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DATELINEUSADATELINEUSAFROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS ASS ASS MERICMERICME ARICARIC

October 3-6, 2015

SEAFOOD CITY 1

CREDIT rater Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has tagged the Philippines as the world’s strongest major emerg-ing market, citing its buffers that would insulate the economy from external shocks.

In a report this week, S&P said Asian economies in general were more resilient to adverse global trends than Latin American counterparts. Countries in the re-gion are expected to fare well in the face of a slowdown in China, Asia’s biggest economy.

“Latin American sovereigns are, on average, more vulnerable than sovereigns in Asia,” S&P said.

The Philippines will be the least affected by worsen-ing global conditions among all countries covered by the S&P report.

The least-vulnerable sovereigns in S&P’s ranking are the Philippines, Poland and Mexico, followed by Pakistan and Hungary. These countries have low direct economic ties to China, low risk of domestic financial leverage, and are only moderately vulnerable to higher

WAWAW ZE – the GPS-based navi-gation application that tracks traffic flow in key cities world-wide – just validated what every motorist and commuter in Ma-nila know and bear each day.

Metro Manila has the worst traffic on Earth on a city level, followed by Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil, and Jakarta in Indonesia.

The Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and Czech Republic reported an easy and satisfying driving experience, as well as the United States and France.

The results were reflected in Waze’s latest Global Driver Sat-

Waze: Manila has worst tra�c on earth

THE Daly City police are still searching for a Filipino-Ameri-can male who went missing last Sunday, Septem-ber 27.

C h r i s t i a n Mayrena, 35, was supposed to meet his parents for dinner last

Sunday, Sept. 27 at their residence in Daly City, but never arrived. An audio/video en-gineer at Facebook in Menlo Park, his family

Police still on search for missing Daly City Fil-Am

LOS ANGELES – Since the implementation of the city’s MyHealthLA program last year, more than 130,000 Angelenos previously excluded from health care are now receiving coverage. But the latest report from LA County health services shows that only 1,281 Filipinos – less than 1

Filipinos are less than 1% of over 130,000 Angelenos enrolled in LA County health care programA CHANGE.ORG petition is calling the Liberal Party

(LP) of President Benigno Aquino III to issue a pub-lic apology for an “offensive show” during a post-LP event.

The petition, initiated by Edna Aquino, said the “de-plorable incident merits an apology” from Aquino be-ing the chairperson of the LP.

“This unfortunate but deplorable incident merits an apology from your office as Head of State and as Chair of the Liberal Party on whose name, this event was held,” the petition read.

On Thursday, sexy dancers were seen dancing “lewd” performances during the birthday party of La-

Petition calls Aquino for public apology on LP’s ‘o�ensive show’

THE US Marine Corps will re-spond within hours if the sover-eignty of the Philippines is ever threatened.

“I would tell you that if anybody would challenge the sovereignty of this country, their best friends within this region would respond

US to respond ‘within hours’ if PH sovereignty is challenged

by PAOLO G. MONTECILLOInquirer.net

isfaction Index that it posted on its website on Thursday, Oct. 1.

Answers to the Global Driver Satisfaction Index were collat-ed from 50 million Waze users in 32 countries and 167 metro-politan areas.

The report said roads in the Philippines are the worst to drive on because of frequency and severity of traffic jams, poor road infrastructure, among oth-er reasons.

The Philippines got 0.4 in a 10-point grading system with 10 marked as “satisfying” and 1 as “miserable.”

Manila got the distinction of having topped the list of cities

by ARES GUTIERREZManilaTimes

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percent – are benefiting from the program. In front of the Board of Supervisors Office on Thursday, Oct. 1, community leaders, and immigrant and health advocates the successes of MyHealthLA, in-cluding the number of enrollees, and that about 160 community clinics provide primary care and health screenings through the program.

However, they also highlight-

ed that deeper work needs to be done.

“We have come a long way, but we still have more to do. While the enrollment numbers are high in MyHealthLA, we know that there are still a lot of residents who are eligible but not enrolled, especially in the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community,” said Sonya Vazquez, policy director

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by AGNES CONSTANTEAJPress

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by NESTOR CORRALESInquirer.net

within a matter of hours and gen-erally, I assure you that is not a hollow promise,” said Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, commander of the US 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, at the opening ceremo-nies of the Philippine Amphibi-ous Landing Exercises (Phiblex) at the Marine headquarters at Fort Bonifacio.

He cited the 64-year alliance

of the Philippines and United States through the Mutual De-fense Treaty.

“Likewise, we know that this is a contested area. This is a busy neighborhood that you live in… In the worst case scenario, you may be called upon as Marine Corps and as your allies, should somebody overstep within the region, 64 years this alliance has

held mutual… our mutual secu-rity has been upheld to the close working relationship that we have forged in that time,” he said.

Being the ‘closest friends’ of US in the Asia Pacific, Kennedy said they will be “at your (Phil-ippines’) disposal” if they are needed.

Kennedy made no mention

by FRANCES MANGOSINGInquirer.net

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CALIFORNIA is offering partial financial amnesty for some drivers with unpaid traf-amnesty for some drivers with unpaid traf-amnesty for some drivers with unpaid traffic tickets under a limited state amnesty pro-gram.

Announced this week, the program--autho-rized by Senate Bill 85, and promoted by CA Governor Jerry Brown’s administration--will allow motorists with outstanding tickets to pay them off at a reduced amount. The fee will be either 50 to 80 percent of the full ci-tation amount, depending on the driver’s in-come, and will apply to tickets originally due on or before Jan. 1, 2013, officials said.

Eligible CA drivers to get amnesty for tra�c tickets

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FROM THE FRONT PAGE

global interest rates.Key risks to emerging mar-

kets, S&P said, are the tighten-ing of global liquidity conditions as a result of the US Federal Reserve’s awaited rate hike, un-winding of high levels of debt built up during years of loose monetary conditions, and Chi-

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na’s slowdown.S&P said it ranked each

emerging market’s overall vul-nerability by using a simple av-erage of its ranking on each of the three different measures of risk, from 1 (most vulnerable) to 22 (least vulnerable).

To arrive at each risk score, the credit rater used a number

of economic variables. For in-stance, the measure a country’s vulnerability to the Fed’s rate hike, S&P looked at indicators such as foreign debt stock, lev-els of short-term debt, and ex-ternal financing needs relative to an economy’s steady dollar income streams.

Venezuela, Argentina, Tur-key, Colombia and Peru are the emerging market sovereigns that may be the most vulnerable cur-rently to the combined effect of the three key risks of tightening global liquidity, financial delever-aging and a Chinese slowdown

The Philippines was the least vulnerable economy to the Fed’s rate hike, the fourth-least vul-nerable to deleveraging, and fifth-least to a slowing China.

S&P noted that the Philip-pines’ exports to China account-ed for less than two-tenths of gross domestic product (GDP). Trade between China and the Philippines likewise declined 0.86 percent since 2013. ■

of Community Health Councils and the LA Health4All Coalition, which is working to strengthen-ing LA County’s health safety-net infrastructure.

As of Aug. 31, APIs accounted for about 2.6 percent of My-HealthLA enrollees.

Of the approximately 3,500 APIs enrolled in the program is a Filipina Delia Balolong, 78, who spoke highly of it during Thurs-day’s celebration.

“I’ve been in the states for over 25 years, and I was losing hope until the time when heaven opened its door to usher in My-HealthLA,” she said.

Prior to securing coverage last year, Balolong said she did not have insurance that granted ac-cess to primary care. In the last year, through MyHealthLA, she has been able to see a doctor at the Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, had her blood drawn and obtained free medication.

The lower-than-expected lev-els of subscription among APIs, as well as homeless people, may be because eligible individuals may be unaware of the program and because it may not be ac-

Filipinos are…t

guna Representative Benjie Ag-arao against a backdrop bearing his name and greetings for his “birthday celebration” and “40th year in service.”

The emcee during the event reportedly said the dancers were Metropolitan Manila Develop-ment Authority chairman Fran-cis Tolentino’s “surprise gift” to those who attended the gather-ing.

The event was held after To-lentino and other party officials

joined former Interior Secre-tary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II on the oath-taking of 80 of its new members in Laguna.

“The entertainment at a Lib-eral Party oath-taking ceremony and attended by government offi-cials presented women as sexual objects,” the petition read.

Tolentino has denied that the sexy dancers were his “surprised gift” but the petition said “eye-witness accounts from the media who were present proved other-wise.”

Citing media reports, the peti-tion said that there were minors in the audience.

The petition called for an in-vestigation on the officials for possible violation of Republic Act 9710 or Magna Carta for women, which prohibits all forms of dis-crimination against women.

The petition demanded that the Roxas, Tolentino and Agarao be investigated for the incident. If proven guilty, the petition said the officials should be held li-able. ■

Petition calls Aquino for public apology…t

of the South China Sea dispute, where the Philippines is one of the claimants. The United States has opposed China’s building of artificial islands around the ma-jor waterway believed to be rich in resources.

The US has repeatedly called on the preservation of freedom of navigation for the South China Sea.

The Phiblex will include hu-manitarian and civic assistance projects and field training ex-ercises, which will be held until Oct. 9, in various areas in Luzon, some including Zambales and Palawan.

There are about 700 Philippine troops and about 800 US Marines involved for the exercises.

Major Gen. Alexander Balu-tan, the naval inspector general, said the activities are aimed at “testing and enhancing new doc-trines.”

“The primary purpose of this exercise is to improve inter-op-erability and combat readiness of both US and Philippine marine forces while strengthening the fibers of cooperation in the re-gion,” he said in his speech.

Exercise Director Col. Jimmy Larid said they are focusing on the skills of their troops in am-phibious operations in utilizing

amphibious assault vehicles, which the Philippines will ac-quire two years from now.

“We would like to train our Marines so that this war material won’t be new to them upon ar-rival. So when these arrive, our Marines already know how to use and operate this doctrinally,” he told reporters.

He also made no mention of the South China Sea dispute.

“Our goal is to regain our core competency in the conduct of amphibious operations. We can use for external defense and in-ternal security operations…Wala po tayong tina-target na external threat,” he said. ■

US to respond ‘within hours’ if PH…t

cessible, said Louise McCarthy, president and CEO of the Com-munity Clinic Association of Los Angeles County.

To increase the enrollment of eligible individuals, advocates and community leaders are plan-ning to enhance MyHealthLA’s presence by going into commu-nities and boosting the number of enrollment sites.

“When we look at what’s been effective for getting people into Medi-Cal or Covered California, it’s going out to the communi-ties, [having] community events, partnering with churches,” Mc-Carthy said.

LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis said her office has worked to increase access to enrollment by collaborating with the Depart-ment of Health Services to allow eligible individuals to enroll in satellite clinics.

“So therefore, we’re bringing down another wall, another barri-er.... This is something we just did, and I am so very proud because we heard your voices, and now it’s going to happen,” she said.

In addition to boosting enroll-ee numbers, the LA Health4All Coalition is looking to expand the program to include dental, men-tal health and substance abuse services.

“If we can treat the whole per-son in this program, that would be stellar,” McCarthy said.

Solis and LA County Supervi-sor Mark Ridley-Thomas, sup-porters of the program, also

co-authored a motion for the De-partment of Public Health to ex-amine the feasibility of boosting MyHealthLA’s income require-ment from 138 percent below the federal poverty level to 150 percent to allow a greater num-ber of individuals to join.

“We’re trying to streamline all the paperwork requirements and relaxing some of the income threshold[s] because we know

that more people can be made eligible for MyHealthLA. And if they are healthy, the entire Coun-ty of Los Angeles is healthier,” Ridley-Thomas said.

MyHealthLA is available for LA County residents – including those undocumented – who are at least 6 years old, meet certain income requirements, and who do not have and cannot obtain health insurance. ■

Filipinos are less than 1% of over 130,000…t

with the “worst traffic on Earth.”Indonesia, however, had eight

cities listed in Waze’s “horror roll.”

The average commuting time in Manila has been esti-mated at 45.5 minutes, making it the longest commute time in most major cities all over the world.

The Philippines also scored low in the Road Quality Index, and the Socio-Economic Index,

which is based on access to cars and impact of gas prices.

Not all was bad for the Philip-pines, however.

The country scored a 9.3 in Waze’s Safety Index, which means the Philippines has the safest roads based on number of accidents, road hazards and weather.

The Philippines also got the highest rank on the Drivers Ser-vices Index based on access to gas stations and easy parking. ■

Waze: Manila has worst tra�c…t

thought that he was late because he had to work overtime.

“From 8pm to about 9:30pm, we texted and called him but there was no reply,” said Lucy

departments and casinos in the San Francisco, Peninsula, South Bay and East Bay areas.

At present, there are no leads on where Christian could be and the police are asking the public’s help in locating him.

Christian is described as 5-foot-3 inches, 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He drives a metallic blue 2000 Lexus RX 300 with license plate 4JDX557.

Any information on Christian’s whereabouts should be forward-ed to the police at (650) 991-8119 or the tip line at (650) 873-AIMS and refer to case #15008381. ■

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Police still on search for missing Daly City…Mayrena, Christian’s mother. “We assumed that he was just working overtime.”

Mrs. Mayrena said that she and her husband, Cristobal, went home instead. “Our daughter-in-law called at 1am and said my son was still wasn’t home and she was really worried because she hasn’t heard from him.”

Christian’s last known activ-ity was on Sunday around 5pm when he left work. It is said that he may have visited one of the Bay Area casinos.

His friends and family have also checked hospitals, police

ON the first day of October, water conservation figures for California were released by the State Water Resources Control Board.

Impelled by severe drought conditions, residents have been seriously saving water in the last few months of summer. Califor-nians cut water use by 27 percent in August, according to the Asso-ciated Press. That’s compared to August 2013, state regulators an-nounced on Thursday, Oct. 1

The reduction was slightly less than the 31 percent decline in July, but stable with the 27 per-cent conservation effort made in June--still enough to meet Gov-ernor Jerry Brown’s mandatory requirements for at least 25 per-cent in water cuts, said the Los Angeles Times.

“The public response to hit-ting the conservation targets was really quite impressive,” said Lester Snow, director of the Cali-fornia Water Foundation, a non-profit group that helped conduct polls. “That shows a level of en-gagement on water that we just normally don’t see.”

Because Californians have saved so much, water regulators have for the most part been able to avoid levying big fines on local water districts for failing to meet their conservation targets, rang-ing from 4 to 36 percent, com-pared with 2013 levels.

However, August saw a de-

How bad is California’s drought? Reports of lower water conservation statewide

by ALLYSON ESCOBARAJPress

crease in water regulations com-pliance compared with July. The decrease from an exactly 31.4 percent water savings in July to 26.9 (almost 27) percent was “concerning,” officials said.

About 72 percent of water sup-pliers met or were within 1 per-centage point of their conserva-tion standard, studies showed.

Earlier this week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that LA cut its water use 17.4 percent, compared with the same month in 2013. The amount was still good enough to eclipse the city’s 16 percent conservation target.

About 28 percent of urban wa-ter providers, however, missed their targets in August, some widely.

The worsening drought, now on its fourth year, has brought to light serious issues that could have a “snowball effect” for state residents.

For instance, this year’s lack of rain and snow hit California water supplies hard. The Sierra snowpack’s water content mea-sured just 5 percent of normal, while the previous record low was 25 percent.

“The snowpack’s sorry condi-tion was what differentiated 2015 from previous years,” said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board. “Snowpack is important because when it melts, it refills the state’s reservoirs during the hot sum-mer months.”

Wells ran dry, Water supplies

were cut, and some reservoir lev-els in Lake Shasta, Folsom Lake, and Lake Oroville plummeted far below normal.

According to the State Water Resources Control Board, the 2015 water year also saw the highest average temperature in 120 years of record-keeping. Data from the California Climate Tracker recorded the state’s av-erage temperature was 58.4 de-grees--over three degrees warm-er than average, and almost a full degree warmer than the previous high in 1995-96.

The biggest impact of warmer temperatures, reports said, has been that they intensify the ef-fects of drought, increasing evaporation and drying out the nutritious soil.

“The character of this drought has been to have record and near-record temperatures,” state climatologist Michael L. Ander-son told the LA Times. “This drought is definitely warmer than its 20th-century counterparts. And when you run into that, you have a higher demand for water and a limited supply, so it creates greater stress.”

Extremely warm, dry weather conditions have also fueled wild-fires throughout the state. In recent months, two highly de-structive wildfires raged parts of Northern California. Accord-ing to federal statistics, a total of 813,163 acres have burned across the whole state in 2015.

The lack of precipitation has u

All assessed penalties will be waived, and payments can be made in installments, the Sac-ramento Bee reported. The pro-gram also contains provisions that will allow license reinstate-ment for drivers who lost their license after failing to pay fines or appear in court.

“Take a broader look at effec-tive public access to California’s courts, including traffic proceed-ings and the impact of manda-tory and discretionary fines, fees and penalties on court users,” CA Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said in May to the state’s Judicial Council, which is in charge of making policies in courts.

The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) had received 4.73 million California license suspension actions from courts, according to report data from this past April. In that time, just under 82,000 licenses were re-instated.

California has come under recent criticism for its stiff traf-fic fines, including add-on fees and assessments that can triple and even quadruple base fines for minor infractions. Minori-ties and civil rights groups have advocated that the traffic fines disproportionately affect ethnic groups and the poor, and the in-ability to pay a ticket fine can put lower-income drivers at risk of unemployment.

“We think it is going to have a significant impact for folks who have been pushed to the curb,” said Mike Herald, a legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law & Poverty, who support-ed the program as a solid first step. “They can get out from un-der this cloud, get their driver’s license back immediately. They’ll be able to buy auto insurance again. Employers will hire peo-ple who don’t have a suspended

license.” The driver’s amnesty was con-

sidered by lawmakers earlier this year, when civil rights and legal aid groups pointed out that over the past eight years roughly 4.2 million Californians had lost their licenses because they could not afford crippling traffic fees, said LAist. Today, there are 25 million licensed drivers in the state.

Many of the huge fees tacked on to traffic fines were added during an earlier budget crisis to help pay for the court system and other programs, according to the Los Angeles Times. For example, base fines of $100 sud-denly jumped to $500, and if the driver missed the payment dead-line they would then owe $815--much more than many could af-ford to pay in time.

Amnesty (which lasts until March 2017) will cover tickets for most moving violations, such as speeding, red light violations, and failure to stop at a stop sign. It also covers some non-traffic in-fractions, such as loitering, tres-passing, and littering.

However, drivers with parking tickets, a DUI, a conviction for reckless driving, or more recent traffic fines are out of luck and not eligible.

The program still costs $50 to participate, charged by courts, and the DMV will charge $55 to reinstate a lost driver’s license.

A previous state amnesty pro-gram in 2012 netted $12.3 million over six months, SacBee report-ed. Court officials and civil rights advocates say the new program has similar elements that should get more results; however, there are not yet estimates on how many drivers will take advantage of the new program.

A bill by Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Los Angeles), SB 405, now sitting on the governor’s desk, would also guarantee that motor-

ists can fight their tickets in court before being required to pay their fines.

The amnesty program goes into effect on Thursday, Octo-ber 1st and will run through to March 31, 2017. (Allyson Esco-bar/AJPress)

Eligible CA drivers to get amnesty for…t

WITH only hours to spare be-fore the end of the fiscal year, Congress approved a temporary funding measure aimed to keep the government open past the midnight deadline on Wednes-day, Sept. 29. The bill was lat-er signed by President Barack Obama.

The stopgap bill will extend funding for federal agencies.

The 78-20 Senate vote showed confidence in an approach engi-neered by top GOP leaders who are determined to avoid a gov-ernment shutdown, the Associ-ated Press reported.

That approach, favored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), and soon-to-retire House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), has angered tea party lawmakers wanting to use the must-pass measure against Planned Parenthood for its scandalous practices involv-ing the supply of tissue from aborted fetuses for scientific re-search.

In a tougher vote, the House later approved the mea-sure Wednesday afternoon, with frustrated GOP leaders counting on Democratic votes to balance opposition from tea party sup-porters of “defunding” Planned Parenthood.

Hours before the midnight deadline, the House overwhelm-ingly approved legislation to fund government offices and services through to Decem-ber, without any of the cuts to Planned Parenthood, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In the 277-151 vote, a large majority of Republicans went against the measure, which did not meet demands to defund Planned Parenthood.

While Boehner’s resignation announcement last week eased the way for Democrat support for the spending bill, it still does nothing to resolve core disputes between the Republicans and the Obama administration.

Congress passes stopgap spending bill, averts shutdown

by ALLYSON ESCOBARAJPress

The New York Times reported that House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy, who is front-runner-up for the next House Speaker, and other Republican leaders were expected to cast votes against the measure, citing their longstanding complains that it would not cut off federal financ-ing to Planned Parenthood or take action to undermine admin-istration policies they oppose, such as Obamacare.

The spending bill would prevent a repeat of the partial federal shutdown of two years ago, and finance the govern-ment through Dec. 11. It also provides 10 weeks of time to negotiate a more wide-ranging budget deal for the rest of fiscal 2016, which ends on Sept. 30, 2016.

The bill also includes $700 million in funding, to help com-bat wildfires in the West.

Senate Majority Leader Mc-Connell said Tuesday, Sept. 30 that he and Boehner spoke with Obama recently and that he ex-pected budget talks to get un-derway soon.

Federal efforts to increase the operating budgets for both the Pentagon and domestic agen-cies still operating under auto-matic curbs that would effec-tively freeze their spending are the main issue. Republicans are leading the drive to boost de-fense, while Obama is demand-ing equal relief for domestic programs.

“The good news is that it looks like the Republicans will just barely avoid shutting down the government for the second time in two years,” said Obama on Wednesday, with a tinge of sarcasm. “That’s a somewhat low bar but we should celebrate where we can.”

“The bad news is that it looks like Republicans will just barely avoid shutting down the govern-ment again for the second time in two years,” he added, accord-ing to Reuters.

The conversation among Mc-Connell, Boehner and Obama

took place earlier this month, before Boehner announced his stepping down. Many conserva-tive GOP lawmakers who helped bring Boehner down want to preserve stringent “caps” on the spending bills Congress passes every year, AP said. However, Senate Republicans are gener-ally more eager to rework the 2011 budget deal that put them in place.

Boehner’s surprise resigna-tion announcement followed unrest by some in his confer-ence wanting to use the pending stopgap spending bill to try to force Democrats and President Obama to take federal funding away from Planned Parenthood.

Instead, Boehner and Mc-Connell acted rationally with a bipartisan measure that steers clear of the controversy over Planned Parenthood, and avoids the risk of a partial government shutdown.

Despite opposition, the orga-nization--which receives nearly $500 million a year in federal funding--says it has acted “le-gally,” and the videos were “de-ceitfully edited.”

Last week, Democrats led a filibuster of a Senate stop-gap measure that would have blocked money to Planned Par-enthood. Eight Republicans did not support that measure, leav-ing it short of a majority.

After last week’s vote failed, McConnell orchestrated a bipartisan 77-19 vote on a funding bill —stripped of the Planned Parenthood provi-sion—to force a final vote on the Senate floor.

“This bill hardly represents my preferred method for fund-ing the government, but it’s now the most viable way forward af-ter Democrats’ extreme actions forced our country into this situ-ation,” McConnell said on Tues-day of the stopgap measure.

Meanwhile, the House also passed a new measure on Wednesday to eliminate Planned Parenthood’s funding as an ad-dendum to the overall funding bill, but the measure was not ex-pected to pass in the Senate, ef-fectively killing it. Similar legis-lation restrictions being pushed under new budget rules could also result in passage that would force President Obama’s threat-ened veto. ■

SAN FRANCISCO—A Filipino general ac-cused of trying to overthrow the Philippine government in the late 1980s won a reprieve on Tuesday, Sept. 29 from an immigration board’s order that he be removed from the United States.

An immigration judge found the 1989 coup Jose Ma. Zumel was accused of participating in against President Corazon Aquino did not constitute terrorist activity because it did not include any intent to endanger individuals or cause substantial property damage.

In its ruling on Tuesday, the 9th US Cir-cuit Court of Appeals said the Board of Im-migration Appeals (BIA) was supposed to determine whether the judge’s decision was clearly wrong, but instead conducted its own

review of the facts and reached the opposite conclusion that there was intent to endan-ger people. It sent the case back down to the board for review.

“The BIA may determine that an (immi-gration judge’s) factual findings are clearly erroneous if the findings are ‘illogical or im-plausible,’ or without ‘support in inferences that may be drawn from the facts in the re-cord,’” Circuit Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote. “If the BIA reviews the (immigration judge’s) factual findings de novo instead of for clear error, or makes its own factual findings, it has committed an error of law.”

Kathryn Mattingly, a spokesperson for the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, said the agency does

not comment on such decisions.Zumel was a general in the Philippine Air

Force who was loyal to Aquino’s predeces-sor, Ferdinand Marcos, according to the 9th Circuit ruling.

The coup Zumel was accused of helping to plan was put down with help from the US government. Zumel was eventually granted amnesty by the Philippine government and became a permanent US resident in 2001.

Immigration officials, however, said his application falsely stated that he had never been charged with violating any law in the United States or elsewhere, and he had never been a beneficiary of amnesty. They initiated proceedings to have him removed. (Inquirer.net)

US court stops deportation of Filipino ex-general

PALO ALTO, Calif. – Califor-nia’s upward trend in the rates of new cancer diagnoses of children and youth up to age 19 closely mirrors that of the nation, but in a number of Northern California counties, rates have risen pre-cipitously between 2000-2004 and 2008-2012, according to Kidsdata.org of the Lucile Pack-ard Foundation for Children’s Health.

In Napa and Marin counties (near San Francisco), rates rose by 69 percent and 58 percent, to reach 22.8 and 21.5 per 100,000, respectively—the highest in the state.

In San Mateo, Sacramento, Sonoma, and San Francisco, all counties with incidence rates of about 20 per 100,000, rates rose between 20-39 percent during the same period.

The rate of childhood cancer diagnoses in California has risen by six percent since the 2000-2004 period, reaching 17.5 per 100,000 in 2008-2012.

The state’s childhood cancer diagnosis rate varies by eth-nicity: white children have the highest rate (19.2 per 100,000), compared to Native American children, who have the lowest (12.2 per 100,000).

Childhood cancer rate soars in Northern California counties

When it comes to cancer sur-vival however, white children have the highest five-year surviv-al rate (84 percent) compared to African American children, who have the lowest survival rate (75 percent).

Similar to adults, survival dis-parities for children with cancer may be associated with socioeco-nomic status, health coverage, early diagnosis, quality of care and genetic factors.

According to the Lucile Pack-ard Foundation for Children’s Health, to ensure that all chil-dren afflicted with cancer have

the best possible health care, policies should prioritize pro-viding care in the context of a “medical home,” supporting pediatric centers of excellence, supporting quality of life ser-vices, and working toward a uni-fied, efficient and comprehen-sive payment system for cancer treatment.

Currently, families must navi-gate a complicated web of ser-vice systems with confusing pay-ment policies, which can result in delayed or denied services for children and financial hardship for families. (Inquirer.net)

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dried out vegetation, driving fuel moisture to critically low levels.

“Four years of such parched conditions have predisposed the vegetation to be explosive, and that’s not exaggerating—it’s ex-plosive,” said Ken Pimlott, direc-tor of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. “The calendar year hasn’t ended yet, and it’s comparing right up there with some of the most dev-astating fire seasons on record.”

There is also much debate from weather experts that Southern California will have an extremely wet winter, due to a strong El Niño weather pattern. The im-pending storm has prompted water officials to warn people against dropping their guard on the drought.

“A wet winter could gener-ate destructive flooding without necessarily replenishing critical aspects of the state’s water sup-ply,” said State Water Resources Control Board Chairwoman Feli-cia Marcus.

“Last year, the El-Niño-will-save-us stories really sank us,” Marcus said. “We are hoping for all of the rain we can safely han-dle. We can’t know what El Niño will bring.”

October 1st also marks the beginning of the “water year,” during which water researchers keep track of precipitation levels and storage, using the first date of the month as a starting point.

“California’s strong conserva-tion ethic must continue,” Mar-cus added. “We’re all learning what we can do and what we can do without. We’re still on the ‘better-safe-than-sorry’ plan… [but] we’re happy to see that Cal-ifornians are showing that they have what it takes.” ■

How bad…t

SAN FRANCISCO – Despite some local opposition, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a reso-lution calling for a memorial to “comfort women” abused by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

Introduced by Supervisor Eric Mar (District 1), the resolution is aimed at honoring some “200,000 women who were kidnapped and

San Francisco Board unanimously OKs memorial to ‘comfort women’

by JUN NUCUMInquirer.net

forced into sexual slavery the Imperial Japanese Army during its colonial and wartime occupa-tion” of Asia and the Pacific Is-lands from the 1930s through the duration of World War.

The resolutions further states that “unspeakable and well-doc-umented war-crimes, including mass rape, wholesale massacres, heinous torture and other atroci-ties, were ·committed by the Japanese in all the countries that

Japan occupied during World War II.”

Other members of the Board are Supervisors John Avalos (11th district), London Breed (5th district), David Campos (9th District), Julie Christensen (3rd District), Malia Cohen (10th Dis-trict), Mark Farrell (2nd District), Jane Kim (6th District), Katy Tang (4th District), Scott Wiener (8th District) and Norman Yee

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THIS week, Pope Francis’ brief meeting with Kim Davis during his visit to Washington caused a storm in the media, with many believing the Pontiff endorses or shares similar views with the Kentucky clerk who refuses to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On Friday, the Vatican issued a statement from Fa-ther Federico Lombardi, SJ, head of the Holy See Press Office, confirming that the encounter was part of a series of meetings the Pope had with different guests, and “should not be consid-ered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects.” The Vatican also revealed that Francis had also met with a former Argentine student, Yayo Grassi, and his boyfriend. Grassi said that the Pope has long known of his sexu-ality, but has never condemned it or disapproved of his same-sex relationship. “He has never been judgmental,” Grassi said.

ON Oct. 1, ten people were killed and another seven injured after Chris Mercer, 26, opened gunfire in a classroom at a com-munity college in southern Oregon. The killer was fatally shot during a gunfire exchange with police officers at Umpqua Com-munity College in Roseburg, Ore. Mercer was armed with up to four firearms, including a rifle, and it is unknown whether he was killed by police or committed suicide. Mercer’s father expressed shock and disbelief at the actions of his son, who reportedly “sin-gled out Christians” in his rampage. The merciless attack is the fourth shooting at a US college campus since August. “It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun,” President Obama said, vowing his commitment to new gun policies.

LOS ANGELES’ services for victims of domestic violence are “disjointed and inconsistent,” according to a city audit released Thursday, the first day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The LAPD lacks a unit solely dedicated to domestic violence, whereas the New York Police Department has a Domestic Vio-lence Unit specifically to handle such cases. The LAPD partners officers with trained advocates on domestic abuse calls, and contracts with local organizations to respond to incidents. As a result, the city spends far less (about a $1.8 billion budget, for Domestic Abuse Response Teams) than New York on services addressing domestic violence issues, according to the audit re-port.

AFTER the success of “Fresh Off the Boat,” more Asian-Amer-ican actors are taking center stage on the broadcast network. During its 2015-16 season, ABC will feature 18 Asian-American regular characters across multiple TV shows, according to find-ings by the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition (APAMC). The number beats the previous record set by NBC in 2008, which featured 16 Asian characters. ABC will also be the first network in television history to have three shows featuring first-billed Asian leads on air at the same time: “Fresh Off the Boat, “Quantico” (featuring Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra), and “Dr. Ken” (starring Ken Jeong). “ABC has certainly stepped up the game,” said APAMC co-chair Daniel Mayeda. “Everyone [across all the networks] is doing really well, but more importantly, it’s the na-ture of the roles… These are very significant roles we have now, rather than just being someone’s boss or someone’s sidekick or best friend or whatever, which is what’s happened in the past.”

ABC’s Executive Vice President of Comedy Development Sa-mie Falvey agreed, “Across the board, there’s a lot of pressure for all of diversity. To have those shows work was incredibly gratifying.”

(7th District).Not forgottenSupervisor Mar’s resolution

also seeks “to ensure that the plight and suffering of these girls and women will never be forgot-ten or erased from history.”

The approved resolution does not come with a budget allo-cation for the project, though, and cost estimates could reach $140,000 with funds most prob-ably coming from private groups and individuals.

The timeframe for building the memorial is at least year, con-sidering the creation of the com-mittee, holding recommendation hearings for the supervisors, the final board approval of all con-siderations for construction to begin and the actual construc-tion itself.

“My understanding is that they are going to create a committee to decide what the memorial statue will look like and where it is going to be placed. I hope they will include a Filipino in that committee even if Filipinos, un-like the Chinese and Koreans, have not really been active in this initiative whatsoever,” according to Rudy Asercion, advocate for Filipino war veteran welfare and affairs.

Tina Shauf, Gabriela U.S.A. campaign officer, said her group supports the resolution as the memorial will make children aware of the lessons of the past and stand up against injustices..

“In the history of imperial wars of aggression, the women and children are the first ones to ac-

tually suffer. With this memorial, we wanted to honor their lives and also validate their experi-ences,” Shauf stated.

“We were able to link up with Lila Pilipina, a Gabriela organi-zation of comfort women who are still rallying and fighting for their own rights and pushing for acknowledgements of this war crime and wanting reparation and apology from the Japanese government,” Shauf added.

Watered downAsercion felt very good about

the unanimous approval of the resolution but was also very unhappy that it was a “watered down” version after consider-ation of the opponents of the me-morial.

“They were arguing that it was anti-Japanese, and will create ha-tred towards the Japanese peo-ple. There were also some right-wing groups from Japan that emailed the Board of Supervisors to deny that the comfort women even existed because they claim they were merely prostitutes,” Asercion reported.

“There were also political pres-sures from politically powerful individuals in San Francisco like Janice Mirikitani, co-founder of the Glide Memorial Church, who spoke against it during the de-liberation,” Asercion explained. “After she spoke, the supervi-sors had a last-minute confab and decided to water down the resolution to become a resolu-tion against human trafficking, violence against women that happens in other countries.”

Asercion maintained that the

crime of Japanese Imperial Army against sex slaves was atrocious and does not compare to ordi-nary violence against women or domestic violence cases, since the slaves were abducted young girls that were raped 30 to 40 times a day.

Sought for reaction, West Bay Pilipino Multi-service Center Ex-ecutive Director Vivian Zalvidea-Araullo rued the wording of the resolution.

“Its unfortunate that verbiage did not specifically mention Fili-pinas or other ethnicities like-wise victimized as comfort wom-en. It waters down the potency of the message that we wanted to send especially since Filipinas continue today to suffer greatly as victims of human trafficking,” stated Araullo, also a member of the Filipina Women’s Network.

Revision OKFor Natassja Reintegrado, a

young mother of two, the revi-sion of the original resolution did not lead to a watered-down version as it even became a more powerful statement.

“I think it was brilliant for them to actually expand and rewrite whatever resolution they had be-cause it now has a whole spec-trum of women abuses — human trafficking, rape, forced prostitu-tion – and that memorial will be a symbolism against these abuses. For me what happened to com-fort women during the Japanese occupation are still happening up to now decades later as wom-en are still abused in different forms,” Reintegrado claimed.

She was quick to add though

San Francisco Board unanimously…t

that she respected and under-stood the disappointment of Asercion and others about the final version..

Not an attackAs to the significance of a

memorial and the possibility of unintentionally reopening, old wounds of the war, Shauf claimed that commemorating the suffer-ings of the comfort women is not

an attack at all towards anyone but rather about learning a les-son from the past.

“Being a progressive city, San Francisco has the responsibility to not just speak the truth of the past but also acknowledge and validate the experiences of the people who have fallen victims of atrocious war crimes,” Shauf reasoned.

Reintegrado opined that the memorial would help raise aware-ness on the sad plight of victims of rape, forced human trafficking and prostitution, including abused women even in a progressive city like San Francisco where even underage girls are reportedly be-ing snatched and victimized to become prostitutes.

“This not to shame the Japa-nese and their country, but this is only considered to never forget that women time and again are going through violence, tortured and/or sexually-assaulted dur-ing war times,” Reintegrado as-serted.

For his part, Asercion argued that unless there is a concession from the government of Japan to acknowledge that comfort wom-en really existed, nothing will make the controversy go away.

“The historic significance is

that for the first time, there will be a memorial in a major city in America, which will be a first. San Francisco is a major magnet and what happens there will be repeated in other cities. We will be advocating for similar memo-rial in other major cities like New York and the others,” Asercion added.

In its notes on Filipino Comfort Women, the FilAmVet History Project wrote that 18 Filipina comfort women sued the Japa-nese government on April 1993 alleging that they were forced to serve as prostitutes for Japanese soldiers in violation of the 1907 Hague Treaty and international rules that protected civilians in military-occupied territories. It asked for compensation but was thrown out in 2003 after the Jap-anese Supreme Court rejected an appeal on the dismissal of the case in the lower courts.

This resulted even after Japan’s own Chief Cabinet Secretary Yo-hei Kono acknowledged, also in 1993, that many Japanese, Chi-nese, Korean and Filipino women lived as captives and were forced into prostitution for Japan’s war-time military. beginning in 1932, when Japan invaded China, to the end of the war in 1945. ■

DATELINE PHILIPPINES

SUPREME Court Senior As-sociate Justice Antonio Carpio called on the nation Thursday, Oct. 1 to make the Philippines’ territorial dispute with China an issue in next year’s national elections as Beijing continued to build a “a triangle of military bases” in the South China Sea.

Carpio said “the triangle of military bases,” which include Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) off Zambales province, was aimed at protecting Bei-jing’s outlet in Bashi Channel, an important passage for military operations between Hainan, Chi-na’s southernmost territory, and Taiwan.

Speaking to members of the Rotary Club of Manila in Makati City, Carpio disclosed what he called a “long-term grand de-sign” of China to enforce its claims in the South China Sea.

“They have their nuclear sub-marines stationed on the island (Hainan),” Carpio said, stressing the importance of the base to the protection of the Bashi Channel.

He said China had strategic bombers and weapons for long-range attack.

“The range of those missiles is

China building triangle of bases, warns Carpio

7,500 kilometers,” Carpio said.“All the US military facilities [in

the region] are within the range of those missiles,” he said.

Carpio also spoke about how China had been trying to make the artificial islands it had built in the South China Sea possible command centers for its so-called Maritime Silk Road, an ambitious economic plan.

He cited Zamora Reef (Subi Reef), which is located 29 kilo-meters southwest of Philippine-claimed Pagasa Island (Thitus Island) in the Spratlys.

China has reclaimed 150 hect-ares at Zamora Reef and turned it into a naval base with an airstrip, he said.

“This is in the high seas. China is converting it into a military base, naval base with a 3-kilome-ter [airstrip]. It can take in any military aircraft,” Carpio said.

Some 560 hectares of the 800-hectare Panganiban Reef (Mis-chief Reef) have been reclaimed, he said.

“Remember, Mandaluyong is only 400 hectares,” he said.

Once China has a naval base on Panganiban Reef, he said, it can prevent the Philippines from

supplying other islands in the Spratlys it occupies.

Carpio said China’s land recla-mation in the Spratlys had dam-aged reefs that had taken 30 mil-lion years to be formed.

“China destroyed them [in just] a year… It is unimaginable,” he said.

“Should we allow China to rob us and deprive us of what inter-national laws guarantee us?” he asked.

The Philippines has challenged China’s claim to nearly all of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea in a United Na-tions arbitration court.

China, however, has refused to take part in the arbitration and said it will not accept any ruling from the court.

Carpio urged the people to make the territorial dispute with China a campaign issue in next year’s national elections.

“Our candidates should [state] their positions on the matter. It is very important because what is at stake is 80 percent of the exclusive eco-nomic zone and 100 percent of our continental shelf,” he said. (Inquirer.net)

THE Philippines on Thursday, Oct. 1, conditionally pledged to slash its carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030, contingent on assistance it receives from the international community.

In the Intended Nationally De-termined Contribution (INDC) it submitted Thursday to the United Nations (UN), the Philip-pines said it would also commit to adaptation measures to help citizens prepare for the repercus-sions of climate change, includ-ing droughts and typhoons.

“These initial commitments are anchored on our policy decla-ration under the Climate Change Law of 2009, as amended in 2012, that the state shall cooper-ate with the global community in the resolution of climate change issues,” said Climate Change Commission (CCC) Secretary Lu-cille Sering said in a statement.

Carbon reductions will occur in the energy, forestry, industry transport and waste sectors, all of which are the country’s largest sources of carbon emissions. The agricultural sector was excluded from the list despite the fact it is the second largest source of car-bon emissions. Reductions will occur while the country main-tains a “business as usual sce-nario” from 2000 to 2030.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, chair of the CCC, ap-proved the country’s plans, which are slated for implementation af-ter 2020, spokesman Herminio Coloma said in a statement.

“As a country highly vulnerable to climate and disaster risks, mit-igation measures as presented in the INDC will be pursued in line with sustainable development and a low-emission development that promotes inclusive growth,” the Philippine government’s six-page INDC submission stated.

In setting its 70 percent reduc-tion goal, the CCC considered the country’s average population growth of 1.85 percent, its his-torical gross domestic product rates from 2010 to 2014 and a projected yearly average of 6.5 percent for 2015 to 2010, Inquir-er reported.

“These reductions in emis-sions are conditional and will be pursued if sufficient financial resources, technology develop-ment and transfer, and capacity building will be made available to the Philippines after the Paris

climate talks in December,” Co-loma said, according to Inter-Aksyon.

Among crucial aspects high-lighted in the Philippines’ INDC was for the country to build its

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PH vows to cut carbon emissions by 70% in 2030by AGNES CONSTANTE

AJPress

OPINION FEATURES

WITH the millions spent by taxpayers for the annual upkeep of each congressman, the 290 members of the House of Representa-tives should earn their salaries and perks and attend the remaining session days before their next long break.

Missing in action

Crafting laws is the main task of Congress, and there are still several pieces of major legisla-tion waiting to be passed. The budget for 2016 must be enacted before the year ends. The law creating the Bangsamoro may still be passed before Christmas, although its accep-tance by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is a big question.

There are economic measures that may still be approved to make the country more investment-friendly, such as the Customs Modernization Act that is being pushed by the foreign chambers of commerce. Proposed cuts on individual income and corporate taxes also deserve congressional attention together with the quid pro quo sought by Malacañang: easing bank secrecy laws for tax purposes.

With all that workload, however, lawmakers now

seem preoccupied with only one thing: the 2016 elections. The lack of a quorum at the House has be-come such a problem that Speaker

Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has reportedly resorted to asking congressmen to just text their votes or opinions on various legislative measures.

Voting by text is better than failure to vote. But for sure, those who actually participate in delib-erations and listen to resource speakers will have a better appreciation of the proposed laws than those who are missing in action.

The House – and the Senate, for that matter – should publish online the attendance records of all lawmakers. This should guide voters on the politi-cians who are repaying their employers – or, as described by President Aquino, the bosses – with dereliction of duty. The people can express what they think in May 2016. (Philstar.com)

Guest Editorial

AFTER Senator Grace Poe formally announced her intent to run for president, The Filipino Chan-nel’s daily newscast “Balitang America” asked its viewers: If the Philippine Presidential Elections were to happen today, who would you vote for president?

Sec. Mar Roxas topped the online poll with 56 percent; Sen. Grace Poe placed second with 29 percent , followed by 15 percent who chose “None of the above”. Not even one among those who voted said they wanted VP Jejomar Binay to be the next president of the Philippines.

The latest survey in the Philippines still put Grace Poe on top, although the margin between her and the other candidates has gone down. Meanwhile, it looks like Roxas’s ratings have sustained an up-ward momentum ever since PNoy’s anointment. Binay’s favorability and trust ratings have gone down while Duterte, even without any announce-ment that he is in the race, places a strong fourth.

Our kababayans posted their comments on dif-ferent social media platforms and here are some of

the comments:For the economic boom we’ve

been experiencing, smart Fili-pinos can’t afford to divert the way of daang matuwid of [Aqui-no]. If we choose others aside from Roxas, the Philippines will go back again from behind and the 6yrs of Pnoy will condidered useless. Mar Roxas for Presi-dent. — Tony C. Eyo on Facebook.

I can’t wait for the Philippines to be led by law-yers -- not just lawyers but real statesmen -- com-pared to the current maleducated/uneducated leaders or leaders who do not seem to know the law at all. Duterte-Cayetano is a great tandem of lawyers. Marcos faked his college diplomas. What can you expect from a dishonest man? Roxas lacks initiative, sensibility and sensitivity. Binay is a thief. Poe lacks conviction and is very neophyte. We need leaders like Duterte and Cayetano. I am confident that Senator Cayetano can boldly con-

tinue Duterte’s federalist approach after his term and so on. — Junel Padigos on Facebook.

I call down BULLSHIT on all these pseudo scientific “POLLS” being conducted by media outfits. SORRY Mam, but they are pure PROPAGANDA and I wish there were LAW[S] to prohibit this kinda crap. Announcing results of these

pseudo scientific “polls” is unprofessional unethi-cal and a public disservice. — “Dean Bocobo” on twitter.

Grace Poe has picked up more supporters when she and her running mate Chiz Escudero endorsed MAKABAYAN Candidate Rep. Neri Colmenares as its first senatorial candidate.

LA Community leader and JFAV Coordinator Ar-turo Garcia said, “Grace Poe was right in saying: ‘Do you think MAKABAYAN Coalition will support me if they think a am not a true Pilipino?’”

MAKABAYAN Coalition, which is based in the

Philippines is known to be militant, anti-impe-rialist and progressive coalition and has a mass base both in the Philippines and all over the world.

Garcia also said, “we believe in what Poe said that she is sincere in effecting systemic change in the Philippines and wanted to fulfill the dream of his adopted father, Fernando Poe Jr., who was cheater in the presidential elections of 2004 to make the Philippines progress.”

This sentiment is shared by other groups in the Philippines who have been vocal anti-Aquino like Mae Paner, a.k.a. Juana Change, who says the Aquino Administration which she campaigned for and supported did not live up to its campaign promises.

* * *

Kababayans’ reactions to Balitang America’s early Philippine Presidential election polls

GEL SANTOS-RELOS

The Fil-Am Perspective

“MAKE ready for the Christ, whose smile like lightning, sets free the song of everlasting glory that now sleeps—in your paper flesh.” —Thomas Merton

“It [Pope Francis’ visit] was a touching, inspiring, spirit-tingling experience. I could not help my tears streaming down my cheeks as the Pope was speaking about what truly matters. Deep calls to deep.—Loida Nicolas Lewis, 2015

Pope Francis’ visit was like electric-ity to both plugged and unplugged Catholics. It energized loyal Catholics, the likes of Loida Nicolas Lewis, whose words captured the soulful beauty of the occasion, how in her deep reflec-tions, she felt the live streaming of God’s love.

To this writer, the visit overcame her in the form of tears and an upliftment, a “spirit-tingling experience,” as Loida describes. It made folks weep, but also lyrical and observant to notice what was around, and to realize how awesome God is, in showering His abundance to millions.

Just before the South Lawn ceremo-nies began in the White House, a 2 ½ inch long dragonfly was hovering in front of this writer. Two more dragon-flies joined, after Pope Francis spoke, a trinity perhaps, to signify a lightness of energy, an upsurge of joy and over-whelming sacred feelings.

A rainbow was reported by NBC and the Pope Channel 199, on top of the Madison Square Garden in New York, and of course, the winds were palpable, another sign of the Holy Spirit which usually accompany Pope Francis, as he alights in and out of airplanes.

Bonding with humanity‘s strengths and weaknesses

Millions saw the pope, an embodi-ment of grace, holiness and tender-ness to 11,000 in the South Lawn of the White House; 25,000 in the Madison Square Garden; 80,000 in the Central Park in New York; 860,000 in a Mass in Philadelphia.

He made unscheduled stops to kiss

the children, including the severely disabled: one with holes in his heart, who reportedly experienced a reversal of his condition after the pope touched him; children with cerebral palsy whom the pope kissed; some in wheel-

chairs, as well as those needing psycho-logical and spiritual healing.

He spoke on issues, which tormented folks and reassured the victims of sexual abuse that they are being heard by the Holy Father. He addressed the bishops, encouraging them to take these sexual abuse issues seriously and to be trans-parent and accountable.

Much of the shame comes from hid-ing the abuse, and that shame can only be removed by regaining trust of the flock, when the church hierarchy acts systematically to no longer shield the errant bishops and priests. Transpar-ency in the fullest light, away from the darkness of the abuse and shame, can be a first step in healing and a more per-manent healing of the Church, who was seriously damaged by the systematic commission of sin and omission of full justice in the institution. Once justice is served, then, mercy can be shown in the post-therapy and post-rehabilitation work done for both the victims and the perpetrators.

Love drives actionChris Lowney’s Heroic Leadership de-

scribes the Jesuit’s formation, wherein “recruits are catapulted back into a world that is charged with love. This love drives action: ‘Love ought to manifest itself by deeds than by words. And the same energy that courses through each recruit, ‘giving him existence, life, sen-sation, and intelligence,’ is also ‘working in the heavens, elements, plants, fruits, cattle, and all the rest.”

When Pope Francis selected his name to be Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi, he did so, knowing full well what Francis stood for. St. Francis was called to build God’s church, not the structures, but God’s flock, God’s pa-rishioners.

In James Martin’s My Life with the Saints, he described how St. Francis

travelled to the Middle East during the Crusades to make peace with the sul-tan. Much like the peace builder St. Francis, Pope Francis has set his own, by brokering peace in US – Cuba rela-tions, and the beginnings of the peace process in Colombia, and perhaps even the nuclear reduction conversations that we hope are now starting between the United States and Russia and even the end of the wars between Russia and Ukraine and even peace in Syria.

In building the spiritual community, St. Francis also helped built the monas-tery of Poor Clares.

To date, the Monastery of Poor Clares in Santa Barbara has become a monthly pilgrimage destination for some Cath-olic devotees, including this writer, who believe in sharing resources with these poor nuns, but also offering their prayerful intentions during the Satur-day or Sunday masses.

As with St. Francis, Pope Francis spoke of the family as a factory of hope and a repository of love. He described how the family’s grandparents are the living memory of one’s family and the transmitter of faith. In developing the faith in a family, it also develops a com-mon conscience, seeking “common good” towards a respect for fundamen-tal right to life.

His profound teachings in Philadel-phia were extemporaneously shared: Love is multiplied in the family, which should lead to cultivating the land, but also in cultivating, multiply and grow the love He made in creation, bestowed it and gave it to a family. It is why he said, “The Family is the factory of hope” and “all the beauty and truth God is, He gave it to the family, so open its arms and receive that Love from God.”

He spoke of the astuteness of the devil here on earth, which have lured us to enrich ourselves, at the expense of finding God. The Holy Father traced the first sin, “the first killing of a brother by his brother and then, war. “War is the destruction of love, God’s beauty. From that it is up to us to choose, to decide what path we want to take, ” the pope said.

Will we choose war or peace? Will we choose love over the sin of killing and destruction?

‘Flow water is the symbol of our tears’

The Holy Father spoke at Ground Zero, visibly moved by this “place of death,” where 3,000 folks perished, to now a place of “tri-umph of life.”

Vatican Ra-dio shared the Holy Father’s reflections: “Here grief is palpable… here we mourn the wrongful and sense-less loss of innocent lives because of the inability to find solu-tions that respect the common good.”

The Holy Father spoke of beauty, goodness and truth as solid foundations of the family. He described being asked by a child, “What did God do before cre-ating the world?” He was taken aback by the question, and said, “ Before God created the world, God loved, because God is love. Love is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Love is overflow-ing. It was so big that God is not egois-tic and the love has to be poured out of Him and then God created the world.”

The pope believes that three pillars are necessary for a quality life and the pursuit of common good: proper lodg-ing, opportunity for labor and care for the land. Pope Francis also described spiritual freedom, the gift of transcen-dence, of seeing the dignity of every person and the principle that if you do harm to the environment, you are harm-ing humanity.

More Catholics got back into the fold, as reported by United States Confer-ence of Catholic Bishops, as a result of Pope Francis’ visit.

I know from the last Sunday mass I attended, attendance doubled. Let us hope this becomes the start of a healing phenomenon amongst lapsed Catho-lics, being one myself until 7 years ago, when I was welcomed warmly and without any judgement by Rev. Fr. Ro-del Balagtas, into the embrace of the community at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in East Los Angeles.

Even then, that gesture of kindness and generosity of spirit from a pastor, reminded me of the converging exam-ple today of Pope Francis’s warmth, his loving embrace of all, his generosity of spirit and his convictions to work hard for peace around the globe.

“God made the highest expression of love, He sent his Son to a family. God made a family, and in a family He could this, because it was a family with truly an open heart, doors of hearts were open…There’s a family in which Jesus was born, “ the Pope said, “God like to bring Himself to open hearts, to fami-lies who love each other, to families who help their children move forward to truth, goodness and beauty. We are celebrating feast of the family – families have a citizenship, which is divine, ” the Holy Father said to some 860,000 gath-ered in a mass in Philadelphia.

* * *

Pope Francis’ trip to the US: God’s awesome love and its revolution of tenderness

PROSY ABARQUEZ-DELACRUZ, J.D.

Rhizomes

MANILA - Sen. Grace Poe said Friday, Oct. 2 she would accept any decision of the Senate Elec-toral Tribunal (SET) on the quo warranto petition filed by lawyer Rizalito David that questioned her Filipino citizenship.

“First of all, I will respect the law. If they are able to prove that I am not worthy (to seek higher position) because of the law, I will immediately leave my position,” Poe said in Filipino in an inter-view at Almont Hotel in Butuan.

Poe, however, stressed that her legal battle is not hers alone but also other foundlings in the country.

“If I lose here, all of them will have doubt in their nationality. It’s not fair, especially to us who have faith in law that recognizes abandoned Filipino children,” she said.

She expressed confidence that she and her legal team would be able to present evidence and ar-guments that would prove that she is a natural-born citizen en-titled to run for public office.

She said she is not one who would give up a fight and that she is banking on her mandate as a senator, having garnered over 20 million votes in the 2013 elections.

“If they are saying that I am losing here at SET or the Su-preme Court later on, who am I to say that I am here? But they should not forget the 20 million

Poe to accept SET ruling on disquali�cation case

people who voted for me. This is a mandate that I respect and value.”

Rally to pressure SET David said the camp of Poe is

planning to hold a rally on the second week of October to alleg-edly pressure the SET to issue a ruling in her favor in connection with the senator’s disqualifica-tion case.

David told The Star that a friend from the intelligence com-munity informed him during the launching of the Reform Philip-pines Coalition at Club Filipino in San Juan that Poe’s camp will stage a rally to coincide with the supposed decision by the SET, sensing that they may lose in the disqualification case.

“Yes, it is a public pressure on SET. If they can produce a million or two million people in the street, it is like they’re say-ing that they control the Filipino people. This is unethical and so indecent,” David said.

The demonstration might be held when Poe files her certifi-cate of candidacy (COC) at the Commission on Elections (Com-

elec).Poe previously announced her

intention to run for president in the May 2016 elections at the University of the Philippines (UP).

The filing of COCs is from Oct. 12 to 16.

David said that he has no in-tention to ruin Poe’s presiden-tial bid, but said that his “good friend” informed him about the senator’s plan so that the public will be informed about it.

He urged Poe’s supporters to “stick to the issue” and wait for the resolution of the case before making any move that would in-fluence the electoral tribunal.

Poe’s lawyer George Garcia, however, laughed off David’s new allegation, saying that only desperate people would resort to a demonstration just to get the tribunal’s favor.

Garcia said staging a rally nev-er crossed their minds

and they would not rally just to win the case as they have a strong defense.

He added that they do not want to instigate Poe’s supporters, cit-ing that the crisis that Poe is fac-ing right now is a legal issue and not political.

“It is too unfair to our support-ers to use them just for this. We can win this case even without rallies,” he added.

Garcia said that there might be supporters who would show up when Poe files her COC, but clarified that they would definite-

FORMER president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will soon be allowed to post bail in connec-tion with an electoral-sabotage complaint filed against her by the Justice department.

Arroyo, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Jr. and former election officer Lint-ang Bedol were charged for al-legedly staging a 12-0 victory for the administration Team Unity’s senatorial candidates in Maguin-danao in the 2007 polls.

Former Maguindanao provin-cial administrator Norie Unas,

u

CA allows GMA to post bailNo new evidence to keep former president in detention

by JOMAR CANLASManilaTimes.net

who implicated Arroyo in the al-leged cheating, died of an illness last year.

At least 15 witnesses, includ-ing Unas, were presented during bail hearings for Arroyo.

In a two-page resolution dated September 22, the Special Divi-sion of the Court of Appeals de-nied a Justice department motion for reconsideration on its earlier ruling affirming a decision of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) allowing Arroyo to post bail.

Judge Jesus Mupas allowed the former president to post bail after prosecutors failed to con-vince him that there is strong

evidence against Arroyo.The CA resolution penned by

Associate Justices Elihu Ybañez, Isaias Dicdican and Victoria Isa-bel Paredes concurred with the lower court’s findings that the prosecutors who opposed the former leader’s bail petition had no new arguments to convince the court to reverse its ruling.

“We have carefully reviewed the arguments raised in the said motion for reconsideration and find the same to be mere reitera-tion of matters previously con-sidered and found to be without merit in the decision subject of this recourse. We thus see no

u

by CHRISTINA MENDEZPhilstar.com

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SEAFOOD CITYADVERTORIAL

FP

LONDON – Britain’s soccer great David Beckham choked back tears while telling the story of a Filipina girl victim of Ty-phoon Haiyan, as he implored world leaders to use their re-sources to help disadvantaged children. Beckham was speak-ing at the United Nations (UN) in New York City on Thursday, September 24.

Speaking during the launch of the global youth blogging com-munity 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 thou-sands of people and left more than 1.7 million children homeless.

Beckham, who became UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2004, choked up as he recalled meet-ing 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 Ta-cloban last year to meet children affected by Typhoon Haiyan. There, Beckham was introduced to eight-year-old Venus, who lost her four-year-old sister dur-ing the turbulent superstorm. He

David Beckham chokes up recalling Filipina girl victim of Haiyan

by MELISSA L. ALCANTARAInquirer.net

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, ex-hausted, said to the father, ‘Can you please take Viana,’ so the father did. He had Venus and Vi-ana 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 wa-vered and he cleared his throat to compose himself. He then continued, “This was the night of the typhoon.”

“A day and a half later, unfor-tunately, Viana was found face down and unfortunately, she had died. This was one of the most devastating stories I heard.”

Beckham continued: “But then I saw the great work Unicef was doing rebuilding houses, rebuilding families, and rebuild-ing schools. Rebuilding schools gave Venus and the other chil-dren in the village a bit of nor-mality.”

Following his speech, Beck-

ham 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. Cre-ated for Unicef by Google, the in-stallation 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 Ro-drigo 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 com-mitment to help the most vul-nerable children in the world.” He noted that, due to conflicts, “more than 15 million children were exposed to extreme vio-lence, 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.” ■

ly not hold a rally.He noted that Poe’s filing of the

COC might be as simple as when she filed her certificate when she ran for senator.

Meanwhile, in a press confer-ence Thursday in Quezon City, Garcia urged the camp of David to focus on the disqualification case they filed against Poe, and not on her presidential bid.

David, however, stood firm that whatever decision of the electoral

t

compelling reason to modify, reverse or set aside our previous decision,” the resolution read.

“For these reasons, the instant motion for reconsideration is hereby denied,” according to the appellate court.

In its March 24, 2015 decision, the CA said the government has a weak case against Arroyo.

The electoral-sabotage in-dictment against the former president was filed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and the Commission on Elections then headed by Sixto Brillantes Jr. on November 18, 2011.

The former president was ac-cused of masterminding fraudu-lent elections in 2007 in conspir-acy with then-Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos.

The court ruled that the only evidence of the Department of Justice and the Comelec against Arroyo is the testimony of Unas “whose credibility was seen by the trial judge to be tainted with doubt and insufficient to estab-lish a strong evidence of guilt on the part of respondent Arroyo.”

Further, the CA ruled that no grave abuse of discretion was found from the lower court in al-lowing Arroyo to post bail.

“Assuming arguendo that the respondent judge erred in evaluating the evidence during the hearing on the application for bail, certiorari will not lie. As stated earlier, no grave abuse of discretion may be attributed to a court simply because of its al-leged wrongful appreciation of facts and evidence. In short, cer-tiorari will issue only to correct errors of jurisdiction, not errors of procedure or mistakes in the findings or conclusions of the lower court,” it said.

This was the first case filed against Arroyo under the Aquino administration to block an al-leged attempt by the accused to flee the country.

The Justice department used this case as basis to put the for-mer president in the Bureau of Immigration Watchlist Order.

Court records show that since the case was filed in December 2012, only two out of more than 50 witnesses were presented during the trial.

Arroyo remains in detention over a plunder case filed against her by the Office of the Ombuds-man for allegedly mishandling Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds. ■

CA allows GMA to…t

resilience and strengthen its “adaptive capacity,” which is the priority.

“Our INDC is based on our phi-losophy of undertaking mitigation as a function of adaptation, there-fore, we will still prioritize adapta-tion measures,” Sering said, ac-cording to Philstar.

Measures set for implementa-tion to achieve the reduction goal include climate monitoring and observation, and a climate/disas-ter risk and vulnerability assess-ment process, Inquirer reported.

“Technical inputs and as-sistance are critical for certain sectors such as grid efficiency improvement, standard devel-opment for energy and water efficiency, cost-effective renew-able energy, and alternative or high-efficiency technology for conventional power generation, among others,” the INDC docu-ment stated.

A 2009 UN summit in Copenha-

gen set a target of limiting global temperature rises to a maximum of two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. While the goal is still expected to result in increas-ing droughts and disasters, scien-tists consider it manageable, ac-cording to InterAksyon.

Experts say this is an achiev-able aim if wealthier nations work toward peaking their carbon emis-sions by 2020, while developing countries do the same by 2030.

The Climate Reality Project says the Philippines’ reduction target is a “significant develop-ment” for the country, Rappler reported.

“Having less than 1 [percent] of the total global carbon emis-sion, this is not only a gargantu-an challenge for the government but for all sectors to cooperate and take action,” said the group’s country manager Rodne Galicha, according to Rappler.

Since Super Typhoon Yolanda struck the Philippines in 2013,

the Philippines has been the epit-ome of countries prone to the ef-fects of climate change, Inquirer reported.

The Philippines ranked fifth under the Climate Risk Index of Germanwatch in the period be-tween 1994 to 2014.

More than 130 nations have submitted INDCs to the UN Framework Convention on Cli-mate Change, Sering said. ■

PH vows to cut carbon emissions…

tribunal on Poe’s disqualification case will have a “logical conse-quence” on her presidential bid.

“Once the SET rules that she is not a natural-born Filipino citizen, automatically she gets unseated as senator, and if you’re unseat-ed senator, how can you run for president? She is not qualified as senator, and the qualification of senator and president is just the same, so under the law, she can-not run,” he said. (With reports from Robertzon Ramirez)

t

Poe to accept SET ruling …

SEAFOOD CITYREGULAR AD

FP

SHOWBIZ&STYLEJOURNAL

SANTA ANITA—Makeup lovers rejoice: NYX Cosmetics opened its first-ever flagship retail store at the Westfield Santa Anita on Fri-day, Oct. 2. The vibrantly designed and high-tech store features over 2,000 products on its walls to satisfy the aesthetic needs of the new generation of makeup lov-ers. From foundations, lipsticks,

eyebrow tools, nail polishes and more, the NYX Cosmetics store is sure to have it.

It is fitting for NYX Cosmetics, which was started in Los Angeles, to open its first store in the region, said Nathalie Kristo, senior vice president of global marketing and business development for the brand.

“We’re based in Los Angeles, so we wanted to open our first store here in the area. We wanted to reflect the diversity of our community and consumers. We find that Westfield Santa Anita does a good job at really being a mall for the community, so it was important for us to be here,”

First-ever NYX Cosmetics retail store opens in Southern California

MAP NOT TO SCALENN

Lakewood

91Cherry Ave.

E. South St.

Lakewood Blvd.

N. Orizaba Ave.

19

405

Plan, pricing and product information are subject to change without prior notice. Prices effective as of date of publication. Photos shown are model photography. Map is an artist’s conception and is not to scale. Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook inc. Tony Membiela CalBRE License #01099492 and Wendy Wagner CalBRE License #01372598.

IN a unique and very special performance that you could only see in Pechanga Resort & Casino theater in Temecula, California, famed actor and singer Jericho Ro-sales and Maja Salvador, will have a Live concert Tour on October 31, 2015 at 8pm.

Pechanga Resort & Casino is well-known for hosting the best and the brightest Filipino enter-tainers and performers such as international singer Gary Valen-ciano, Megastar Sharon Cuneta, the singer/actress and Tony Award winner Lea Salonga, popular comedian and actor Vice Gan-da, winner of Star Power Search 2011 Angeline Quintos, interna-tional actress and top endorser Anne Curtis, and Pop Star Princess Sarah Geronimo—who all gave wholesome entertainment to the delight of the crowd.

Aside from fine dining, relax-ation and entertainment, Pechanga Resort & Casino wish to provide the ultimate experience especially, to Filipino-American patrons. Thus, Gary V, with 31 years of solid international exposure in the field of singing and dancing will ‘wow’ the crowd in this year’s opening extravaganza.

Hailed and raised in Quezon City, Philippines, Rosales gained notoriety in school campuses and is a well-known actor in Destined Hearts (2009), Dahil sa Pag-ibig (2012) and Baler (2008).

An eldest brother of the upcom-ing actor, Jeremiah, his band album was launced in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in March 2006. As front lead singer of the pop-rock bnd, Jeans, Rosales signed up a con-tract with EMI Malaysia with the assistance of his Malaysian friend, Kish Ram.

Rosales’ band members in-clude Dan Serenado- guitar, Jude Manota- bass, and Aaron Ace Manio- drums.

Under his famous album are Loose Fit in year 2005. Rosales personally wrote 14 songs from the band’s debut album. Rosales also wrote You’re Beautiful for his girlfriend Heart Evangelista. He signe dup for Manila Genesis Entertainment management after leaving ABS-CBN.

Rosales is also a member of the group, “The Hunks” along with known actors as Piolo Pascual, Diether Ocampo, Carlo Agassi, and Bernard Palanca.

Photography is one of Rosales’ favorite hobby. He rose to stardom in showbiz when he won in the ‘Mr. Pogi’ contest at Eat Bulaga (1979) later in the 90’s. His discovery from Eat Bulaga led his career to network giant, ABS-CBN.

He became successful as an ac-tor when he earned Achievement in Acting in Breakaway (2012), Guam International Film Festival in year 2013.

Meanwhile, Maja Salvador came form a family of actors. She is a singer, dancer, model and producer. From the Salvador fam-ily, Maja is a cousin of Jobelle and Philip Salvador-- at present she is under the management of ABS-CBN’s Star Magic.

Dubbed as “Dance Princess of the Philippines”—Maja produced and acted in her own movie titled Thelma, where she won the Gawad Urian Award at the Film Academy of the Philippines Awards as best actress.

Salvador started acting in 2003 TV series It Might be You along with John Lloyd Cruz and Bea

MOONLIGHTING

by MYLAH DE LEON

PHILADELPHIA – From the mo-ment that his plane, Shepherd One, landed, everyone was rewarded with a perfect, early autumn day.

He came to America as planned. He said “Greetings, to you” and “God Bless America!” beautiful-ly. He mesmerized Washington, reigned over the Big Apple and rocked the Madison Square Gar-den.

He thrilled Philadelphia with messages and great notes of giving, getting love, tolerance and faith, as a million pilgrims from all ethnici-ties and persuasions attended the

Francis, the people’s pope

Jericho Rosales & Maja Salvador Live Concert Tour in October

through throngs of adoring, exuber-ant picture-taking masses.

Philadelphia was heavily guarded with hundreds of national guards-men and police. Federal offices were in a roller coaster of alternat-ing glee and trepidation over the visit’s unprecedented efforts, even with the Secret Service collaborat-ing with the pope’s Chief of Security, called Domenico.

At the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Peter and Paul, the sun rays shim-mered in a rainbow halo above dome, as celestial stains of Hal-lelujah filled the air. Outside the church, after hearing the point in the service where jubilant parishioners exchanged a welcome, strangers embraced each other, extending into miles and miles of pilgrims, spectators and tourists.

At the Festival of Families, an opera prodigy sang, a comedian performed and the ‘70s Sister Sledge had nuns dancing with a rendition of the groups anthem “We Are Family.” The crowds were singing and chanting when the popemobile circled the Benjamin Franklin Park. Cheers and screams erupted as the Pope waved and smiled, greeted by Philadelphia Or-chestra’s rendition of an energetic excerpt from Beethoven’s majestic Fifth Symphony.

“Welcome to Philadelphia,” bellowed actor Mark Wahlberg, the amiable host. Perhaps his best lines were suitably pious: “I hope the good Lord has a sense of humor when it comes to some of the mov-ies I’ve made.”

The pope sat on a large throne, blessed the crowd and led the throng in prayer. Saturday’s Fes-tival of Families was the signature event of the World Meeting of Families, “an intercultural celebra-tion of family life” where crowds bask in papal presence.

Babies were the greatest recipi-ents of personal attention—called the “Catholic bonus.” Pope Francis

was quick to pick up on a great American Political Tradition, kiss-ing babies, placing his hands on the babies’ head, giving each a blessing. He would lean over, and softly kiss and infirm a child, on the forehead.

He arrived at the Independece Mall to rapturous cheers, to take his place at the Lincoln’s lectern, using the historic backdrop and its pageantry and pomp to shine again a spotlight on those drowning in the heat deafening anonymity. He spoke in Spanish to a crowd of Spanish speakers. He was spoke in their lan-guages about immigration, to never be ashamed of their past.

Philadelphia began to fill out with cars that vanished from the main avenue, and pilgrims form across the world said goodbye to the pope—of the people, whose humility and humanity, and smile eat across all faith.

And there in the Basilica asked us all: What are we going to do? I am going to heed his call, to be a better person for one another. I won’t let his message be lost among all the pomp and pageantry, among all the rightful fun and jog.

But most of all, I will forgive, starting with myself.

huge rally of the World Meeting of Families.

Up and down Benjamin Franklin Parkway to City Hall, a beaming and effusive pontiff ambled in a papal mobile procession. He illuminated

Kristo said.This weekend, until Sunday,

Oct. 4, NYX Cosmetics is celebrat-ing its grand opening with special guests and prizes. The first 250 people in line on Saturday and Sunday will get a “First in Line” wristband, which guarantees a FREE limited edition and collect-ible lip shaped makeup bag and a scratcher card for a chance to win a $100 NYX Cosmetics shop-ping spree.

NYX Professional Makeup will continue its strong partnerships with key retailers that currently distribute NYX. Its flagship stores will serve as an extension of its current retail distribution, com-bining digital technology with a hands-on self-learning environ-ment that will provide consum-ers with a completely new NYX experience.

“We’re very excited about this new chapter for the brand and are proud to be able to create a space where fans can come play,

First-ever NYX Cosmetics retail store...learn and share their love for NYX Professional Makeup,” said Scott Friedman, NYX Cosmetics CEO.

The new retail store features include an interactive NYX Beauty Bar, a digital community wall, and innovative use of digital imagery and social media content through-out the store. By developing these first-to-market technologi-cal innovations, the NYX stores will bring the excitement and energy of the online beauty world into the retail space.

By the end of the year, four more stores will open in Cali-fornia: Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance; Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga; Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara; and Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek. Next year, more stores are slated to open.

As a digital-native brand with a global online community made up of millions of beauty fans, the NYX Professional Makeup store was created for today’s makeup consumers who are adapting the skills and the tools of professional

makeup artists to their own per-sonal style.

Recognizing that these new artists are often self-taught and love to share their makeup style with the world, the NYX Profes-sional Makeup store will celebrate everyday makeup artistry by offering a complete line of afford-able professional makeup, new digital technology features and an interactive approach that puts techniques and tools directly into the hands of shoppers.

“We wanted to create a store we knew our fans would love -- the first place where our fans could find every single product that NYX carries… [It’s a] place where we could really celebrate our online community, and pay tribute to the artistry of the every-day people and have a place where they could come and experiment with makeup,” Kristo told the Asian Journal.

The new NYX Professional Makeup stores will be a play-ground for beauty junkies who love to have fun with makeup. NYX has been a leader in providing cruelty-free, quality products with high pigments and high payoff. From classic, season and on-trend cosmetics, NYX is accessible to newbies, beauty lovers and profes-sional makeup artists alike – all at an accessible price point.

“For us, the No. 1 priority is to produce high-quality makeup because that’s what people want at a reasonable price point. We invest all of our resources into the prod-uct. We’re not a brand that does a lot of advertising,” Kristo said. “We focus on making products that deliver a high payoff, high pig-mentation, also because our fan base is very diverse – all kinds of skin tones so it’s important for us that our product delivers and has good pigmentation and color.”

“I am a longtime NYX Pro-fessional Makeup fan, so it was very cool to partner with them to help develop their retail stores,” said Charis of YouTube channel,

THIS Sunday, leading US Im-migration Attorney Michael J. Gurfinkel answers Kapamilya’s questions at his Law Offices in Glendale, California.

Can an aunt sponsor her nephew for a working visa at her own company?

A green card holder returned

to the Philippines to attend his father’s funeral and stayed all these years. Can he return to the US without being turned away?

Watch an all-new episode of your information-packed, award-winning public service program on television – Citizen Pinoy: Your Tanong, My Sagot–on

Sunday, October 4 at 6:15pm PST/EST (9:15pm EST thru select Cable/Satellite providers).

Also, for latest immigration news and updates, please “like” and “share” our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/gurfin-kellaw.

More immigration questions are answered on an all new episode of Citizen Pinoy!

Alonzo. She was also a cast as one of the lead character of the Spirits and she also did several episodes of Maalaala Mo Kaya.

In 2013, Salvador signed a re-cording contract for Ivory Music & Video. The album Believe became famous in June 2014, and was certi-fied as Gold Record for selling 7,500 copies in the country.

Also in 2013, Salvador joined the campaign of PETA to save the captivity of ‘Mali’ and bring the elephant back to Manila Zoo and to be transferred at Boon Lott’s Elephant Sanctuary to get much needed care and nourishment.

Witness this one-of-a-kind duo with Jericho Rosales and Maja Sal-vador in a live concert brought to you by Pechanga Resort & Casino.

Time is running out. Buy your tickets now—from $85, $75, $65 and $50. Tickets are available at the Pechanga Box office or online at

Jericho Rosales & Maja Salvador.. view from every theater seat. Pechanga Resort & CasinoPechanga Resort & Casino of-

fers one of the largest and most expansive resort/casino experience anywhere in the country. Rated a Four Diamond property by AAA since 2002, Pechanga Resort & Casino provides an unparalleled getaway, whether for the day or for an extended luxury stay. Offering more than 3,000 of the hottest slots, table games, world-class entertain-ment, 517 hotel rooms, dining, spa and championship golf at Journey at Pechanga, Pechanga Resort & Casino features a destination that meets and exceeds the needs of its guests and the community. Pechanga Resort & Casino is owned and operated by the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. For more information, call toll free 1-877-711-2946 or visit www.Pechanga.com. Follow Pechanga Resort & Casino on Facebook.com/Pechanga and on Twitter @PechangaCasino.

www.Pechanga.com/tickets. Room and show packages are available. To purchase wheelchair seating, please call the Box Office at 1-877-711-2946.

Service fees & ticket excep-tions

All Tickets are subject to a $5 Service Fee. NO REFUNDS. NO EXCHANGES. NO EXCEPTIONS.

Ticket limit is 6 tickets per Per-former, per person, per credit card, per household.

Shows in the Pechanga Theater offer a comfortable and intimate concert experience. With 1,200 seats in its theater, each show fea-tures state-of-the-art and acousti-cally perfected sound. Enjoying favorite artists at Pechanga versus other venues proves effortless with free valet and self-parking for guests, complimentary ca-sino/resort shuttles, gourmet and casual dining options on site, plus comfortable chairs and an up-close

BY MONET LU

G. TÖNGI

The Global Kababayan

Programming of Kababayan Today, October 5-9, 2015

YOLO. You only live once.These words have been met with

so much disapproval, so much ire. But there’s a reason why. People use the phrase as an excuse for doing something idiotic, unbeliev-able or something that not only hurts themselves but other people as well.

But don’t let the ignorance of the people using it fool you. YOLO is actually an inspiring quote that should empower us to do more with our lives. There is truth be-hind saying that we only have one life to live -- a long path of events and moments that will help shape the many different transforma-tions we encounter as we walk through it.

But living out mundane, con-trolled lives is like keeping the steel in a smithing anvil untouched. It be-comes an unshaped, formless mass

The power of trying

not have advanced the world if they hadn’t taken risks and tried out new things.

So find your reason to bust out a YOLO now or in the near future. Learn to ice skate, post a light novel on the Internet for people to read, try out exotic food you’d never see yourself trying out, take a college course you’ve been curious about or go big and take a solo trip of self-discovery somewhere you think would hold some great meaning in your life.

All it takes is one risk and one try -- you’ll be able to open your world to a bunch of new possibilities!

So get out there and find some-thing amazing you can YOLO

about.***

of metal that has no true distinction or purpose. It is only through learn-ing and experiencing that we grow as both adults and as people.

It is said that during the first seven years of life, children are most active and hyper because everything around them is a new experience. They become excited while trying to understand what Easter is, what candy tastes like or how fun (or scary) it can be to interact with other children the same age as themselves. But as we grow, the magic of those mo-ments become natural things to everyday life.

But even though we feel like we’ve learned every trick in the book, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what the regular hu-man person can experience and accomplish.

That’s why you should never be afraid of anything new. Sure, things like sports and games may not be your style or activities like bungee jumping or roller coaster rides may seem dangerous. But it’s better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all. The survival of the human race has stemmed from trial and error. Countless scientists and their ingenious inventions would

October 5 - Kababayan To-day and Halo Halo present an exclusive screening for Fili-pino American History Month. The film, “Filipino Americans: Discovering Their Past for the Future” is made possible in co-operation with FANHS. Aksyon News moves to 3:30pm today and the screening starts at 4pm to 5pm on LA18.

This fascinating documentary explores hidden pages in Ameri-can history and delves into the 400-year-old chronicle of one of the largest ethnic groups in the United States. Interviews with historians, readings from his-torical letters and transcriptions, combined with more than 300 archival photos reveal Filipino Americans in Hawai’ian planta-tions, California migrant farms, Alaskan fish canneries and Loui-siana shrimp fishing.

Their involvement during World War II and their contri-butions to the advancement of labor organizations are docu-mented in the film. Family units and strong social bonds helped them survive while dealing

October 9 - Get to know docu-mentarian Marissa Aroy and her film “Little Manila.”

***

with discrimination and hard economic times. This video il-lustrates how Filipino American history has contributed to the American way of life and is an essential component of United States history.

October 6 - Live show with Aquino & Loew. Every month, the immigration law firm of Aquino & Loew offers advice to kababayans who will call in LIVE. Tune in at 3:30pm and call us to speak to our attorneys!

October 7 - Midweek News Updates from the Asian Journal and Real Estate Buzz with Mia McLeod.

Professor Emeritus Enrique Dela Cruz, one of the co-authors of “The Forbidden Book”, shares his research and knowledge on the Philippine American War.

October 8 - We speak to the direct descents of the first settle-ment in America of Fil-Ams, with Rhonda Richoux in Louisiana. We also chat with Art Villarruz and Maria Orosa, whose fathers were both Pensionados.

First-ever NYX Cosmetics retail store...Charisma Star. “As a passionate beauty consumer, NYX Profes-sional Makeup is offering a place where makeup lovers like me can find all of their favorite products, and truly become a part of the NYX Professional Makeup com-munity. I can’t wait for the first store to open and meet my fellow NYX fans there.”

Honoring its deep relationships with some of the most popular Instagram and YouTube beauty influencers, NYX has teamed up with these beauty gurus as cam-paign models. Additionally, every month select NYX Professional Makeup stores will host meet-ups and in-store content takeovers with these influencers.

In their continued support of

artistry and self-expression, the first NYX Professional Makeup stores will also include custom pieces of street-art in store, cre-ated by HUEMAN, a renowned female street artist.

Currently, NYX Professional Makeup is available in 70 coun-tries at thousands of beauty and fashion retailers and on www.nyxcosmetics.com

MANGO MIX

by MARTIN JASON

L. ITA-AS

this man possesses – even as great as his fashion sense.

I’ve known Mul for more than a decade. We share a very comple-mentary working relationship. He designs gowns and evening dresses, while I take care of the hair and makeup. We share a similar taste in style and fashion, which also makes our friendship “mutu-ally beneficial.” But more than the professional input he gives to my business – and vise versa, it is Mul’s high moral sense and love for his Kababayans that make him a great man. Currently, Mul leads several humanitarian organizations here and in the Philippines.

He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of TLC International and supported various non- profit orga-nizations through Fashion Shows where he presented his elegant col-lections with “Engineered Design to Perfection.” He was an active member of the Board of Directors of Negrenses of America, Inc. in 1996 and was the President of his hometown non-profit organiza-tion, Townsfolk of La Castellana – USA from 2000 to 2004. Under his leadership and with unparal-leled devotion to his humanitarian vision, the organization was able to raise funds that helped implement various programs and infrastruc-ture projects in his homeland. Mul

was also the President of Fil-Am Association of SCV in 2010 and a Board of Trustee in 2013 where he initiated programs and projects that are geared towards the Senior community.

He is actively involved in his Par-ish Church, the Filipino Ministry’s activities and events in Santa Clar-ita and a member of the Planning Committee for Archdiocese of Los Angeles Simbang Gabi 2015.

When I asked him to tell me what inspires him to do all these, he hum-bly said that he wants to give back to the community because he knew how it feels to start from nothing. As one who also came from poverty, he wants to share his blessings by dedicating his time, money and ser-vices to the underprivileged. And this is where he feels most fulfilled and rewarded for his work.

As previously mentioned, Mul graduated with a degree in Civil En-gineering and was a Development Planning Officer in Bacolod City, Philippines before he emigrated to US in 1991.

He switched careers when he discovered his passion for Design. He said it was probably because of his mother’s influence as a seamstress. He started a corporate medical uniforms and sports wear business, which was highly suc-cessful, and later branched out. He

decided to further his skills to allow him to build a brand, so he enrolled in Computer Aided Design in Fash-ion at the California Design College and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2002. He was chosen to design a Fashion Icon inspired by the Film of Greta Garbo for Kelly Preston at Fashion Show Gala.

Mul’s creations are contempo-rary and elegant and were known for its versatility. He was honored as Philippine Image Fashion Designer, April 2005 in Los Angeles. He also received an award for his Haute Couture Designs for the Fashion Show in June, 2009, a Beautiful Life Celebration with Ruffa Gutierrez at CBS Studio. He was a featured Fashion Designer in the Annual Rescues On The Runway Fashion Show and Miss Santa Clarita Val-ley Scholarship Program in 2009 to 2011.

Now, Mul owns Mul Tayoba Couture and specializes in custom Prom Outfit, Debutante, Evening Wear, Quincianera, Formal Outfit for all occasions and Wedding Ensembles.

Aside from his high fashion and moral sense, Mul is a great husband to Rose Gecosala, and a loving fa-ther to his three successful children: Mikko, who is now a Civil Engineer, Myla, a Bioengineer and Miky, who is graduating in Music and Media

Mul Tayoba: A man with great fashion and moral sense

Communication. I could go on and on about how

great of a man Mul Tayoba is but like the proverbial rule, “seeing is believing,” I suggest you get to know him and his heart – and you will be inspired.

To Mul Tayoba: Congratulations on your Beautiful Life Award. I will see you very soon.

one of these great men. And with reverence, I introduce to you, my wonderful friend and 2015 Beauti-ful Life Celebration’s Most Distin-guished Fashion Designer.” – Mr. Mul Tayoba

Everybody knows Mul Tayoba as a man of great talent: He is an accomplished Couture Designer, was a Licensed Civil Engineer and a Development Planning Officer in the Philippines. But not most people know how good-natured this man is. Today, I want this piece to highlight how much moral sense

“I’VE known a couple of great men in my community. I’ve seen how they passionately worked towards making this world a bet-ter place. I admire them, but most of all; I share in their vision. I was blessed to have worked with – and became good friends with

NOW there’s an even bigger reason why PNBRCI should be your remitter of choice hands down. PNB Remittance Centers Inc. has launched a big promotion called the Healthy Ka Pinoy campaign that began on September 18, 2015 and will end on February 29, 2016.

All one needs to do is to make 3 remittances of at least $300 each time until they reach the to-tal amount of $1200 sent to their beneficiaries through PNBRCI during the promo period to get a FREE Emergency Card Insurance for a remitter’s loved one in the Philippines.

Here’s how it works. With a Healthy Ka Pinoy (HKP) Emergency Card, which is a Group Protect Policy, a remitter and his benefi-ciary can save himself from worry-ing if one has the cash on hand to

pay for a beneficiary’s unexpected medical treatment. Having the HKP Card is the beneficiary’s guarantee to get on-time treatment in cases of medical emergencies or even acci-dents that need immediate medical treatment.

Consider the significant benefits of a remitter’s loved one having the HKP Card: PHP 15,000 Emergency Medical Expense; PHP 70,000 Accidental Death, Disability and Dismemberment and PHP 5,000 Accidental Burial Benefit.

How does one avail of the emer-gency benefits? By using the HKP Card, a beneficiary can avail of the Hospital Network facilities nation-wide of Eastwest Health Care. For non-accredited hospitals which are not under the umbrella of Eastwest Health Care, emergency care ben-efits can be claimed through the

reimbursement method.The HKP Card is a joint product

between PNB Life, which is the insurance provider, and Eastwest Health Care Hospital Network, the emergency services provider.

Joanne Rivera, PNBRCI Business Development head explains the ra-tionale behind the HKP Emergency Card for a remitter’s beneficiary, “We are continuously examining our product offerings in PNB and understand that our remitters are clamoring for more value for their money. No one else here in the US can offer this to remitters and beneficiaries. We are giving this op-portunity at no additional cost.”

There are 3 easy steps to join this unique and possibly, life-saving promotion. Step 1: Send at least 3 remittances of $300 minimum each time to reach a total of $1200

through PNB Remittance Centers Inc. Step 2: Give your Remittance Transaction Reference Number to your beneficiary every time you remit. And finally, Step 3: Your beneficiary in the Philippines will be the one to register the Remittance Transaction Reference Number by texting the following information to 3456:

PNB<space>JOIN HKP<space>FirstName<comma>

LastName<space>transaction date

MM/DD/YYYY <space> transac-tion reference no.

Example:PNB JOINHKP JUAN,SANTOS

08/19/2015 1234567891234567For more information about

this promotion, you and your ben-eficiary can visit www.pnb.com.ph/hkppromo

Send your remittance thru PNBRCI and Get a free Healthy Ka Pinoy (HKP) Emergency Card for your bene�ciary

Arthur A. Dugoni School of Den-tistry, and recently joined the family business to help her parents, Dr. Hector Z. Landig, and Dr. Yolanda Herrero-Landig.

“What I love most about my job is being able to help people and make meaningful connections. Whether it be a patient in pain, suffering from low self-esteem, in-ability to eat, etcetera, as a dentist I have the distinct opportunity to help people. Taking the time to chat and getting to know our pa-tients can create bonds beyond the dental chair,” said Dr. Myoli, who is inspired by her family’s work ethic,

and also hopes to open her own solo practice in the future.

Along with helping patients, the Landigs often make medical mis-sion trips to the Philippines, helping to serve the great dental needs of their own community.

According to the American Dental Association, roughly 50% of children ages 5 to 9 years old have at least one cavity or filling. Is your child one of them?

Poor oral health can negatively affect a child’s self-esteem, lead to absences from school, impact the ability to eat, and cause unwanted shifting of permanent teeth. If left

untreated, oral cavity infections can be life-threatening. Visiting the dentist regularly is the quickest way to prevent these issues! We recom-mend seeing our patients at least twice a year for regular check-ups and cleanings.

Don’t be afraid to visit your family dentist, who can recognize these issues!

At Horizon Family Dental, we offer general family and esthetic dentistry: diagnostic, preventative, periodontics (deep cleaning), re-storative (fillings, crowns, bridges), root canals, prosthodontics (partial and full dentures), oral surgery

(tooth extractions including wis-dom teeth), and smile designs (in-cluding but not limited to veneers, crowns, in-office and take home whitening).

We also have holiday specials for Zoom whitening, $100 off Zoom in-office and take home whitening, with added incentive for referrals.

Visit your family dentist today! Parents, bring your kids in today for a FREE consultation with Dr. Myoli Landig at one of our con-venient locations in Diamond Bar (909-396-5161) and Panorama City (818-920-3959).

Horizon Family Dental Group: Family-owned, community-trusted AS a unique, family-owned and

operated dentistry, at Horizon Fam-ily Dental Group we understand the importance of full health. With over 60 years of dental knowledge combined, our dentists are well-trained, experienced, and sensitive to the needs of families, providing comprehensive, patient-centered care from head to toe--not just their teeth.

Dental treatment can be costly--we provide in-house interest free

payment plans, and accept all types of PPO insurance. We also do home visits! We understand that there is a person attached to every tooth, and that our patients are people, not dollar signs. At our office, we are committed to providing the best care for each and every one of our patients, as though they were our own family members.

Dr. Myoli Landig received her extensive training and graduated from the University of the Pacific

SEAFOOD CITYFOOD SERVICE

FPFC

COMMUNITYJ O U R N A L

u

ATTY. ROBERT REEVES AMANDA C. KWONG

AND NANCY MILLER

Your ImmigrationSolution

NO one wants to be a victim of crime. It often results in the per-son feeling vulnerable and help-less. But, if it does happen, the victim may be able to obtain a U –visa under the Victims of Traf-ficking 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 hav-ing been the victim of qualifying criminal activity; possess cred-ible and reliable information es-tablishing that they have knowl-edge of the details concerning the criminal activity; have been helpful, are being helpful, or are likely to be helpful to a certify-ing agency in the investigation or prosecution 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 beneficia-ries (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 muti-lation, fraud in foreign labor contracting, being held as a hostage, incest, involuntary servitude, kidnapping, man-slaughter, murder, obstruction of justice, peonage, perjury, prostitution, rape, sexual as-sault, 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

Help for victims of crimesnature and elements of the of-fense are substantially similar to the specifically named of-fenses.

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 de-ceased due to murder or man-slaughter or is incompetent or incapacitated if the family member is a spouse or child un-der 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 provide a document signed by a certifying official stating how the person qualifies as a certify-ing official; that the petitioner has been a victim of a qualify-ing criminal activity that the certifying official’s agency is investigating or prosecuting; that the petitioner possesses in-formation concerning the activ-ity; that the petitioner has been or may be helpful and that the criminal activity occurred in the US Certifying official has been defined as a head of a certify-ing agency or law enforcement agency or prosecutor, judge or other authority involved in the investigation or prosecution; a supervisor who has been desig-nated 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 Legisla-ture, that process just became easier.

The Immigrant Victims of Crime Equity Act, marks a milestone in immigrant victim rights. The bill is awaiting Gov-ernor 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 Immi-grant 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 non-citizen is in removal proceed-ings. Previously, there was no guidance on the timeframe for certifying entities to respond to requests. This will make obtain-ing timely certification easier for the victim.

After three years of physical presence in the United States in U status, survivors may ap-ply for a green card as long as they have not unreasonably refused to provide assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution. One of the only exceptions rendering ineligibil-ity is for the limited few who are inadmissible for participating in Nazi persecution. Therefore, any noncitizen whose immigra-tion status is not settled and

ATTY. RAYMOND BULAON

Minding Your Finances

VICTOR SY, CPA, MBA ANDARLENE AL-OS,CPA, MBA

Tax Tips

ATTY. KENNETH URSUA REYES

Barrister’s Corner

FOR most people, being served with divorce papers by your spouse is probably one of the biggest surprises in your life. The spouse in the receiv-ing end of the divorce some-times are not offered any expla-nation for the divorce petition by their spouse. You may start getting upset about how this can happen to you and start do-ing things that are going to be seriously detrimental to your divorce case later on in the pro-ceeding. Here are seven things you should not do.

Do not confront your spouse and commit domestic vio-lence

Many spouse feel very angry and upset upon receiving the divorce papers. You may start blaming your spouse and at-tacking your spouse. You may even yell, threaten, scream, or even physically assault your spouse. This type of confron-tation is called “domestic vio-lence.” You may be arrested criminally if your spouse calls law enforcement. Your spouse may also file a domestic vio-lence restraining order against you. Either one would com-promise your ability to seek custody of your children, child support, and spousal support. It would also affect your cred-ibility as a witness for future proceedings. In addition if you do this in front of the children, this may be looked at as domes-tic violence and abuse against the children. The incident may be reported to Child Protective Services for investigation.

Do not run to the bank and empty out all your bank ac-counts or sell assets except for funds necessary retain legal

7 things you should not do when served with divorce papers by your spouse

representation in the divorce.If you have assets, do not run

and empty out your bank ac-counts with the goal of securing it from your spouse. The divorce petition and summons includes certain automatic temporary re-straining orders (ATROS) which prohibits transferring and en-cumbering assets. You will be in violation of the ATROS if you do this. Your spouse may also make a claim for breach of fidu-ciary duty against you. Howev-er there are certain exceptions to withdrawing funds such as funds necessary for your living expenses and funds you need to retain an attorney.

Do not cut off your spouse from any insurance policies

One of the ATROS prohib-its you from removing your spouse from health insurance coverage and other insurance policy. It would be a violation of ATROS to do so. You need to maintain your spouse on all existing insurance until the di-vorce is finalized or the status of marriage is dissolved in a bi-furcated trial.

Do not take off with your child and move out of state or out of the country

If the child has been living in this state, California Court has jurisdiction over your child even if you leave California after being served the divorce. Your spouse can get an order from the California court to return the child to California and get sole physical custody of your child. This can be enforced through law enforcement in other states. In addition, this would also be an ATROS viola-tion. Such a move would seri-ously undermine your claim for

custody of the children.Do not use your child as a

messenger to communicate with your spouse

Divorce process is a very difficult process for the chil-dren. Children often blame themselves for the divorce of their parents. Children some-times manifest this through their academic performance during the divorce process. Do not involve the children in your divorce case. Using the children to communicate mes-sages to your spouse puts them in a difficult and very stressful situation. This will also affect your claim for custody of your children if you regularly involve your children in your attempt to communicate with your spouse. In addition, you should not say disparaging remarks about the other parent to your children.

Do not stalk your spouse in social medias such as face-book or tweeter.

Your spouse probably stopped informing you as to what is go-ing on in his/her life at this point. You may be curious if your spouse hooked up with a third party or an old flamer. You may be curious what your spouse are telling your friends and family. Do not stalk your spouse in social media such as facebook. Do not hack into your spouse’s e-mail. This is a crime. Your spouse can also file a domestic violence re-straining order against you for stalking. Most of the evidence obtained illegally is not admis-sible in court anyways. If you have been unfriended by your spouse, let it be.

Do not quit your job volun-

THE Treasury Inspector Gen-eral for Tax Administration (TIG-TA, an agency that oversees the IRS) instructed the IRS to expand audits to prior and subsequent years. This means that if IRS audits your income tax return for 2013, they must expand the audit to your 2012 and 2014 as well. Ouch!

The Treasury Department con-ducted its own audit of the IRS to determine whether tax compli-ance officers conducted required filing checks in accordance with IRS policies and procedures.

TIGTA stated that IRS must make every effort to ensure that audits are expanded to prior year returns, as well as subsequent year returns, when “substantial” taxes may be involved.

TIGTA evaluated single-year audits of individual returns for which the taxpayers involved agreed they understated their tax liabilities by more than $4,400. Auditors scrutinized 100 such sample cases. Although similar

IRS expands audits to prior year and subsequent years

tax issues may have existed on prior and/or subsequent year returns, the audits were not ex-panded to those returns in 48 of the 100 sample cases. As a consequence, opportunities may have been missed to address the noncompliance that contributes to the tax gap and promote tax system fairness among the vast majority of taxpayers who prop-erly report and pay their taxes year in and year out.

IRS has estimated that $197 billion of the $345 billion tax gap is attributable to individuals un-derreporting their income tax li-abilities.

TIGTA identified three factors why the IRS may not have ex-panded audits:

1. The agency “strives to keep its audit inventories free of old tax year returns.”

2. Tax compliance officers do not seem to be taking full advan-tage of available internal sources of information when conducting required filing checks.

3. There is inconsistent ac-countability regarding the qual-ity of filing checks by tax compli-

ance officers.* * *

IF you are struggling with debt problems and are starting to feel hopeless about your situ-ation because you are not get-ting anywhere in spite of your efforts, at what point do you consider filing bankruptcy as an option? Bankruptcy scares a lot of people and that’s understand-able because everything they’ve heard about it from friends, fam-ily and co-workers is negative. But is bankruptcy really all that bad?

Well, most people don’t even understand it. The law says that bankruptcy is nothing more than a fresh financial start when you are no longer in a position to help yourself. Of course, this is not what the bill collectors want you to think. They want you to think that this is the ‘worst’ thing that you can ever do and that it will ruin your chances of ever buying a house or getting credit

To people who are considering bankruptcy but are unsureagain. These are the lies that they want you to believe because they know that once you file bank-ruptcy, they can no longer get any of your money.

From a legal standpoint, here are a few helpful questions you should be asking to help you as-sess whether it’s time for you to consider filing for bankruptcy: (1) Are you struggling to pay even the minimum payments on your credit cards? (2) Have you started borrowing money just to be able to cover your basic living expenses such as rent or mort-gage, food, gas, etc? (3) Have you lost track of how much you owe? (4) Are bill collectors calling you because you have accounts in collection? (5) Have creditors taken legal action against you such as filing a lawsuit, obtained a judgment and threatening to garnish your wages or levy your bank account?

If you said “yes” to any or most of the above, you could be in a financial danger zone and I sug-gest that you take immediate ac-tion before your situation gets worse. If you own a home and

have assets that may be at risk if you were sued by your creditors, it is in your best interest to find out how you can protect what you have from creditors who are trying to collect from you. A lawsuit can lead to a judgment against you- and it can attach as a lien to your home which makes the debt secured while also earning interest. The lien may stop you from refinancing your mortgage and could be a hindrance in trying to sell your home unless the underlying debt is paid in full. A judgment can also be enforced by garnishing your wages and attaching your bank accounts. This is not what you want, is it? So why wait for the worst to happen if there is something you can do right now to prevent all of the above from happening.

Never ignore your debts be-cause they could come back and haunt you when you least ex-pect them. I’ve seen this happen many, many times. At the very least, you should consult with an experienced attorney so you can plan in advance what you should

do if your financial situation gets worse. I believe that bankruptcy should be a last resort and that you need to exhaust all debt re-lief options before resorting to it. But I also believe that a lot of people put off the decision to file bankruptcy for too long that they needlessly suffer in debt when they could have acted sooner to rebuild their finances

and their life.Since 1997, I have helped

thousands of clients get out of debt in order to live more finan-cially secure lives. Let me help you determine if bankruptcy is right for your situation or if other options are available in order for you to avoid it. Call Toll-Free 1-866-477-7772 to schedule a free office consultation. We have of-

fices in Los Angeles, Pasadena, Cerritos and Valencia.

* * *

u

ATTY. C. JOE SAYAS, JR.

Protecting Employee & Consumer Rights

Dear Attorney Tan,I ENTERED the US in 1998 as a crewman. I have recently mar-

ried a US citizen and would like to get a green card. However, I have heard that since I entered as a crewman, I cannot adjust my status to a permanent resident. Is this true? – Lost on Land

Dear Lost on Land,Under INA Section 245(c)(1), a person who enters the US as a

“crewman” is generally barred from adjusting his status to perma-nent residence. However, analysis of this issue must begin with determining whether you are actually a “crewman,” who is barred from adjustment.

A “crewman” is defined as a person “serving…in a capacity re-quired for normal operation and service on board a vessel, …or aircraft, who intends to land temporarily and solely in pursuit of his calling as a crewman and to depart from the United States with the vessel or aircraft on which he arrived or some other vessel or aircraft.” INA Section 101(a)(15(D). A “crewman” under this definition is assigned a “D” visa classification, but is often issued a dual C-1 transit/ D crewman visa. Because of this, a common misperception exists that a C-1 visa classification is designated for crewmen, and that a person who entered the US under a C-1 clas-sification is by definition a “crewman,” therefore barred from adjusting his status to permanent resident. However, it is important to keep in mind that if a person entered on a C-1 transit visa, he may not be a “crewman” and may be eligible to adjust status. Further, the facts of a particular case regardless of letter classification of one’s visa upon entry may also be considered. If you entered on a C-1 transit visa, or under circumstances that do not fit the definition of a “crewman,” you may be eligible to adjust status.

If you are considered a “crewman” under the above definition, you can still file for adjustment of status to permanent residence and get a green card in the US if you are covered by INA Section 245(i). To be covered under INA Section 245(i), one must be the beneficiary of a visa petition or la-bor certification filed on or before April 30, 2001. If the petition was filed between January 14, 1998 and April 30, 2001, physical presence in the US on December 21, 2000 is also required.

If you are not covered under INA Section 245(i), and are considered a “crewman” under the above definition, you would need to obtain your immigrant visa at a foreign consular post. Traditionally, persons who were unlawfully present in the US for more than 1 year, and who had to obtain their immigrant visa at an overseas US consulate were subject to an unlawful presence bar from returning to the US for 10 years. That person would be able to seek a waiver of the unlawful presence bar after leaving the US, but if denied, he would be left outside of the US, and away from his family for 10 years. However, under the Provisional Waiver program, you can apply for and get a decision on the waiver of the unlawful presence bar without leaving the US. If the waiver is approved, you can leave the US with some assurance that you will obtain your immigrant visa at the US consulate post and quickly return. Spouses and minor children of US citizens are eligible for provisional waiver relief.

* * *Darrick V. Tan, Esq. is admitted to practice law in California and Nevada. Mr. Tan is a gradu-

ate of UCLA and Southwestern University School of Law. He is a member of the Consumers Attorney Association of Los Angeles and is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Philippine American Bar Association.

Permanent residence for crewmen

LAURALYN Swanson is a highly accomplished elemen-tary school teacher with over 30 years’ experience teaching kin-dergarten through sixth grade. She has a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction, and holds several teaching creden-tials and certifications. In Au-gust 2006, the Morongo Unified School District (School District) hired Swanson as a technology/reading specialist and computer laboratory teacher where she later received excellent perfor-mance evaluations.

During the summer break, a new principal (John Lowe) was hired and he belatedly re-as-signed Swanson to be a “LAN-GUAGE! Reading Specialist.” Later that summer, Swanson was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and treatments. She was on medical leave until early March.

On Swanson’s return to work in the fall of 2008, she was offered an open fifth grade teaching as-signment. Swanson objected because her precarious health would prevent her from doing the necessary work required for this new assignment. She then requested a position at the sec-ond grade level because she had recently taught that grade at a different school. Her request was denied, another teacher was assigned to the second grade opening, and Swanson was in-stead assigned to a kindergarten class. Swanson expressed con-cerns about working with kinder-garten-age children because her cancer treatments damaged her immune system and she feared that exposure to the many ill-nesses of kindergarten children would pose further health risks. Her concerns were ignored and she was forced to teach the kin-dergarten class. Sure enough, she was again forced to take

How far should disabled employees be accommodated at work?Granting medical leave may not be enough

another medical leave because she suffered pancreatitis, pneu-monia, and liver issues that she attributed to her kindergarten teaching assignment.

When she returned in Decem-ber 2008 from her second leave, she received poor evaluations. Eventually, the School District voted not to renew her contract for the 2009/2010 school year. Swanson sued the School Dis-trict claiming it violated the law by (1) discriminating against her because she was diagnosed with breast cancer and took medical leave to receive treatment (2) fail-ing to reasonably accommodate her cancer-related health condi-tions by refusing to assign her to teach an available second grade class she believed provided the greatest opportunity for her to successfully teach while recover-ing from her cancer treatments and (3) failing to engage in a good faith, interactive process to identify a reasonable accom-modation for her cancer-related health conditions.

The School District asked the trial court to dismiss Swanson’s discrimination claim, saying she was let go because she failed to satisfy the School District’s teaching standards. The School District also argued that it rea-sonably accommodated Swanson and engaged in an interactive process by changing her teach-ing assignment from fifth grade to kindergarten when Swanson objected to the fifth grade teach-ing assignment. The trial court agreed and threw out her case. Swanson appealed.

The Court of Appeal sided with Swanson and reversed the trial court decision. The court explained that when providing a reasonable accommodation, an employer does not have an obligation to create a new job, reassign another employee, or

promote a disabled employee. However, an employer does have a duty to reassign a disabled employee if an already funded, vacant position at the same level exists. Most importantly, a dis-abled employee seeking reas-signment to a vacant position is entitled to preferential consider-ation.

The court then concluded that the School District failed to show that the second grade as-signment Swanson sought was not available or was not a rea-sonable accommodation, or that the fifth grade and kindergarten assignments the School District offered were reasonable ac-commodations. The School Dis-trict also failed to present any evidence showing it engaged Swanson in an ongoing dia-logue regarding her requested accommodations. The trial court should have allowed a jury to evaluate Swanson’s discrimina-tion claim by having her present evidence supporting her theory that the School District changed her teaching assignments and failed to provide the resources she needed to succeed so it would have a basis for not re-newing her contract.

who has been a victim of what might be a qualifying crime should consult with an experi-enced and knowledgeable im-migration attorney regarding your potential options.

***

Help for victims of…t

tarilyIf you think you can dodge

child support and spousal sup-port by quitting your job volun-tarily, it is not going to happen. Your spouse’s lawyer will argue that there was no legitimate reason for you to leave your employment and may seek the court to impute income on you. Your spouse may seek voca-tional evaluation for purposes of determining your earning ca-pacity. In addition, the amount of income you will lose by quit-ting is substantially more than the money you will owe in child

or spousal support. Even if you are successful in dodging the support orders by quitting your job, your spouse can modify them back up the moment you go back to the work force.

If you have been served with divorce papers and are unsure how to react, seek professional help before you dig yourself deeper in the hole.

* * *

* * *

7 things you should not do when served…t

ATTY. LAWRENCE YANG

Debt Relief

REVERENDRODEL G. BALAGTAS

To Live With Faith

SOMETIMES debtors can-not decide whether they should seek debt relief through Chapter 7 wipe out of all dischargeable debts or personal reorganization through Chapter 13, or business reorganization though Chapter 11. All of these methods get rid of unwanted and burdensome debt while allowing debtors to keep most if not all of their as-sets. Thus, a fresh start in life without debt. The individual or the business enterprise becomes productive again because debts have been erased. Clients usu-ally ask me what they should do in their situation. First of all, debtors should look at their fi-nancial problems objectively. They should choose the solu-tion that best serves their needs. They should seek to protect their own interest and their own fu-tures. They should not succumb to the pressure of differing opin-ions from friends or relatives, or the pressure of being ‘ashamed’ for instance. I had one client re-

Who should seek bankruptcy relief

cently who decided to withdraw her Chapter 7 petition because her sister did not approve of it. She had a mountain of debt, which she had absolutely no way of paying unless she worked ten jobs and she was three months behind on her mortgage pay-ments. In other words, objective-ly speaking, the right solution is Chapter 7 relief so she can get a fresh start without the burden of accumulated debt. Instead, she wanted to make her sister happy and chose not to protect her own interest and her own future. She was not thinking clearly. I asked her if her sister was going to give her $80K to pay her credit card debt? She said no, it’s just that her sister did not approve of her filing for Chapter 7. Realistically, where is the legal or moral sense of sister’s disapproval? And why should client subject herself to sister’s approval when it’s client who is being sued by creditors and it’s her wages being gar-nished, and it’s her house that is going to be foreclosed?

Eligible debtors should consid-er the following objective criteria

to seek BK relief:• Based on debtor’s net income

and expense analysis, debtor has no ability to pay off his or her un-secured debts. In other words, even if debtor’s intention is to pay off debt, realistically speak-ing, debtor cannot pay off those debts over a reasonable period of time. This means that debtor will be locked in permanent indebted-ness, being a debt slave forever. So, it is morally and logically cor-rect that debtor should find a way of getting out of debt as soon as possible, by all legal means. And the most effective and legal way of getting rid of debt is through bankruptcy. Even very large com-panies resort to Chapter 11 when they can no longer pay debt. Mr. Trump’s businesses have filed for bankruptcy, several times, to get out under the burden of debt. He’s still running for president now. His businesses are leaner and profitable because of bank-ruptcy.

• Too much debt destroys the household’s ability to save and in-vest money to secure the family’s

u

AN elderly Mexican woman developed a deep devotion to St. Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila. She would pray before the statue of the Filipino saint every time that she visited her church to ask for his intercession, especially for the safety of her son.

One day she learned that the police arrested her son and put him in jail. She immediately went to her church to pray to St. Lorenzo Ruiz.

That evening her son walked into her home to tell her the good news that he had been released from jail. Then she noticed the at-tire that her son was wearing. He was wearing one similar to that of St. Lorenzo Ruiz in his statue at the church: black long pants, a white long sleeve shirt, and a pair of sandals. She thought that this was a confirmation of her an-swered prayers to God through the intercession of St. Lorenzo

The God who speaks to usRuiz.

The following week, a priest visited her in her home. She asked for the name of the priest. To her big surprise, the priest’s name is Lorenzo! And again, she noticed the priest’s attire: black long pants, a white long sleeve shirt, and a pair of sandals. This can’t be a coincidence, she mused. It’s another confirmation of the powerful intercession of St. Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila!

It’s amazing to hear that devo-tion to St. Lorenzo Ruiz de Ma-nila has spread even among His-panic parishioners. It’s inspiring to hear the simple faith of people in the pews—that many events don’t happen by chance or ac-cident, but are truly God’s ways of revealing his providence, love and mercy, such as an answered prayer.

We’ve seen this happen in the present life of the Catholic Church. For example, the lead-ership of Pope Francis that has inspired many people, including world leaders, non-Catholics, and non-believers, didn’t just happen by chance nor is it a po-

litical move. Many of us believe that his papacy is the fruit of the Church’s prayers and a manifes-tation of God’s providence. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit that is guiding the Church, especially during troubled times.

I see this work of the Holy Spirit clearly in my small world here in the seminary in various instances: when I hear the vo-cation stories of our students; when I observe their zeal to the priesthood; and when I see their journeys of faith in God in their writings.

Dermot A. Lane writes in his book, The Experience of God, An Invitation To Do Theology: “The question of God for us today in the twenty-first century, as dis-tinct from any other century, is about the possibility of experi-encing God in the world. Where do we experience God in life? At what point(s) in human ex-perience does the reality of God impinge on human experience? The mystery of God is not some kind of theorem to be proved; it is rather, an experience to be

u

Annual Awards Banquet presented by TOYOTA

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

The Globe Theatre Universal Studios Hollywood

Black Tie Optional

Honorees

Business Enterprise of the Year CJ America, Inc.

Media Company of the Year Wong Fu Productions

ABA Chairperson Award

Honorable David E. Ryu

Corporation of the Year U.S. Bank

Advocate of the Year Richard Chacon

Celebrating the success of Asian owned businesses.

abala.org ǀ @ABALosAngeles ǀ #ABAAwards

Emcees

James Kyson Mei Melançon

Entertainment

Paul Dateh Maker Empire

People and Events

ATTY. ETHELENE F. SALAS

Family Law

MANY parents believe that if you are a working parent, then the other non-working parent will get physical custody of the minor children automatically. This is a misperception of the law and simplifies the law too much that it trivializes it. There are many more issues that a court must look at in determining which par-ent will get custody of the minor child/children.

The Family Code, the law of the State of California, is full of issues that the court must con-sider if properly brought up by a parent in a hearing or trial. In addition, there are many case law that gives guidance and ex-amples what the court could and could not do in a particular cir-cumstance.

In Burchard v. Garay, the court summarizes that the court cannot draw any presumption or

Child custody —working parents

inference that a working parent is a less satisfactory parent or less fully committed to the care of the child.

For example, in a situation where there is a single working mother and the father remarried----- A single mother might have to entrust her child to day care or baby-sitters in order to facilitate her employment obligations. But this fact alone cannot be used as a basis for denying the mother custody on an assumption she will necessarily provide inferior care to that of the other parent who also works but can (because of remarriage) leave the child at home with a stepparent.

Moreover, a denial of custody to the single working parent is improper simply on a showing the other parent has the financial means to hire live-in help as an alternative to out-of-home day care.

In conclusion, the court recog-nizes that parents must work in order to survive. However, this

fact must not be used against a parent. It is very important that when you have a custody hear-ing or a custody litigation, you must prepare yourself by pro-viding the court case law as to what it can or what it cannot do in your particular circumstanc-es. This is the lawyering part. A lawyer will be able to distin-guish your case and present to the court what could persuade the court to do. It is arguing your case in front of a judge and persuading your case to a judge to go your way.

* * *

future. If debtor makes $5,000 net a month but has to pay out all of the $5,000 for his monthly overhead and to make minimum payments on his credit card debt of say, $30,000, debtor is living a hand to mouth existence. Debtor saves nothing and invests noth-ing year in and year out. By the time debtor realizes that he has worked for twenty years with nothing saved and invested, it will be too late because by that time, debtor will be pushing fifty or sixty. Most people save and invest money while in their twenties to forties. Debtors who have too much debt are robbed of the ability to save and invest for decades. Thus, an intelligent and serious person who has too much deb but wants to save and invest must immediately correct his debt situation or else he or she will get old poor.

• Minimum monthly payments do not reduce the principal owed. If you make $5,000 a month but use $4,000 to pay your monthly overhead including mortgage, car, insurance etc payments but owe $40,000 of credit card debt, you will not be able to get rid of the $40,000 of debt even if you are current on the minimum card payments for twenty years. You need at least 3% of $40,000 or $1,200 a month to be current on all minimum monthly payments. Thus in one year, you would have paid $14,400 to your credit card masters in interest payments only, no principal. In three years,

you would have paid $43,200 in interest payments but you would still owe $40,000 of principal. This is certainly a good deal for the credit card companies. But it is obviously a bad deal for your family. So open your eyes and be courageous for your own family’s sake. When they garnish your bank accounts and your wages to exact payment, your plea for mercy that you have paid them so much over the years, will fall on deaf ears. Why even subject your family to this possibility in the fu-ture? They will call you early in the morning and late at night, ten times a day, even at your place of work, and they will even call up your mother in law to collect their pound of your flesh when you don’t pay them on time. Why subject your family to this kind of disrespectful treatment?

• Most debtors keep their houses, cars and other assets anyway. The beauty of BK re-lief is that debtors keep all if not most of their assets while being able to wipe out unwanted debts. Objectively speaking, this is a very good and an appropriate so-lution for debtor because he gets a fresh start with no debt while keeping all of his assets. I mean, why should Walt Disney file for Chapter 7 when his business failed the first time if bankrupt-cy was not good for him? Even Orange County filed for Chapter 11 when it had problems with pension liabilities, as did certain Catholic dioceses file for Chapter 11 when errant priests created

hundreds of millions of molesta-tion liabilities? Bankruptcy is ac-tually a defensive move that the debtor undertakes to “protect” himself and his family from cred-itors who want everything that they can get from them, includ-ing their integrity and humanity.

• Reestablishment of credit can start immediately. Debtors are able to begin reestablish-ing credit after bankruptcy. Yes, you will receive new credit cards within a few months after obtain-ing your discharge. Sounds ri-diculous but its true. The reason is that debtors who have a bank-ruptcy no longer have debt, and they can’t file for bankruptcy for another 8 years so they are actu-ally very good credit risks. They still have good income, will not have any debt, and are now more careful in their financial affairs. In fact, BK filers qualify to buy houses again on the second year after BK filing. Buying a new car is also no problem as long is the discharge has already been ob-tained.

“The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.” – Psalm 147:11

Who should seek bankruptcy…t

THE Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been advised that citizens are receiv-ing phone calls from individuals who are representing themselves as Department employees. The caller usually tells the citizen that there has been a warrant issued for their arrest for failure to ap-pear for Jury Duty. The caller will tell the victim that they have to pay a sum of money or depu-ties will come and arrest them. The caller will instruct the vic-tim to either get a Money Order, conduct a wire transfer, or buy a Gift Card (usually Green Dot) and send it to “pay the fine.”

BE ALERT, BE ADVISED, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department or any Government Agency will NEVER call and so-licit money for fines. The Los

Advisory: Phone scam alertAngeles County Sheriff’s Depart-ment does not solicit warrant in-formation by phone. The Sheriff’s Department or any Government Agency will NEVER ask you to get a Money Order, Gift Card, or wire transfer. Sheriff Depart-ment personnel will never go to your home to collect a fee for a warrant.

BE AWARE, NEVER give your personal information to anyone over the phone. DO NOT give callers information about your bank account, pin numbers, So-cial Security number or any type of identifying information.

Phone Scam Thieves are just that “Thieves” they will try and trick you into giving them money and information. If you receive a call protect yourself, your information and DO NOT

SEND MONEY! If you receive a phone call, al-

ways verify who the caller truly is, DO NOT use a phone number they provide you as verification. Usually numbers provided by the thief will go to a voice re-cording/message. Call your lo-cal Sheriff Station to verify any solicitation.

If you have sent money or believe that you are a victim of a crime, please call your local Sheriff’s Station or Police Depart-ment and report the incident.

If you receive a suspicious phone call/solicitation that you believe is not from a real govern-ment agency, please contact The Department of Consumer Affairs at (800) 593-8222. You can also file a complaint on the DCA web-site at dca.lacounty.gov. ■

UERMMMC - Medical Alumni Association Inaugural Ball

THE University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center - Medical Alumni Association of Southern Califor-nia (UERMMMC - MAASC ), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation which participates in many hu-manitarian projects and medi-cal missions to barangays in the Philippines, will hold its Inaugu-ral Ball and Dinner-Dance on Oc-tober 17, 2015 at the Manhattan

Paco Catholic High School Class of 1964 Reunion

Beach Marriott (1400 Parkview Avenue; Manhattan Beach, CA 90266).

Proceeds from the event will benefit underserved areas and families in Lucena, Quezon and District 2 of Pampanga (Lubao, Sasmuan, Guagua, Floridablan-ca) who are in need of medical and surgical care. The theme of the Inaugural Ball will be “A Black and White Event.”

The evening starts at 6:00pm. Tickets are $90 per person and are tax deductible; VIP packages ranging from $500 and up are also available.

For more information, please call Dr. Teri Pastor at 310-707-8480, Gloria Legaspi at 951-496-0536 and Lucy Babaran at 818-395-9348. We thank our guests and sponsors for their generous support! ■

THE Class ’64 of Paco Catholic High School will be celebrating its “Balik Tanaw sa Amerika” at the Gold Coast Casino & Hotel (4000 Flamingo Rd. Las Vegas, NV 89103) in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 25-27, 2015.

Reminisce with your schoolmates from 50+ years ago and re-live memorable high school days! Re-connect with your old friends and make some new ones! This is the first reunion gathering in the US since our 50th grand reunion.

For more information, please contact: Dan Hidalgo - dan-ielh616@hotmail.com; tel. (914) 310-0864 / (914) 740-7028. Ester Tadeo Celestino - cesaruceles-tino@yahoo.com; tel. (201) 433-0727/ (551) 574-8511. Minda Cuario Cameron - meandatwo@aol.com; tel. (813) 633-5642. Ed Bondoc - bondoced@yahoo.com; tel. (415) 342-9877. Gertrudes “Nette” Descallar Collyer - my-colly@roadrunner.com; tel. (818) 767-8175. ■

LA Builder Lions Club 25th Anniversary

THE Los Angeles Builder Lions Club will celebrate their 25th An-niversary and Annual Outstand-ing Parents Night on October 10, 2015 at the Almansor Court ban-quet hall (700 S Almansor St, Al-hambra, CA 91801).

Music will be provided by The Midnight Motion Band.

For further questions, please call Lion Bill Menor (323) 465-0613, Lion Yoli Ramo (213) 305-1332, chairpersons or Lion Tita James, co-chair at (818) 203-2325. ■

WHAT: The 24th Annual Festi-val of Philippine Arts & Culture

WHEN: Saturday, November 7, 2015, 10am - 6pm

WHERE: El Pueblo, 125 Paseo De La Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012

(213) 628-1274The 24th Annual Festival of

Philippine Arts & Culture (FPAC) will be celebrated on Saturday, November 7, 2015 at El Pueblo de Los Angeles and will feature contemporary and traditional Fil-ipino food, music, dance, crafts and culture. The festival, the City of Los Angeles’ Filipino Ameri-can Event, is the longest-running Filipino cultural celebration in Southern California.

This year’s theme for the City of Los Angeles’ Filipino American Event is “Balik tanaw, Pananaw bukas” a Tagalog phrase mean-ing “looking backward, looking forward.” While rooted in the native tongue of the motherland, this year’s theme celebrates the rich experiences of being Fili-pino American. As a community

Announcing... the 24th Annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC)

we honor the culture paved by our ancestors, and move forward with a grateful understanding of our Filipino American history. This is the spirit that keeps FPAC going, largely sustained by the dedicated audiences that return to the fest every year.

Check www.filmarts.org for more event updates.

For Sponsorship Inquiries con-tact us at 213-380-3722. or email info[at]filamarts[dot]org

For exhibitor (food and busi-ness) information, contact John Swing at jswing[at]esipa[dot]org

http://www.filamarts.org/@FilAmArtsLA#FPAC24 #FPAC2015#OnPilipinoTimeAbout Festival of Philippine

Arts and Culture (FPAC):The Annual Festival of Philip-

pine Arts & Culture (FPAC) was first conceptualized in 1990 as part of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department’s Festivals Program, an arts pro-gram designed to address the multicultural constituency of the

city.Organized by about 100 artists

and community leaders, the first FPAC took place at Los Angeles City College on Mother’s Day, May 14, 1992, where 3,000 par-ticipants braved the aftermath of the L.A. riots that occurred the week before. Since then, FPAC has only grown stronger and big-ger, moving to Cabrillo Beach in 1994, then to Pt. Fermin Park in 2001. This year FPAC will take place at the official birthplace of the City of Los Angeles where Filipino Americans can trace their heritage in the city to its founding.

About Fil-Am Arts:Embracing the value of KAP-

WA (shared being), the Associa-tion for the Advancement of Fili-pino American Arts and Culture’s (also known as FilAm ARTS) mis-sion is to facilitate community synergy and transformation by advancing the arts and diverse cultural heritage of Filipinos through arts services, presenta-tion, and education. ■

lived.” The elderly Mexican lady ex-

periences God through the pow-erful intercession of St. Lorenzo Ruiz. We, Catholics, see God’s hand working in the church and the world through the life and ministry of Pope Francis. Semi-narians continue to hear God’s call to the ordained priesthood.

The God that we worship is one who is absolutely involved in our lives and continues to commu-nicate to us. May we never fail to see and to hear him speak to us even in the ordinary events of our lives! Amen.

* * *

The God who speaks to…t

KNIGHTS of Columbus Council# 15515 installa-tion of officers was held last August 01, 2015 at Our Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Community (2060 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027).

The Installation of Officers started with a Thanks-giving Mass by SK Fr. William Thomas Davis.

Southern California Chapter Pres. Richard Mar-ciniak was the guest speaker.

Knights of Columbus Council installation of o�cers

&MARKETPLACESHOWROOM

DOE targets e-trikes award this month

Business Quote of the Week“In marketing I’ve seen only one strategy that can’t miss—and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second

and the rest of the world last.” - John Romero, video game developer

and programmer

Philippines poised to become high-income economy by 2040

ATTY. MICHAELGURFINKEL, ESQ

ImmigrationCorner

Immigrants charged with crimes should seek help from both criminal and immigration lawyers

UNDER US immigration laws, if a non-citizen commits and/or is later convicted of certain types of crimes that person could be removed/deported. This is the case even if a person has been a green card holder for many years or later had the conviction expunged.

I have encountered people

cide your guilt or innocence of the crime you committed as part of the deportation/removal pro-ceedings. The focus is on the fact that you were already con-victed or pled guilty. If you truly believed you were innocent, the place or venue to make that ar-gument should have been in the criminal court. However, the im-migration judge will not try your criminal case, when you already passed up the opportunity to do so, by pleading guilty.

That is why it is important for a non-citizen charged with a crime, to have a criminal attor-ney represent them in the crimi-nal matter. They also seek the assistance of an immigration at-torney who could work with the criminal attorney for an accept-able plea bargain. Sometimes, it is possible to be charged with one crime, but the plea deal results in pleading guilty to a crime that may have no immi-gration consequences. For ex-ample, I had a case where the person was charged with assault and battery, after getting into a fight with a bouncer/security guard. Working with a criminal attorney, we negotiated a plea deal for “disturbing the peace,”

which is like having your radio on too loud. That would have no immigration consequences. Had the person pled guilty to as-sault and battery, it could have had severe immigration conse-quences.

Sometimes a criminal attor-ney may not be fully aware of the immigration consequences of a plea deal. The criminal at-torney may be thrilled to get a plea deal that avoids jail time, but in so doing has the per-son plead guilty to a particular crime that will absolutely result in removal proceeding. Some-times a person will accept the plea deal just to get the criminal matter “over with,” not realizing the plea deal will come back to haunt them, from an important standpoint.

If you are not a US citizen, and were charged with a crime, I would strongly recommend you immediately seek the advice of a reputable immigration attorney, who can analyze your situation, work with your criminal attor-ney in connection with negotiat-ing an appropriate plea deal that would not have severe immigra-tion consequences. Moreover, if you already pled guilty to a

charged with crimes who either handled the case on their own and pled “guilty,” or their crimi-nal attorney negotiated a “plea deal.” After accepting the plea deal, they are shocked and hor-rified that DHS is now putting them in deportation procedure because of their criminal con-viction. They profess their inno-cence, claiming they never re-ally did anything wrong, did not understand the consequences of pleading guilty, and as part of their deportation defense, hope to prove their innocence.

The problem with that ap-proach is that the immigration courts do not try, re-try, or de-

crime that carries severe immi-gration consequences, maybe certain steps can be taken to reopen the criminal matter, or otherwise lessen the severity of the plea.

However, I want to be clear that no one can “guarantee” any plea deal, as many factors come into play, such as the severity of the crime, the strength of the evidence against the person, the flexibility of the prosecutor, etc. But I want to stress that crimes committed by non-– citizens have immigration consequences, and therefore, you should also consult an immigration attorney when making a plea deal.

* * *

by PRINZ MAGTULIS Philstar.com

MANILA—Investments in in-frastructure and human capital could catapult the Philippines into being a high-income economy by 2040 provided succeeding ad-ministrations would build on the foundations built by the Aquino government, officials and observ-ers said on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

This year’s Philippine Eco-nomic Forum takes the theme of “Shaping our Future” with focus on the need to make the country’s strong growth—averaging more than six percent for the past five years—more inclusive.

“It should be a synthesis of growth and continuity. For the

Philippines, we were able to maintain growth and continu-ity even on a difficult operating environment,” central bank Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. said on his opening remarks.

The country’s prospects remain “very promising,” and the govern-ment is still looking at capping the year with six percent growth, still fast when compared in the region, Socio-economic Planning Secre-tary Arsenio Balisacan said.

But next year’s expansion could hit 7 percent “and if we get this right this time, and this is sus-tained beyond 2016, we can see per capita income rise to middle-income level,” he explained.

The Philippines could then

PH targets leap into top 30 most competitive economics

by RICHMOND S. MERCURIO Philstar.com

MANILA—After moving five notches higher in the latest World Economic Forum Global Competi-tiveness Index, the Philippines will now embark on a more am-bitious task of breaching the top 30 most competitive economies in the world.

National Competitiveness Council (NCC) co-chairman Guill-ermo Luz said the Philippines is now taking the country’s com-petitiveness ranking target to the next step after attaining a year in advance the earlier target of moving into the top three deciles of the global rankings.

by DANESSA O. RIVERA Philstar.com

MANILA—The government hopes to award this month the contract for the supply of electric-powered tricycles (e-trikes) under the Asian Development Bank funded electric vehicle program.

The government has success-fully negotiated with the winning bidder for the supply and delivery of 3,000 e-trikes to lower the cost per unit, Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Loreta Ay-son told reporters on the sidelines of the Philippine Economic Brief-ing in Pasay City.

She said the agency negotiated with Japanese firm Uzushio Elec-tric Co. Ltd.—the sole bidder dur-ing the auction held in August.

“I was talking with DOE Under-secretary Donato Marcos yester-day and it loos like they agreed to lower the price just to let things start and finally deploy the 3,000 units,” she said.

Following negotiations, the DOE is now awaiting the approval of the ADB to push through with the awarding of the contract.

Ayson said the ADB is expected to issue a “no objection letter (NOL) soon,” which is a critical

component for the e-trike pro-gram to move forward.

“Once the ADB issues the NOL, I think it can already be awarded,” the DOE official said.

The supply of e-trikes is the initial phase of the $504-million electric vehicle (e-vehicles) pro-gram, a joint undertaking of the DOE and the ADB.

These units will be delivered to local government units and will be used by drivers through a lease-to-own arrangement. Drivers will be required to pay a daily bound-ary to their respective LGUs.

Originally, the bidding of the 3,000 e-trikes was supposed to take place in 2014 but was put on hold due to high costs of the units.

Once awarded, the initial e-trike project will be the deciding factor for the succeeding procure-ment of more e-trikes, especially with the upcoming elections, Ayson said.

“From there, they can see if the program is workable, if it would it be welcomed by the local govern-ment units. So they will decide later depending on the outcome of the deployment of the first 3,000,” she explained.

by DAXIM L. LUCASInquirer.net

PHILADELPHIA—Comcast to-day announced several significant enhancements and milestones for Internet Essentials, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive high-speed Internet adoption pro-gram. 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 incep-tion, Comcast has made 25 key enhancements to Internet Essen-tials, and this is the third time in four years Comcast has increased speeds for customers. The cur-rent 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, cus-tomers will be able to connect any Internet-enabled device, in-cluding 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-en-rollment process, more families will have even easier access to the Internet and its life-changing resources for education, employ-ment, healthcare, communica-tion, 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 per-cent, 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 Super-intendent Robert Avossa, and

Urban League of Palm Beach County President and CEO Pat-rick 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 tre-mendous 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 commu-nity and inclusion, bonds that can weaken as we grow older.”

To receive the faster Internet speed, customers simply need to reboot their cable modems. Ex-isting 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 sched-ule a professional installation, also for no additional cost. New customers will have the option to receive a Wi-Fi router when they sign up.

Internet Essentials Invest-ments

Through Internet Essentials, Comcast has invested more than $240 million in cash and in-kind support to help fund digital lit-eracy 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 Inter-net 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 mil-lion public service announce-ments, valued at more than $90 million.

• Welcomed more than 3.5 million visitors to the Internet Es-sentials websites in English and Spanish and its Online Learning Center.

• Fielded more than 3.2 mil-lion 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 com-munity-based organizations, gov-ernment agencies, and federal, state, and local elected officials to spread the word.

Comcast announces �fth back-to-school kicko� for Internet EssentialsMore than 2 million low-income Americans, from 500,000 families,

have now crossed the digital divide at homeCompany doubles internet speed, offers Wi-Fi routers for no additional cost,

and announces pilot program for low-income senior citizens

Philippines poised to become...achieve high-income level status, with per capita income of more than $14,000, by 2040, once the next three administrations achieve 7-percent growth.

As of June this year, gross domestic product (GDP)—or the sum of all products and services created in an economy—increased 5.3 percent, way below the official seven- to eight-percent target this year. GDP per capita indicates the income share of the population in the economy.

“We wish to turn over to the next administration an economy with much stronger fundamentals than what we inherited in 2010,” Balisacan said.

“We are in the process of structural transformation crucial for economic growth and quality

PH targets leap into top 30...“Now that we have more or

less attained our target to be on the edge of the top third, I would be proposing that we move our targets into the top 20 percent over the next five years and try to move the country into a better neighborhood,” Luz said.

“I really think that if we want to be moving up into a more respect-ed neighborhood of competitors, we have to be looking at the top 20 percent, and the top 20 per-cent means we should be ranked 30th or higher,” he added.

The country ranked 47th among 140 economies this year in the WEF’s Global Competi-tiveness Index, an improvement from its 52nd spot among 144 countries last year.

Luz said it marked the fifth straight year the Philippines had an upgrade in the WEF rankings.

“Within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), we are still fifth with the rank of 47. We improved over 38 coun-tries in the last five years since 2010. That’s the largest jump in Asean and worldwide,” he said.

Luz, however, noted moving up further in the rankings and attaining the next target would not be as easy as the previous achievement.

He said everything would now depend on the next ad-ministration to pursue what the current government leaders have

jobs,” he added.Open forums featured in the

event tackled how the Philippines could take advantage of its young demography through the use of technology. Infrastructure — a key sticking point for the past five years of the Aquino government—was also raised once again.

A “Dream Plan” submitted by the Japan International Coopera-tion Agency is now integrated on the country’s economic roadmap and is being implemented, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson told the forum.

“So the Dream Plan is no longer a dream. It is now being implemented. We have already started expanding the road net-works. There are other projects on it like railways, which we will soon begin,” he said.

started. “The question we have to

ask ourselves is can we move up another 17, 18 slots in five years. We did a 38-country jump in five years but the next jump is tougher competition. It was hard to do 38, it is going to be harder to do the next 18 because the countries are tougher and they are better. We need to really concentrate, work hard and work together. But I believe it can be done because as a country we’ve already done it,” Luz said.

“If the next administration has poor leadership and no teamwork obviously you’ll see the numbers will begin to drop because the other countries are also getting more organized. The competition never sleeps,” he added.

In a statement, the Makati Business Club (MBC) said the country’s achievements in the last five years are certainly worth celebrating and has committed its full support in achieving the country’s next ranking target.

“As the Philippines continues to improve, other economies are likewise moving and are either rapidly catching up or overtak-ing the country. Moving forward, especially towards a change in administration, MBC, through the Philippine Business Groups and Joint Foreign Chambers, commit to support all efforts aimed at further improving the country’s competitiveness,” it said.

San Miguel Corp.celebrates 125th year

SAN MIGUEL Corp. (SMC) has gone to great lengths to be where it is today—125 years to be exact.

SMC, the country’s largest conglomerate in terms of asset size, on Tuesday, Sept. 29 marked its 125th year since it set up shop in 1890 as La Fabrica de Cerveza de San Miguel—a single product brewery—in the San Miguel district of Manila. The exact site is now part of the Malacañang grounds.

The group now has interests in several industries with consoli-dated revenues of $20 billion an-nually, SMC president Ramon Ang told the Inquirer after Tuesday’s celebration at the company’s Or-tigas Center headquarters.

“We plan to double the group’s revenues to at least $40 billion, and maybe even $50 billion, over the next five years through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth,” Ang said.

In particular, the SMC chief said, the group will continue to invest heavily in the energy sector to meet the growing needs of the booming economy. The Philip-pines still has the second-most expensive electricity rates in Asia next to Japan.

SMC will also redouble its efforts to grow its infrastructure business to help ease road con-gestion in Metro Manila and sur-rounding provinces, as well as a new international airport to ease the plight of international and domestic travelers.

“Finally, we also want to enter

the telecommunications space to give Filipinos better mobile phone and Internet services,” Ang said.

“If you look at other countries, there is always space for a third player. And this is especially true in the Philippines where services can be improved,” he added.

The company earlier an-nounced that it had tied up with Australian telecommunications giant Telstra for mobile phone and Internet service venture that might be launched by late 2015 or early 2016.

During Tuesday’s celebration, SMC unveiled a new commemo-rative coin made of Nordic gold. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas minted the special batch to mark the company’s contribution to Philippine society.

Commemorative postage stamps were also issued by Philip-pine Postal Corp. to celebrate the company’s flagship product—the iconic Pale Pilsen beer known worldwide.

Also, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines unveiled a marker at the lobby of the company’s head office in Mandaluyong City.

In 1890, the company only had 70 employees, producing 47,000 cases of lager beer a year. The company changed its name to San Miguel Brewery, and again to San Miguel in 1963, as it moved from its old Aviles, Manila, head-quarters to a new office on Ayala Avenue in 1963.

In 1984, the company moved to its present headquarters, which is one of the first in the country to incorporate environment-friendly

PH gov’t touts P940B mass transit plan

Buying a new car stress-free: Kababayans atDCH Toyota of Torrance will show you how

FILIPINO Loyd Aler landed his first job as a produce and vegetable delivery man.

Then he became a fast food restaurant manager, and then a quality insurance inspector.

His father, Edgar, who used to work in wholesale for food and vegetables, and that inspired him to ultimately pursue a career in sales: today, he works as the Filipino Dept. Manager and Senior Sales Specialist at DCH Toyota of Torrance.

“I really love what I do for living and I enjoy very much not just selling cars, but making new friends, selling great products, and helping people get and drive their dream cars,” he says.

Buying a car is no easy decision. It requires careful thought and it’s something Aler understands. Since

2002 he has been selling Toyota vehicles, a brand that has been touted for its safety, retail value and longevity.

In addition to the quality brand he sells, Aler works at an auto dealership owned by a businessman based in Hong Kong. It was established almost a decade ago and is continually growing: since its inception, it has opened more than 20 DCH dealerships across the United States, with locations in Temecula, Oxnard, Simi Valley, and on the east coast in New York and New Jersey. The goal of the company is to exceed customers’ expecta t ions and prov ide exceptional service to ensure the highest satisfaction. Among ways the dealership demonstrates how much customers matter is

by delivering luxury services including oil changes, loaner cars, shuttles and much much more.

The dealership also boasts a wide selection of new and pre-owned vehicles to meet the broad range of tastes and needs customers have.

Among the customers that visit DCH Toyota of Torrance, Aler says he sees many Filipinos who show interest in a variety of cars, including Highlander, Priuses and Camry models.

Joining Aler in the Filipino Dept. of DCH Toyota of Torrance are Phillip Rivera (Sales & Leasing Consultant), Edgar Relova (Sales & Leasing Consultant), JP Panganiban (Sales & Leasing Consultant) and Nile Villanueva (Sales Manager).

Aler as a manager of DCH’s Filipino department, welcomes

and looks forward to serving his fellow kababayans. His overflowing friendly personality, as well as that of Rivera, Relova, Panganiban and Villanueva, make the Filipino sales team approachable and easy to talk to.

Aler says he enjoys his job, although one of the bigger challenges he faces in his job is when interested buyers with poor credit or lower incomes are turned down by the bank. DCH offers special promotions, including low APRs and $0 down payments, but it isn’t always easy to extend these to certain customers.

“But for me, that’s the time I will be more aggressive and shop around for more banks to help them,” he says.

In most cases, Aler is able to pull some strings and find a way to overcome this particular hurdle in the selling process, though interest rates tend to be just a little higher for individuals with credit and income limitations.

“But the important thing is they [have] another chance to get a car

loan and that helps build their credit again,” he says.

DCH Toyota of Torrance is conveniently located just off the 110 at: 2909 Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance, CA 90505.

DISCOUNT CONNECTION

HOTLINE for Kababayans Phone: (888) 443-7619.

DCH Toyota of Torrance is open Mondays through Saturdays from 8:30am to 9pm, and on Sundays, from 10am to 8pm.

by MIGUEL R. CAMUSInquirer.net

AT least $20.91 billion (P940 billion) worth of mass transit projects are either being planned or under implementation in Metro Manila as part of long-term efforts to ease congestion and bolster economic growth beyond the term of President Benigno Aquino III, the government said on Wednes-day, Sept. 30.

Briefing materials presented during the Philippine Economic Briefing showed that the projects include nine new railway lines, mainly in Metro Manila. These include the Light Rail Transit Line 1 Cavite extension, the LRT-6 Das-mariñas Line, Metro Rail Transit Line 7 or Commonwealth Line, LRT-2 east and west extension and the LRT-4 Taytay Line.

The largest of the mass transit projects is the P171-billion North-South Railway project, which includes a line from Manila to Legazpi, Albay. Also planned are bus rapid transit systems (C-5 and Manila) in the metropolis, capac-ity expansion projects of MRT-3 and a Manila Bay-Pasig ferry.

The presentation by the De-partment of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) showed

that the mass transit budget also covered three additional terminals and 140 additional passenger stations. These, it said, would increase mass transport ridership from the current 1.2 million per day to 2.2 million by 2016.

The DOTC said boosting ser-vices would also help lower lo-gistics costs.

Apart from mass transport, the department had laid out plans to overhaul the airport system. This will entail another $2 billion, with about $882.7 million going to key gateways like Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Clark International Airport, Mac-tan Cebu International Airport and Davao International Airport.

The projects mentioned will be partly supported by the private sector via the government’s pub-lic-private partnership program.

Congestion in Metro Manila carries a significant economic cost, according to an earlier report by the Japan International Coop-eration Agency, or Jica.

Jica, in its study, noted that the economic impact of traffic in Metro Manila costs about P2.4 bil-lion a day at present. That figure would balloon to P6 billion per day by 2030 if the government would fail to intervene, it said.

Philippine Army to get 114 armored vehicles from US

CAPAS, Tarlac — The Philip-pine Army said it is expecting 114 armored vehicles from the United States this November.

Major Filemon Tan, public affairs office of the Mechanized Infantry Division based at Camp O’Donnell, said the used vehicles from the US Army will be an ad-dition to the 343 armored assets in the Army inventory.

“If these arrive we will go on full strength. The needs of the bat-talions will be filled up,” he said.

Tan said the vehicles are in good condition but will undergo tests before deployment.

The vehicles will be acquired

from the United States as Excess Defense Article.

Although the assets are for free, Filemon said the transport cost would be shouldered by the Philippines and will undergo through bidding process.

“Bini-bid pa po yan. Kami lang yung tatanggap pero kung pa-paano siya makakarating dito ay Department of National Defense na ang magtatrabaho,” he said.

The armored personnel carri-ers from the US will be stripped of their weapons but when the vehicles arrive, these will be equipped with cal .50 heavy ma-chine guns.

Foldable micro-garageTHERE is a craze in the US

with people opting to downsize from suburban life and moving into tiny homes with very small square-footage. Taking advantage of the opportunity, an Italian com-pany has come out with a perfect partner to micro-housing with the Gazebox.

The Gazebox is a garage, car-port and gazebo, all rolled into one. The Gazebox is foldable micro-ga-rage that has a very small footprint.

It is made up of segmented panels that slide up and down, to fully encase a car and protect it from the elements. The frame is made from iron and aluminum and covered by translucent, UV-coated polycarbon-ate sheets.

The GazebBox offered in a va-riety of sizes so buyers can choose from lengths between 18.5 feet and 23.3 feet. The foldable garage is made by Mikea Engineering from Rosciano, Italy. (ManilaTimes.net)

Longo Lexus o�ers the ultimate conveniences in customer amenities

WE all know that the process of buying a car is not just as sim-ple as buying a new pair of shoes at the mall. It is a long process that involves careful comparison between vehicle models, review-ing the car’s specifications with regards to the needs of the buy-er, and of course, the negotia-tions for the financing packages and promos.

As such, it is very important for Longo Lexus that its custom-ers are supremely comfortable and well-pampered if they are going to make that important decision of which Lexus they will drive home.

As a car dealership, there are many reasons why Longo Lexus has been an Elite of Lexus dealer since 1992. One of those reasons includes the ultimate conve-niences that they offer in cus-tomer amenities. As one of the leading Lexus car dealerships, Longo Lexus provides not only pre-sales conveniences, but also noteworthy post-sales services.

Longo Lexus is known for the unique amenities that they offer to dealership customers.

One of those unique amenities include an on-site Auto Club of Southern California (AAA) cen-ter. The AAA branch offers DMV services, airline, car, and hotel reservations, discounted movie and local attraction tickets, AAA membership application process-ing, OnBoard Teen Safe Driver Program, auto and home insur-ance, and more. Sign up at our AAA branch in Longo, and you’ll receive a special $13 discount off the original membership price.

Aside from from the on-site AAA branch, Longo is also the first dealership in the US to of-fer Verizon Wireless and Verizon Wireless Neighborhood services on-site. Offering the latest tech-nologies in telecommunications, mobile accessories, and services, Longo’s on-site Verizon branch makes it even more convenient for customers to stay connected with the world. Our Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer is open from Monday to Friday, 7am-7pm; Saturday, from 7am to 5:30pm; and Sunday, from 8am to 4pm. Please call (888) 811-5201.

While waiting for your car to come out of our premium car-care service lines or while you’re going through our wide inven-tory of luxurious Lexus vehicles, you can enjoy a quick bite at Sub-

way or a nice re-freshing drink at Starbucks.

If you want to pamper your car, you can also shop at the Lon-go Lexus Parts Boutique, which carries a wide selection of gen-uine Lexus parts and accessories for your vehicle. With over 31,000 parts and acces-sories in stock, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for.

The after-sales services of a dealership is just as important as the pre-sales amenities. And it these after-sales services that make buying a vehicle at Longo Lexus a truly rewarding experience.

We offer complimentary loaner vehicles for your use while your car is in our service center. For inquiries, on our loaners, please call our coordinators at 1-800-597-0813.

For your convenience, we also offer complimentary shuttle ser-vice to take you to your office, home, or even the mall—basically anywhere within a 15-mile ra-dius—while your vehicle is being serviced.

If you don’t have time to make the drive to our dealership, our Longo Lexus Mobile Service Van and Truck can provide routine maintenance services, such as oil changes and tire rotations, right at your home or office. Appoint-ments can be made up to 6 months in advance.

Similarly, if your service require-ments need the car to be physi-cally present at our Longo service center, we offer complimentary flatbed truck pick-up and delivery of your vehicle to and from our dealership. Our Longo Lexus Mo-bile Service Van and Truck, and our complimentary flatbed truch pick-up and delivery service are exclusively for cars that are pur-chased from Longo Lexus, and are located within 60mile radius from Longo.

Please call 1-800-597-0813 to schedule your appointment.

Also, for every service appoint-ment, each vehicle receives a com-plimentary car wash in our Longo Lexus Car Spa.

For our clients who wish to use other cars, aside from those among our fleet of loaner Lexus cars, they can avail of the services of our Enterprise Rent-A-Car offices.

With two branches on the Longo Premises, Enterprise is ready to address all your car rental needs. Please call (800) 969-6519 for more information.

We understand that life’s daily grind requires our customers to be always on top of everything while keeping up with an on-the-go lifestyle. Which is they are more than welcome to work at our Longo Business Center where they can work on our com-puter terminals, free of charge. We also offer complimentary Wireless Internet Access (Wi-Fi) to our customers throughout the facility. This is particularly useful for our customers with mobile devices, laptops, and tablets.

While you wait for your car to come out of our service center, your kids can enjoy and have a good time at our Children Play Area, where we offer video games and other activities for the young ones.

Longo Lexus customers will also be offered complimentary use of our iPads while they are waiting for their vehicle.

For more information on our Longo Lexus Guest Services, please log on to www.longolex-us.com/GuestAmenities or call (626) 539-2956.

Longo Lexus is located at 3530 North Peck Road, El Monte, CA 91731.

Longo Toyota delivers world class experienceBEING the premiere Toyota

retailer in the nation, Longo Toyota aims to deliver a truly world-class experience to our guests on every transaction, everyday.

It all starts with our friendly and welcoming staff, a clean and modern environment, and a wide range of services to make your visit pleasant and convenient. Here are some of our key amenities at Longo Toyota:

Auto Club of Southern California (AAA)

In November 1999, Longo Toyota became the first automotive dealership in the US to have the Auto Club on its premises. For 14 long years, our Auto Club branch has served countless satisfied Longo customers with its wide array of services

Today, our on-site branch offers DMV services, airline, car and hotel reservations, discounted movie and local attraction tickets, membership processing, OnBoard Teen Safe Driver Program, and more. Sign up at our Longo Toyota branch and get $13 off the original membership application price. Located in our new car showroom, our AAA branch is open Mondays thru Saturdays, from 11am to 7pm.

Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer

Longo Lexus is the first car dealership in the US to provide Verizon Wireless and Verizon Wireless Neighborhood services on-site. Our Verizon branch offers the latest in telecommunications, mobile devices, accessories and services. We also offer complimentary cellphone charging stations for our customers. Our Verizon retailer is located inside our parts retail center. Our Wireless Playground is open Monday-Friday, 7am-7pm; Saturday, 7am-5:30pm; and Sunday, 8-4pm. Please call (888) 623-2133 for more information.

Starbucks and SubwayWhile waiting for your car

to come out of our car-care service lines, you can enjoy a quick bite at Subway or a nice refreshing drink at Starbucks. We offer healthy dining options with Subway’s wide variety of sandwiches, salads, and wraps.

If you’re thirsty and you’re looking for that quick coffee

fix, you can grab a refreshing Hazelnut Macchiato or a smooth Caramel Frappuccino at Starbucks. Offering only the finest coffee specialties, teas, juices, and assortment of pastries, there’s something for everybody at our on-site Starbucks branch.

Both our Subway and Starbucks branches are available for catering services.

Enterprise Rent-A-CarLongo Toyota also has two

Enterprise Rent-A-Car offices on its premises. One is located adjacent to the Service Drive in the Pre-Owned Vehicle Showroom, and the other is in the Collision Repair Center. Customers are welcome to utilize the Enterprise rental services, regardless of whether or not they leave their vehicle in Longo for any car service.

Complimentary Vehicle Delivery Service

Longo Toyota also offer complimentary vehicle delivery service. Our delivery service is available 6 days a week, Monday thru Saturday, anywhere within a 60-mile radius of Longo Toyota.

Longo Toyota Parts and Accessories Department

You can also shop at the Longo Toyota Parts and Accessories Department, which carries a wide selection of genuine Toyota parts and accessories for your vehicle. With thousands of parts and accessories in stock, we definitely have whatever it is you’re looking for. Our boutique also carries a selection of Ray-Ban and Oakley sunglasses, women’s and men’s apparel, and so much more.

Shuttle ServiceFor your convenience, Longo

Toyota offers complimentary shuttle service while your vehicles are being serviced. Our shuttles can take you to virtually anywhere within a 15-mile radius of Longo Toyota – be it your home, work, the mall, or even the parlor! Anywhere!

An engaging stayWhile we understand that our

customer’s time is precious, we realize that many of them may need Internet connectivity at all times. As such we are more than happy to provide FREEWiFi throughout our facility, and FREE use of our great business center. In our business center, we provide a quiet setting where our guests can work on our computers or on their own laptops.

We also provide free use of an iPad for Longo guests who are waiting for their vehicles. Our Guest Check-in representative will be more than happy to arrange this for you.

If you decide to bring the kids to the dealership, boredom will never be a problem. We also offer a variety of video games and DVDs just for kids so that they can also enjoy their visit to Longo Toyota.

For more information on our Longo Toyota Guest Services, please log on to http://www.longotoyota.com/dealership/amenities.htm.

Longo Toyota is located at 3534 North Peck Road, El Monte, CA 91731. Call (626)539-2584 to set up your appointment.

WIN Hyundai and WIN Chevrolet: Three giant locations to serve you

THERE’S no better place for kababayans to shop for Hyundai vehicles than WIN Hyundai in Carson, Calif.

Established in 2011, the young dealership started with the goal of becoming the premiere Hyundai dealership. Since then, it has lived up to its aim by consistently ranked among the top five dealers in the district. In 2012, the dealership, which is also Equus Certified, was also ranked No. 1 in district sales.

WIN is proud to carry Hyundai vehicles. J.D. Power and Associates ranked the automaker No. 2 among non-premium automakers in the 2015 Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study.

“Finishing among the top two non-premium brands in this year’s J.D. Power, the APEAL Study shows Hyundai takes design, technology, features, and performance seriously across the entire lineup. Having the best-selling Sonata ranking among the top two in its class is a remarkable accomplishment and we are committed to delivering the highest customer experience possible to our owners,” said Mike O’Brien, vice president of corporate and product planning at Hyundai.

WIN Hyundai offers a wide selection of quality Hyundai vehicles and extends its offerings across the Los Angeles area with its two locations: one in Carson and another in El Monte. On both sites, customers can find new and certified pre-owned vehicles – including the Santa Fe, Sonata, Elantra and Genesis Coupe – to meet a variety of budgets and preferences. Because the Carson and ElMonte locations serve just about anyone and everyone in Southern California, its experienced sales representatives are prepared and eager to help customers find the cars that best fit their preferences and needs.

When it comes to purchasing a Hyundai, WIN specializes in working with all types of credit, good or bad, and has the ability to refinance current loans.

Additionally, although it sells Hyundai cars, the dealership services vehicles of all makes and models and currently has an oil change special of $19.95

For Chevrolet owners and

shoppers in Los Angeles, you may check out WIN’s third location at WIN Chevrolet, which will make sure to handle everything from helping you purchase a new or used Chevy. Schedule an appointment or just stop on by to take any of our 2015 Chevrolet models for a test drive including the 2015 Chevrolet Camaro, 2015 Chevrolet Impala, and 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe.

Beyond the highly-praised brand WIN offers Southern California residents, it has departments dedicated diverse groups found throughout the Los Angeles region, including Chinese, Korean, Hispanic and Filipino communities.

“We want to make the buying process as easy as possible, so we understand communicating in your native language can be important to completely understanding the purchasing and financing of your vehicle,” said Munir Younis, general sales manager of the dealership.

Younis, who is of Middle Eastern descent, grew up in the Philippines and can speak Tagalog fluently, just as the Filipino sales representatives at the dealership.

“We have a dedicated team that serves the largest Filipino community in the U.S. We believe in giving back to the community and have participated in multiple sponsorship opportunities with multiple Filipino groups and organizations, including the Philippine Independence Day Foundation,” he said.

Among Filipino members of the WIN Hyundai Carson team include long-time car industry veterans Jun Milan and Jay Trinidad.

“WIN is a great dealership and customer service is the best it can be,” Milan said.

Also on the Filipino team is Franklin Magarro, the dealership’s internet sales manager.

In addition to its on-location offerings, those shopping for Hyundai cars can browse WIN’s inventory online with user-friendly filters. Whether you know specifically what make and model you’re looking for, are trying to shop based on a budget, or simply want to browse through what is available, the dealership website makes it easy to shop around from home. Live chat is also available and sales representatives are happy to assist customers via phone.

WIN Hyundai Carson2205 E 223rd StreetCarson, CA 90810(877) 354-4253Monday through Saturday: 9am

to 9pmSunday: 10am to 8pmWIN Hyundai El Monte3462 N Peck RoadEl Monte, CA 91731(877) 290-2164Monday through Sunday: 9am

to 9pmwww.winhyundai.comWin Chevrolet2201 E. 223rd Street Carson,

CA 90810(818) 639-1216www.winchevrolet.com

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Limited upgraded two-bedroom townhomes availablefor quick move-ins at new Canvas Neighborhood

LAKEWOOD—Homeowner-ship is more attainable than ever for first-time buyers at Wil-liam Lyon Homes’ brand-new Canvas neighborhood, with a limited selection of upgraded Residence One townhomes available for quick move-ins. These rare offerings showcase the attached-home collection’s row townhome-inspired archi-tecture and spacious, three-lev-el designs with approximately 1,647 square feet of living space that includes two bedrooms; two full baths and two half baths; a well-equipped kitchen leading to the dining and living areas; a versatile first-level bonus room; a direct-access two-car garage and valuable upgrades that include a large patio. Those eager to finally have a home of their own are encouraged to explore these select Residence One upgrade opportunities, or learn more about Canvas’ other floorplan options by visiting the Canvas sales gallery today. For additional details, log on to www.LyonCanvas.com.

“Offering a modern design, valuable upgrades and quick move-in convenience, our lim-ited selection of Residence One homes will definitely sell quickly,” said Lesley Penning-ton, Vice President of Sales for William Lyon Homes. “We advise interested buyers to take

advantage of these incredible ownership opportunities.”

Canvas’ three attached-home designs span from approximate-ly 1,647 to 1,801 square feet, with two to three bedrooms, two full baths and two powder baths, and direct-access two-car garages.

Buyers also value the con-fidence and quality that come with any new construction by William Lyon Homes. New Home prices start from the low $400,000s.

\The setting near Long Beach in commuter-friendly Lakewood puts Davenport Park, Lakewood Country Club, Lakewood Golf Course, Mayfair Park and Pool and other recreation all with-in reach. Lakewood Center’s Costco, Best Buy, Macy’s, and Target are also nearby, as well as attractions at the Long Beach Towne Center. Downtown Long Beach, The Pike at Rainbow Harbor, Belmont Shores and the Aquarium of the Pacific are also convenient, while medi-cal services are accessible at Lakewood Regional Medical Center.

It matters who your builder is and William Lyon Homes is a company built upon a legacy of pride and integrity. A team of visionaries who are pas-sionate about homebuilding and committed to providing

a high quality homebuying and homeownership experi-ence, William Lyon Homes has earned a solid track record for outstanding construction and customer service since 1956. The company continues to ex-pand its well-respected brand beyond California, Arizona and Nevada and into other market areas across the Western region with the acquisition of Polygon Northwest Homes, its newest division in Washington and Oregon, and its Village Homes division in Colorado. William Lyon Homes’ shares are pub-licly traded on NYSE under the symbol WLH. For updated infor-mation and to learn more, visit www.lyonhomes.com. \To visit Canvas, travel the 405 Freeway, exit Lakewood Blvd., and head east. Turn left on E. South St. and follow the signs to the Sales Gallery, which is located on the left hand side.

The sales gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, please call 562.470.7404, or visit www.LyonCanvas.com and register your interest.

Prices are effective as of the date of publication. Pricing is approximate and is subject to change without prior no-tice. CalBRE Officer License: 00982816.

Robertson Honda’s ‘Hassle Free, One Simple Price’:A fast, smart and simple process to car buying

PURCHASING a vehicle has long been associated with back-and-forth negotiat-ing and hidden fees.

However, it shouldn’t be a stressful experience, and Robertson Honda aims to change that by creat-ing a fast, smart and simple process.

Located in North Hol-lywood, Robertson Honda is defying the stereotypes sur-rounding vehicle buying with its “Hassle Free, One Simple Price” program. When shop-pers step into its state-of-the-art showroom, they won’t be greeted by the conventional image of a “car salesperson,” but rather a “product special-ist” will take care of them and listen to their needs to match them with the right vehicle that fits their budget.

Each vehicle in the lot (and also listed on its web-site) has a single, definitive price based on availability, demand, color, equipment and inventory age. Gone are the days of haggling for a better deal, as the best price will be offered upfront. All of the prices are based on in-market purchase prices and third-party resources like edmunds.com and KBB.com.

Additionally, vehicle buy-ing shouldn’t take up too much of a buyer’s valuable time; in record speed, he or she will be driving off in a new car.

For over 40 years, Rob-ertson Honda has been a renowned Honda dealership in the United States. Drawing in loyal and new customers alike from around Southern California and beyond, Rob-ertson Honda provides a high standard of customer service that doesn’t simply focus on selling cars, but creating life-long relationships. The “Has-sle Free, One Simple Price” program further reflects its commitment to listen to what customers want.

“Our new ‘Hassle Free, One Simple Price’ program is geared toward the 75 percent of car shoppers in our community who told us that they not only dread the inflated prices at most deal-erships, but also the time and pressure involved in nego-tiating down to the bottom line,” said Mike Reyes, gen-eral sales manager of Rob-ertson Honda. “By removing the frustrating back-and-forth and doing a lot of the pricing research for our customers,

we’ve developed a sales process that is fast, fair and simple for anyone who walks through our doors.”

The benefits of Robert-son Honda’s “Hassle Free, One Simple Price” program doesn’t just stop once buyers leave the dealership. If unsat-isfied with their vehicle within the first two days or 200 miles after a purchase, Rob-ertson Honda has instituted a 2-Day/200-Mile Exchange Policy. When it comes time to trade in a vehicle down the road, the dealership is also now offering straightforward trade-in pricing based on the AutoTrader.com Trade-InMarketplace and Kelley Blue Book fair market value.

When buyers shop at Robertson Honda, they’ll never again drive off the lot wondering if they could have gotten a better deal.

Robertson Honda is conveniently located at 5841 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood, CA. For more information, please call (818) 301-3800 or visit http://www.robertsonhonda.com/ to browse the dealership’s extensive inventory of Honda models.

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