THE Department of Foreign Af-fairs (DFA) has announced on Mon-day, Oct. 19 that it has reached the 1.3 million mark of registered over-seas voters for the 2016 elections.

In a statement, Office of Civilian Security and Consular Concerns Undersecretary Rafael E. Seguis said that a total 1, 301, 598 over-seas Filipino workers (OFWs) be-came registered voters as of Octo-ber 15, 2015.

Seguis said that if 1.3 million overseas voters could influence at least three family members, their

sector could bring about 5.2 mil-lion votes to their preferred candi-dates.

“Since overseas Filipinos are considered to be their family’s bread winners, it is not a stretch to surmise that each overseas Filipino can influence the vote of at least three family members. Thus, the 1.3 million active registered over-seas voters are roughly equivalent to 5.2 million votes. This is a defi-nite game changer for Philippine politics,” Seguis said.

Majority of overseas Filipino vot-

ers are based in the Middle East and Africa, where 550,000 active registered voters reside. It is fol-lowed by 250,000 voters in the Americas, about 150,000 in Eu-rope; and, 320,000 in Asia and the Pacific.

Seafarers amount to 30,000 reg-istered overseas voters.

On its part, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) commended the embassies for including over-seas voting registration in their services.

“I hope we can further look into

the possibility of holding these reg-istrations in public areas like malls, public squares and parks, com-munity centers and other suitable places where the host government allows the conduct of election-re-lated activities,” Comelec Chair-man Andres D. Bautista said.

Last June, the DFA completed the rollout of online voters’ registra-tion program which is accessible to OFWs worldwide.

Voters’ registration will end on October 31, 2015. (Aries Joseph Hegina/Inquirer.net)

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

w w w. a s i a n . c o mVolume 14 - No. 43 • 3 Sections – 24 Pages OCTOBER 23-29, 2015

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MANILA—Beijing on Tuesday, Oct. 20 denied that their construc-tion and operation of lighthouses in the South China Sea are intend-ed to “change actual conditions” in the area.

The Department of Foreign Af-fairs (DFA) expressed its strong

by PATRICIA LOURDES VIRAY Philstar.com

opposition to China’s construc-tion of lighthouses on Cuarteron (Huayang) Reef and Johnson (Chigua) Reef, which are located in the Spratly islands.

“These actions are obviously intended to change actual condi-tions on the ground and aimed at bolstering China’s territorial claim in the South China Sea. We will not

accept these unilateral actions as a fait accompli,” the DFA said.

However, China claimed that there is no need for it to bolster sovereignty claims over the dis-puted territory.

“By setting up civilian facilities and facilities for public interests on its territory, the Chinese side aims to better serve the littoral countries

of the South China Sea and vessels passing through these waters. There is no such a thing as ‘chang-ing actual conditions,’” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

Hua stressed that China has indisputable sovereignty over the Spratly islands in the South China Sea and the adjacent waters.

TYPHOON Koppu is sweeping slowly across the northern part of the Philippines, destroying provinces and forcing thousands to flee from their homes. At least 100,000 families have been affected.

The tropical cyclone, known as ty-phoon Lando in the Philippines, is over 500-kilometers in diameter. As of Wednesday evening, Oct. 21, it was crawling northeast towards the Calay-an and Babuyan islands, Taiwan and lower Japan.

The state weather bureau PAGASA issued an advisory at 11pm, saying

Typhoon Koppu batters northern Philippines Rising number of deaths, over 100,000 families affected

by ALLYSON ESCOBARAJPress

Study: Growingdisparities among Western AsianAmerican population

SEN. FERDINAND “Bong-bong” Marcos on Wednesday, Oct. 21 said he has been answer-ing questions put to him about the dark period in the country’s when his father ruled unopposed, and was prepared to continue to do the same as he seeks the vice presidency.

“I am looking towards the fu-ture. The past is the past,” Mar-cos said in Filipino in an inter-view with a morning television show.

Marcos, who is the vice presi-dential running mate of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, was asked how he would handle questions on the campaign trail concerning the years that his fa-ther, the late dictator Ferdinand

Past is past, Bongbong says of dark Marcos yearsby CHRISTINE O. AVENDAÑO AND JOVIC YEE

Inquirer.net

Marcos, ruled the country with an iron fist.

Marcos, whose father was ousted in the 1986 people power uprising, said he had been an-swering those questions for the

past 30 years and would be sur-prised if these will not be asked of him now.

“But we are prepared to answer these. Any questions. But we are giving more attention on what the people are really thinking and

MANILA—Gerardo Limlingan, former aide and financial officer of Vice President Jejomar Binay, has turned the tables on former vice mayor Ernesto Mercado, claim-ing it was Mercado who originally owned OMNI Security Investiga-tion and General Services and Meriras Realty & Development Corp., which were tagged as Bi-nay’s “dummies” after winning anomalous contracts with the Makati city government.

He branded as “false accusa-tions” Mercado’s claim in earlier Senate hearings that Binay used OMNI, which cornered most of the security and janitorial and mainte-nance services in Makati City, as dummy to hide ownership of his assets.

Limlingan said he was only able

Ex-Binay aide turns tables on Mercado

THE American Cancer Society on Tuesday, Oct. 20, announced new guidelines for mammo-grams, recommending that women with an aver-age risk of breast cancer begin getting mammo-grams annually at age 45.

The organization, which has long taken an ag-gressive approach to screening for the condition, also recommended that once women reach the age of 55, mammograms continue once every

American Cancer Society recommends women undergo mammograms later and less frequently

DFA exec: 1.3 M overseas voters a ‘game-changer’ in 2016 pollsASIAN Americans Advancing Justice re-

leased a new report about the growing Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Is-lander (NHPI) populations in the West--in-cluding new demographics in Arizona, Ha-waii, Oregon, Las Vegas, and Seattle.

The report follows a new study from Pew Research Center, which shows the rapid growth of the Asian American population in the United States, fueled largely by immigra-tion following passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1965.

In 2065, about one in three Americans

FROM THE FRONT PAGE

Typhoon Koppu batters Northern...that the storm was packing maxi-mum sustained winds of 65 kilo-meters per hour (kph) and heavy gusts of up to 80 kph, according to ABS-CBN News.

A severe weather bulletin (No. 23) issued by the Philippine Na-tional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Tuesday, Oct. 20 reported that Koppu has only “weakened slightly.” On Wednesday, the NDRRMC reported the storm has weakened into a “Low Pressure Area” (LPA).

The storm’s center point is about 90 kilometers, West of Ca-layan, Cagayan (north of main-land Luzon), with maximum sus-tained winds of 75 kph near the center and gusts up to 90 kph. It has been labeled from a category 5 to category 1 storm, reports said.

The NDRRMC placed Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Apayao, Abra, Batanes, and Northern Cagayan (including Calayan and the Ba-buyan islands) under public storm signal number 2 (winds of 61-120 kph). La Union, Pangasinan, Ben-guet, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao, Mt. Province, Isabela, Kalinga, and the rest of Cagayan regions were placed under public storm signal 1 (winds of 30-60 kph).

The estimated rainfall amount ranges from “moderate to heavy, to at times intense” within the diameter of the storm. “Moder-ate to strong winds” blowing from north to southwest will pre-vail over Luzon, with “moderate to rough” coastal waters,” the NDRRMC said in its situational report Wednesday.

Baguio City reported 1,059 mil-limeters rainfall earlier this week, according to the UK Met Office. NASA’s Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) anal-ysis data showed that most of the island of Luzon was covered by very heavy rainfall from Koppu. The analysis indicates that most of the island of Luzon received over 300 mm (11.8 inches), and some areas near the cyclone’s path were shown to be saturated with over 760 mm (about 30 inch-es) of rainfall.

Several towns in Aurora prov-ince have been cut off from civi-lization due to major floods and landslides. The entire town of San Antonio in central Luzon has been “engulfed by flood waters,”

town Mayor Antonio Lustre told ABS-CBN on Monday. Flooding incidents were also reported in Pangasinan, Isabela, Nueva Eci-ja, Tarlac, Pampanga, Zambales, Cagayan, and Benguet.

“There’s no other weather fea-tures to move it along so it’s just kind of drifting about,” Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth told NBC News. “The storm will have been producing rain in some areas for five-and-a-half days before it moves on--that’s a long time to build up a large rain-fall total.”

As of press time, the num-ber of deaths has risen to 35 on Wednesday, according to the NDRRMC in Quezon City. 24 have been injured during the onslaught of the typhoon, and NDRRMC spokesperson Romina Marasigan confirmed 194,387 families (907,267 persons) that have been affected, evacuated, or displaced from their homes.

The Weather Channel reported a number of deaths from drown-ing, damages, and landslides in provinces like Palayan and Tinoc.

“There were people who got trapped by the flood on their roofs, some were rescued al-ready,” said Vice Mayor Henry Velarde of Jaen, a farming town in badly-hit Nueva Ecija, where about 80 percent of the villages were flooded, according to the Associated Press.

While landslides and river floods swamped and inundated towns and provinces, residents have scrambled to safety, tragi-cally losing their homes, animals, and farmlands in the process. “Our rice farms looked like it was [run] over by a giant flat iron. All the rice stalks were flattened in one direction,” Velarde said.

The cost of damage to agri-culture is estimated at 6.3 billion pesos, while city infrastructure damages are estimated to be 520,000 pesos, and is still ex-pected to rise.

“Out of the 272,006 hectares planted to rice, 269,694 have a chance of recovery,” said Philip-pine Agriculture Secretary Pro-ceso Alcala.

Due to the flooding and land-slides, 128 road sections were left impassable, while 24 bridges were closed, reported Philippine Star.Typhoon Lando’s aftermath also included 6,947 damaged houses, 540 of which are totally

damaged and 6,407 are partially damaged in Regions 1, 2, 3 and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

Hundreds of volunteers, both civilians and police officials, have converged on affected areas--such as in landlocked Nueva Eci-ja--to help stranded farmers and villagers.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III flew to Nueva Ecija to check the flooding situation and distribute food and care pack-ages in an emergency shelter. Aquino said that Koppu’s unusu-ally slow speed allowed it to bat-ter the north for about three days, instead of just a few hours.

He also urged villagers not to return to their homes. “They think it is safe already to go back to their communities, but we are preventing them right now,” Aquino told reporters.

The Philippine government, which is conducting an aerial survey and a comprehensive re-port on the cyclone’s total dam-age, promised to provide about 6.1 billion pesos to restore any destroyed agriculture in farming regions, and almost 5.5 million pesos to provide infrastructure.

As of press time, more than 65,000 villagers in the north-ern region have been displaced, over 20,000 across mainland Lu-zon, and around 5,426 families (23,993 persons) pre-emptively evacuated from Regions I, II, III, IV-A, and CAR.

With the heavy rains and slow speeds, Typhoon Koppu is ex-pected to hit the northern Philip-pines for several more days be-fore continuing towards Taiwan and the southernmost islands of Japan.

“Koppu has moved into an area of increasing vertical wind shear [through Luzon Strait] which is expected to dissipate the storm by October 22,” reported NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Though causing widespread damage, the rainfall has also pro-vided needed water to several dams that have suffered from the effects of another Pacific tropical storm, El Niño, according to a sit-uation report from the United Na-tions. The Angat Dam, which sup-plies a majority of Metro Manila’s water needs, saw an increase of 7.2 meters in its water level, said The Weather Channel.

community.“It underscores the future po-

litical power of the [Asian] demo-graphic in the Western United States,” Advancing Justice said in a press release.

The Community of Contrasts report is part of a series of de-mographic research and profiles that present the latest, clear data on Asian American and NHPI communities: including popula-tion counts, growth, and socio-economic characteristics such as age, immigration, language, employment, income, housing, and health in both larger and in-dividual communities.

The series includes a national report providing a holistic snap-shot of Asian American commu-nities, a report focused solely on the NHPI population, as well as regional reports on the Asian American and NHPI communi-ties in the Midwest, California, the Northeast, the South, and now, the West.

“When we talk about the grow-ing Asian American community

in the United States, it’s crucial to recognize that Asian Ameri-cans are extremely diverse,” said Mee Moua, president and executive director of Advancing Justice | AAJC. “While some are doing well, others are struggling. We must celebrate the commu-nities’ successes, but also realize that the success of certain ethnic groups often mask[s] the difficul-ties faced by others that fall under the Asian American and NHPI umbrella. We are able to show-case our contributions and needs by using disaggregated data in our demographic reports.”

Some key facts from the West report include:• There are more than 8 mil-

lion Asian Americans living in the West. One out of every ten people in the West is Asian American. There are 870,000 NHPI living in the West. NHPI comprise 1 percent of the West’s population.• Asian Americans and Pacific

Islanders are becoming citizens

Study: Growing disparities among...would be an immigrant or have immigrant parents, compared with one-in-four in 2015, Pew projects. Among the projected 441 million Americans in 2065, 78 million will be immigrants and 81 million will be people born in the U.S. to immigrant parents.

“As our communities have grown, more Asian Americans and NHPI are becoming citizens, registering to vote and casting ballots. Elected officials need to pay attention and be responsive to the growing needs and con-cerns of two of the fastest grow-ing constituencies in the West,” said Steward Kwoh, president and executive director of Ad-vancing Justice -- Los Angeles.

Aside from highlighting the disparities between specific Asian ethnicities, the report (en-titled “A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawai-ians, and Pacific Islanders in the West”) illustrates the numerous business and economic contri-butions by the Asian American

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other year. Additionally, the soci-ety no longer recommends clini-cal breast exams for breast cancer screening among average-risk women at any age, as these have not been shown to save lives.

The society’s new guidelines, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, come after it thoroughly exam-ined research data questioning the benefit of yearly mammograms for women in their 40s.

“We’re moving to an era where people are recognizing the limi-tations of screening tests,” said Dr. Nancy Keating, professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School who wrote an editorial accompanying the new recommendations. “For many years, we convinced ev-erybody, including doctors, that mammograms are the best tests and everyone has to have one. But now we’re acknowledging that the benefits are modest and the harms are real.”

The recommendations only ap-ply to women who have no per-sonal history of the condition or known risk factors based on family history, genetic mutations or other medical problems. Women who have a genetic risk for the condi-tion are advised to begin undergo-ing the exam sooner.

The move reflects shifting at-titudes in cancer screening. Six years ago, the cancer society spoke out against a federal task force that suggested most women could wait until the age of 50 to begin screen-ing for breast cancer. They said postponing mammograms would result in increased deaths among women.

“Despite some face validity in the idea that younger women, who often have more aggressive can-cers, might benefit from shorter screening intervals, the actual

American Cancer Society recommends...clinical effects and importance re-main uncertain,” Keating wrote in an editorial.

Breast cancer is among the top killers of American women. This year, more than 200,000 new cas-es are predicted and more than 40,000 deaths as a result are ex-pected in the United States.

The society said it set changed its recommendation for annual mammograms at age 45 because that’s when a woman’s risk for breast cancer spikes. By the time women reach age 55, when most have passed menopause, tumors are usually less aggressive and grow at a slower rate. Addition-ally, changes in breast tissue make it easier to read mammograms.

Overdiagnosis was another result of mammograms that re-searchers in a separate study found, which means women re-ceived unnecessary treatment and procedures, and underwent emo-tional distress. Younger women have more dense breast tissue and mammograms beginning at age 40 could result in false positives. One study revealed that a number of women suffer intense anguish after being called for a follow-up mammogram because a radiolo-gist saw something suspicious, NBC News reported.

Most women overestimate how much mammograms actually help, Lisa Schwarts, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Insti-tute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice in New Hampshire, told NBC News. The exams decrease the risk of death from breast can-cer by anywhere between 15 per-cent to 40 percent, depending on studies considered.

“About 85 [percent] of women in their 40s and 50s who die of breast cancer would have died re-gardless of mammography screen-ing,” Keating said. “More sophisti-cated screening tests that confer a

greater reduction in breast cancer mortality would likely decrease breast cancer mortality much more than expanding screening mammography for women in their 40s and 50s.”

Wender said he hoped the changes would put an end to de-bates and confusion about mam-mography, The New York Times reported, but others doubt they would bring clarity.

“I think it has the potential to create a lot of confusion amongst women and primary care provid-ers,” Dr. Therese Bevers, medical director of the Cancer Prevention Center at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told the Times.

Other groups still recommend that women begin undergoing mammograms earlier, including the National Comprehensive Can-cer Network, which suggests an-nual mammograms begin at age 40. Similarly, the American Col-lege of Obstetricians and Gynecol-ogists recommends the test every one to two years between the ages of 40 to 49, and once per year after that. Furthermore, it suggests an-nual clinical breasts exams start-ing at age 19.

But the most important thing, most groups agree, is that women to discuss their risk for breast can-cer with their doctors and decide what she’s most comfortable do-ing, according to NBC News.

“A woman should make a per-sonal decision as whether she should start screening before age 45 but we clearly recommend that by age 45 all women should start regular screening every year,” Wender told NBC News. (Agnes Constante/AJPress)

to acquire shares in the two firms as payment for Mercado’s loans to him.

“OMNI and Meriras were origi-nally Mercado’s companies. It was Mercado who incorporated and managed the business and af-fairs (of) the foregoing companies until the year 2000 when he sold his shares to (me) as payment for the loan (I) extended to him,” he claimed.

Limlingan made the allegation in an 88-page motion he filed with the Court of Appeals (CA) last week to seek the lifting of a freeze order issued against 170 bank and other financial accounts.

He said Mercado borrowed from him after losing the mayoral bid in Makati City. To help, Limlingan offered to buy Mercado’s shares in OMNI. The transactions ended with Limlingan acquiring 80 per-cent of OMNI.

He also denied Mercado’s in-sinuation against him in relation to Meriras which, he said, is actu-ally a company originally owned by Mercado and long-time friend, former Makati City engineer Nel-son Irasga. Thus, the company’s name is a combination of the first syllable of their names: Mercado and Irasga.

“Consequently, none of the fore-

Ex-Binay aide turns tables...going matters, too, either through negligence, or with deliberate in-tent, were ever raised in the Sen-ate, the Office of the Ombudsman, this honorable court, nor told by Mercado,” Limlingan stressed.

Meanwhile, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) spokesman Mon Ilagan denied allegations that the party was behind the demolition campaign against independent presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe.

Ilagan said it is not the charac-ter of their party to resort to dirty tactics just to improve their candi-date’s ratings in surveys, adding that UNA has been advocating for fair and clean elections in 2016.

Nacionalista Party (NP) sena-torial candidate Susan Ople also confirmed receiving and agreeing to UNA’s offer to become its guest candidate as the party aims to field a complete 12-member senatorial slate.

Only boxing champ Manny Pac-quiao, broadcaster Rey Langit, former Philippine National Police Special Action Force chief Getulio Napeñas, actress Alma Moreno, la-bor leader Alan Montano and Sulu Princess Jacel Kiram were listed with the Comelec as UNA senato-rial candidates. (Edu Punay, Helen Flores, Mayen Jaymalin/Philstar.com)

concerned about,” he also said.Asked whether he has some-

thing to apologize for or explain about the martial law years, he replied by saying people he meets did not ask him such ques-tions as they wanted to find out more about how he could help the country improve.

He stressed that his concern was not about “historical analy-sis” but more on how he could

Past is past, Bongbong says...

PAGASA weather forecaster Aldczar Aurelio urged the public and those living in affected villag-es and provinces to remain calm, evacuate the region, and not be complacent in times of typhoons. He also warned against possible landslides and flash-floods in low, mountainous provinces un-der the public storm signal.

Richard J. Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, told NBC News that water was rising steadily in Pangasinan province,

Typhoon Koppu batters...

“Solid North” remains to be intact as shown when he ran and won a seat in the Senate in 2010.

Meanwhile, former senator Kit Tatad on Wednesday said that if only Marcos had run for Presi-dent it would have been his op-portunity to put “closure” and clear the issues surrounding his family and the Aquinos.

“He should’ve run for Presi-dent so that there can be clo-sure [on the issue of] Marcos vs Aquino. Who among the two camps are telling the country the truth?” said Tatad.

serve the people.Marcos, who was formerly

governor of Ilocos Norte, said he believes going back to the execu-tive branch suited him better as this would enable him to provide service straight to the people.

He also said his vast experi-ence in government as a gov-ernor and as a legislator would help him in serving the people as Vice President.

Marcos also insisted that the

in greater numbers. Asian Amer-icans and NHPIs are registering to vote and going to polls in in-creasing numbers in the West. In certain jurisdictions, Asian Americans and NHPIs have al-ready had or will soon have the ability to produce the margin of victory to impact the outcomes of elections.

• Asian Americans and NHPIs

Study: Growing disparities among...

to hit the Philippines. The coun-try averages 20 storms and ty-phoons each year. In November 2013, over 7,300 people were left dead and thousands missing after Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), one of the most powerful storms on record, battered the central Philippines.

“[In the Western Pacific,] they’re located in the belt basi-cally between the equator and the subtropics,” Bob Henson, from Weather Underground fore-cast services, told CNN. “It’s con-sidered to be the most vulnerable large nation on earth for tropical cyclones.”

pushed by heavy rains and dam water being released. Several low-lying towns in the region were asked to evacuate, warn-ing possible floods from Agno River.

“We are sending rescue teams there now. We will be busy rescu-ing people from the tops of roofs--they have no place to go,” Gordon said. “A lot of people can drown or be displaced from their homes. This is a developing tragedy.”

Koppu, which is Japanese for “cup,” is the 12th storm this year

continue to own businesses and employ millions of people. Asian American and NHPIs buying power continues to grow in all major regions in the West.

• While some Asian Ameri-cans and NHPIs in the West have achieved economic success, oth-ers still struggle to make ends meet. The reality is Asian Ameri-cans and NHPIs in the West are more likely to live in poverty, be

low income, make less money and be less likely to own homes than Whites.

• While some Asian Ameri-cans and NHPIs have no trouble speaking English and accessing educational opportunities and health care, many still need lan-guage assistance to access criti-cal services, and have difficulty graduating high school. (Allyson Escobar / AJPress)

DATELINE PHILIPPINES

IF former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas believes that Senator Grace Poe is Filipino, then he should “ex-plicitly” tell his colleagues in the Liberal Party (LP) and supporters to stop making an issue of it, Sena-tor Francis “Chiz” Escudero said on Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Escudero, running mate of Poe in the 2016 elections, said the same holds true for Vice Presi-dent Jejomar Binay.

“It’s getting harder and hard-er to give the leaders of LP and UNA (United Nationalist Alli-ance) the benefit of the doubt given the revelations of Sen. Gordon,” he said in a statement, referring to former Senator Rich-ard Gordon’s claim that he was approached by members of LP and UNA to file a disqualification case against Poe.

“When your leaders say one thing and do another, it does not speak well of their character nor of their capacity to lead the na-tion. Our people expect honesty, not doublespeak; integrity, not deceit.”

Escudero then called on Roxas and Binay, standard-bearers of LP and UNA, respectively, to tell

Escudero to Roxas, Binay: Stop making Poe’s citizenship an issue

by MAILA AGERInquirer.net

their party mates and supporters to stop making an issue of Poe’s citizenship.

“C.S. Lewis said that integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. Hindi yung subukan natin, baka makalusot,” he said.

“If Mar believes that Grace is Filipino, he should explicitly tell LP members and supporters to stop making an issue of it. The same holds true for VP Binay, who also invited Grace to be his VP.”

Both Roxas and Binay consid-ered Poe to be their respective running mate in the 2016 elec-tions but the lady senator decid-ed to run against them instead.

“Perhaps they were hoping Sen. Gordon could give credence to the false charges against Sen. Poe, being an accomplished public servant. We maintain our call for all candidates to keep the campaign clean, platform-based and on a professional level,” Es-cudero added.

MANILA—The Marcos name and all its baggage would not be an issue when he runs for the vice presidency next year, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Monday, Oct. 19.

However, he is “not inclined to back out from discussions regarding the non-issue topic,” but would rather talk about more pressing matters in the country, Marcos said in a statement.

“We should prioritize the is-sues that the common people are thinking about every day,” he said.

Marcos cited examples like the proliferation of illegal drugs, the high price of basic goods and services, graft and corrup-tion and unemployment.

Issues regarding his fam-ily background are something that matters only to politicians and certain groups and not the masses, he said.

“Here in Manila, it is the traf-fic, MRT, telecommunications and even the slow Internet… that should be addressed first be-cause these are what the people are waiting for and expect the government to solve,” he said.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santia-go, who has chosen Marcos as her running mate, said it is still important to go over the details

Bongbong Marcos: Surname not an issueby MARVIN SY

Philstar.com

of martial law “so we will know what path we shall take for the millennials.”

“Many people did not mind the imposition of martial law at first,” she said.

“In the first few years, there was much more order in the streets, but eventually I think that martial law did not proceed as intended.”

Discussions on martial law would persist because it contin-ues to provide an insight about how the period shaped the fu-ture of the nation, she added.

Santiago does not believe the

THE Supreme Court has is-sued a status quo ante order (SQAO) in favor of former Pres-ident Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stopping for 30 days her plun-der trial before the Sandigan-bayan.

At the same time, the high court also ordered the Anti-Graft Court’s First Division to comment on the petition filed by Mrs. Arroyo.

The 30-day period, according to a source, was meant to give the high court time to decide on the merits of the case.

But another source clarified the order does not mean grant-ing Arroyo temporary liberty.

The high court issued a ruling after Arroyo filed a 115-page

SC stops Gloria Arroyo’s plunder trial for 30 daysby TETCH TORRES-TUPAS

Inquirer.net

report from the United Nations Technical Working Group on Arbitrary Detention recom-mending the reconsideration of Mrs. Arroyo’s application for bail “in accordance with the relevant international human rights standards.”

Arroyo said the UN panel’s

petition asking the high court to reverse the final ruling of the Sandiganbayan first division last February denying her bail mo-tion in the remaining plunder case against her involving the P366-million Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) fund anomaly.

Arroyo, 68, is detained at the VMMC plunder over the alleged misuse of P366 million in intel-ligence funds for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) from 2008 to 2010 for personal gain.

Last April, Mrs. Arroyo al-ready appealed the Sandigan-bayan ruling.

In her latest motion where she is being represented by former solicitor-general Atty. Estelito Mendoza, she cited the recent

position was consistent with the petition for bail and demur-rer to evidence her defense lawyers filed before the Sandi-ganbayan First Division.

Mrs. Arroyo also reiterated her prayer for issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping the proceed-ings on the plunder case before the anti-graft court.

In her petition, Mrs. Arroyo cited her deteriorating health in asking the high court to re-verse the rulings of the Sandi-ganbayan.

Arroyo said the high court had ruled in many cases that detain-ees are entitled to bail “if their continuous confinement during the pendency of their case would be injurious to their health or en-danger their life.”

Marcoses, as a family, owe the country an apology for martial law.

“In the first place, it was not the case that President Marcos, the father, pooled all the Marco-ses in one table and they all de-cided jointly to do certain activi-ties that were later viewed with disinterest or distaste or even outright criticism by other Filipi-nos,” she said.

“That was not the case, they did not agree as a family to sit down and say: ‘Okay, let us do this. Let us set up curfews. Let us regulate the issuance of fire-arms and so on.’ That was not the case. This was all a result, not of a familial discussion, but a result of policy decisions of the executive department of the government—President Marcos and his advisers.”

Meanwhile, Marcos believes he is taking a huge political risk in running for vice president next year.

He will face four strong candi-dates, including three of his col-leagues in the Senate.

Sen. Francis Escudero is the running mate of Sen. Grace Poe, while Sens. Antonio Trillanes IV and Alan Peter Cayetano are running as independent candi-dates.

Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Ro-bredo is the running mate of Roxas of the Liberal Party.

MANILA—Detained Sen. Ra-mon “Bong” Revilla Jr. on Tues-day, Oct. 20 filed a furlough re-quest anew, asking permission to attend the celebration of his daughter’s 18th birthday.

In his plea, Revilla asked the Sandiganbayan First Division if he can attend the debut of his daughter, Ma. Frazbelle Lou-dette Bautista, on October 24, from 7pm to 10pm or as soon as the celebration is finished at Bel-levue Hotel in Alabang, Muntin-lupa City.

“As part of the family-oriented Filipino culture, during Loud-ette’s 18th birthday, her parents would present her to society as a young lady coming of age and formally turning into an adult. It is a tradition which daughters and their families prepare for, look forward to, and treasure for the rest of their lives,” his peti-tion read.

“As a father, Senator Revilla wishes to perform his obligation and be part of Loudette’s special day,” the motion added.

Revilla seeks furlough to attend daughter’s debutby ROSETTE ADEL

Philstar.com

Revilla is currently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City facing charges of graft and plunder related to the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

Last July, Revilla also request-ed to visit his ailing father, veter-an actor and former Sen. Ramon Revilla Sr. The court granted him five-hour furlough for that re-quest.

They expressed concern over the delay in the passage of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) because Congress has yet to pass the proposed BBL.

Congress adjourned session last week without approving the BBL but lawmakers claimed they still have time to discuss and pass the measure before the Christmas break.

Misuari denies MNLF sup-ports BBL

Meanwhile, the Nur Misuari faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) denied that it was supporting the BBL in its present form, slamming such reports as propaganda.

Habib Mujahab Hashim, MNLF Islamic Command Coun-cil (ICC) chairman, was furi-ous over a released statement, which said that both the MNLF and the MILF are supporting the BBL.

“(To say that the) MNLF, MILF agreed to support BBL in its present form is misleading. The MNLF does not agree to support the BBL. It’s mislead-ing the people and it’s mis-leading the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) itself,” Hashim said over the weekend.

It appeared that the Muslimin Sema faction of the MNLF and MILF chairman Ebrahim Murad issued a joint statement that called for the passage of an “un-diluted” BBL after a meeting on Oct. 3 in Camp Darapanan, Ma-guindanao. Both declared that a diluted BBL will not conform with the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) forged last year and 1996 MNLF final peace agreement (FPA).

“Please be informed that Mu (Muslimin) Sema and his group do not represent the whole of the MNLF. It is a faction or a fraction of MNLF. I would say a majority, 90 to 95 percent of the MNLF, are against BBL in its present form,” Hashim declared.

Hashim maintained the main-stream MNLF strongly objected to the BBL for two reasons: “it is unconstitutional and illegal.”

He said the BBL is illegal because of the existing peace agreement between the Phil-ippine government and the MNLF, which is supposed to be in its last stage of imple-mentation but would be cut short after the Aquino admin-istration enters into another agreement.

Malacañang bent on pushing BBL passageby ALEXIS ROMERO

Philstar.com

MANILA—Malacañang is de-termined to push the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law and has thanked ambassadors who expressed support for the peace process amid issues hampering the BBL, a Palace official said.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Her-minio Coloma gave assurance that the government would con-tinue to work with Congress for the timely passage of the BBL.

“The government’s determi-nation to continue the peace process through the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law is unyielding,” Coloma said over state-run radio dzRB.

A priority measure of Malaca-ñang, the BBL seeks to imple-ment the peace accord signed by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) last year.

The measure will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a new Bangsam-oro entity with greater econom-ic and political powers.

Last week, diplomats urged the government and the MILF to remain engaged in the peace process.

MANILA—The Bureau of Im-migration (BI) has issued a depor-tation order against US Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton even as he is still on trial for the killing of a Filipino transgender last year.

But the BI clarified the depor-tation order could not be immedi-ately enforced pending clearance from the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74, which is hearing Pemberton’s case.

The Marine is being tried for the murder of Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in October last year inside a motel room in Olongapo.

BI spokesperson Elaine Tan said the bureau wanted Pemberton de-ported on the ground of “undesir-ability.” She said the order was contained in a five-page resolution issued last Sept. 16.

“Pemberton would not be de-ported until we get clearance from the court… We would have to wait for the court’s decision before we could physically deport him,” Tan said.

The murder case is set for promulgation on Dec. 14.

If the court finds Pemberton guilty, he must serve his sentence first before he can be sent back to the United States. But if he is ac-quitted, then he would be imme-diately deported, Tan explained.

Tan added that despite the deportation order, the Marine would remain in detention at Camp Aguinaldo and would not be placed under the custody of the BI.

She said immigration officials have informed the Olongapo court about the deportation order.

BI orders Pemberton deportedby EVELYN MACAIRAN

Philstar.com

The deportation order for an “undesirable” alien was based mainly on a statement from Laude’s friend Mark Clarence “Barbie” Gelviro who, during an October 2014 Senate hearing, pointed to Pemberton as the per-son who most likely killed the 24-year-old transgender by drown-ing him in a toilet inside a room at Celzone Lodge in Olongapo City. Gelviro was with Laude and Pem-berton before the pair checked into Celzone Lodge.

On Oct. 26 last year, the BI’s Legal Division charged Pember-ton with “undesirability” and in-cluded his name in its watchlist.

The case was then forwarded to the bureau’s Board of Special Inquiry (BSI) composed of BI Commissioner Siegfred Mison and Associate Commissioners Gilberto Repizo and Abdullah Mangotara.

On Nov. 24 last year, the US Marine filed a motion for self-de-portation.

The BSI said there was no doubt Pemberton poses risk to

public interest and should be de-ported.

The BSI said that as stipulated in “Acts or Omissions that Con-stitute Undesirability of Foreign Nationals, Section 1,” there is a “presumption” that a foreign na-tional is undesirable “if he com-mits an act constituting a criminal offense punishable by imprison-ment of one year or more.”

In Pemberton’s case, he was charged with murder, which is a serious criminal offense punish-able with more than a year’s im-prisonment.

The BI-BSI explained that since a deportation proceeding is ad-ministrative in character, it only requires “substantial evidence” to establish that an alien poses a risk to national security, public safety or national interest.

“Substantial evidence” refers to relevant information that is enough to support a position.

The immigration bureau be-lieves the evidence gathered during the Senate hearing, such

SAN FRANCISCO

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Palace official spokespersons earlier shot down calls for the passage into law of the proposed tax relief bill. The Palace claimed studies made by the administra-tion economic and finance teams showed it would be harmful for the country’s improving interna-tional credit and investment rat-ings.

Lately, however, the Palace soft-pedaled on its vehement ob-jection against the pending tax relief bill in Congress. This after various stakeholders from busi-ness groups to foreign chambers of commerce and labor organi-zations issued their respective statements of support for its leg-islation.

Through Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) commissioner Kim Henares, the Palace ex-pressed open mind to the tax relief bill if Congress would pass also an amendment of the law to allow the lifting of bank secrecy law against suspected accounts of big-time tax evaders.

It should be worthy to note the most recent tax studies that

showed the Philippines imple-ments one of the most tedious processes for paying taxes in the world and has the highest income tax rates in Asia. Citing a study by international audit firm Price-waterhouse, Sen. Chiz Escudero noted the average income tax rate and contributions paid by a Philippine employer is 42.5 per-cent, or six percent higher than the average tax rate in the Asia Pacific.

Escudero, the vice presidential runningmate of fellow indepen-dent candidate Sen. Grace Poe, bared the findings of this study.

Speaking of studies, the BIR commissioner strongly took ex-ception to a commissioned study done by London-based Oxford Economics. Henares questioned the claims of this study that 19 percent (or equivalent to P20 billion) of this annual cigarette consumption comes from illegal cigarette trade, and only about 86 billion sticks sold legally. Henares cited a similar study conducted by World Bank which reported only 5 percent of ciga-

rette consumption come from smuggled sources.

So, such claim that govern-ment allegedly lost more than P22 billion in revenues due to rampant consumption of untaxed cigarettes was biased and inac-curate, Henares fumed.

For this year, BIR is looking at hitting their tax collection tar-gets from so-called “sin” taxes through Republic Act 10351, otherwise known as “An Act Restructuring the Excise Tax on Alcohol and Tobacco Products.” This law adjusted the tax rates on cigarettes and other “sin” prod-ucts from 15 years ago level and indexed this to inflation.

If the Aquino administration signed this into law in 2012, why does P-Noy now frown on this proposed indexation also of in-come tax rates to inflation?

There is enough time for Con-gress to approve this into law and give every fixed income earner more pesos in their monthly take-home pay that would have other-wise been deducted as withhold-ing taxes. (Philstar.com)

Chosen one

Editorial

OPINION FEATURES

GEL SANTOS-RELOS

The Fil-Am Perspective

Fil-Ams can help decide who will be the next Philippine president IT is very heartwarming to see and

hear how very engaged kababayans in America have increasingly been when it comes to what is going on in the Philippines. Despite the distance away from the Motherland, most of us -- especially those who still have fam-ily living there -- still care about what is going on in the country.

There are Fil-Ams who may have challenges paying their own bills, yet they feel obligated and compelled to send money to their families because they know if they are remiss in help-ing out, their loved ones would not be able to survive. Many of these Fil-Ams lament that if only there are more and better employment opportunities back home, then their families would not be very dependent on them financially. If only…

That is why news about corruption and incompetence of those in public office infuriate a lot of kababayans in America. The Internet, social media and ABS-CBN The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast “Balitang America” have provided these kababayans the

platform to help them voice out their concerns and opinions about the political situation in the Philippines. However, we can do more to ef-fect change in the Phil-ippines. This is through exercising the right to suffrage.

Filipino citizens residing abroad, or those who may have already natural-ized citizens of other countries but have come dual citizens, can vote -- and these votes will count. There may have been very low turnout in the past election cycles, but again, because of the power of the Internet, social me-dia, and global broadcast organiza-tions like ABS-CBN, more and more kababayans are now compelled to register as Overseas Absentee Voters (OAV).

There have been some flaws and loopholes in Philippine election laws that discourage more kababayans out-side of the country from participating in Philippine elections, but with the

advocacy of Fili-pino community leaders abroad, especially from the United States, these laws have been challenged and amended so more of global Filipinos can cast

their sacred and consequential votes.One of these advocates is Atty. Ted

Laguatan, an active Fil-Am leader based in San Francisco, California.

Laguatan filed a petition before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) -- on behalf of US Pinoys for Good Governance (USPGG), Global Filipino Diaspora Council (GFDC), European Network of Filipinos in the Diaspora (ENFID) and thousands of overseas registered voters — requesting the Comelec not to disenfranchise about 167,000 registered voters who failed to consecutively vote twice. As a re-sult, Laguatan sent “Balitang Ameri-ca” the good news: the Comelec had a meeting en banc to consider such pe-

tition and came out with a very posi-tive resolution.

The resolution stipulates that on May 27, 2013, Congress amended RA 9189 of the Overseas Absentee Vot-ing Act of 2003, replacing it with RA 10590 and making it mandatory and not discretionary for the Comelec to deactivate overseas registered voters who fail to vote twice consecutively.

Affirming the arguments presented by Laguatan in the petition, the reso-lution recognized the clamor of over-seas voters not to disenfranchise them for failing to vote twice. This resolu-tion also affirms the importance of the right of suffrage of every Filipino, wherever they may be.

Laguatan reported that the final policy decision, which was approved unanimously, extends the date for re-activation from Oct. 31, 2015 to Dec. 9, 2015. It also made reactivation a very easy process. Just mail, fax or email the Comelec before this date and the deactivated overseas voter can still participate in the May 2016 elections.

Laguatan enthused: “Registered overseas voters now

have exceeded the one million mark and with time continue to grow in numbers. They can be a real force for good. In general ORVs [Overseas Registered Voters] cannot be bought nor coerced by goons. They are also better informed. As such, they tend to vote for the best candidates in terms of integrity and competence. They can change the quality of our national lead-ership with their votes and the votes of their relatives in the Philippines whom they help and who will follow their di-rections on which candidates to vote for. This is one way in which we can change the political culture in the Phil-ippines, have good honest non-corrupt leaders and create a better life for Fili-pinos everywhere in the world.”

* * *

Campaign promises

As granted by the law, these ap-plications were accepted. However, not all these aspirants will make it to the ballot as the Comelec winnow the grain from the chaff.

When asked about the high turnout of people wanting to be the next Philippine president, Com-mission on Elections (Comelec) reiterated its provi-sions on “nuisance candidates.”

Citing the Omnibus Election Code, Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told the media that the poll body has the authority to reject the COCs of individuals who make a mockery of the election system; those who seek to confuse voters through similarity of names between candidates; and those who have no bona fide or good faith in running for office.

While the filing of COCs appeared to be a circus, Malacañang said that the high turnout of presi-dential hopefuls “attests to the dynamism of our democracy and reflects the desire of well-meaning Filipinos to actively participate in the electoral pro-cess.”

“Come election time, we expect our bosses to exercise sound judgment in their selection of fu-ture leaders of the country,” Communications Sec-retary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.

A presidential wannabe only needs to meet five requirements: a natural born Filipino; a registered

voter; must be able to read and write; 40 years of age at the day of the election; and must have resided in the Philippines 10 years before the election is held.

From the 130 names tossed in the ring, only few will make it to the next cut. And when election time is over, one will be named the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines.

Four are expected to make it through to the de-liberation process, those who have the machinery, resources and potential to launch a nationwide campaign. They are Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II, Vice President Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), independent candidate Sen. Grace Poe and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who will be running under her People’s Reform Party.

Meeting the requirements is easy, winning the Filipinos’ approval is the hard part. Instead of working double time on increasing popularity and gaining plaudits, current leaders and those aspir-ing for a public post should do more groundwork and to do more for the people.

Whether wanting to be a president is wise or not, this ambition will adhere to the requirements of due process. Eventually, it is the Filipino voters who will decide if this dream can turn into reality.

Getting the job done is no cakewalk either. As

AFTER the five-day filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs), from October 12-16, the Commission on Election (Comelec) reportedly received 130 applications from Filipino presidential aspirants.

defined by the Constitution, the president is the Head of State and Head of Government, and func-tions as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. As chief executive, the president exercises control over all the executive departments, bureaus and offices.

It is every Filipino’s undertaking to identify these duties and responsibilities. When the winner is declared, they are expected to transcend from the latest poll results and staunch existing political mentality, and aid the next leader in utilizing them for the next six years. (AJPress)

Commonsense

MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

IF there is one common thing that usually comes out during the political season, it is to hear from aspirants during elections their promises to ease our tax burden. But the problem with these campaign promises, es-pecially if they come from can-didates running for Congress, is that each of them is just one vote to fulfill a promise that requires collegial action of lawmakers.

This campaign promise would remain just a promise if these senatorial and congressional candidates cannot even com-mit their presidential timber to a platform of government that will support tax relief legisla-tion. That is, if they win and be installed into power.

However, if the elected Presi-dent exercises his or her power to legislate tax and tariff regu-lations as Chief Executive, this campaign promise can be ful-filled. Under our country’s 1987 Constitution, the President is vested with the power to leg-islate only if Congress is not in session.

If the incumbent administra-tion has the numbers in both the Senate and the House of Rep-resentatives, there would be no problem if they all support the

platform of government of the sitting President. Any attempts to override the tax or tariff execu-tive fiat issued while Congress was not in session would be un-likely to succeed.

But in a multi-party system that we have, it is almost always problematic to pursue common legislative agenda. Especially like in the case of the incumbent administration of President Be-nigno “Noy” Aquino III who does not believe in the soundness of convening the Legislative-Ex-ecutive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

What many presidential as-pirants usually promise is that there will be “no new taxes” if he or she is elected into office.

This we heard from former Senator Aquino when he ran and won during the May 2010 elec-tions. But for all intents and pur-poses, this might be in the mind of President Aquino who has frowned upon proposed tax relief bills pending at the Senate and at the House. In his mind, P-Noy promised only “no new tax laws” but not tax relief law. But who we are to second-guess what’s in the President’s mind?

The latest word from his of-ficial spokespersons at Malaca-ñang has it that the President will continue to engage with Con-gress on the proposed lowering of income tax brackets. Senator Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate ways and means commit-

tee, and his House counterpart, Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo ini-tiated the twin tax relief bills in Congress.

Angara’s bill seeks to amend the Tax Reform Act of 1997 to index to inflation the income subject to withholding taxes and gradually implement reduction of income tax brackets over a peri-od of time to mitigate its revenue reduction for the government.

Angara belongs to the pro-ad-ministration Laban ng Demokra-tikong Pilipino (LDP) while Qui-mbo belongs to P-Noy’s Liberal Party (LP). Angara is currently in the first half of his six-year term ending in 2019 and is not a candidate for any higher public office in the elections next year. Quimbo, on the other hand, is running in next year’s polls for his third and last term as LP bet in his congressional district.

Even Speaker Sonny Belmonte has not given up on passing a bill lowering income taxes even if President Aquino is lukewarm to this tax relief initiative that must emanate from the largely pro-administration House. As for President Aquino’s objection, Belmonte quipped: “That is his opinion and he’s the outgoing President. He’d like to leave his own legacy, that’s not necessar-ily binding on anybody who may have a different outlook (in Con-gress).”

Based on the advice of Aquino economic and finance managers,

LAWYER Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes has asked the Sandigan-bayan to cancel her pre-trial for plunder over the pork barrel scam, just like what it did in the case of principal accused Senator Juan Ponce Enrile.

In her motion for partial recon-sideration filed before the anti-graft court Third Division, Reyes, Enrile’s chief of staff, questioned why the court denied her motion to cancel her pre-trial but granted Enrile’s motion to reset the pre-trial following the Supreme Court decision granting Enrile’s bill of particulars.

Reyes said her and Enrile’s motions were based on the same grounds that the Sandiganbayan should wait until the Ombuds-man’s prosecutors comply with the Supreme Court directive to provide Enrile with the particular set of information in his plunder case to help him prepare for trial.

The high court would later grant the 91-year-old Enrile bail due to humanitarian considerations.

Gigi Reyes seeks cancellation of her trial pending Enrile’s bill of particulars

by MARC JAYSON CAYABYABInquirer.net

Enrile had been placed under hospital detention before he was granted bail.

Reyes said it would do an injus-tice to her if Enrile was allowed to better prepare for trial while she is not allowed to do the same.

She said since the Supreme Court allowed Enrile a bill of par-ticulars, she should also be al-lowed to benefit by likewise hav-ing her plunder pretrial canceled.

Reyes said she is placed in an even more precarious situation because while the prosecution has admitted that it has no direct evi-

He said it was discovered that the erring municipal social wel-fare officer in Panay visited the beneficiaries, told them that the ESA had been delayed, and then brought in a purported lender who offered quick cash loans equal to 84 percent of the ESA, so long as the remaining 16 per-cent is withheld as interest pay-ment for the supposed advance.

Ty did not identify the social worker and the area where the “scam” happened.

“It is also fairly possible that ESA-related scams like this in-volve or have the blessings of higher local officials trying to raise cash to pay for their elec-tion campaign-related expens-es,” he said.

“This Panay incident tends to

disprove reports of loan sharks preying on ESA beneficiaries. Loan sharks are not needed, be-cause in many cases, the cash for the ESA may already be there,” he said.

The DSWD has stepped up the delivery of the ESA to Yolanda ty-phoon victims amid concerns that slow government spending may be dampening economic growth.

The shelter assistance amounts to P30,000 per family or individual whose house was destroyed, or P10,000 per family or individual whose dwelling was damaged.

The DSWD said it has so far distributed a total of P14.6 bil-lion worth of ESA to 753,750 families in Yolanda-affected communities.

Lawmaker denounces Yolanda fund irregularitiesby JESS DIAZ

Philstar.com

MANILA—A party-list con-gressman decried persistent reports of alleged anomalies at the local level in the distribu-tion of the emergency shelter assistance (ESA) to victims of Typhoon Yolanda by the Depart-ment of Social Welfare and De-velopment (DSWD).

“What really grabbed our at-tention was the case of a munici-pal social welfare officer in Panay who pretended that the money for the ESA won’t be arriving for months, even if the cash was al-ready there, and then offered the beneficiaries early payment in exchange for a 16-percent cut,” Arnel Ty of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers Association said.

BI orders Pemberton...as Gelviro’s statement as well as corroborative statement from Celzon Lodge’s cashier Elias Galamos, were enough to justify Pemberton’s deportation.

Galamos testified having seen Pemberton walk out of the room less than an hour after he and

Likewise, Pemberton’s offer for self-deportation was denied for lack of merit.

Pemberton was one of the US soldiers conducting a joint drill with Filipino forces under the Visiting Forces Agreement.

The killing of Laude triggered public outrage and rekindled calls for the scrapping of the VFA.

Laude checked in.Immigration officials also cited

as basis for the deportation order the finding of probable cause to charge Pemberton with murder and the subsequent issuance of a warrant of arrest against the Ma-rine by Branch 74 of the Olongapo court.

dence pinning Enrile to the scam, it has pointed at Reyes as the one who received Enrile’s share in the kickbacks.

Because the bill of particulars re-fer to Enrile’s alleged acts through Reyes, “it is accused Reyes who will stand to suffer the most from the prosecution’s generalized and shotgun approach, if the instant case is allowed to proceed under the vague, ambiguous and insuf-ficient information.”

While Enrile was granted bail, Reyes is detained at the female dormitory of the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig pending her trial.

Witness Ruby Tuason has named Reyes as the one she met to deliver Enrile’s alleged cut from the scam, the purported scheme of pillaging lawmakers’ Prior-ity Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to ghost projects for kick-backs.

Businesswoman Janet Lim-Na-poles stands accused for plunder for allegedly forming the bogus foundations to implement the ghost projects in exchange for commissions.

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ATTY. ROBERT REEVES AMANDA C. KWONG

AND NANCY MILLER

Your ImmigrationSolution

PEOPLE seek to enter the United States for many different reasons. Some come to join fam-ily. Others come for economic opportunity. Still others come because they are fleeing perse-cution in their home country. Those who have a well-founded fear of persecution as a result of their race, religion, national ori-gin, membership in a particular social group or political opinion may be eligible to apply for asy-lum. If it is granted, the asylee will be eligible to apply for a green card after one year. In ad-dition, family members (spouses and under 21-year-old children) may also be able to obtain asylee status. The Child Status Protec-tion Act may protect children who turn 21 during the adjudica-tion process.

The asylum application is filed with United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS). If the applicant is not given an inter-view within 150 days from filing, s/he will be eligible to apply for work authorization which is offi-cially called an Employment Au-thorization Document EAD). The applicant is not technically eli-gible for EAD until 180 days have passed from the date of the filing of the asylum application so once filed, the EAD application will be held until the full 180 days have passed. If the applicant seeks an extension of an interview or does anything else that causes a delay in the procedure, the EAD clock will stop for the period of the de-lay caused by the applicant. This will, of course, delay the ability to obtain the EAD.

Those seeking asylum must file the application within one-year of entering the United States. If they fail to do so, they may be ineligible for asylum but may be able to pursue relief called with-holding of removal or relief un-der Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture. Withholding has a higher standard of proof (a

Seeking safety in the United States

clear probability of persecution on account of one of the five enu-merated grounds listed above) and does not lead to a green card. Relief under Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture requires that the applicant show that it is more likely than not that he or she will suffer torture at the hands of or with the acquies-cence of the home country gov-ernment.

Two categories of exceptions to the one-year filing deadline ex-ist - extraordinary circumstances or changed circumstances.

The extraordinary circum-stances exception refers to events or factors directly related to the failure to meet the one-year deadline. The applicant must show that the circumstanc-es were not intentionally created through action or inaction; that the circumstances were directly related to the person’s failure to timely file; and the delay was reasonable under the circum-stances. They include severe ill-ness to the applicant or a close family member (and include injury or illness resulting from the persecution), legal disability (being a minor or mental inca-pacity); ineffective assistance of counsel, maintaining lawful or TPS status or refiling after a timely filed application is reject-ed by USCIS.

The changed circumstances exception refers to circumstanc-es that materially affect the appli-cant’s eligibility for asylum. This include a change in conditions in the home country, changes in the US law, activities of the ap-plicant (such as converting to a different religion or becoming politically vocal in criticizing one’s home country), and aging-out or divorcing the primary ap-plicant for asylum. Here also, the application must be filed within a reasonable time under the cir-cumstances.

In both extraordinary circum-stances and changed circum-stances, the courts have held

that filing more than 6 months after one is able to do so is not reasonable.

Various factors may render one ineligible for asylum even upon a showing of a well-founded fear of future persecution or a history of past persecution. One who has firmly resettled in a third country is not eligible for asylum. Nor is someone who has ordered or as-sisted in the persecution of oth-ers. One who has been convicted of a particularly serious crime or who the government reasonably believes has a committed a seri-ous non-political crime is also in-eligible for asylum. Aggravated felonies are particularly serious crimes for purposes of asylum ineligibility but not necessarily for withholding of removal. That test is more complex. And, one who the government believes is a danger to the security of the United States is also ineligible for asylum.

An asylee may lose that status under certain circumstances. Conviction of a crime of moral turpitude or an aggravated felo-ny may result in the loss of asylee status. Returning to the country from which one sought and ob-tained asylum may also result in the loss of asylum.

One who fears returning to their home country should seek the advice of a knowledgeable and experienced immigration attorney to determine if they are eligible for asylum.

***

SAN MATEO, Calif. – The 2016 enrollment peri-od for Californians to sign up for affordable health insurance begins Sunday, November 1. Tens of thousands of San Mateo County residents will be able to join over four million people who now have affordable health coverage through California’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act and Covered California, the State’s health insurance marketplace.

Over 8,400 County residents successfully signed up for health insurance during the 2015 enrollment period, and over 20,000 people renewed their cov-erage. Effective local enrollment efforts helped to make San Mateo County Health System the high-est enrollment government navigator entity in the state – for the second year in a row.

An additional 20,000 individuals enrolled in Medi-Cal, the State’s no cost health insurance, available to those with low incomes such as some-one who makes less than $16,243 or a family of three who make less than $27,725. “We’ve had great success in getting the eligible population en-rolled in Medi-Cal since 2013, and we have equally committed to successfully renewing eligible mem-bers so that their coverage remains intact,” stated Iliana Rodriguez, San Mateo County Human Ser-vices Agency Director.

The San Mateo County Health System estimates that more than 29,000 county residents ages 18-64 still need affordable health coverage and may qual-ify for financial help. Uninsured residents tend to be located in “hot spots” across San Mateo Coun-ty, including East Menlo Park, Redwood City, East Palo Alto, and North Fair Oaks. County outreach efforts will target these “hot spots” by partnering with trusted, community-based organizations us-ing $250,000 from Covered California Navigator Grant Program funding.

Covered California selected San Mateo County Health System and two community partners to receive funding to help raise public awareness, motivate, and connect county residents to health coverage. The grant funding will help support a “no-wrong-door” approach through which a single application is used to determine and enroll an in-dividual in the most appropriate health insurance coverage based on income and other criteria.

The County aims to make the enrollment pro-cess as simple as possible for residents – whether they are completing the process on their own on-line, or with the help of an enrollment counselor by phone or in-person. Additionally, Agency staff are posted within community-based organizations

Third year enrollment for A�ordable Health Coverage begins November 1

Agencies and organizations across San Mateo County partner to target 29,000 uninsured

ANOTHER frequent complaint about Medicaid is that it provides substandard medical coverage. Once again though, the numbers tell a different story. Medicaid coverage provides health care financial peace-of-mind. Not surprisingly, few Medicaid ben-eficiaries experience financial is-sues related to health care.

Only 10 percent of those with Medicaid had problems paying medical bills, and 19 percent have at least one medical bill that is a problem or a debt. More people with private insurance had both (21 percent with prob-lems paying or unable to pay a medical bill, and 33 percent with at least one problem medical bill

Medicaid mythbuster: Medical care when you need it

or medical debt). The uninsured face even more serious health care-related financial difficulties. Over a third (35 percent) of the uninsured have problems paying medical bills. Nearly half of the uninsured (47 percent) have at least one problem medical bill or medical debt.

Medicaid out-performs private insurance or being uninsured for measures of obtaining health care when it is needed. Only 10 percent of those on Medicaid did not visit a doctor or clinic with a medical problem requiring treat-ment, compared to 17 percent of those with private insurance and 40% of the uninsured. Only 13 percent of those on Medicaid did

not fill a prescription, compared to 15% of those with private in-surance and 30 percent of the uninsured.

Moreover, less than a quarter of those on Medicaid (23 per-cent) had at least one cost-relat-ed health care access problem. Meanwhile 30 percent of those with private insurance and 54 percent of the uninsured had at least one cost-related health care access problem. (Jon Bailey)

* * *Jon M. Bailey is a rural policy

and research expert and former Center for Rural Affairs Policy and Research Director. Con-tact him at jonmbailey1@gmail.com. ■

u

Retired US Army Major General

AARP_15_Taguba_Testimonial_HP_FIL_AJ.indd 1 10/15/15 3:18 PM

The CTVFiles

ATTY. LILLI B. BACULIERNIE D. DELFIN

The Metamorphosis

to make it easier for residents to obtain assistance. All options are detailed on the County’s health coverage website: www.smc-gov.org/healthcoverage.

“Our partnerships with trusted, community based organizations – such as Ravenswood Family Health Center in East Palo Alto and Healthways in Redwood City – will help us reach uninsured residents who deserve access to quality, affordable health insur-ance,” said Srija Srinivasan, San Mateo County Health System

Director of Family Health Ser-vices and the Health Coverage Unit. “Health insurance helps people stay healthy by covering preventive services such as flu shots and services to treat more chronic conditions such as dia-betes. By focusing on the pock-ets of uninsured in our county, we can target our efforts to the communities in which we can have the most impact toward our goal of health insurance cover-age for all.”

The deadline to renew or en-roll in Covered California health

insurance is January 31, 2016. To avoid any gaps in coverage or a tax penalty, you must enroll by December 15, 2015 so coverage will begin on January 1, 2016.

A list of enrollment locations and times as well as the languages spoken at each center is available at www.smcgov.org/healthcover-age. Local in-person enrollment assistance is available by calling (650) 616-2002 or 1 (800) 223-8383. San Mateo County residents can also enroll directly through Covered California’s website: www.CoveredCA.com. ■

Third year enrollment for A�ordable…t

UNDER current immigration laws, there is a bar to admis-sibility to the United States for foreign nationals who are “un-lawfully present” in the United States. An unlawfully present foreign national is a person who was inspected at the border and admitted into the United States but who remained in the United States beyond the date of his au-thorized stay; or a foreign nation-al who entered the United States without inspection meaning, the person was not inspected or ad-mitted by an immigration officer.

Pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) sec-tion 212, a foreign national who is unlawfully present for more than 180 days but less than 1 year, and who left the United States voluntarily before removal proceedings began, is inadmis-sible for 3 years from his/her date of departure. Moreover, a foreign national who was unlaw-fully present for 1 year or more is inadmissible for 10 years from the date of departure. Foreign nationals in the United States who are unlawfully present do not trigger the 3 or 10 year bar merely by being physically in the United States. The bar is trig-gered upon a person’s departure from the United States.

In 2012, USCIS announced a new policy – a Waiver of the 3- or 10-year bar for Unlawful Pres-ence. The new rule permits a discretionary waiver of unlawful presence by the attorney general in the case of a foreign national seeking admission to the United States who is the spouse or par-ent of a US citizen or green card

Provisional unlawful presence waiver

holder if the denial of such waiv-er would result in “extreme hard-ship” to the US citizen or green card holder spouse or parent.

The Waiver effectively allows families to remain together in the United States until a decision is reached on the waiver for unlaw-ful presence. It is important to note that the Waiver only waives the inadmissibility ground of unlawful presence and nothing else. If the Department of Home-land Security/United States Citi-zenship and Immigration Ser-vices (DHS/USCIS) has reason to believe that the noncitizen may be subject to inadmissibil-ity grounds other than unlawful presence, the Waiver will be de-nied.

Applicants seeking to utilize this waiver process must estab-lish “extreme hardship” to a qual-ifying immediate relative. Under the final rule, a qualifying relative is limited to a US citizen spouse or parent. To this end, DHS can-not include children as qualifying relatives for purposes of the ex-treme hardship requirement be-cause the statute only permits a showing of extreme hardship to a spouse or a parent as a basis for granting the parent. Thus, a showing of extreme hardship to an LPR spouse or parent will not satisfy the requirement.

In addition, this waiver pro-cess will remain available only to those individuals who are currently in the US and will be departing for consular process-ing abroad. Individuals already outside of the US must pursue a waiver of inadmissibility through the old process.

Finally, the Unlawful Presence Waiver will only waive just as the title says – an individual’s unlaw-ful presence. That is, an individ-

ual seeking admission must be otherwise admissible aside from the unlawful presence.

“Unlawful presence,” “ex-treme hardship,” “qualifying relative,” and “admissible” are terms of art. An experienced im-migration firm or attorney will be able to help you understand what these terms mean specific to the regulations, how the new waiver process might be applicable to your particular case, and the op-tions available to you under the evolving immigration laws.

No two cases are alike, and with immigration laws constantly evolving, individuals must care-fully consider their particular sit-uation in relation to immigration laws before filing for any benefit or application. Those who might be eligible for any immigra-tion benefit or program should consult with an experienced, li-censed immigration attorney to obtain an in-depth consultation about the law, what the law re-quires, and how to proceed. In addition, people should be wary of online scams, online tools that offer immigration help, or notarios who are not licensed to practice law.

* * *

u

12 simple things Filipinos can do to help PH progress morally, economically and politically

“BE the change you want to see in this world!” - Mahatma Gandhi

This is the last of my Home-coming Series, expatiating my random thoughts how we Fili-pinos can assist our country to progress economically, morally and politically without the need of a bloody revolution. Since the Philippines is considered a Christian nation, (approximately 85 percent consider themselves Catholics), I dare say, however, that what many Filipinos do to each other and his country -- from graft and corruption to hu-man exploitation to lack of social justice -- is un-Christian living. It is contrary to the teachings of the Gospel. Otherwise there would be no ill-gotten wealth, unsolved murders, robberies, killings and abductions in Mindanao. Those were the daily staple in the news when I was in the homeland.

As I was mentally preparing

this column, serendipitously I went to watch the movie War Room, thinking that it is full of action with a winning war strat-egy. Lo and behold it was not -- yet I enjoyed it as the underly-ing message was to “surrender” -- that we alone cannot change a person, because Somebody Big-ger than you and me is always in charge. The movie is about living out your faith and that you need Jesus to fight the good fight for you and your family. The Good Book (2 Chronicles 2:14) says, “Then if my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heav-en, will forgive their sins and will heal their land.”

It is really not just a mortal sin or criminal offense but obscenely immoral to have so much pov-erty, due to massive corruption in government, that contributed greatly to the unconscionable disparity of wealth, resources or

income between the upper ONE percent vs. the 99 percent of our population. Stories abound of too much money of many politi-cians who made fortunes while they are in government, enrich-ing their families and cronies at the expense of the poor. It is a common knowledge that even poor politicians a decade or two ago are now wallowing in wealth, and want to perpetuate the status quo forever! This socio-political cancer is a microcosm of Philip-pine society today that hinders real progress, ethical and trans-parent governance. This coming May 2016 elections, Filipinos are given another chance to elect better and moral leaders to lead them to the “Promised Land.”

Patterned after my friend, Alex Lacson’s book, Faith in the Filipi-no: 12 Wonderful Things about the Filipino & Our Motherland, as a Filipino who still loves his country despite living in the US for four decades, please allow

DR. VALERIE DE LEON

Dr. Val’s Dental Views

ATTY. MICHAELGURFINKEL, ESQ

ImmigrationCorner

MONETTEADEVA MAGLAYA

ImmigrantLiving: 101 and Beyond

FESS up J. K. Rowling. That scene in one of the Harry Potter books where eerie sounds and strange occurrences caused by a ghost in residence were com-ing from — of all places— the toilet stalls, in Hogwarts is not all that original. Because it hap-pened years ago, not as fiction but as part of reality — my real-ity, that is.

Just for kicks during my hal-cyon days as a full-time work-ing /full-time grad student at the University of the Philippines long ago, I had agreed to act as medium for a séance or a hyp-notic session to conjure or call the spirit or spirits that were causing a disturbance. I took over from another medium in a previous session weeks ear-lier conducted by a Jesuit priest from the Ateneo, Fr. Bulatao. There were repeated paranormal disturbances at the old building where I worked, a stone’s throw from the Institute of Mass Com-munication (now called by an-other name) where I was a grad student at night while working during the day as a full time research associate of what was then the Institute of Environ-mental Planning, now called the School of Urban & Regional Planning. That haunted building has been razed and there stands a newer multi-story building.

At night, the custodian claimed that when all the rooms were locked up and no one was in-side, there were eerie noises that would make the hair on the back of one’s neck stand on end. The occurrences were so frequent and so disruptive, ignoring them and pretending life was normal was no longer an option. Some-one finally did something about it and called on Fr. Bulatao to help shed light on the mysterious goings-on at the institute. I sim-ply avoided the rest rooms and steered away from isolated areas of the building and never stayed

The curious case of Stephen C. Davis: A ghost story

“…Quite plainly, there are things in this world that cannot be de�ned, completely understood and pegged in a nice, neat box …”

in the building past sundown. Professor Cynthia Turingan

was the first medium. Under hypnosis, she revealed that an American soldier, an enlisted man, by the name of Stephen Da-vies (his name was spelled with an e in the surname) was mur-dered at the location right smack dab where the building stood. Details of a murder story flowed out of her like a gusher. But then it came to an abrupt halt when the door to the room where the session was being held, for no apparent reason, suddenly burst open. The medium snapped out of the hypnotic trance feeling ex-tremely limp and exhausted as though she had traveled many miles across a desert without water. I stood up and with a non-chalant shrug of my shoulders calmly closed the door.

Dissatisfied with the aborted session, the group decided to hold another. Professor Turingan was unavailable for the next ses-sion and I was drafted to act as medium, a role which I accepted on a lark and a dare.

There was a thunderstorm rag-ing outside but I don’t remember much of what I said when I went on a trance. I do remember feel-ing very light, as though weight-less, while someone gently whis-pered things to my ear. Later, I learned that under hypnotic suggestion, I was instructed to go back to 1945, the year that the medium revealed when the alleged murder of the American soldier occurred.

I described the place as I saw it — an open field, a moonless night, quonset huts and a heavy sense of foreboding in the air. During the session, the same

Stephen Davies revealed the name of his murderer. He said he was hit on the head by a piece of wood while he was out on patrol one night and was robbed of his money. The ghost revealed de-tails about his murderer: his as-sailant’s name, the exact address where he lived, describing him as an old man by that time, lan-guishing in jail for other crimes he committed and that the house where the murderer used to live on J.P. Rizal Street in Makati was eventually destroyed by fire.

He was asked about the name of his wife and where she lived, questions upon questions which the ghost said were “not impor-tant” but pressed further, he said that his wife had remarried and pleaded not to bother his wife anymore. He said that he was not the only spirit hovering in the area and that there were many others. Asked about how he felt, he said that he was lonely and that he just wants to be remembered. Over and over again, he said he wanted to be remembered. He ignored questions about his past brushing them aside for the one thing he wanted — that he be re-membered. His bones, he said, lay scattered and mixed with the soil in the same area which was leveled years earlier by a bulldoz-er. The ghost of the dead soldier requested that a mass be said on a sunny day in his remembrance — a request the group readily granted him. Shortly after, the eerie occurrences seemed to stop. (To be continued)

* * *

INJURIES always seem to hap-pen when we least expect them. Picture yourself at an outdoor gathering, having fun, when sud-denly a crying child runs up to you, knocked-out tooth in hand. Would you know what to do?

Dental first aid saves teethKnocking out or fracturing a

tooth is especially distressing—just thinking about it can make you uncomfortable! But knowing what to do within the first hour after dental damage occurs can save the tooth. Here’s your plan of action:

1. Carefully recover the tooth. Pick the tooth up by the crown but do not touch the root. If nec-essary, gently rinse the tooth in water or milk, but do not scrub or brush the root.

2. Don’t let the tooth dry out. If possible, put the tooth back in

Be prepared for dental emergencies

the socket and hold it in place with fingers or by gently biting on gauze. If you can’t reimplant the tooth, keep it in milk (not wa-ter) or inside the cheek until you can find help.

3. Seek professional dental care immediately. You’ll have the best chance of saving the tooth if you get to a dentist or emergency room within an hour.

Prevent injuries before they happen

Accidents happen, but there are many steps you can take to prevent dental damage! These include:

• Wearing a mouthguard for sports

• Not chewing ice and other extremely hard foods

• Using scissors to open pack-ages, not your teeth

Teeth are strong, but they can only last a lifetime if you do your part to keep them safe and healthy!

No matter what happens, we’re here for you

Part of what makes dental in-jury so traumatic is the thought that the damage could be per-manent. We’re here to assure you that even if a tooth cannot be saved, we have the knowl-edge and tools to restore your smile! Should a dental emergen-cy ever occur, see us as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading! We trea-sure the trust you place in our team as your lifelong dental health partners. Remember to protect your teeth!

***

SAN FRANCISCO – US Citi-zenship and Immigration Servic-es (USCIS) announced on Sep-tember 23 the award of nearly $10 million in grants designed to prepare permanent residents for citizenship. Forty immigrant-serving organizations from 26 states will receive federal fund-ing to support citizenship prep-aration services for permanent residents through September 2017. Of the $10 million, a grant of $250,000 has been awarded to the International Institute of the Bay Area (IIBA.)

This organization has provided legal and educational services to immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area for 95 years. IIBA was first awarded a USCIS grant in FY 2010. IIBA serves primarily low-income permanent residents from Latin America, many of whom are elderly and low-literate. With FY 2015 funding, IIBA will continue its current offering of citizenship classes and will add a Spanish-language class for seniors who

USCIS announces Fiscal Year 2015 grant recipients on Constitution Day and Citizenship Day

International Institute of the Bay Area Wins funding to support citizenship preparation programs

are exempt from the English lan-guage portion of the naturaliza-tion test. IIBA will provide 275 permanent residents with citizen-ship instruction and 350 perma-nent residents with naturalization application services.

This is the seventh year USCIS has awarded competitive grant funding to organizations to sup-port citizenship preparation ef-forts. Since the program began in October 2009, USCIS has award-ed a total of $53 million through 262 grants to immigrant-serving organizations in 35 states and the District of Columbia. To date, the USCIS Citizenship and Integra-tion Grant Program has helped more than 122,000 permanent residents prepare for citizenship.

The Citizenship and Integration Grant Program is part of a multi-faceted effort to support effective citizenship preparation services and provide information to immi-grants and immigrant-serving or-ganizations. USCIS complements this grant program with its Citi-

zenship Resource Center, a cen-tralized web resource that pro-vides learning materials to help permanent residents prepare for the naturalization process, and partnerships with federal and municipal agencies designed to raise awareness of the rights, responsibilities and importance of U.S. citizenship among the estimated 8.8 million permanent residents nationwide eligible to apply for naturalization.

This year’s announcement is part of USCIS’ celebration of Constitution Day and Citizen-ship Day, commemorated every Sept. 17 in honor of the signing of the US Constitution in 1787. In 1952, President Harry Tru-man signed a bill formalizing the celebration of Citizenship Day. In 2004, Congress established Sept. 17 as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.

For additional information on the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program, please visit www.uscis.gov/grants. ■

Americaalendar of EventsacrossC

ADVERTISE YOUR EVENTS!PRE-EVENT AND POST-EVENT

GO DEEPER. GO WIDER. LET THE WORLD KNOW.CALL ASIAN JOURNAL: (818) 502-0651DISPLAY AD SIZES AT SPECIAL RATES

FOR NON-PROFIT GROUPS

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! Reconnect 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 - danielh616@hotmail.com; tel. (914) 310-0864 / (914) 740-7028. Ester Tadeo Celestino - cesarucelestino@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 - mycolly@roadrunner.com; tel. (818) 767-8175.

MANDACAL (Mandaluyong Civic Group of Southern California) would like to invite you to attend its 26th Anniversary Dinner Dance on Saturday, October 24, 2015 at the Embassy Suites Glendale (800 North Central Ave. Glendale, CA 91203). The event is a sit down dinner with live music by the Hill Tops Band #1, providing your favorite dance music from 5pm until midnight. There will be raffle prizes and many fabulous door prizes to be given away. Come enjoy a night of great food, excellent music, and pure fun with your family and friends! Tickets are $55 each. For tickets and information, please call: Becky 818-572-3261, Espee 626-383-3621, or Julie 858-337-9224.

Presented by Bible Christian Fellowship Church, the one-of-a-kind Bohol Children Bamboo Ensemble, hailing from Alicia, in Bohol province, will perform at various locations during their first-ever tour in the US. 23 young performers from Katipunan Elementary School and the Bo-hol community will perform using traditional bamboo instruments, including a ukulele, drums, flutes, and bass. There will also be special guests, inspiring music, and traditional dances of the Philippines. For many of these young performers, it is their first time to visit the US, and they are eager to share their talents with the community. Performances on Saturday, Oct. 24 will take place at Rosemont Elementary School Auditorium (421 Rosemont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90026) at 6:30pm; and on Saturday, Nov. 7 at Bible Christian Fellowship Church (456 Rose-mont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90026) at 6:30pm. The show originally scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 14 at SIPA has been cancelled; tickets can be used either at the Oct. 24 or Nov. 7 show, or will be refunded to guests. Light refreshments will be served at each show. Ticket prices vary from $10, $25, and $50. For tickets and more information, please call 213-249-6672.

Couples, please join for the Marriage Enrichment Seminar on Saturday, October 24 from 9am to 5pm at Helping Hands Adult Day Health Care (9051 Woodman Ave, Arleta, CA 91331). Featuring fun games and prizes, biblical teachings, and engaging interactions rel-evant to couples’ everyday life. Price for couples is $50, and $20 for single participants. Call Henjie Pimenta at 818-486-7481 for more information.

All are invited to attend the Rosary Rally for the Blessed Virgin Mary (Sponsored by the Federation of Filipino Rosary Groups. Inc). This is an annual celebration which calls everyone to prayer for world peace. A reception follows immediately after the liturgy at Potthoff Hall.

When: Sunday, October 25, 1:30 pm Mass; Pre-liturgy at 1:15 pmWhere: St. Denis Parish (2151 S. Diamond Bar Blvd., Diamond Bar, CA 91765)Celebrant: Monsignor James Loughnane, P.A.

IF a person commits certain immigration violations (such as fraud, or overstaying in the US for over six months and then depart-ing, etc.), the person may not be eligible to receive a green card, unless the person applies for, and is granted, a “waiver of inadmis-sibility” on a Form I – 601. To be eligible for the waiver, the per-son must demonstrate he or she has a spouse or parent who is a US citizen or a green card holder (“qualifying relatives”), and the qualifying relative would suffer “extreme hardship” if the appli-cant is not granted the waiver.

But what is extreme hardship? How does a person demonstrate or prove extreme hardship on the qualifying relative? How should the immigration officer evaluate the qualifying relative’s extreme hardship?

On October 7, 2015, the USCIS published a draft policy manual (PM), to provide some guidelines on establishing extreme hard-ship. In the past, applicants had to rely on published cases that discussed extreme hardship, memos, etc. to figure out what constitutes extreme hardship and how to go about proving it. US-CIS is now accepting comments on this draft policy manual, and will come up with a “final” ver-sion after November 23, 2015.

This policy manual aims to clarify “how USCIS would make extreme hardship determina-

USCIS publishes draft policy manual on ‘extreme hardship’tions”. Among the items to be considered are:

• hardship to the qualifying relative if they had to relocate overseas, or remain in the US, separated from the applicant

• strong family ties in the US • social and cultural impact

if the qualifying relative had to relocate overseas to be with the applicant

• economic impact on the qualifying relative if the hardship waiver is not granted

• health conditions and medi-cal care of the qualifying relative

• country conditions, and State Department travel warnings for the particular country where the qualifying relative would have to relocate.

The PM lists dozens of specific factors which could constitute extreme hardship on a qualifying relative, and points out numer-ous factors which would not be considered extreme hardship. The policy manual provides some hypothetical examples where the claimed hardship would be con-sidered normal or a “common consequence of relocation”, as opposed to being “extreme”.

Many people, when faced with having to file a waiver of inadmis-sibility, do it on their own, rather than seeking the advice or guid-ance of an attorney. While hiring an attorney does not “guarantee” approval, the determination and evaluation of extreme hardship can be a complex and compli-cated task. Putting together an effective presentation is also

critical. The PM is 28 pages long. The instructions for filling out the Form I – 601 are 21 pages. The I– 601 itself is 13 pages long. The stakes are so high in applying for the waiver. For example, if a per-son is not granted a fraud waiver, it could result in a lifetime ban. If the 3/10 year bar waiver is not approved, the relative may not be able to apply for a visa to come to the US for at least 10 years.

That is why when you have something as complex as a waiv-er of inadmissibility, you should seek the advice and guidance of an attorney, rather than doing it on your own. Learning immi-gration law by doing the waiver on your own could have lifetime consequences on your relative.

* * *

MEMBERS of the San Fran-cisco diplomatic corps and spe-cial guests were treated to the opening of The Hinabi Project, a unique and special project of Philippine American Writers & Artists, Inc (PAWA) last Thurs-day, September 24, 2015. The project was launched in conjunc-tion with the Philippine Depart-ment of Tourism and the Philip-pine Consulate General in San Francisco. PAWA, a recognized leader of cultural events in the Bay Area, is a 501(c)(3) organi-zation. It will also host a panel talk on piña and other Philippine textiles by known experts in the field on October 4 during the Third Filipino American Inter-national Book Festival at the San Francisco Public Library

In partnership with the Asian Art Museum, PAWA launched an educational display, “Piña, the Enduring Philippine Fab-ric,” at the Educational Resource

‘Pina, The Enduring Philippine Fabric’ launched at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

Room of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Spearheaded by its volunteer members, An-thony Cruz Legarda, Maya Ong Escudero, Christina Laskowski, Michael Gonzalez, Edwin Lo-zada, Caroline Ocampo, Maria Beebe, Camille Escudero, and Patricia Araneta Gonzalez, the display will run through October 11, 2015. It features the develop-ment of 300 years of piña fabric production from its early origins in the 1500s to contemporary times. On exhibit are fibers that are used for weaving, dyed piña samples, an antique pañuelo (short shawl), a christening gown and an evening dress made dur-ing the 1930s. These are juxta-posed with a newly constructed piña shawl, a handkerchief with an embroidered Golden Gate de-sign, a Barong Tagalog, and eve-ning gowns all designed by An-thony Cruz Legarda, the project’s design artist. Expressly for this

event, three large panels of piña and mixed fibers (hyacinth, silk) were specially woven by master weavers and embroiderers of Ak-lan and Laguna provinces in the Philippines. The panels repre-sent popular Philippine folk mo-tifs — the Malakas and Maganda (male/female) myth and the sari-manok (magical rooster). In a nod to technology, the Creation panel has a QR code that will take your cellphone scanner to The Hinabi Project (THP) site (<http:thehinabiproject. org>). Briefly, the Project’s goal is to increase awareness of and appreciation for the exquisite and rich tradi-tion of Philippine weaving and textile traditions.

For more information, and to arrange for a guided tour, please contact: Dr. Michael Gonzalez, Dept. of Philippine Studies, City College of San Francisco email: michael.gonzalez@mail.ccsf.edu. ■

12 Simple things Filipinos can do to help PH…this writer to recommend some 12 “simple things” to do in addi-tion to seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness (sa Diyos ang awa, sa tao ang gawa) and doing our best to follow the Ten Command-ments. (Thank you my dearest friend, Alex, for your books that you have given me as your gifts to our kababayans. And also for the stimulating conversations we had over dinner with your political-re-formist friends, last month!)

1. If you are an ordinary citi-zen, please do not depend on any politicians or so-called leaders (in

government, church or business) to change your life, economi-cally or educationally. God has given all of us the talent, com-mon sense, limbs and hands to work for our own basic needs of food, shelter and clothing, and to educate our children. Working hard and diligently does not kill anyone. Don’t sell your vote and your dignity as a human being.

2. If you are a politician, from the local government, live within your legal salary and do not steal from the government coffers. Be ashamed (delicadeza) and never live extravagantly using money

stolen from the government. Do not buy votes and do not exploit the people who already have the least in our society. During the Commonwealth and a decade or so after that, public position used to be a position of public trust. And government officials then were called public servants. Can you be a public servant again, or better still, a servant leader?

3. If you are a teacher, please teach your students that good manners and right conduct, eventually win in the game of life. The formative years are most im-portant when ethics and morality

t

QUITE a few improvements to working conditions for caregiv-ers and other low-wage workers have been won over the last few years, some of these areincreases in the minimum wage, over-time pay, personal time off, and im-proved ways for collecting wages that you have been cheated out of (wage theft).

Come to a know your rights presentation to learn more, Sat-urday, October 24 at 10am, at the Asian Resource Center (ARC), 310 – 8th St., Oakland China-town (corner of 8th and Har-rison Streets). ARC is walking

Free legal consultations with immigration and labor lawyers and worker’s rights information on October 24

distance (3 to 4 blocks) from the 12th St. and Lake Merritt BART stations.

At 10:30am Jannah Manan-sala, labor lawyer and, labor policy and law professor at Cal State East Bay, will share workers rights information. “California is often considered a pioneer in the area of workers’ rights. The recent increased protections are important for California workers and businesses. When workers are protected, California thrives.”

You can also get a FREE 25-min individual consultation with an immigration or employment

lawyer. Those interested in an appointment with a labor or im-migration lawyer are required to reserve a slot in advance by call-ing Judith at (510) 465-9876.

The pro bono lawyers are able to accommodate the following English, Spanish and Tagalog speakers. If you need a different language please bring someone to interpret for you.

Filipino Advocates for Justice (FAJ), the California Domestic Worker Coalition (CDWC) and Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) are the co-hosts. Food will be available. ■

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Silicon Valley Community Foundation is pleased to announce it has awarded 461 scholarships total-ing more than $2.1 million to students enrolled in high school, community college and univer-sity programs for the 2015-16 academic year.

A total of $2,103,570 in scholar-ship funds was awarded through a variety of programs adminis-tered by SVCF. Programs include 17 community foundation man-aged scholarships, the majority of which are designated for cur-rent or former residents of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and more than two dozen donor involved scholarships, which have external selection commit-tees that are appointed by SVCF and make awards throughout the nation and internationally.

SVCF scholarships have been established by generous donors, corporations and organizations to assist students in pursuing higher education. Each scholar-ship has unique eligibility crite-ria, but most focus on students’ academic records, financial hardships and achievements. Each scholarship expresses a be-lief in the power of education to help young people achieve their dreams.

This fall, recipients of SVCF scholarships will be attending colleges and universities nation-wide, including San José State University, UC Santa Cruz, Princ-eton University, Williams College and Northeastern University, to name a few. Scholarship award amounts range from $1,000 to $10,000. Some of the awarded scholarships provide students with financial support for mul-tiple years to ensure college suc-cess and completion. Many of these scholarships are available

SVCF awards 461 scholarships for 2015-2016 academic year

More than $2.1 million will bene�t local students’ academic futuresto both United States citizens and eligible non-citizens, includ-ing AB540 students, those that qualify to pay in-state tuition at California’s public higher educa-tion institutions.

Noel Cruz, a graduate of East-side College Prep in East Palo Alto, received an SVCF scholar-ship in 2007 as he finished high school and prepared to enroll at UC Merced. After he finished his bachelor’s degree in mechani-cal engineering there in 2014, he contacted SVCF to again give thanks for the support he had re-ceived and to ask how he could give back to the scholarship pro-cess. Noel wrote to SVCF, “I owe my confidence to people like you who believed in my abilities. My accomplishments would not have been possible without the sup-port of you and those like you.”

SVCF relies on volunteers to read and thoughtfully evaluate hundreds of scholarship ap-plications each year. Noel was a perfect fit for the selection committee for the Abby Sobrato Scholarship, which provides sup-port to students from the Latino College Prep Academy in San José. Noel was a first-generation college student and could relate to many of the challenges that Latino and immigrant students face. And as a recent grad him-self, he had a useful perspective about which students were likely to succeed in college if offered financial assistance.

Noel’s eagerness to be a part of SVCF’s scholarship process even after he’d become a working professional points to the lasting impact that scholarship funds can have on the lives of young adults. Jill Rademacher, chief do-nor experience and engagement officer for SVCF, said she finds the stories of many scholarship

recipients inspiring. “Many face great challenges in pursuing an education. We are grateful to the people and companies that have donated the funds to make these awards possible.”

Since 2007, SVCF has awarded more than $11.1 million in schol-arship funds to support students who are current or former resi-dents of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, including those who take non-traditional paths to get a college education. Funding scholarships is one of the many ways that charitable individual, family and corporate donors work with SVCF to make a differ-ence to their communities.

For a complete list of our 2015 community foundation managed scholarship recipients and the institutions they attend, visit sil-iconvalleycf.org/scholarship-re-cipients-2015.

For information about ap-plying for scholarships please contact scholarships@siliconval-leycf.org. For information about establishing a scholarship fund, contact us at donate@siliconval-leycf.org or 650.450.5444.

About Silicon Valley Com-munity Foundation

Silicon Valley Community Foundation makes all forms of philanthropy more powerful. We serve as a catalyst and leader for innovative solutions to our region’s most challenging prob-lems, and through our donors we award more money to charities than any other community foun-dation in the United States. SVCF has $6.5 billion in assets under management. As Silicon Valley’s center of philanthropy, we provide thousands of individuals, families and corporations with simple and effective ways to give locally and around the world. Find out more at siliconvalleycf.org. ■

are necessary ingredients in a civil and just society.

4. If you are a student, your primary duty is to learn as much and acquire the knowledge that you need to have to become a useful member of society. Being self-sufficient, and not a burden to society is your foremost obli-gation. Your education is your best insurance to be economical-ly and socially stable when you grow up and have your own fam-

ily. Learn to avoid the prevalent “instant gratification mentality.” Instead be disciplined to work harder and then enjoy the “de-layed gratification” that comes afterwards.

5. If you are an employer, pay your employees justly and if at all possible a living wage. Don’t ex-ploit them by laying them off after a few months of working in your one of your companies, and then rehiring them in another com-

pany, just to avoid paying them their legal employee’s fringe benefits, like health care insur-ance, vacation or sick leaves.

* * *Food for thought: “We who

are free must use our freedom to help those who are not, gain their own freedom” - Abraham Lincoln

* * *

EMPLOYMENT

FOSTER HOMECARE

PSYCHIC

SERVICES

FOR RENT

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Friday, October 23, 2015

SF2 cover storyThe Asian Journal SF MAGAZINE - October 23, 2015

by ALLYSON ESCOBAR / AJPRESS

VINCENT RODRIGUEZ IIIOn facing challenges as an Asian American actor

and scoring a lead role in CWʼs ʻCrazy Ex-Girlfriendʼ

ensemble, and then the other half I played feature parts, joined national tours and other New York productions, and was asked to sing on cast recordings,” Rodriguez said.

Most recently, he joined the 1st national tour of Anything Goes, appeared on CBS’ Hostag-es, and workshopped for Richard Maltby Jr. and David Shire’s new musical, Waterfall. He also sang ensemble in a cast recording of the stage production of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Wanting to share his life les-sons with other aspiring actors, Rodriguez became a teacher back at his alma mater, PCPA. He taught professional technique, song interpretation, dance work-shops, and other aspects of the musical audition process.

“It’s not about making peo-ple into professional actors, or to be like me. For me as a mentor, it’s about helping the person to see what their potential is, and to learn how to use the theater as a form of expression, or as a gateway to who they really are,” Rodriguez noted.

The young actor’s extensive background and resume boasts a double black belt in martial arts, CrossFit, stage combat, roller-skating, billiards, and even magic tricks. “A good amount of my previous jobs required special skills [like dancer, comedian, ma-gician], and on TV, they can write these skills into the show,” he said. “The cool thing is that the writers know my special skills are things I’ve learned to do grow-ing up. I knew that my interests would help color my career as an actor.”

One of Vincent’s most recent, favored theatrical roles was in the 2014 off-Broadway revival of Da-vid Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s Here Lies Love, a disco-rock musical about the life of Filipino former First Lady Imelda Marcos.

“I met Ruthie Ann Miles, who was playing the lead, and she

encouraged me to audition,” he recalled. Along with Miles, Rodriguez understudied other distinguished Fil-Am actors, Jose Llana (Ferdinand Marcos) and Conrad Ricamora (Ninoy Aquino), and played the DJ for a month.

Here Lies Love eventually led Rodriguez to the right people--including film director Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man)--and to his first audition as a TV series regular: playing ex-boyfriend Josh Chan in The CW’s new musical-comedy, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Many of the actors involved with the show--including Santino Fontana, best known as the voice of Hans in Disney’s Frozen--have a theater background. In true musical-fashion, the writers have prepared a killer comedic soundtrack with different musical styles and genres, from 1940s Hollywood to 90s R&B.

Rodriguez is excited to use his Broadway theater experience on the TV screen. “Yes, I will be singing,” he said excitedly.

Crazy parallels, crazy in loveBeing Filipino-American and

making waves both onstage and onscreen, Rodriguez faced many challenges as an actor.

“The Filipino community is big into entertainment, kara-oke, performance culture. At first, pursuing theater and other talents were more like hobbies for me, until I began taking them seriously,” he said. “And my

family noticed too; it wasn’t just a hobby anymore.”

When Rodriguez first audi-tioned for the title role in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, directed by Marc Webb (who initially discovered the actor through his character in Here Lies Love), he knew the part was special. Esteemed writ-ers Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) and Rachel Bloom (from Robot Chicken and YouTube’s Rachel Does Stuff) are a part of the project, and it has a primetime spot (Mon-day nights at 8pm) on the CW network.

The show follows Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, a suc-cessful, miserable young woman who impulsively leaves her job as a real estate lawyer in New York in search of love and happiness in West Covina, California--also the suburban hometown of her Filipino ex-boyfriend.

“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend explores this idea of feeling crazy over someone,” said Rodriguez, adding that the show includes themes of family, friendship, and finding home away from home. “When you’re in love, it’s fun, ridiculous, and exciting.”

“As the show progresses, you learn what makes Rebecca that way--she’s just a normal girl in love. Each of us have been in a place where we’ve been infatu-ated with someone or the idea of someone, the idea of love, and we’ve all done pretty crazy

Photo courtesy of Billy Bustamante Photo by Leon Le PhotographyVincent Rodriguez III in Irving Berlinʼs White Christmas Photo courtesy of Lee Wallman

“YOU do crazy things when you’re in love.”

At least that’s what Fili-pino-American actor Vincent Rodriguez III believes: that love is an all-consuming and power-ful thing--especially when you absolutely love what you do, it can make you crazy.

“I walked into my first day of acting school and the teacher asked us, ‘Is this what will give you life? Is this the part you want to play in society?’ And then I asked myself, ‘What else could I possibly be doing?’ From then on, I knew exactly what I always wanted,” he said.

“If you want something badly enough in life, you work hard to go get it. It’s not an easy path--it is arguably the hardest journey you will ever have. But in the end, it’s worth it.”

Finding home in the theater Rodriguez was born in San

Francisco, California, and grew up in what he calls the “Second Philippines of the World:” south suburban Daly City. He is the youngest and only boy of four,

with three older sisters all born in Manila.

“I was the bunso,” Rodri-guez told the Asian Journal. “My sisters are all smart, musically talented, and into theater. I [had] really powerful role models growing up.”

Motivated by a desire to try and learn new things, at a young age Rodriguez was involved in track and field, taekwondo, and martial arts. Later he became very active in his high school’s drama department, where he quickly found his love for musical theater.

After graduating from high school and a year in junior col-lege, Rodriguez enrolled at the Pacific Conservatory of Perform-ing Arts (PCPA) in Santa Maria, California, and began to pursue acting as more than a hobby, but a full-time career.

“My family was always sup-portive of me, but it was not an easy journey,” he said. “My dad didn’t always think I could make this [acting] into a viable career. When it came to showbiz-ness,

he wanted me to be a business-man.”

“But that initial resilience pushed me to be a harder work-er, and has made me even more passionate about what I do.”

After finishing musical train-ing in acting, voice, and dance, Rodriguez ventured to Los Angeles for his first successful audition, becoming a member of the ensemble (and later principal understudy) in the first national tour of 42nd Street.

“It was my first professional role,” he recalled. “I really put my whole self into it, and I began to relish in the joy of being an entertainer.”

Pursuing his dreams in the theater, Rodriguez moved to New York City to audition for numerous acting, singing, and dancing roles. He eventually joined the companies of Thor-oughly Modern Millie, Xanadu, Honor, Pipe Dream, as well as the original cast of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas in Toronto and Boston.

“Half of my career was in the

Continued on Page SF3

Vincent Rodriguez III

SF3featuresThe Asian Journal SF MAGAZINE – October 23, 2015

BY MONET LU

SAN FRANCISCO

IF your afternoon con-versations do not contain quotes like, “Give ‘til it hurts”, “Beautiful life equates to a Blessed Life”, and “There’s no such thing as ‘baduy’”, you might want to reassess the kind of people you hang out – or spend less time with. Fortu-nately for me, I have had the most meaningful and stylishly stirring conversation in years. And it’s no other than with (2015) Beautiful Life Celebra-tion Man of Style himself: Mr. John S. Mina.

“I do not have to have an award for doing something good, a simple ‘thank you’ is enough.” The words echoed in my ear as John thankfully addressed the title recognition we gave him. This is coming from a man who has served

John Mina: Up close and personal with the Mr. Man of Style

his community for the past 18 years. Despite his humble objection, I insisted that the Fil-Am community could learn a thing or two from brilliant minds like his; to which he agreed saying, “I would accept public recognition so that I can be an inspiration to many. I want people to see that if I can do it, so can they.”

There you have it. Spoken by the humble public servant

who immigrated to the Philip-pines in the late 80’s. John and his family lived fairly simple yet fruitful life. John speaks highly of his parents and tells me how grateful he and his sister are for having such self-sacrificing and supportive parents. He recalls his parents telling him: “You don’t have to work while you go to school. You finish school, then work after.” John holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in public rela-tions and a minor in political science from California State University, Northridge where he was chapter president of the Public Relations Student Society of America.

John tells me how his par-ents were accepting and sup-portive of his lifestyle choice. He says, “No parent would

Model from Nueva Vizcaya crowned Miss World Philippines 2015

Miss World Philippines 2015 Hillarie Danielle Parungao. Inquirer.net photo by Armin Adina

By AGNES CONSTANTE AJPRESS

A Filipino-Chinese model and children’s health advocate from Nueva Vizcaya was crowned Miss World Philippines 2015 during a pageant held at the Solaire Resort Casino in Paranaque City on Sunday, Oct. 18.

Hillarie Danielle Ang Parun-gao, 24, beat 25 other candi-dates to represent the Philip-pines in the Miss World 2015 competition to be held on Dec. 19 in Sanya, China. In addition to winning the crown, she took home several special awards, in-cluding: best in swimsuit, best in sports challenge, best in fashion runway and best in long gown.

Parungao also excelled in the question and answer portion of the competition during the Top 13 semifinals and Top 5 finals.

“My philosophy always relies on compassion which can open doors to challenges in life. In compassion, we get to under-stand people, and in understand-ing people, we become a better society,” she said, according to Manila Bulletin.

“Let us not forget why I will be on stage, and that is so I can get a bigger platform (the crown) to speak and do more for the

children.”In an interview with Philstar,

Parungao, who placed third runner-up when she represented the Philippines in the Miss Asia Pacific World pageant last year, said she entered the pageant be-cause she believed it would open more opportunities for her and allow her voice to be heard.

“[I] have an advocacy and I really want to focus on that. And I was looking for a better venue for that. A better venue for me to have a voice and what would be [better] than Miss World Phil-ippines,” she said.

The 5’7’’ beauty queen re-cently started a program, “Katu-wang: A Fight Against Child Mortality,” which aims to elimi-nate child mortality by spreading awareness on health needs and issues facing children. She has so far organized volunteers in informing families about proper nutrition intake and carrying out regular physical tests of children, Manila Bulletin reported.

Additionally, in September, she put together a fun run to raise funds for health programs for children.

The first, second, third and fourth princesses of the pageant were Marita Cassandra Nai-

das, Mia Allyson Howell, Maria Vanessa Wright and Emma Mary Tiglao, respectively.

From Page SF2

On facing challenges as an Asian American actor...things because of it.”

“There’s such a crazy parallel between my character, Josh Chan, and who I am as a person,” he admitted. “From Josh’s personality, his family and friends, and how he grew up--it’s kind of scary.”

Josh Chan is basically “a SoCal Asian bro,” Rodriguez de-scribed. Coming from a family of mixed parents (Filipino, Chinese, and Spanish, just like Rodriguez), Josh--the one that got away--is also finding his place in reality and romance.

“You’re going to meet Josh Chan, find out that he’s Filipino, and see his family values,” Rodri-guez shared. “The Chan family dynamic is very true to form--it feels very real to my own family.”

“It’s exciting to see Filipino culture being portrayed in the mainstream,” he added.

“I always wanted to be the ASIAN guy”

At the 2014 PaleyFest Fall TV Preview, main actress Rachel Bloom said she wanted the loca-tion of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to be in Southern California, based off her own childhood experience living inland.

“We knew we wanted it to be a fish-out-of-water story, but most of those happen in the Midwest or on the East Coast,” Bloom said this month in an interview with Vulture, adding that she and McKenna were drawn to the number of chain businesses and cultural diversity that San Gabriel Valley is known for. “We also liked how multi-cultural Southern California was, which is…what new suburbia is, and will continue to grow and be—people from all different cultures going to the same Applebee’s.”

Since the show is set in a sub-urb notorious for Asian American (and especially Filipino) families, the writers were careful to make sure actors accurately repre-sented the culture and diversity of West Covina.

Rachel Bloom as Rebecca and Vincent Rodriguez III as Josh in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Photo by Lisa Rose/The CW -- © 2015 The CW Network, LLC.

“We always wanted the male lead to be Asian,” Bloom shared, “because I grew up with Asian bros, and I hadn’t seen that represented on TV.”

Rodriguez is proud to be among a growing number of Asian American series regulars on fall TV. “It’s an honor,” he remarked. “It means that we’ve evolved, that we’re at a new place when it comes to televi-sion. It’s breaking ground.”

“You know how there’s always ‘the Black guy,’ or ‘the Mexican guy?’ I always wanted to be the ASIAN guy, the mirror of society,” Rodriguez said.

“As a Filipino actor, I always wanted to be a part of the growth of Asian-American rep-resentation on TV and onstage. Now I feel like I’m a part of that journey to exposing modern, cultural America.”

He added, “I’m hoping that my presence in this show will open up the minds of the Filipino community, especially young Filipino men.”

Rodriguez also applauded shows that put Asian-Ameri-cans in the forefront, such as ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat, which successfully portrays both the stereotypes and the injustices experienced by the minority

community in a fresh, comedic way.

“There are always extremes that exist with all ethnicities, and it’s nice to be a part of a show that explores these identities, and portrays who we really are: people with a specific back-ground and a place,” he said, regarding comedies [like Fresh Off the Boat and Crazy Ex-Girl-friend] that put Asian-Americans in starring roles.

“We’re showing the world our reality--sometimes, that can be painful and uncomfortable. But it can also be funny.”

Be who you are To aspiring actors, musicians, dancers, and entertainers of every color, Ro-driguez offers a simple piece of advice that is reflected through-out his new show: be who you are.

“Be open to yourself, to new experiences, to your interests, and never let anyone tell you you can’t do something. As an actor, you get to create who you want to be, and become who you really are. Be kind to yourself, strive to be the best in whatever you choose to do. Love your life, and live it joyfully, fully, and authentically.”

It just might make you a little crazy.

Continued on Page SF4

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SF4 celebrityworldThe Asian Journal SF MAGAZINE - October 23, 2015

celebrity worldBy Ferdie Villar

More stars in politics:Artists who intend to runin next year’s elections

From Page SF3

LAST week yours truly wrote about some of the showbiz personalities running in next year’s Philippine elections. Since the deadline to submit Certifi-cates of Candidacies (COC) was last Friday, October 16; there were other stars who showed up at the Commission of Elec-tion (COMELEC) to file for their candidacies since my last column came out.

It’s Showtime co-host, actor and dancer Jhong Hilario filed his COC to run for council in the first district of Makati City. His father, Virgilio Hilario, is serving his last term as Councilor and Jhong considers him as his role model.

“Nakita ko habang lumalaki ako na nasa politics siya, minahal siya ng tao, wala kang makiki-tang negative,” he said in an interview with Pep.ph. “Bukod sa pagiging Kursilista niya, siya ang bumubuo ng mga kursilyo.”

Star for All Seasons and cur-

rent Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto filed her COC also last Friday, Oct. 16 in her bid for a seat in Congress to represent Lipa, Batangas under the Liberal Party. She was accompanied by her son, actor/host Luis Manzano. (Luis’ father, actor Edu Manzano is also running for senator, while Vilma’s husband, Ralph Recto, is the current Sen-ate President).

Another actor who is slowly going up the political ladder is Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno. Last Friday, Isko filed his COC for senator. Boxing champ and current Sarangani Representa-tive Manny Pacquiao also arrived the COMELEC office last Friday to file his candidacy for senator.

Others who have also filed their COCs are:

• Broadcaster Rey Langit, running for senator under UNA.

• Actor and current Quezon City Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista is seeking reelection.

• Actress Angelica Jones, running for vice governor in La-guna under the Liberal Party.

• Actor Dan Fernandez, running for Mayor in Santa Rosa, Laguna under the Liberal Party.

• Comedian and Eat Bulaga host Tito Sotto, seeking for reelection as senator

• Actor Mark Lapid (son of action star and Sen. Lito Lapid) running for senator under the Liberal Party.

• Actress and current Paranaque City Councilor Alma Moreno, running for sena-tor under UNA (her son, actor Vandolph Quizon is running for Councilor).

• Former president and actor Joseph “Erap” Estrada, seeking reelection as mayor of Manila.

• Former beauty queen and actress Daisy Reyes, running for mayor in Pateros, Rizal.

• Actor Roderick Paulate, running for Quezon City coun-cilor.

• Jukebox Queen Imelda Papin, running for congress-woman in Camarines Sur.

• Actor Jolo Revilla, running

Star for All Seasons and current Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto is running for a seat in Congress to represent Lipa, Batangas under the

Itʼs Showtime co-host, actor and dancer Jhong Hilario filed his COC to run for council in the first district of Makati City.

Boxing champ and current Sarangani Representa-tive Manny Pacquiao is running for senator in next yearʼs elections.

Former actor and current Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno is running for senator in next yearʼs elections.

for vice governor of Cavite, while his mother, Rep. Lani Mercado will run as mayor of Bacoor City, Cavite.

• Former actor (and son of comedian Joey Marquez), run-ning for vice mayor in Paranaque City.

• Actress Charee Pineda, running for reelection as coun-cilor in Valenzuela.

• Actor Alfred Vargas, run-ning for congressman in the 6th district of Quezon City.

Of course, there’s always the issue of who’s supporting who, spouses, children and friends who are in showbiz and know that their endorsement can pull in the right number of votes.

Like Megastar Sharon Cuneta, who has always been beside Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, who is running for reelection. It also helps that Sharon’s daughter is actress KC Concepcion.

Presidential candidate Grace Poe has his father’s last name with her and her mother -- veteran actress Susan Roces behind her candidacy. Her vice president running mate, Sen. Chiz Escudero has also his wife, actress Heart Evangelista to sup-port him.

Actress Toni Gonzaga and director Paul Soriano were said to be supporting Bongbong Marcos, who is running for vice president.

Veteran and multi-awarded actor Eddie Garcia is now a mainstay with GMA-7/Pinoy TV. His first teleserye will be with Superstar Nora Aunor.

The one and only Philippine Superstar Nora Aunor has recently signed a contract with GMA 7 / Pinoy TV to shoot her first teleserye, “Little Nanay.”

The de Rivera family recently attended the United Cagayanos of Californiaʼs 24th annual dinner-dance celebration. Shown in photo are (L-R) Dr. JoseMarie de Rivera from the Philippines, Marylou Lim from Toronto, Canada, Rema de Rivera Vasa, Vic de Rivera, Jr. from Toronto, Canada, Albert de River, CEO of Alriver Export, Fr. Sonny de Rivera SVD from Rome, Italy, and Pamela de River Flores, a businesswoman from the Philippines.

Fr. Sonny de Rivera from Rome, Italy celebrated his 61st birthday in Cupertino, California. It was a well-attended Hawaiian birthday celebration with majority of the guests were out-of-town Claverianos and from the Bay Area. The party was hosted by Suresh and Rema Vasa. It was the first time in 20 years that the de Rivera siblings were together. Shown in photo are (L-R, seated) Pamela Flores from the Philippines, Marylou Lim from Canada, host Rema Vasa, (standing) the celebrant Fr. Sonny, Dr. JoseMarie de Rivera from the Philippines, Vice de Rivera from Canada and Albert de Rivera, CEO of Alriver Export in the Philippines.

want his or her children to be gay. They know the rejection and humiliation that people like me get from the society. But my parents chose to accept, respect and love me for who I am. And for that I am truly blessed.”

He said while his mom possess such great strength, it is through his dad’s insur-mountable kindness that made him see things in a different light. He tearfully revealed how much he misses his dad who passed away from cancer a few years ago. While I listen intently to his stories about how kind and unconditional his father is – even and especially during the last years of his life, I cannot help but be filled with admiration as well. People say, “Behind every great man is a great woman.” In light of what John told me, I say: Behind every great man, is an even greater father. I am certain that John’s father is very proud that his son turned out to be just like him.

His father’s legacy lives on in John’s civil involvement and humanitarian efforts. He began

John Mina: Up close and...his career as a public servant in 1997. He is both a member of the Los Angeles County Asian American and Filipino Ameri-can Employees Association. John is also an active member of the Los Angeles creative and philanthropic community. His passion for civic involve-ment is a driving force in his life. It is for him the exten-sion of his identity. His board service includes the Filipino American Symphony Orches-tra, the Rotary Club of Historic Filipino town, among others.

He continuously supports organizations that are rooted in education, preservation of heritage, culture and the livelihood of children, youth and seniors. He made it his monthly ritual to deliver food to the homebound for St. Vincent’s Meals on Wheels. He has travelled to Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico and next year Panama for the same goal.

John currently works as a Human Resources Analyst with the Talent Solutions Division in the Department of Human Re-sources for the County of Los Angeles. He and His partner of

13 years resides in Hollywood, together with their son Archie, a one-year-old miniature dachshund.

As I conclude this article, I want to leave my readers with some words of wisdom from my good friend John Mina, whom I am so blessed to have known and learned a lot from:

“If you want to make the world a better place, you have to give ‘til it hurts. Treat peo-ple the way you want yourself to be treated. And also – there is no such thing as ‘baduy’. Style is a form of self-expres-sion. Lastly, from the words of Pope Francis, ‘Do unto others, what you want them to do unto you.’

entertainment SF5The Asian Journal SF MAGAZINE - October 23 , 2015

FILIPINO-AMERICAN sing-er Amy Vachal advanced to the Knockout Rounds of The Voice USA after winning during the Battle Rounds of the competi-tion on Tuesday, October 20.

Singing the Bee Gees hit To Love Somebody, Vachal was picked by her coach Pharrell Williams over rivals Jubal and Amanda.

He praised Vachal for her “delicate approach to songs.”

“I can only imagine people listening to your voice after having a really tough day, you just make everything feel like it’s gonna be all right. You are amazing,” Williams said.

Judge Gwen Stefani said their performance was “so beautiful,” but described Amy as a star, once again comparing her to Pocahontas.

“On my mind, her on her own, she is a star,” Stefani said,

Fil-Am advances to ‘The Voice’ Knockout Rounds

referring to Vachal.Adam Levine said Vachal

was “shining up there on (her) own.”

Edu Manzano seems to have hinted about his son Luis Manzanoʼs plans to enter politics in the future.

When it’s Blake Shelton’s turn to give his comments, he said it still hurts that Vachal didn’t pick him during the blind auditions.

“Amy, the most hurtful rejection I have ever had on this show is when you didn’t pick me in the blind auditions. It still hurts right now,” Shelton said.

During her blind auditions, Vachal got a standing ovation from the three judges.

The only coach who did not turn his chair for Vachal was Levine, who was apologetic for not turning around because his team was already full.

In the end, Vachal made the decision and picked Williams as her coach.

During The Voice’s previ-ous season, another Filipino, Nathan Hermida, made it to the live rounds as part of Team Adam. (Inquirer.net)

children entering politics.“Malay n’yo, si Luis naman

ang nakatayo sa harap n’yo sa susunod,” he said. He also mentioned his son Lorenzo is part of the student council in his university.

Meanwhile, Edu said he consulted with his family be-fore finalizing his decision to run for a national position.

His decision was based to his belief that “I have a lot to contribute to the Senate,” he said in an interview with ANC.

“I have a lot of unfinished business. I would like to make my contribution and I would like to step forward,” he added.

In previous interview, Edu admitted that he’s always been tempted to run for public office because of his love for public service. (Philstar.com)

Did Edu Manzano hint about son Luis’ political plans?

MANILA—Edu Manzano seems to have hinted about the political plans of his son Luis Manzano.

Edu submitted his cer-tificate of candidacy (COC)

on Friday, Oct. 16 vying for a senatorial position. He was accompanied by his children Luis, Lorenzo and Andy.

During his speech, he men-tioned the possibility of his

Janicel Lubina, dubbed by the media as the “Philippinesʼ Cinderella” due to her humble begin-nings, is set to represent the country in the 55th Miss International pageant in Japan on November 5. Philstar.com photo by Jonathan Asuncion

MANILA—Janicel Lubina is confident she is prepared to compete in this year’s Miss Inter-national pageant, to be held in Japan on November 5.

“I know all of us (in the com-petition) are beautiful. But then, I know in myself that I am ready enough to conquer the stage. And I know God will guide me,” the 20-year-old beauty queen said.

She also said: “I know I am ready enough to compete.”

Janicel won the Bb.Pilipinas-International title earlier this year, but she has been on the radar of beauty pageant enthusiasts since a few years ago. Janicel was among the candidates of 2013 Miss World Philippines, where she placed second to Megan Young (who later on won the Miss World crown in London).

She also competed in the Miss Scuba International 2012 and Slimmers World Miss Bikini Philippines 2013 pageants.

The story of her humble be-ginnings as a former househelp-er and farmer from the province also captivated the attention of the press and the public, making her a favorite during the Bb. Pilipinas 2015 pageant earlier this year.

She was even tagged by the media as “Philippines’ Cinder-ella.”

For the 55th Miss Interna-tional pageant, Janicel hopes to bring home the crown and prove her moniker true.

“I pray nga na, God, sana ibigay mo na ito sa akin. Ang ganda rin namang pakinggan from humble beginnings (to beauty pageant titleholder),” she said.

Janicel further quipped: “A lot of media call me naman as the Cinderella of the Philippines. Then let’s make it internationally,

Former ‘kasambahay’ hopes to be ‘Cinderella of the world’

at Miss International 2015by CHUCK SMITH

Philstar.comdi ba? Cinderella of the world!”

She admits feeling pres-sured, with just a few weeks before the pageant. Janicel will compete for the crown after fel-low Bb. Pilipinas beauty queen Ann Colis won the Miss Globe 2015 title in Canada earlier this month.

“N’ung nalaman ko na nana-lo [si Ann], I didn’t know what to do. Naalarma ako... Yung determination ko is kailangan ko palang doblehin,” she said. “Namotivate talaga ako n’ung nanalo si Ann. I have to win.”

The beauty queen said she did “a lot of trainings”—from makeup training to personality development. Now, Janicel said she’s working on her “mindset.”

“Sometimes, I cry because I saw the pictures of the other candidates and they (social media bashers) told me I’m not gonna win and ‘they’re more beautiful than you’,” she said. “But I don’t believe in that be-cause I know myself and I know my capacity.”

“Kahit gaano pa kaganda

yung kalaban, ang dami ko ng sinalihang pageant and I know kaya ko silang lahat.”

The Philippines won the Miss International title five times in the past, Bea Rose Santiago be-ing the latest Filipina winner to bring home the crown.

Amy Vachal

SF6 entertainmentThe Asian Journal SF MAGAZINE - October 23, 2015

IN commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Bataan Legacy Historical Society, Memorare Manila 1945, the San Fran-cisco Public Library and the Philippine Consulate General present World War II in the Philippines – The Legacy of Two Nations, an exhibition and a conference. The four-month exhibition opened on Sep-tember 12, 2015 at the San Francisco Main Public Library (Third Floor) located at 100 Larkin St., San Francisco, CA. The Conference will take place on Saturday, October 24, 2015 at 10am at the Koret Audito-rium of the San Francisco Main Public Library. Both events are open to the public. Admis-

sion is Free but Registration through Eventbrite (Bataan Legacy) is recommended for the conference.

The exhibition -- which runs through January 9, 2016 -- depicts the story of World War II in the Philippines, a seminal piece of history that has been mostly forgotten. It presents a compelling story of the sacrifices of Filipino, Amer-ican and Allied soldiers and civilians. One million civilians perished in the Philippines during WWII and its capital Manila became the second most devastated city in the world after Warsaw, Poland.

The Conference on Octo-ber 24 will feature speakers from different perspectives of

the war. WWII veterans Chief Johnny Johnson of the USS San Francisco, the most deco-rated carrier during WWII and Maj. General Richard Keith of the 511th Parachute Infantry will be among the speakers. Veterans and survivors of the war will also act as panelists. State Superintendent Tom Torlakson of the California Department of Education will give the opening key-note speech while Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore (Califor-nia Assembly) David Chiu and Congressman Mike Honda will give recognition to the WWII veterans.

For further information, please visit our website at www.bataanlegacy.org.

Iza Calzado salutes housewives who are willing to give up or put on hold their career to focus on their families.

MANILA—Iza Calzado has expressed her admiration to housewives.

In her recent movie Etiquette for Mistresses, she portrayed the role of a career-driven woman.

“Women who chose to be-come housewives, they are not less of a woman who decide to be career-driven,” she said in an interview on Tuesday.

“I admire women who choose to become housewives and who are selfless enough to give up their careers to start a family or put their careers on hold if not give it up,” she added.

The Kapamilya actress ad-

Iza Calzado: I salute housewivesby JOYCE JIMENEZ

Philstar.com

mits that as of the moment, she cannot see herself giving up her career.

“I’m not selfless enough yet,” she explained. “I’m too selfish and career-driven. But one day I would love to be a wife, a housewife.”

After the success of her movie with Kris Aquino, Clau-dine Barretto, Kim Chiu and Cheena Crab, Iza will be seen on two more movies this year.

“I’ll do an indie film with Paolo Herras as director for Bu-hay Habangbuhay,” she said. “I just finished doing a cameo for Hunted Mansion which is part of the film festival, and I might be doing something with Quark Henares.”

As for TV series, she’s still to meet with ABS-CBN executives to discuss an upcoming project on the first quarter of 2016.

World War II in the Philippines: The Legacy of Two Nations

Bataan Legacy Historical Society, Memorare Manila 1945, the PH Consulate General of San Francisco & the San Francisco

Public Library present exhibit and conference on Oct. 24

by DJ YAPInquirer.net

Rep. Alfred Vargas filesincentives bill for indie films

AN ACTOR-turned-lawmaker wants million-peso perks and incentives granted to Filipino independent filmmakers who win honors at international film

festivals.Quezon City Rep. Alfred

Vargas III has filed House Bill No. 6187 to motivate more Filipino producers and directors to make quality independent films.

In an explanatory note,

Vargas said alternative or indie-filmmaking was on the rise, comprising 84 percent of all locally made films in a year. He defined indie films as “those made without the capitaliza-tion, machinery and influence of major films studios.”

“One particular obstacle is the lack of funds for marketing. As such, most indie films rarely become box office hits,” Vargas said.

Under his proposed “Philip-pine Independent Film Incentives Act of 2015,” makers of indie films that win the Best Film prize in respected international film competitions shall be granted P5 million.

A grant of P3 million shall go to producers of an award-wining short feature or documentary film.

Also, a full tax exemption relevant to the screening of the film and its commercial exhibi-tion, including those levied by local government film, shall be granted.

Vargas also proposed that the award-winning film be given an automatic A rating by the Cinema Evaluation Board.

MANILA—Jim Paredes be-lieves that Original Pilipino Mu-sic artists and Filipinos should embrace OPM before the world recognizes it.

“I’ve always said before that for us to become interna-tional, we have to come in as Filipinos,” he said in a recent interview.

He took for example the Ko-rean pop music, which he said gained popularity after Koreans have supported their own music.

“So I really think, we really have to do OPM for Filipinos and gano’n tayo mapapansin sa mundo. We cannot come in sounding like LA, we have to come in as who we are,” he said.

Paredes also reminded OPM artists that “kung gusto natin mapansin sa mundo, dapat content-provided tayo. Right now hardware provided tayo. Magagaling ang singers natin,

Jim Paredes believes that Original Pilipino Music artists should embrace their own identity for the world to recognize OPM.

Jim Paredes: Embrace OPMby JOYCE JIMENEZ

Philstar.com

but they don’t sing OPM to the world.”

“So what we need is we have the hardware, and that hardware will sing OPM to the world, the world will listen,” he added.

In the end, Paredes empha-sized that for the OPM industry to continuously evolve and be known to the world, the artists and the Filipinos should work hand-in-hand in making the world listen to OPM.

COMEDY is a tricky thing. I really think that it’s harder to make people laugh than cry. A good comedian must be able to gauge the sensibilities of his audi-ence and have perfect timing.

Wally Bayola has mastered the art of comedy. His wacky portrayal of Lola Nidora in Eat Bulaga’s phenomenal kalyeserye is one for the books. Kudos to Wally, AlDub (the Alden Richards-Maine “Yaya Dub” Mendoza pairing) and the rest of the hit noontime show’s cast for reinvent-ing Pinoys’ simple yet pure joys.

Here’s my one-on-one with Wally:

How has your Lola Nidora role changed you as a person and a performer?

I have played many characters in the show but Lola became popular thanks to AlDub. And of course, as a performer, I feel like I leveled up.

How similar is the character to your real grandmothers?

To be honest, Lola Nidora is based on my maternal grand-mother. So Lola Nidora is often strict. You have to know house-hold chores. My advice to Yaya Dub on wearing proper clothing is inspired by her. You couldn’t slouch and be inattentive in church or she’d pinch you.

What is the magic behind the AlDub tandem?

It still puzzles people. Young

Betcha by Wally, wow!

Wally Bayola aka Lola Nidora

by DOLLY ANNE CARVAJALInquirer.net

lo handle artistic differences?When we perform, we

complement each other. We support each other like a duo in comedy bars.

What does your family think of Lola Nidora?

They’re surprised when I come home as Wally, like they’re not used to me anymore. After the show, they watch again online. Sometimes, they get mad at me for being strict with AlDub! They’re affected.

How do you manage to put on a brave face while your daughter Marianne is battling the Big C?

The show is only a few hours. After work, that’s when I feel sad. Her college batchmates are graduating.

Which of Lola Nidora’s words of wisdom is your fave?

Huwag kang matakot mag-mahal basta totoo. (Don’t be afraid to love if it’s true.)

Are those words your own or from the script?

It’s from the script but I added a sermon—“make sure your intentions are pure.”

What’s your fave candid mo-ment with Alden and Maine?

With Yaya, I have many. I asked her once, how does she keep herself from feeling nervous? She said, “Happy thoughts—think of your crush!”

If your life story were a movie, what would the title be?

Sa Tamang Panahon!

or old, they’re fans of AlDub. Even men are thrilled by it. It moves people.

Do you think that Maine and Alden will end up together for real?

Maybe! This is just acting, but they’re still people with feelings. If they get together in real life, why not? That would be great. AlDub is already inspiring, and it would even be more so if they get together for real.

What’s your advice to aspir-ing comedians?

What I learned in comedy is nonstop education, research, and figuring out the tastes of people. So you need to adjust.

Do you feel pressured to keep outdoing yourself?

Not really. What I learned from Joey de Leon was, you should love your job, whatever it is. Love it so that you won’t feel pressured, so that you will always feel inspired and energetic. But I’m not really pressured because of the writers of Eat Bulaga.

How do you and Jose Mana-

bartender who becomes her summer fling.

Rounding up the cast of this romantic flick is Carla Humphries, Marc Abaya, Mara Lopez, Franco Daza, Zack Varkaris, Jun King Austria, Barbara Miguel, Adrian Cabido, Gerard Garcia, Anja Peter, and Julia Quisimbing in an introductory role, along with lo-cal actors Jeff Ortega and Lemon Superstar Dines.

Solenn, who said that the cast and crew shot the entire film in La Union for two straight weeks, described that their “magical” location as “a humble community where everyone lives within the same standards.”

Besides the scenic views of La Union, Flotsam also boasts of its live musical scoring, originally

written for the film by Eraser-heads guitarist Surfernando Marcus Adoro, and Flotsam Folk Yeah! Family Band’s Mia Sebas-tian and Kiddo Cosio.

“They’re beautifully written and we all get emotional when we sing the songs on set,” So-lenn added.

Even the title, she related is meaningful as it is unusual.

“The meaning of flotsam is the debris from a shipwreck that float on the ocean and end up somewhere. So it’s like different people, different love stories that end up somewhere. Flotsam also portrays the surfers that are just floating and waiting for a wave to come along—waiting for something new in their life to come.”

Solenn, ‘Flotsam,’ and the La Union magicby CHRISTINA ALPAD

ManilaTimes.net

WHEREAS Star Cinema’s When Love Begins has Boracay, and That Thing Called Tadhna, Baguio and Sagada, Flotsam, the latest maindie (an independent production that casts actors from mainstream films) seeks to cap-ture La Union’s “magic.”

The movie, named after a quaint artist’s beach hotel in San Juan, La Union, is a love anthol-ogy with eight interweaving stories. The story starts when a work-obsessed overachiever named Kai (Solenn Heussaff) arrives in the Elysian Surf Town to run away from a volatile relation-ship. Kai takes refuge at Flotsam where she meets Tisoy (Rocco Nacino), a very mysterious local

SF7The Asian Journal SF MAGAZINE - October 23, 2015

The Asian Journal SF MAGAZINE - October 23, 2015SF8