. Time is of the essence whether you’re looking to buy or sell as an investor, or as a homeowner. (*Figures are based on CRMLS data, as of Nov 2021.) Life’s Short, Love Where You Live.
Call / Text 213-608-5837 for a complimentary initial consultation, property value assessment, or questions for Selling, Buying, or Investing in real estate. Connect with me @jasonarealtor on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. *** JASON AGCAOILI, REALTOR | Ca DRE
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“super fat.” “I’m not going to hold my tongue so you can look good anymore. And my friends just saw her in Siargao and they said she’s super fat so that makes me super happy. I don’t know if that’s bad of me. But it brings me great joy to know
she gained a lot of weight now,” he said. “Yeah, I don’t care. That’s the truth (laughs). Di tayo nagpla-plastikan dito. That’s the way we do it, man. Hindi tayo nakikipagplastikan dito. That’s the last thing we’re going to do,” he added.