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Asian immigrants likely to overtake Hispanics in US population

by ALLYSON

ESCOBAR

AJPress

ACCORDING to a new report by the Pew Research Center, Asians are on track to become the largest population of immigrants in the United States.

The study released on Monday, Sept.

28 also mentioned that the share of new Hispanic arrivals is smaller than it was

DATELINE

50 years ago, and that the percentage of the whole US immigrant population was higher in 1890 than it is today.

By 2065, Pew projects that there will be 441 million people living in the US, and 88 percent of that growth will be attributed to future immigrants and their children. Asians are expected to outnumber Hispanics, making up 38 percent of all immigrants.

The nearly 130-page document--entitled “Modern Immigration Wave Brings 59 Million to US, Driving Population Growth and Change Through 2065”-provides “nonpartisan analysis that explores trends and projects the future,” and comes 50 years after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, CNN reported. The act took away a quota system that once favored European im-

migrants, and replaced it with a policy that looked toward reuniting immigrant families and providing necessary employees.

Since the act’s passage, about 51 percent of immigrants have come to the US from Latin America, and a quarter of new immigrants have come from Asia.

The US currently holds the largest immigrant population in the world--today,

USA

OVER the weekend, Pope Francis made a final stop during his historic six-day US visit to Philadelphia, to continue spreading his message of hope to diverse audi-

Jordan Clarkson on the upcoming NBA season, representing Filipino fans

by MAILA

AGER Inquirer.net

HISTORIC VISIT. Pope Francis visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in downtown Manhattan on Friday, Sept. 25 to meet with family members and relatives of those who perished at the hands of terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. The Pope then proceeded to the museum for a service that included Jewish, Muslim and other representatives of the world’s major religions.

AJPress photo by Momar G. Visaya

Fil-Am young leaders urge eligible Filipinos Healthcare costs to vote in the 2016 Philippine Elections More US employees are shouldering the burden

AMERICANS are shouldering an increasing amount for medical costs, with deductibles outpacing the average employee’s wage growth in the last five years and overall inflation, according to a new report.

US workers saw their out-of-pocket medical costs rise again this year, as the average deductible for an employerprovided health plan jumped nearly 9 percent in 2015 to more than $1,000.

Though lower than in previous years, the annual increase surpassed wage growth and overall inflation by a wide margin, and marked the continuation of PAGE A3

ences, including immigrants, prison inmates, victims of sexual abuse, and Christian families from around the world.

PAGE A2

Sen. Poe explains why she once gave up her Filipino citizenship

PAGE A2

rise nationwide

PAGE A2

Pope Francis offers words of healing and peace before departing the US

FROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA

WITH the start of the 2015-2016 NBA season less than a month away, Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson is hoping “great things will happen” and anticipates the team will mesh well together.

“We got a lot of guys that want to learn and want to have a good season.

We’re pretty strong.... Last year wasn’t fun, losing all those games, but at the same time we did learn a lot and we worked, we kept improving and that’s all we can ask for...” he told reporters during Lakers Media Day on Monday, Sept. 28.

The Fil-Am basketball player, who

about 14 percent of the nation’s population are immigrants, but that number is expected to rise to at least 18 percent, Pew Research Center projected.

Of the current largest immigrant groups, Hispanics made up 4 percent of the total U.S. population in 1965. Today, they make up 18 percent, and by 2065, that figure is projected to be 24 percent.

WASHINGTON, DC—Filipino American Youth Leadership Program (FYLPRO) leaders passed a resolution urging qualified Filipino Americans to exercise their right to vote in the 2016 Philippine presidential, national and local elections, President Bea Querido announced on Wednesday, Sept. 23.

Overseas absentee voting for the elections is scheduled from April 9 to May 9 next year and eligible Filipino voters may submit an Overseas Voting Form to their respective consulates or by filling out the iRehistro form on the Commission on Elections website FYLPRO leaders passed a resolution urging qualified Filipino Americans to vote in the Inquirer.net photo PAGE A2 2016 Philippine presidential election.

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SENATOR Grace Poe answered on Wednesday, Sept. 30, the lingering questions why she once gave up her Filipino citizenship, which is now the issue being raised against her.

“Alam niyo po, noong kami nagumpisang mag asawa, talaga naPAGE A2 Sen. Grace Poe

A

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Asian immigrants likely to...

PAGE A1 Asians, meanwhile, were less than 1 percent of the total population 50 years ago--today, their numbers went up to 6 percent in 2015, and they are expected to meet 14 percent by 2065.

Earlier data from the Migrant Policy Institute revealed Asians have one of the highest naturalization rates in the country.

While only 47 percent of all immigrants in the country are naturalized, the number for Asian immigrants is considerably higher, at 59 percent.

Breaking it down by Asian subgroups, data found that Vietnamese and Taiwanese immigrants have the highest naturalization rates at 76 percent and 74 percent, respectively. Data reveals 59 percent of Koreans, 51 percent of Chinese, 47 percent of Indians, and 68 percent of Filipinos are naturalized.

As of 2013, 1.26 million Filipinos are US naturalized citizens; 43,489 of whom were naturalized that year. Today, the total Asian population in the United States amounts to over 18 million — nearly 18 times more than 1.5 million in 1970.

Though Hispanics make up 47

percent of US immigrants, immigration from Latin American countries has generally slowed, especially from Mexico. “A steep decline began in 2007, in part because of the Great Recession,� Mark Lopez, director of Hispanic research for Pew, explained. “It became more difficult to cross the border and to demographic changes in Mexico with fewer young people wanting to head north.�

Lopez, who oversaw this study, says the steady rise of Asian immigrants has “bubbled up� over the past decade, noting Chinese citizens who’ve flocked to the United States for educational opportunities like graduate school.

He also mentioned the great influx of Indians arriving on visas to work in high tech, taking jobs in Silicon Valley.

Of newer immigrants from the past five years, more have come from Asia (2.5 million) than from Central and South America (1.7 million).

According to Pew, the US will no longer have a “majority group� within four decades. By 2065, Hispanics are expected to make up 31 percent of immigrants, the study predicts. Asians

From The FronT Page

will later outnumber Hispanics to make up 38 percent of immigrants. “On one hand, US citizenship offers more security than let’s say, permanent resident status, which can be lost or revoked in some instances. In addition, to having the right to vote and having the ability to run for political office, US citizens can sponsor a wider range of family members — they can bring children, spouses and parents quicker than what’s allowed for the lawful permanent residents,� commented Jeanne Batalova, a senior policy researcher at the Migration Policy Institute.

Becoming a citizen is “a very important step for the Asian American community because it allows them to become more integrated in America,� said Jannette Diep, executive director of Boat People SOS-Houston, in a press call back in June. “This integration allows the AAPI community to become more visible in US cities, increasingly getting elected to public office. Some immigrants never thought they would become a US citizen and have the right to vote in their lifetimes.�

Pope Francis offers words of healing...

PAGE A1 Pope Francis arrived in Philadelphia on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 26, to celebrate a Holy Mass with the bishops and clergymen and women religious of Pennsylvania. The mass was held at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. “What about you?� the pope asked, speaking in his native Spanish to priests, deacons, and consecrated religious men and women, to remind them of their mission of building up the church. “How many young people in our parishes and schools have the same high ideals, gen-

erosity of spirit, and love for Christ and the Church! Do we challenge them? Do we make space for them and help them to do their part? Do we share our own joy and enthusiasm in serving the Lord?�

He also called on the importance of women in the modern church, citing the example of St. Katharine Drexel, an heiress from Philadelphia who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and used her wealth to support minority students in the early 1900s.

After the Mass and visit to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Pope Francis greeted a crowd of thousands from the steps of

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Philadelphia’s historic Independence Mall, only a few feet from the building where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed. Thousands gathered to catch a glimpse of the “Popemobile�-- a modest black Fiat 500--and chanted, “Francisco!� and “Viva Papa!�

In his remarks, the pontiff talked about the importance of cultural heritage, also tying America’s historic founding to religious freedom, which he has been advocating for throughout the trip. He championed religious diversity and “compassion for those in need,� Huffington Post and the News Journal reported. “I ask you not to forget that, like those who came here before you, you bring many gifts to your new nation. You should never be ashamed of your traditions,�

Francis said. “I repeat, do not be ashamed of what is part of you, your lifeblood.�

Pope Francis’ pro-immigrant message has echoed throughout his tour, from his historic address to Congress last Thursday, Sept.

24 to the Mass of thousands celebrated Friday night, Sept. 25 at Madison Square Garden in New York, reported the Los Angeles Times. He called for compassion and understanding towards immigrants, calling on Americans to minister to the disadvantaged and forgotten in society. “Many of you have emigrated to this country at great personal cost, but in the hope of building a new life. Do not be discouraged by whatever challenges and hardships you face‌ you are called to be responsible citizens, PAGE A3

Sen. Poe explains why she once gave up...

PAGE A1 mang sa pag-ibig yun,â€? Poe told reporters in an interview in Manila after attending the 3rd National Convention of Makabayan bloc in Manila. “Kasama ko ang aking pamilya, ang aking asawa, nanirahan kami doon (sa US)‌ Bilang isang nanay, talagang suporta sa aking pamilya, asawa na malayo‌â€? she said.

Poe said she did not abandon her Filipino citizenship simply because she did not love her own country, noting that she did eventually come home from the US when her father, actor Fer-

nando Poe Jr., died in 2004. “Hindi naman yun dahil nagkulang ako ng pagmamahal sa bansa, at noong nagkaroon na rin ng pagkakataon na makabalik dito dahil na rin sa pangungulila at pangangailangan ng aking nanay, nandito naman (ako),� she said.

The senator was referring to her adoptive mother, veteran actress Susan Roces. “Pero mas malaking hamon at pribilehiyo na manilbihan sa bansa, at hindi ko tinalikuran sapagkat ito’y pagkakataon na makatulong sa marami ngayon,� said Poe.

“Simple lang naman po para sa akin, hindi lamang sa papel o sa bansag ang pagiging Pilipino; ito ay pamumuhay ng marangal, yung ating mga values at isa pa yung tapat na paninilbihan. Sa tingin ko naman, hindi naman ako pagkakatiwalaan ng grupo katulad ng Makabayan kung inaakala nila na ako’y hindi tapat at mabuting Pilipino,� she further said.

Poe renounced her US citizenship when she was appointed chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board in 2010. She was elected senator in 2013.

Fil-Am young leaders urge eligible Filipinos...

PAGE A1

atirehistro.comelec.gov.ph. The deadline to register is Oct. 31.

A copy of the Overseas Voting Form is available on FYLPRO’s website at www.fylpro.org/resources. “FYLPRO is a group of highperforming, next-generation Filipino American leaders selected from across the U.S. who all strive to make a difference in their communities,� Querido said. “We agreed to help promote the upcoming elections, not only because it is a critical one, but we want to send a strong message

that the Filipinos in the United States care about the leadership in the Philippines and the future of the Filipino people – our future.

FYLPRO alumni from across the U.S. flew to New York last summer and agreed to assist with the promotion of the 2016 Philippine Elections.

Querido said FYLPRO delegates who are active community organizers and leaders in various states across the U.S. are urged to coordinate with their respective Philippine consulates on how to promote overseas voting and

registration. “Apathy is a challenge, Filipinos don’t know the impact of their vote,� Querido added. “Our community needs to come together and voting is one way for us to leverage our voice and simply to demonstrate to our kababayans in the Philippines that we support them and we care.

Voter turnout in the 2013 elections was dismal, according to numbers collected by the various consular officers. Out of more than 125,000 registered voters, only less than 14,000 voted – or 11 percent.

Jordan Clarkson on the upcoming NBA, representing...

PAGE A1 is entering his second year in the league, is looking to work hard and “put it all on the line� when the regular season begins on Oct. 27. Over the summer, he worked on honing his skills overall and told reporters his three-point shots, among others, are easier to make. “I was in there in the workshop [this summer] chopping my game down and working it back up and trying to build a lot of confidence for the season,� he said.

In his rookie year, Clarkson averaged 11.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 0.86 steals and 0.20 blocks in 59 games.

He was also the first-ever Lakers player to be named the Kia NBA Western Conference Rookie of the Month, an award he received in April for games he played in March this year.

Clarkson on Gilas In addition to representing the Los Angeles team, Clarkson was in talks earlier this year to play for Gilas Pilipinas in the ongoing FIBA Asia Championship, for which he was cleared to play.

However, due to scheduling conflicts with Lakers training camp, which began Monday, he did not make the Philippine roster.

Although Gilas lost to Palestine on the opening day of the championship on Sept. 23, it has secured the top seed after sweeping the second round of the tournament, claiming its most recent victory Tuesday, Sept. 29, against India. On Thursday, Oct. 1, Gilas will face

As Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson enters his second year in the NBA, he hopes “great things will happen� and expects the team will mesh well. Clarkson, the only current FilAm player in the league, also addressed questions regarding his recent trip to the Philippines, Gilas Pilipinas and his Filipino fans during Lakers Media Day on Monday, Sept. 28.

AJPress photo by Ding Carreon

Lebanon in the final round. “Just keep continuing to put it all on the line,� he said in a message to the Philippine team. “Keep continuing to play and good things are going to happen, keep continuing to win.

That’s all anybody can ask for, but most importantly, keep representing the flag and keep playing.�

He also said he hopes Gilas makes it to Rio. On visiting the Philippines & Filipino fans Clarkson, the only current Filipino-American player in the NBA, has expressed pride in his Filipino roots. In May, he visited the Philippines, an experience he spoke positively about. His mother, Annette Davis, is halfFilipino. “Learning about my culture and being around those people.... It was a fun time for me and I really enjoyed it. Definitely being there with my country on my back is definitely something I want to do so hopefully we make that happen,� he told reporters.

While in the Philippines, Clarkson hosted an NBA Cares clinic with Trey Burke from the Utah Jazz and four-time NBA champion Horace Grant.

As Clarkson’s Filipino fans follow him into the NBA season, he offered the following message to them: “I’m going to keep trying to represent well and keep trying to put on for the

country and the flag and try and do my best.�

Upcoming season With reports that Kobe Bryant could be retiring after this season, Clarkson said it means a lot to be playing with the NBA veteran. “We want to send him out on a good note so that’s what we hope to do,� Clarkson said.

And with a rough season for the team last year, the Fil-Am said he wants to help bring back the Lakers’ winning days, especially because of the fans. “We got the best fans in the league so they definitely make you want to put it all on the line when you’re out there playing.

That’s what I’m trying to do,� he said.

Clarkson also said he and rookie point guard D’Angelo Russell were able to build chemistry during the summer. The better off-court relationship makes it easy to bring that chemistry on game days, especially, he said, because it’s important that they are both able to communicate with each other easily. “As a rookie, [we’re] both young guys and [we’re] both still learning.... Building that comfortability with each other off the court is going to make it much easier to do it when we’re on the court,� he said.

The Lakers will play its first game of the season on Oct. 28 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

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Healthcare costs rise...

PAGE A1 a trend that has rapidly shifted healthcare costs to workers, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The analysis, released Tuesday, Sept. 22, was conducted by nonprofit organization Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Education Trust. It indicated that over the past decade, the average deductible that workers must pay for medical care before their insurance kicks in has more than tripled, from $303 in 2006 to $1,077. The average is seven times faster than wages have risen in the same period, the report said.

Four in every five workers who are insured through an employer pay a deductible, Kaiser stated, in which they are required to pay some of their medical bills prior to the start of their coverage.

“It’s a quiet revolution,” said Kaiser Foundation President Drew Altman. “When deductibles are rising seven times faster than wages…it means that people can’t pay their rent. They can’t buy their gas. They can’t eat.”

By comparison, workers’ wages increased 1.9 percent between April 2014 and April 2015, according to federal data, while consumer prices declined 0.2 percent.

Raising deductibles and copays has traditionally been a way for employers to keep premiums in check. The new report also shows that premium growth remained “modest” in 2015.

“Deductibles are rising a little bit every year – almost $100 a year – and then that really adds up, in combination with flat wages,” said Altman, according to CNN. “If wages were keeping up with the growth of cost sharing, it wouldn’t be a big deal for people. But the pain level is significant. It really affects budgets because their wages aren’t rising at the same time.”

This year, an average employer-provided health plan cost workers $1,071. That is down nearly 1 percent from 2014, marking the first time that the survey has documented an absolute decline in workers’ share of premiums.

The average family plan cost workers $4,955, up 3 percent from last year. By comparison, employees’ share of health insurance routinely increased by double digits in the early 2000s.

Businesses continued to pick up the bulk of the cost of health

coverage for their workers, paying more than $5,000 on average for a single plan, and over $12,500 for a family plan.

Employers’ rising health costs are often singled out as a cause for “stagnant wage growth in recent years, as businesses have put money into health benefits that might otherwise have gone to workers’ paychecks,” the LA Times said.

Employers say the higher deductibles allow employees to have a greater financial stake when selecting a doctor or ordering a test, the New York Times reported.

“It truly is to engage employees as better health care consumers,” Laurel Pickering, the chief executive of the Northeast Business Group on Health, told the Times.

Additionally, a greater deductible puts the responsibility on the worker to determine if it is worth visiting the doctor or requesting for a test, Robert Reiff, head of the employee benefits consulting business for insurance brokerage firm Lockton Companies, told the Times.

The climbing costs have heavily affected America’s middle class, the Times reported, with many individuals opting to skip out on going to the doctor due to out-of-pocket expenses, such as co-pay fees, despite the slowdown in the growth of healthcare cost.

“It may be tamping down on unnecessary care, but we’re seeing a lot of evidence of skimping on necessary care,” said Sara Collins, vice president for health care coverage and access at nonprofit group Commonwealth Fund, according to the Times.

A recent report by the Center for American Progress showed that employers are largely pocketing savings, while passing along higher premiums and outof-pocket costs to workers.

Unaffordable deductibles are also emerging as a major issue for health plans being sold on marketplaces created by President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The marketplaces, now in their second year, were initially designed to help people without private or employer-provided insurance.

Most of the nearly 10 million people in marketplace plans qualify for subsidies to offset their premiums, but deductibles in many of those plans cost thousands of dollars.

“Deductibles are a big prob-

Dateline USa lem for consumers,” said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, the largest state marketplace in the country.

Covered California now requires health plans to exempt some office visits from deductibles, so that consumers are not discouraged from getting necessary healthcare and attention.

The average deductible for a silver plan on marketplaces nationwide in 2015 is more than $2,500, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Beyond costs, the new report contains more encouraging news about the endurance of employer-provided coverage, as 57 percent of employers reported offering benefits, from 2014.

More and more large businesses provide health benefits, with 98 percent of firms with 200 or more employees offering their workers at least one stable health plan.

This year, employers with at least 100 full-time workers will have to provide benefits or pay a penalty, according to law.

The requirement will apply to employers with at least 50 fulltime employees in 2016, though Republicans and Democrats are working on legislation that could change this mandate.

The survey also looked at the potential impact of another provision in the Affordable Care Act. The possibility of a new excise tax, the Cadillac tax, which was created under the legislation on costly coverage plans, may further drive up the deductibles that Americans who are insured through their employer must pay.

“Those changes likely will shift costs to workers,” said Gary Claxton, Kaiser Family Foundation vice president who monitors the employer survey, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The last major provision anticipated to be implemented in 2018, would apply to plans that provide high-cost benefit plans and is widely opposed by labor unions and major business groups, among others.

The report states that 20 percent of employers offer plans that would be subject to the Cadillac tax, although 13 percent of large firms that provide health coverage are already moving to avert it by, among other things, offering more affordable plans.

(Agnes Constante and Allyson Escobar/AJPress)

LAS VEGAS ASIAN JOURNAL • OctObER 1-7, 2015

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$400 per month for Filipino maids fixed everywhere, says PH envoy THE minimum wage of US$400 for Filipino maids must be adhered to, regardless of the exchange rate.

Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia J. Eduardo Malaya said employers of Filipino maids were required to pay the equivalent amount in the local currency of the country they worked in.

“It will be unfair for our mothers and daughters to earn less here (in Malaysia). The minimum wage for Philippine domestic workers is fixed at US$400 per month everywhere,” he said after witnessing a

partnership agreement between Philippine-based PLTD Malaysia and iFlix Sdn Bhd in launching their online TV service.

Malaya said employers here would have to pay more as the ringgit had depreciated more than 20% against the dollar over the past year.

“Previously, Malaysian employers paid RM1,200. Now they have to fork over RM1,700,” he added.

Malaya said the embassy had informed labor agencies in Malaysia to comply with the minimum wage set.

Meanwhile, on the partnership agreement, he said the iFlix service was accompanied by a mobile app which allowed users to access their favorite TV shows via smartphone.

“It is most welcomed by Filipinas and Filipinos working here. By watching iFlix, they get to catch up on their favorite TV programs back home directly via their smartphones,” he said in his speech.

Malaya lauded the new service, saying it was another milestone in the Malaysian-Philippine business partnership. (Inquirer.net)

Pope Francis offers words of healing...

PAGE A2 and to contribute fruitfully to the life of the communities in which you live,” the pontiff said.

“He talks not like a pope, but like someone from my town, like a normal person,” Gerardo Flores, a Philadelphian and immigrant from Mexico, told the Los Angeles Times. “His words are going to change the ideas of the politicians.”

Later, the pope concluded his first day in Philadelphia at the Vatican-sponsored Festival of Families, as part of the World Meeting of Families along Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The event included live performances from comedian Jim Gaffigan, the Philadelphia Orchestra, singer Aretha Franklin, Andrea Bocelli, and Juanes, according to the Associated Press.

Actor Mark Wahlberg welcomed the pope before he led the crowd of over 20,000 people in prayer: “Holy Father, welcome to Philadelphia…the City of Brotherly Love.”

Families are “a factory of hope,” Pope Francis addressed the crowd in Spanish, reported CNN. “In the family, indeed, there are difficulties. But those difficulties are overcome with love.”

“Hatred is not capable of dealing with any difficulty and overcoming any difficulty. Division of hearts cannot overcome any difficulty. Only love. Only love is able to overcome. Love is about celebration, love is joy, love is moving forward.”

Papal message of healing to victims, prisoners, and believers On his final day in the US, Sept. 27, Pope Francis had a

packed schedule filled with visits, farewell remarks, and a Holy Mass for the people.

He spoke to about 300 bishops and religious at the chapel at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where he stayed overnight in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania.

The seminary was also visited by St. John Paul II in 1797, as well as Blessed Mother Teresa and then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI. The pope spoke on the serious issue of sexual abuse in the church, saying that “God weeps for the sexual abuse of children,” and apologizing on behalf of the number of priests and religious persons involved in such scandals.

At the meeting, he also met with several victims to pray with them.

“Please know that the Holy Father hears you and believes you. I deeply regret that some bishops failed in their responsibility to protect children. It is very disturbing to know that in some cases bishops were even abusers.”

Francis has created a Vatican tribunal to address the issue; also to prosecute clergy members and bishops who fail to protect victims, the Washington Post reported.

Later in the day, he visited inmates at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia, going row by row to greet prisoners with sincere smiles and, for some, heartfelt hugs.

“Life is a journey, along different roads, different paths, which leave their mark on us,” Francis told 100 inmates at the site, which processes nearly 3,000 men a year. “All of us need to be cleaned, to be washed. [Jesus]

invites us to share in his lot…to create new opportunities, for society as a whole. I encourage you to have this attitude with one another and with all those who in any way are part of this institution. May you make possible new opportunities, new journeys, new paths.”

To end his visit, the Pope celebrated his final mass to conclude the World Meeting of Families.

The outdoor 4 pm mass was held in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and included a 500member papal choir.

In his homily, Francis encouraged the thousands of families gathered from around the world with words of love: “Faith grows when it is practiced and it is shaped by love. That is why our families, our homes, are true domestic churches. These are the right place for faith to become life, and for faith to grow in life.”

At the Mass, he also announced the next World Meeting of Families to be held in Dublin, Ireland, in 2018. The global gathering of Catholics is held every three years.

Before departing by plane back to Rome, the Holy Pontiff thanked the volunteers, bishops and priests, and US lawmakers including President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for hosting and preparing for his historic visit.

“Please know that as I prepare to leave, I do so with a heart filled with gratitude and hope,” Pope Francis said, before his evening flight from Philadelphia International Airport. “I will pray for you and your families, and I ask you, please, to pray for me. May God bless you all. God bless America!” (Allyson Escobar/AJPress)

A

october 1-7, 2015 • LAS VeGAS ASIAN JoUrNAL

Dateline USa

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Justice Carpio to speak in Washington on China’s sea claim croaches on the maritime zones of other coastal states.

Carpio will argue that the recent creation by China of artificial islands in the Spratlys is part of a design to control the South China Sea for economic and military purposes.

The lecture will explain how the nine-dash line claim and the activities by China to enforce it, violate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and threaten peace, security, and stability in the region. It will argue that the nine-dash line claim has no his-

torical basis and that throughout Chinese history the southernmost territory of China has been Hainan Island.

Carpio will suggest a possible resolution of the dispute whereby China would return to the original intent of the 1947 nine-dash line, articulated by President Ma Ying-Jeou of Taiwan, as a claim to islands and their maritime zones that are recognized under international law.

Justice Carpio was sworn in as a member of the Supreme Court of the Philippines on October 26, 2001. (Inquirer.net)

THE Philippines is in talks with an independent American foreign aid agency for a new antipoverty grant in 2016.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), Dana Hyde, announced the likelihood of a second Millennium Challenge Account-Philippine Compact next year at a recent meeting in New York, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.

“On behalf of the Aquino administration, we want to express our profound thanks for the great support of the MCC in the imple- Foreign Affairs Sec. Albert del Rosario mentation of the first Millennium Samar, which incorporated calamChallenge Account-Philippine ity-resilient features in the project, Compact… and we are very ex- could be replicated in other comcited about the prospects for a pact programs. “(MCC) is very much looking second compact,” Del Rosario for opportunities where we can said.

The Philippines in 2010 received leverage other private-sector a five-year grant totaling $434 mil- investments and where we can lion covering three big projects, create a systemic, larger change namely, the Secondary National like the first Philippine compact,” Roads Development Project, the she said.

Under the Revenue AdminisKapit-Bisig Laban sa KahirapanComprehensive and Integrated tration Reform Project, PhilipDelivery of Social Services, and the pine Ambassador to the US Jose Revenue Administration Reform L. Cuisia Jr. noted how it led to improvements in government Project.

At the meeting, Hyde made revenue generation which grew positive remarks about the part- double-digits annually.

The decision for a second comnership between the Philippine pact will be based on a rigorous government and MCC. “(We) have done quiet good development process, which inwork together in our first compact, clude a joint constraints analysis particularly in ways the program conducted by the MCC and the could be scaled up and taken Philippine government.

During the meeting, MCC ofnationally,” she said.

Hyde noted that the secondary ficials said the analysis had been national roads project in Eastern concluded and its results were

being evaluated.

A decision on a second compact will be made by the MCC board of trustees and then will go through a US congressional notification process.

Countries eligible for a second compact must not only hurdle most of the 20 MCC indicators— including a must-pass controlof-corruption indicator—but also “show meaningful progress toward achieving first compact results.”

Hyde is scheduled to visit the Philippines in November to check on the progress of the first MCC compact projects which will end in May 2016.

MCC is an agency established by the United States Congress in 2004 to provide multiyear economic assistance to developing countries under the philosophy that foreign assistance should be focused on good policies, country ownership and results.

WASHINGTON, DC—Senior Associate Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court Antonio T. Carpio will deliver a lecture on China’s claim in the disputed parts of the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea on Monday, October 5 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies 1616 Rhode Island Avenue, NW. The CSIS Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies Banyan Tree Leadership Forum will host Carpio, who will speak on China’s nine-dash line claim as the root cause of the South China Sea disputes and show how it en-

PH seeks new antipoverty grant from US aid agency

by Niña

P. Calleja Inquirer.net

OLYMPIC DREAM. Pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena made a giant leap during the weekend to move closer to his Olympic dream. The 19-yearold hurdled 5.45 meters Sunday in the weekly relay organized by the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association, resetting his own Philippine record that kept the second-generation athlete on track for a spot in the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics.

Inquirer.net photo

US envoy: PH maritime law enforcement best in region THE Philippines’ maritime police is better than any other maritime institution in the region, although the country has greater challenges since it is an archipelago, a top US official said.

State Assistant Secretary William Brownfield, head of the US Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), said the Philippines, through the Philippine National Police-Mari-

time Group, could do with more boats, vessels and even aircraft to protect national patrimony.

“My own view is the PNP and its Maritime Group are in fact as good as or better than any other maritime police institution in this region in conducting that mission. Could they benefit with more resources? Yes, they could. Would they have to get more boats? Yes, they would.

Are we prepared to work with them in that area? Yes,” Brown-

field told reporters.

Brownfield was with the commandant of the US Coast Guard, Admiral Paul Zukunft, when they met with PNP chief Director General Ricardo Marquez and other top police officials at Camp Crame recently.

Brownfield’s office is tasked with combating international crime and illegal drugs and their impact on the United States, by providing effective foreign assistance and fostering cooperation to counter the threats.

INL currently manages $20 million in foreign assistance to the Philippines, with plans to continue providing more than $8 million in assistance annually.

The assistance has had significant impact on expanding the capabilities of Philippine partner agencies across the criminal justice spectrum.

Brownfield noted that the Philippines “is a nation of 7,100 islands, and obviously, that most of its territories are in fact maritime as supposed to land, I believe that the law enforcement challenges can be divided into a number of categories, some of them related to those protecting the national patrimony, whether it is fish or whether it is coral reefs or whether mineral wealth located in the national waters, protecting them from criminals who would steal those assets.”

(Cecille Suerte Felipe/Philstar. com)

Junipero Serra statue vandalized days after canonization by allysoN

esCobar

AJPress

JUST days after Pope Francis elevated Blessed Father Junipero Serra to sainthood, vandalism occurred at the Carmel Mission Basilica where the remains of the controversial Catholic missionary are buried.

At the cemetery and basilica in Carmel, California, there were toppled statues, splattered paint and damaged gravesites. Someone scrawled “Saint of Genocide” on a headstone, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

Carmel police Sgt. Luke Powell said the incident was being investigated as a hate crime, because the vandals targeted “specifically the headstones of people of European descent, and not Native

American descent.”

Other parts of the mission near Monterey Bay were also vandalized, including tombstones and other statues, CNN said.

Within hours of reports, volunteers came to help clean up the mess, picking up statues and scrubbing graffiti. Police have not named any suspects in the case.

Serra, an 18th century Franciscan friar who arrived to California in 1769 and later established the first nine missions, has been criticized for his “harsh treatment” of Native Americans. While supporters view him as a faithful apostle who brought Catholicism to the state, opponents believe he was a Spanish conquistador who oppressed native Indian popula-

tions, according to The National Catholic Reporter.

Despite protests, Pope Francis canonized Serra at a ceremonial papal mass on Wednesday, Sept.

23 in Washington, D.C., during his historic first visit to the US. The pontiff said Serra “sought to defend the dignity of the native community,” and suggested that his legacy and treatment of the Natives was misinterpreted.

“Junipero Serra left his native land and its way of life,” Francis said in his homily during the canonization Mass. “He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life.”

The Carmel Mission had planned an event on Sunday, Sept. 27 that celebrated Serra’s sainthood.

“Pray for the people [who] did take this responsibility for their actions on this sacred property, and that they seek reconciliation,” a mission representative wrote on the Carmel Mission’s Facebook page. “Let us remember that we live in a loving community, and let us not be discouraged by such things.”

“As St. Serra said, ‘Always look forward, never back’.”

Powell said investigators were reviewing surveillance video to try to identify the vandal or vandals. He added that several security guards were stationed overnight at the mission, but the vandalism went undetected until 7am on Sunday.

“No one has claimed responsibility for this act,” Powell said.

This year, legislators attempted to replace a statue of Serra sitting in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington with a statue of Sally Ride, an astronaut and educator with a less controversial legacy.

Those who opposed the canonization argue that Serra did not uphold the dignity of the indigenous populations living at the mission sites.

“We’re stunned and we’re in disbelief,” Valentin Lopez, 63, the chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band in Monterey Bay, told CNN. “There was no Jesus Christ lifestyle at the missions.”

Those present at the mission communities expressed their shock at the blatant vandalism at a historical California mission, open since 1793.

“When I came out for Mass this morning, I was disappointed, but it could have been much worse,” said Carmel Mission Basilica pastor Father Paul Murphy. “Being a saint doesn’t mean a person is perfect. We all have our flaws, we all have our defects, and so it was with Serra.”

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A

Binay-Marcos talks ‘almost complete’ Drilon: Robredo is Roxas running mate

by Jefferson

AntipordA Manilatimes.net

SENATOR Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday, Sept. 30 said he is running for higher office in next year’s elections.

He, however, did not say which place he is setting his sights on but said his camp is almost done with talks with Vice President Jejomar Binay.

“We are about to finish the talks, I think we will have something already in the coming days,” Marcos told reporters after attending a campus forum at Universidad de Manila.

He said the option for him to run for reelection is not anymore being considered.

He also telegraphed a message that he is gunning for the vice presidency.

“In my case, I think we are headed in that direction. We are now presently talking about VP [Vice President],” Marcos said as he admitted that he is in “high-level

Binay earlier said Marcos is among those being considered to be his running mate in 2016.

Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto is hoping that the 2016 contest among the five senators will be fierce but friendly, not a friendship-ending event.

The five Recto was referring to are Sen. Grace Poe, who has announced her candidacy for the presidency; Sen. Francis Escudero, who is Poe’s running mate; Sen. AnVice President Jejomar Binay is set to tonio Trillanes IV, who is gunning announce his running mate in the next few for the vice presidency; Cayetano, days.

Philstar.com photo by Jonathan Asuncion who announced his vice presidential run in Davao City on Tuesday, talks” with the Binay camp.

Sept. 29; and Marcos.

He added that he is also in He expressed belief that the discussions with people identified five, “having worked together with Davao City Mayor Rodrigo in close proximity for years in a Duterte. chamber as small as a volleyball “It is at the highest possible level. court, would be a deterrent to a We talk directly to each other and dirty campaign.”

I don’t think there would be any “The election should all be about level higher than that,” Marcos said, constantly lifting up one’s qualificareferring to his meetings with the tions, not solely putting down the Vice President. opponents,” Recto said.

‘Very good’ progress on right shoulder, says Pacquiao after MRI

by MArk

GionGco Inquirer.net

MANNy Pacquiao’s road to recovery from shoulder surgery is going as planned.

In an Instagram post, Pacquiao was seen undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as part of a follow-up check up for his right shoulder.

“Thank you to all the doctors.

Very good progress,” the eightdivision boxing champion wrote.

“Glory to God. Successful MRI on my shoulder.”

Pacquiao went under the knife to repair a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder just days after revealing the injury during the post-fight press conference following his unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May 2.

With a full recovery near, his promoter, Top Rank chief Bob Arum also bared to the Telegraph that Pacquiao could make his ring return either “at the end of February or at the latest in the first two weeks of April” with Briton Amir Khan as the possible opponent.

Arum, in the same interview, also said that negotiations with Khan’s uncle and laywear Robert Davis to make the fight happen are already ongoing.

Khan, a former two-time world champion, have been clamoring for a big time fight since missing out on Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. early this year.

Screengrab of Manny Pacquiao’s Instagram post

Global competitiveness: Philippines up 5 notches by richMond

Mercurio Philstar.com

MANILA—The Philippines continues to claw its way up the world competitiveness rankings as it climbed five notches in the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Competitiveness Index 2015-2016.

The country ranked 47th among 140 economies this year, an improvement from its 52nd spot among 144 countries last year, a WEF report released showed. The ranking last year was seven notches higher than the previous year’s spot.

The WEF competitiveness ranking is measured based on how institutions, policies and other factors affect the level of productivity of a country.

The Philippines got the highest ranking in terms of macroeconomic environment followed by market size and business sophistication.

The country, however, lagged in terms of infrastructure, labor market efficiency and goods market efficiency.

In emerging and developing Asian economies, the report revealed that competitiveness trends are mostly positive, despite the many challenges and profound intra-regional disparities.

China and most of the Southeast Asian countries performed well, while South Asian countries and Mongolia continued to lag behind.

The WEF report said the five largest members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Malaysia (18th), Thailand (32nd), Indonesia (37th), the Philippines (47th) and Vietnam (56th) – all rank in the top half of the overall Global Competitiveness Index rankings.

“Our report finds worrying signs that a new normal of suppressed economic and productivity growth and persistently high unemployment is damaging resilience and leaving the world vulnerable to another protracted slump,” the WEF report read.

“Here, emerging markets represent the greatest cause for

concern, with many of the larger markets seeing reverses this year, having failed to enact crucial institutional and market reforms during better times (India being the notable exception),” it

said.

“In Europe, we see improvement in many southern economies, helping narrow slightly the region’s north-south divide.

PAGE A7

MANILA — Even before her formal nomination before the Liberal Party convention on Wednesday, Senate President and Liberal Party stalwart Franklin Drilon said Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo will be the party’s vice presidential candidate in the 2016 elections.

In an interview on the morning show “Umagang Kay Ganda,” Drilon said it is most likely that Robredo, the widow of the late Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, will be Mar Roxas’s runningmate.

“Malamang. Sabihin na lang natin na si Congresswoman Leni na

Leni Robredo is likely to run alongside Mar Roxas under the banner of the Liberal Party.

She is seen in this July 2015 file photo at the State of the Nation Address of President Aquino. Philstar.com photo by AJ Bolando

ang kandidato natin sa pagkabise presidente,” Drilon replied when asked if the congresswoman will be LP’s vice presidential bet.

As of press time, Robredo has yet to confirm if she has formally accepted the offer of the administration party to partner with Roxas in the national elections next year.

In her earlier statements, Robredo has been reluctant of accepting the party’s offer as her daughters have been apprehensive of the idea of their mother running for the land’s second top post.

Joseph Estrada still has no presidential candidate to endorse by

YuJi Vincent GonzAles Inquirer.net

PRESIDENT and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada is still mum which presidential aspirant he will endorse in the 2016 elections.

“Baka hindi, baka mag-endorse. Ang hinahanap ko ‘yung higit na makapaglilingkod sa maraming Pilipino,” Estrada told reporters after endorsing the senatorial bid of Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares at the San Andres Sports Complex in Manila on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Estrada said he was looking for someone who would echo his own advocacies, on top of which were peace and order and infrastructure.

“Ang akin kasi, iba ‘yung sa kanila, hindi sumusuporta sa aking plataporma. Ang aking prayoridad peace and order.

There can never be economic growth without peace and order,” he said.

“Hanggang ngayon nandiyan ang NPA, nandiyan ang MILF… Number one priority should be peace and order. Hindi uunlad ang ating ekonomiya kung walang kapayapaan at katahimikan,” Estrada said.

“I will always endorse somebody whose platform is the greater good for the greatest number.

Kailangan ilabas muna nila ‘yung plataporma nila,” he added.

Asked about the platform of government that his goddaughter and poll frontrunner Sen. Grace

Poe laid out when the lady senator formally declared her bid for the presidency last Sept. 16, Estrada said: “Hindi pa sapat.”

Estrada was a close friend of fellow movie actor and Sen. Poe’s late father, Fernando Poe Jr. He was also a former pillar of the United Nationalist Alliance of Vice President Jejomar Binay, another presidential contender.

Despite ties with Poe and Binay, the former President previously said that administration standard-

bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II was the most qualified to be the country’s next leader for his experience and credentials.

A

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Features

TOURISM is a dynamic and complex industry, where apart from leisure, the success of any tourism destination will depend on how well it can provide a safe and secure environment for its visitors.

Currently on the upswing, the Philippine tourism’s momentum as being one of the leading tourist attractions in Asia might be halted following the highly publicized abduction on Samal Island in Davao Del Norte.

Local and international authorities have been alerted after the kidnapping incident of three foreigners and a Filipina from a luxury resort island in Samal. Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, Hall’s Filipino girlfriend Marites Flor, and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, were taken from the Holiday Oceanview Marina before midnight on Sept. 21, by armed men who claimed that they were members of the New People’s Army (NPA).

However, early speculations also pointed out that the Abu Sayyaf Group, a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda, initiated the attack. The group is notorious for kidnap-for-ransom activities in Mindanao but the military has yet to confirm if the group is behind the recent abduction.

There has been no breakthrough in the search and rescue operation as of Tuesday, Sept. 29. Hundreds of policemen, elite Army troops and Navy members are currently scouring the coasts of Davao and nearby provinces in search of the captives and the armed group.

Canada has advised its nationals against traveling in several areas in Mindanao after two of its citizens were among the captives. Canada said its nationals should avoid travel to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Zamboanga Peninsula and the provinces of Sarangani, Lanao del

Editorial

Norte, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Occidental, Davao Oriental, Cotabato, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat “due to the serious threat of terrorist attacks and kidnap-

ping.”

Other countries followed suit as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand have issued travel advisories to their citizens. If not concluded at the soonest time possible, more travel advisories against the Philippines are to be expected, and its consequences to the tourism industry may be exacerbated.

Malacañang accepted the travel advisories issued against areas in Mindanao. However, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. assured everyone that the Philippine government is working double time to apprehend the perpetrators. Coloma also allayed the possible effects of the latest kidnapping in the tourism industry saying that it was an isolated case in the last 14 years.

Coloma added that the government has enforced tighter security also as part of the country’s preparation for the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Nov. 18 and 19. President Barack Obama, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among the expected high-profile visitors of this year’s gathering of world leaders.

The kidnapping incident is not to be tolerated, but it is enough reason to make the national government and concerned agencies improve their operation to promote a safer environment not just

ManilaTimes.net photo

for the country’s tourists but also its citizens. The country’s tourism will undoubtedly suffer after this, but this doesn’t mean all the things that have made Philippines—a country full of history and cultural

diversity—are gone. All agencies concerned will just have to compromise and compensate for the damages that may be incurred from this unfortunate incident. (AJPress)

Early poll results: Fil-Ams choose Roxas over Poe and Binay AS the election season in the Philippines heats up, we see possible tandems forming among those seeking the highest posts of government. Anticipation and excitement are growing, and Fil-Ams are very much in the loop about the political developments in the Motherland.

As of press time, Sec. Mar Roxas still awaits Cong. Leni Robredo to be on board as his vice president, but she asked for more time to discern whether this is her true calling, because her daughters with the late DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo’s daughters wish that she would not run for the second-highest post.

Only Sen. Grace Poe has a solid tandem with Sen. Chiz Escudero, who is definitely running as

her vice president.

VP Jejomar Binay has not yet The Fil-Am announced who his pick is for VP, although rumors are circu- Perspective lating that it would probably be Sen. Bongbong Marcos, a solid anti-administration figure whose political interests match those of Gel sanTos-relos Binay at this time.

But even Marcos is not sure whether to run with Binay as other rumors say he could be picked by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte has yet to formally announce his intent to run, but the latest survey shows a strong following, placing fourth after Poe, Roxas and Binay.

Pictures of Duterte and Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano have been circulating in the news after Cayetano formally announced that he is indeed running for VP. Could this scenario push Robredo to run with Roxas?

On September 16, after Poe announced her candidacy, The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast Balitang America asked its viewers: If the Philippine Presidential Elections were held today, who would you vote for to be the next President of the Philippines?

The results: Mar Roxas - 56 percent

Grace Poe - 29 percent None of the above - 15 percent Jejomar Binay - 0 percent It looks like Binay has a lot of work to do among Filipinos in America. meanwhile, will Duterte shake the dynamics if and when he decides to run for President? Will Grace Poe be able to keep her lead? Will Mar’s upward momentum catapult him to be the next President?

ABANGAN ANG SUSUNOD NA KABANATA! *** Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel. Santos.Relos

Lies, damned lies and Grace Poe Llamanzares Commentary

Francisco s. TaTad THE original phrase reads, “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Initially attributed to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), it was later quoted by Mark Twain, Walter Bagehot, Arthur James Balfour, Henry Du Pre Labouchere, Jervoise Athelstane Baines, Leonard Courtney, Winston Churchill, among other famous personalities. It recently appeared as the epigraph of an article written

by Gil Ramos, Ph. D., a Filipino data scientist living in the US West Coast, who raised serious questions about the credibility of the two polling firms in the Philippines, Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations. It slammed the use of “surveys” for propaganda purposes, specifically to manufacture rather than measure public opinion in favor or against certain political personalities.

I have called these surveys a blunt instrument for the idiotization of the Filipino masses, notably the voters. They are routinely inflicted on the ignorant and the gullible, and even on the not-soignorant and yet so gullible, with the obscene collaboration of the complicit and superficial media and other tools of mass deception and mass hypnosis. Recent and ongoing developments have reconfirmed and reinforced this analysis, thereby aggravating the nation’s increasing moral

and political blindness.

I have a healthy respect for honest, professional polling. But not for “push polls” and manufactured surveys that stink. In a while, we shall talk a little more about these. But just as no selfrespecting entrepreneur would invest money in a new product without first ascertaining whether or not there is a market for it, no self-respecting politician would announce his bid for any office without first ascertaining whether any portion of the public is aware of him and his intrinsic merits. This is where market research or honest and scientific polling has its uses. I myself have availed of it.

In 1978, I was on my ninth year as the youngest person in the Marcos Cabinet, and the President asked me to run for the Batasang Pambansa. Then, as now, I did not see myself as a politician, so I tried to beg off.

I didn’t slap people’s backs, nor tell green jokes, nor laugh at jokes that weren’t funny, I told the President, so I would be the wrong person for it. But it was the first election of the New Society, he said, (martial law did away with elections in 1972), and I was “the spokesman of the New Society,” so I had to run.

It was not a request, but a command, so I had to submit.

As it was to be a regional election, my problem was, although I knew I was a Bicolano, the Bicolanos did not know who I was.

So I had to go down to Bicol to make myself known to the Bicolanos. After a month or so, I ran a survey to find out whether I was registering, not as a potential candidate in an election that was yet to be announced, but simply

as a Bicolano. The result was positive, and I used it to help me decide whether or not to run, but not to advertise myself as a potential candidate.

This is not what’s happening right now.

Rich and ambitious non-entities pay off the entrepreneurial pollsters to put them on the list of those whom the public would allegedly like to see in the Senate, even before the senatorial candidates are officially nominated. Or, the pollsters themselves solicit the business of the interested parties and come up with simulated or manufactured surveys to award favorable ratings to the paying parties. In the case of the presidential polls, the fraudsters do not even bother to find out whether the names they include in their manufactured or manipulated surveys are all eligible for the office, pursuant to the constitutional requirement that no person may be elected president or vice-president, unless he is, among others, a natural-born citizen, which means one who is a Philippine citizen from birth, without having to perform an act to acquire or perfect his citizenship.

The most scandalous proof of this is the persistent effort to portray Sen. Grace Poe Llamanzares as the alleged front-runner in the alleged presidential surveys supposedly commissioned and paid for by a penurious newspaper, despite the fact that she is not even a natural-born Filipino under the Constitution, and therefore not fit to remain in the Senate, as stated in the quo warranto suit before the Senate Electoral Tribunal by petitioner Rizalito David and his counsel

Manuelito Luna, or to run for president or vice president.

If the propaganda pollsters really want to find out what Filipinos really think about Mrs. Llamanzares, they should run a survey among individuals who understand what the Constitution says about natural-born citizens, and know that Mary Grace Poe Llamanzares was born a foundling without any known parentage or citizenship, and ask them whether citizens should follow the clear language and the “dura lex sed lex” mandate of the Constitution or the unverified and unverifiable claims of so-called popularity polls. The choice is between the constitutional process and a con game. And in many instances, the opinion polls have been used as a con-game.

Thus, the Philippine Star page 2 story claimed: “Poe tops Pulse Asia survey for president, VP.” “Sen. Grace Poe remains the leading candidate for president and vice president in the May 2016 elections, according to the latest Pulse Asia survey.

“Poe topped the Sept. 8 to 14 survey for most preferred candidates for president, Pulse Asia said.

“Poe would be elected president by 26 percent of Filipinos if the 2016 were held during the survey period, Pulse Asia said.”

If indeed a real survey was conducted, among individuals who understood that Mrs. Llamanzares’s constitutional eligibility is under serious dispute because of her lack of citizenship, the pollsters should have asked the respondents whether or not they cared about this issue at all, and if they didn’t, the

pollsters should have reported that 26 percent of those interviewed——not 26 percent of 50 million Filipino voters—-would still choose Mrs. Llamanzares, whether or not she was constitutionally eligible for the office.

The day before that, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the paper whose gatekeepers have the arrogance to say that nothing is news until you read it in the PDI, bannered a non-story saying, “More lawyers back Poe on citizenship,” accompanied by a commentary by one Oscar Franklin Tan, whom the paper identified as its legal commentator, saying that Mrs. Llamanzares’ continued use of her US passport after she had supposedly renounced her US citizenship and taken an oath of allegiance to the Philippines was irrelevant to the question of her citizenship.

The paper gave the impression that an army of lawyers had come out of the woodwork to supply evidence which Mrs. Llamanzares’ counsel had earlier failed to provide the SET, and which should now convince Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Justices Arturo Brion and Teresita de Castro as well as any of the six senator-judges whose understanding of and loyalty to the Constitution transcend all partisan and other personal considerations, that an infant born with no known parentage, nationality or citizenship could still become a natural-born citizen later in life by participating in a beauty contest.

The paper failed to produce the army of lawyers, or any novel theory or doctrine that transcends or overturns Sec. 2, Arti-

cle IV of the Constitution, which says, “Natural-born citizens are those who are citizens of the Philippines from birth without having to perform any act to acquire or perfect their Philippine citizenship.” It quoted with ease the statement of former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, who referred to Article 2 of the 1961Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, which provides that, “A foundling found in the territory of a Contracting State shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be considered to have been born in the territory of parents possessing the nationality of the State.”

But it failed to point out that said Convention came into force long after Mary Grace was born and found, and that the Philippines has not acceded to it, and is not therefore a “contracting party” to it, until now. The Nobel laureate Albert Camus warns against “quoting without judging;” even retired jurists as well as leading national newspapers of a certain class would do well to remember that.

As for the PDI legal commentator Tan, he calls those who question Mrs. Llamanzares’ citizenship status as “haters of our favorite foundling,” and sneers at petitioner Rizalito David’s counsel Manuelito Luna by asking “who is this lawyer Luna belatedly hounding Poe?” He appears to be in desperate search of personal motives to explain why some people want Mrs. Llamanzares disqualified from seeking an office for which she is not eligible under the Constitution.

I was the first one to point out PAGE A7

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Dateline PhiliPPines

LAS VEGAS ASIAN JOURNAL • OctObER 1-7, 2015

A

Martial law victims seek CA relief on $1.9-B award

MANILA—The Court of Appeals (CA) was asked to enforce a 1995 US court decision awarding $1,964,005,859.90 in damages to human rights victims of martial law.

Petitioners led by former Human Rights Commission chairman Loretta Ann Rosales asked the CA’s 13th Division to reverse a ruling of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) dismissing their plea.

However, the CA did not immediately resolve the petition.

It ordered lawyers of the heirs of former President Ferdinand Marcos to clarify who will be their lead counsel.

Lawyer Robert Sison and the Marcos Ochoa Serapio Tan law offices are to submit written manifestation from their clients clarifying the representation on the case.

“The defendant-appellee (Marcos estate) must choose which of the two law firms is its lead counsel, and who is the collaborating counsel, if any,” read the CA decision.

Non-monetary benefits for human-rights (HR) victims of martial law will be made possible through a partnership between the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board (HRVCB) and four other govern-

ment agencies.

Signatories to the memorandum of agreement are the HRVCB, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

Under the agreement, the DSWD will develop a comprehensive psychosocial services and rehabilitation program for victims or survivors of human-rights abuses, which will include ensuring access to relevant education and training. (Edu Punay, Rhodina Villanueva/Philstar.com)

Government to continue pushing for BBL

by AureA

CAliCA

Philstar.com

MANILA—Despite delays, Malacañang said it would continue to push for the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law to ensure long-term peace and development in Mindanao.

President Aquino was committed to have the bill passed as it would give the people of Mindanao the chance to truly live in peace, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

Malacañang earlier said the

executive branch was working on the BBL amendments to address the concerns both of Congress and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Valte also welcomed the pronouncement of MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal that there would be no bloody war should the BBL fail to pass. Iqbal gave assurance the MILF is committed to peace-building efforts.

Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lobregat earlier said the first election in the planned new autonomous Bangsamoro region in

Muslim Mindanao could only be held in 2019 or later.

Lobregat cited the “moving timeline” for the approval of the draft BBL by the House of Representatives.

“The first deadline was in June, before the adjournment of the second regular session. The second is before we go on our first recess on Oct. 10, but that is no longer possible because we will tackle the 2016 budget starting on Monday. So Dec. 16 before the Christmas break is the new deadline,” he pointed out.

DOJ chief admits getting SAF killers a difficult task by edu

PunAy Philstar.com

MANILA—Justice Secretary Leila de Lima admitted that it would be a challenge to the government to bring to the criminal justice system the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups tagged in the brutal death of Special Action Force (SAF) commandos in the Mamasapano clash.

De Lima admitted this as the Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to start its preliminary investigation (PI) on the murder charges against 90 individuals found liable for the killing of 35 of 44 SAF troopers during the clash last Jan. 25.

While the government expects cooperation of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the PI against its 13 commanders and 13 members also tagged in the killings, the participation of respondents from BIFF and other armed groups remains uncertain.

More than 60 respondents charged with the complex crime

of direct assault with murder are from the BIFF and private armed groups. De Lima said the possible non-participation of respondents in the PI proceedings would not prevent the resolution of charges as rules provide for a waiver of right to answer charges in case of their absence in hearings.

She made assurance that the DOJ would exhaust all available means to serve the subpoena to all respondents, including possible request for assistance of local officials. De Lima said the DOJ would also seek the assistance of the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities to coordinate with the MILF to expedite the process.

The charges filed with the DOJ last week covered the cases of 35 slain SAF men who belonged to the 55th SAF company that clashed with the MILF, BIFF and other armed groups in the cornfields of Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano.

The cases of the nine other slain SAF commandos from the

Justice Sec. Leila de Lima

84th SAF company in Barangay Pidsandawan as well as the five civilians and 18 MILF fighters who were also killed during the clash and the reported US involvement in the operation are still undergoing investigation. De Lima said the fact-finding report on the second part could be released after two weeks.

The fact-finding report said the Mamasapano bloodbath was not a “misencounter,” rejecting the findings of the MILF.

RIDE FOR PROSTATE CANCER. Bikers dressed in suits ride their bikes and scooters during an international awareness campaign for prostate cancer participated by 79 countries around the world on Sunday, Sept. 27. The event, called The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride is aimed to raise $3 million this year to assist in finding a cure for a disease that kills 1300 men a day worldwide.

Inquirer.net photo by Marianne Bermudez

Global competitiveness: Philippines up 5...

PAGE A5 Access to finance remains the key challenge across the region, however,” the WEF report stated.

“In Asia, three economies – Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong – appear in the top 10; the ASEAN bloc continues to perform strongly and China holds

steady on 28th,” it added.

Foreign business groups welcomed the positive improvement in the country’s global ranking, but noted that there are still plenty of things that the Philippines needs to address to be totally competitive.

“It’s good to see the country’s further improvement in the sur-

vey but there is obviously the need to immediately focus on the most problematic factors, with the lack of infrastructure being the biggest danger to the competitiveness of the country’s economy,” European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines vice president for external affairs Henry Schumacher said.

Lies, damned lies and Grace Poe...

PAGE A6 that Mrs. Llamanzares is not a natural-born Filipino. I have written the most number of articles on this issue, too. But until I saw how much lying she has done under oath, I was prepared to say that without the constitutional issue hounding her, I would have been among her foremost admirers and would have supported her. So why suggest hate at all? I do not even hate PNoy, why should I hate her? Neither, I believe, does Rizalito David or Manuelito Luna. It is a terribly small mind that wants to reduce an issue as large as a presidential candidate’s constitutional ineligibility for the office into a personal thing.

Tan does Mrs. Llamanzares no great service when he says: “She became a Philippine-US dual citizen in 2006. She swore an oath of allegiance to the Philippines in 2010 as chair of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board…

The day before she swore her oath of office on Oct. 21, 2010, to President Aquino, Poe filed a sworn affidavit that she was renouncing her US citizenship.

But she filed this with the Philippine Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, not with the US government.”

This has the same effect as the various falsified or flawed documents submitted by the defense counsel to the SET. Instead of helping the respondent, it bakes her in the furnace. Remember the Dual Citizenship Law covers only former natural-born Filipinos who became foreign citizens after 2003. Mrs. Llamanzares was never a former natural-born citizen, and she became a US citizen, by Tan’s own admission in 2001, before the passage of the Dual Citizenship Law. So his statement has no merit. As to her alleged renunciation of US citizenship, this act had to be perfected under US law, with the US State Department, not

with the BID. By Tan’s own admission, she was still a US citizen when she assume office as MTRCB chair, a job reserved for Filipinos. This was a further violation of law.

We have to end where we began—-with surveys. Surveys, even when done with great scientific care, could still be flawed.

This happened in the 1948 US presidential election when, on the basis of nearly unanimous forecasts, the Chicago Tribune headlined, ”Dewey defeats Truman,” only to see Truman win.

What is unforgivable though is when despite the shameful SWS exit survey fiasco in Metro Manila in 2004, we still find the same fraudsters in operation, and they have the temerity to boast a nearly 100 percent accuracy, just because their surveys are used no longer simply for mind-conditioning, but rather to guide the cheating syndicate that controls the hocus PCOS. (ManilaTimes.net)

A

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SEAFOOD CITY FPFC

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LAS VEGAS ASIAN JOURNAL • OctObER 1-7, 2015

VEGAS&STYLE

B

Journal

An AsiAn JournAl ExclusivE

How Eggslut’s Alvin Cailan got Los Angeles to eat eggs all day However, he steered into a different route after high school: he AJPress studied business at Cal State FulIT all started with eggs. lerton and worked at a construcGrowing up as a latchkey kid, tion company upon graduation.

Alvin Cailan’s father taught him “All I could think of every day how to cook eggs when he was tall was, ‘what am I going to cook for enough to reach the stove. dinner?’” he said.

Who would have thought that With that insatiable hunger years down the road and experi- to prepare food and a personal ences at fine-dining restaurants mantra of ‘just doing it,’ Cailan under his belt, he would circle took a leap and moved to Portland back to what he first learned how to attend the Oregon Culinary to cook? And even, build an em- Institute. pire on the basic ingredient that’s However, reality hit that breakmaking Angelenos salivate and ing into the culinary industry queue up? wasn’t so simple. He knocked on “All my life,” Cailan shared, every major restaurant in the city “I always wanted to cook.” At 15 and faced constant rejection; if years old, he got a job as a dish- there was an opening, it was for washer, eventually making his way free and a short period of time. up to kitchen manager.

When he landed his first paying

By Christina

M. Oriel

The “Slut,” a coddled egg dish

job, the restaurant shuttered six months later.

It was back down the coast of California for Cailan, as he stopped at Yountville and Napa along the way, where some of the country’s best and Michelinstarred restaurants are located.

Bouchon offered him a job, but he declined and moved back to his hometown of LA, where he made rounds at places like Spago and Hatfield’s.

For six months, he worked at Manhattan Beach Post, which he continues to regard as one of his most rewarding experiences.

“My experiences from Manhattan Beach Post and working with a chef that lets a lot of [his] cooks figure out things for themselves made me realize that opening a

restaurant for myself would be easy. That six months there really taught me how to be a restaurant owner. That’s when I knew I was ready,” Cailan said.

A breakfast revolution At this point, Cailan was nearing 30 years old and stumbled upon perhaps the saddest and most pathetic breakfast sandwich to exist — so sad that it motivated him to sell his car and buy a food truck, just as the city’s food truck movement was hitting its peak.

“I was really in shock [over] how breakfast was at the time. I went to a diner in Hollywood and they’re known for their breakfast. I ate their sandwich, and I thought, ‘in Portland, this is the lowest of the low,’ he said. “Then, I really looked into it and Yelped to see

The lunchtime crowd at Eggslut

Alvin Cailan

who were our competitors: McDonald’s or Starbucks. But in the craft realm, there were none.”

Along with his cousin Jeff Vales, Cailan based his mobile eatery on something as simple as eggs and breakfast sandwiches, drawing in that comfort and familiarity. Yet, there would be a twist of innovation, and a jarring name to it: Eggslut.

“I’m not going to take credit for actually inventing the word. But if you looked at food blogs 10 years ago, chefs were using that term, which then became an industry term, like ‘oh, all the chef does is make food with eggs…he is an eggslut,’” he shared. “I figured, being Filipino and in the second largest market in the country, how do you make waves? Having a name like Eggslut threw people off. Immediately people

Photos courtesy of Alvin Cailan and Eggslut

were intrigued by the name, [but] they would walk in, taste the food, stay and then come back. I took a word that no one was using commercially, got the trademark and went forward with it.”

The Eggslut truck was initially parked in front of Intelligentsia in Silver Lake, under the premise that “if people buy $7 coffee, they’re going to buy $6 breakfast sandwiches,” Cailan said.

Some of the menu items were elevated and elaborate -- a pork belly banh mi or croque madame, for example. But, it really was the simple, bacon-egg-cheese combinations that resonated.

“At the end of the day, when you’re eating at a food truck, the last thing you want is fancy because it doesn’t translate. You’re eating on the side of the street PAGE B2

B october 1-7, 2015 • LAS VeGAS ASIAN JoUrNAL

In the article “2015 Asian American Community Awards honor outstanding Las Vegas residents” from last week’s Las Vegas edition, (Sept. 25, 2015), it was erroneously indicated

Erratum

that the Asian American Group of Las Vegas (AALV) was a 501 (C)(3) nonprofit organization.

The Community Achievement Awards were presented by AALV and Asian American Coalition of

Features nevada (AACnV) as part of their part their 12th Anniversary Gala night. The Asian Journal regrets this inadvertent error and apologizes for any inconvenience that this has caused.

David Beckham chokes up recalling Filipina girl victim of typhoon Haiyan LOndOn – britain’s soccer great david beckham choked back tears while telling the story of a Filipina girl victim of Typhoon Haiyan, as he implored world leaders to use their resources to help disadvantaged children. beckham was speaking at the United nations (Un) in new York City on Thursday, September 24.

Speaking during the launch of the global youth blogging community Voices of Youth, beckham shared an emotional story about a four-year-old Filipina girl who died during typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

The typhoon killed thousands of people and left more than 1.7 million children homeless. beckham, who became UnICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2004, choked up as he recalled meeting the family of Viana, the little girl who was pulled away from her father’s arms by raging waters and found dead two days later.

As part of Soccer Aid, the football legend traveled to Tacloban last year to meet children affected

by Typhoon Haiyan. There, beckham was introduced to eight-year-

old Venus, who lost her four-yearold sister during the turbulent superstorm. He spent time with her parents, who managed to survive the disaster. beckham said in his speech: “I met a family in the Philippines – a mother, a father – who wanted to tell the story about their two young girls, Venus and Viana. On the night the typhoon hit, the family were on their roof trying to protect themselves.

“The mother, tired, scared, exhausted, said to the father, ‘Can you please take Viana,’ so the father did. He had Venus and Viana in his arms. Unfortunately, the father was knocked off the roof by one of the waves. He then woke up six hours later holding one of the girls.”

Here beckham’s voice wavered and he cleared his throat to compose himself. He then continued, “This was the night of the typhoon.”

“A day and a half later, unfortunately, Viana was found face down and unfortunately, she had died.

This was one of the most devastat-

Beckham meeting babies and mothers who survived Haiyan. Photo courtesy of Unicef

ing stories I heard.” beckham continued: “but then I saw the great work Unicef was doing rebuilding houses, rebuilding families, and rebuilding schools. rebuilding schools gave Venus and the other children in the village a bit of normality.”

Following his speech, beckham coughed and confessed that meeting Viana’s family “really affected him,” and said: “That story will never leave me.” during the event, beckham and United nations Secretary-General ban Ki-moon unveiled the Voices of Youth digital installation. Created for Unicef by Google, the installation uses mobile technology and social media to deliver the messages of children and young people to the heart of the Un General Assembly.

Also present at the event were UnICEF Voices of Youth initiative members, noor Samee and rodrigo bustamante, and UnICEF Executive director Anthony Lake. beckham further discussed “7: The david beckham UnICEF fund,” an initiative he launched in order to make “a serious commitment to help the most vulnerable children in the world.” He noted that, due to conflicts, “more than 15 million children were exposed to extreme violence, and many more affected by natural disasters.” beckham said, “I want a world where children can grow up safe from war, violence, poverty and preventable disease – don’t you?”

He ended his speech with: “Together, we have the power to save lives.” (Inquirer.net)

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TV series ‘Transcendent’ looks to break misconceptions of transgender women

By Allyson

EscobAr AJPress

A brAnd new TV series is premiering on Fuse, uniquely focusing on the everyday lives, struggles and overall experiences of today’s transwomen.

Produced by World of Wonder Productions (creators of “ruPaul’s drag race:), the show “Transcendent” will follow the lives of a diverse group of transwomen living in San Francisco.

The show will document the physical and mental struggles, as well as triumphs, of this group of women, and will shed light on their professional, personal, even romantic lives. Episodes will take a close look at how the women connect through their sisterhood of shared experiences.

An outstanding quality about Transcendent that makes the series stand out from other trans community-focused shows is the diversity of the cast. L.A., nya, bionka, bambiana, and Xristina are everyday women who both struggle with and take pride in being transgender, as well as being racial minorities.

The show—which makes its debut on Fuse on Wednesday, Sept.

30 at 11:30pm/10:30c—features two Filipinas (nya and L.A.), two Latinas, and an African-American woman, who are all connected through the world-famous AsiaSF Cabaret & restaurant in San Francisco.

“At first, I didn’t want to be a part of it; I didn’t even think it would happen,” nya, 31, told the Asian Journal. “I love to dance and to entertain people; that’s what I do. but having my personal life so public, on blast, is kind of weird for me.” nya (pronounced na-ya), from Hayward, California, has been working at the club since she was 19 years old, and was promoted to a managerial position. Confidently knowing she has been female her whole life, she has never struggled with self-identity and her family has been very accepting of who she is.

“Transitioning was a bit rocky, but it’s not because they didn’t accept me. Looking back, I think my mother was hard on me because she was just trying to protect me from bullies,” nya said. “A lot happens in the transgender community, especially to women of color.”

She talked about the negative labels being both trans and Filipino--“In Filipino culture, they still call us ‘bading,’ which means gay. but we’re not gay. We’re trying to ban these stereotypes.” nya expressed her hopes for the future of the transgender community, especially with the premiere of the new show.

“I was always kind of scared because I am going to be out there for people to criticize. Some people may like me, and some may not. but I’m doing this for the future generations of trans people who will watch. now, transgender

people are in the forefront of media. Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox…I’m very grateful that there are so many role models in our community that the youth can look up to.”

“We’ve been out there, but we just haven’t been visible. We are learning to exercise our voices and be who we truly are.” nya is very open on the show, which captures everything from her personal struggles to her romantic endeavors, all on camera. As a leader of the girls, she especially loves to express herself through dance--a regular part of AsiaSF cabaret life. “dancing has always been my outlet for not worrying about self-identifying myself, bullying, and hate,” she said. “When I’m performing, I feel like this is the one place that I can really be myself. I feel accepted and I feel beautiful.”

The show also follows the newest and youngest of the group, L.A.,--whose real name is Lauren Anthony--who is just starting with her transition, guided by her new friends at AsiaSF. “While her new friends have become like family, L.A. is still faced with the prospect of telling her own family about her transition,” read a Transcendent synopsis from Fuse.

“Looking at these girls, they’re all gorgeous, strong, and proud of who they are,” said L.A., who became a part of ‘Transcendent’ through nya, a longtime friend in the community. “And that’s who I want to be.”

The show follows L.A.’s tran-

Photos courtesy of Transcendent

sition, her regular visits to the doctor, the audition process for AsiaSF, as well as her personal struggle coming out as a woman to her family. She recently moved to San Francisco from the Philippines.

“I was never really exposed to the transgender community; growing up, I was always identified as a ‘gay male.’ I didn’t know any better,” L.A. told Asian Journal. “I know Filipinos mean well--as a culture, we are all about togetherness and being a family, and no matter what, my family has always been supportive of me. They still love me, as long as I don’t step on anyone’s toes.”

L.A. also talked about the ongoing discrimination and prejudices in the community.

“It’s time that society knows we transgender women exist. Oftentimes, we are seen as a fantasy, or just different, not normal,” she said. “With the show, we want viewers to see how transwomen live their life, not any different from anyone else. To see that we are all human and it’s okay to be yourself and to be happy and not let anyone judge you.” regarding her new acceptance and journey towards becoming herself, she simply said, “It all comes down to just being yourself and owning who you are, making the most of your lives.” nya also talked about her life’s ambition. “To love and be loved,” she says in the pilot episode, “that’s what everybody in life wants, really…and hopefully great shoes.”

How Eggslut’s alvin Cailan got Los angeles...

PAGE B1 and eating something hard to eat.

It took some time to realize that making bacon, egg and cheese is the right thing to do… As far as how Eggslut really became Eggslut was finding out what people wanted to eat because you have to be selfless in opening a restaurant — you can’t just cook what you want to eat,” he said.

The eggs made for a natural pairing with one’s morning coffee.

Cailan did research on what classic coffee shops offered, and one of the dishes was a coddled egg, a process that required cracking an egg into an espresso cup and stirring it with an espresso wand to heat the top until it coddles.

Eggslut’s rendition became known as the “Slut,” a coddled egg on top of a smooth potato purée, poached in a glass jar and served with a demi baguette. At $9 a pop, it’s a dainty dish, but signifies the burst flavor that “both the novice and extreme foodie” could indulge in.

Other menu items include a turkey sausage sandwich, which came about to offer a less heavy option for pork in the morning, and the “Fairfax” (scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and sriracha mayo in a warm brioche bun), which was composed from separate elements already present in the kitchen.

The popularity and crowding near the Silver Lake coffee shop, however, eventually caused other business owners to complain. “…I had to move and that was the biggest hit. Three months rolled by and I was making like $50 a day. I was running the truck myself. I would wake up at 4 in the morning from Compton and drive it down to West Hollywood myself. back then, it was just yell 1, 2 or 3 because I [was] the cashier, cook and everything else,” he said.

Then a “miraculous” morning happened in January 2012, as the truck was parked along Fairfax

Ave. in Mid-City: ruth reichl, famed food critic and former editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, approached and ordered the “Slut”.

“She comes up to the truck and my knees are shaking. She was the reason in the 80s and 90s why restaurants in new York would either be soaring successes or closing their doors. She was that kind of food critic,” Cailan recounted. “I did everything to order all for her, gave it to her and ran back to the truck…Food trucks have a little window and I’m looking out the window and she digs in and eats it. boom, you just see it. I’m like I…crushed this.”

Following that morning encounter, Eggslut’s Twitter went from 70 to 2,000 followers, all thanks to reichl’s blog post, “The Most decadent breakfast” — a poetic narration of why she was drawn to the food truck not because of its name, but because of the description of the coddled egg dish: “A well-coddled egg is a beautiful thing, and when the chef said, ‘This will take a while; we coddle them to order,’ I was hooked.

As anyone would be. This is a perfect way to start the day - a tender egg, held together with no more than a wish, on top of buttery pureed potatoes. The crunch of salt, the snappy bite of chives.

Heaven in a spoon. And so rich it made three of us deliriously happy for the rest of the day.”

“I owe it to her. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have gotten to shine,” Cailan noted. “She gave me a chance…next thing you know, every food blog and writer [was] hitting me up.”

In late 2013, Eggslut transitioned from four wheels to a 20-seat counter at Grand Central Market in downtown LA. On opening day, the staff of three only expected 150 orders and even thought that was a stretch. “but at 8 am, on the day

we opened on november 19, [2013], there were 400 people who showed up to Grand Central Market. We opened and sold our breakfast menu in an hour and 15 minutes. We reopened for lunch and sold out in two hours.

Immediately after that, I was freaking out because I didn’t order enough,” Calian recalled how their supplies for the next week were gone within a few hours, and forced them to close for the next two days. Luckily, their purveyors were able to deliver ingredients immediately.

“We ended up muscling through and got over the first week. We thought that maybe in two weeks the lines would go down, but it just got worse,” he joked.

Head over to the market at any time between 8 am and 4 pm, and Eggslut isn’t hard to miss with a line of customers, 50-100 people deep, snaking behind the stand.

The marketing behind Eggslut has been organic and social media driven.

“At the end of the day, you can spend millions of dollars on promoting a name, but if your product sucks, no one is going to show up,” he said. “We get fortunate when a famous person with like 2 million followers tweets or Instagrams us, because immediately that’s a reach of 2 million people.”

To date, the brick-and-mortar does about 500 covers on weekdays, with wait times averaging 45 minutes around lunchtime, and 1,000 covers on weekends, with an hour-long wait time.

It may be peculiar from afar that something so uncomplicated like an egg sandwich would magnetize a horde of curious foodies.

Is it for the name Eggslut itself?

For the coolness factor and the Instagram? Scrambled eggs with sriracha mayo? A seared wagyu tri-tip steak and eggs wedged in a warm brioche bun?

PAGE B4

Features

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Springs Preserve celebrates Asian heritage At the beginning of Autumn, the Springs Preserve celebrates Asian heritage with food and live entertainment during its annual Asian Heritage Celebration. the familyfriendly event features art and crafts, food concessions, live music and dance performances, retail vendors, a children’s lantern parade, and much more. On Saturday, Sept.

26, guests were dazzled by the Springs Preserve’s Asian Heritage Celebration which was filled with music, costumes and dance from the Far East.

Entertainment included a lion dance, taiko drummers, a martial arts exhibition, and more. Kids enjoyed free crafts, face

painting and Lil Gliding Paws rides, and for the adults, Lucky Buddha and Sapporo. Duy Nguyen and Patranya Bhoolsuwan hosted the event while DJ Livinh provided the music throughout the day. the Springs Preserve hosts several annual special events tied into holidays, seasons and cultural celebrations. these productions provide an opportunity for the community to come together and experience the Preserve’s grounds and facilities through music, art, activities, tours and concessions.

AJPress photos from Robert Macabagdal

Help us BOX A SMILE for 3,000 kids this Christmas tHE LBC Foundation, in cooperation with Project Pearls, aims to move love this Christmas through its project BOX A SMILE. the LBC Foundation is the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of LBC Express. together with Project PEARLS, a non-profit organization, whose vision of seeking to protect and provide the basic human rights of the poorest of the poor children in the Philippines, BOX A SMILE will be launched on October 1, 2015.

Box A Smile is a project that

aims to deliver a Happy Christmas to children in poverty in the Philippines. LBC Customers from North America who sends a box via sea or air from October 1 to November 30, 2015 may elect to participate in the program, where a portion of their transaction fees will be donated to Box A Smile. the funds raised will be used to give Christmas gifts to beneficiary children at a gifting event (Christmas party) organized by Project Pearls. LBC Foundation is targeting to collate 3,000 Christmas

Gift Boxes.

Come December 2015, the distribution of Christmas Gift Boxes to children aged 4-14yo in underprivileged areas of Helping Land, tondo, Manila, Brgy. Batia, Bocaue, Bulacan, Zambales will be held.

With this, we encourage your participation in bringing smiles to children in need. Visit your nearest LBC branch or call 1800338-5424 for more information on how you can help.

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LAS VEGAS ASIAN JOURNAL • OctObER 1-7, 2015

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Sam Milby: Not your typical ‘Amboy’ How Eggslut’s Alvin Cailan got Los Angeles...

PAGE B2

By Monet

Lu

As stereotypical as it is, there is some sort of “label” attached to being an “Am-Boy” (American boy) or a “Fil-Am” (FilipinoAmerican). some would have it that most of these “hybrid” Pinoys usually come off as arrogant or entitled. Which is why it is not only surprising – but such a relief to know – that one of their kind is totally the opposite of what we described as the typical Amboy.

I am of course talking about the very humble and down-to-earth rockstar, sam Milby. sam Lloyd Lacia Milby was born and raised in Troy, Ohio.

Milby is the youngest son of Filipina Elsie Lacia who hails from surigao, Philippines and American entrepreneur, Lloyd Milby.

Not many people know that one of Milby’s first big break is in a toothpaste commercial in 2005.

He later on became more famous as one of the housemates of Pinoy Big Brother in the same year.

One of his earlier media appearances is in the music video of “Just A smile” by Barbie Almalbis, which was used to promote that toothpaste product.

As a housemate in the ‘Big Brother’s house, Milby, for me, is the most charming. Rumor has it that his fans intentionally voted him out of the house so that he would exit sooner and they can finally meet him in person.

Milby was defeated by his fellow housemate, Jayson Gainza during their one-on-one eviction. Right after his exit from the PBB house, countless movie and television offers poured in, and he was later hailed as the newest “heartthrob” of Philippine Cinema.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this young man. some say that Milby is low profile and easy to get along with. It is no wonder that he is the most famous among his PBB counterparts. He headlined the romantic comedy “Kahit Konting Pagtingin,” opposite Angeline Quinto (also starring Paulo Avelino) on ABs-CBN, he starred in his first antagonist role as Eros in the dark melodrama “Huwag Ka Lang Mawawala” with Kc Concepcion & Judy Ann santos. Milby

EMPLOYMENT

Sam Milby

also finished “Death March”, his fourth independently produced film (Cannes Film Festival entry) and received good reviews for his action scenes in “Kimmy Dora Ang Kiyemeng Prequel”. He also headlined in “The Gifted” under Viva Films with Anne Curtis & Cristine Reyes.

In 2006, he was launched as a member of all-male group, “Coverboys” with John Lloyd Cruz, Zanjoe Marudo, Rafael Rosell, Victor Basa and Jake Cuenca.

From being just another Pinoy Big Brother housemate, the FilipinoAmerican looker has outshined even his own popularity with sold-out concerts and Platinum albums, top-rating TV soaps (including Maging sino Ka Man with John Lloyd Cruz, Bea Alonzo and Anne Curtis, which launched his career as a dramatic television actor), blockbuster movies and big product endorsements to his name. He is a regular stay in the sunday musical variety show, A.s.A.P. since 2007 up to present, and a member of ABs-CBN’s elite circle of homegrown talents, star Magic co-managed by Cornerstone Entertainment Inc. Milby has also won several acting awards and this has only made the young actor more grateful and driven to improve his craft. In fact, he is one of the few Filipino actors who ventured into Hollywood.

Milby has been taking acting classes and trying out his charm and talent for a chance at Hollywood. While this is not impos-

sible, I am sure that his fans from the Philippines would definitely miss him if he everything worked out for him in the Us. Aside from being an actor, commercial model, and recording artist, Milby is a jack-of-all-trades.

His hobbies include motocross, hockey, figure skating, tennis, golf, playing guitar, and singing. sam Milby proved to be one of those Fil-Ams who does not need to have “attitude” in order to get attention. He worked hard for everything he has achieved in the industry and does not rely on the fact that his accent gives away his pure American blood. I have to say that even though PBB are receiving flak for their notorious display of “real-life norms”, they did one thing right in introducing this fine young Am-boy who may look “Am-boy” on the outside but definitely a humble “Juan” on the inside.

Good luck on your career, sam. *** Monet Lu is a Marikina-born, awardwinning celebrity beauty stylist with his own chain of Monet Salon salons across Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada. Ultimately, Monet is known as an all-around artiste who produces sold-out fashion and awards shows as well as unforgettable marketing campaigns. Monet is also the founder of the revolutionary all-natural beauty products such as Enlighten, your solution to discoloration. To contact Monet, please visit www.monetsalon.com or email him at monetsalon@aol.com

EMPLOYMENT

Every minute — from waiting in line to placing the order to taking the first bite — is part of the entire Eggslut experience.

“At Grand Central Market, it’s the perfect place to wait because you have the option to try cheese or grab coffee. It’s a food hall, so in an hour, you can easily try every restaurant and then wait for us [Eggslut] to end your meal.

Grand Central Market in itself as a location is perfect. But going forward, we want to make sure that our food is the reason why people wait in line, especially with locations we plan on opening later on, we have to make sure our food is on point. We have to show people that we’re different and why they should eat with us and not stray away. That’s our marketing plan,” Cailan said, name dropping all of the local farms in southern California where the ingredients are sourced from. “Everything is as local as possible at a really low price. Again, that’s another reason why people come and wait in line — it’s quality.”

However, like anything popular or successful, not everyone has been eating up Eggslut.

“There are certain places that we couldn’t do events in because of our name. Like a lot of these food truck roundups, some places didn’t want Eggslut because of the name. When we were announcing our opening at Grand Central Market, we received a lot of letters, saying the name is disgusting and vulgar…But in due time, we’ve ended up changing the connotation of the word by someone who’s obsessed and loves a certain thing, which is eggs,” he said.

Earlier this year, Eggslut was invited to be at Food & Wine Classic in Aspen and at an event in New York, both instances where the lines were long.

“I think we chose the right name. Our work ethic and our food are here to stay,” Cailan affirmed.

Eggslut expansion In the nearly two years since the Grand Central location opened, Cailan has since dipped into other ventures.

Cailan frequented Men Oh in Little Tokyo and other restaurants across the city in pursuit of the perfect ramen bowl, which led to studying broth, noodles and the ramen-ya concept. Along with partners Johnny Lee and Nathan Asamoto, former chef of Men Oh, Ramen Champ was opened in

Chinatown in January, as a place where everything is completely made from scratch, Japanese style. The broth is an elaborate process wherein pork bones are cleaned and soaked for two days, then cooked for 20 hours. (Cailan mentions that Drew Barrymore is a fan — “she says that it’s the closest bowl to Tokyo. We ended up being really good friends over it.”)

“After the broth is finished, we only serve it for that night and after that, whatever’s left over gets thrown out. That’s why we always sell out because it costs so much to make from scratch, so we only make enough to sustain,” Cailan said.

In other words, there’s no room for mistakes.

“You can mess up a bacon and egg sandwich, but in 10 minutes later, you can make a new one. But if you mess up a batch of ramen, that’s it for the day. There were times when I shut the restaurant down because I didn’t like how the broth tasted. It’s a lot tougher and there’s a lot of risk,” he said.

At first, juggling both restaurants brought on sleepless days with a routine of making sure Eggslut was running smoothly in the morning, only to spend another eight hours at Ramen Champ.

Being in Chinatown, Cailan said, is tricky because of the absence of other ramen competitors that could provide a taste comparison. In August, Ramen Champ went on hiatus, and will be re-opening in early October under new ownership.

“I wish I could’ve given all my attention to Ramen Champ and that simply wasn’t the case.

Eggslut and other projects kept me busy and I had to find people who can keep pushing the best ramen in town. The folks from Yokocho were the perfect fit and now they’re continuing the legacy.

It couldn’t have landed in better hands while I grow Eggslut and other endeavors,” the Ramen Champ co-founder, who will stay on as a consultant, said.

Cailan also conceptualized a diner that would bring simple comfort food — in a city “where we’ve gotten so crazy with food” — but the concept would be too time-consuming for Cailan, who realized that the attention shouldn’t be taken away from Eggslut.

“The realistic thing is, our customers at Eggslut want us to open more because they’re tired of wait-

FOR RENT

FOR SALE

ing too,” he said. “It’s crazy, like when Krispy Kreme first opened in LA, we would wait freaking three hours for a donut and I hated that. I always wondered why they wouldn’t just open another [store].

I was really stubborn and wouldn’t want to open another Eggslut, but now I’m getting backlash from customers who want another one so they don’t have to wait in line.

Now my focus is finding the right place that doesn’t jeopardize who we are integrity wise.”

While nothing is set in stone just yet, Cailan said Mid-City and the Westside are considerations for additional Eggslut locations.

Lessons from the kitchen In addition to his parents, Cailan credits his success to his past experiences and go-getter attitude. Working in the kitchen since 15 has made him “as power as possible” to open his own restaurant.

As for mentors, Cailan mentions three men who have helped shape him into the chef he is today: Chef Mark Tagnipez, who has been his best friend since kindergarten; Michael Hannigan (chef de partie of Ten 01 in Portland), who taught him how to focus; and David LeFevre of Manhattan Beach Post, who taught him how to open and run a restaurant.

“We talk a lot all the time about how it’s easy to have a dream and it’s easy to make it happen, especially when people are shoveling money your way,” he added. “But can you actually be a smart business owner? The only way you can be a smart business owner is through experience. I learned a lot from [working]. Also closing a restaurant taught me what not to do.”

He said camaraderie, especially among Filipinos in the food industry, is essential in building up support for each other’s projects. “With more and more entrepreneurial spirit from restaurant industry people, Filipino food is going to grow really quickly,” he noted.

“Don’t do it for the money. You can’t be in this industry if you’re doing it in the money. A lot of people who go to culinary school end up being waiters because you make more money than being a cook or chef. If you really want to cook, know that we are the lowest paid people in the hospitality game, so be prepared to cap at $14 an hour. If you go into the industry, it’s because you love it,” he said.

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Your Immigration Solution Atty. RobeRt Reeves NANcy e. MilleR ANd AMANdA c. KwoNg No oNe wants to be a victim of crime. It often results in the person feeling vulnerable and helpless. But, if it does happen, the victim may be able to obtain a U visa under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act. 10,000 U visas are available each year to persons who have suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of having been the victim of qualifying criminal activity; possess credible and reliable information establishing that they have knowledge of the details concerning the criminal activity; have been helpful, are being helpful, or are likely to be helpful to a certifying agency in the investigation or prosecution

Health@Heart PhiliP s. chuA, Md, FAcs, FPcs PATIeNTS with two or more blocked arteries to the heart live longer if they have coronary bypass surgery instead of angioplasty (dilating open the narrowed arteries) and stenting (inserting a wire-mesh coil to prop open the dilated arteries to minimize re-closure), reports a

Immigrant Living: 101 and Beyond Monette AdevA MAglAyA

Help for victims of crimes of the criminal activity and that the criminal activity occurred in the United States. It is available to those in removal proceedings, those under a final order of removal or those seeking the relief who are not in proceedings. The visa is approved for 4 years. During that time, the U visa beneficiaries (which includes spouse and under 21 year old children) may work. As discussed below, the U visa can lead to a green card.

Qualifying criminal activity includes any of the following or similar activities in violation of the law: abduction, blackmail, domestic violence, extortion, false imprisonment, felonious assault, female genital mutilation, fraud in foreign labor contracting, being held as a hostage, incest, involuntary servitude, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder, obstruction of justice, peonage, perjury, prostitution, rape, sexual assault,

abusive sexual contact, sexual exploitation, slave trade, stalking, torture, trafficking, unlawful criminal restraint, witness tampering, or attempt, conspiracy or solicitation to commit any of these crimes.

Similar activity means that the nature and elements of the offense are substantially similar to the specifically named offenses.

A direct victim is one who has suffered direct and proximate harm as a result of the criminal activity, including a witness to the offense who had a severe reaction, such as a miscarriage or a heart attack. An indirect victim means a family member where the direct victim is deceased due to murder or manslaughter or is incompetent or incapacitated if the family member is a spouse or child under the age of 21 of the direct victim or the under 18 year old the sibling if the direct victim was under 21.

An applicant for a U visa must

Bypass better than plasty major clinical study.

The research, which was done on 60,000 patients managed from 1997 to 2000, provides clinicians the first long-term comparison of death rates for the two procedures. edward Hannan and his colleagues at the State University of New York in Albany stated that “patients were 33 percent to 56 percent more likely to die after angioplasty and stenting than after bypass surgery.”

As a cardiac surgeon, I would like to qualify and explain this

statement in layman’s term because the way the medical result above was presented, people may get the wrong idea that a person who undergoes angioplasty and stenting has a 33 percent to 56 percent risk of dying from the procedure. No, that is not what the researchers meant. What the findings showed was, in the long run, say in 3 years or more following the procedure, 33 percent to 56 percent more deaths have been noted among those who had angioplasty and stenting than among those

Begin the beguine with Vigan “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

— Marcel Proust

(Part 1 of 3)

HeRe’S a thought. How about playing tourist in your own native land?

Get out of the city and really look with fresh eyes at the countryside.

Let it not be said that aliens and other strangers saw something worthwhile that we didn’t — right in our own backyard. Let’s hope that even with gale force winds brought on by the latest super storm to hit the area, Vigan remained unflappable.

Those cavernous shopping malls, tiendecitas, tianggues and the stalls of Greenhills springing up like mushrooms, awash with gizmos, trinkets, doodads and brand name knock-offs for consumers to buy —we will always have with us—but certain places in the country deserve a long, hard look and a VISIT, before they fade away to oblivion.

Vigan is one of them. If you fit the bill of an expatriate who must cram the tourist experience into a 2 to 3 week time frame and there is only one chance for a local side trip, just one chance to do one mad dance before your Philippine trip is over, begin the beguine with Vigan. It has first claim to being the best of the old remaining towns of our Philippine colonial past. It shows the eclectic blending of many cultures forged over hundreds of years. Vigan shows aspects we would never see just by reading a travel book or watching a video. Vigan shows aspects of our character, of who we are as a people. VIGAN TeACHeS US. For the longest time, I have always wanted to go North of Manila and visit Vigan in the Ilocos province, struck by the memory of an image I’ve seen in some tattered travel poster years back.

Here is Philippine history you can actually touch, a narrow, colonial street you can actually walk on or

Features

keep your ears peeled to listen at sundown to the soothing clip clop of horse-drawn calesas for hire to tourists at 150 Php/hour or more, mixed with the annoyingly grating sound of the ubiquitous tricycles. The authentic remnants of Spanish architecture on Calle Crisologo, a short strip of narrow, cobblestone road, allow us to get a glimpse of what life must have been like several hundred years ago.

If you have any clairvoyant bone in your body, you can even sense the presence of curious, benign ghosts of ages past in the ancestral homes, mingling and jostling with the tourists eying strangers curiously wondering about us just as we wonder about them. At the nice, neat bed and breakfast inn we stayed in called Grandpa’s Inn, named for the doctor who owned it sometime ago, I could swear there is a quietly hovering presence in one part of the upstairs open area, faintly caught on camera, mysterious and otherworldly, making the small hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. If it were not for the bagnet, the daing and the longganisa they were serving for breakfast and the quaint calesa bed, the pleasant people at the reception desk and the efficiently working air conditioning in the Kalesa Room we were billeted in, I would have bolted for other accommodations.

It takes serious money and pigheaded determination to undertake preservation projects on a huge scale. In time, the ancestral homes that line Calle Crisologo will need to be preserved, if they are to be seen by generations yet to come who must be afforded the chance to see bits of our past in order to understand who they are, as a people with a shared history,

heritage and distinct personality in the context of an increasingly global world.

The venerable Ayala Family, who understood history, art and culture and its collective role in nation-building, saw this clearly far ahead of anyone else in the country and did its part through Ayala Foundation, decades ago.

The legacy lives on in the wellkept Burgos House which is now under the auspices of the National Museum. But more needs to get done. There is a certain sense of urgency in seeing just such a place — before the passage of time, changing mores, priorities and the inroads of crass commercialism endanger and eventually transform these old remnants of our history into just a memory, preserved only in history and travel books.

Sadly, under present conditions with the country constantly grappling with its social, economic and political woes while searching for its soul in waging a fight to the death with endemic corruption from the highest to the lowest rungs of government, preserving history, art and culture will have to stay in the back burner for a very long time. What this means for us is that the remaining relics of our history, if we don’t take the effort today to provide for their preservation, will simply be allowed to crumble to dust and fade away.

But enough thinking about tomorrow! Today has enough troubles of its own. For now, there’s enough yet of Vigan to enjoy just the way it is. (To be continued) *** Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-mail monette.maglaya@ asianjournalinc.com

‘16th Annual Wine & Food Tasting Extravaganza’ to Benefit Pediatric Program and Families in Need Program at Nathan Adelson Hospice LAS VeGAS—Nathan Adelson Hospice, the largest non-profit hospice in Nevada, is preparing for its 16th Annual Wine & Food Tasting extravaganza from 5:30pm to 8pm on Thursday, oct. 8 to benefit the hospice’s Pediatric Program and Families in Need Program.

Members of the community and supporters are invited to sample delicious wines and delectable cuisine while enjoying music, a silent auction and live auction. The event is being held in the new showroom location of Gaudin Porsche, 6800 Redwood St., in Las Vegas. event attendees must be 21 years of age or older. Tickets are $125 per person for the VIP Reserve experience pre-reception from 4:30pm to 5:30pm. The VIP reception will feature a selection of finer wines from Johnson Brothers of Nevada and cheeses from Murray’s Cheese.

General admission tickets to the event are $75 per person.

Tickets can be purchased by calling Stephanie Forbes at Nathan

Adelson Hospice at (702) 938-3910 or online at www.nahwine2015. auction-bid.org.

The Pediatric Program is designed for the special needs of children with life-threatening conditions and their families.

Among services provided are: 24-hour, on-call availability of a hospice medical professional; care in the home; pain and symptom management; medications, equipment and supplies; support to caregivers; inpatient pediatric care; bereavement counseling; spiritual care; and psycho-social support services. The Families in Need Program provides basic necessities to Nathan Adelson Hospice patients and families, ranging from groceries to assisting with the payment of bills.

Nathan Adelson Hospice, the trusted partner in providing hospice care and palliative medicine for 35 years, is the largest non-profit hospice in Southern Nevada, caring for an average of 400 patients daily. In 1978,

Nathan Adelson Hospice began providing home care hospice service in Southern Nevada with the mission to offer patients and their loved ones with comprehensive end-of-life care and influence better care for all in the community. In 1983, Nathan Adelson Hospice opened an inpatient hospice in Las Vegas, and today the hospice is recognized as a national model for superior hospice care.

The mission of the hospice is to be the Hospice of Choice, the employer of Preference and a Training Center of excellence. Its vision is simple: no one should end the journey of life alone, afraid or in pain.

The hospice also is home to The Center for Compassionate Care, a non-profit counseling agency providing individual, group and family counseling services to address grief, loss and issues related to surviving life-threatening illnesses.

For more information, visit www. nah.org.

LAS VEGAS ASIAN JOURNAL • OctObER 1-7, 2015

provide a document signed by a certifying official stating how the person qualifies as a certifying official; that the petitioner has been a victim of a qualifying criminal activity that the certifying official’s agency is investigating or prosecuting; that the petitioner possesses information concerning the activity; that the petitioner has been or may be helpful and that the criminal activity occurred in the U S Certifying official has been defined as a head of a certifying agency or law enforcement agency or prosecutor, judge or other authority involved in the investigation or prosecution; a supervisor who has been designated by the head of the agency to issue U status certifications; or a federal or state or local judge. Getting this certification has been a complicated and difficult experience. However, thanks to the California Legislature, that process just became easier.

The Immigrant Victims of Crime equity Act, marks a milestone in immigrant victim rights. The bill

is awaiting Governor Jerry Brown’s signature. While he has not specifically addressed the issue, those “in the know” expect that he will sign the bill.

Under the proposed law, the definition of certifying officer has been expanded to include local law enforcement agencies and child protective service agencies.

In addition, the Immigrant Victims of Crime equity Act adds a requirement that the certifying official process the certifying statement within 90 days of the request, or within 14 days of request if the noncitizen is in removal proceedings. Previously, there was no guidance on the timeframe for certifying entities to respond to requests. This will make obtaining timely certification easier for the victim.

After three years of physical presence in the United States in U status, survivors may apply for a green card as long as they have not unreasonably refused to provide assistance in the criminal investi-

who had coronary bypass surgery.

The actual risk of angioplasty and stenting is one percent or less, and coronary bypass, bring a surgical procedure, between 1 percent to 3 percent. What the research findings suggest is that bypass surgery procedure is longer lasting in protecting the patient’s heart and in prolonging life, compared to angioplasty/stenting.

Hannan said “the analysis suggests that in just three years, there were up to 540 ‘excess deaths’ that might have been avoided if angioplasty and stent patients had had bypass surgery instead.”

The results of this earlier but very significant clinical study were published in the New england Journal of Medicine May 2005 and “reflect real-life experience and not tightly controlled clinical trials…only four prior studies compared the relative outcomes for the two procedures, and they yielded mixed results.”

The Journal reported that “Hannan’s team analyzed the data from 37,212 heart bypass patients and 22,102 angioplasty/ stent patients in the New York heart registries. Within the years of the procedure, patients who had angioplasty along with insertion of a stent consistently had higher death rates than those who had bypass surgery. In the sickest group of patients, the death rate was 15.6 percent for those who had angioplasty versus 10.7 percent for those who had bypass surgery.”

This clinical study “could have

a profound implications for heart patients because twice as many now have angioplasty to avoid the trauma of surgery, and the new findings will have a dramatic reversal from just a decade ago,” according to many physicians.

“What is new is the impressive advantage of heart bypass surgery over angioplasty,” goes the editorial in the journal, authored by Doctors Bernard Gersh and Robert Frye (who are not surgeons, but in cardiovascular medicine, and not biased) of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

They further stated that “bypass surgery may be superior in a larger group of patients than initially considered,” which means, if the analysis had included all the patients who had angioplasty and those who has bypass surgery since the mid 1960s – the past 50 some years – the overall advantage and superiority of bypass surgery over angioplasty/stenting would have been even more overwhelmingly dramatic.

In 2014 alone, cardiologists in the United States performed 454,000 angioplasties, more than half with stent, and cardiac surgeons did 395,000 coronary bypass. With these significant new research findings, those statistics will surely change the biases and mindset among patients and the medical community alike. This is a natural part of therapeutic evolution and medical progress.

And all of us - and the world as a whole - are the better for it.

Coronary bypass surgery pro-

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gation or prosecution. one of the only exceptions rendering ineligibility is for the limited few who are inadmissible for participating in Nazi persecution. Therefore, any noncitizen whose immigration status is not settled and who has been a victim of what might be a qualifying crime should consult with an experienced and knowledgeable immigration attorney regarding your potential options.. *** Atty. Reeves has represented clients in numerous landmark immigration cases that have set new policies regarding INS action and immigrants’ rights. His offices are located in Pasadena, Irvine, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Makati City.

Telephone: (800) 795-8009 E-mail: immigration @rreeves.com Website: www.rreeves.com. *** The analysis and suggestions offered in this column do not create a lawyer-client relationship and are not a substitute for the personalized representation that is essential to every case.

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vides superior results compared to angioplasty (with or without stenting) among patients with multiple coronary blockages, especially those with obstruction of the left main coronary artery (the widow-maker lesion) as shown by clinical studies in various heart centers around the world.

While it is true that angioplasty is a much simpler procedure, done under sedation and local anesthesia on an outpatient basis, compared to coronary bypass surgery, nonetheless outcomes, especially mortality rate, are vital to the patient’s health comfort and longevity. With the latest technology in minimally invasive heart bypass using the state-of-the-art da Vinci robotic system, post-op pains are a lot less and recovery is much faster.

The choice may appear obvious, but it is best for the heart patient to discuss the options with the attending physicians and specialists, since there are many medical and other factors that could influence the decision. *** Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email: scalpelpen@ gmail.com

B october 1-7, 2015 • LAS VeGAS ASIAN JoUrNAL

EntErtainmEnt

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Why Hugh Jackman is pleased to meet Filipino TV reporter 5 memorable #ShowtimeKapamilyaDay moments

Hugh Jackman holds a painting of the character made by ABS-CBN news reporter Marie Lozano’s brother, who had Down syndrome and died two years ago.

Screengrab from Hugh Jackman’s Instagram account

Lea Salonga draws flak from ‘AlDub’ fans over ‘shallowness’ tweet ACtrEss lea salonga came under fire over a tweet she posted on saturday, sept. 26 which tackled “kababawan” (shallowness). the tweet read: “Okay lang sa akin ang kababawan, pero hanggang doon na lamang ba tayo? #nagtatanonglangPo.” netizens interpreted her tweet as an allusion to the “AlDub” loveteam of Alden richards and Maine Mendoza despite it not referring to the split-screen lovers. salonga sent the tweet as the second “saturdate” of richards and Mendoza in lola nidora’s mansion topped the trending topics on twitter. the hashtag #AlDubEBforlove generated more than 25.6 million tweets. the actress clarified in suc-

ceeding tweets that she was not bashing anyone but she was talking about striking a balance between what is fun and serious.

“For those of you that replied about BAlAnCE, you rock my world. that’s what i was after. We all need fun, but that can’t be all there is,” she said. salonga also said that she was “slowly learning” about AlDub. she even described Mendoza as “gorgeous.” “uhmmm… i have no idea what’s going on. Why did people assume i was tweeting about AlDub? i wasn’t. i don’t know about it. so why the hate?” “i’m slowly learning about the whole AlDub phenomenon. it teaches positive values, most

AustrAliAn actor Hugh Jackman on tuesday took to instagram to share a photo of himself with ABs-CBn reporter Marie lozano.

Jackman, who was holding a painting of Wolverine in the picture, said he had the “great pleasure” of meeting lozano, whom he called a “lovely lady.”

“Her brother, Jeffrey, had Down syndrome. He passed away 2 years ago. Marie shared with me that one of Jeffrey’s joys in life was painting,” Jackman said in the caption.

Jackman said the painting was made by lozano’s brother using his mouth when he could no longer use his hands due to the disease. “i accept this gift in Jeffrey’s honor. May his spirit live on,” he added.

Jackman is popularly known for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series. (Inquirer.net)

it’s showtime kicked off its 6th anniversary celebration with a packed show at the Araneta Coliseum on saturday, sept. 26.

With a bevy of stars who danced, sang and provided comic sketches to the delight of their fans, the show had its share of some memorable moments.

Grand opening Hosts Anne Curtis, Vice Ganda, Billy Crawford, Vhong navarro, Karylle, Colleen Garcia, Kim Atienza, Jugs Jugueta, teddy Corpuz, Jhong Hilario, ryan Bang and Eric tai served notice during their opening performance that saturday’s episode was not going to be an ordinary one.

Backed by a sea of audiences flashing the lights from their phones and glowsticks, the hosts danced and performed acrobatic stunts.

‘Ser Chief’ dances richard Yap gained popularity playing the tight and strict “ser Chief” in the now-defunct “Be Careful With My Heart.”

He is no stranger to singing in variety shows and mall performances. But how often does one see ser Chief wearing a pajama and dancing? not all the time.

But on saturday, he traded his usual businessman look for sleepwear as he joined his “nasaan Ka nang Kailangan Kita” castmates to perform in it’s showtime’s “lip swak” segment.

Oh, he also played the yoyo.

Coco Martin serenades ‘Pastillas Girl’ it’s showtime has come up with Lea Salonga its own ‘reality’ segment featuring notably lOVE. so why the hate, the heartbroken “Pastillas Girl” AlDub fans?” the actress added. as she searches for healing and salonga is in new York City new love. preparing for the play “Alleshe has met four suitors, but giance” which will officially open on saturday, she looked like a on november 8 in Broadway. lovestruck puppy when “FPJ’s Ang (Inquirer.net) Probinsyano” actor Coco Martin

In a rare moment, popular love teams JaDine, KathNiel and LizQuen share the stage on It’s Showtime.

Richard Yap is ‘Superman’ with his castmates during It’s Showtime’s Lipswak segment.

serenaded her.

Coco also gave her pieces of advice on matters of the heart.

Vice Ganda kisses Karylle on the lips Channeling his male rock star alter ego Viceral, Vice Ganda took the stage in a loose shirt and leather jackets and sang the Katy Perry hit “i kissed a girl.”

He jumped onto the mosh pit, and when he finally descended to the crowd, he went straight to Karylle who was seated with the audience.

He held her hand, and in a completely surprising move, kissed Mrs. Yael Yuzon on the lips.

Questions are, did they love it?

And will their partners mind it?

KathNiel, JaDine, LizQuen on one stage Perhaps some of the biggest crowd-drawers during saturday’s episode were the three biggest love teams of this generation.

Each love team had the opportunity to perform in separate numbers. some members of the audience were even caught on camera crying as they witnessed their idols Kathryn Bernardo, Daniel Padilla, James reid, nadine lustre, liza soberano and Enrique Gil render romantic songs. the finale, however, was extra special as the six shared the stage for a song number, and were later joined by the tV hosts. (Inquirer. net)

CBCP lauds AlDub for ‘spreading virtue, values and morality’

Maine “Yaya Dub” Mendoza

tHE Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on saturday lauded the “Kalyeserye” of GMA-7’s Eat Bulaga for “supporting the noble cause of spreading virtue, values and morality.” “supporting the noble cause of spreading virtue, values and morality that our nation deserves. #AlDubEBforlOVE,” a post from the CBCP twitter account read. the split-screen loveteam of actor Alden richards and Maine

“Yaya Dub” Mendoza surpassed its previous 12 million twitter record and reached a new high of 16.4 million tweets on saturday afternoon. the hashtag for the latest episode of Eat Bulaga’s “Kalyeserye,” #AlDubEBforlOVE reached 16.4 million tweets making it the top trending topic worldwide. netizens worldwide basked in excitement as Alden and Maine met for the fourth time on a date.

(Inquirer.net)

Is Coco Martin Mister Pastillas?

Vice Ganda kissed Karylle; did he love it?

Filipino crime novel returns in excellent expanded edition from New York publisher F.H. Batacan’s enthralling new version of “Smaller and Smaller Circles” makes you believe a serial killer is on the prowl in Manila

by Ruel S. De VeRa Inquirer.net

WHEn F.H. Batacan’s novel “smaller and smaller Circles” first arrived on bookshelves in 2002, the book was clearly special.

Originally published by the university of the Philippines Press, it was arguably the first Filipino crime novel, meaning it was set in the contemporary Philippines but used the Western conventions surrounding detective novels. though it only ran 155 pages, that book won virtually every award available—the Carlos Palanca Award for novel, the MadrigalGonzalez Best First Book Award and the national Book Award for Fiction. since then, the rights to “smaller” were picked up by new York-based publisher soho Press, and Batacan got to work on an expanded edition. this new edition of “smaller and smaller Circles” (soho Press, new York, 2015, 353 pages) is more than twice as long as the original—and much better as well. that’s quite a feat because the original skinny version was engrossing and very taut despite its length. But this version of already good “smaller” is an improvement in every way. it’s

the best time to read (for the first timers here and abroad) or reread (for those who had read it before) the novel. in 1997, the mutilated corpses of children are found in the impoverished Payatas area in Quezon City. stumped, the national Bureau of investigation (nBi) calls for backup in a most unusual form: Jesuit priest Augusto “Gus” saenz. How can saenz possibly help the nBi? it turns out saenz, aside from being tall, good-looking and multilingual, is also a trained forensic anthropologist. With the help of his assistant, Fr. Jerome lucero, and access to a high tech lab, saenz gets on the trail of what seems unthinkable—a serial killer in the Philippines.

But wait, there aren’t any serial killers here, right? saenz begs to differ. “such killers can be found all over the world,” he thinks.

“What makes you think the Philippines is so blessed by God that we would be exempt from this kind of evil? it isn’t. it simply hasn’t developed the necessary frameworks, the physical infrastructure and human skill sets, required to recognize and track down such killers.”

Plot thick and dark Good thing we have saenz, who is a sleuth straight out of central casting. Because of its procedural nature, “smaller” has a bythe-numbers feel, because all procedurals do. the singapore-based Batacan has worked in both the intelligence community and the broadcasting industry, really gets her rewriting to work here. the plot is thick and dark, never afraid to spill blood or viscera to move itself forward. the cast of characters becomes so much richer, with complex back stories provided for them: saenz in particular becomes a

F.H. Batacan

wonderfully realized creation.

With details such as his offbeat taste in music and having come from a wealthy family, saenz becomes the kind of crime-solver readers will definitely want to see solve more crimes in the future.

Batacan also keeps the revisions to a minimum when it comes to the serial killer. she’s smart enough to know, when it comes to this villain, less is more. “i can feel them,” he says to himself. “scurrying in circles around me, smaller and smaller circles… waiting, waiting, waiting for the right moment.” the murderer remains mysterious and frightening.

Perhaps the greatest thing about “smaller” is the detailed world building. readers anywhere will find the descriptions of Manila and its society utterly convincing and believable. it’s an amazing feat to take what we know to be real and load it with the kind of atmosphere that will also make you believe a serial killer is among us. it’s good that Batacan has already indicated readers will be able to follow saenz in future cases, because “smaller” is not only a perfect opportunity for whodunit fans around the world to discover Manila as a setting, but also one for Filipino readers to see the city in a different half-light. that’s how good F.H. Batacan’s expanded version is. the enthralling “smaller and smaller Circles” is now not only the first Filipino crime novel, but also the terrific, treacherous touchstone for all such novels to follow.

(702) 792-6678 • http://www.asianjournal.com

PeoPle and events

LAS VEGAS ASIAN JOURNAL • OctObER 1-7, 2015

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Comcast announces fifth back-toschool kickoff for Internet Essentials More than 2 million low-income Americans, from 500,000 families, have now crossed the digital divide at home Company doubles internet speed, offers Wi-Fi routers for no additional cost, and announces pilot program for low-income senior citizens

15TH YEAR ANNIVERSARY. Dr. Febiana Paran and Dental Care of Las Vegas recently celebrated their 15th year anniversary on Saturday, Sept. 12. Patients, guests, relatives and friends of Dr. Paran graced the occasion with lots of fun, food, music and raffles. Dental Care of Las Vegas is at 9187 W. Flamingo Rd. Ste. 100 Las Vegas, NV 89146. You can contact them at (702) 252-3002 for more information and for an appointment.

Eric, Beth, Dr. Paran, Ella, Nanda, Keziah and Sherwin.

PHILADeLPHIA—Comcast today announced several significant enhancements and milestones for Internet essentials, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive high-speed Internet adoption program. The company said it plans to double the service’s download Internet speed, offer subscribers a Wi-Fi router for no additional cost, and conduct several pilot programs for low-income senior citizens. The announcements reaffirm Comcast’s commitment to help close the digital divide for low-income families and bring the transformative power of the Internet into more American homes.

Since the program’s inception, Comcast has made 25 key enhancements to Internet essentials, and this is the third time in four years Comcast has increased speeds for customers. The current speed is doubling to up to 10 Mbps downstream, which is enough to power multiple devices simultaneously. In addition, by offering free Wi-Fi routers, customers will be able to connect any Internetenabled device, including tablets and smartphones, which could help save money on monthly wireless bills.

“We have made significant progress toward closing the digital divide for low-income parents and children across the country.

In less than four years, Internet essentials has connected more than 500,000 families, or more than 2 million low-income Americans, to the power of the Internet at home,” said David L. Cohen, Comcast Corporation Senior executive Vice President and Chief Diversity officer. “With the increase in the program’s Internet speeds, the addition of Wi-Fi and a streamlined auto-enrollment process, more families will have even easier access to the Internet

and its life-changing resources for education, employment, healthcare, communication, and entertainment.”

The pilot program for low-income seniors is designed to better understand the unique challenges of helping them cross the digital divide and learn how to use the Internet. According to Pew research Center, just 47 percent, or less than half, of seniors (aged 65 and older) have high-speed Internet at home. When it comes to income level, only 25 percent of seniors with household incomes below $30,000 have home broadband, compared to 82 percent of seniors with household incomes at or above $75,000.

The first pilot program will take place in Palm Beach County, Florida, where Cohen was joined

by City of West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio, Palm Beach County School District Superintendent robert Avossa, and Urban League of Palm Beach County President and Ceo Patrick J. Franklin to make today’s announcements.

“Senior citizens can be an afterthought when it comes to addressing digital literacy and use of the Internet,” said Franklin. “However, the Internet has a tremendous power to help change their lives for the better by tearing down the walls that geography may have put between them and the ones they love. It can also help restore a sense of community and inclusion, bonds that can weaken as we grow older.”

To receive the faster Internet speed, customers simply need to reboot their cable modems. existing customers who would like a Wi-Fi router just need to call the dedicated call center and either request to have one shipped to them for free, or they can schedule a professional installation, also for

Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada hosts alendar of Events C across largest Dessert Before Dinner to date More than 700 of Las Vegas’ influencers and community leaders gathered to celebrate all things Girl Scouts and cookies! Dessert Before Dinner 2015 hosted a record-breaking number of guests for this year’s gala that took place at Caesars Palace.

Las Vegas chefs came together to create the ultimate confection incorporating this year’s chosen signature Girl Scout cookie, the Lemonades. Guests indulged in desserts before the first course was even served, hence the name. eleven chefs created nine desserts with the goal to win this year’s top dessert. The winning chefs and desserts are as follows: -First place: Chef Marisela espinoza, Caesars Palace for her “The Gianduja Lemonade Mushroom.” Gianduja is a type of chocolate with a hazelnut flavor.

The dessert was made to look like a glistening red and white mushroom that included green cotton candy.

-Second place: Chef Cynthia Werth, Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower for her raspberry lemonade cheesecake.

-Third place: Chef Yamilet Hillers, Le Cirque at Bellagio for her chocolate lemon dome.

Caesars Palace Headliner Matt Goss provided entertainment. In addition to 11 desserts before dinner, guests also bid on silent auction items.

Finally, an array of the city’s most high-profile women were honored for their contributions to Girl Scouts, as well as the community. They received select badges based on their talent and achievements.

Dessert Before Dinner 2016 will take place Saturday, Sept.

10.

Gala proceeds will continue to lay the foundation for all girls in Southern Nevada to make their dreams come true. In addition to funding scholarships, proceeds enable the organization to

no additional cost. New customers will have the option to receive a Wi-Fi router when they sign up.

Internet Essentials Investments Through Internet essentials, Comcast has invested more than $240 million in cash and in-kind support to help fund digital literacy and readiness training and education, reaching nearly 3.2 million people through national and local nonprofit community partners.

Through the end of June 2015, Comcast has: • Dedicated more than $1 million in grants to create Internet essentials Learning Zones, where networks of nonprofit partners are working together to enhance public Internet access and increase family-focused digital literacy training in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Fresno, Miami, and Seattle, among others.

• Provided more than 41,000 subsidized computers at less than $150 each.

• Distributed for free nearly 46 million Internet essentials program materials.

• Broadcast more than 7 million public service announcements, valued at more than $90 million.

• Welcomed more than 3.5 million visitors to the Internet essentials websites in english and Spanish and its online Learning Center.

• Fielded more than 3.2 million phone calls to our Internet essentials call center.

• offered Internet essentials to nearly 48,000 schools and more than 5,000 school districts, in 39 states and the District of Columbia.

• Partnered with 9,000 of community-based organizations, government agencies, and federal, state, and local elected officials to spread the word.

America

ADVERTISE YOUR EVENTS! PRE-EVENT AND POST-EVENT GO DEEPER. GO WIDER. LET THE WORLD KNOW. CALL ASIAN JOURNAL: (818) 502-0651 DISPLAY AD SIZES AT SPECIAL RATES FOR NON-PROFIT GROUPS O c tO b E R 3

Philippine Heritage Institute International Presents Tribute 2015

reach girls in all demographics and areas of the community, as well as expanding upon current programming such as Science, Technology, engineering and Mathematics (STeM), social values and financial literacy. Most importantly, support for Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada helps encourage girls to embrace imaginative and innovative approaches to everything they do—with the goal of creating a better world for all.

Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada is the preeminent leadership development organization for girls of all ages and serves more than 8,000 youth and adult members throughout Southern Nevada.

The organization seeks to help girls and young women build character and develop life skills for success in the real world. It is a part of the Girl Scouts of the USA, the nationwide organization that has helped girls discover the fun, friendship and power of girls together since 1912.

PArTICIPATING CHeFS: • Chef Brittany Castro-Hill, Gordon ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas • Chef Brigette Contreras,

STK at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas • Chef Marisela espinoza, Caesars Palace • Chef Yamilet Hillers, Le Cirque at Bellagio • Chef Kaiulani, KAILAVA • Chef Natalie Morgan, Tom Colicchio’s Heritage at The Mirage Hotel and Casino • Chef Megan romano, Chocolate & Spice • Chef Candalina Stanwood, The Mirage • Chef Cynthia Inguanzo-Underwood, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino • Chef Kimberly Vitou, MGM Grand Hotel & Casino • Chef Cynthia Werth, Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower 2015 HoNoreeS: • elizabeth Blau, entrepreneur • robin Greenspun, Philanthropist • Dawn Mack, Girl Scout Way • rose McKinney-James, Public Policy • Anita romero, Think Big • Marilyn Winn Spiegel, Trailblazing • Heidi Straus, Celebrating Community

The legacy of Naomi Palma-Armada, who died of a heart attack June 10, lives on.

On October 3, from 6pm to midnight, the Philippine Heritage Institute International (PHII), a private non-profit foundation founded by Naomi in 1989, will present Tribute 2015: White House Millennium Council Award to Outstanding Filipino American Nurses (on its 17th year) and President’s Award: Profiles of Service, Pillars of Community (on its 8th year) at the Sheraton Cerritos Hotel (12725 Center Court Drive, Cerritos, CA 90703). Parking for the event is free. Attire: Formal or Filipiniana. Music provided by The Midnight Motion Band. For more information, contact president Josie E. de Jesus (714) 272-0300; joestarisdejesus@gmail. com, or event chair Norma Merza (562) 947-0248; norma.merza@yahoo.com.

Fil-Am History Month Films & “Talk Story” Time Please join us at the Carson Library (151 E. Carson St. Carson, CA 90745) on Oct 3rd, from 1-4pm, at the Carson Library to hear stories of individuals from the books, “Filipinos in Carson and the South Bay” and “Hawaiians in Los Angeles.” Join with FANHS-LA Chapter, the Filipino American Library, Friends of the Carson Library, APALA, and other community leaders as we celebrate October as Filipino American History Month and the birthday of Larry Itliong, one of the main organizers of the 1965 UFW Delano Grape Strike. There will also be a screenings of Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the UFW, and America Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawaii; both are educational documentary films about the Filipino and Hawaiian experience in America. This is a FREE event with a talk, book signings by the authors, and light refreshments afterwards. For more information and to RSVP, please contact roseeibanez@ gmail.com.

Fil-Am History Month Kick-Off The 2015 Filipino American History Month celebration in Carson will be held on Saturday, Oct. 3rd from 12 to 4pm at the South Bay Pavilion (20700 Avalon Blvd, Carson, CA 90746).

Organized by the Filipino American Chamber of Commerce South Bay Los Angeles (FACCSLAA), the event headlines musical entertainment, business vendors, networking, exhibits, an immigration panel, and health and fitness activities. Special performances by Malou Toler, Mon Concepcion, Sara Mislang, Cecile and Mighty Show, and with host Gee Gee Starr. For more information on the FilAm History Month in Carson, please 310.748.9688, or South Bay Pavilion at 310.366.6629.

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Kultura: A Filipino American Food & Arts Festival Kultura Festival, an all-ages, contemporary Filipino-American food and arts festival, will take place in Logan Square’s Emporium Arcade Bar in Chicago on Sunday, October 4, from 11 AM to 6 PM. Presented by Filipino Kitchen, this festival is carefully curated to appeal to those who personally identify with Filipino culture, food, and those who are curious or uninitiated. With a craft beer bar, food trucks, special guest chefs, and an expected 2,000 festival guests and staff, Kultura Festival aims to highlight the best of Filipino cuisine to Chicago and the Midwest. Tickets can be purchased for $10 general admission at https://ti.to/filipino-kitchen/kultura-festival, $5 for students and seniors. More information can be found at http://filipino.kitchen/kulturafestival.

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Legionarios del Trabajo in America Triennial Convention The Legionarios del Trabajo in America, Inc. will hold its 18th Triennial Convention, October 15-18, 2015, at the Clarion Inn and Suites in Stockton, CA (4219 Waterloo Rd, Stockton, CA 95215). For more information, please contact Cora Gines at (209) 957-0217 / (209) 4065438, or Elena Gabriel at (209) 598-1436.

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

B october 1-7, 2015 • LAS VeGAS ASIAN JoUrNAL

http://www.asianjournal.com • (702) 792-6678