Asian Journal February 18, 2011 edition

COMPLICATED AFFAIRS

Gone Fishin’By Simeon G. Silverio, Jr.

Publisher & EditorAsian Journal San Diego

The Original and First Asian Journal in America

Chapter 5

“Come join us,” Jockey Diaz told Danny over the phone one Sun-day evening.

His friend was inviting Danny to join him on a fishing trip at the Manila Bay the next day, a Monday. Fishing had been Diaz’ passion since he had become successful as a jockey and could afford the trips to the sea. He was going with his girlfriend, Digna, one of his current four girlfriends, in addition to his wife. With his wealth, Diaz could indulge in his amoral quests as women were willing to hitch up with him in ex-change for financial rewards.

His wife had given up on his philandering ways and accepted it as a fact of life. She had no choice. She would rather be betrayed than abandoned by her popular and wealthy husband. She compensated by indulging in other vices herself, such as gambling at the casinos and shopping. Occasionally, she

would catch her husband talking to one of his girlfriends over the phone; she would put up a staged tantrum so he would not think she was condoning his behavior. Her naggings some-what kept him at bay, although she was careful not to overdo it lest he might leave her. Some-times she wanted to catch and subsequently use his infidelity as a bargaining tool for her to get additional money, which he would give to calm her down.

But unbeknownst to her, her husband had become deeply involved with at least two of his girlfriends and sired children out of wedlock.

“I have five kids,” Diaz would boast to his friends. “Three of them are first-born.”

To support his growing brood, Diaz had to keep winning in

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(Continued on page 15)(Continued on page 3)

(Continued on page 24)

The number of foreigners visiting the Philippines rose nearly 20 percent last year despite a deadly tourist bus hijack and foreign warnings of terror attacks.

A total of 3.45 million foreigners went through the country’s main ports of entry in 2010, up from 2.89 million in 2009, Bureau of Immigra-tion said.

“These numbers send a very clear message that the confidence of the international community in the Philippines and the government of Presi-dent Aquino is very strong,” Ledesma said.

“No amount of alleged or perceived terror threats can shake or erode that confi-dence.”

Philippine leader Benigno Aquino protested publicly in November after Australia, Britain, Canada, France, New Zealand and the United States warned their citizens that a terrorist attack on the Philip-pines was imminent.

Philippine tourism numbers up 20% in 2010


The Contact Center Asso-ciation of the Philippines said call centers will add 70,000 more employees in the Philip-pines in 2011.

“We will add about 70,000

employees next year from our current workforce of around 350,000,” association presi-dent Benedict Hernandez said.

He said local centers, which comprise 70 percent of

Pinoy Call Centers to hire 70,000 agents in 2011

February 18 - 24, 2011

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The Pasig River, once given up for dead, is back. Gone are the black and slimy, filthy and smelly waters. Now, the entire 25 km stretch flows with brownish-greenish currents without a nauseating stench. Even floating rubbish is minimal, although water

lilies still abound. Best of all, hundreds of migratory birds, mostly seagulls, but even some egrets and herons can be seen feasting on its waters teeming with small fish, alongside scores of our menfolk using rod-and-reel; some even with nets, to catch palm-sized tilapia, dalag and bangus that the strong currents must have brought from upstream La-guna Lake.

I encourage everyone

The Pasig River, once given up for dead, lives!

living in and around Metro Manila to ride the Pasig River Ferry (ferry terminal at Plaza Mexico in Intra-muros to Nagpayong at the mouth of Laguna Lake) to witness and delight in the transformation of the Pasig River. A round-trip fare for the entire length of 25km will cost only P120 and take 3.5 hours back-and-forth

mean-dering

through parts of Manila, Mandaluyong, Makati, Taguig, Pasig and Pateros. Watch the birds and the fish, ride the currents and feel the breeze – all without car traffic.

I rode Ferry #2 piloted by a professional and courte-ous crew consisting of Capt. Melbor Baybay, Chief Engr. Tomas Sano and Deckhand Jose Magbanua. The ferry

Page 2 February 18 - 24, 2011Asian Journal - (619) 474-0588 Visit our website at http://www.asianjournalusa.com

The Philippines has long been troubled by an Islamic militant movement engaged in bombings and kidnappings, mainly in the south of the country.

The country’s international reputation took a further hit in August when a botched police rescue effort to end a bus hijacking stand-off in Manila left eight Hong Kong tourists dead.

The bureau said visitor arrivals fell to 188,028 in Sep-tember, amid the immediate fallout of the hostage fiasco.

But it said numbers picked up strongly with an average of nearly 230,000 visitors for each of the last three months of the year.

Tourism ministry assistant secretary Benito Bengzon told AFP the government was op-timistic the official tourist ar-rival numbers for 2010 would be about the same as the im-migration bureau figures.

If so, this would exceed the government target of 3.3 mil-lion tourists for the past year, he added.

The ministry stepped up marketing and promotion campaigns abroad, and invited tourism guides and the press to visit the country following the bus hostage crisis to show there was nothing to fear, he said.

Bengzon said the Philip-pines was targeting 3.7 mil-lion tourist arrivals this year.

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numbers up 20% in 2010

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Rene, a permanent resident since 2002 is in removal (de-portation) proceedings.

Rene arrived in the U.S. on March 7, 2002 on an ap-proved petition filed by his permanent resident mother in 1990. When his mother’s petition was filed, Rene was 24 and single. At 28, he and his girlfriend Gina lived together as common-law husband and wife. They had 3 children all born out of wed-lock. However, all the birth certificates of the children contained an entry of Rene and Gina’s “date of marriage” as December 30, 1994 - Gina knew that unless she and Rene were married, her children will not be able to use Rene’s surname (the Family Code of the Philippines came in effect in 1986 and children born out of wedlock can only use the mother’s surname). Also, Gina was afraid Rene may not be able to petition for her children if they don’t carry his surname. So, she asked her cousin to get a fake marriage contract from Manila City Hall and she gave a copy of that to the hospital whenever she gave birth.

During his interview at the US Embassy in November 2001, the Consular Officer

Single, but married?asked Rene if he is single and he confidently answered yes. He was asked if he has any children and he said “none” - he was afraid that the Consular Officer will see his children’s birth certifi-cates which all state that he and Gina are married. Rene got his immigrant visa and planned to leave in 2 months. Two weeks before his depar-ture date, Gina became ap-prehensive that Rene may not keep his word he will be back to marry her and petition for her and their 3 children so she nagged Rene that they should get married before he leaves. Two days before he left, Rene and Gina were married on March 5, 2002 by a Judge in Manila. Upon arrival in Los Angeles airport, Rene was again asked by the CBP officer at the port of entry if he is single and if he has any children. Again, he stated he’s single and has no children.

In 2005, Rene went home and he and Gina had a big church wedding also on March 5 (the 3rd year anniver-sary of their real marriage). In 2008, and without consulting an attorney, he applied for citi-zenship thinking that he has more than 5 years of perma-nent residency. In his natural-

ization application, he stated he and Gina were married on March 5, 2005 (the church wedding) and listed all his 3 children. During his inter-view, the Interviewing Officer reviewed his file – and found out that Rene was single when he was interviewed and issued an immigrant visa in Novem-ber 2001, but he was already married when he arrived in the US in March 2002; that he lied in his application for immigrant visa when he stated he has no children; and that he lied at the port of entry when he stated he’s still single and has no children. Rene’s citizenship application was denied on the ground he never became a permanent resident. After a few months, Rene received a Notice to Appear that he is removable as an inadmissible alien at the time of his entry. The Government alleges that Rene entered the U.S. with an immigrant visa for a single adult child of a permanent resident (F2B) and he was not entitled to that visa as in fact he was already mar-ried at the time of his entry. Thus, Rene is what we call an “inadmissible alien”, and is deportable under Section 237(a)(1)(A) of the Immigra-tion & Nationality Act (INA), which provides:

Sec.237 Deportable Aliens(a)(1)(A) Inadmissible

Aliens. – Any alien who at the time of entry or adjustment of status was within one or more of the classes of aliens inad-missible by the law existing at such time if deportable.

Rene is removable (de-portable) as charged because while he was single when he received his immigrant visa,

he can no longer use that visa issued to him as a single adult child (F2B) as he was already married at the time he used that visa to immigrate to the U.S. Section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) of the INA known as the “fraud provision” states “Any alien who, by fraud or willfully misrepresenting a material fact, seeks to procure (or has sought to procure or has procured) a visa, other documentation, or admission into the United States or other benefit provided under this Act is inadmissible.”

There is no preference category or immigrant visa for a married child of a perma-nent resident. Rene’s mother remained a permanent resident and has not applied for U.S. citizenship because she has other approved petitions for her 2 children (Rene’s broth-ers) who are still waiting for their immigrant visas. She’s afraid that if she becomes a U.S. citizen, her 2 children will wait longer for their visas (this is not true and she is ob-viously misinformed, but that will be the subject of another article).

However, being a son of a permanent resident, Rene has an available immigration relief and can “waive” the ground for his removability under INA Section 237(a)(1)(H) - known to practitioners as the “fraud waiver”. Said Section allows the Attorney General to waive provisions relating to “the removal of aliens within the United States on the ground that they were inadmissible at the time of admission as aliens described in section 212(a)(6)(C)(i), whether willful or innocent (the “fraud provision”) for any alien who is the spouse, parent, son, or daughter of a US citizen or permanent resident; and who was in pos-

session of an immigrant visa or equivalent document and was otherwise admissible at the time of such admission.” In Vasquez v. Holder, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in-terpreted the term “otherwise admissible” as not excludable on some other ground than the entry fraud. According to the 9th Circuit, “the effect of the fraud waiver is to transform an individual who enters the U.S. with an invalid immi-grant visa to the status of one who entered as a nonprefer-ence immigrant, despite the fact that a valid nonimmigrant visa would never have been available to the individual at the time of entry”. The Court also noted that the fraud waiver was enacted as a hu-manitarian gesture to preserve families in the U.S. with a family member who is either a US citizen or a permanent resident. A waiver of depor-tation for fraud or misrep-resentation under the fraud waiver also operates to waive removal based on the grounds of inadmissibility directly resulting from the underlying fraud or misrepresentation.

Atty. Aurora Vega-Buzon is a partner in Chua Tinsay & Vega, A Professional Legal Corporation (CTV) - a full service law firm with offices in San Francisco, San Diego and Philippines. The informa-tion presented in this article is for general information only and is not, nor intended to be, formal legal advice nor the formation of an attorney-client relationship. Call or e-mail CTV for an in-person or phone consultation to discuss your particular situation and/or how their services may be retained at (415) 495-8088; (619) 955-6277; [email protected]

(Continued from page 1)

Page 3Asian Journal - (619) 474-0588 Visit our website at http://www.asianjournalusa.comFebruary 18 - 24, 2011

the horse races or bet against himself on those he would deliberately lose. The latter strategy was easier to accomplish, for he would not have to try hard to win, which could be difficult as many good jockeys were competing against him. It was easier to throw the race because sometimes, even though he was the favorite, the competition was on par or even better. He just hoped he kept his number one ranking so he could have his way in dictating how much money he could earn, win or lose.

“Okay,” Danny accepted his friend’s invitation. He had nothing to do that day as he did not keep a regular job. He

also wanted to remain in good graces with Diaz so he could keep getting racing tips from him. After all, these tips, in addition to the hospital equip-ment business, had become a major source of his income.

“This is Mindy,” Diaz introduced a pretty twenty-five year old girl to him when he arrived at the dock. “She’s Digna’s sister.”

Mindy shyly extended her right hand which Danny shook. He noticed that Digna was teasing her sister, as though there was a pre-ar-ranged plan between Diaz and the two girls unbeknownst to him. Later on, during the course of the fishing trip, he discovered the plan: Digna wanted Danny to hook up with her sister.

“Pakasalan mo naman ang kapatid ko, o (Marry my sister),” Digna told him as they ate lunch aboard the boat in the middle of the bay. “Para naman makarating ng America (So she can migrate to America).”

She knew Danny was a divorced American citizen.

It has always been com-plicated for ordinary Fili-pinos to get a tourist’s visa and even more difficult to migrate to the United States, the place many perceived as the “land of milk and honey” and a guarantee of a bright future. The U.S. Immigra-tion Service authorities were very much aware that most Filipino tourists would stay in the U.S. for good even as illegals. They were popularly known as “TNTs”, acronym for the Tagalog words “tago ng tago” (always hiding [from the immigration people]). To receive a tourist visa, one had to show he had the financial

COMPLICATED AFFAIRS

Gone Fishin’

Philippine Stories

Read Sim Silverio’s previous articles by visiting our website at www.asianjournalusa.com

by Simeon G. Silverio Jr.

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(Continued from page 3)capability to travel as a tourist with proof of his assets, other properties, and a good-paying job at home. The U.S. authori-ties were specifically strict on single people because they did not have immediate families waiting for their return back home. Single people could freely roam around the U.S. and work illegally without worrying about leaving be-hind any family. And even if one had family back home, many of those granted a tour-ist visa would be more than willing to leave their loved ones behind and work ille-gally abroad so as to secure a bright future for them.

Migrating to the United States legally was often not an option. Even if one had a

family member who could petition him, it would take years if not decades for the papers to be processed. Single people with parents abroad who could petition them often became over-age, had to marry their sweethearts, and give up all hopes of migrat-ing to the U.S. Many, how-ever, were creative to beat the system. Some bank accounts, diplomas, land titles and other documents proving wealth and accomplishments that could support their claim they were affluent enough to travel as tourists, were fraudulent A father of a family of four traveling with his wife and two children told the authori-ties he was leaving their two-year-old son behind since he was too young to travel as a tourist. The U.S. Immigration

officer thought it was a good enough reason for the fam-ily to return. Unbeknownst to him, the son had died as an infant two years before.

“Why would she want to go to the U.S.? She’s pretty enough to find a good hus-band who could support her here,” Danny asked Digna.

“She has a two-year-old daughter,” Digna told him. “No decent bachelor would want to marry her. In the U.S., even if you leave her once she is there, she could still carve a bright future for herself and her daughter.”

“But I am too old for her,” Danny said. At fifty, he was twenty-five years Mindy’s senior.

“It doesn’t matter. You look young enough.”

Danny was aware the U.S. authorities were often skepti-cal in approving the petition of a young wife by her older husband. They often suspect-ed a hoax marriage, arranged for a wife in order to get a permanent resident visa.

But Digna was right. Danny was good-looking and looked younger than his actual age. It was conceiv-able that a young woman like Mindy could fall in love with him. In fact, many of Danny’s girlfriends in America were much younger than he.

It did not take much convincing for Danny to ac-cept Digna’s proposal for her sister. After all, she was pretty enough for him to be inter-ested, at least sexually. Be-fore they knew it, Danny and Mindy were living together in his apartment. At first, her daughter was staying with Mindy’s parents until eventu-ally, when Danny was in a better mood, she moved in with him. Danny had learned to accept her as her own.

But their planned marriage suffered a setback.

“You’re still legally mar-ried,” the clerk of court at the City Hall, where they applied for a marriage license, told Mindy. “Where’s your hus-band?”

“He’s long gone,” she explained. “He abandoned me when he learned I was preg-nant.”

“You have to find him so both of you can file for an an-nulment. Otherwise, you must wait seven years after you first reported him missing for him to be declared dead and out of your life. Only then could you be free to marry again.”

“But I’ve searched for him for years and he simply vanished. In fact, I suspect he did not even use his real time when we got married.”

“Seven years,” the clerk of court told her with finality. – AJ

(To be continued)

Filipino ace jetski rider Paul del Rosario became the first Filpino world champion as he topped the 2010 QuakySense-IJSBA World Fi-nals in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Del Rosario upstaged topnotch rivals to capture the Premium Open Expert Runabout crown in the International Jetsports and Boat-ing Association (IJSBA)-organized World finals.

The event used to be dominated

Del Rosario captures World Jetski Championship in Arizona

by Americans, Europeans, Brazil-ians and Thais.

Banking on his turbo four-stroke Yamaha boat set-up by Rius Racing, Del Rosario topped the two motos to beat John Hecox of Goth-enburg, Nebraska and Dennis Mack of Loganville, Georgia.

Deniso Casarini of Sao Paulo, Brazil and Greco Giuseppe of Ser-bia took the next two spots.

“This one is for the Philippines. It feels great to win in this event which is considered the Formula One of jetski wherein the best skiers in America and the national champions from all over the world participate. And it feels even greater to know that with this vic-tory, the world has come to know more about the Philippines,” said Del Rosario.

After finishing second in the qualifying heat, Del Rosario grabbed the hole shot in both motos then outclassed the field en route to victory.


by Dr. Ofelia Dirige Founder, President & CEO Kalusugan Community Services

Contemporary Asian American Issues

Read Dr. Dirige’s previous articles by visiting our website at www.asianjournalusa.com

Calvin Jung

Elementary school

My education began when I was four years old when my father enrolled me in the local community college’s preschool program. I was the only Asian American in a small class of no more than twenty toddlers. Yet, as far as I can remember, this was never an issue. I was never teased, picked on, or bullied. I believe I can attribute this to the purity of children’s minds at this age. They are, in fact, colorblind. They aren’t blind in the literal sense, but rather figuratively. That is, children don’t see others as black, white, brown, or yellow. They see others as others, and that is the extent of it. It is my ex-perience that children at this age are most concerned with

Second of a Series

Asian American educational experiences: Rising above

stereotypes and discriminationGuest Writer: Calvin Jung

During my second grade, I was described as “Chinky” and “Ching-chong.” As a sixth grader, I was again at the bottom of the totem pole. Boys of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade picked

on me, but for whatever reason, this did not apply for girls. Girls chose to overlook the color of my skin. In fact, they were

rather fond of me.

finding playmates than the color of their skin.

However, this began to change in second grade for me. By this time I was de-scribed as “Chinky” and called “Ching-chong” by both boys and girls. I didn’t think much of it at the time as I did not realize the derogatory

implications these terms had as they were used in common speech (not to be confused with being used commonly or often) . I mostly brushed these terms off when I heard them. They did not begin to irritate me until third grade when I began playing basketball. It was then that I realized my peers were poking fun at my expense. But being one of the smallest and only Chi-nese American on the court I did not have the courage to stand up to them. Tattle tails, those who complain to teach-ers or supervisors in order to get others into trouble were frowned upon. As a result, I did not report these instances and the teasing only contin-ued.

I finally built the cour-age to stand up for myself by fourth grade. An African American student uttered something offensive to me and I resorted to violence as an answer. I pushed him into the mud and fell in myself. The fight continued for what seemed like an eternity before a teacher broke it up. We were sent to the principal’s office where we were questioned. Arbitrarily I assumed, the principal allowed me to tell my side of the story first. I told him that the teacher was mistaken in what she saw and that the other student merely slipped and fell in the mud and I was simply trying to help him up when he slipped and fell myself. I think this is where the stereotype of being a model minority worked to my advantage. I had never been in any trouble prior to this incident.

I had won a Student of the Month award every year that I’d been in school. As such, the principal chose to believe my story and did not opt to hear out the other student at all. We were both let go with-out warning or punishment. The other student said to me, “thanks for having my back,” as we were leaving the princi-pal’s office. I nodded my head and we parted ways. I didn’t realize it at the time, but in retrospect, I had no trouble with teasing from him or any other student throughout my time in elementary school.

Middle School

Unfortunately, the teasing and bullying resumed when middle school began. Luck-ily, it did not last. As a sixth grader, I was at the bottom of the totem pole, again. Boys of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade picked on me, but for whatever reason, the same did not apply for girls. Girls chose to overlook the color of my skin. In fact, they were rather fond of me. My first girlfriends, if you can tell them that, were Caucasians, Hispanic, or a mixture of the two. This seemed to work to my advantage as the other boys began to respect me. It’s funny how that works. It may have also helped that I was the fastest runner in my physical education classes all three years. This often created friendly competition between my peers and me. I think this helped break the stereotype that Asian Americans are all brain.

I chose to run for the

Seventh Grade Representative position in the student gov-ernment and won. The same year I was the only Asian American nominated to be the Prince at the Valentine’s Day dance (and yes, there were other Asian American students at this school.) The year after I ran for Student Body Presi-dent and also won. In both elections my opponents were Caucasians. Going into each election I know I was going to be the underdog. However, through good campaigning and perseverance I was able to come out on top.

High School

High school was another story. At this age, some stu-dents, mostly upperclassmen, developed strong anti-Asian sentiments. The Caucasian football jocks mostly ignored my existence while the Afri-can Americans and Hispan-ics chose to let me not forget I was nothing- - or at least that’s what they wanted me to think. There was an Asian club that was comprised of about fifteen or so Asians. I chose not to join because I thought I would only be causing trouble for myself. It was social suicide. I earned a spot in the varsity wrestling team my sophomore year and gained the respect of everyone on the team, regardless of skin color or age.

One afternoon after school during my junior year, a student literally spat on my face and asked what I was going to do about it. Before I could get a word out of my mouth, my teammates were in

the guy’s face. They had my back. And others were there to see it. This was a defining point in my high school life because others saw that I was not alone. I decided to join the Asian club my junior year and I am glad I did. I met good people that I am still friends with until today. I was wrong before. It wasn’t social sui-cide.

College

I’d like to say that race and ethnicity are now irrelevant in college, but I’d be lying. It’s not so much the teasing and bullying. There’s little to none of that. Rather, it’s the way you are looked at. The way people judge you with their eyes. The parties you get invited to or don’t get invited to. Rush week is when all the fraternities look for new re-cruits. Most of the “popular” fraternities are very selective and do not recruit just anyone. They see students walking and choose to talk to them or not. What more do they have to base their decisions on than looks? From what I’ve seen, it seems they dismiss most Asians from being fraternity material. That isn’t to say there aren’t exceptions, but Asians do not seem to fit the bill.

The model minority ste-reotype is not only held by outsiders, but Asians as well. It is my experience that, in general, Asian parents hold their children to higher aca-demic standards. That isn’t to say that Caucasians or Hispanics or any other par-ents don’t care, but this is the trend that I’ve seen. I was always encouraged to get A’s in school while most of my friends’ parents were fine with B’s. I am sometimes jealous of my peers that live by the “C’s get degrees” philosophy while I am struggling hard to earn A’s. Although my parents never explicitly said I had to go into the professional field, it was always implicitly understood that I would go into the medical field one way or another. My field of study was not chosen for me, per se, but I knew in the back of my mind that it would be a disappointment to my parents and grandparents if I opted for liberal arts or musical career.

Conclusion

Despite the hardships I’ve undergone as an Asian Ameri-can, if even you can call them that, I do not seek pity, how-ever, I realize that people of all ethnicities have problems and of varying degrees. When I have tough times I try to re-member that there are people with far worse problems than me.

***

Calvin is a student at San Di-ego State University in his 5th year majoring in Kinesiology (Pre-Physical Therapy). He was a former student of Dr.

Ofelia Dirge in Asian Studies 310, Contemporary Issues in Asian American Communi-

ties.

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Perspectives

ASIAN JOURNALThe first Asian-Filipino weekly in Southern CaliforniaAn award-winning newspaper, it is San Diego’s most

widely circulated Asian-Filipino newspaper!

Ashley SilverioAssistant Editor

In Pursuit of ExcellenceEugenio “Ego” Osin, (1946 - 1994)

Joe Cabrera, (1924 - 1996)Soledad Bautista, (1917-2009)

Dr. Rizalino “Riz” Oades, (1935-2009)

The Asian Journal is published weekly and distributed in all Asian communties in San Diego County. Publication date is ev-ery Friday of the month. Advertising deadline is Thursday prior to publication date at 5 p.m. For advertising rates, rate cards, or information, call (619) 474-0588. Subscription by mail is available for $50 per year (56 issues). The Asian Journal is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs but welcomes sub-missions. Entire content is © 2009 copyrighted material by Asian Journal. Materials in this publication may not be reproduced without specific permission from the publisher.

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Miles is Assistant to the Dean and Assistant Professor in the Shirley Hufstedler School of Education at Alliant International University where he teaches new media and diverse writing courses. He has been with the Asian Journal since the 1990’s.

by Miles Beauchamp

Much has been said, and will undoubtedly continue to be said, about differences between generations. So far as I’ve been able to see, every generation thinks theirs is the best. They will admit that the one preceding theirs had it rougher and so perhaps might have been at least partially okay, but any generation after

their own is spoiled rotten and the absolute pits. Here is how it usually seems to play out:

Music: My music was great, my parent’s music goofy but maybe some okay, my kid’s music sounds like rattlesnakes giving birth

Clothes: My clothes were fun and stylish, my parent’s

clothes are great for costumes, my kids clothes aren’t worth using for paint rags…and they cost too much

Cars: My cars were magnificent machines: “They don’t build ‘em like that any-more!” My parents cars are fun to tear up and make dune buggies from, my kids cars are just goofy little pocket rockets that all look the same

Books: My books are artis-tic works of literary magnifi-cence. My parents books are boring (at least most of them), my kids books are…what books?

Surfboards, skateboards, skis: My surfboards, skate-boards, and skis were lovingly made by a human being who spent hours on them and made them perfect! My parents surfboards, skateboards (nah, my parents didn’t skateboard), and skis were okay, and my kids surfboards, skateboards and skis are just a bunch of overpriced, factory-made by the millions pieces of absolute junk

Guitars: My guitars were unparalleled instruments of musical creation. My parent’s instruments might be okay in a retro piece, my kids instru-ments are useless pieces of over-computerized, stamped-out, jokes

Television: My television shows were… well, okay mostly not worth watching. My parents TV shows were worth even less and my kid’s shows are just more junk. Now let me also say that ev-ery generation of TV viewers has their good and bad shows. Also, TV programs when you watch them new seem great and in rerun less so and reruns of the reruns years later even much, much less so. So this category might be a tie. Suf-fice it to say that we all watch junk with the occasional gem

tossed in and leave it at thatFilms: My films were

sometimes great, my par-ent’s films were sometimes great, and my kid’s films are sometimes great. My father won’t agree with this analysis. As far as he’s concerned, any film that was made after Au-drey Hepburn appeared with elbow-length gloves is trash. But he’s wrong; in fact, ev-eryone is wrong. The best film ever made is from my genera-tion: “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” is the single best film ever made. Period. End of argument. So there. Well okay, I might be wrong about the film. It is hackneyed, contrived, full of stereotypes, over-wrought, over-energized, and over-played. Nonethe-less, it is hysterical, it is full of great actors giving good performances, the writing is spot-on and almost flawless, and you can’t help but be absorbed in it. So maybe I am right. As you can see from this miniscule list, there are generational differences in almost everything. Except perhaps chocolate. Every gen-eration I’ve ever seen, known of, or read about is essentially a chocolate generation.

My generational differ-ences

The differences between my son’s generation and mine hit me full-on a few days ago. We were sitting around the table having dinner and doing our evening check-ins and high and lows (everyone dis-cuses a high point and a low point of their day). During this my son Ryan happened to mention that he needed a flash drive for class. I said okay we can get one.

“When do you need it?”“Tomorrow.” “Tomorrow?” “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this when I picked you up from school / when we were out running around getting your glasses / when we picked up your sister / when we weren’t having dinner??????”

“I forgot,” he answered with the usual kid answer. I did the usual dad growl under my breath and wondered where I had left the Rolaids.

Ryan stayed at home with mom to finish his homework while my daughter and I drove to Best Buy down the hill to get a flash drive. It was during this drive that I happened to remember a very similar scene from years ago. Instead of Ryan, however, it was me at dinner with my parents and sister and instead of a flash drive it was poster board for a school project the next day.

At the time we lived in a town without an Office De-pot or any other office sup-ply store for that matter. The only place to get poster board, and the only place open was a Thrifty’s drug store (which luckily did have poster board). I still remember the drive there with my father saying to me essentially the same things I said to Ryan (with the added bonus of my father swearing a blue streak; there’s nothing like the swearing of a former WWII sailor when he gets wound up).

Ryan may someday in the future be out on an eve-ning run with a child seeking something or other and during that run he may remember the night he and I went after a flash drive. I hope so; it may make him a little less annoyed and look at his own child with renewed love as he remem-bers his own fathers love just like I remembered mine.

Generational DifferencesAll generations have their good and bad points; mine

just had better music


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by Atty. Susan V. Perez

Immigration 911

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An adulterine is one born of adultery. Some refer to them as adulterine bastards. In the Philippines, we simply refer to them as illegitimate children. How does immigra-tion treat them? I believe the law should not treat them dif-ferently. They should not be punished for the sins of their parents.

Family petition is the most common way of gaining legal permanent resident status in the United States. Immediate relative petition is the fastest way of gaining this status. Immediate relatives include minor unmarried children of U.S. citizens. Under immi-gration law, minority ends at age 21. Children under this category include stepchildren, whether or not born out of wedlock. However, the child must be under 18 years old when the marriage between the stepparent and natural par-ent occurred. Formerly, the stepparent must show “active parental interest.” This is not required now. The stepparent relationship can outlast the marriage that created it. For example, when the natural parent has died after mar-riage to the stepparent, the stepparent can still petition for the stepchild. If the step-parent and the natural parent divorced, the stepparent can

U.S. Citizen stepparent can petition offsprings of adulterous relationships

still petition for the stepchild. However, it must be shown that the stepparent and step-child relationship continued despite the divorce.

An interesting case came to me last week. The child to be petitioned was born five years after the marriage between the natural father and stepmother as the result of an illicit rela-tionship between the natural father and a woman to who he was never married. The natural mother abandoned the child. Can the stepmother file an I-130 petition on behalf of the child? Does he qualify as a stepchild? Common diction-aries define a stepchild as “a child of one’s spouse by a pre-vious union.” In the instant case, she was not a child by a previous marriage but a prod-uct of an adulterous relation-ship. She is an adulterine.

Immigration law defines child to include “a stepchild, whether or not born out of wedlock, provided the child had not reached the age of eighteen years at the time the marriage creating the status of stepchild occurred.” Sev-eral cases have evolved and helped clarify the definition of “stepchild.” In one case, the child was born out of wedlock. Five years later, her natural mother got married to


As the Bamboos Sway

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by Rudy D. Liporada

Often, we know of legend-ary figures but we never really care who could have helped make them legends. This is like savoring the sumptuous-ness of a mango fruit but never considering the roots from which flowed the saps from the ground to the trunk, to the branches, to the twigs, and eventually into the fruit of the tree.

One such legend is Bruce Lee. We only know of his Jeet Kune Do but not many really know how he developed his method of learning martial art techniques. Even Bruce Lee admitted that his mar-tial art is an aggregation of many combat methods which eventually launched and kept him on a pedestal of stardom. However, no records might exist that Lee have plucked some techniques from, now senior citizen, Cipriano “Joe” Cardenas.

While Joe might only be bragging, his kind of empty hand, sikaran (kicking), and Arnis (sword) performance could lay credence to his claim. His being a septuage-narian have not diminished his Bruce-Lee-like stance and speed and we could also say, if Joe’s claim is true, that Lee’s stance was really Carde-nas-like. “Well, I am not say-ing that he learnt most from me,” Cardenas says. “He just picked up some of my tech-niques.” He also says, “We also shared knowledge with Chuck Norris.” He also adds

Cardenas now.

Cardenas then.

Cardenas with author.

Roland Dantes stars in Pacific Connection.

Teaching Annette O'Toole.

Teaching Dean Stockholm

Teaching Roland Dantes.

A Filipino helped Bruce Lee?

Elvis Presley into the mix. “I thought him his fundamen-tal steps in which Ed Parker further built on.”

We may or not believe Joe’s claims about the legend-ary figures but no one can doubt his Arnis prowess. In his age, where many could only stagger to walk or are on wheel chairs, he could be like dancing while swinging those deadly fighting sticks. Those much younger practi-tioners than him would have to exert more thunderbolts if they have to keep up with his lightning speed.

Arnis up in Northern or Kali in the Southern Phil-ippines uses fire-hardened sticks in com-bat. The origin of the Filipino fighting art is difficult to trace because styles vary as many as the numer-

ous islands in the Philippine archipelago. The Indonesian, Malays, and Chinese melted in a heritage where com-bat methods using swords, daggers, and sticks blended. Were it not for the Spanish guns, the foreign coloniz-ers would have been over-whelmed by the natives at any battle with their sticks which the colonizers dubbed as Escrima.

Though Escrima was

outlawed, it flourished in secret and practiced under the noses of the conquer-ors. The execution appeared as dances to even en-tertain the colonizers where in

religious plays called “Moro-Moro,” actors dressed as Spanish soldiers with “arnes” or protective armor worn dur-ing medieval times performed instep with the martial art movements. The “arnes” was soon corrupted to be called Arnis.

The art is now recognized in the international martial arts world as a sport.

The Younger Days

Joe developed his love for the art during his early teens

in the Philippines. Evolv-ing his techniques, he found himself teaching and choreo-graphing Filipino movie ac-tors for their film appearances. Roland Dantes of the 1970s fame and who was interna-tional known for the movie the Pacific Connection was among them.

Joe’s art, however, also co-incided with his dream of be-ing an airline pilot. Though he did not become one, coming to the US, brought him into the world of aeronautical and electrical engineering coupled with a degree in programming and business administration.

His love for the sport did not also diminish and, eventu-ally, he set up his Cardenas School of Arnis where the Hawthorne and Los Angeles Police force learnt their street fighting techniques with their batons. “Students from other schools also honored me by removing their black belts and begin from the bottom of

Arnis methods learning from me.” Other students included actors Dean Stockwell, James Coburn, Lee Major, Farrah Fawcett, Annette O’Toole, and others.

This is also where Joe sparred with the legends and where they learned from each other. Bruce Lee’s school was only twenty-six miles away from Joe’s. Chuck Norris’s was five minutes away. After their class sessions at around 10 p.m. they would conglom-erate at Joe’s school (‘be-cause mine was the biggest and most complete facility”) with other martial art teachers and spar and learn from each

other. “Sometimes those ses-sions would last until three in the morning.”

His engineering brain, however, got more into him. It became very hard for him to resist the power of his tinker-ing mind and he got immersed into the world of inventions. He has 24 patents under his name and some of them are still in the market. Among the notables of these is an elec-tronic prescription counter which sorts and counts phar-maceutical tablets. One of his electronic inventions involved a wing design that improved the aerodynamic capabilities of an airplane.

His inventive prowess and qualifications found him jet-setting to London, Canada, Vietnam and other countries which led him to close his school “as I could not attend to my students full time. It would have been unfair to them.” He became a business and technical consultant for

various com-panies.

Married twice, with five children, further led Joe to be immersed in the busi-ness world in order to take care of his brood. Still mar-ried to Lucia from Mexico, Joe shuffles to and fro the border to attend to his busi-nesses in San Diego and

Mexico. He has Joel, Tony, Denise, Aissa, and Nikki for his children. Aissa is a black belt in Michigan. Joel is also competitive in the art and is a California State champion and competes in the interna-tional circuit. He also gets his stamina from the martial art exercises to roar and became a world champion in moto-cross races. Tony is currently competing in the boxing angle of the art. All Joe’s children study his martial art tech-niques and are amazed that their dad, at his vanishing hair stage, could still sway like a butterfly and if confronted, could still, surely, sting like a bee.

Joe was born in Cer-vantes, Ilocos Sur in the Philippines in March 8, 1937. He grew up, however, in Bauko, Bontoc, 130

kilometers from Baguio City. “I really learned how to fight when I was still a kid,” he says. “I was forced to learn boxing and an Igorot style of wrestling. There was noth-ing else left for you to do but learn those things to enable you to survive among the tough kids in that region. You had no choice but to develop your inborn instincts to fight

back.”Still fluent in Ilocano and

the Bontoc dialect, he could also be mistaken for a Mexi-can for his mastery of the language.

“I never stopped prac-ticing the art, however,” he says. “I still have the passion for it deep in my heart and it provides me the exercise for my well-being. It is my anti-aging regimen.”

Now semi-retired, Joe is looking for the opportunity to share his passion for the art, his secret for staying agile, to pass on a legacy that is very

Filipino. Whether or not he contrib-

uted to Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, whether or not he did spar with Chuck Norris, whether or not he provided Elvis Pres-ley’s martial art fundamentals (remember how The King executed those high kicks in his last concert in Hawaii?), should not be an issue. Once one undergoes training under Joe Cardenas, one would find not an old man but a man with the skill, the speed, the holis-tic knowledge that could have transformed one into a legend.

Not to mention arresting the aging process with the Arnis regimen though it might be an art centuries old and taught by one who is there but wards off from his twilight years.

For more information on his techniques, one can call Joe at 619-339-1418.


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by Atty. Rogelio Karagdag, Jr.Member, State Bar of California & Integrated Bar of the Philippines

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Among the matters that we are now attending to in the Philippines is helping our U.S.-based clients settle the properties left behind by their ancestors. By this, we mean undertaking the required legal steps to transfer the properties from the deceased predeces-sors to the living heirs. During our more than twenty years of law practice in the Philip-pines, we have observed that many estates still remain in the names of the deceased ancestors. This is mainly due to the financial inability of the heirs to pay the estate taxes (inheritance taxes) which are quite substantial.

The current estate tax rates in the Philippines range from 5% to 20% of the net estate. This is more specifically out-lined in the table below:

The estate tax is payable upon the transfer of the net es-tate of every decedent, wheth-er a resident or nonresident of the Philippines. However, if the decedent was neither a resident nor a citizen of the Philippines at the time of his or her death, only the portion of the estate in the Philip-

Philippine Estate Taxpines shall be included in the taxable estate. For example, if the decedent was a resident of the United States and became a naturalized U.S. citizen before death, then only the properties in the Philippines will be subject to estate tax. The properties in the United States would not be covered by Philippine estate tax.

What’s the basis of the net estate tax? How is it com-puted? The law says that the estate shall be appraised at its fair market value as of the time of death, which is either the fair market value as deter-mined by the Commissioner (the “zonal vaue”, or the fair market value as shown in the schedule of values fixed by

the Provincial and City Asses-sors (the “assessed value”), whichever is higher.

Usually, the zonal value is much higher than the assessed value. In fact, oftentimes the zonal value approximates the prevailing market price since many properties are being sold based on their zonal val-ue. However, we should stress that the fair market value is that which was prevailing at the time of the decedent’s death.

So, if the decedent died twenty years ago, then the estate tax will be computed based on its zonal or assessed value (again, whichever is higher) in 1991. It is also pos-sible that at that time, the BIR had not yet come out with a zonal valuation of the prop-erty, thus the computation will have to be based on its 1991 assessed value.

But of course, there is a deadline to file the estate tax return, which is six (6) months from the decedent’s death. But this may still be extended. When the Commis-sioner finds that the payment on the due date of the estate tax or of any part thereof would impose undue hardship

upon the estate or any of the heirs, he may extend the time for payment of such tax or any part thereof not to exceed five (5) years, in case the estate is settled through the courts, or two (2) years in case the estate is settled extrajudicially.

Atty. Rogelio Karagdag , Jr. is licensed to practice law in both California and the Philippines. He practices im-migration law in San Diego and has continuously been a trial and appellate attorney in the Philippines since 1989. He travels between San Diego and Manila. His office address is located at 10717 Camino Ruiz, Suite 131, San Diego, CA 92126. He also has an of-fice in the Philippines at 1240 Apacible Street, Paco, Ma-nila, Philippines 1007, with telephone numbers (632)522-1199 and (632)526-0326. Please call (858)348-7475/(858)536-4292 or email him at [email protected]. He speaks Tagalog flu-ently. Articles written in this column are not legal advice but are hypotheticals intended as general, non-specific legal information. Readers must seek legal consultation before taking any legal steps.

SAN DIEGO — U.S. Cus-toms and Border Protection officers at the border cross-ings between California and Mexico stopped more than 700 pounds of narcotics from entering the U.S. and $20,241 in undeclared currency from leaving the U.S. this past weekend.

On Saturday, February 12 and Sunday, February 13, CBP officers seized more than 31 pounds of cocaine, 561 pounds of marijuana, and 136 pounds of methamphetamine after stopping various smug-gling attempts at the ports of entry.

CBP Officers in San Diego and Imperial County Stop More Than 700 Pounds of Narcotics Over Weekend

Also Stop More Than 180 Immigration Violators and Ten Fugitives

In the weekend’s larg-est seizure, CBP officers at the San Ysidro port of entry found more than 250 pounds of marijuana in a hidden compartment in a silver 2006 Dodge Ram. At about 4:45 p.m. on Sunday, a 53-year-old female Mexican citizen drove the pickup truck to the border crossing, with her daughter as a passenger.

During the inspection, a CBP officer found a non-factory compartment along the back wall of the pickup’s cabin, and called for a CBP officer with a human/narcotic detector dog to screen the

vehicle. The canine alerted, and CBP officers referred the vehicle and occupants for a more intensive inspection.

Using an imaging device similar to an x-ray, CBP offi-cers confirmed that there were anomalies with the rear wall of the truck’s cabin. CBP offi-cers opened the hidden com-partment, and found 38 blue rectangular packages inside. CBP seized the vehicle and narcotics and turned the driver over to U.S. Immigration Cus-toms Enforcement agents; she was booked into Las Colinas Detention Facility.



Inherent in every human being is a management skill. The difference is how it is nurtured as the individual grows and develops to control his environment. Control is a management function that must accompany efficient and effective planning, organiz-ing and leading if we expect excellent results.

These management func-tions are honed by experi-ence, education and empirical studies coupled with a natural gift called “common sense”. Depending on your devel-oped objectives and expected results, your performance is measured against pre-set standards.

Every human endeavor or activity, no matter how simple or complex, is man-aged. Whether expressed or implied, planning is a must. As simple as shopping, for example, requires listing what to buy, knowing where to go, how much should you bring or what credit card to use. Dating or managing a rela-tionship is a little more “com-plicated” but organizational skills and an effective exercise of leadership through com-munication, inspiration and motivation would most likely do the job.

Managing the United States of America and all its inhabitants; the executive department of the government bureaucracy and its relation-

Management By PESO(Political, Economic & Social Objectives)

ships with the other depart-ments; political parties (both your own and the opposi-tion); private sector groups that include the mainstream and social media monitoring and questioning every move; relationships with foreign governments; the defense and protection from enemies of the State that include terrorists and criminals; and of course, foreign wars, is an awesome responsibility with all its com-plications and risks.

I do not envy President Barack Obama. He must man-age under certain controls. Limited by the Constitution, Federal laws, State and local laws, Federal regulations, judicial decisions, and the inherent rights of the sover-eign citizenry, he must plan, organize and lead to achieve his objectives subject to those controls.

But he sought the job. He said, “Yes, we can.” And he could do it from “Day 1”. Commensurate with the aforementioned responsibili-ties are awesome powers and resources provided by the same entities that define the controls. He manages all the financial and human resources of practically every executive agency that affects every facet of American life. Every year he is called upon to report to Congress as representatives of the people the “State of the Union” at the time and also to

define his plans for the next year and the near future.

We all heard his “State of the Union” speech. He plans to “out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build” the competition in the global market place. In a subsequent speech he added to “out-hustle” as an objec-tive. Of course, reducing the debt and the deficit is a pri-mary concern as well.

Budgeting is a unique management function. As a rule, it is included as a control mechanism. It limits operating and capital costs and expens-es. It measures achievement or performance as against set financial standards.

But it also performs plan-ning, organizing and leading functions. By submitting his proposed budget, President Obama defined his goals and the program steps to “out-in-novate, out-educate, out-build and out-hustle the competi-tion. He also identified the organizational structures, institutions, and steps needed. He must now lead by setting the priorities, motivate and inspire his subordinates to fol-low his example and together convince the sovereign people to accept the required sacri-fices to “win the future”.

For the defined objectives on innovation, education, infrastructure and competi-tion, President Obama’s budget seems to reflect them. “Put your money where your mouth is”, is the determining factor of one’s commitment.

Obama increased the bud-get of Education from $49.1B to $68B. That’s an increase of 38.5 %. Increases also merited the following departments: Homeland Security by 1.8%; Transportation by 68.1%; Treasury by 11.4; Veterans by 4.5%; Legislative Branch by 6.9%; and the Judiciary by 4.3%. Most of the agencies had reductions in their bud-gets. Defense, for example, got a budget reduced by 5.8%.

Reducing Federal spending

is not enough. So Obama also proposes modest tax hikes on Wall Street, Oil Compa-nies and the Rich. He is also instituting a five-year freeze of many domestic programs. Many of the social programs including one that deals with community organizing were cut.

The proposed Republican (GOP) budget reflects a differ-ent set of priorities. Expect-edly, the focus is to reduce the deficit through decreased spending. Definitely no tax hikes and none of that “out-innovate, out-educate and out-build” stuff. The cuts run across the board. It addresses the concern that borrow-ing should be substantially reduced if not completely stopped. It gave the Repub-licans control of the House. They expect that it would give them control of the White House in a couple of years.

Borrowing is something discouraged even in every day life. During the financial crisis, I was forced to use my business credit line to cover partially our family needs. My wife was forced to learn and gained the expertise of managing her own invest-ments. I enjoyed being rel-egated to research assistant analyzing the financials of companies whose stocks she considered buying. Listening to Mad Money’s Jim Cramer and CNBC was also a way for her to monitor the financial market.

When the financial crisis ended and the market recov-ered, one of my wife’s invest-ments was Apple stocks. She originally bought it at $140 per share. When it went up to $220, she had more than enough to pay off the money borrowed using my business credit line. Should she have paid off or at least reduce the debt?

First there was the IPOD; then, the IPHONE; the Mac Book Air; now the IPAD and more innovations coming. Is investing in innovation a risky venture? My wife did not think so. I did not think so. We still have that payable and paying a reasonably low inter-est rate. But the Apple stock is now $362.

My parents sent all their children to school mostly on borrowed money. They considered the costs as invest-ments for the future. We all became successful profession-als and correspondingly raised our children in the same way.

The samples are simple but no different when applied on a national scale. While the in-terest rates for debts could be fixed even for a longer term, the effects of innovation, education and infrastructure building are exponential and lingering.

As President, Obama is Managing By PESO (Politi-cal, Economic and Social Ob-jectives). Hope we all win!

by Ryan Ponce PacpacJournal Online

$5M UN fund missing;

Carague, Palace linked to cover up

A former auditor of the Commission on Audit who conducted a special audit on military funds yesterday disclosed that the $5 million given by the United Nations to the military was not record-ed in the official books of the Armed Forces of the Philip-pines.

Heidi Mendoza told the House Committee on Justice that the check for $5 million was picked up by a military official. The panel is inves-tigating the plea bargaining agreement of retired Major General Carlos Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman.

“The funds from the Unit-ed Nations (worth) $5 million did not enter the AFP book of accounts. Kaya lamang po with reservation, as I said I have not seen my documents for six years, ito out of recall lang. But it was not the time of General Garcia, kasama po sa documents na turn-over ko sa Office of the Ombudsman,” Mendoza told the committee.

“I was informed that the check was personally picked-up by an officer of the Armed Forces. The officer was not named kahit patayin po ninyo ako dito hindi talaga pinan-galanan sa akin kung sino ang nag-pick up,” she added.

But Mendoza said she was disappointed when then CoA chairman Guillermo Carague told her not to pursue the mat-ter anymore.

Mendoza said the military funds from the UN went first to the clearing accounts of the Land Bank of the Philippines

TROUBLED GENERALS. Former AFP Chiefs of Staff gen-erals Generoso Senga, Narciso Abaya, Hermogenes Esperon and Alexander Yano take their oath before facing a congressio-nal hearing on the “pabaon” system at the Armed Forces at the House of Representatives. Photo by Ver Noveno

More AFP scams bared

in General Santos City and Iloilo instead of the branch near Camp Aguinaldo in Que-zon City. This, she said, was anomalous.

The inquiry was conducted after United States legal at-taché Jeff Cole wrote her a strongly worded letter asking her to conduct an audit of the $5 million UN military funds.

She was commissioned by former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo to head an 11-man team to audit soldiers’ pen-sion fund, Balikatan fund, UN fund, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization fund.

Before the audit started, Mendozasaid CoA Commis-sioner Emmanuel Dalman, who created the audit panel, told her to slow down.

“Sinabi sa akin na dahan-dahan lang Hayds, tinawagan tayo ng Malacañang. I did not ask kung sino pero parang office po ng Executive Secre-tary,” Mendoza said.

After the resignation of Marcelo in 2005, Mendoza said she found herself alone. It was at that time that Carague told her not to write her audit report anymore because the official who sought the audit was no longer in office.

“It was unthinkable, it was not an easy job,” she said.

Mendoza claimed Carague offered her an international auditing post in New York and other similar job offers here but she rejected them all. She resigned from CoA after 22 years in service.

During the audit, Men-doza found a voucher for a P200 million check signed by former general Carlos Garcia and Col. Fernando Sabat but that P50 million of the money could not be accounted for.

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In Perspective

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If meta-tags allow content to be found based on search words anywhere on the web, then meta-leadership by the same token describes leadership that empow-ers communities to leverage and draw resources to themselves in any given situation.

Two weeks ago on Febru-ary 8th, I had the opportunity to attend the Meta-Leadership Conference sponsored by the CDC and the San Diego Offi ce of Emergency Services (OES). The conference presented a chance to see how the bigger players in the region work together to prepare for emergencies. Many of the participants were veterans of local wildfires and natural calamities. There were speak-ers from the Harvard School of Public Health who used lessons from 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina to teach basic concepts in com-munication and preparation, two strategies essential to survival in times of crises.

The summit keynote speak-er, Assemblymember Nathan Fletcher of the 75th District, who was a familiar fi gure during the 2007 San Diego Wildfi res, recalled how battlefield deci-sions had to be made based on constantly changing and often incomplete information during the crisis.

Although the conference was open to everyone in the local community, many in attendance belonged to corporations, non-profi ts, and public service.

Noticeably under-represented in the gathering were small busi-ness owners, most especially minority and women-owned

Meta-Leadership Summit for Preparedness

enterprises, and media except for one, sole public broadcasting station from out of town.

The absence of small business owners was particularly bother-some to one participant who noted that ninety six percent of all businesses in California were in fact small enterprises with employees of 50 or less. Where were they?

In any given crisis, another observer said that although small businesses may be able write off the fi rst day of a disaster as a loss, they would most likely not recover economically if they were to be impacted for another day or two. The question then becomes, “Do they even have a plan in place?”

New ParadigmDr Barry C. Dorn, MD,

M.H.C.M, of the Harvard School of Public Health and Dr. Kathryn Brinsfi eld, MD, MPH, FACEP, of the U.S. Department of Home-land Security were the main speakers at the day-long confer-ence. They presented a com-prehensive paradigm of meta-leadership based on how people react to crises and how they can overcome their gut reaction to think and act purposefully as one community and not simply as an

isolated victim of circumstance. “Unprecedented events de-

mand unique leadership.” Ac-cording to Dr. Dorn, faced with a crisis, leaders, like everyone else, go into an emotional basement marked by a state of fi ght, fl ight, and inaction (freeze). However, meta-leaders learn to get out of the basement and move beyond the mindset.

The preparation to achieve the “meta” or encompassing mindset was the focus of the summit. “The Meta-Leadership Summit is an opportunity to recognize and build the leadership necessary to develop the connections that make a community more resilient in a crisis of any scope of size.”

According to Dr. Dorn, moving from fear to control of one’s re-sponse is the fi rst step to prepare oneself for meta-leadership. It is not achieved in isolation, how-ever, but by acting cohesively with others.

It was the reason for the gather-ing. Participants were able to fi nd people in the room, representing a swath of multi-sector resources, with whom they could begin to build relationships that they can draw upon to prepare for a crisis.

Silo MentalityAs these relationships are es-

tablished, participants would then be able to step beyond a “silo mentality,” that the public saw in the Katrina disaster, and work with resources around them long before the need for rescue and assistance is even there.

The ability to see the “whole image” of what resources an in-dividual can rely on, what roles each player assumes, and what he or she can give to others in a given crisis is the foundation of the meta-leadership mindset.

In practice, faced with a situa-tion, the person in a meta-lead-ership position can lead in three ways: He can lead up to his boss. He can lead within the “silo” or his organization. He can also lead across relationships, infl uencing others who do not report to him. As a matter of fact, the ability of a person to infl uence others is actually greater than any author-ity he or she may be vested with in the particular organization. In term of infl uencing the boss, Dr. Dorn says it is achieved by com-municating the issue using the language and issues important to the person in authority.

Common LanguageIn the same way, the concept

of using language that is under-stood across disciplines is also important.

“Always look for the extra dimension,” states Dr. Dorn. He likened the challenge of com-municating across sectors, each of which has its own unique lan-guage for responding to events, with the simple idea of a imagin-ing a box that contains a cone-shaped object hidden within it.

One can only look at the object from holes in the top and the side of the box. The top view would show a round object. But the ob-server looking at the object from the side would see a triangle.

He uses the example of 9/11. What the police from a helicopter were seeing, which was the im-minent collapse of the skyscrap-ers, and what the fi remen rescue team saw, rushing up from the street to the Twin Tower stair-case, at Ground Zero were two different things. This was a tragic example of what each saw and failed to communicate.

In fact, the challenge of un-learning patterns of response poses the greatest obstacle to the adoption of change. “Once we get ‘invested’ in a particular solution, it is diffi cult to unlearn it,” according to Dr. Dorn.

But the CDC is hopeful that multi-dimensional problem solv-ing will achieve its goal in the long run. The workshops are funded in part by a grant from Homeland Security. The multi-sector dialogue for the Meta-Leadership Summit continues across cities and communities in the nation.

The case for the meta-leader-ship paradigm is compelling. “By connecting assets, we in-crease the chances of mount-ing the optimal response to the “predicable surprise” of a major crises,” according to Dr. Dorn.

The San Diego workshop was funded by the American Red Cross of San Diego and Imperial Counties, County of San Diego Offi ce of Emergency Services, Qualcomm, SAIC, and Sempra Energy/SDG&E. The conference took place at Barona Resort and Casino. Other hosts, apart from Barona, include the Project Con-cern International, San Diego County Medical Society, Scripps Health, The San Diego Founda-tion, Council of Community Clinics, California Emergency Management Agency, County of San Diego Public Health

In practice, faced with a situation, the person in a meta-leadership position can lead in three ways: He can lead up to his boss. He can lead within the “silo” or his organization. He can also lead across relation-ships, infl uencing others who do not report to him.

Services, La Maestra Commu-nity Health Centers, City of San Diego, and the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP) San Diego Chapter.

The CDC Post Summit Com-mitment Team is lead by Victoria Sharp. To join the Meta-Lead-ership Online Community, visit www.meta-leadershipcommuni-ty.org. -- AJ

SAN DIEGO, 2/18/2011 -- Please join us on Feb. 24 from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. for a ReadySanDiego Business Al-liance Mini Summit to discuss updates to the program. The meeting will address methods to streamline communication that will help local businesses receive timely information and make real-time decisions about operations and staff during a disaster.

When: Feb. 24, 2011 Thurs-day, 8 a.m -- 9:30 a.m.

Where: Offi ce of Emergency Services, 5555 Overland Ave., Ste. 1911, San Diego, CA 92123

Your participation will help us build an effective com-munications forum to connect each business sector with the County of San Diego Offi ce of Emergency Services before and during an emergency.

About the ReadySanDiego Business Alliance

The ReadySanDiego Business Alliance is a partnership pro-gram that focuses on creating a coalition of businesses that can contribute resources and exper-tise needed in times of crises or emergencies. It is designed to help identify coordinated disaster response systems and processes, and brings the busi-ness community together to address preparedness, response and recovery. The Alliance addresses issues specifi c to business needs with support from the Offi ce of Emergency Services.

To RSVP or for questions, please respond directly to this e-mail or contact ReadySanDi-ego at [email protected].

ReadySanDiego Business Alli-ance Feb 24 Mini Summit

If you have not joined the ReadySanDiego Business Al-liance, please visit: Become a ReadySanDiego Business Partner.

Save the Date

March 24, 20118 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.Mark your calendars for a

business-specifi c Table Top Exercise for Alliance members on March 24, 2011. Additional information will be provided at the Mini Summit.

Directions to the Offi ce of

Emergency Services· Access Clairemont Mesa

Blvd. from the I-15 or 163 FWY.

· Park at the new parking structure on Farnham St.

· Use the intercom button at the “Jurassic Park” gate to provide your name, destination, and visit purpose.

· Download map on website for walking directions from the parking structure to the “Juras-sic Park” gate and the OES public entrance.

February 19, Stanford University: This conference explores innovative develop-ment strategies emphasizing the bottom half of the eco-nomic ladder and discusses these innovations in relation to traditional development organizations.

Featuring academics and professionals pioneering new models that address poverty and inequality across the de-veloping world.

Find out more at said.stan-ford.edu.

Beyond the Magic Bullet: Innovation in

Bottom-up Development


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Light &Shadows

Read Zena Babao’s previous articles by visiting our website at www.asianjournalusa.com

by Zena Sultana Babao

“In sleep he came to me, in dreams he came. That voice which calls to me, and speaks my name. And do I dream again? For now I find, the Phantom of the Opera is here, inside my mind …” - Chris-tine in ‘The Phantom’

Love never dies! And so does The Phantom!

Last night, the spectacu-lar scenes and spell-binding music of “The Phantom of the Opera” entered my dreams. I woke up with memories of the opera’s music, which I love, still floating like gossamer webs inside my mind. So I decided to reprint the article I wrote in 2009 about this time-less story of love and despair.

The Phantom of the Opera: A Timeless Story

of Love and Despair* * *

“Simply spectacular!”;

“It takes your breath away!”; “Moving and dramatic!”; “I’ve never seen anything like it!”; “Breathtakingly beauti-ful!”

These are just some of the rave comments about the Phantom of the Opera, the hit musical by the legend-ary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber being shown at the exclusively-built Phantom Theater at The Venetian in Las Vegas.

I missed the Phantom at the Civic Theater here in San Diego, so I made sure to see it in Vegas last week. This Las Vegas spectacular is really

what people say it is! When I walked into the marvelous creation that is the $40-mil-lion opera house built for the Phantom in The Venetian, it literally took my breath away.

I have never seen anything specifically built for a musical on a scale such as this!

Even the famed Andrew Lloyd Webber said the same thing when he saw the Phan-tom Theater at The Venetian in Vegas: “I thought back to the Phantom’s first performance in the tiny 100-seat theater at Sydmonton, which is home to my annual arts festival. I remembered how the power of the music and story swept our audience along. But I won-dered whether a musical that often has only the two central characters on stage could survive in such a gorgeous yet astonishing and huge setting.”

Not only did the Phantom

of the Opera survive, it flour-ished, and drew thou-sands of opera lovers from all over the world. It is the No. 1 rated show in Vegas! In Direc-tor Hal Prince’s capable hands, the Phantom sailed through its new home to add more credence to the Phan-

tom’s record of being the longest-running show in Broadway history.

According to Director Prince, when the opportunity presented itself to bring the Phantom to Las Vegas, argu-ably the Entertainment Capital of the World, it was more than tempting, it was an invitation he couldn’t refuse. He said, however, that how to deliver what has drawn audiences for over 20 years and at the same time make it new and excit-ing, was the challenge. Prince met the challenge and even exceeded it!

When I saw the Phantom at The Venetian, three things were imprinted and remained in my mind.

1st: Prince has erected a spectacle in the best sense of the word. When the Paris Opera House materialized on stage in front of my very eyes, it was an astonishing stage-craft magic. Yet it was never out of sync with the music!

2nd: I was awe-struck by the intimate scenes played, especially the scenes at the gorgeous-looking rooftop and inside the wondrously deca-dent Phantom’s lair. I could not control my tears!

3rd: The score sounded so great, the music hauntingly romantic – it was a rapturous blending of lyrics and melody.

What caught my attention at the very start of the show was the gigantic chandelier composed of three tiers, hang-ing upside down haphazardly in various stages of disarray, like someone had thrown them in a fit of tantrum. As the Phantom’s theme started to play, the three pieces of the chandelier started to move, turned upright, and assembled in spectacular synchronicity, moving upward to attached itself into the ceiling once again. I loved the way they did it!

Having seen this spectacu-lar show gave me a deeper ap-preciation of the work, genius, and talent that makes up a stage production of this size.

The Phantom of the Opera is a tender and tragic love sto-ry set in the 1870’s Paris Op-era House. The Phantom is a musical genius who prowls the Opera House, with a mask hiding the disfigured half of his face, but nothing cloak-ing his love and desire for the young and lovely Christine. He lives in the catacombs be-neath the Paris’ Opera House by day, and haunts the Opera House by night.

It’s one of the best love stories of all time. What tor-ment the Phantom must have

endured, his face imprisoned in a mask for all time! Yet he could still feel love, and even compassion, for another. The story definitely tugs at the heartstrings and stirs emo-tions.

When Christine fell in love with Raoul, a well-bred young man of noble descent, the Phantom’s heart is bro-ken. The Phantom’s despair turns to a furious, jealous rage. What follows is a story of love and seduction, despair and redemption, as the love triangle heats up.

The tragic, yet terrifying Phantom is as much a victim as he is a villain – his hideous appearance forever doomed him to an unrequited love. From the first haunting chords of the theme song which is the same title as the show, up to “Masquerade’s” melancholy tune, the show held me spell-bound.

The Las Vegas cast is superb, with the lead roles played by Anthony Crivello as the Phantom, Kristi Holden as Christine, Andrew Ragone as Raoul, Elena Jeanne Batman as Carlota, John Leslie Wolfe as Monsieur Andre, and Tina Walsh as Madame Giry.

Four of the show’s beauti-ful and emotional songs are all hits: “The Phantom of the Opera,” “The Music of the Night,” “All I Ask of You,” and “Wishing You Were Some-how Here Again.” You can see all of these songs in You Tube performed by several opera heavyweights, including Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, the lead roles in the original cast; plus super-star Gerald Butler and his leading lady, Emmy Rossum, in the movie version.

The Phantom of the Opera is an icon – one glimpse of the famous mask logo and you will immediately think of the show! It’s been seen by more than 100 million people worldwide, and is the longest-running show in Broadway history. It is widely consid-ered to be one of Webber’s most accomplished scores.

The show, played in more than 100 cities across the world, has won more than 50

Zena at The Venetian

major theater awards, includ-ing seven Tony’s and seven Drama Desk Awards. The original cast recording is the biggest-selling cast album of all time, with more than 40 million copies sold.

In 2004, the musical was finally captured on film, directed by Joel Schumacher and starred Gerald Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson and Minnie Driver. I have seen this movie, and it was fantastic! I even got me a DVD so I could see it again and again.

The movie version was magical! With a flash of bright lights, the movie audi-ences were transported back in time to a tale of mystery and love. Daring perfor-mances, intricate smoky sets including the Phantom’s lair of shadowy catacombs, stunning stage props and an award-winning memorable score, have earned this movie huge critical acclaim.

Sold-out audiences mar-veled at one of the produc-tion’s most climactic scenes, in which a dazzling replica the Paris Opera House chandelier came crashing down the stage. The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Original Song for “Learn to be Lonely.”

The Phantom of the Op-era has become the largest-grossing musical in Broadway history. Its enormous world-wide box office has made it the most successful enter-tainment venture of all time, and proved this classic tale’s enduring popularity. It was truly a unique and magical experience I will never forget!

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Spiritual Life

Read Monsignor’s previous articles by visit-ing our website at www.asianjournalusa.com

by Msgr. Fernando G. Gutierrez

Lower Your Nets Balintataw

Read Virginia Ferrer’s previous articles by visiting our website at www.asianjournalusa.com

by Virginia H. Ferrer

Para Ano PaIkaw ang tunay na dahilan nitong lahat sa akinna siyang nagbibigay liwanag sa gitna ng dilimwala akong pagkatakot kahit mag-isa kong dalhinang problemang pinapasan basta’r ikaw ng kapiling.

Sa tabing dagat nuong ako’y nakaapak ng lumotnapasigaw ako ng malakas dahilan sa takotmadaling napawi ang lahat pati galit at yamotdahil sa kung kasama kita ay malayo ang lungkot.

Sa unang pagsilay pa lamang ng silahis ng arawat hanggang sa gabi ng ating tahimik na paghimlayisa-isa kong pinaglalaro sa aking isipanang walang nang kasingtamis pa nating paglalambingan.

At kahit saan lugar pa man tayo ay naroroonsa tahanan man, sa bukid o sa itaas ng burolbawat halakhak natin pag-ibig ang siyang katugonhahanap-hanapin ko ‘to hanggang dulo ng panahon.

Ang iyong iyak,lungkot at pati na ang iyong tawaang siyang nagdudugtong ng buhay sa aking hiningakung ikaw ay wala na ano pa kaya ang halagapara ako ay mabuhay sa mundo ng nag-iisa.

©2010 Virginia H. Ferrer. All rights reserved.

About the Author: Virginia H. Ferrer is a Filipino Language Teacher at Otay Ranch High School in Chula Vista.

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Joke of the week: One night, a police officer was stalking out a particularly rowdy bar for possible viola-tions of the driving under the influence laws. At closing time, he saw a fellow stumble out of the bar, trip on the curb, and try his keys on five differ-ent cars before he found his. Then, he sat in the front seat fumbling around with his keys for several minutes. Every-one left the bar and drove off. Finally, he started his engine and began to pull away.

The police officer was waiting for him. He stopped the driver, read him his rights and administered the Breathalyzer test. The results showed a reading of 0.0. The puzzled officer demanded to know how that could be. The driver replied, “Tonight, I’m the ‘Designated Decoy.’ “

Readings: First Reading: Lv. 19:1-2, 17-18: Kedoshim, is the how-to-handbook for the religious concepts of “imitation Dei” (imitation of God) and predicate theology. It teaches that we mere human beings are holy because God is holy, and that we find our holiness through performing godly acts. But the godly acts described in Kedoshim aren’t superhuman. Holiness con-sists also of ordinary everyday godly acts, such as taking care of our families or looking after the rights of the poor and strangers Second Reading: 1 Cor. 3:16-23: The church ought to be kept pure. From

Feb. 20, 2011: 7th Sunday.

Who is my neighbor?other parts of the epistle, it appears that the false teach-ers among the Corinthians taught unholy doctrines. Such teaching tended to corrupt, to pollute, and destroy the build-ing, which should be kept pure and holy for God. Those who spread loose principles, which render the church of God unholy, bring destruc-tion upon themselves. Christ

by his Spirit dwells in all true believers. Christians are holy by profession, and should be pure and clean, both in heart and conversation. He is de-ceived who deems himself the temple of the Holy Ghost, yet is unconcerned about personal holiness, or the peace and purity of the church. Gospel: Mt 5:38-48: By attaching the Old Testament scriptures to the Q sayings, Matthew strategically constructed an argument whereby Jesus’ words produce New Torah. In the process, Matthew built a contrast between the limita-tions of the old law -- which only regulated one’s outer actions -- and the new law -- which holds one accountable for his thoughts and demands a higher standard of morality. According to Matthew, Jesus has now put more constraints on one’s heart and mind than

the law put on one’s behav-ior (from socio-rhetorical interpretation of Matthew). Matthew summarizes parts of the Old Torah from Leviticus and Psalms. The narrator in Psalm 139 hated those who did wrong, and as a result he counted them as his enemies. However, Matthew trans-forms this idea by stating that the Old Testament allowed people to hate their enemies. The God of the Old Testa-ment authorized the Jews to hate and kill their enemies who were deemed as utterly wicked. Matthew’s version re-states this and said that Jesus is making a new standard of morality.

Reflections: The Jew-ish teachers by understood “neighbor” only those who were of their own family, community, country, nation, and religion, whom they were pleased to look upon as their

friends.The Lord

Jesus teaches that we must

do all the real kind-ness we can to all, es-pecially to their souls. We must pray for

them. While many will render

good for good, we must ren-

der good for evil; and this will speak a nobler principle than most men act by. Others salute their brethren, and embrace those of their own party, and way, and opinion, but we must not so confine our respect. It is the duty of Christians to de-sire, and aim at, and press to-wards perfection in grace and holiness. And therein we must study to conform ourselves to the example of our heav-enly Father (1 Peter 1:15,16). Surely more is to be expected from the followers of Christ than from others; surely more will be found in them than in others. Let us beg of God to enable us to prove ourselves his children.

William Barclay wrote: “Never angry at the wrong time, who has every instinct, and impulse, and passion un-der control because he himself is God- of the bliss of the man who is always angry at the right time and controlled, who has the humility to realize his own ignorance and his own weakness, for such a man is a king among men!” (The Gospel of Matthew The New Daily Study Bible Westmin-ster John Knox Press)

Quotation of the week: There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself : an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.

By Alan Holdren

The Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano news-paper anticipated the news from the soon-to-be released 2009 almanac prepared by the Vatican’s Central Office of Church Statistics.

The statistics reveal that there were 410,593 priests in the world in 2009 com-pared to 405,009 in 1999. The number of diocesan priests among these increased by over 10,000 while the number of those belonging to religious orders fell by nearly 5,000.

In North America, as well as Europe and Oceania, the

Number of priests growing worldwide, Vatican reports

numbers decreased for both diocesan and religious priests. Africa and Asia, however, brought up the overall figures with a more than 30 percent increase on both continents.

Europe still has nearly half of the world’s priests, but the “old continent” is gradually losing weight on the world stage.

More seminarians are studying for the priesthood from Africa and Asia and

fewer from Europe. But, there is also the issue of the number of deaths of priests in the dif-ferent areas.

In Europe, the average age of priests is higher than in Africa and Asia. The number of European priests is fall-ing as new ordinations do not surpass the numbers of those who die.

But in Asia and Africa the number of deaths was only one-third of the total new ordinations.

North and South America’s numbers combined show a positive trend over the de-cade since 1999, according to L’Osservatore Romano. In Oceania, the death-to-ordina-tion ratio was equal.

The Vatican’s publishing house prints the volume of Church statistics annually. It includes names and biog-raphies of major Catholic figures and offers a variety statistics on all those who work in apostolates and evan-gelization efforts the world over.

It also offer shorter term statistics. They report, for example, that between 2008 and 2009 the number of priests in the world increased by 809. According the Vatican newspaper, this is the highest jump since 1999 and a reason “to look to the future with renewed hope.”


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EntertainmentMovies to Watch

(Following are movies now showing or soon to be shown in San Diego.)

by Simeon G. Silverio Jr.

In this unique ghost story set on the beautiful Peruvian coastline, a mar-ried fisherman struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town’s rigid traditions. Miguel (Cristian Mercado), a handsome, young and beloved fisherman, and his beautiful bride, Mariela (Tatiana Astengo), are about to welcome their first child. But Miguel harbors a secret. He’s in love with Santiago (Manolo Cardona), a painter who is ostracized by the town because he’s both agnostic and gay. When Santiago drowns acciden-tally in the ocean’s strong undertow, he cannot pass peacefully to the other side. He returns after his death to ask Miguel to look for his body and bury it according to the rituals of the town. Miguel must choose between sentencing Santiago to eternal torment or doing right by him and, in turn, revealing their relationship to Mariela—and the entire village. Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award (Drama) at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Written and directed by Javier Fuentes-León. (Fully subtitled) www.undertowfilm.com

This film is Not Rated by the MPAA. Running time 100 minutes.

Based on Mordecai Richler's prize-winning comic novel—his last and, arguably, best—Barney's Version is the warm, wise, and witty story of Bar-ney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti), a seemingly ordinary man who lives an ex-traordinary life. A candid confessional, told from Barney's point of view, the film spans four decades and two continents, taking us through the different "acts" of his unusual history. There is his first wife, Clara (Rachelle Lefevre), a flame-haired, flagrantly unfaithful free sprit with whom Barney briefly lives la vie de Boheme in Rome. The "Second Mrs. P.," (Minnie Driver), is a wealthy Jewish Princess who shops and talks incessantly, barely noticing that Barney is not listening. And it is at their lavish wedding that Barney meets, and starts pursuing, Miriam (Rosamund Pike), his third wife, the mother of his two children, and his true love. With his father Izzy (Dustin Hoffman) as his sidekick, Barney takes us through the many highs, and a few too many lows, of his long and colorful life. Not only does Barney turn out to be a true romantic, he is also capable of all kinds of sneaky acts of gallantry, generos-ity, and goodness when we—and he—least expect it. www.sonyclassics.com/barneysversion/

This film is Rated R by the MPAA. Running time 132 minutes.

Landmark’s Hillcrest Cinemas3965 Fifth Avenue, Suite 200 – (619) 819-0236

Even if he failed to win in Holland’s Got Talent, a Dutch-Pinoy is the new rising star in Holland.

Kim Regasa has been dubbed by the media as the “mini Michael Jackson” of Holland.

Making it among the 9 finalists from the 4,000 who auditioned in the British reality talent-search franchise owned by Simon Cowell, Regasa eas-ily became a crowd favorite.

At the audition, the very popular Dutch judge named Gordon praised Regasa and suggested he sounded like the young Michael Jackson.

So, Regasa’s mother imme-diately changed his repertoire and searched for Jackson Five songs.

Come semi-finals, when he sang “Who’s Loving You” by the Jackson Five, the crowd and the 3 judges stood up and gave Regasa the longest stand-ing ovation on the show.

The following day, Regasa was all over the news, and the media aptly dubbed him as the “mini Michael Jackson” of Holland.

But Regasa did not bag the title in the finals as tenor Martin Hurkens received the most text votes, winning the top prize in Holland’s Got Tal-ent 2010.

Because he’s still very young, failure did not wreck Regasa’s night and the days ahead.

According to him, singing was just like playing. It’s, in fact, a hobby and a past-time

Pinoy kid is Holland’s rising singing star

Kim Regasa [ABS-CBN]

that he spends with his Filipina mother Mabel.

It’s no wonder then that from all the contestants in Hol-land’ Got Talent, Regasa had been praised for his good poise and steady calm on stage.

American judge Dan Karaty found him as a real star mate-rial and a born entertainer.

Even if he did not win, Re-gasa is very happy with what he has achieved, and also be-cause he was able to showcase his Pinoy talent to the Dutch viewers.

“Talagang ano masaya talaga ako tapos yung family ko sa Pilipinas nanood sila sa YouTube, maganda talaga,” Regasa said.

Regasa said he was not dis-appointed for losing after such a promising start and smooth sailing to the finals.

“Hindi po, never mind lang po,” Regasa said.

Regasa was better known as a Dutch-Filipino contestant because he always mentions that he was born in the Philip-pines.

“He’s born there so he can be proud of where he comes from, that’s why I always tell him and my daughter also. Don’t forget where you came from. Even if we live in Hol-land, you’re still a Pinoy,” Regasa’s father Carlo de Blank said.

Regasa’s sentimental at-tachment to the Philippines could have been the result of his closeness with Mabel, who taught him how to sing.

Mabel, who hails from Lucena, Quezon, was also a singer, and it was during her singing stint in Singapore that she met Carlo.

Mabel says that in her youth, she was an “amateur.” She used to join all amateur singing contests just so she can earn money to help feed her poor family.

“Kinakailangan mong kumanta para may maitulong ka sa pamilya. May time pa nga ang amateur nasa bundok, sasakay ka pa sa paragos para marating mo yung singing contest na yun. Yun ang buhay ng amateurista na natutuwa na-man ako na hindi naransan ni Kim,” Mabel said.

Regasa’s education is still the family’s priority, which is why Carlo and Mabel have put a strict limit as to the bookings of their son which have now started to pour in.

Many fans of Regasa have posted video clips of his per-formances at Holland’s Got Talent on YouTube.

Is this a sign that it will be possible for Regasa to trek the same road travelled by the now famous Charice?

(Story courtesy of Loui Galicia, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau)

The Philippines singing sensa-tion Charice is on the road to becom-ing an Asian superstar in the United States.

This is what legendary song-writer and producer David Foster believes.

In an article published by the Associated Press, Foster was quoted as saying, “being a great singer is not enough, and she has the entire package”.

Foster, Charice’s mentor, likened her to the late King of Pop Michael Jackson.

“She’s a little bit like Michael Jackson in the head…Michael Jack-son was very soft-spoken and quiet and all that, but he was genius inside his head. He knew exactly where he was going, and she truly is the master of her own destiny,” Foster said in the article.

On May 11, Charice appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for the 4th time–this time to launch her debut self-titled album.

Charice’s first global single “Pyramid,” is reportedly No. 2 on the dance charts.

Foster told AP that he is aware of the challenge to make a hit and that Charice has a lot to add to the scene.

Likewise, Charice is also pre-pared to hurdle challenges to capture the US audience.

“It’s really, really hard … there’s a lot of great pop stars here. … They’re all talented,” she said.

“I don’t know if Americans are going to love me because I’m from another country,” Charice said to AP.

David Foster: Charice next big

Asian star in America


The new buzz in capitol hills today is the existing conflict about the acquisi-tion of more full-body airport scanners which according to studies are health hazard for American consumers. Crit-ics charged that this is about more bucks than bombs. The controversy already started right after the Christmas terrorist attempt failed on a certain flight from Amsterdam to Detroit in 2009.

The federal government through the recommendation of Homeland Security decided to buy and use more full-body scanners for airports to pre-vent similar terrorist attacks.

Before the Christmas bomb attempt, just 40 full-body scanners were in use at 19 U.S. airports. The scare, cou-pled with hundreds of millions of dollars in unappropriated American Recovery and Re-investment Act Funds, created a windfall for well connected scanner makers. With little technical evidence thst such scanners would have detected the terrorist bomb, the govern-ment inked a sizable million dollar deal with its makers. To date, there are now about 345 of the full-body scanners that have been deployed in 70 U.S. airports. As planned, roughly about 1,000 of the controversial machines will be in use nationwide by the end of 2011.

A prominent Medical group of experts warns that

Health hazard vs. airport security

the government is not coming clean on the health dangers of airport body scans. Accord-ing to this group, most of the energy from the airport scan-ners is concentrated near the surface of the skin, That puts some very radiation sensitive tissues such as the testes, eyes and circulating blood cells in the skin in harm’s way.

The report also indicated the radiation like that emitted by full-body backscatter X-ray scanners increases cancer risk by damaging the DNA. The medical report concluded that as we grow older, our DNA accumulates a consider-able amount of un-repaired damage, and under such circumstances even low doses of radiation can trigger the development of skin cancers, including deadly melanoma and the scans may also in-crease the risk of developing cataracts.

According to critics, the same controversial full-body scanners are not deployed as widely overseas, they are being scaled back in some places. After testing, Italy decided to drop the use of these scanners in airports calling them slow and inef-fective. Hope congressmen and senators would be reason-able enough in dealing this controversy in favor of their constituents and not just for a few of their members business interests.

by Michael H. Brown, Spirit Daily

Who are you? What is the real “you”? Has the real “you” been distorted by worldliness and other people (friends and foes alike)? If so your soul needs to be healed (ask Our Lady of Lourdes).

These are important ques-tions if we want to fulfill our missions from the Lord -- and if we want to feel comfortable (peace) in our own skins.

They are also crucial questions because when we die, we step into who we really are. It’s a theme we need to repeat.

For who we really are can be ob-scured by working in the wrong place, living in the wrong place, being around the wrong people. It is caused by “wrong thinking.” It is caused by straying from our missions.

Upon death, we will see things in their entirety. There will be a perspective with aspects that will surprise us. If we purify here on earth -- and empty ourselves -- we will not be so surprised! (“If anyone wants to be a follower of Me, let him renounce Himself,” Luke 9:13.)

Indeed, the clearest Face of God is seen as Jesus on the Cross that’s because He had completely emptied Himselfof “self” and filled Himself with the Father. Do we seek to do likewise? We can only exude holiness if we are filled with it.

When we cast out pride, we don cleanliness. The robe we wear into eternity is without blemish -- white. The

Don’t let others define you nor the ‘world’ obscure perception of who you really are

surprises we encounter are good ones.

We have returned to the person God made us to be. When we find ourselves we find our missions. God gives us certainty in identity while the devil whispers “who?”.

This life is a constant battle with worldliness and the fa-cade of wealth, which sepa-rate us from our true inner being. Our challenge: to erase everything in our spirits that is of the standards of the world;

only then will we find “who we really are.”

Seek not the heights of the world but the depths of the spirit (which is the height of the soul). The peak of worldli-ness is celebrity and it is like a hot-air balloon -- promi-nent and high in the eyes of the earth but filled with no substance and easily pricked, leaving no trace when it is gone.

This is ego and it sur-rounds us in such a way that it obscures the real us.

You are meant to be the best you can be and should not let the world or others define who “you” are. Who you really are is between you and God. He sees you as naked despite what you adorn yourself with. He always knows where to find you. He

“knitted” you in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5).

The real you is the most joyful you have ever been, the “you” at the peak of work and love and fun, the “you” that you felt when you loved the most, cared the most, were the most balanced, gave the most -- straight from the heart.

The real you is when you held the greatest hope, were most confident (but without ego), when you felt at your prime (which is how you will

manifest in Heaven). It’s the “you” when you had the most self-control, when you felt youthful and yet mature, when you were at the holiest point in your life.

Or do we define ourselves by material objects?

Remember that you stray from your true being when you fill yourself with the agenda of the world because then there is no room

for God. You must not cling to past hurts, which is hiding in your wounds instead of those of Jesus (“by His wounds we are healed,” Isaiah 53:45). Forgive, forgive, and forgive; it will bring you to love and humility!

We must stop seeing our-selves with the eyes of others; we must love while not allow-ing others to intrude inside our boundaries; we must sometimes keep a healthy distance if others try to con-trol us (“Then He withdrew from them and knelt down and prayed,” Matthew 26:36). The Lord will whisper you back to your soul. Cling not to humans but only to Him. Pray for balance. Pray for joy -- in any circumstance.

Who are you? What are you? What is your mission?

When does your conscience warn that you have strayed?

They are deep good ques-tions at a time of grace when we have the opportunity to wash our spirits and prepare for the day that will come for all of us when we are released from this structure called a body and must strive at that point for a return to the purity of the moment we were born.

Feb 26 Retreat with Mi-chael H. Brown

We are excited to schedule a retreat in New Mexico in the wake of recent speculation on its powerful spirituality. The retreat will be held by author Michael H. Brown from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 26, at the Marriott Hotel at 5151 San Francisco Road NE in Albuquerque. A major theme: spiritual protec-tion -- and progress toward Heaven -- at a time of great gathering clouds of darkness. What are our priorities in life? What can we look for here -- and hereafter? Why is it that despite events around us, we can remain serene and joy-ful? What is in the “prophetic pulse”? What is happening (and will happen) to our world and region and Church? But at this time, we will also be looking especially closely at prophecy -- not only because of what is occurring in society but because of a recent al-leged prophecy we have stud-ied that in fact mentions New Mexico as a “beacon of light” in the coming times. What’s meant by “beacon”? Does New Mexico have special holy spots that will play a role in future spiritual consolation (such as Chimayó near the Sangre de Cristo mountains or St. Joseph’s staircase in Santa Fe)? Michael Brown plans to visit these places.

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LifestyleRead J’Son’s previous articles by visiting our website at www.

asianjournalusa.com

by Joe Son


Laughing MatterRead previous articles by visiting our website at www.asian-

journalusa.com

Nagsimula na last Saturday ang bagong lunchshow ng ABS-CBN na “Happy Yipee Yehey” kapalit ng show nina Rico J. Puno and co.Itoy pinangungunahan ng mag-best friend na sina John Estrada at Randy Santiago, kasama sina Tony Gonzaga, Mariel Rodri-guez, John Prats,Melai Can-tiveros at marami pang iba.

Sa unang araw pa lang ng pagpapalabas nito Feb. 12, mahina agad ito sa rating ayon sa AGB Nielsen Mega Manila People rating.Paano naman ang kalaban nilang” Eat Bu-laga” ay nakakuha ng 12%, samantalang ang show nina John Estrada ay 5.1% malayo sa nangunguna,At ang “Ba-baeng Hampaslupa(replay) ng TV5 ay 3.2%.

Lalo pang humina ang rating nito nung last Monday Feb. 14 sa ikalawa nilang pagpapalabas, nakakuha lang ito ng 3.8% samantalang ang “Eat Bulaga” ay 10.8%.Ganon pa rin,malayo pa rin ang agwat nito sa pambato ng GMA 7.

Kahit din sa TFC, hindi rin nakuha ng dating schedule ng “Wowowee” ang nasabing bagong show,dahil sa hapon na sila pinalalabas pagkatapos ng “Showtime” at kahit rin sa gabi halos matutulog na ang mga tao rito sa America bago mapanood ang naturang show.

Bago pa man magsimula ang show,hinulaan na ito ni Willie Revillame na hindi magtatagal ang “Happy Yepee…” at matatanggal din ito, at mukhang magkakatotoo ang tinuran ng host ng “Will-ing-Willie”.

Actually,maraming um-abang sa unang pagsahog nito last Saturday at siempre hindi rin pahuhuli ang mga samahan namin mga showbiz reporters na ka-Facebook din naming.Iisa ang mga comments nila, hindi raw maganda ang show at napaka-boring.

Ofkors hindi rin pa-huhuli ang inyong showbiz watcher, inabangan namin ito sa TFC, bandang umaga ito naipapalabas dito 5am.Ganon din ang naging reac-tion ko,nangangapa ang show at gustong magpakwela pero hindi naman nakakatawa.Walang karisma sina Randy

Bagong show nina Randy at John,

mahina sa rating!!! John Estrada and Randy Santiago

at John,mas maganda pa nga raw yung dating show na pinangungunahan nina Rico Puno,Rey Valera,Nonoy Zu-niga at Marco Sison.

Pero teka may napuna kami,si John Estrada mahilig din magparinig sabi pa naman nito “ABS-CBN ito kaya lahat ng gamit dito ay automatic”, parinig ni John.Ibig bang sabi-hin John, sa TV5 na dating may show ka roon ay hindi hi-tech ang gamit nila roon.Intriga yan.

Kahit ang mga pinoy dito sa Amerika, tinanong din naming ang opinion nila kung nagustuhan nila ang naturang show.Iisa rin ang sabi nila, walang kwenta ang show at magulo raw panoorin.

Sayang daw sana na lang si Robin Padilla na lang ang pi-nalit nila, dahil may puso raw ito kapag na-sho-show,nasira lang nang pumasok sa eksena si Kris Aquino at nagmukha lang itong alalay sa “Win na Win”.

Kaya ngayon, taranta pa rin ang channel 2 dahil wala sil-ang maipalit sa “Wowowee” na siyang tumatalo sa “Eat Bulaga”.Talagang ganon nasa huli ang pagsisi.

POKWANG MASAMA ANG LOOB SA CHANNEL 2 !Hindi kasali si Pokwang sa bagong pangtanghaling show ng ABS-CBN , instead si Me-lai Cantiveros ang nandun.

How true na nagsisigaw daw ito sa Star Magic dahil sa mga pangyayari?Ayon nga sa mga kritiko ni Pokwang na-karma raw ito dahil kaya iisa na lang show nito na “Banana Split”.Dati kasi pinagmamala-ki ng kampo ni Pokwang kaya raw malakas ang “Wowowee” kahit on leave si Willie Revil-lame e dahil daw sa kanya.Siya raw ang pambato ng show noon kaya maintain ang kanilang mataas na TV rating.

Ganon talaga ang bu-hay Pokwang, huwag kang masyadong bilib sa sarili mo at huwag mong aangkinin kung hindi kredito sa ‘yo. Kawawang Pokwang tambay na lang sa bahay at pati mga concert niya, na-stop na ang lahat.

SHARON CUNETA MAY

BAGONG KAAWAY NA NAMAN ! After Kristine Reyes, si Hayden kho na na-man ang nakalasap ng mga matutulis na pananalita ng Megastar.

Nagtataka na nga ang marami at masyado na pala-away na si Sharon ngayon , hindi tulad noon na mababa ang loob at kahit intrigahin e maganda pa rin ang mga sinasabi nito.

Kaya nga todo tanggi si Hayden na siya ang pinarir-inggan sa twitter nito kesyo yung ads foster niya na pu-mayat na raw si Mega ay isang malaking panloloko sa tao.

Kaya nga si Vicky Bello ay pinagtanggol si hayden na wala namang pangalan na binabanggit ang kanyang boyfriend sa twit nito, at hindi Sharon Cuneta ang pinariring-gan nito.

Samantang si Hayden, pilit pa rin ayaw mag-sorry kay Mega kahit nagalit sa kanya ito,dahil wala naman siyang kasalanan na nagawa .

Paano ba naman may malaking ads na nakikita sa mga pangunahing kalsada sa Metro Manila picture na sobrang sexy na ngayon ni Sharon, pero pagnakita mo siya sa Tv, hindi naman ganon ang hitsura niya.Pumayat si Mega, pero mataba pa rin at doon nagsimula ang galit ni Mega kay Hayden.

PAQUITO DIAZ NASA MALUBHANG KA-LAGAYAN !!!Nang makita namin si Paquito Diaz halos hindi na naming siya makilala, may sakit kasi ngayon , kanser daw ayon sa balita.

Sanhi raw ng paninigarilyo nung kalakasan niya, tumanda na nga ng husto ang hitsura niya at hirap na rin magsalita.Halos maubos daw ang kinita nito dahil pagpapagamot niya sa kasalukuyan ayon sa asawa kaya naman humihingi ito ng tulong financial sa mga nag-ing kasamahan niya noon sa showbiz.

Nasa sa isang probinsiya ngayon si Paquito, sa Bicol yata. Sana naman matulungan

naman ito ng mga taga-show-biz dahil napakalaki rin ang naging kontrubysyon nito sa Pelikulang Pilipino.

MO TWISTER SINIRA ANG POLITICAL CAREER NI ARA! Mataray talaga itong si Mo Twister, may nagsabi kasi sa kanya na siya ang sumira sa political career ni Ara, ang sagot ba naman nito dapat mag-thank you ka sa mga nangyari.

Paano ba naman yung video interview niya noon kay Ara e kumalat sa i internet lalo na sa facebook kung saan makikita mo roon ang kahi-naan ni Ara sa mga tanong about sa pulitika.Nakakahiya talaga ang mga naging sagot ni Ara noon kaya hindi siya nanalo pero hindi nagsisi si Mo sa kanyang nagawa, pasalamat pa nga daw tayo.

May katwiran si Mo twister.

total business process out-sourcing sector, expects a 15 percent to 20 percent growth across the board in 2011.

Hernandez said the Philip-pine call center industry is still dominated by clients in the United States and North America while accounts from the United Kingdom, Aus-tralia and New Zealand are picking up.

Outsourcing jobs from do-mestic companies, especially those in the financial and tele-com sectors, are also growing and are seen to account for 10 percent of the total call center workforce in the Philippines. Local clients comprise less than 5 percent of the total call center industry.

Pinoy Call Centers to hire 70,000 agents in 2011


Ang buhay ay parang bato.... it is HARD!!

***

Aanhin ko ang napaka-laking bahay, mamahaling sasakyan,milyun-milyong kayamanan, at masasarap na pagkain kung ang kapit-bahay ko ang may-ari ng mga iyun?!

***

SA MAY KANTO.

LASING: Miss ang panget mo!

BABAE: Kapal ng mukha mo! Ikaw naman LA-SENGGO!

LASING: Haler? Bukas di na ako lasing, ikaw bukas panget pa rin!

Wahahahahaha. ....

***

ANAK: Dad I’m fifteen na, pwede na ba ako mag BRA?

DAD: Di pwede!ANAK: But dad, all my

friends wear bra na..DAD: Tigilan mo ako

RENATO!!! Baka pisain ko itlog mo!!

***

HUSBAND: Pagkamatay ko ipamamana ko sayo 50 hectares ng lupa’t bahay at 350 million sa bank. Ano pa mahihiling mo?

WIFE: Gusto ko ma-matay ka na. Ngayon na!

***

NENE: Inay, pinatambling ako kanina sa school!

INAY: Gaga! Gusto lang nila makita panty mo!

NENE: Alam ko! Kaya nga tinago ko sa bag yung panty ko eh!!..

***

ANAK: Itay, ano sa Eng-lish ang utot?

AMA: Wind of change.ANAK: Eh yung utot na

walang tunog?AMA: Sound of Silence.ANAK: Yung utot na may

dalang ebak?

Quote for the Day..AMA: Dust in the wind.ANAK: Eh, yung di sina-

sadyang utot?AMA: Careless whisper!

****

Misis: Darling, ano ang tawag sa isang asawa na sexy, maganda, hindi selosa, ma-pagmahal, masipag, mapagka-linga, masarap magluto?

Mister: Guni-guni!

***

TANONG: Paano mo sasabihin sa isang babae na mataba siya nang hindi siya mababastos?

SAGOT: “Uhm, excuse me, miss...Mang Tomas ba ang lotion mo?”

***

Husband: Kung di ako makaligtas sa operasyon ko bukas, ikaw na sana ang ba-hala sa lahat-lahat. .. I LOVE YOU!

Wife: Tumigil ka! wala pang namamatay sa TULI!

***

Juan: San ka galing?Pedro: Sementeryo, libing

ng byenan ko.Juan: E bakit puro kamot

ang mukha at braso mo?Pedro: Mahirap ilibing eh...

Lumalaban!!

***

Bigo ka ba sa luv? eto ang mga BEST partners :

Kuba: MapagkumbabaPilay: Hindi ka tatakbuhanBulag: walang paki sa

looks moPipi: Hindi nagbibitiw ng

bad wordsDuling: Hindi ka ha-

hayaang mag-isa!

***

Guro: Sino si Jose Rizal?Juan: Di ko po kilala.Guro: Ikaw Pepe?Pepe: Di ko rin po kilala...Guro: Di nyo kilala si Jose

Rizal?Pedro: Ma’m, baka po sa

kabilang section sya!

Showbiz Watcher

Read Ogie Cruz’s previous articles by visiting our website at www.asianjournalusa.com

by Ogie Cruz


Housing and Real Estate

SACRAMENTO – The California Housing Finance Agency today announced the full implementation of four programs to fight the ongoing foreclosure crisis in Califor-nia, with the primary goal to help families remain in their homes.

The programs, under the umbrella title of Keep Your Home California, are feder-ally funded as part of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Hard-est Hit fund, and are aimed at helping low and moderate in-come homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages amid the worst real estate crisis in decades.

“Our goal is to get the very most out of these federal dollars to assist California families,” said Steven Spears, Executive Director of CalH-FA. “With families struggling through a number of financial hardships and the disruption in the real estate market, these programs will help those in need while stabilizing neigh-borhoods and communities severely impacted by foreclo-sures.”

California received a total of nearly $2 billion through the Hardest Hit fund. After consulting with community leaders throughout the state, four programs were created to assist California families.

Mr. Spears said that all four programs are intended to help avoid foreclosure: three offer several forms of mort-gage assistance, as well as a separate program that will

CalHFA Announces Full Implementation of $2 Billion Effort to Assist Homeowners

Struggling to Remain in Homesprovide transition assistance to borrowers who execute a short sale or deed in lieu trans-action.

All of the programs are de-signed specifically for low or moderate income homeowners who are either unemployed or are facing another financial hardship, have fallen behind on their mortgages and owe significantly more than the value of their homes.

“In partnership with the federal government, Keep Your Home California is one more step we are taking to help low and moderate income California families who are struggling to remain in their homes,” said Assemblymem-ber Norma Torres, Chair of Assembly Committee on Housing and Community De-velopment. “No one program will solve the foreclosure crisis affecting our state, but together we hope to make a difference for as many fami-lies as possible.”

“The foreclosure crisis continues to hinder our po-tential for economic recovery, and strips stability from our communities,” said Assem-blymember Mike Eng, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Banking and Finance. “I’m pleased that the Keep Home California program is ramping up to address these challenges and, as the program moves forward, I will continue to monitor its progress to ensure that it’s an all around success at assisting California borrow-ers.”

Specifically, the Keep Your Home California pro-grams provide:

Mortgage assistance of up to $3,000 per month for unemployed homeowners who are in imminent danger of de-faulting on their home loans.

Funds to help homeown-ers who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments due to a temporary change in a household circumstance. The program will provide up to $15,000 per household to reinstate mortgages to prevent foreclosures.

Money to reduce the principal owed on a mortgage for a home where the low or moderate income homeowner is facing a serious financial hardship and owes signifi-cantly more than the home is worth. The program requires lenders to match any assis-tance provided by the Keep Your Home California pro-gram.

A full description of the programs can be found at www.KeepYourHomeCalifor-nia.org

How to Apply:

The programs will be limited to homeowners who meet a number of criteria, including owning and occupy-ing the home as their primary residence, meeting income limits and facing a financial hardship. Homeowners who consummated a “cash-out” refinance are not eligible for Keep Your Home California

programs.To apply for the assistance,

a homeowner should contact the Keep Your Home Cali-fornia call center toll-free at 888.954.KEEP(5337) or their mortgage servicer – the com-pany to which the borrower sends monthly mortgage pay-ments. Each of the mortgage assistance programs requires the participation of the mort-gage servicer.

As of February 9, the fol-lowing servicers are partici-pating in all four Keep Your Home California programs:

GMACGuild Mortgage• California Housing • Finance AgencyCalifornia Department • of Veterans Affairs

Other servicers, including

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, CitiMortgage and Wells Fargo are currently participating in some, but not all programs at this time. The list of participating servicers is expected to expand in the coming weeks.

Full details regarding servicer participation can be found at www.KeepY-ourHomeCalifornia.org.

“The problems of unem-ployment and the unprec-edented disruption in our real estate markets have impacted so many families,” Mr. Spears said. “These programs are de-signed to move homeowners who have been told ‘no’ into the ‘yes’ category and qualify them for a mortgage they can afford over the long term.”

Borrowers with ques-tions about the program may call Keep Your Home Cali-fornia toll-free at 888-954-KEEP(5337).

March 2011Call (619) 746 - 3416

Fast Facts California Association of

Realtors, 2/17/2011 -- Calif. median home price: Janu-ary 2011: $278,900 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. highest median home price by region/county January 2011: Marin $657,890 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. lowest median home price by region/coun-ty January 2011: Merced $100,620 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index - Fourth quarter 2010: 69 percent (Source: C.A.R.)

Mortgage rates: Week ending 2/10/2011 30-yr. fixed: 5.05 Fees/points: 0.7% 15-yr. fixed: 4.29% Fees/points: 0.7% 1-yr. adjustable: 3.35% Fees/points: 0.6% ource: Freddie Mac)

California Association of Realtors, 2/17/2011 -- Despite the high number of foreclo-sures and underwater homes in the current housing market, 70 percent of Americans still view homeownership as being part of their American Dream, according to a survey by Trulia.com. Nearly 80 per-cent of respondents say their homes are the best investment they ever made. Conversely, only 20 percent feel trapped in their “underwater” homes, while 14 percent said they

Americans still view homeownership as part

of “American Dream”would walk away from their homes in a heartbeat if they could.

Although many of today’s young adults came of age during the decline of housing market, 26 percent say their views on owning a home have become more positive over the past six months. With 88 percent of 18-34 year old rent-ers aspiring to be homeown-ers, this new generation of buyers will likely play a cru-cial role in stabilizing today’s uncertain real estate market.

California Association of Real-tors, 2/17/2011 -- California home sales rose in January, marking three consecutive monthly increases and posting their highest level since May 2010, while the statewide me-dian price declined to its lowest level since June 2009, according to data C.A.R.

“With lower home prices and rates edging up from their historic lows of late last year, prospective home buyers should consider the oppor-tunities in today’s market,” said C.A.R. President Beth L. Peerce.

California home sales rose 5.1 percent in January compared with December, to a revised pace of 520,080 units. Sales also increased 2.5 percent in year-over-year com-parisons, marking the first year-over-year sales increase since May 2010. The statewide sales figure represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2011 if sales maintained the January pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.The statewide median price of an exist-ing, single-family detached home sold in California was $278,900,

California home sales rose, median price fell in Januarydown 8.6 percent from a revised $305,020 in December and was down 2.0 percent from the $284,600 median price recorded for January 2010. The January 2011 median price was the lowest since June 2009, when it was $274,640.


Theres The RubBy Conrado de Quiros

Philippine Daily Inquirer

JOVICH LIMPIADA said last Friday I may have done Juan Ponce Enrile and Joker Arroyo an injustice when I said in a column that they threatened the media with hellfire.

“What Enrile said was that if media people cannot abide by their own rules—the rules of engagement and code of ethics that journalists adhere to—then it is incumbent upon the State to act by crafting legislation that would make everyone, including media, conduct themselves in a fash-ion that would allow govern-ment to act swiftly and deci-sively in the face of similar crisis situations.

“As a lawyer, Enrile knows the Constitution and it would be the last thing on his mind to impose any prior restraint on media or allow any in-fringement on press freedom in the country…. What De Quiros did was to jump to conclusions on the basis of limited information.”

Not really.I don’t know how old

Limpiada is. I myself am old enough to remember that as a lawyer Enrile constructed the legal edifice of martial law that not only infringed on press freedom but scuttled it. As a lawyer he lent legal substance to the martial law proposition that the media had been remiss in their duty to apprise the world of the truth, being tremendously negativ-istic, which was thenceforth to be corrected by their being made to subscribe to “devel-opment journalism,” which would tell only good news. Most journalists lost their jobs that way. Many others lost their skills that way, from not being able to practice them for 14 years. Some others lost their lives that way, from insisting on telling the truth as they saw it from the hills or the underground.

So Limpiada will forgive me when, each time I hear Enrile proposing to help jour-nalists live up to their calling, I see only hellfire.

Just as well, Joker Arroyo has been one of the legisla-tors eager to pass a law that would compel media to print or air their defense every time they are panned by media. That is of course the right of reply bill, which has been op-posed by every self-respecting journalist, local or foreign, for being a bloody atrocity. Which it is. By crowding out legitimate news— there will be precious little space for it in newspapers and radio/TV with every Tom, Dick and Joker answering a slight, real or imagined—the right of re-ply effectively effects censor-ship. That is quite apart from the fact that it seizes editorial judgment from the editors and reposes it among illiterates, also called politicians. That is quite apart from the horror that it poses torments for read-ers and listeners, not unlike, well, hellfire.

So Limpiada will forgive me when, each time Joker proposes to teach journalists a lesson or two, I see only a joke.

That’s the reason I ve-hemently protest the IIRC’s inclusion of two media people among those it means to file administrative, if not indeed criminal, charges against. Or indeed any noise made by public officials, elected or not, to discipline media.

This is not to create some kind of “mistah” or compañe-ro, or fraternity system, such as soldiers and lawyers and

Hellfire

university students do, dedi-cated to taking care of one’s own or to circling wagons around beleaguered friends or colleagues. By all means ex-coriate reckless journalists, by all means recriminate against abusive journalists, by all means repudiate erring jour-nalists. Where the excoriation, recrimination and repudiation have merit, I’ll stand with you. But by no means intimi-date journalists, by no means debilitate journalists, by no means pass laws that attempt to make journalists toe the line. Even if the effort were not self-serving—and it’s hard to see how that can be so when it springs from dis-gruntled public officials—I’ll stand apart from you.

That is a cure far deadlier than the disease.

At the very least, it makes journalists out to be juveniles who have to be reined in every now and then by their parents. Look at how Limpia-da (rightly) casts Enrile’s (and Joker’s) stance: If journalists cannot discipline themselves, then it is incumbent upon them to do so. That’s the pic-ture of a parent telling his kid: “Feel free to live your life as you please, but if you wreck the car, I’ll strangle you.” Or whatever it is parents say to kids they have pampered or spoiled.

That’s a horrendously patronizing view of the press. The press is not called “the Fourth Estate” for nothing. In its modern sense at least, that title extends to the press the stature of being the “fourth branch of government,” after the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. It makes the press a virtual coequal branch of government, it makes the press a virtual independent branch of government. Con-gress may no more act to discipline erring journalists than it may act to discipline erring judges.

At the very most it re-poses upon public officials the capacity to discern when and how the press has gone wayward. That is a chilling thought, which brings me back to Enrile’s and Joker’s capacity for discernment as shown by “development jour-nalism” and “right of reply.”

I grant journalists can be violently reckless, smugly corrupt and damnably abu-sive. By all means damn them. But leave the sanctions to the press itself. It does not lack for fair and decent-mind-ed officials who, far more than Congress and the public, are outraged by the stupidities their rogue members do. It does not lack for officials who take pride in their work who, far more than Congress or the public, are anxious to weed their ranks of members who take the pride off their pro-fession. I know this solution sucks, but so does democ-racy: It’s a horrible system, as Churchill puts it, except that everything else is worse. Leaving the sanctions to the politicians is worse. It isn’t the purging fires of retribu-tion.

It is hellfire.

Juan Ponce Enrile

GLIMPSESby Jose Ma. Montelibano

In the presidency of Corazon C. Aquino, several of her appoint-ments immediately became ob-jects of controversy. The military saw a few Cabinet Secretaries as left-leaning or actually Leftists. One was rumored to be corrupt early on, and another reckless or negligent in appointing O-I-Cs (Officer-In-Charge) in local gov-ernment positions. None, how-ever, in my recall, were terminated in the first 100 days, but almost all of the most controversial were changed.

In a presidency that I view as destined within his mother’s presidency and his father’s death before that, the term of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III can-not be normal. It can be great or it can be a disaster, but it cannot be normal. It is simply because his presidency is intimately con-nected to an unfinished drama, a people’s and nation’s angst played out through Ninoy, Cory, and now, Noynoy.

The hostage-taking fiasco cannot be simply swept aside without hard lessons learned. My own opinion of the situation as it reached the investigations by the Justice Department and the Congress was that it was ironic and farcical. In a mid-September article, I already mentioned that inefficiency cannot be criminal-ized. If it can, there are more who commit their own efficiencies with greater harm to our people and government than the bungled hostage rescue. If we have the performance of the Justice Depart-ment and Congress investigated, among others, with as much detailed focus as what the unfortu-nate accused in the hostage-taking endured, we may not forgive ourselves for the collapse of many public institutions as a result.

Making criminals out of ill-trained, ill-equipped policemen would be quite unfair if we do not make first criminals of those who made them so in the first place. Meritocracy would be such a noble system if it can be univer-sally applied to all who serve the public interest first and foremost. Even media must stop claiming public interest if it’s pursuit of the truth is less important that it’s pur-suit of profit. We cannot judge our public officials only by incidence; instead, we should judge them for every official act – every one of them.

It brings to mind the accusa-tory statements of the more guilty towards the less guilty. Mikey Arroyo was commenting about P-Noy’s decision on who to absolve in the jueteng scandal brought about by claims without evidence and from information supplied by personalities with dubious characters. If we go by claims, Mikey Arroyo himself has been rumored with great consistency to be one of the worst thieves among government officials. Fortunately for him, and his illustrious or infamous parent, they have to be proven guilty of suspected plunder before they are hanged.

I question why Archbishop Cruz has not just as consistently accused Gloria, Mike and Mikey Arroyo of being the protectors, and first beneficiaries of jueteng. After all, since he listens to rumors and accepts them without facts, he should have kept pound-ing away at the most consistent rumors of them all – that Gloria, Mike and Mikey Arroyo were getting hundreds of millions every month. Instead, Archbishop Cruz betrayed his gullibility by ascribing Usec Puno as the high-est public official receiving P8 million monthly. In effect, he was accusing Puno of stupidity, not corruption.

In the minds, and tongues, of the majority of the Filipino people, the unpopularity of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo stems from their judgment that she is corrupt and that she has led the Philip-pines to cement further it’s rating as the most corrupt country in the region. The people’s suspicion and negative judgment of Gloria finds affirmation in the judgment of international anti-corruption agencies with more credibility and professionalism in monitoring and measuring corruption. Yet, Gloria, Mike and Mikey Arroyo remain free instead of being behind bars because they have to be proven guilty in a court of law, not in a

Orchestrate A Lierumor mill.

If the nine years of a suspected plunderer have not established a systematic organization of mini-plunderers, then the Filipino people have gravely misjudged the Arroyo presidency – and the more infamous members of the Arroyo family. But If the Filipino people have basis for disapproving and not liking the Arroyo presidency year after year, then it is only logi-cal that the whole government bu-reaucracy, including the Philippine Congress, have aided and abetted the perpetuation of a plundering president. In 100 days, no new president can dismantle a corrupt bureaucracy and Congress.

On the other hand, a cabal of thieves would find it easy to sabo-tage those who threaten it’s greedy interests. Between the continua-tion of a dirty system earning for it’s main protectors and beneficia-ries billions very year is P-Noy and his elected few. They are the daily targets of that dirty system with billions to spend for their purposes. And they would like the Filipino people to believe that jueteng rises and falls because of an undersecretary, or for P-Noy to himself protect the lord of jueteng lords under his presidency?

I do not know if Rico Puno is guilty or not, but I do know when the Filipino people are being taken for a ride. I also know that an honest man like President Noy will not knowingly protect a guilty subordinate even If that subor-dinate is a friend. It is easier to believe that a dirty system led by a cabal of plunderers will orches-trate a lie that for an honest man to protect a liar. For, indeed, it is not about an undersecretary but about the president himself.

I join 71% of my people who approve, and trust, P-Noy. I do not join the 11% who do not ap-prove. In the hearts of the people is a collective intelligence that I believe in, as I believed it year after year when it disapproved, and distrusted, another president who ended up the most unpopular in the annals of Philippine history. Who will orchestrate a lie – he or she?

Street Poetry

Read about Michael’s upcoming book of poems “Crushed Violets” by visiting our website at www.asianjournalusa.com

by Michael R. Tagudin

©2010 Michael R. Tagudin. All rights reserved. About the Author: Michael R. Tagudin Educated as an engineer in the Philippines, the City of Los Angeles employee hopes his legacy of poems will provoke a dialogue about the human condition. He is donating the proceeds from the book “Crushed Violets” to the “Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST)”, a non-profit that provides public awareness and advocacy efforts against human trafficking in the City of Angels. To learn more, visit www.castla.org. To help, call the CAST 24 hour hotline 888.KEY.2.FRE(EDOM) or 888.539.2373. Contact [email protected] for more information about ordering the book “Crushed Violets.”

E. Motion!Emotion!Energy in motion!Your hands flash!Somewhere acrossMy midsection!Maybe even below the belt!It was a score!A direct hit!Reminding me of being bornWhen the midwife slapped my buttBecause I can’t duckSuspended upside downCryingBecause my pride got hurtI swear no woman would slap me ever!Until you came in to my life!Slap me hard babe!Slap me in my “B SPOT!”Hit hard!Don’t miss!Cause I’ll do the same!Only harder!I’ll make you cryMake you sing the bluesTell you storiesThat would break your heartAnd sayBabe it’s okayLove really hurts!


ABS-CBN Corporation, the country’s largest multime-dia conglomerate, continues its winning streak since the start of 2011 with its locally-produced primetime programs leading the nationwide rat-ings.

According to Kantar Media/TNS, ABS-CBN led primetime TV with an average audience share of 40 percent or nine points higher than GMA’s 31 percent and TV5’s 16 percent for the period of Jan 1 to Feb 14.

Kantar Media/TNS data also show that ABS-CBN ob-tained a bigger average audi-ence share of 36 percent for the same period (Jan 1 to Feb 14), which is higher than GMA’s 34 percent and TV5’s 13 per-cent.

According to ABS-CBN Corporate Com-munications head Bong Osorio, ABS-CBN primetime shows are doing so well that its drama series “Mara Clara” has wrestled the Mega Manila leadership from GMA on primetime.

Osorio noted that ABS-CBN’s top raters are all net-work-produced programs such as “Mara Clara,” “Mutya,” and “Imortal,” while GMA’s top raters are either produced by a blocktimer or a canned Korean series.

“ABS-CBN remains to be the national leader year-to-date (Jan 1 to Feb 14) without excluding some days based on the Kantar Media/TNS ratings data,” he said.

For the month of Janu-

ABS-CBN National TV ratings Year-To-Date

ary 2010, ABS-CBN led in the national, balance Luzon, southern Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao TV ratings.

For Balance Luzon, ABS-CBN obtained a 39% audi-ence share, which was higher than GMA’s 35%.

More than half of the homes in Southern Luzon tuned in to ABS-CBN (56%) than GMA (25%).

In the Visayas, the num-ber of Kapamilya homes was more than twice the number of Kapuso homes. 53% of the homes in the Visayas watched ABS-CBN shows while only 24% watched GMA.

In Mindanao, almost six out of ten homes watched ABS-CBN (55%) compared to only 19% watch-ing GMA.

Kantar Media, a global market research group, offers audience research mea-

surement systems in 32 coun-tries. It started releasing its Philippine television audience measurement data in February 2009 with panels composed of 1,370 representative house-holds covering urban Philip-pines and reporting on seven sectors namely the National Capital Region, North Luzon, Central Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

ABS-CBN shifted to Kan-tar Media/TNS after filing a case vs. AGB Nielsen Media Research for failing to comply with its request to investigate alleged cheating and data tam-pering in TV ratings. The case is still pending in court.

GLIMPSESby Jose Ma. Montelibano

President Noy spoke before the United Nations last week and gave the bold message to the community of nations – use global People Power to achieve equitable progress. P-Noy obviously referred to the energy that catapulted, not just him to the presidency, but his mother to dismantle a dictatorship.

Dialogue, solidarity and communal responsibility are an effective pathway which defines Private Public partnerships. After the Edsa I and Edsa Dos experience, people power revolutions did remove sitting presidents who became symbols of cor-ruption and abuse. Yet, the administrations which people power ushered in did not harness the same energy to fuel societal change and progress.

Lessons learned and another bout of scandalous corruption caused people power, this time manifested in a volunteer-driven presi-dential campaign, to again bring a new administration to Malacanang. This time, the president it voted into of-fice, Noynoy Aquino, wants early on to engage the spirit of volunteerism to guide, maybe even define, governance. It is a good moment for participa-tive democracy to actually happen, and it is not only P-Noy who must take advan-tage of the moment but all Filipinos who can contribute to nation-building.

The Gawad Kalinga move-ment has used both the term and the process called People Power Over Poverty in its belief that a multi-sectoral ap-proach is the only comprehen-sive and sustainable pathway

People Power For Progressfor the poorest in the country to rise above their pitiful inheritance. I am referring to over 5 million families, landless, homeless and often hungry. There is no current intervention that will take them out of poverty, not from government, not from busi-ness. Only the radical com-munity development program of Gawad Kalinga answers fundamental requirements – material and psychological.

It is not that government

does not recognize its short-coming; it does. What govern-ment does not recognize is its strength, its resources and influence, as catalyst and not only provider to a seemingly bottomless pit of needs. With 50 billion pesos a year, for ten years, 5 million families will have security of tenure, small but decent homes, and enough land to plant food for the table. I hope that govern-ment, meaning politicians, bureaucrats and economists can appreciate the impact of the weakest, poorest, most marginalized thirty percent of our people finding basis for hope and a new mindset largely rescued from fear.

Poverty is severe scarcity for the fundamental needs of man, starting with security of tenure for a home, a sturdy house which can protect its inhabitants, and plots of land where vegetables, fruits, poultry and livestock can be

grown by a community. Pov-erty is also a harsh condition where the victim is treated as less than human, forced by his landlessness to have a migratory attitude rather than a rootedness for growth and development. If society can intervene with small pieces of land, build decent homes, and areas where food can be grown for the families, with government fully adopting the program as a flagship for justice and progress, it is pos-sible that a miraculous trans-formation can occur in less than a decade.

For those who are overwhelmed by a commu-nity building budget of 50 billion pesos a year, that is just slightly over $1 billion which will benefit 500,000 families or about 6 million Filipinos. But the benefits here are permanent and sustainable, visible in land and homes in a village set-ting. This level of money has been spent, overspent

and stolen many times over every year. With a determined anti-corruption program, 50 billion pesos can easily be raised.

The Gawad Kalinga for-mula was first expressed with land, homes and food because those are basic human needs. What was not so pronounced although it had been a key feature of the community building effort was the fact that the intervention was multi-sectoral. It is the multi-sectoral spirit and manner that pushes any effort to become very collective and rebuilds our bayanihan culture. Baya-nihan dismantles the ugly pattern of divisiveness even as it naturally forms a sense of community on the way to a sense of nation.

For corruption to be weed-ed out as a frightening cancer eating our national soul, lead-ers must protect, not rob, its wards or the Filipino citizens.

But the perspective of leaders protecting rather than exploit-ing is grounded on a more fundamental understanding of nation where families are not only those related by consan-guinity but by race. If Filipi-nos can look at themselves as one family, as brothers and sisters, it becomes more possible that leaders protect instead of exploit.

Progress is not a new real-ity. An elite sector has been progressing for hundreds of years. Affluent families have enjoyed the abundance of the motherland but have never considered the poor as also family and equal members of the Filipino nation. The chasm separating the rich and the poor is not just a statisti-cal or economic one, it also provides the environment for exploitation and subservience. A people with an awful gap between the haves and have-nots develop all sorts of other gaps.

I believe that P-Noy intui-tively senses that the moment is ripe for a very divided people to find commonality in the desire for meaningful change and greater hope. The number of volunteers who campaigned and voted for him is a loud message that it is not he, but the people, who must pull themselves by their bootstraps. When he said “No Wang-Wang,” he was effec-tively taking away perks that divide the powerful from the ordinary.

Yes, lessons learned in the Philippines point to people power as a primary mecha-nism for progress. On P-Noy’s shoulders rest the mantle of leadership. He must make himself and government as catalyst for progress. On our shoulders rests our future.

–“There is always a phi-

losophy for lack of courage.” Albert Camus

(619) 474-0588


By Alex P. Vidal/ PNS

BOSTON, Massachusetts – Now it can be told. Flam-boyant Floyd Mayweather Jr. wanted to preserve his unblemished record and did not want to risk it by agreeing to fight Filipino lefty Manny Pacquiao this year.

“With all his legal prob-lems and after that ridiculous, racist rant of his (on video), I don’t know if it happens,” Orange County Register scribe Mark Whicker quoted Top Rank chief executive Bob Arum in an article dated Octo-ber 10, 2010.

Arum said: “It certainly looks like Floyd doesn’t want to fight him. I just think he would feel a lot of emotional trauma if he lost his zero (as in his 41-0 record).”

Mayweather has officially been charged with felony counts of coercion, robbery and grand larceny -- as well as four misdemeanors -- for the alleged domestic incident with his baby’s mother in Las Vegas.

MISDEMEANORS

According to the Clark County District Attorney the misdemeanors are battery, and three counts of harassment.

As reported earlier, Josie Harris claims the boxer beat her, threatened to kill her, and stole her cell phone during the alleged incident on September 9.

The coercion and harass-ment counts include alleged threats Mayweather made against his sons. According to the docs, the boxer threatened to beat his kids’ asses if they “called 911 and/or left the residence.”

If convicted of all charges, Floyd could spend up to 28 years behind bars.

Pacquiao was supposed to square off with Mayweather earlier this year but ended up fighting Joshua Clottey in a 12-round WBO welterweight championship at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas last March 13.

In an apparent delaying tactic, Mayweather blasted Pacquiao’s refusal to undergo an Olympic-style blood test to determine whether the popu-lar Filipino fighter was using drugs. Pacquiao has denied using prohibited substances and threatened to sue May-weather if he did not apolo-gize.

Arum, 78, did everything to lure Mayweather to fight Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO’s) before the year ends but the black American fighter proved slippery and offered excuses

‘Mayweather fears emotional trauma if beaten by Pacquiao’

Floyd Mayweather

Manny Pacquiao

to dodge the rich deal that would have netted both box-ers at least $45 million each.

He and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had told report-ers during the post Pacquiao versus Clottey match that Cowboys Stadium would be a perfect venue for the proposed Pacquiao versus Mayweather match.

Unable to ink the deal after several negotiations, Arum was obliged to summon tall Hispanic sensation Antonio Margarito to duke it out with Pacquiao for the WBC light middleweight championship on November 13 at the Cow-boys Stadium.

Pacquiao, now a member of the Philippine legislature, will have to relinquish his WBO 147-lb crown to dis-pute with Margarito (38-6, 27 KO’s) the WBC 152-lb jewels for 12 rounds.

‘THE PUNISHER’

Arum appears to be not keen anymore on pursuing the Pacquiao-Mayweather fisticuffs as he hinted of the possibility of Pacquiao facing

Paul “The Punisher” Williams (33-0, 24 KO’s) in March 2011.

Another name being penciled to face Pacquiao in his next fight is Tim “Desert Storm” Bradley, Jr., “provided Bradley gets healthy and beats Devon Alexander,” wrote Whicker.

Bradley (26-0, 11 KO’s) is a former world light welter-weight champion and resem-bles like Mayweather.

Arum is currently promot-ing Top Ranks’ next project featuring Julio Caesar Chavez Jr. in Anaheim, California on December 4.

“And don’t forget, we’ve priced these seats right be-cause of the way the economy is,” Arum announced during a promotional tour of the De-cember 4 card at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, Califor-nia recently. “Almost every seat will be either $50 to $30. So I think it’s going to be a great crowd and a great night of boxing.”

TECATE, Calif. — U.S. Customs and Border Protec-tion officers at the Tecate port of entry Wednesday stopped two 19-year-old male teenag-ers from Tecate, Calif., both with round packages of mari-juana hidden in their pants, in the groin area.

At about 6 a.m., aCBP officer observing travelers in the pedestrian processing area noticed the first teen walking in an unusual manner, and escorted him aside for further inspection.

A CBP officer with a nar-cotic detector dog screened the teenager, and the canine alerted.

At almost the same time, the second teenager applied to enter the U.S. as a pedestrian.

While the teen was pre-senting his documents to the CBP officer at the inspection booth, the CBP officer with

Tecate CBP Officers Stop Two U.S. Teenagers with Marijuana

Hidden in Their Pantsthe narcotic detector dog was screen-ing pe-destrians entering the U.S. The canine alerted to the teenager, and CBP officers escorted him for further investigation.

In each case, CBP officers found a cylindrical package containing marijuana. CBP seized the narcotics, more than two pounds of marijuana in each incident, each package with an estimated value of a little more than $1,200. U.S. Immigration and Customs En-forcement agents took custody of the teens, both U.S. citi-zens; they were booked into the San Diego County Jail.

(619) 702-3051

$50

Food for thoughtRead previous articles by visiting our website at www.asian-

journalusa.com

By STEPHANIE RAPOSO

Kate Washburn didn’t know what to make of the email a friend sent to her office with the abbreviation “NSFW” written at the bot-tom. Then she clicked through the attached sideshow, titled “Awkward Family Photos.” It included shots of a family in furry “nude” suits and of an-other family alongside a male walrus in a revealing pose.

After looking up NSFW on NetLingo.com—a Web site

that provides definitions of In-ternet and texting terms—she discovered what it stood for: “Not safe for work.”

Ellen WeinsteinSay What?A sampling of some popu-

lar shorthand texting terms.UG2BK . . . . . . . You got

to be kiddingGBTW. . . . . . . . Get back

to workNMP . . . . . . . . . Not my

problemPIR . . . . . . . . . . Parent in

roomGFTD. . . . . . . . . Gone for

the dayFYEO. . . . . . . . . For your

eyes onlyBI5 . . . . . . . . . . Back in

five minutesDEGT . . . . . . . . Don’t

even go thereBIL . . . . . Boss is listeningPAW. . . . Parents are

watching

Quick! Tell Us What GBTW! Mean

99 . . . . . . Parents are no longer watching

PCM . . . . Please call meIMS. . . . . I am sorryTOY. . . . . Thinking of youKUTGW. . Keep up the

good workCID . . . . . Consider it

doneFWIW. . . For what it’s

worthHAND . . . Have a nice dayIAT . . . . . I am tiredNRN . . . . No response

necessary4COL. . . . For crying out

loudWRUD. . . What are you

doingLMIRL. . . Let’s meet in

real life^5 . . . . . . High five“If I would have known

it wasn’t safe for work, I wouldn’t have taken the chance of being inappropri-ate,” says Ms. Washburn, 37 years old, a media consultant in Grand Rapids, Mich.

As text-messaging short-hand becomes increasingly widespread in emails, text messages and Tweets, people like Ms. Washburn are scram-bling to decode it. In many offices, a working knowledge of text-speak is becoming de rigueur. And at home, par-ents need to know the lingo in order to keep up with—and sometimes police—their children.

One reason for the surge in

texting abbreviations—more than 2,000 and counting, ac-cording to NetLingo—is the boom in social-media sites like Twitter, where messages are limited to 140 characters. Text messages, too, are lim-ited in length, so users have developed an alphabet soup of shorthand abbreviations to save time, and their thumbs.

Taking time to learn the jargon may seem like a WOMBAT (“Waste of money, brains and time”). But with over one trillion text messages sent and received in the U.S. last year, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group, you run the risk of feeling out of it if you don’t.

“If a CEO does not appear to be tech-savvy, people may start to wonder, ‘Is the com-pany not plugged into today’s technologies also?’” says Stephanie Grayson, a corpo-

rate speech and me-dia trainer based in New York.

Translation Sites

The confusion has given rise to a number of resourc-es that provide English transla-tions for terms like WRUD (“What are you doing?”) and TTYL (“Talk to you later”)—among them inde-pendent Web sites like NetLingo.com and UrbanDic-tionary.com and corporate ones like

LG Mobile Phones’ DTXTR.com. Textapedia, a pocket guide to texting terms released last year, is sold in over 4,000 stores nationwide. NetLingo reports a 391% increase in the number of unique visitors over the past five years, while UrbanDic-tionary says it saw a 40% jump in its unique visitors last June from June 2008.

Both the AP Stylebook and Merriam-Webster Dictionary recognized texting shorthand for the first time in their 2009 editions, which were released in June. The AP Stylebook now includes IMO (“In my opinion”), ROFL (“Rolling on the floor laughing”) and BFF (“Best friends forever”), among others. Merriam-Webster defines LOL (“Laugh out loud”) and OMG (“Oh my God”).


Read Romeo Nicolas’s previous poems by vis-iting our website at www.asianjournalusa.com

Ni Romeo Nicolas

Mga Tulang Tagalog

Sundalo Ng PilipinasKaawa-awang sundalo nitong mahal nating bansa,Nagdurusa’t naghihirap, sa DIGMAANG bale wala.Ng dahil sa kakulangan ng sandatang siyang akma,IBINULSANG mga kwarta, OPISYAL ang nangalaga.

Ang sandatang dapat sana’y panlaban sa ABUSAYAP,KINURAKOT ng marami at nuon ay nagpasarap.Ngunit ngayong si Mendoza, malinaw na nagpahayag,Lumabas ang mga GANID na ‘di man lang nasisindak. Dumarami yaong BUKOL, ‘yan ang sabi sa SENADO,Ang lahat ng nasa LUNGGA, lalabas din, paniguro.Hindi ko lang matitiyak o ‘di kaya’y masiguro,Kung lahat ng MASASANGKOT, tutuloy sa KALABOSO. Kung KULUNGAN LANG NG MANOK, hahantong ang

lahat-lahat,At ang DRAMA’y PAGANDAHIN, haluan ng tuwa’t iyak,Mabuti pang tapusin na, sayang lang ang mga oras.Mga MORAL ng SUNDALO, naghihintay, maitaas.

Batikos No. 7Ni: Romeo S. NicolasBocaue, Bulacan

a U.S. citizen. The court held that the child was a stepchild under immigration law and eligible for non-quota status. In another case, the petitioner was a stepchild, who had been born out of wedlock, and the beneficiary was the step-mother. When the stepchild reached the age of 21, she filed a petition for the step-mother who remained married to the natural parent. The court held that the husband’s illegitimate daughter was clas-sifiable as a stepchild under immigration law despite the fact that there was no preexist-ing family unit including the stepparent, stepchild, and the natural father.

The case on point is one decided in 1974, which in-volves an adulterine. For-merly, the court refused to accord adulterine the status of stepchild. The court held

that adulterine children are the issue of adulterous intercourse and are regarded unfavorably than the illegitimate offspring of a single person. The court declined to consider the adul-terine child as a stepchild be-cause the marriage that should have created the stepparent relationship did not occur af-ter the birth of the child. The court concluded that there was no stepparent relationship. In 1974 the court changed its position. The rule now as it stands now is – adulterine children should be treated like other illegitimate children. They both fall under the cat-egory of stepchildren.

We welcome your feed-back. If you have any im-migration questions, please feel welcome to email me at [email protected] or call 619 819 -8648 to arrange for a telephone con-sultation.

U.S. Citizen stepparent can petition offsprings of adulterous relationships


SAN DIEGO, Feb. 7, 2011 – The natural gas curtailments that affected as many as 88 commercial/industrial custom-ers in San Diego County were lifted today by San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E).

A combination of factors contributed to ending the curtailments, including an improvement in natural gas supplies and pipeline deliv-eries, slightly warmer local temperatures and anticipated lower natural gas demand over the upcoming weekend.

The cold weather condi-tions in Texas and southern Rocky Mountain natural gas producing regions forced major natural gas pipelines, including El Paso Natural Gas Company and Transwestern Pipeline, to declare emergen-cy critical operating condi-

SDG&E Natural gas curtailments lifted

tions. The weather conditions in the Midwest continue to cause significant energy-relat-ed issues for that region which impacts supply to the Western states. SDG&E continues to monitor the natural gas system situation very closely and is in close contact with pipeline operators and suppliers.

The customers affected by these curtailments were large natural gas customers, such as power plants and commercial and industrial facilities, who pay a lower rate due to signed agreements that require that they cut their natural gas use should supplies run low. No residential SDG&E natural gas customers were affected by these natural gas curtail-ments. SDG&E has 845,000 natural gas customers in its service territory.

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 3, 2011 – With nearly two months of winter still ahead of us, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) wants to remind its customers, assistance is available to help with heating costs and utility bills, includ-ing those with special medical needs.

Households with members that have special medical conditions requiring heat, air conditioning or life-support equipments, energy is essen-tial. SDG&E offers energy at the lowest rate to customers through the Medical Baseline program.

“Customer Assistance programs like the Medical Baseline program can lessen the burden on customers who may already be strug-gling, especially in this down economy,” said Hal Snyder, vice president of customer solutions for SDG&E. “For the average customer enrolled in the program, they save about $33 per month, or 30 percent.”

To qualify for the program, a full-time resident of the home must meet one of the following requirements:

Require permanent space heating or air conditioning as a paraplegic, quadriplegic, hemiplegic, multiple sclerosis, scleroderma patient, or have a compromised immune system or a life threatening illness.

Require one of the follow-ing devices:

Aerosol Tents• Apnea Monitors• Hemodialysis Ma-•

SDG&E customers with special medical needs to save through

assistance programchinesCompressors• Electric Nerve Stimula-• torsPressure Pumps• Electrostatic Nebuliz-• ersIPPB Machines• Ultrasonic Nebulizers• Iron Lungs• Kidney Dialysis Ma-• chineSuction Machine• Motorized Wheelchairs• Pressure Pads• Respirators• Oxygen Concentrators •

Enrollment in the program is simple; customers need to complete a short application with a doctor’s signature veri-fying the medical condition or the need for the equipment.

In addition to the Medical Baseline program, SDG&E offers a variety of other as-sistance programs to help customers save energy and money:

CARE: Customers may qualify for the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) program and save up to 35% on their bill every month.

Energy Savings Assistance : Formerly known as the Ener-gy Team, qualified renters and homeowners may receive free energy-saving home improve-ments and can upgrade old inefficient appliances to make your family more comfortable and secure.

Neighbor-to-Neighbor: This fund provides a grant to help customers pay their gas and electric bills;

Family Electric Rate Assis-tance (FERA): Provides lower rates for households of three or more persons;

Level Payment Plan: Al-lows for monthly payments to be spread evenly throughout the year.

Additional information on these assistance programs is available from SDG&E’s Web site, sdge.com/assistance.

SDG&E offers these tips to help save money while stay-ing warm through the remain-der of winter:

For every two degrees you lower your thermostat, health permitting, you can save ap-proximately five percent on your heating costs.

Remove any awning or shades and trim trees or landscaping that block the sun from entering your house dur-ing the winter.

Close curtains at night to reduce heat loss gained during

the day. Seal gaps around windows

and doors using insulating tape or caulking strips to eliminate drafts.

Never use your outdoor barbeque, range or oven to heat your home because these appliances are not designed for this purpose.

SDG&E is a regulated pub-lic utility that provides safe and reliable energy service to 3.4 million consumers through 1.4 million electric meters and more than 840,000 natu-ral gas meters in San Diego and southern Orange coun-ties. The utility’s area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is committed to creating ways to help our customers save energy and money every day. SDG&E is a subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), a Fortune 500 energy services holding company based in San Diego.

WASHINGTON — The In-ternal Revenue Service today unveiled IRS2Go, its first smartphone application that lets taxpayers check on their status of their tax refund and obtain helpful tax information.

“This new smart phone app reflects our commitment to modernizing the agency and engaging taxpayers where they want when they want it,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “As technology evolves and younger tax-payers get their information in new ways, we will keep inno-vating to make it easy for all taxpayers to access helpful information.”

The IRS-2Go phone app gives people a convenient way of check-ing on their federal refund. It also gives people a quick way of obtaining easy-to-understand tax tips.

Apple users can download the free IRS2Go application by visiting the Apple App Store. Android users can visit the Android Marketplace to download the free IRS2Go app.

“This phone app is a first step for us,” Shulman said. “We will look for additional ways to expand and refine our use of smartphones and other new technologies to help meet the needs of taxpayers.”

The mobile app, among a handful in the federal gov-ernment, offers a number of safe and secure ways to help

IRS Launches the IRS2Go App for iPhone, Android; Taxpayers Can Check

Refunds, Get Tax Informationtaxpayers. Features of the first release of the IRS2Go app include:

Get Your Refund Status Taxpayers can check the

status of their federal refund through the new phone app with a few basic pieces of information. First, taxpay-ers enter a Social Security number, which is masked and

encrypted for security pur-poses. Next, taxpayers pick the filing status they used on their tax return. Finally, tax-payers enter the amount of the refund they expect from their 2010 tax return.

For people who e-file, the refund function of the phone app will work within about 72

hours after taxpayers receive an e-mail acknowledgement saying the IRS received their tax return. For people fil-ing paper tax returns, longer processing times mean they will need to wait three to four weeks before they can check their refund status.

About 70 percent of the 142 million individual tax re-turns were filed electronically last year.

Get Tax Updates Phone app users enter their

e-mail address to automati-cally get daily tax tips. Tax Tips are simple, straightfor-ward tips and reminders to

help with tax planning and preparation. Tax Tips are is-sued daily during the tax filing season and periodically during the rest of the year. The plain English updates cover topics such as free tax help, child tax credits, the Earned Income Tax Credit, education credits and other topics.

Follow the IRS Taxpayers can sign up to

follow the IRS Twitter news feed, @IRSnews. IRSnews provides the latest federal tax news and information

for taxpayers. The IRSnews tweets provide easy-to-use information, including tax law changes and important IRS programs.

IRS2Go is the latest IRS effort to provide information to taxpayers beyond tradi-tional channels. The IRS also uses tools such as YouTube and Twitter to share the latest information on tax changes, initiatives, products and services through social media channels. For more informa-tion on IRS2Go and other new media products, visit www.IRS.gov.


Health

AMERASIAN CUISINE

ScienceDaily (Dec. 29, 2010) — While there are still couples who wait for a deep level of commitment before having sex, today it’s far more common for two people to explore their sexual compat-ibility before making long-term plans together.

A new study in the Ameri-can Psychological Associa-tion’s Journal of Family Psy-chology sides with a delayed approach.

The study involves 2,035 married individuals who par-ticipated in a popular online marital assessment called “RELATE.” From the assess-ment’s database, researchers selected a sample designed to match the demographics of the married American popula-tion. The extensive question-naire includes the question “When did you become sexual in this relationship?”

Couples Who Delay Having Sex Get Benefits Later, Study Suggests

A statistical analysis showed the following ben-efits enjoyed by couples who waited until marriage com-pared to those who started having sex in the early part of their relationship:

Relationship stability • was rated 22 percent higherRelationship satis-• faction was rated 20 percent higherSexual quality of the • relationship was rated 15 percent betterCommunication was • rated 12 percent better

For couples in between -- those that became sexually involved later in the relation-ship but prior to marriage -- the benefits were about half as strong.

“Most research on the topic is focused on individuals’ experiences and not the tim-

ing within a relationship,” said lead study author Dean Busby, a professor in Brigham Young University’s School of Family Life.

“There’s more to a relation-ship than sex, but we did find that those who waited longer were happier with the sexual aspect of their relationship,” Busby added. “I think it’s be-cause they’ve learned to talk and have the skills to work with issues that come up.”

Sociologist Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved with this research, read the study and shared his take on the findings.

“Couples who hit the honeymoon too early -- that is, prioritize sex promptly at the outset of a relationship -- often find their relation-ships underdeveloped when it comes to the qualities that make relationships stable and spouses reliable and trustwor-thy,” said Regnerus, author of Premarital Sex in America, a book forthcoming from Ox-ford University Press.

ScienceDaily (July 14, 2009) — University of Den-ver (DU) researchers find that couples who live together before they are engaged have a higher chance of getting divorced than those who wait until they are married to live together, or at least wait until they are engaged. In addition, couples who lived together before engagement and then married, reported a lower sat-isfaction in their marriages.

The research, which ap-pears in the Journal of Family Psychology, was conducted by Galena Rhoades, senior researcher, Scott Stanley, research professor, and How-ard Markman, professor of

Couples Who Cohabit Before Engagement Are More Likely To Struggle

psychology.“We think that some

couples who move in together without a clear commitment to marriage may wind up sliding into marriage partly because they are already cohabiting,” Rhoades says.

“It seems wise to talk about commitment and what living together might mean for the future of the relationship before moving in together, especially because cohabit-ing likely makes it harder to break up compared to dating,” Stanley says.

The three researchers also studied the reasons why couples decide to live togeth-er. That study, which appeared

in the Journal of Family Is-sues, shows that most couples chose to live together in order to spend more time together. The second most popular reason is convenience, fol-lowed by testing the relation-ship. This is different than previous research that found most people cohabit to test the relationship.

“Cohabiting to test a rela-tionship turns out to be associ-ated with the most problems in relationships,” Rhoades says. “Perhaps if a person is feeling a need to test the relationship, he or she already knows some important infor-mation about how a relation-ship may go over time.”

ScienceDaily (Oct. 13, 2007) — Red wine is known to have multiple health bene-fits. Researchers at the Uni-versity of Missouri-Columbia have found that red wine may also protect humans from common food-borne diseases.

Researchers Azlin Mus-tapha, associate professor of food science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and Atreyee Das, a doctoral student in the food science program, are conduct-ing on-going studies examin-ing the inhibitory effects of numerous types of red wines, as well as grape juice, against pathogens and probiotic bac-teria, which naturally reside in the intestinal tract and can be beneficial in combating, among other things, high cho-lesterol and tumors.

They found that red wines – Cabernet, Zinfandel and Merlot in particular – have anti-microbial properties that defend against food-borne pathogens and don’t harm naturally useful bacteria like probiotic bacteria.

E. coli, Salmonella Typh-imurium, Listeria monocy-togenes and H. pylori were among the pathogens exam-ined. E. coli and Listeria can be fatal. Mustapha said the most promising results in-volved Helicobacter pylori, which can be transmitted via food and water and is the main cause of stomach ulcers.

“Our study is a little dif-ferent than those previously reported in the media. Those

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2011) — Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chica-go College of Medicine have found that particular strains of a food-borne bacteria are able to invade the heart, leading to serious and difficult-to-treat heart infections.

The study is available on-line in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

The bacteria Listeria monocytogenes is commonly found in soft cheeses and chilled ready-to-eat products. For healthy individuals, liste-ria infections are usually mild, but for susceptible individuals and the elderly, infection can result in serious illness, usual-ly associated with the central nervous system, the placenta and the developing fetus.

About 10 percent of seri-ous listeria infections involve a cardiac infection, according to Nancy Freitag, associate professor of microbiology and immunology and principle investigator on the study. These infections are difficult to treat, with more than one-third proving fatal, but have not been widely studied and are poorly understood.

Freitag and her colleagues obtained a strain of listeria that had been isolated from a patient with endocarditis, or infection of the heart.

“This looked to be an un-usual strain, and the infection itself was unusual,” she said. Usually with endocarditis there is bacterial growth on heart valves, but in this case the infection had invaded the cardiac muscle.

The researchers were inter-

Food-Borne Bacteria Causes Potentially Fatal Heart Infection

Listeria monocytogenes cardiac-invasive strain replicating and mov-ing within infected heart cells. The bacteria (red rods) invade heart cells, multiply, and begin to move through the cell by rearranging cell structural proteins (green) that ini-tially coat the bacteria (green and red rods) and then form long comet tails located directly behind moving bacteria. (Credit: Francis Alonzo III)

ested in determining whether patient predisposition led to heart infection or whether something different about the strain caused it to target the heart.

They found that when they infected mice with either the cardiac isolate or a lab strain, they found 10 times as much bacteria in the hearts of mice infected with the cardiac strain. In the spleen and liver, organs that are commonly targeted by listeria, the levels of bacteria were equal in both groups of mice.

Further, the researchers found that while the lab-strain-infected group often had no heart infection at all, 90 percent of the mice in-fected with the cardiac strain had heart infections. The researchers obtained more strains of listeria, for a total of 10, and did the same experi-ment. They found that only one other strain also seemed to also target the heart.

“They infected the heart of more animals and were always infecting heart muscle and always in greater num-ber,” Freitag said. “Some strains seem to have this enhanced ability to target the heart for infection.”

Freitag’s team used mo-lecular genetics and cardiac cell cultures to explore what was different about these two strains.

“These strains seem to have a better ability to invade cardiac cells,” she said. The results suggest that these cardiac-associated strains display modified proteins on

their surface that enable the bacteria to more easily enter cardiac cells, targeting the heart and leading to bacterial infection.

“Listeria is actually pretty common in foods,” said Freit-ag. “And because it can grow at refrigerated temperatures, as foods are being produced with a longer and longer shelf life, listeria infection may become more common. In combination with an aging population that is more sus-ceptible to serious infection, it’s important that we learn all we can about these deadly infections.”

The study was supported by a Public Health Service Grant; by Public Health Service post-doctoral training fellowships; and an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship.

Because religious belief often plays a role for couples who choose to wait, Busby and his co-authors controlled for the influence of religious involvement in their analysis.

“Regardless of religiosity, waiting helps the relationship form better communication processes, and these help improve long-term stability and relationship satisfaction,” Busby said.

BYU professors Jason Car-roll and Brian Willoughby are co-authors on the study.

Red Wine And Grape Juice Help Defend Against Food-Borne Diseases, Study Suggests

studies promote moderate red wine consumption for cardio-vascular diseases,” she said. “We went a step farther and asked: If red wine is already good for cardiovascular dis-eases, what about food-borne pathogens? If you get a food-borne illness and drink red wine, will that help decrease the symptoms a little bit? This study showed that the four probiotics tested weren’t inhibited by red wines; the pathogens were.”

In lab tests, Mustapha and Das focused on ethanol, pH levels and reseveratrol, which is a phytochemical found in grape vines and the skin of grapes. It also is responsible for the red coloring in red wines. They found that in addition to ethanol, pH and reseveratrol also may inhibit food-borne pathogens.

Numerous white wines also were tested, but yielded no positive results, the research-ers said.

“It’s not just ethanol in the red wine that is in-hibitory toward food-borne pathogens, but other factors which include the pH of the wine – because wines are a little acidic, and possibly the phytochemicals may have an effect,” said Mustapha, noting that grape juice produces simi-lar results. “We hypothesize that these phytochemicals, reseveratrol being the main one, also play a role not just as antioxidants but also may have some inhibitions against food-borne pathogens. Now,

we’re concentrating mainly on the reseveratrol effects on these pathogens.”

The findings were recently presented at the Institute of Food Technologists annual conference in Chicago.

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289 E. Orange & Melrose Chula Vista, CA 91911

(619) 426-7801(Alongside Seafood City Supermarket)

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 24, 2011 – At an event last week in Washington, D.C., Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, unveiled a comprehensive effort to pro-vide its customers with health-ier and more affordable food choices. The company was joined by First Lady Michelle Obama as it outlined the five key elements of the program including:

Reformulating thousands of everyday packaged food items by 2015 by reduc-ing sodium 25 percent and added sugars 10 percent, and by removing all remaining industrially produced trans fats. The company will work with suppliers to improve the nutritional quality of national food brands and its Great Value private brand in key product categories to complete the reformulations;

Making healthier choices more affordable, saving customers approximately $1 billion per year on fresh fruits and vegetables through a variety of sourcing, pricing, and transportation and logis-tics initiatives that will drive unnecessary costs out of the supply chain. Walmart will also dramatically reduce or eliminate the price premium on key “better-for-you” items, such as reduced sodium, sugar or fat products;

Developing strong cri-teria for a simple front-of-package seal that will help consumers instantly identify truly healthier food options such as whole grain cereal, whole wheat pasta or un-sweetened canned fruit;

Providing solutions to ad-dress food deserts by build-ing stores in underserved communities that are in need of fresh and affordable grocer-ies; and

Increasing charitable support for nutrition pro-grams that help educate con-sumers about healthier food solutions and choices.

“No family should have to choose between food that is healthier for them and food they can afford,” said Bill Simon, president and CEO of Walmart U.S. “With more than 140 million customer visits each week, Walmart is uniquely positioned to make a difference by making food healthier and more affordable to everyone. We are com-mitted to working with sup-pliers, government and non-governmental organizations

Walmart Launches Major Initiative to Make Food Healthier and

Healthier Food More Affordableto provide solutions that help Americans eat healthier and live a better life.”

This program builds on the success of the First La-dy’s “Let’s Move” campaign to make healthy choices more convenient and affordable for families and is consistent with Walmart’s commitment to lead on social issues that mat-ter to its customers.

Walmart will reformulate key product categories of its Great Value private brand and collaborate with suppliers to reformulate national brands within the same categories by 2015. The effort is designed to help reduce the consumption of sodium, sugar and trans fats, which are major con-tributors to the epidemic of obesity and chronic diseases in America today, including high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. The refor-mulation initiative includes three components:

Reduce sodium by 25 percent in a broad category of grocery items, including grain products, luncheon meats, salad dressings and frozen entrees;

Reduce added sugars by 10 percent in dairy items, sauces and fruit drinks; and

Remove all remaining industrially produced trans fats (partially hydrogenated fats and oils) in all packaged food products.

As its suppliers make choices on reformulating their products beyond the Walmart supply chain, the company expects millions of Americans to benefit whether they shop at Walmart or not. “Our customers tell us they want a variety of food choices and need help feeding their families healthier foods. At Walmart, we are committed to doing both,” said Andrea Thomas, senior vice president of sustainability at Walmart. “We support consumer choice so this is not about telling people what they should eat. This effort is aimed at elimi-nating sodium, sugar and trans fat in products where they are not really needed.”

Walmart’s everyday low price business model will help make healthier food more affordable. The company will take a number of steps to provide customers even more savings on fresh produce through a variety of sourcing, pricing, and transportation and

logistics initiatives that will drive efficiencies throughout the supply chain and further reduce unnecessary costs.

“If we are successful in our efforts to lower prices, we be-lieve we can save Americans who shop at Walmart approxi-mately $1 billion per year on fresh fruit and vegetables,” Thomas said.

Walmart will also dramati-cally reduce or eliminate the price premium on “better-for-you” options such as reduced sodium, sugar or fat on prod-ucts from the same manufac-turer.

In addition, Walmart will develop a simple front-of-package seal in consultation with health organizations to help customers identify healthier food for their fami-lies. The seal will be sup-ported by a nutritious food standard designed to increase vitamins, minerals, whole grains, fruits and vegetables in food products, while limiting saturated fats, sodium and added sugars.

Later this year, Walmart will add this seal to its private branded food products that meet the strong criteria and will also offer the seal to its suppliers for their national brands that qualify.

The company has also made it a business priority to find innovative ways to provide fresh and affordable groceries to people in urban and rural communities across America who are living in food deserts.

Last year, Walmart and the Walmart Founda-tion launched a $2 billion effort to help fight hunger through 2015 by donating fresh, nutritious foods to food banks across the nation. This year the company will in-crease charitable support for food and nutrition programs by funding education efforts that teach consumers about healthier food options.

For more information visit: www.walmartstores.com/healthierfoods.

About Walmart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), or “Wal-mart,” serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 8,700 retail units under 59 different banners in 15 countries. With fiscal year 2010 sales of $405 billion, Walmart employs more than 2 million associates worldwide. A leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity, Walmart ranked first among retailers in Fortune Maga-zine’s 2010 Most Admired Companies survey. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting www.walmartstores.com and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are available at www.walmart.comand www.sam-sclub.com.

by Tony Meloto

Today, after his first hun-dred days in office, is not only a test of our President’s leadership but also a test of our love for our country. It is our moment of choice on how to play the game of nation-building differently since many of our old ways did not work for us.

After three months, I can-not measure President Noy according to the standards of his critics. I’m just happy that he has remained honest and unfazed in the face of crisis and criticism and even when some of his appointees have failed expectations. He will have to do his best, we will have to do ours.

Together, we can decide in this new season of hope to finally be free from poverty and corruption or to remain irreversibly a slave to them. To win the game or to forever be an underdog in the eyes of the world.

The challenge is for every responsible Filipino to be-gin to see himself as God’s answer to our country’s woes rather than simply depend on government leaders or leave everything to fate by not matching faith with action.

We need to grow our con-viction that together we can, and must, end poverty and corruption in the Philippines.

I will repeat what I’ve said before: it is not enough that we have the most trusted president in recent history to start office, we must strive to be the most trustworthy people ourselves.

For the President to be a game-changer in a society where the rules are tilted against the small players, we must change our own game plan together with him.

No more scapegoats for us; enough of the blame-game. We must take responsibility.

No more cynicism; cyn-ics dampen spirits. We must hope.

No more apathy; sympathy that is all talk will not feed the hungry. We must care.

No more fantasy; escape is not the way to prosper a country. We must work.

No more hypocrisy; no double standard of justice and morality. We must have integrity.

The liberation of this na-tion is not by dependence on a great leader but by demanding greatness in ourselves with our determination to match hope with hard work and sacrifice.

The ball is in our court and in the hands of everyone who loves our country.

The coach cannot win the game if his players will not play to win. We have been a country of bench warmers, it is now our time to shine. To win, we need a star team, not just a star player.

A covenant with our President

Today we are making this covenant as ordinary citizens with our President, to dedicate the next six years and the rest of our lives in making our society more just, our leaders more honest, our rich more generous and our poor more hopeful. With more care and better opportunities, many Filipinos will not want to remain poor.

Concretely, and with great urgency, this is our solemn vow:

1. We will strive to achieve meaningful change peace-fully through partnership and friendship.

Even when provoked or at-tacked we will try our best to avoid conflict.

People fight for power and money, armed with hate and violence. We will fight for our country and the poor with love as our weapon and peace as our passion.

We will not be afraid of our own people. The rich are not enemies of the poor, nor Christians the foes of Mus-lims.

We will continue to over-come our fear and go to more dangerous slums like Bagong Silang to help make it safer, and to conflict areas like Sulu to make it more peaceful.

Today we are transform-ing over 2000 communities, tomorrow we hope to be in all 44,000 barangays in the country with the support of our LGUs.

The national government can trigger the building of homes in the hundreds of thousands every year if LGUs and private land owners can provide the land and do the site development so the GK formula can be empowered to effectively take 5 million families out of poverty in this decade.

With the President’s en-couragement of government agencies to support us, we can rally more people to do more.

We will work closely with HUDCC, DSWD and NDCC to help relocate victims of calamities and conflict. Our neglect of the poor is often the cause of insurgency in the countryside and squatting in the cities.

2. We will strive to always tell the truth.

Even when it is conve-nient or profitable to tell a lie, we will make every effort to

remain honest.In our corrupt setting,

integrity is everything. Truth is always our best defense against deception.

We will honor those who stand by the truth even when it is difficult or unpopular. Like our volunteers in East-ern Samar, Southern Leyte, Batangas, Quezon and many difficult areas in the country who stayed their course to help the poor at great sacrifice despite efforts to discredit our cause.

Likewise we will stand by you all the way President Noy as long as you remain hon-est and you weed out those around you who are not.

We will mobilize our na-tionwide network to support DPWH and other government departments in their campaign to remove institutionalized corruption.

This must be clear to all of us: we can only end cor-ruption in our country if we ourselves have the courage not to be corrupt.

3. We will always aim for the greater good.

Even when wronged on all sides, we will try our best to do what is right.

The big good that we can do together will eventually overcome the wrongs that abound around us. By always connecting with the good in people, including tax collec-tors and politicians, we will bring out their potential to create more good.

I saw this on my trip to Mindanao last October 1. It was awesome to witness the capacity of our public offi-cials, starting with the gover-nor, to generate so much good to help landslide victims and rebel returnees in Campostela valley. In one event, they were able to raise enough pledges for 300 houses and 2.8 mil-lion pesos in cash donations. I was joined there by the governor of Camsur who is matching sports and lifestyle tourism for the rich with the development of our communi-ties in his province for social tourism, which is a growing global trend.

Aggressive private public partnership is the only way that sustainable poverty re-duction and ultimate elimina-tion becomes possible despite present birth rates. Without this forward and determined intervention

more families are born into poverty every year than the ability of national and local government to deal with.

It can be done when there is a transcendent good that everyone can trust enough to rise above personal rivalries and partisanships.

We offer ourselves to be the President’s bridge of trust to the people on the ground, to private partners who want to help, to LGUs who can deliver.

4. We will inspire heroic

President Benigno “Noy Noy” Aquino III



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Also on Sunday, at about 10:15 a.m., a CBP officer per-forming outbound inspections at the San Ysidro port of entry at the pedestrian turnstile into Mexico stopped a 24-year-old male Mexican citizen, as he was about to depart the United States. A CBP officer with a currency/firearm detector dog screened the subject, and the canine alerted.

CBP officers found $10,000 of undeclared cur-rency hidden in each of the subject’s boots, at his ankles, in addition to some currency in the bag he was carrying. In total, CBP officers seized $20,241 in undeclared U.S. currency, and turned the man over to ICE agents.

It is a federal offense not to declare currency or monetary instruments totaling more than $10,000 to a CBP officer upon entry or exit from the U.S. or to conceal it or split it up with intent to evade reporting re-quirements. Failure to declare may result in seizure of the currency and/or arrest.

In addition this weekend, CBP stopped ten fugitives

with active warrants for their arrest, as well as more than 180 immigration law viola-tors. In one incident, CBP stopped a fugitive attempt-ing to enter the United States undetected by using someone else’s green card.

At about 8:45 p.m. on Sunday, Gustavo Zendejas-Barbosa, a 47-year-old male Mexican citizen, arrived at the San Ysidro port of entry on foot. He presented the CBP officer with an I-551 perma-nent resident card, also known as a green card. The CBP officer suspected that the man was an imposter, and referred him for further inspection.

During his inspection, a CBP officer confirmed Zende-jas-Barbosa’s identity, that he was not the true owner of the green card and, during a rou-tine check of law enforcement databases, found a no-bail, felony warrant for larceny, issued at the request of the Los Angeles County Sher-iff’s Department. Zendejas-Barbosa was paroled into the United States and booked into the San Diego County Jail to await extradition.

CBP Officers in San Diego and Imperial County Stop More Than 700 Pounds of

Narcotics Over Weekend (Continued from page 7)

sacrifice in every Filipino.This nation will rise if we

look beyond self-interest and avoid envy to seek the greater good. Our crab mentality must end for all of us to get out of the pot of poverty together. We must encourage more Filipinos to be heroes like Efren Penaflorida, not simply appreciate him or even envy

his popularity.We hope that our homes

will breed more heroes and our universities will graduate more patriots who will stake their future in our country.

Today we have thousands of volunteers for nation-build-ing under our GK1MB pro-gram. With the support of our President, we hope to raise millions tomorrow.

5. We will create more en-lightened wealth with a bigger social profit.

We will work for a radical mind-set change in our cam-puses to graduate more job creators,not just job seekers, for the best of our business graduates to start a business and not only aspire for em-ployment abroad, to create wealth in our country and not make already rich countries richer.

This is the goal of our Cen-ter for Social Innovation (CSI) in partnership with the Ate-neo School of Management and 24 top business schools in the country and CHED: to develop social enterprises where young entrepreneurs are nurtured in an ecosystem that will help them fly world-class Filipino brands that will create wealth from the ground up with our communities as massive production platforms and distribution centers.

This is complimented by other economic programs for sustainability of our existing communities and their neigh-boring areas.

Our BayanAnihan food sufficiency program is work-ing closely with the Depart-ment of Agriculture to sustain our existing 500 farms and to build 500 more every year for the next 6 years in our “Goodbye Gutom” campaign. They will help us grow local ingredients for popular brands like the ube of Selecta and the citronella and lemongrass of Human Nature.

Our Gkonomics team is preparing for a big Christ-mas bazaar on October 24 at Rockwell tent with livelihood products from our villages nationwide in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry.

Our first Enchanted Farm, a 14 hectare Village Uni-versity for the incubation of social businesses under CSI, will open in early January in Angat, Bulacan. It will incubate social enterprises, conduct camps for business, environment and wellness and promote social tourism in Central Luzon. The next sites are ready for development in Dolores, Eastern Samar, San Vicente, Palawan, Butuan

City, Agusan del Norte and Victorias, Negros Occidental.

6. We will not leave any-one behind.

We will encourage our doctors and nurses abroad to support sustainable health programs in the poor towns where they came from in addition to the medical mis-sions that they have been conducting regularly. This is an auspicious time for us with a dedicated Health Secretary supporting our campaign for Philhealth and our GK Ka-lusugan team in the US creat-ing partnerships on public health with respected schools like UCLA and Stanford and UST at home.

More Filipinos are starting to understand our resolve: to build a strong nation, we will not leave the weak behind. Walang Iwanan.

7. We will bet all to win the game.

The best way for us to rise is to see our people as our greatest wealth and our coun-try as the source of our high-est pride. The least deserve the best from us, our nation demands

our highest devotion.We must all see nation-

building as the best game in town, played with more passion than basketball or watched with more fanaticism than Magkaribal.

Mr President, we are ready to start our patriot games with you and we commit to you that we will play to win, without cheating or hurting anyone.

With you, we will inspire more to build their Field of Dreams in our country like the one in Smokey Mountain in what was once a garbage heap.

With you, we will restore our forest cover, protect our underground aquifer, build more marine sanctuaries and become the marvel of the world in responsible global citizenship.

With you, we will create a culture of caring and sharing, of excellence and hard work for every Filipino to live with dignity and honor.

With God’s help, please lead us to victory.

A covenant with our President(Continued from page 22)

LOS ANGELES - Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced a $6.5 mil-lion settlement of a predatory lending case against Angelo Mozilo and David Sambol, former officers of Country-wide Financial Corporation. Attorney General Harris an-nounced the settlement money will be used to establish an innovative statewide Califor-nia Foreclosure Crisis Relief Fund to combat the effects of California’s high rates of foreclosure and mortgage delinquency.

“Our prior settlement with Countrywide provided restitu-tion for foreclosed homeown-ers and set in motion loan modification programs that have helped tens of thousands of consumers,” Attorney General Harris said. “We will use the current settlement to help Californians affected by the mortgage crisis by provid-ing grants to help homeown-ers facing foreclosure with relocation assistance and provid-ing money to state and local agen-cies to prosecute mortgage fraud.”

During the 18 months end-ing last Sep-tember, 282,000 California homes went into fore-closure, and in the last three months of 2010, notices of default were filed on another 70,000 homes in the state.

This settlement concludes litigation filed by Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. in June 2008 against Country-wide Financial Corp., Coun-trywide Home Loans and Full Spectrum Lending, as well as Mozilo and Sambol. The financial relief provided under

the current settlement aug-ments the Attorney General’s October 2008 settlement with Countrywide to provide loan modifications and other fore-closure relief valued at $8.68 billion nationwide, with $3.5 billion provided to California borrowers.

According to the lawsuit, leading up to the mortgage crisis, Countrywide lured borrowers with low “teaser”

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Establishes California

Foreclosure Relief Fund with $6.5 Million Settlement from Former

Countrywide Financial Executivesrates often as low as 1 percent adjustable rate loans. Its loan officers obscured the down-sides of these loans, which included rapidly rising

rates after teaser rates ex-pired, big prepayment penal-ties, and negative amortization in which a borrower’s total loan costs rose even as ad-ditional payments were made. Countrywide also loosened its mortgage standards and veri-fication procedures in order to write more loans.

As a result of these prac-tices, tens of thousands of homeowners with Country-wide loans ended up in default and foreclosure. The Attorney General’s lawsuit alleged that Mozilo and Sambol knew of these practices and allowed them to continue.

The complaint alleged that Countrywide sought to increase its share of the na-tionwide mortgage market to 30 percent through a decep-tive scheme to mass produce loans “ with little concern about borrowers’ long-term

ability to afford them. It then would sell

the loans on the second-ary market to earn the

highest pos-sible premiums.

The settlement

with Mozilo, the CEO

of Coun-trywide, and Sam-

bol, its president, was filed today in Los Ange-les Superior Court. Mozilo and Sambol left Countrywide when it was purchased by Bank of America in July 2008.

Bank of America acquired Countrywide’s loan portfolio and assumed responsibility to make restitution to mortgage holders who qualify under the terms of the Attorney Gen-eral’s 2008 settlement. Since that settlement, Countrywide has made more than 32,000 modifications, worth more than $1.3 billion, on loans made to California borrowers and has paid $28 million in cash to Californians who lost their homes to foreclosure.

A copy of the Countrywide complaint and today’s settle-ment are attached to the on-line copy of this press release at ag.ca.gov.

Dr. Amado Gabriel Esteban

The recent appointment of Filipino-American Amado Ga-briel Esteban as 20th president of Seton Hall University in New Jersey is another source of pride for Filipinos in America.

Seton Hall is the largest Catholic school in New Jersey. Dr. Esteban is the first non-priest ever named to head Seton Hall in 20 years.

He is an immigrant who came from a family of educators in the Philippines.

He holds a master’s of busi-ness administration and bach-elor’s degree in mathematics from the University of the Philip-pines (U.P.), another master’s in Japanese business studies from Chaminade University in Ho-nolulu and a doctorate from the University of California at Irvine.

Dr. Esteban’s term is for five-and-a-half years.

The U.P. Alumni Association in New Jersey (UPAA-NJ) laud-ed the appointment of a fellow U.P. alumnus. Some of its mem-bers and officers are scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Dr. Este-ban on March 16 at the latter’s office in Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.

According to Phoebe Andes, who is coordinating the courtesy

Filipino-American named Seton Hall University President

call, the UP’ans wish to extend their best wishes and congratula-tions to their esteemed fellow alumnus whose “appointment is not only an honor and pride to U.P., but to the Filipino-American community in the United States.”

New York Consul General Cecilia Rebong and Consul Zaldy Pedron will accompany the group.

The association’s visit was originally scheduled Feb. 2, but due to bad weather in the North-east, it was cancelled and re-scheduled to next month.

The Chula Vista Police Foundation is teaming up this year with the Police Department’s Awards and Recognition Com-mittee to create a commemora-tive, 100th anniversary program honoring the Chula Vista Police Department. According to Scott McMillin, co-chair of the fund-raising committee, the group has set a goal to raise $50,000 on advertising sales in the program.

“In honor of the city’s 100th anniversary, we will be producing a spectacular, expanded full-color program to honor our city’s he-roes,” McMillin said. This keep-sake program will be presented at the Annual Award Ceremony on May 5th as well as to every po-lice officer in the department. It is sure to be cherished for many years to come.”

McMillin is chairing the com-mittee along with Shirley Horton, former Chula Vista mayor and California state assemblywoman representing Chula Vista, and

- Bejarano, McMillin and Horton Chairing Fund-raising Efforts for Annual Awards Event -

Chula Vista police foundation sets ambitious goal

Police Chief David Bejarano. “I have the privilege and

honor of working every day with professional and dedicated police officers and support staff who proudly protect and serve our community,” Bejarano said. “Each year we celebrate these individuals with a special awards ceremony. This year, I invite and encourage all Chula Vista businesses to sponsor our event and support our police officers by taking out an advertisement in the commemorative program.”

The Chula Vista Police Foun-dation is a non-profit organization that awards grants to the Chula Vista Police Department for spe-cialized equipment, training and programs that are not included in the city budget.

For more information on the commemorative program, contact Lieutenant Roxana Kennedy at (619) 476-2453 or via email at [email protected].


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Any Filipino can help feed children in conflict affected areas in Central Mindanao by simply eating a pizza, the World Food Program said.

Even without the one eat-ing pizza, he or she is helping feed children in conflict zone.

“Eating at Pizza Hut and Taco Bell this holiday season can help feed children who are still recovering from the effects of conflict in Central Mindanao,” the WFP said.

In partnership with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell have launched their fourth annual World Hunger Relief campaign in the Philippines.

Over 160 restaurants in the country will raise funds for WFP’s Emergency School Feeding program, which provides nutritious meals to 76,000 elementary school stu-dents in conflict-affected areas of south-central Mindanao.

Until the end of the year, for every order of the Pizza Hut-WFP Bundle Feast, Pizza Hut restaurants will give P10 to the World Hunger Relief campaign.

Having a Christmas card signed by Diether Ocampo can be exciting at the same time helping poor children in Mindanao.

“A customer donating P40 will receive a Christmas card signed by Diether Ocampo. Taco Bell will likewise do-

Eat pizza and help feed children in Mindanao’s conflict zone

nate P10 for every Nachos Bellgrande Combo Meal purchase,” the WFP said, add-ing that all proceeds will go to WFP and will be directly channeled to providing nutri-tious school meals, costing P10 per child per day.

“World Hunger Relief is an innovative global cam-paign which allows the public and private sectors to come together and address one of the most pressing issues of our time – the silent crisis of world hunger,” Stephen Anderson, WFP Philippines Country Director and Repre-sentative said.

In close collaboration with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of Education (DepEd), WFP implements the Emergency School Feeding program which supports the process of bringing children back to school after prolonged dis-placement caused by the most recent upsurge in conflict.

Furthermore, it helps restore a sense of normalcy in their lives and that of their families.

boats are air-conditioned and clean, safe and equipped with individual lifevests, with a TV set showing major channels and CD movies. Impressively, all six boats were made lo-cally.

Congratulations and thank you very much to all the men and women involved in Pasig – the lead agency DENR,

various national govern-ment agencies such as the DPWH, various branches of the armed services, the LGUs and NGOs, business groups and community organizations, including foreign funders from Denmark, Belgium and others.

The success of the reha-bilitation efforts demonstrates what Filipinos can achieve if we all share a unity of pur-pose and show solidarity in action, imbibe personal disci-pline and embrace teamwork, persist and persevere even if it has taken nearly a whole generation. It is noteworthy this daunting undertaking was not an overnight success as it started way back with the es-tablishment of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Program in 1989 followed by the creation of the Pasig River Rehabilita-tion Commission in 1999. It must have reached its tipping point under Hon Regina Lo-pez, culminating in the recent world-record setting footrace “10.10.10 last October 10th that attracted 116,000 par-ticipants (including my whole family), who all showed their love not just for a river, but for the environment, for pres-ent and future generations of Filipinos, and ultimately for God’s creation.

While the Pasig River has come a long way, I believe that the best is yet to come, and now that the Pasig river’s 25 km are back to life, here are 25 ideas to make it even grow.

Introduce a river 1. cruise tour for day and night-time offering dining and entertainment.

Put up a tourist desti-2. nation at the end of the 1.5 hr ride in Nagpayong, e.g., offer-ing travelers a taste of grilled “ihaw-ihaw” seafood and wholesome entertainment.

Put up a connect-3. ing boat tour to Laguna lake where tourists can enjoy a day cruise around one of the world’s largest inland fresh-water lakes and buy local produce such as fruits and vegetables, dairy products and fish from farmers living around the lake, similar to the world-renowned “float-ing market” more than 100km west of Bangkok.

Manage and control 4. the growth of water lilies which, while they may pro-vide a good habitat for fish, may also clog channels and pose risks to boats navigating the river. I read that introduc-ing ducks may be an option because they feed on water lilies.

Intensify efforts to 5. clean up remaining portions, e.g., the relocation of squat-ters from under the Lambin-gan bridge, and dismantling of houses on stilts in Pasig and Pateros.

Install signs strictly 6. prohibiting the throwing of any form of waste into the

river.Enforce the law using 7.

Pasig River Police meting out stiff penalties and imprison-ment.

Complete the clean-up 8. of all esteros and tributaries along the Pasig River.

Install distinctive trash 9. bins in public areas for resi-dents living along the river.

Ask San Juan LGU to 10. clean up the San Juan River

that empties waste into the Pasig.

Ensure 11. adequate waste water treatment facilities are installed in all factories and plants situated along the river-banks, as well as community

sewage treatment. Monitor quality of waste water and ef-fluents by regularly measuring bacterial count.

Continue to dredge 12. and reinforce riverbanks with concrete retaining riverwalls.

Upgrade the rest of 13. Pasig ferry terminals to be safe and inviting for more pas-sengers.

Install signs warning 14. people about the dangers of swimming in the river. The waters of Pasig may look de-ceptively calm but undercur-rents are strong. Sadly there was a freshman high school student who drowned in the waters near the Lambingan Bridge.

Spruce up the 13 15. bridges spanning the Pasig River and put names on the bridges. Install signs to inform passengers of their location, e.g., “You are entering Maka-ti”.

Continue to improve 16. the riverbanks with colorful linear parks ala Marikina.

Plant more trees in 17. Mandaluyong and Taguig, Pasig and Pateros following the example of Arroceros For-est Park and the Makati Park fronting University of Makati.

Introduce regular fes-18. tive attractions such as flu-vial parades to commemorate saints.

Introduce boat race 19. competitions with the Manila

Boat Club, e.g. rowing and sculling.

Build a boardwalk 20. along the riverbanks for strolling, joggers and even a bicycle lane.

Install energy-efficient 21. lights – even lighted billboard advertising along the river.

For low-income com-22. munities, replicate the RFM GK Village in Buayang Bato.

Ensure that the 23. Calauan resettlement site provides sufficient sources of alternative livelihood and educational facilities for infor-mal settlers who are relocated there to encourage them to stay, and even invite friends and relatives to relocate vol-untarily.

Develop a compre-24. hensive and long-term plan for the eventual relocation of the Pandacan and Sta. Ana oil depots that will be mutually beneficial to all stakeholders.

Partner with other 25. agencies such as the Laguna Lake Development Author-ity and all the LGUs charged with the clean up of Manila Bay to share best practices and collaborate in rehabilitat-ing the entire Laguna Bay-Pasig River-Manila Bay zone.

The lesson is clear. If we can bring back to life a dead Pasig river, the major artery of Metro Manila and sole lifeline from Laguna Lake to Manila Bay, we can do the same for our polluted oceans and wa-terways, our denuded forests and poisoned corals. And if we can revitalize the nation’s environment, we can revital-ize the nation’s economy. But the Philippines, the sick man of Asia, can only truly recov-er, once we truly unite.

The Pasig River, once given up for dead, lives!


“The World Food Program is very grateful to Pizza Hut and Taco Bell for their con-sistently strong and generous support,” Anderson said.

“Their timely advocacy has greatly boosted WFP efforts, not only by raising aware-ness about hunger, but also in fighting hunger directly by providing nutritious meals to vulnerable children in con-flict-affected areas of Central Mindanao,” Anderson added.

“Making nutritious meals available in schools helps en-sure that these kids complete their basic education which gives them their best fighting chance in overcoming poverty and hunger”.

The World Hunger Relief campaign, first launched in 2007, is the world’s largest private sector effort on the is-sue of hunger.

In the past three years, YUM! Brands has raised funds for WFP and other hun-ger relief agencies globally.

To date, the campaign spans 110 countries and has mobilized 37,000 restaurants and over one million employ-ees to volunteer, raise hunger awareness and funds.

Multi-Grammy Award win-ner, pop superstar and WFP Ambassador Against Hunger Christina Aguilera is also the global spokesperson for World Hunger Relief.

(Story courtesy of Edwin O. Fernandez of PNA)

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Elise Estrada has been singing hit songs one after the other since winning a radio station contest here in 2007.

“I did every competi-tion, every talent show. I was always trying to be seen. And that’s what you need to do. You just need to be persistent and show them what you got,” said Estrada.

Her debut single “Insatia-ble” made it to the Canadian Top 40 Charts, while her self-titled album produced chart topping hits.

Producer and song writer Adam Hurstfield is all praises for his first Filipino-Canadian talent.

Fil-Canadian pop singer making waves in Canada

Elise Estrada

ever worked with. She’s very down-to-earth. She doesn’t take anything for granted. We were the first mainstream label to really get behind a Filipino artist and I’m very proud of it,” Hurstfield said.

Estrada has been nominat-ed for a Juno Award, Canada’s equivalent of the Grammy’s for best R&B Soul album 2009.

Estrada also embarked on a television and movie career and plans are underway to re-lease her album in the Philip-pines.

(Story courtesy of ABS-CBN Balitang America)“Elise is the best I’ve

It looks like a typical Filipino sari-sari store that sells coffee, candies, biscuits and all sorts of snacks – only nobody is around except for customers. Founded by Elena Gabilo, it is living proof of the honesty of the Ivatans.

Ivatans, as the natives of Batanes are called, are peace-loving people known for their honesty. Hoping to awaken this value both among lo-cals (especially the younger generation) and visitors to this quaint little town, Gabilo put up the Honesty Coffee Shop.

Visitors are free to roam around and take whatever they want. Each item has a corresponding price tag and honesty dictates that you pay the store what you owe – by

Honesty is the best policy in this Batanes coffee shop

listing the item in a logbook and putting your money in a drop box.

Outside, a sign says “This store is too small for dishonest people”. The Honesty Coffee Shop is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and can be seen once you arrive at Ivana port.

Gabilo, a 73-year old retired public school teacher, put up the store in 1995. But eventually, she needed to help her husband attend to their main business of making cane vinegar. But

she never closed down her store; instead she just left it unattended like how it is today.

Her store has since become a famous landmark for travelers. One tourism

blogger describes the concept as a a “nice tourism pitch” and wishes there would be more stores like this so the Philip-pines would be known as the “most honest place in Asia”.

(Story by Marjorie Gorospe)

Asian Journal February 18, 2011 edition

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