asian journal mar 27 2009

Tied in, uploaded, blogged and linked

(Continued on page 20) (Continued on page 18)

PHILIPPINE NEWS SER-VICE -- A LADY lawmaker who originally extended help and even conducted personal interviews among witnesses of the Subic rape case yes-terday expressed belief that Suzette Sombilon Nicolas or Nicole could have not been raped after all.

During the weekly Usaping Balita media forum at Serye Restaurant in Quezon City Memorial Circle, Zambales Rep. Maria Milagros Mag-saysay said what happened might be a consensual sex between Nicole and convicted rapist Lance Corporal Daniel Smith.

“If you look at circum-stances, it would appear that she was not raped,” Magsay-say told reporters when asked about her personal belief on the incident where she con-ducted interviews among witnesses of the incident, in-cluding the Starex van driver Timoteo Soriano.

Magsaysay was the one who prevented some U.S. servicemen from leaving the country immediately after the rape incident.

Magsaysay said even the driver of the Starex van where Nicole was raped claimed that he did not hear that the victim was complaining something while the rape incident is hap-pening.

After getting the personal account of Nicole and driver Soriano and comparing it to their affidavits, Magsaysay admitted that there were some changes on the details of the incident apparently by indi-viduals and groups who have vested interest on the case.

Nicole’s fightstill on -- Daza

Quezon City Rep. Nanette Castelo-Daza, chairman of the House committee on women and gender equality, believes that “the fight for justice in behalf of all abused women” is not over yet despite the un-expected turn in the rape case against U.S. serviceman Cpl. Daniel Smith.

“Let the wheels of justice continue to roll. The case of

Nicole couldn’t have been raped -- lady solon

Three favorite Filipino restaurants, Jollibee,

Red Ribbon Bakeshop and Chowking open

their doors to the public last Sunday, March 22, at the Westfield

Plaza Bonita Mall in National City. The

much awaited event was enthusiastically received by the members of the public who flocked to

the store all day.

See page 3

Jollibee, Red Ribbon Bakeshop and Chowking

Three Filipino Restaurants open in Westfield Plaza Bonita

By Genevieve Silverio, San Diego Asian Journal

| N AT I O N A L C I T Y, 03/27/09 -- San Diego Filipino real estate professionals met at the Villa Manila Restaurant in National City on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 to discuss ways to seek a slice of the burgeoning bank-owned or foreclosure market that has flooded the local real estate and mortgage industry.

NMBA partners with FAREPA

Filipino real estate leaders unite for slice

of foreclosure pie

Filipino underground and guerrilla forces opposed the Japanese occupation. The

HUKBALAHAP (Anti-Japanese Forces Movement) emerged the

major force in the resistance in Central Luzon, extending

their control over much of the region. Their effectiveness of the guerrilla operations were such

that by the end of the war, Japan reportedly controlled only 12 of

the 58 provinces.

By Riz A. OadesSee page 6

World War II through the Eyes of a Growing Boy

Filipino guerillas raid a Japanese garri-son.

Good food at affordable prices makes good sense even in tough economy. The proof positive is Bamboo Rotisserie, which opened

its doors last week. Bamboo Rotisserie opened to rave reviews among locals with a feast of grilled favorites on Friday, March 20, 2009. The crowd of patrons gathered during the grand opening of its new store in the Grove Shopping Center a few steps away from

Manila Seafood in National City.

Genevieve T Silverio,Managing Editor

The San Diego Asian Journal See page 18

Grilled to perfectionBamboo Rotisserie’s bold entry into

the food business is food for thought

About 15 local real estate professionals attended the meeting that was sponsored by the San Diego Chapter of the Filipino American Real Estate Professionals Associ-ation (FAREPA). The group seeks to establish a foothold as a bank-approved REO broker to capture market share in a numbers-driven foreclosure business domi-nated by larger, more estab-lished players who worked with banks during the real estate downturn in the mid-

1990s. The problem has created

bottlenecks for local real es-tate practitioners especially minority real estate profes-sionals according to the group. At the meeting, small minority business owners and practitioners complained about being shut out from the foreclosure market as a result of the prevailing lopsided and restrictive bank

real-estate-owned policies.

Disservice Daughlet Ordinario, a

local broker based in Mira Mesa, cited a typical ex-ample in which one broker listed about 300 REO or bank-owned properties. The resulting monopolies have caused a stir among FAREPA members who see the practice as a disservice to minority communities.

(Continued on page 5)


You can’t say that you’ve been to Manila if you haven’t had the chance to ride the cul-tural icon of the Philip-pines, the jeepney!

The Jeepney is a unique transportation that can only be found in the Philippines. It was originally made from the US military

Discover Manila’s best in a Jeepney

Intramuros cultural heritage

jeeps that were left to the Filipinos after World War II, giving it the powerful engine of an army jeep. With great Filipino ingenuity, the body was remodeled by adding some metal roofs and deco-rating it with vibrant colors. It has rapidly emerged as a

creative and popular means of public transportation. Tagged as the “King of the Road,” it has become an en-during symbol of Philippine pop culture.

We are proud to introduce the concept of “Jeepney

Bamboo Rotisserie ribbon cutting: Lily Yee, Joy Oyson and Atty. Audie de Castro are joined by close family members for the festivi-ties.

SAN DIEGO, 3/25/09 -- Filipino American real estate professionals discuss issues af-fecting the industry during a FAREPA meeting at Villa Manila, National City. In the photo (L-R) are: Raul Pantaleon, Ray Alacon, Brenda Dycus, Myrna Reyes, Nedy Lao, Veronica Papa, Offie Reyes, Daughlet Ordinario, Evelyn Buenafe, Edna Concepcion, J.R. Chan-tengco, Edith Lopez, Beth Antiporda and Geneveive Silverio.

March 27 - April 2, 2009

Msgr. Gutierrez Bill LabestreLife in Death

Miles BeauchampYour Old Man

PNS -- AFTER “Y ou Changed My Life” which, as of press time is doing well at the box-of-fice, John Lloyd Cruz will get busy with his next grand project for Star Cinema titled “A Mother’s

John Lloyd ready for kissing scenes with Luis

Luis Manzano and John Lloyd

Story.” Here, he shares the frame with Batangas Gover-nor Vilma Santos and Luis Manzano.

“I’m really excited with this project,” states John Lloyd. “For one, I’ll be with

Tita Vi who is one of the industry’s fin-

est actresses plus Luis. It’s my first time to work with

them in a film. I’ll just tape my remain-ing scenes for “I Love Betty La Fea” then off I go to

New York for the shoot.” Interestingly, the movie

tackles the relationship of a mother to her gay son and his lover.

March 27 - April 2, 2009Asian Journal - (619) 474-0588 Visit our website at http://www.asianjournalusa.com

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*Former San Diego Regional Coordinator for U.S. Immigration Amnesty for Catholic Community Services, Catholic Diocese of San Diego

*Legal Advisor, Los Chabacanos of Cavite CityAssociation, Inc., San Diego, California

*Juris Doctor law degree, University of San Diego (1985),Diploma; Oxford Institute on International and Comparative Law (USD), Oxford, England (1984);Bachelor Degree, University of Southern California (1983);Montgomery High School, San Diego (1979)

*Born in the Philippines (Cavite)

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Today in HistoryRead previous articles by visiting our website at www.asian-

journalusa.com

By Thomas S. TananaSan Diego Pet Food

Home Deliveries Iraqi dictator, Sadaam Hus-

sein, was born this week, on April 28, 1937 -- exactly eight years before an Italian crowd hung THEIR dictator, Benito Mussolini. Japanese Emperor Hirohito took his FIRST breath one day later, but in 1901, and Golda Meir came into the world May 3, 1898 (she was Israel’s Prime Minister between 1969 and 1974).

Our fifth president, James Monroe, was born in 1758 on Saddam Hussein’s birth date. President #18 and civil war gen-eral, Ulysses S. Grant, came into this world one day sooner, but in 1822. And George Washington delivered the first presidential inaugural address on March 30, 1789.

May is Freedom Shrine Month, where reproductions of 30 original historic documents are displayed at thousands of places across America to remind us that the freedoms we enjoy today were forged from ideal-ism, determination and sacrifice -- requiring our eternal vigilance to continually guard, protect, extend and expand them. You can visit www.nationalexchange-club.org for more information. Try to catch one of these exhibits on display here in San Diego County!

May also recognizes the 66 million Americans who are af-flicted with arthritis. You can learn allot about the more than 100 different forms of this dis-ease at www.arthritis.org. May is also National Egg Month. Not only are eggs nutritious, conve-nient, versatile and economical -- but they are particularly healthy for dogs because eggs are

absolutely the most completely balanced and the best-fit protein for the canine dietary profile.

But the tastiest flavor of all for dogs is liver. Fresh liver -- not even filet mignon -- is their absolute favorite thing to eat. In fact, liver is guaranteed to set your dog’s taste buds on fire. So if you really want to treat your best buddy to his favorite biscuit, try liver-flavored snacks!

The biological clock gene, that governs our daily cycles (called “circadian rhythms”),

was discovered in mice on April 28, 1994. Baby doctor guru (and Viet Nam War protestor), Ben-jamin Spock, was born May 2, 1903, on the 384th anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death. That genius painted the Mona Lisa and Last Supper -- and invented the parachute, among many other things. The zipper, however, was patented by some-one else on April 29, 1913.

The first space tourist paid $20 million to orbit the earth mul-tiple times, in about one hour per round turn, on April 28, 2001. It certainly took Ferdinand Magel-lan (the Portuguese navigator who first circumnavigated the globe in a wind-powered sailing ship) allot longer to go around the world than that first space tourist! Magellan died one day before the first space tourist’s launch, but in 1521.

Samuel Morse, who con-structed the first telegraph and

invented the “Morse Code”, was born April 27, 1791. Publisher William Randolph Hearst came into this world April 29, 1863 -- two days after the 1737 birth of English historian Edward Gib-bon (author of “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire). And the CBS Evening News debuted May 3, 1948.

The King James Bible was first published on May 2, 1611 when the Church of England wanted a bible written in English, instead of the Catholic Latin bible. Ma-chiavelli was born May 3, 1469. His political work, “The Prince”, was an amoral book that argued for ruthlessly arbitrary, central-ized and absolutist governments headed by strong and capricious dictators. On the other hand, “Robert’s Rules of Order” au-thor, Henry Robert, took his first breath May 2, 1837.

Berlin surrendered to the So-viets on May 2, 1945 and Great

Britain came into existence on May 1, 1707. I’ll bet your eye-brows just went up, but that’s a correct date. Great Britain, you see, is the result of the “merger” between “England” and Scot-land. The “United Kingdom” was formed even later than 1707 -- when Great Britain merged with Northern Ireland.

May 1st is May Day. It’s more than just a rite of Spring across most of the World. Instead of dancing around May Poles, 140 nations of the world celebrate their “Labor Day” on May 1st. That’s every single country in the world except the United States, Canada and Bermuda! Coretta Scott King was born April 27, 1927 -- one day before the 139th anniversary of Mary-land becoming the seventh state to ratify the Constitution. Inci-dently, the whole purpose of our Constitution is to keep govern-ment from becoming “Machia-

vellian”.The Rodney King riots erupted

in Los Angeles April 29, 1992 and Fletcher Christian “muti-nied” against the cruel Captain Bligh and took away command of the ship “Bounty” exactly one year after Maryland’s ratifica-tion of the Constitution. South Viet Nam fell to the communists on April 30, 1975 -- marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

Hitler also committed suicide that day by blowing his brains out on April 30, 1945. The next day, May Day, marked the day in 1960 when Gary Powers’ U-2 espionage plane got shot down by the Soviets in the middle of Russia. Amtrak went into ser-vice that day in 1971.

The Dachau concentration camp was liberated by American troops on April 29, 1945. The


Sadaam Hussein born April 28, 1937

Asian Journal - (619) 474-0588 Visit our website at http://www.asianjournalusa.comMarch 27 - April 2, 2009

The people of San Diego County came together last Sunday, March 22, to cel-ebrate the opening of three favorite Filipino Restaurants -- Jollibee, Red Ribbon and Chowking -- at the Westfield

Plaza Bonita, new home to Jollibee, Red Ribbon

Bakeshop and Chowking

Plaza Bonita Mall in National City.

For weeks, patrons have been anticipating their open-ing after a huge “soon to open” sign was placed on the first floor of the mall.

At eight o’clock in the morning, the doors of the res-

taurants were quietly opened and custom-ers started to trickle in. By ten a.m., the restaurants were full to capacity and the flow of customers ea-ger to have a taste of their favorite meals back home did not stop until the restau-rants closed shop at 8 in the evening.

A bigger, much-fan-fare “opening event” will be held some-time in June. Filipino movie stars and local celebrities will grace the occasion. In the meantime, the three restaurants continue to satisfy the crav-ings of the custom-ers who have long

waited for the moment.The food served by the

three restaurants is consid-ered a showcase of the best of the Filipino…..Jollibee’s ‘langhap-sarap’ Chicken Joy,

Red Ribbon’s award-winning Mango and Ube Cakes, and Chowking’s super-delicious meal choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This latest Red Ribbon Bakeshop is proud to serve the brand’s full line of premi-um cakes, pastries and short

order meals as well as a wide range of freshly baked goods such as Chocolate filled Croissants, and Gourmet Cin-namon Rolls.

Jollibee offers its Hamburg-ers; Noodle Dishes like its Jollibee Spaghetti and Pal-abok Fiesta; Chicken Meals like its Chicken Joy; Sand-wiches featuring its Jolly Hot Dogs; Desserts with its Ice Craze Specials; and Breakfast Meals with choices of Chick-

en Tocino, Crispy Bangus . Longaniza, Corned beef, Beef Tapa, Hot Dog, and Pancakes with Sausage and Egg.

Chowking, on the other hand, offers its signature Noodle Soups, Siopao, Al-muchow Breakfast favorites, Chicken and Oriental Rice Meals, Shakes, Hot Taho and Halo-Halo.

The store hours are from 8

a.m. to 10 p.m.The location boasts of an

ample dine-in space that will seat 157 patrons. Plaza Bonita is Red Ribbon’s 32nd store in the U.S. and the 5th in San Diego County, it is Jollibee’s 26th in the U.S. and 4th in San Diego; and it is Chowking’s 17th store in the U.S. and 4th in San Diego.

Westfield Plaza Bonita first opened in 1981 and was the first fully-indoor mall in the

South Bay Area and features anchor destinations such as Macy’s, JC Penney and Target.

A Party Room is also avail-able for business meetings or private parties with 40 people maximum seating.

The store’s address is West-field Plaza Bonita, 3030 Plaza Bonita Road, Space 1430, National City, California, 91950.

- Photos by Conrad Reloj Jr. -

Mr. Tommy King, VP and Country Manager of Jollibee and Red Ribbon Bakeshop USA


TIPID REGULAR JUMBO$40$45N/AN/A

$50$55$65$70

$65$70$80$85

02/15/09-03/15/09 21 days 535.0002/15/09-03/15/09 30 days 619.0002/15/09-03/15/09 45 days 694.0002/15/09-03/15/09 2 mos. 767.0002/15/09-03/15/09 6 mos. 879.0002/15/09-03/15/09 1 year 1,140.00

02/15/09-03/15/09 6 mos. 685.00

02/15/09-03/15/09 3 mos. 555.00

02/15/09-03/15/09 60 days 555.00

02/15/09-03/15/09 45 days 509.00

02/15/09-03/15/09 3 mos. 631.00

02/15/09-03/15/09 6 mos. 738.00

02/15/09-03/15/09 2 mos. 485.00

Do you know that several of Asian Journal San Diego

columnists are notable authors of books? One is a surgeon out of Imperial County, another is a re-spected prelate, and the last is a 91-year old poet and retired schoolteacher from Cavite who now resides in San Diego County.

If you are looking for books to read that would take you off the beaten path, you would be well advised to choose these titles:

Virtuous Healers, Models of Faith in Medicine -- by Dr. Ed Gamboa, MD, FACS

Published by St. Anthony Press, the work, which consists of essays, reminds one of what

the medical profession and heal-ing is about at a time when our

by G. Tagudin - Silverio

In Perspective

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

Writers on a roll: A doctor, a monsignor and a poet

basic precepts about life itself are being challenged. The project was initiated by St. Anthony Press by inviting Dr. Gamboa to present a series of essays on the topics of his choice. In the end, the reader is rewarded with a rare glimpse into healing and the human heart.

Here is the review by St. An-thony Press:

What can we learn about heal-ing from such Catholic lead-ers as Mother Teresa, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Dr. Gianna Beretta Molla, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Dr. Adrienne von Speyr, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin? What might they teach us about such traditional healing virtues as compassion and kindness, integrity and ethics, patience and tolerance, humility and temper-ance?

With health care on everyone’s agenda, Doctor Ed Gamboa encourages us to explore anew and recommit to the traditional ideals and enduring virtues that make medicine and the practice of healing more than a job. Using life stories of heroic men and women who served as physicians, nurses and hospital attendants, or who were involved in medicine and caring for the sick, Gamboa provides inspira-tion and prayerful refl ection for anyone working in the health and medical fi elds today.

ISBN-10: 0-86716-693-2 (Available on Amazon.com)

Lower Your Nets (Refl ec-tions on the Sunday Readers B Cycle 2009) -- by Monsignor Fernando Gutierrez, PC., MRE, D. Min

The beloved Monsignor Fernando Gutierrez has always been a great infl uence on many of our readers who prefer to have their Sunday sermon printed and delivered weekly with a sprinkle of humor on the side.

The Monsignor commands everyone’s attention with his wit and wisdom about everyday life and the gospel reading along with great quotes from literature, which he masterfully dispenses to suit the occasion. However, only a few know of the monsi-gnor’s health. The monsignor, who recovered from a quintuple bypass a few months ago, is back in the hospital af-ter he slipped and injured himself. The prayers of the community are with him.

In the foreword, Asian Journal Publisher and Editor in Chief Sim Silverio writes:

“There are a lot of mysteries in our Catholic religion that are simply beyond our human mind to fathom. Teach-ings tell us that we simply must have faith to accept them. This is easy to do in an ideal world. But we do not live in an ideal world. In these modern times, we now have easy access to a lot of information and misinforma-tion promoted by people with different interests and agenda. This results to a lot of confu-sion, which sometimes weakens one’s faith. Msgr. Fernando G. Gutierrez’s book, a collec-tion of articles published in his column, “Lower Your Nets” in the San Diego Asian Journal and which explains Scripture in layman’s terms somehow helps weave together loose ends in our bewildered mind regarding the readings of the Holy Mass. In the process, it strengthens our faith. It helps also that he opens his column with the “Joke of the Week”, which I am embarrassed to admit, I look forward to every time I read his articles. – Sim

SilverioFor the First Sunday of Lent

(Asian Journal, 2/21/09, page 19), the monsignor launched a tirade against the clutter of our lives in a column subtitled: “Busy with so many things, with little or no time for God.” The article then touches on a tale about a worldwide convention called by Satan and his cohorts who then devise ways to steal people’s time away from God to distract them from developing a relationship with Christ.

Well, thank God for the mon-signor. Now you can read up on what you are missing. Here is your chance to fi nd time with

God. Get the monsignor’s guide to the Sunday read-ings.

God indeed works in mys-terious ways. If God chooses the lowly to mag-nify his deeds, then he must have found the Asian Journal small enough to reach an under-served audience of working class folk. The mon-signor’s min-istry is greatly

appreciated. Lower Your Nets by Monsignor

Gutierrez is available from St. Mary’s Parish in National City. The books are also available at LJ Printing located at 550 E. 8th Street, Suite 6, National City, CA 91950 or by calling Santi Sil-verio at (619) 474-1878.

ISBN 978-1-61539-115-8 (The cost of the book is $25.00)

Smiles from the Heart -- by Soledad Oropesa Bautista

The world is indeed a better place because of Soledad Orope-sa Bautista. Gawad Kalinga will be the benefi ciary of the upcom-ing book of poems “Smiles from the Heart” by our very own poet in residence Soledad Oropesa Bautista. Nanay Sol, as she is fondly called by anyone fi fty-fi ve and under, is a very gracious and

astute ninety-one year old retired school teacher who would like her legacy of poems to benefi t Gawad Kalinga.

On her own, Nanay Sol has been able to raise funds to build several Gawad Kalinga houses. Her poems reveal why. She devotes a section to poems about GK and the lives it has touched. She also writes stanzas about “Hapag Ng Pagasa” the striking portrait of the Last Supper with Christ and the children of the slums by “heartist” Joey Velasco.

The poems span a lifetime of experiences that teach important values to the young, give advice, refl ect on the perils of youth and the beauty of young love, recall the past with odes to history, renew one’s faith and inspiration,

and show a path to the future with insights into growing old gracefully.

GK San Diego advocate Tony Olaes has already pledged funds for the printing of the book. Joy Garcia of OD Mart is helping to project manage the book and coordinate the efforts to design a cover for the book.

The book will hopefully be out in time for the June 2009 GK Summit in Harvard, Massachu-setts.

If you are interested in placing orders for the books of Mon-signor Gutierrez and Soledad Oropesa Bautista, please contact [email protected].

The book “Smiles from the Heart” will be made available through GK at a later date.

monsignor’s guide to the Sunday read-ings.

God indeed works in mys-terious ways. If God chooses the lowly to mag-nify his deeds, then he must have found the Asian Journal small enough to reach an under-served audience of working class folk. The mon-signor’s min-istry is greatly


Jess Aguilar, a local resident of San Diego, passed away last February 5, 2009 at the age of 87 due to complications after surgery. He was a First Lieuten-ant as an Intelligence Operation Officer served with Distinction and Honor during World War II in the United States Armed Forces in the Far East served under General Douglas McAr-thur in Leyte during the Libera-tion. Survived by his wife for 63 years Virginia, children Arch. Jesse Jr., Laura, Mildred, Arch. Vic, Romy and Dr. Noel Aguilar and 23 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.He was a regular columnists of local San Diego newspaper during the 90’s and Founder of Filipino American Association of World War II Veterans of San Diego, Inc. Jess was buried last Feb. 14th at

Aguilar Family

El Camino Memorial. The Aguilar Family would like

to thank the American Dentists of San Diego, the Free Mason, all Relatives and Friends for their sympathy during their time of sorrow.

Jess Aguilar 1922-2009

PHILIPPINE NEWS SER-VICE -- Executives of Ingram Micro, Inc., the world’s larg-est technology distributor have assured President Arro yo of continued investment in the Philippines despite the global recession, according to Press Secretary Jesus Dureza.

“President Arroyo met with ex-ecutives of Ingram Micro where they presented to the President their business expansion in the Philippines and their pledge to continue their investment despite the global recession,” Dureza said.

“The crisis in the U.S. may even be beneficial to our out-sourcing business. There’s an indication from local business-men here that there will be more demand for our BPO [business process outsourcing] services because of their cutbacks here,” Dureza added.

With this, Dureza said the President is “confident that she was able to push for the agenda of developing nations like the Philippines amid the global eco-nomic meltdown”.

President Arroyo, who came from Colombia where she met

Largest technology distributor to still invest in RP -- Dureza

with President Alvaro Uribe in the world-class tourist spot of Cartagena, treated select mem-bers of the Filipino community here to lunch at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel.

“She’s happy to see the Filipi-nos here,” Dureza said.

Dureza said that a n all-Filipino male singing group serenaded Arroyo with mostly Tagalog favorites, including traditional Filipino love songs, over lunch.

“Good tender beef was served,” said Dureza.

PHILIPPINE NEWS SER-VICE -- THE Land Transporta-tion Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is set to decide whether to retain or remove the P10 compulsory tip imposed on

taxi passengers.LTFRB Chairman Thompson

Lantion said the taxi tip will be included in the fare reduction hearing at 10 a.m. on Dec 3.

He said they will hear the pending petitions of fare rollback and the abolition of the compul-

LTFRB mulls removal of taxi P10 tip

sory P10 tip on taxi by a group headed by its counsel and chair-man Atty. Vic Millora.

Millora said their petition is in connection with the series of rollbacks of the price of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is the main fuel used by taxicabs in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

Taxi group led by Quezon City Councilor and president of Philippine National Taxi Opera-tors Association (PNTOA) Atty. Bong Suntay has earlier opposed any move to remove the add on fare, saying that they have yet to recover from the series of oil price hikes in the past months.

They said that if the additional P10 tip is removed, they will file a petition to increase the flag-down rate which was adjusted four years ago.

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza.

In San Diego, many of the prop-erties in foreclosure are located in minority communities that are hardest hit. At a separate meeting sponsored by the Pacific Associa-tion of Realtors (PSAR), Chula Vista marked three minority neigh-borhoods hardest hit by foreclo-sures on the city’s posh, sprawling master-planned communities to the east of I-805 and older working class neighborhoods bordering I-5.

The glut of distressed proper-ties has created a surplus that the First-Time Homebuyer Assistance program, a federal program, seeks to reduce. According to Ordinario, “local funding is available in the stimulus package.” The program allows low-income buyers of REOs to offer bids 15 percent below the market value of a property and take out a silent second loan. The rules vary between the City of Chula Vista and the County and City of San Diego. According to city offi-cials, the first round of funds would be sufficient for the needs of forty homebuyers in Chula Vista, a mere fraction of the local inventory.

HUD has plenty of properties available according to Myrna T.F. Reyes. However, “very little of the REO business goes to minority brokers,” added J.R. Changtengco who, with Daughlet Ordinario, or-ganized the event. The two brokers returned from a trip to the group’s national headquarters in Redlands, California where they met with the organizing chairs for the three chapters in Northern California region. Los Angeles and San Diego form the two chapters for Southern California. The national organiza-tion is known as NAFAREP or the National Filipino American Real Estate Professionals Association.

During the event, Ordinario relayed the breaking news that the National Bankers and Mortgage Association (NBMA) has agreed to partner with the group.

Mandate

“Banks want to keep it simple for themselves,” continued Changteng-co, who predicts a coming sea change with the new stimulus package and the emerging clout of FAREPA as a national organization. “They are going to mandate that we are in,” he announced.

The group hopes to stand on the shoulders of supplier diversity, a program that sets aside a fraction of business to minority and small business vendors. But it has yet to be locked into place as part of the process for selling off bank real-estate owned assets.

The group has also found a champion among its ranks. One of FAREPA’s organizing chairs at the national level is Faith Bautista of Mabuhay Alliance. She was recently named a member of the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), a quasi-government entity charged with oversight of minority deposi-tory institutions in furthering the economic viability of minority and low-income communities.

Tough battle

The group faces a tough battle as banks move quickly to dispose of bad real estate assets to stop the bleeding. More often than not the inventory is handed off to third-party institutions that are from out of town. According to a March 9, 2009 report by the National Associ-ation of Realtors, REOs have been a major source of income for the auction industry. Banks frequently contract professional auctioneers to sell foreclosed properties at auc-tion, as well as refer auctioneers to customers with troubled assets.

But that is not all. It also must move in sync to catch up with the 18-month window allotted for the First Time Homebuyer Assistance Program.

“We hope to qualify members to receive business from banks,” explained Chantengco, who with Ordinario, is working on a national real estate referral program for its members. He is compiling a list of real estate service related contrac-tors from the Filipino community to be included as a resource for FAREPA and comply with the stringent REO broker qualification process.

At the same time, Ordinario, who is a HUD-certified trainer, is focused on building up the mem-bership to a critical mass to show the numbers as the group prepares for a showdown. She is also plan-ning a series of workshops for its membership.

“It’s hard to advocate for many. It has to be a collective effort,” remarked Changtenco who hopes other disenfranchised real estate professionals would join the cause. -- AJ

Filipino real estate leaders unite for slice

of foreclosure pie

NMBA partners with FAREPA

(Continued from page 1)


Perspectives

ASIAN JOURNALThe first Asian-Filipino weekly in Southern California

An award-winning newspaper, it is San Diego’s most widely circulated Asian-Filipino newpaper!

In Pursuit of Excellence

Ashley SilverioAssistant Editor

Eugenio “Ego” Osin, (1946 - 1994)Joe Cabrera, (1924 - 1996)

The Asian Journal is published weekly and distributed in all Asian communties in San Diego County. Publication date is every 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 submissions. Entire content is © 2008 copyrighted material by Asian Journal. Materials in this publication may not be reproduced without specific permission from the publisher.

Genevieve SilverioManaging Editor

Simeon G. Silverio, Jr.Publisher & Editor

Miles BeauchampAssociate Editor

Santi SilverioAssociate Publisher

At Large...

Read Miles Beauchamp’s previous articles by visiting our web-site at www.asianjournalusa.com

by Miles Beauchamp

by Riz A. Oades

Voices & Images

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

Modern MarvelsModern marvels have touchedthe human bodyA bald pate can be refilledA furrowed brow and crow’s feetcan be stretchedScanty eyebrows can be penciledor tattooedDrooping lids can be liftedBaggy eyes can be deflatedPinched withered lipscan be rosebuddedMissing teeth can be replacedA flat chest can be paddedAn enormous boob can be carvedDouble and triple chins can be trimmedThe bloated girth can be girdled or sliced offTo seek perfection with the physicalShould also be done with the spiritualPlastic surgery can do wondersBut cannot stop timeTime will take its toll andTake you back to square one.

©2008 copyright by Soledad O. Bautista. All rights reserved.

So where are you? No, I don’t mean “where are you” in the where

are you located sense; I mean, where are you lo-cated in the e-sense?

Let’s rephrase the question. Where can you be found elec-tronically? Is Flickr managing your images so you can upload them easier? Do you have a Facebook page? Are you Linke-dIn? Do you have a blog? If so

Tied in, uploaded, blogged and linked

I’m everywhere I lookwhere is it? If you’re not doing at least a couple of these how can you look your kid’s friends in the eyes? For that matter your kids? Do your kids even admit you’re alive without rolling their eyes?

If you can’t come home from work, sit down and spend a cou-ple of hours productively wast-ing time flitting from site to site, how can you call yourself alive? Let me ask you another question: Are you reading this in the paper version or the I-paper version

at Scribd? Or was it emailed to you with the rest of the papers columns and features?

Facebook

“Founded in February 2004, Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company devel-ops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people’s real-world social connec-tions.

Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a part of millions of people’s lives all around the world. Facebook is a privately-held com-pany and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “An-derson Cooper 360,” U2, Britney Spears, Lance Armstrong, Dwyane Wade, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, The New York Times, CNN and more are on Facebook. Over 175 million users can connect on Facebook.”

LinkedIn

“LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced profes-sionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accom-plish your goals.

LinkedIn has over 36 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world. A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of our members are outside the U.S. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional expertise and ac-complishments. You can then form enduring connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they

know, linking you to a vast num-ber of qualified professionals and experts. Through your network you can:

*Manage the information that’s publicly available about you as a professional

*Find and be introduced to po-tential clients, service providers, and subject experts who come recommended *Cre-ate and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files and solve problems

*Be found for business op-portunities and find potential partners

*Gain new insights from dis-cussions with likeminded profes-sionals in private group settings

*Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals

*Post and distribute job listings to find the best talent for your company”

Flickr

“Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world and has two main goals: We want to help people make their content available to the people who matter to them. Maybe they want to keep a blog of moments captured on their camera phone, or maybe they want to show off their best pic-tures or video to the whole world in a bid for web celebrity. Or maybe they want to securely and privately share photos of their kids with their family across the country. Flickr makes all these things possible and more! To do this, we want to get photos and video into and out of the system in as many ways as we can: from the web, from mobile devices, from the users’ home computers and from whatever software they are using to man-age their content. And we want to be able to push them out in as many ways as possible: on the Flickr website, in RSS feeds, by email, by posting to out-side blogs or ways we haven’t thought of yet. What else are we going to use those smart refrig-erators for? Flickr is the WD-40 that makes it easy to get photos or video from one person

to another in whatever way they want.”

Scribd

“Scribd began with a simple observation – that there’s a writer in all of us. And that even more fundamental than our desire for self-expression is our need to learn and be inspired.

Today, Scribd is the place where you publish, discover and discuss original writings and documents. More than 50 million people each month are finding or sharing fun, functional or fantastical writings and docu-ments on Scribd.com and tens of thousands of other websites that have embedded Scribd’s docu-ment reader.

We built a technology that’s broken all barriers to traditional publishing and in the process also built one of the largest read-erships in the world. With Scribd’s iPaper document reader, anyone can easily upload and immediately share their original works on Scribd.com or any other website. iPaper transforms PDF, Word, PowerPoint and

many other file formats into an elegant web display. Your work can be shared with Scribd’s community of passionate read-ers, and because every word of your document is indexed for search engine optimization, your screenplay, novel or even sheet music and recipes also can be discovered by the world.

You can create (or liberate from your hard drive) anything you want to share – that com-parative essay on Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, the first three chap-ters of the book you’ve been meaning to finish, journal entries from your trip to Thailand. Scribd provides a creative and useful new platform for readers, authors, publishers and anyone else seeking to express them-selves, share ideas and exchange information.”

There are four ways to link to the world in a personal and pro-fessional way; just four ways out of millions. But those are four important ones. So go out and link in, play around, and take pictures. Just be back in time for bed…or work.

There is no lack of stories on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World

War II, but little is written on how ordinary people lived and sustained themselves through the war. This installment piece is an attempt to help fill that gap.

What was life like for ordinary people, children in particular, as they tried to meet their everyday needs and live as normally as pos-sible under abnormal circumstanc-es? How did it alter their preoccu-pations, attitudes, and behavior and how in turn did these help to shape the characters of the period?

Ordinary people refer to the vast majority of Filipinos who were not key players in the war drama but lived precarious lives as well. Everyday life includes food, health problem, work and livelihood, schooling, transportation, leisure and recreation, and interpersonal relations.

This approach to storytelling gives readers many glimpses of the Japanese occupation. Such glimpses cover special topics like the outbreak of the war and the ef-fect on the communities, the battle for liberation from the Japanese and how their families were affected by their experiences.

Amazing to Rosel Aquino Zobel is that the memories of World War II experiences are still pretty sharp – even at this date. He was six years Japanese Soldiers Shouting Banzai,

Banzai

Oral History4th of a Series

IN SEARCH OF THE GOOD LIFE:World War II through the

Eyes of a Growing Boyold, and was in the first grade when Japan launched a surprise attack on December 8, 1941 and subsequently occupied the Philippines. He inevitably felt the consequences of the war. Although children’s points of views varied about the war, still more individual and family stories are yet to be told; and this one is the Zobel’s.

Japanese Occupation

Rosel was awakened in the early morning of December 8, 1941 by excited talk outside his house. He

heard his Tatay telling the family that Japanese planes had bombed some parts of the Philippines. He didn’t seemed to attach any signifi-cance to it; and he closed his eyes to return to sleep so he could call back the dream that passed away at its pleasant moment.

But then his neighbor’s radio set was turned on already full blast and an excited voice zealously broad-casting “America and Japan are now at war.”

“A day that will live in infamy,” declared President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and ten hours later the Philippines. Everything changed immediately and irrevocably for both cans and Filipinos.

The combined forces of Common-wealth of the Philippines and the U.S. military (USAFFE) defended the country under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. Under the pressure of superior numbers, the defenders withdrew to Bataan and Corregidor.

Manila, declared an open city to prevent further destruction was oc-cupied by the Japanese on January 2, 1942. USAFFE (United States

American POWs

Japanese military up civilians

Photo of Lorenzo in 1996 in San Diego, CA

Zobel’s kids fishing in lake.

Armed Forces of the Far East) forces continued the fight in Bataan until April 1942 and Corrige-dor in May. Most of the 80,000 POWs forcibly marched to a prison camp 105 kilometers to the north.

Commonwealth Presi-dent Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmena (vice president) left the Philip-pines for the United States, where they set up a government in exile. MacArthur retreated to

Australia, where he started to fulfill his promise “I shall return.”

Japanese military authorities sponsored a Philippine Republic headed by President Jose P. Laurel, who proved to be unpopular. Filipi-no underground and guerrilla forces opposed the Japanese occupation. The HUKBALAHAP (Anti-Japa-nese Forces Movement) emerged the major force in the resistance in Central Luzon, extending their con-trol over much of the region. Their effectiveness of the guerrilla opera-tions were such that by the end of the war, Japan reportedly controlled only 12 of the 58 provinces.

The turning point in the war was the battle of Midway in June 1942. From then on, the Allied forces slowly won back the territories occupied by Japan. U.S. Allied forces landed on Leyte on October 20, 1944. Fighting continued until U.S. forces dropped two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 8. On August 14, Emperor Hirohito finally decided to surrender unconditionally.

The Philippines suffered great loss of life and tremendous physi-cal destruction by the time the war

was over. An estimated 1 million Filipinos had been killed and Manila was extremely dam-aged as the Japanese did not declare it an open city as the Ameri-cans had done in l942.

Impressions & Reac-tions

On the onset of the war, some people from Manila evacuated to

Laguna. Lumbenos gladly opened their houses to these migrants. When Manila was declared an open city, most of them returned to the capital thinking that it was safe enough to begin life anew.

Rosel had the first glimpse of the Japanese when he joined the crowd that witnessed a column of Japanese soldiers marched through the streets of Lumban. They wore wide canvas belts around baggy pants with bayo-net scabbard and water canteen and cloth leggings in boots with hob-nailed spikes. Officer’s uniforms looked well-tailored, with short, dark brown sleeves, and a small gun holster and the samurai sword.

Rosel’s grandfather told Rosel that the officers were civilians dur-ing pre-war; many of them operated refreshment parlors and stores in big towns and cities. Some of them ran furniture shops; others served as gardeners. Almost all of them spoke and understood English and Taga-log, but turned out to be officers in the Japanese army spying for the military.

Japanese troops occupied schools and other buildings, including houses, for their headquarters. The highest ranking Japanese officer in Lumban, Major Yamaguchi, lived

with Don Segundo Samonte’s nice house across Rosel’s grandpa’s. Yamaguchi had succeeded in marrying the beauteous Cecilia Samonte, a daughter of Segundo, the town dentist and former munici-pal president in pre-war years..

Townspeople generally resented the marriage and despised Cecilia and her family; and practically called them names such as “Japa-nese lovers”. But Cely, as friends fondly called her, “would wield the unseen hand in providing safety and protection for their families and for their own behalf.”

Little did all of these persons know that Cely saved thousands of her town mates by allowing them to evacuate first before her persuaded husband fulfilled the Japanese High Order of setting Lumban afire. The


Sol Poetry

Read Soledad Bautista’s previous articles by visiting our website at www.asianjournalusa.com

by Soledad O. Bautista


Read previous articles by visiting our website at www.asianjo-urnalusa.com

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

Phil - Am Law 101

Recently, a client sought our legal advice about a subpoena she had received from a prosecutor in the Philippines. It said that the client was being charged with the crime of perjury for allegedly making false statements under oath and was being asked to sub-mit her counter-affidavit. It turns out that during her last vacation to the Philippines, the client did her civic duty of submitting an affidavit in a pending criminal investigation. The client was inclined to ignore the subpoena; after all, she is now in the United States and has no immediate plans to go back to the Philip-pines. The client thought that if she just ignores the subpoena, the case will go away and the com-plainant will get tired and just give up running after her. I took a look at the subpoena. It was contained in a white “air mail” envelope. It was sent only by regular, not registered mail. With-out a return card, the prosecutor would have no way of knowing or proving that the client received

Don’t ignore that subpoenathe subpoena. Ordinarily, such would be fatal to the complain-ant’s case as it would violate my client’s due process rights.

Still, we advised the client not to ignore the subpoena and to submit her counter-affidavit in the case. I explained to the client that failure to respond to a subpoena would result to dire consequences. This is because the Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure of the Philippines has a provision which says that a criminal case can be filed in Court if the respondent could not be subpoenaed, even without actual notice to the respondent. Thus, Rule 112, Section 3(d) pro-vides “if the respondent cannot be subpoenaed, or if subpoenaed, does not submit counter-affidavits within the ten (10) day period, the investigating office shall resolve the complaint based on the evi-dence presented by the complain-ant.” Thus, we explained to the client that even if it the prosecu-tor had not sent her subpoena, the criminal case could still be filed

against her because she could not be served with a subpoena in the Philippines. (The Rule on service of summons regarding civil cases is different as it requires sum-mons by extraterritorial service)

Accordingly, what we did was to enter our appearance as the at-torney for the client. Thereupon, we filed a very strong counter-affidavit with all the necessary supporting documents. The counter-affidavit was notarized in San Diego and authenticated by the Philippine consulate in Los Angeles. It was important to authenticate the counter-affidavit for it to be admissible as evidence in the Philippines. We submit-ted the counter-affidavit through our office in Manila. Then, after a few weeks, our Manila office faxed to us a resolution from the prosecutor. The case was being dismissed on the very grounds we cited in the counter-affidavit.

Imagine what would have happened had the client chose to ignore the subpoena? With the uncontested complaint, the pros-ecutor would be forced to file a criminal case against her in court. In turn, the court would have no choice but to issue a warrant for her arrest. With the warrant outstanding, the police would be waiting to pounce on her upon her return. Once arrested, the cli-ent would be forced to post bail for her provisional liberty and defend herself in court. The court might even prevent her from leaving the Philippines until the case is over. She would practi-cally be spending all her vacation time, and beyond, attending to her criminal case.

So, please, do not ignore that subpoena. It is better to address any problem at its early stage. Better yet, consult first a lawyer before you sign any legal papers. The client should be commended for testifying in the criminal investigation, but her sworn state-ment could have been written in a better way. Had she consulted us beforehand, we would have made sure that the other side would have a very difficult time drag-ging her into the case.

Winding Up Our Manila Visit: Thank You !

As we wind up our stay in Manila, we wish to thank you for sending your loved ones to us for their free consultation. It is a very fulfilling experience helping them to better understand the law. As always, it is a pleasure serving our kababayans. Next week, we will continue this public service in our San Diego offices. Please always feel welcome to call and visit us. Maraming salamat po.

Atty. Rogelio Karagdag, Jr. is licensed to practice law in both California and the Philippines. He practices immigration law in San Diego and has continuously been a trial and appellate attor-ney in the Philippines since 1989. He travels between San Diego and Manila. His office address is located at 16486 Bernardo Cen-ter Drive, Suite 228, San Diego, CA 92128. He also holds office in National City inside the S&S Travel Agency at 2409 E. Plaza Blvd. Please call (858)348-7475 & (619) 475-3262 for your free consultation. We also encour-age readers to write us questions about both U.S. immigration and Philippine laws to be future topics in this column. Our email is [email protected].

To commemorate her birthday , actress/vocalist, Julie Andrews made a special appearance at Manhattan’sRadioCityMusic Hallfor the benefit of the AARP.

One of the musical numbers she performed was ‘My Favorite Things’ from the legendary

movie ‘Sound Of Music’. Here are the lyrics she used:

(Sing It!) If you sing it, its espe-cially hysterical!!!

Botox and nose drops and needles for knitting,

Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,

Bundles of magazines tied up in string,

These are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillacs and cataracts, hearing aids and glasses,

Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,

Pacemakers, golf carts and

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

journalusa.com

Actress Julie Andrewsporches with swings,


When the pipes leak, When the bones creak,

When the knees go bad,I simply remember my favorite

things,And then I don’t feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,

No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,

Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they bring,


Back pain, confused brains and no need for sinnin’,

Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin’,

And we won’t mention our short shrunken frames,

When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache, When the hips break,

When the eyes grow dim,Then I remember the great life

I’ve had,And then I don’t feel so bad.

(Ms. Andrews received a standing ovation from the crowd that lasted over four minutes and repeated encores. Please share Ms. Andrews’ clever wit and humor with others who would appreciate it


LEE ConstruCtion serviCes

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[email protected]. # 824754

(858) 717-5778

“Tingnan mo siya, ayaw man lang ngumiti (Look at

her, she won’t even smile)”, Eric’s elder cousin, Toy, told the maid Choleng, one Sunday afternoon in 1955. They were on the second floor of the printing press of Eric’s father in Quiapo, downtown Manila.

The statement may sound strange, but eight-year-old Eric was too young to comprehend the romantic undertone. It was only several years later when he was much older that he real-ized the remark was an attempt to woo back a disgruntled lover. He didn’t know then that Toy and Choleng were romanti-cally involved and that Toy was trying to assuage the feelings of his sweetheart after a minor spat.

Eric was at the press to ac-company Choleng. That after-noon, she was sewing together the pages of the passbooks of the Philippine National Bank, a printing job order his father’s printing press won in a bidding. Toy worked at the press but he had no business being there that Sunday, an off day for the regular employees of the press. Eric’s mother asked Choleng to help out in the press instead of

In her wildest dreamEvery year, Choleng would visit one of her daughters in London, then another in New York, and later her son in Australia before she would go home to the Philippines where her youngest daughter stayed with her family. It was indeed a long, successful journey for a poor girl in Samar who worked as a maid in Manila and ended up

becoming a loving wife, mother, and jetsetter.

doing housework in their house in Pepin Street in Sampaloc, Manila.

Eric was spinning a top on a thick piece of cardboard. Toy was with Choleng all after-noon while she worked on the passbooks.

Of all their maids, Choleng had been the most trusted by his mother. She was pretty, quiet and kind. She looked like the Empress Miyako, the com-moner wife of Akihito, the em-peror of Japan. Choleng came from a small barrio in Samar Province in the central part of the Philippines. The poor area was often ravaged by typhoons, so people could hardly eke out a living. Most of the province’s young women, children of poor families, were recruited to work as maids in Manila. Eric’s mother hired Choleng through the Elga Employment Agency in Divisoria, owned by a regular customer of the print-ing press.

During Choleng’s first day in their house, Eric’s mother asked Choleng to accompany her eldest son to watch a stage show held on a street several blocks away from their house. The show was held in prepara-tion for the area’s forthcoming fiesta celebration. After a slight commotion however, Cho-

leng and Eric’s elder brother lost contact with each other. The brother went home alone and his parents worried through the night about the girl’s whereabout. They were so concerned with the fate of their maid. New to Ma-nila, she didn’t know a single soul except her employers. She was an easy prey to kidnappers and rap-ists. Their worries were put to rest when early the next morn-ing, a good Samaritan brought her back home.

Choleng proved to be a good and reliable maid. Seeing her po-tential, Eric’s mother enrolled her in a sewing school so that she could learn the trade.

One morning, Eric was awakened by the rantings of his mother. She could be heard all over the neighborhood. Eric was puzzled why she would rant by the window within hearing distance of her elder sister Monang, the mother of Toy, who lived in a house just across a narrow alleyway.

She was ranting about her maid, Choleng, whom she dis-covered that morning to have eloped with Toy the night be-fore. Her anger, however, was just for a show. She wanted her sister Monang to know that she did not approve of the elopement, afraid that the latter would blame her for being a kunsintidora, a tolerant em-ployer. She knew that her elder sister would not want her eldest son to marry a mere maid. But there was nothing they could do but to marry off the couple when they returned home a few days later. In his young mind, Eric could not understand why Choleng all of a sudden, was living with his Tiya Monang’s family next door.

A simple wedding was ar-ranged. Choleng’s family could not attend, so Eric’s father

gave the bride away. A few months later, when Eric’s fam-ily moved to the apartment on the second floor of the printing press in Quiapo, Choleng and Toy moved into the house they left behind in Pepin Street in Sampaloc.

Toy proved to be a good worker. Although he did not finish high school, he was bright enough to serve as man-ager of the printing press of his uncle. His stint in the press, however, was cut short when his father, Ikong, suddenly died.

Ikong was overweight, and a look alike of a popular co-median at that time, Vicente Liwanag. He worked as an airport policeman. One day, the popular comedy duo, Pugo and Tugo were filming a movie at the airport and Ikong was used as an extra. He was shown passing by the fat Tugo, who scratched his head as he saw a man much heavier that he was.

On September 17, 1957, one of Ikong’s sons brought home a dozen coconuts. The family made a sweet dessert out of it, and when Ikong ate too much, he collapsed and was brought to the hospital. He had a diabetic attack, an ailment that was hardly curable at that time. He died that evening. The grief

of his family was inconsolable. Ikong left behind a widow and six children, ranging from ten to twenty one years old. With his passing, Toy was offered a slot in the airport as a replace-ment for his father. Toy took the job while his younger sister assumed his job at the printing press.

Toy proved to be ambitious. When he saw an opportunity to put up a side business that would deliver newspapers to the different islands serviced by the Philippine Airlines, he grabbed it. His business pros-pered and eventually Toy quit his airport job to concentrate on his business. He eventually owned a fleet of vehicles and a house of his own. It seemed that there was no stopping his success, until he died one day of heart attack. Choleng proved to be a survivor. She continued to manage the business with the help of her grown children.

Her children got married and later settled with their families in different parts of the world. Every year, Choleng would visit one of her daughters in

London, then another in New York, and later her son in Australia before she would go home to the Philippines where her youngest daughter stayed with her family. It was indeed a long, successful journey for a poor girl in Samar who worked as a maid in Manila and ended up becoming a loving wife, mother, and jetsetter.

Next week, her children will gather in the Philippines to cel-ebrate Choleng’s 70th birthday anniversary and pay tribute to the remarkable life of their mother.

Choleng’s father would not believe if someone told him as he sent off his daughter to work as a maid in Manila that she would someday be travel-ling around the world. But it was Choleng’s fate to do so, no matter how bleak her future was during the time she em-barked on her long, uncertain and eventually fulfilling jour-ney. She is living her wildest dream, proving once more the fact that in this life, nothing is impossible. - AJ

Quiapo Memories

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

by Simeon G. Silverio Jr.


E-mails from the desert

Read Ed Gamboa’s previous articles by visiting our website at www.asianjournalusa.com and http://emailsfromthedesert.blogspot.com

by Dr. Ed Gamboa

Around 1990, Lu-cie and I visited the Blessed Sacrament

at St. James Church in So-lana Beach. The parish kept a selection of books for those interested in reading while keeping vigil in the chapel. She picked a small volume from the stack, en-titled “Opening to God” by Thomas H. Green, S. J., and handed it to me.

We were both fascinated by the author’s bio on the back cover, which in part read: “Father Thomas Green is a native of Rochester, New York...has ad-vanced degrees in education and physics from Fordham Universi-ty...and a Ph. D from the Univer-sity of Notre Dame...is presently the Spiritual Director of San Jose Seminary, Manila, Philippines and Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Ateneo de Manila University.”

It was an engrossing book on

A Friend Goes On Vacation...prayer. Fr. Green had a unique way of lucidly explaining the “Our Father”, as I had never heard or read before. Conse-quently, I began to pray the “Lord’s Prayer” with a better understanding since I first recited it in kindergarten. I tracked down the books that Fr. Green had used as references for his work. That research opened up a wealth of classic works on prayer and spirituality.

Faithful to his Jesuit upbring-ing, Fr. Green blended the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola which I was familiar with and Carmelite spirituality which I was interested in but found dif-ficult to decipher. The collected works of the famous Carmelite poet, St. John of the Cross, are fascinating but tough to grasp. Fr. Green, however, made it easier to understand St. John’s mystical theological concepts.

Fr. Green, I found out, was a very popular retreat and spiritual director in Manila (his confer-ences were standing room only).

He had written many popular books. I understood why he was so well-loved by his audi-ence as I read all his books: When the Well Runs Dry, Darkness in the Marketplace, Weeds Among the Wheat, A Vacation with the Lord, Drink-ing from a Dry Well, Prayer and Common Sense, Come Down Zacchaeus, The Friend of the Bridegroom.

I learned that Fr. Green’s manuscripts were published by Ave Maria Press of the University of Notre Dame and that his books were so well received that they were published in several languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Indone-

sian). Later, I had the opportu-nity to meet with Frank Cun-ningham, editor and publisher of Ave Maria Press. It was delight-ful to learn how Fr. Tom and Mr. Cunningham worked together to develop so many popular books.

Soon after I read his first book, “Opening to God”, I wrote Fr. Green a short letter to let him know how much I enjoyed read-ing the book. To my surprise, he promptly sent me a postcard, acknowledging my letter and informing me that he was on a trip to several Asian countries to conduct retreats and conferences, as was his practice during his summer vacation.

Thus started a series of let-ters (emails when the internet later became available), which culminated in my visits to San Jose Seminary to chat with him. He returned the favor by spend-ing time with our family in San Diego, celebrating Mass at home and giving a lecture at USD.

I always knew when Christmas was around the corner. Fr. Tom’s newsletter was always the first to arrive, usually around the first or second week of December. My family newsletter, on the other hand, usually got to the post of-fice after Christmas or the New Year, and in some extreme years, at Valentine’s!

It was an honor and a privilege to have known Fr. Tom. He made my day when he sent me a per-sonal copy of his book as soon as it got published. He reviewed the manuscript of my first book and suggested the title: “From Mt. Krizevac to Mt. Carmel” because, as he pointed out, it was two books in one. Last year, even as his health was failing, he reviewed and wrote a blurb for my second book, “Virtu-ous Healers: Models of Faith in Medicine”.

It was a very sad day, when I received an email from Fr. Khing Vano that Fr. Tom Green had passed away. His last Christ-mas letter had indicated that his health was deteriorating and that he was waiting to see what the Lord had in store for him.

It is a gift to get to know a dedicated missionary, a famous author and a living saint fairly well. I am grateful for the com-



Spiritual Life

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

by Msgr. Fernando G. Gutierrez

Lower Your Nets

ReklamoPanay na lamang reklamo itong aking naririnigaraw-araw sa maraming tao saan mang paligidbakit hindi tayo maghinay-hinay mga kapatidnapakahirap ng buhay ngayon iya’y inyong batid.

‘Di ba dapat ang ating isipin ay ang kalutasan para itong mga problema ay ating malunasansama-sama tayong mag-isip ng mabuting paraanhuwag sayangin ang oras sa maling pagsusumbatan.

Tunay na mahirap sa ngayon itong ating sitwasyonsubalit tiyak na ang lahat ay mayroong solusyonpakinggan natin ang mga kapatid na may suhestyonat magtulungang lahat para tayo ay makabangon.

Joke of the Week: A Protestant pastor, a Catholic priest and a rabbi were discussing the unpre-dictable possibility of their death. One of them said, “We will all die someday, and none of us really knows when, where, and how, but if we did know we would all do a better job of preparing ourselves for that unforeseen event.” The other two nodded in agreement with this remark. Then the rabbi said to the two ministers, “what

Life in Deathwould you do if you knew be-fore your death?” The Protestant minister said, “I would go out into my community and preach the Gospel to those that have not yet heard it and received the Lord into their lives.” Then the rabbi asked the Catholic priest what he would do and the priest said, “I would dedicate all of my remaining time to serving God, my Church and my family.” “That is great!” the other two commented. Finally the

two ministers asked the rabbi what he would do. The rabbi responded, “I would go to my mother-in-law’s house for four weeks.” The minister and the priest were sur-prised by the rabbi’s answer and asked, “Why your mother-in-law’s house?” The rabbi grinned, “Be-cause that would be the longest four weeks of my life.”

Scriptures: First Reading: Jeremiah 31: 31-34. Jeremiah prophesies about YHWH’s new age. The prophet says the Diaspo-ra is a punishment for the people’s disobedience to the Torah and he predicts a new covenant that YHWH will seal with his people. This time, YHWH will write the law, not in tablets of stone, but in the hearts of his people. This time, the people will live in obedience to his law. This new age does not depend upon old Israel, but it in-cludes it because God’s covenant with the Jewish people was never nullified by the saving work of the Messiah. Second Reading: He-brews 5: 7-9. In contrast with the disobedience of the Jewish people, the obedience of Jesus to the Torah makes him perfect and leads him to his destiny: to become our high priest whose once-for-all offering is the source of eternal life for all who believe in him. Gospel: John 12: 20-33. The dialogue among the Greeks, Philip, and Andrew became the springboard for the theme of the cross: (1) a grain of wheat must die first before it bears much fruit; (2) Christ will draw all to himself only when he is lifted up. The obedience of Jesus to the Torah does not exempt him from sufferings and death. In fact, in the Hebrew language, it is through his sufferings and death that he becomes perfect and gives glory and honor to this Father.

Reflections: Man’s internal struggle, according to the exis-tential model of personality, rests neither on the suppressed instinc-tual drives (as Sigmund Freud postulated) nor with the significant adults in the person’s early life (as the Neo-Freudians contend), but on the conflict between the individual and the “givens” of his existence. These “givens” are the “ultimate concerns” that are an inescapable part of our earthly life. One of these “givens” is death.

One view of death understands it as an end to everything, such as

success, desires, and relationships. Death is the one point in life when a person can’t perform anything else anymore. Death can also be seen as heroic or an achievement in itself, such as the death of thou-sands of soldiers who perished while defending freedom and democracy in foreign soils. Death for some people is a powerful tool to make a political or reli-gious statement, such as the tragic death of suicide bombers. Some Filipinos look at death negatively, in the same way they view the cross. It is not uncommon to hear from suffering Filipinos, “Pasang-krus” (literally, one’s problem or burden carried like a cross). Whatever is one’s perspective on death, it is clear to all that death is our inescapable part of life. The Dutch philosopher and theologian Spinoza said, “Everything wishes to persist in its own being.” From the perspective of the existential model of personality, man’s inner conflict lies between the aware-ness of his own mortality and his desire to live. To cope with this conflict and the fear that comes with it, a person might erect denial-based defense mechanisms that shape one’s character and can result into clinical maladjustment.

The death that Jesus predicted for himself does not conform to any of the previously mentioned perspectives. Though Jesus, while praying at Gethsemane, was not spared from the anxiety of his impending death, yet his “hour” (passion, death, resurrection, and ascension) is the moment for the Father’s glory and honor, and in turn, for his own perfection. His

own suffering and death don’t end in despair, but restore hope. His dying is his rising; his loss of life is his perfection. From the Christian view, death, life, and the cross are not opposites, but complementary. The grain that dies produces fruit; the life that is lost is preserved!

A pastor of a small congrega-tion kept a meticulous register of all his parishioners. So convinced

was he of life after death, and of the promises of Jesus about eter-nal life, that, whenever a parish-ioner died, he did not delete the name from the register. He simply wrote after the person’s name, “Changed residence. Gone to live elsewhere.”

Quotation of the Week: “It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” St. Augustine.

OBITUARYSOLEDAD OROPESA BAUTISTA September 27, 1917 — March 26, 2009

Soledad Oropesa Bautista, 91, award-winning poet, teacher, Gawad Kalinga advocate and beloved

mother of Rolando, Lorna B. Tirona, Jesse, Frederick,

Robin, Oliver, Marian, Franklin, Iris and Lino passed away peacefully

in her sleep on Thursday afternoon, March 26, 2009 at the family home in Otay Mesa, San Diego County,

California. She leaves behind a brother, John Oropesa of San Diego, and two

sisters Lourdes and Aludia Oropesa of Cavite.

Soledad joins her husband Dr. Catalino S. Bautista, Jr.

in eternal peace.

Two viewings at Glen Abbey are planned for Monday and Tuesday, March 30 and

31 with the burial on Wednesday, April 1st.

BalintatawRead Virginia Ferrer’s previous articles by visiting our website

at www.asianjournalusa.com

by Virginia H. Ferrer


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by Bill Labestre, MBA (Tax Practitioner)Tel: (619) 475-1931

Our perspective in life should have changed as we get older. We should have learned from the mistakes we made and became wiser due to our life experience. Instead of becoming grumpy and very annoying, we should be more patient and forgiving. We could still enjoy the rest of our lives regardless of our current economic status in society. It’s nice to have lots of money dur-ing our old age but, will it buy you genuine happiness?

It is sometimes interesting to hear conversations of men past their prime especially those retired Navy guys. It’s no longer about those adventures in exotic ports or the all night partying and bar hopping. If you listen closely, the talk has now shifted to their current medical conditions and what pills they’re taking. Now, they share information about their body aches and pains and sometimes news of people they knew who also have diabetes or bad heart condition or those who recently passed away.

On the other hand, there are some who can not accept the fact that they are old now and are still on denial. They don’t care about the consequences and have to show others that they can still do it. A few have traded their wives of many years for younger girlfriends in the Philippines. We should not judge a person’s action if we only heard one side of the story. Maybe it’s a midlife crisis for the husband or the love may have died years ago. Why is it mostly the old men that go away and go astray?

Men grow old in different ways than women. We may not go through the dreaded menopausal stages, but we need some under-

standing too. Most of the time it is the men who made the adjust-ments to their moody wives. A husband has to shoulder a lot of the responsibilities and at the same time be a Psychic to figure out what his wife wants. Some men never learned from history or simple Psychology. They still buy their wives home appliances or cooking utensils as Christmas gifts.

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order was one retaliation against lo-cal guerrilla activities. Fortunately, only half of the town was gutted by fi re.

One other fi rst impression Rosel had at the time when he fi rst saw Americans in l942. They were POWs (Prisoners of War), mostly pilots and engineers, incarcerated in Cine Lumban, and paraded by the Japanese captors after a day’s work.

There were 115 of them that built a wooden bridge to replace the steel bridge that earlier was destroyed by bombing across the Lumban river. Rosel was impressed with their height. “They were tall, light haired, and handsome men, but with gloomy faces and seemed exhaust-ed..” he said

Filipinos generally gave the Japa-nese invaders a subdued treatment. Whatever they might have felt, they watched them impassively on the sidelines and hardly interacted with the conquerors. They went out of their way to avoid them. Children, however, tended to be more open to interaction with the Japanese.

“It was not possible, of course, to avoid the Japanese all the time. Life had to go on, albeit differ-ently,” writes Thelma B. Kintanar. “The coming of the war disrupted the course of people’s lives and of the shock, fear and uncertainty it brought.”

One of their dissatisfactions was the enforcement of the enemy’s cus-tom of bowing. Those who did not were slapped. Filipinos did not like the way the practice was imposed on them. “At the slightest imagined offense, these soldiers were quick to slap and/or kick the Filipinos who happened to cross their path….” Without bowing and greeting the Japanese sentries with “O Hayo” (good morning) or “Kumbawa” (good evening) town folks would likely suffer certain unwelcome consequences .

Filipinos might be willing to endure hardships and privations but defi nitely not to take insults to their personal dignity. Japanese strange customs nurtured antipathy that would develop into full-blown hostility and hatred over time.”

IN SEARCH OF THE GOOD LIFE:World War II

through the Eyes of a Growing Boy


But Filipinos always knew how to cope with diffi cult situations and pains of living. For one, their sense of humor carries them more often than not. When they meet soldiers or passed by sentries, for instance, they stopped, bowed and mumbled, “O hayup” and “P.I. mo” (short for Putang Ina mo) instead. The soldier would acknowledge the greeting not knowing he was cursed and insulted by the Filipino. ‘Many friends and neighbors shared many a laugh over this, and it somehow lessened the pain and humiliation they suffered at the hands of the enemy.’

Children, particularly young boys, tended to be more open to interac-tion with the Japanese, perhaps out of child’s curiosity and interest in things new and strange. Rosel re-called how young kids played with some Japanese soldiers. They got to see their war equipment, which lent excitement among them. They also got the thrill of associating with the enemy and learning fi rst hand what they were doing.

Rosel’s pleasant memory was the sports day Japanese soldiers sponsored in front of the municipal building and the adjacent church plaza. He participated in a half-ki-lometer run (karera) and won some pencils and notebooks.

At school, Rosel was impressed with a Japanese soldier teach-ing Nippongo. “It was also a new experience for me,” he said, “to do Japanese-styled calisthenics, before class starts and during recess.” He welcomed this innovation and thought such improves fi tness and muscle tone.

From the way he tells his story, Rosel valued the above memories of Japanese soldiers “of a different breed.” However, his enthusiasm for the enemy dampened when Japanese forces confi scated some of their food.

Negative Aspects Early in the occupation, the

Japanese began to confi scate food from towns and cities. They raided houses and requisitioned palay and work animals, upon tips from local Filipino makapilis (collaborators). Resistance was met with beatings and torture.

With the start of l942, Rosel angrily witnessed the confi scation of one of their two carabaos by the military group; and his family couldn’t do anything despite their pleading. Such confi scation practice

increasingly went on as food be-came scarcer or a serious problem.

Rosel also resented the Japanese military for conducting the zona operation in the town. They would round up adult men and incarcer-ated them for three days and four nights in the local Catholic Church for interrogation.

Japanese troops adopted zona tactic in their attempt to gather intelligence. This practice involved sealing-off a village or district to in-terrogate town folks either to fl ush out the guerillas that caused them no little trouble in ambuscades and other forms of harassment.

Zona also involved torture – e.g., fl ogging, skin-searing and nail pulling methods -- and executions that so enraged people against the Japanese. This strengthened the ma-jorities of the population to support the underground movement.

Hundreds of zona victims were tortured for several days and nights while being interrogated. It was a brutal act to drown the victims by covering their faces with wet sack and pouring buckets of water over their faces while lying down.

The man is rendered almost un-conscious until a forced confession is secured by the enemy. Many suc-cumbed to the punishment, while a few of them remained tight-lipped, knowing that the Japanese have no respect for anyone who squealed or who turn “stool pigeon” against their compatriots.

Prominent Lumbenos and town offi cials (e.g., Mayor Moises Paraiso and Chief of Police G. II. Anonuevo) suffered from the zona and its accompanying Japanese cruelties in 1943. So was Rosel’s father, Lorenzo, who was subjected to the infamous “water cure” by the enemy guards that caused his deaf-ness of the right ear. He survived the punishment and continued his guerrilla activities until the end of the war.

Food & Relocation

In early wartime years, There was no overall scarcity of food experienced by the Zobel family. For that matter, families in Lum-ban had enough food and source of income. The environment had been kind to them, having fertile farms, good climate, and bountiful river and lake. townspeople planted vegetables (e.g., kankong, upo, egg plants, string beans, and ampalaya) and they continually fi shed.

Many prepared native rice cakes and kakanin like suman, bibingka, espasol, peanut brittle and others. Native fruits were plentiful such as watermelon, saging, langka, atis, chico, grapefruit, makupa, duhat, and singkamas.

For meat, They raised chickens underneath the house and pigs in the backyard. Milk from carabaos and goats were adequate.

The family ate rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They almost al-ways had dalag, ayungin, and hito cooked in varied cuisine, like fried daing, paksiw or inihaw and varied desserts that accompanied their meals. They used panocha (sugar cakes) for sweetening their coffee and desserts.

During the early part of the war, some families who had been living in Metro Manila or other urban centers went back to their home-towns, or evacuated to farms in the provinces and escaped the scarcity of food in the city.

The Zobels were more fortu-nate than most as far as food was concerned. Rosel’s father cultivated rice, engaged in fi shing and “buy and sell” in neighboring Baybay town tiyangges (market days). Beatriz supplemented the fam-ily income by sewing dresses and jackets.

It was only later that people expe-rienced some hardships in securing food. At the time, the Japanese forces penetrated surrounding municipalities to commandeer food and become cruel to areas occupied by guerilla forces that some food scarcity ensued.

“With their survival at stake, people had to fi nd all sorts of ways to cope with the food shortage,” writes Kantanar. “The Japanese au-thorities had to deal with the prob-lem of which they themselves were a part. They increasingly resorted to food rationing, confi scating food, and similar hard measures.”

“A more positive measure taken, however, was to mount a food production campaign to which the people responded. In fact, many who could do so had already en-gaged in produce gardening to add to their food supply.”

The Zobel family supplemented whatever they had by planting cas-sava, kamote, kamatis, and gabi, catching snails, and digging tokal under the Lumban river.

It was also at this time that Lorenzo, accompanied by two or three of his kids – Rosel, Avelina,

and Bernie -- engaged in small business. At age 8, the family retreated to the coun tryside on the edge of legendary Laguna Lake. They moved there to farm and trade with neighboring Bay-bay towns on scheduled tiyangges (mar ket days) and, more importantly, to escape the sustained forced deliveries imposed by Japanese occupying forces.

By then Inso was already well-known in Lumban - espe cially among the guerrillas who also collected their quotas of supplies (e.g., palay and chickens) from him as contributions to the anti-Japanese move ment.

Hence, the specter of Japa-nese vengeance always hung over Lorenzo Zobel’s head. And the chronic rivalry between the local

guerrilla outfi ts, with some of our relatives affi liated to some of them, only complicated family predica-ment as “victim of extortions” from all sides.

Rosel and older sister Avelina, occasionally little Bernie, had a lot of fun in accompanying their father to Paete and Sinoluan towns to sell their boatload of fresh farm and poultry produce. These tiyangges are veri table harvest festivals that usu ally met near existing public markets and on the edges of local churches or riverbanks.

Still, the Zobel were perhaps one of those few families that did not go hun gry during World War II. They pro duced more than enough rice, veggies and fowls in the farm


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Famous journalists and novelists had written poems and

quotes about their love for wine and beer. Benja-min Franklin said: “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”. When I was a paralegal, I said, “Draft beer, not brief.” Now I say, “If you must drink, think of the conse-quences before you drive.” I’ve handled a number of DUI cases and listened to the judge as I wait for my case to be called. Penal-ties for fi rst offenders could include hours in jail, fi ne up to $1,000, suspension of driver’s license, attendance in alcohol/drug programs,

Immigration consequence of Driving Under the Infl uence of Alcohol

increase in insurance pre-miums, etc. This is a lot of money and a lot of hassle. I wondered how people could do it the second, third or even ten times. For a legal permanent resident, the price to pay is even more. This could mean denial of his application for natural-ization to be a U.S. citizen.

To be eligible for naturaliza-tion, an applicant must establish a certain period of good moral character (usually fi ve years, but there are certain excep-tions). “Good moral character” is defi ned by the Immigration and Nationality Act. It provides that a noncitizen who committed a crime during the fi ve-year pe-riod will not be able to establish “good moral character,” and will

be denied naturalization. Note that an individual who admits criminal activity but has not been convicted of said activity will be treated the same under the law as an individual who has a fi nal conviction. These crimes are generally crimes involv-ing moral turpitude. Courts have held that moral turpitude refers generally to conduct that is inherently base, vile, or depraved, and contrary to the accepted rules of morality and the duties owed between per-sons or to society in general. I believe that the concept does not include regulatory offenses, such as driving under the infl u-ence of alcohol (DUI or DWI), absent aggravating factors. In the Matter of Lopez-Meza 22 I & N Dec. 1188, the court agreed with the Immigration Judge that “driving under the infl uence of intoxicating liquor” is not a crime involving moral turpitude. The court said: “Simple DUI is ordinarily a regulatory offense that involves no culpable mental state requirement, such as intent or knowledge.”

In addition to conviction of a crime or admission to criminal activity, the law provides a list of conduct, acts, attributes, or characteristics that prelude a fi nding of good moral char-acter. The statute states: “No person shall be regarded as, or found to be, a person of good moral character who, dur-ing the period for which good moral character is required to be established, is, or was— a habitual drunkard.” Habitual drunkards are specifi cally pre-cluded from being found to be persons of good moral character. Form N-400 , Application for Naturalization asks a variety of questions about criminal activ-ity, arrests, convictions, confi ne-ment, and related matters. Thus, any arrest or conviction for public intoxication such as DUI, DWI, or any alcohol-related of-fense would have to be revealed as well. A USCIS examiner, after reviewing Form N-400 and asking follow-up questions, might decide that a person is a habitual drunkard.

Although courts have held that

a DWI (driving while intoxicat-ed) conviction is not a statutory bar to showing good moral char-acter, there were instances when USCIS denied applications for naturalization due to one DUI conviction. In one case, the USCIS stated: “The record thus establishes that you have not maintained good moral charac-ter during the statutory period, as you committed the unlawful act of driving while intoxicated on . . , for which you were re-quired to complete an alcohol education program.” USCIS, at least in this one district offi ce, has decided that any conviction for DWI/DUI during the statu-tory period is a ground of denial.

I personally believe that a con-viction for DUI is not a ground for fi nding a lack of good moral character. Congress used the term “habitual drunkard” when it enacted the law. This should mean alcohol dependents and alcohol abusers. A single con-viction for DUI particularly if there was no property damage or bodily injury should not fall under the category “habitual drunkard”.

Conviction for driving under the infl uence absent bodily injury or property damage is not a ground for denial of applica-tion for naturalization except multiple convictions showing evidence of alcoholism or ad-missions that may lead USCIS to conclude the noncitizen is a habitual drunkard. Despite favorable rulings of the court regarding DUI convictions, I still advise against drinking and driving not only because of the immigration consequence but also due to the dangers associ-ated with it. Statistics show that motor vehicle wrecks are the leading cause of deaths in the U.S. for people under 24 years of age. Speaking of age, I’ll be one year older in a few days. Not a reason to drink and drive.

We welcome your feedback. If you have any immigration questions, please feel welcome to email me at [email protected] or call us at 619 819 -8648 to arrange for a telephone consultation.

munications and conversations we had over the years. Fr. Tom taught his students at San Jose Seminary and his retreatants many valuable things. Faithful-ness and trust in Divine Provi-dence was one of them. As a young missionary, he had been directed to start his missionary work in Japan. Due to a drastic change in circumstances, how-ever, he ended up in Manila instead. He did not understand why that happened, but he never questioned the Lord’s plans for him. And thus he fl ourished where he was planted.

The lesson I like the most was his insistence that spending time in prayer (even in “dry prayer”, as when “the well runs dry”) was not a waste of time because spending time with the Lord never is. He said not to worry if we did not feel like we were pro-

gressing spiritually. He offered the example of an operation, for instance an appendectomy.

Prior to the operation, the pa-tient would experience abdomi-nal pain, nausea, and vomiting. During the operation, when the patient was under general anesthesia, he or she would obvi-ously be unaware of the extent of the surgeon’s technical efforts to correct the problem. After surgery, in the recovery room, the patient would wake up, still experiencing abdominal pain from the incision and nausea or vomiting from the anesthetic drugs. For the patient, noth-ing has changed. His condition remains as dire as ever.

As in the spiritual life, only God knows how much work has been done inside us. We remain clueless.

Fr. Green encouraged everyone to set aside time for a retreat, or what he called “A Vacation with the Lord”. I truly believe that Fr. Tom Green is now spending a grand vacation with his Friend.

A Friend Goes On Vacation...(Continued from page 9)


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Health

(Los Angeles) – First 5 Cali-fornia is launching a grassroots outreach effort to raise aware-ness among diverse communities about the dangers of secondhand smoke on young children and to promote California’s “Smoke-Free Cars with Minors” law. As part of this awareness campaign, the agency is partnering with well-established businesses in California, including Farmers Insurance and The Pep Boys – Manny, Moe and Jack, as well as community organizations, to distribute smoking cessation information at locations that mil-lions of families regularly visit – insurance offi ces, auto repair stores, churches and community events.

“Thanks to our partnerships with Farmers Insurance and Pep Boys, when families are getting their vehicles insured, main-tained or repaired, they will be informed about how smoking in cars hurts the most vulnerable among us, young children,” said Kris Perry, executive director of First 5 California.

The statewide awareness cam-paign will inform Californians about the dangers of secondhand smoke and place special em-phasis on reaching parents and caregivers who don’t routinely access mainstream media. First 5 California and its partners will engage in a multi-pronged collaborative effort to blanket African American, Latino and Asian Pacifi c Islander American

Partners Include Farmers Insurance, Pep Boys and Community Groups

First 5 California kicks off multicultural awareness campaign about dangers of

secondhand smoke on kids

(APIA) communities with these messages at a grassroots level through online platforms, posters and word-of-mouth campaigns.

“Many APIA populations in California are more likely to smoke than the general popula-tion and are less likely to be aware of the unhealthy effects of tobacco,” said Perry. “That’s why it’s essential for the APIA community to become informed about how secondhand smoke can harm young children and negatively impact their own well-being.”

Overall, 42 percent of chil-dren in the U.S. are exposed to secondhand smoke every week, according to recent fi ndings by the Social Climate Survey of Tobacco.

Research shows that the health of young children is affected whenever they breathe second-hand smoke, and that children who have never smoked a ciga-rette can still develop the symp-toms of nicotine addiction. For pregnant women who smoke, there is greater risk of suffering a miscarriage or delivering an underweight baby.

“There is no ‘safe’ exposure to secondhand smoke,” said Dr. Michelle Anne Bholat, vice chair of clinical affairs at the UCLA Department of Medicine. “It in-creases the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as well as a child’s risk of develop-ing asthma, ear infections and bronchitis. Long-term exposure

can lead to lung cancer and heart disease in adults.”

California’s “Smoke-Free Cars with Minors” law took effect last year and made it illegal for adults to smoke in a car when children are present. Fines for violating this law can reach $100. Studies have found that secondhand smoke inside the confi ned space of a car is par-ticularly harmful for children, with the air quality becoming up to 10 times more toxic than the level considered hazardous by the U.S. Environmental Protec-tion Agency.

As part of its awareness cam-paign, First 5 California will en-courage people who would like help to quit smoking to contact the California Smokers’ Helpline for a free personalized quit-ting plan. Californians can call (800) NO-BUTTS for English assistance, (800) 838-8917 for Chinese assistance, (800) 556-5564 for Korean assistance or (800) 778-8440 for Vietnamese assistance.

For more information about the health and early education programs offered by First 5 California, call (800) KIDS-025 for English assistance, (800) 597-9366 for Chinese assistance, (800) 597-9511 for Korean as-sistance or (800) 597-9855 for Vietnamese assistance. They can also visit fi rst5california.com.

About First 5 California First 5 California, also known

as the California Children and Families Commission, was established after voters passed Proposition 10 in November 1998, adding a 50 cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund educa-tion, health, child care and other programs for expectant parents and children up to age 5. For more information, please visit www.fi rst5california.com.

liberating unit was ironically comprised entirely of second generation Japanese Americans -- most of whose parents were themselves “interned” in “de-tention camps” back home in America.

The Organization of American States was founded April 30, 1948 -- on the 145th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. Co-incidently, Louisiana became our 18th state on the very same day, nine years later -- in 1812. Bugs Bunny debuted April 30, 1938. But James Brown (1933), Pete Seeger (1919), Engelbert Hump-erdink (1936), Bing Crosby (1903) and Frankie Valli (1937) all share the big day on May 3rd. The Dow Jones fi rst topped

11,000 on their 1999 birthdays.Frankie Valli sang the song, “I

can’t take my eyes off of you”. Penelope Cruz (1974) and Jay Leno (1950) share April 28th birthdays while the big day is on April 29th for Michelle Pfeiffer (1958) and Jerry Seinfeld (1954). “Heart’s” Carnie Wilson (1968) and Duke Ellington (1899) share the April 29th date with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jerry Seinfeld.

Judy Colins was born on May Day, 1939 -- one day and six years before Bianca Jagger came into this world. Sheena Easton (1959) and Casey Kasem (1932) were born April 27th. Glen Ford (1916) and Jack Paar (1918) were also May Day babies -- which was the day “Citizen Kane” premiered in 1941. Mu-hammad Ali was stripped of his World Heavyweight Champion-ship title, after he refused to be inducted into military service, on April 30, 1967. Welterweight

champion Sugar Ray Robinson took his fi rst breath on May 3, 1921. Pound for pound, Sugar Ray Robinson is probably con-sidered to be the greatest boxer of all time. The best Daytona 500 stock car racer, Dale Earn-hardt, entered this world on April 29, 1952. And tennis legend, Andre Agassi, was born on Earn-hardt’s 18th birthday.

When is YOUR birthday? Was a friend, work associate or relative born this week? If you would like the full unedited ver-sion of today’s column, we will happily send you an e-mail copy of the whole complete text! Of course, there is no charge. Just e-mail us at: [email protected].

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

by Zena Sultana Babao

Roland Dantes – fa-mous action movie actor, 5-time “Mr.

Philippines”, and Arnis Grandmaster who did a lot to propagate the culture and martial arts of the Philip-pines – has left the narrow bounds of earth to touch the

face of God! Dantes passed away at age 69

last Monday, March 16, from heart attack and multiple organ failure arising from complica-tions due to gout (metabolic arthritis). He was rushed to the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City, but was pro-nounced DOA (dead on arrival). After a Holy Mass at the Marian Memorial Chapel in Marcos Highway, Antipolo City, he was laid to rest at the Heaven’s Gate Memorial Park, also in Anti-

Farewell, Roland Dantes: A Life Well Lived

’Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us, footprints in the sands of time.” – The Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

polo City, at 2:00 p.m. Monday, March 23.

“His death came as a shock to me,” said rapper Chris Dantes, his nephew, “He ap-peared to be so healthy.” Dantes was said to have eaten his favor-ite food (crispy pata) at a party and that probably precipitated both his gout and heart attack.

He had a swollen right leg for three days before he was rushed to the hospi-tal. In 2006, Dantes also suffered a heart attack, and Filipino martial artists from all over the world donated money for his hospital expenses. He was deeply loved and respected by the martial arts world!

Born in Cotabato, the 5’10” movie actor’s real name was Rolando Tangco

Pintoy. His father, Brigadier General Climaco Pintoy, was the Military Zone Commander of the 4th Military Area, which includes Mindanao and the southern islands of Sulu and

Palawan. Dantes’ father was his fi rst instructor in art of Arnis de Mano. After his father’s death, Dantes studied Shotokan and Tang Soo do, and earned black belt ranks in both arts, and later he studied Arnis de Mano from Professor Remy Presas and other FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) grandmasters and masters.

A dedi-cated bodybuilder, Dantes won the “Mr. Philippines” title fi ve times: 1969, 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1980. He also placed several times in the “Mr.

Universe” contest and took fi fth place in the 1970 “Mr. World” contest. In 1980, he placed fi fth in the World Games for Body-building, and in 1982 received a Certifi cate of Merit from the International Federation of Bodybuilders. In the same year, Dantes received the President Marcos Gold Medal Award for

Bodybuilding.This extraordinary

man was one of the best-known Philip-pine actors who had leading roles in American fi lms, like the internationally released movie “The Pacifi c Connection” which featured Nan-cy Kwan, Guy Madi-son, Alejandro Rey and Dean Stockwell, and “Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection” with Chuck Norris. He also starred in dozens of Philippine movies such as “Arnis: The Sticks of Death”, ”Trojan Warrior”, “Tumbador”, “Under the Gun”, “Live by the Fist”, “Tiger Shark”, “Angelfi st”,

“Uhaw na Dagat”, “Durugin si Totoy Bato”, “Banta ng Ka-hapon” and several other movies made in Australia, where he later



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Notification of Request for Proposals (RFP) “Sales and Use Tax Audit and Recovery Services” RFP No. 5001184.

SANDAG is seeking proposals from qualified firms for professional services to provide State of California Sales and Use Tax Auditing, Recovery, Analysis and Reporting Services on behalf of SANDAG, as specified in the RFP.

The Sales and Use Tax Auditing, Recovery services that are being sought are for the purpose of assisting SANDAG in maximizing SANDAG’s income and minimizing the cost of lost revenue, by detecting and documenting misal-locations of Sales and Use Tax activity within the statute of limitations on recoverability.

The goals of this Sales and Use Tax Audit and Recovery program are to identify and correct the sales/use tax reporting errors of businesses that, based on the nexus of their activities, are not properly reporting to SANDAG; identify and correct the reporting of businesses that are improperly reporting tax to State and county pools; detect, document and correct sales/use tax reporting errors/omissions and thereby generate new, previously unrealized revenue for SANDAG; and ensure through comprehensive audit measures that the revenue information used for ongoing economic analysis includes all sales/use tax generators.

Sealed written proposal responses must be addressed to and received no later than 11 a.m., local time, on Wednesday, April 22, 2009, at the office of: Ralph Tharp, Contract Administrator, SANDAG, 401 B Street, Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92101-4321

A copy of the RFP has been posted on SANDAG’s Web site at www.sandag.org/contracts.Please contact Ralph Tharp, Contract Administrator, at SANDAG, 401 B Street, Suite 800, San Diego, CA 92101-4321, (619) 699-6982, or via e-mail at [email protected], if you have any questions or would like this information mailed to you.

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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (March 18, 2009) – For the fi rst time in the company’s 150-year his-tory, Western Union has recently launched a comprehensive global brand initiative, entitled yes! This campaign celebrates people around the world who rely on the transfer of money across borders and oceans to help them embrace their hopes and dreams.

“This is a very exciting time for Western Union,” said Mohit Bijlani, Western Union Manager, Philippines. “Western Union believes in people pursuing their dreams. Even in these uncertain times, the optimism and positivity of our consumers is inspiring, and this new campaign refl ects their can-do spirit. Can a mother send her love to her son from 6,000 miles away? The answer is yes! Western Union’s money transfer services have been enabling these connections between Filipinos around the globe for 19 years. ”

The yes! brand campaign will be translated into 40 languages, and will consist of several market-ing elements. There will be print, broadcast and online advertising, as well as new Point-of-Sale mate-rials for more than 334,000 Agents in 200 countries and territories. Street art, billboards and other out-of-home creative will also be introduced globally. Western Union has also launched a dedi-cated microsite, www.wuyeseffect.com. This site seeks to engage consumers and empower them to share their stories of optimism and success through March 26. For each story submitted, Western Union will donate US$1, up to a total donation of US$50,000, which will be matched by the Western Union Foundation, up to a total donation of US$50,000, to education-focused nonprofi t part-ners Mercy Corps, Room to Read and Academy for Educational Development.

As part of its Our World, Our Family® program, the Western Union Foundation provided The Family Scholarship Program, which rewarded education schol-arships to families within the Gua-temalan and Filipino Diaspora in the Los Angeles, California area. This program will soon expand to include the Mexican Diaspora.

Western Union assembled prom-inent creative talent for the cam-paign, including world-renowned fi lm director Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, celebrated photojournal-ist Steve McCurry and famed typographer David Carson. West-

Can One Word Answer a Million Different Needs? Global Money-Transfer Company Says yes!

Western Union Launches Its First-Ever Global Brand Campaign

ern Union selected these artists because of the humanity in their work and the contemporary fresh face their collaboration brings to the brand. Bardou-Jacquet and McCurry traveled the world to capture the striking images behind the campaign, including stops in Morocco, Singapore, Los Angeles and Cape Town, South Africa.

The creative behind Western Union’s campaign centers on the optimism and hope inherent in the word “yes!” and highlights tangible acts that bring the brand to life. The yes! campaign clearly and emotionally communicates its optimistic point of view using real people in its advertisements refl ecting the global nature of Western Union.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE:WU) is a leader in global money transfer services. Together with its Vigo and Orlandi Valuta-branded money transfer services, Western Union provides consum-ers with fast, reliable and conve-nient ways to send and receive money around the world, as well as send payments and purchase money orders. It operates through a combined network of more than 375,000 Agent locations in 200 countries and territories. Famous for its pioneering telegraph ser-vices, the original Western Union dates back to 1851. For more information, visit www.wester-nunion.com.

About the Western Union Foundation

Through the donations of The Western Union Company, its em-ployees and Agents, the Western Union Foundation helps to fund programs that create economic opportunity around the world. Em-bracing the truly global nature of its corporate sponsor, the Western Union Foundation has granted almost $53 million to more than 1,840 nongovernmental organiza-tions (NGOs) in 100 countries. Its signature giving program, Western Union’s Our World, Our Fam-ily®, is a $50 million, fi ve-year commitment reaching people at every rung of the economic ladder. Through Our World, Our Family, the Western Union Foundation is helping migrants and their families stay connected, overcome barriers and realize their dreams. For more information, visit http://founda-tion.westernunion.com.

Washington, DC – This afternoon, on behalf of the Congressional Asian Pacifi c American Caucus (CAPAC), Reps. Mike Honda and Robert C. “Bobby” Scott hosted census stake-holders for a national census tele-conference meeting that focused on outreach to Asian Americans and Pa-cifi c Islanders. (audio available here: honda.house.gov/media/2010_Census Teleconference.mp3)

During the call, the Census Bureau, congressional leaders, community stakeholders, and ethnic media report-ers engaged in a dialogue on outreach to this growing and diverse popula-tion, currently constituting over 15 million people in the United States. Participants hailed from throughout the United States, including Califor-nia, Ohio, Texas, New York, Washing-ton, Florida, Minnesota, Hawaii, the Pacifi c Islands, and other areas with signifi cant Asian and Pacifi c Islander populations.

“We each have a critical role to play to make sure that our communi-ties are counted,” said Honda, chair of CAPAC. Honda, member of the Commerce, Science, Justice Appro-priations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the Census Bureau, advocated for the $1 billion of census funding that was included in the economic recovery legislation, boost-ing resources for the constitutionally mandated count. “We need trusted opinion leaders and nonprofi ts in our communities, ethnic media outlets, and congressional district off ices to help get the word out.”

Congressman Scott discussed the stakes in an accurate decennial count for Asian and Pacifi c Islander com-munities. “It is incredibly important that our communities know about the decennial census, and fi ll out those forms,” said Scott, chair of CAPAC’s Civil Rights Task Force. “Certain

CAPAC Engages Asian and Pacifi c Islander Communities to Participate

in 2010 Decennial Censusprovisions of the Voting Rights Act, including provisions that protect lan-guage minorities, are triggered by the decennial count. The decennial count also affects bread and butter issues in our communities. Each person left uncounted costs a local jurisdiction $24,000 of federal funding over a course of 10 years.”

Community advocates highlighted the need for the Census Bureau to ensure diversity when hiring partner-ship specialists. Terry M. Ao, director of census and voting programs, at the Asian American Justice Center noted, “An accurate census count is extreme-

ly important to the Asian American community because census data are used to determine voting representa-tion and to distribute federal funds for key services like education and housing. But historically, a dispropor-tionate number of Asian Americans have been missed in the census. AAJC is working with community leaders, government offi cials and the Census Bureau to ensure that Asian Americans are fully counted in the 2010 census.”

Concerns about funding available for census outreach efforts were also raised. Vincent Pan, executive direc-tor of Chinese for Affi rmative Action, a San Francisco-based advocacy orga-nization noted, “In this economy, I’m extremely concerned that community based organizations most capable of assisting Census efforts do not have access to the local or state resources

that they have had in the past.”Finally, during the discussion, the

vital role of ethnic media outlets was also highlighted. “There are more than 800 Asian Pacifi c American media organizations throughout the U.S. and this doesn’t even include the vast number of new media,” said Bill Imada, chairman and CEO of IW Group, a full-service communications fi rm that specializes in Asian Ameri-can markets. “This fi gure represents more than a 300% growth rate since 1990. The growth of APA media in this country clearly demonstrates the importance these organizations play in providing culturally relevant and accessible news information to our communities around the country. We need the support of community-based organizations throughout the country to get the word out about the impor-tance of the Census.”

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The Fleet Reserve Association Branch 84, San Diego presented the 2008 FRA Branch 84 top award to an Essay Contest entry to Mr. Timothy Empeno McHugh, on Saturday, March 14, 2009. The theme of the Essay Contest was “A United America”. His prize award was $300 cash. Mr. Mchugh attend-ing Loyola High School at Los Angeles, California, is the son of Mr. & Mrs. Timothy Mchugh and the grandson of Mr. & Mrs. Henry Empeno, Sr.

Fleet Reserve Association, Branch 84 San Diego

A United America – Essay Contest

Ernie Edraida, president of Branch 84 presented the award to Mr. Mchugh during its Board of Directors meeting and guests.

FRA Essay Contest is admin-istered annually to middle and high school students in grade level 7th to 12th. Branch 84 award cash prizes to the tree winners raging from $75 to $300. Their entries are forwarded to the next level, FRA Southwest Region to compete with other winning entries within the region. The winner would receive $75 saving bond. The winning entry within the region will be forwarded to the national level to compete

FRA Branch 84 President Ernie Edraisa presenting a check of $300.00 to Timothy Empeno Mchug.

with nine other regional win-ners. The grand national prize is $15,000. $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000, to each fi rst, second and third place winners. Prizes are U.S. Savings Bonds. All winners will receive an attractive plaque and “Certifi cate of Recognition” citing their achievement.

FRA Branch 84, San Diego membership is composed of U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Their community ac-tivities include but not limited to

sponsoring annual Essay Contest from 7th to 12th grade students hosting annual Christmas party for children participating at vet-erans celebrations, etc. For more information about the benefi ts of becoming a member of the Fleet Reserve Association and Branch 84 San Diego, contact the Branch Secretary, Lee Leano at (619) 421-2964.

Henry Empeno, Sr.FRA Branch 84PRO & Americanism Chair-

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Platt College, San Diego School of Art and Design con-gratulates Filipino student fi lm-maker Donovan Manuel, whose work was selected as one of this year’s Latino Film Festival win-ners of the Nickelodeon Writer’s Script Review.

“We are so proud of Donovan,

Filipino Art Student Honored at Latino Film Festival

because he has a strong founda-tion in the artistic and technical aspects of fi lmmaking.”

Donovan Manuel’s entry is a 30-minute episode of Han-nah Montana. “My dream is to be a visual fi lmmaker in the motion picture industry,” says Manuel. “The way of telling a story is about the foundation of all elements coming together as a complete whole.”

The Latino Film Festival honored the eight winners at a special ceremony at the Mis-sion Valley UltraStar Cinema on March 14th. Platt College, San Diego School of Art and Design congratulates all of the winners.

Donovan Manuel

who was among eight winners of the prestigious Latino Film Festival,” said Meg Leiker, president of Platt College. “It is an honor to participate in this event, which celebrates the rich Latino culture and the talented artists o our region each year.”

Platt College script writing instructor, Glenn Heath says he is delighted by the tremendous showing by Manuel, but not sur-prised. “This student possesses the imagination, skill and dedi-cation to become top a notch screen writer,” says the instruc-tor. The Latino Film Festival, in partnership with Nickelodeon, is an event that prepares applicants for submission to the Nick-elodeon Writing Fellowship. “Donovan would be excellent candidates for such a fellowship

at critical times, selling or barter-ing some for their daily needs, such as clothing, salt, and tools - not to mention duhat and lanzones.

One unforgettable experience Ro-sel had during this time was when typhoon hit Laguna lake while his father and three kids were coming back from Mabitac. It was a jour-ney of untold adversity and fear as they were caught by unos (typhoon) midway to their home. Some pre-cious belongings and sacks of palay had to be thrown over board in the turbulent sea to prevent the banca from capsizing.

Wet and cold, the father, sister and brother suffered malaria fever and they couldn’t do anything to help

IN SEARCH OF THE GOOD LIFE:World War II

through the Eyes of a Growing Boy


Rosel paddle home. Rosel brought the group safe, but the poor lad was so exhausted and deadly tired. It took Rosel two days of deep sleep to recover.

It was in Wawa, some few kilo-meters from the town that Rosel discovered the joys of simple living, and led, at least in the earlier years, a virtually idyllic life – away from fears and tensions in town and city.

There is still a romantic quality in Rosel’s persona borne by his expe-rience during the war with country life. He still appreciates the innate good ness, simplicity, natural wis-dom, and travails of rural folks; and their earthly jokes that he shared later in his career with his univer-sity stu dents in some exaggerated way. Call them homespun sense of hu mor, but they never fail to evoke laughter and cheers from them both in teaching places – the Philippines and his adopted country the United States. -- Riz

(To be continued)

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Grilled to perfectionBamboo Rotisserie’s bold

entry into the food business is food for thought

G. Silverio, Asian Journal | NATIONAL CITY, 3/20/09 – Good food at affordable prices makes good sense even in a tough economy. The proof positive is Bamboo Rotisserie, which opened its doors last week.

Bamboo Rotisserie opened to rave reviews among locals with a feast of grilled favorites on Friday, March 20, 2009. The crowd of patrons gathered during the grand opening of its new store in the Grove Shop-ping Center a few steps away

The restaurant has something for everyone: A whole roast chicken for a family meal for only $7.49 and full-service catering for events and parties.

from Manila Seafood in Na-tional City.

The banquet included party favorites such as pork barbe-cue, dilis and chicken chicha-rones, pansit, lumpia, and mor-con. One whole lechon manok (roast chicken) goes for $7.49, enough for a family feast.

The crossover food caters

Bamboo Rotisserie leaves a lasting impression on neighbors and guests as they feast on the sumptious party fare free of charge during the grand opening.

to the taste of a more main-stream clientele without losing its authenticity. Local banker Nathen Triplett of North Island Federal Union was among the guests who savored the Spanish flavors of the morcon and the deep flavors of barbecue, Fili-pino style, among other dishes.

His favorite was the sisig, a chili-laced concoction of lechon bits, tomato, onions and garlic that jolts the tastebuds. “It reminds me of the flavors of the ceviche. I would like to come back for more.”

The delicacy was recently featured on the popular Travel

Channel show No Reservations hosted by Anthony Bourdain who braved a dusty roadside beer house in Pampanga with the locals to enjoy the dish and several bottles of San Miguel beer.

The restaurant is owned and operated by Bamboo Holdings, Inc., a partnership among local entrepreneurs that include Au-drey de Castro, J.D., Joy Oyson and restaurateur Robert Yee.

In a press release announcing the event, the restaurant issued this statement:

“Bamboo Rotisserie is the only restaurant in San Diego that serves Filipino style rotis-serie meals, in either chicken (lechon manok) or pork (lechon liempo). Our rotisserie foods come with our popular lechon sauce. By using our secret ro-tisserie methods, we serve tasty and juicy meals that are hot

and ready to go, at an inexpen-sive price. We also specialize in char grilled pork (inihaw), barbeque kebab, and tasty ap-petizers, like the popular crispy chicken skins (chicharones) and fried smelt (dilis). We do cater-ing for parties and events.”

BAMBOO ROTISSIERIETM is located at 2220 E. Plaza Boulevard, National City, Cali-fornia (in the Grove Shopping Center, between Starbucks and Manila Seafood). Call (619) 472-CHIX (2449) to place orders for events.

Nicole is far from finished,” Daza said. “We must learn and benefit from what the higher courts will rule. In the end, I

Nicole couldn’t have been raped

-- lady solon(Continued from page 1)

believe in my heart that justice will be served.”

She lamented, however, that the “slow grind of justice” may have left Nicole too exhausted to continue and forced her to be practical about her situation.

Neither side in the celebrated case can complain about inad-equate legal representation, Daza added. “Both sides have legal teams who are formidable and driven. With or without Nicole, we must hear the arguments clearly even as this case has taken an unexpected turn. We will be better A off as a people in the end.”


March 17, 2009— Springtime has finally arrived in Julian with its colorful annual displays of daffodils, lilacs and other beautiful wildflowers and Julian is hopping with egg-citing annual Easter events sure to entertain the whole fam-ily.

The Miss Julian Scholarship Pag-eant will host its 4th Annual Royal Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, April 11th at King Leo’s Chocolates, at 4510 Highway 78. The egg hunt is free and open to all children up to age12 with different times for specific age groups. The toddler group (birth to age 3) begins at 10am, children age 4 to 6 years will begin at 10:20, 7-8 year olds will begin at approximately 10:40 and the final age group will begin at approximately 11:00. All children will need to bring their own basket and20there will be special eggs hidden in each division for lucky win-ners who find them! There will also be a raffle for Easter Baskets, with tickets available for $1.

On Easter Sunday, April 12th, the Pine Hills Lodge, located at 2960 La Posada Way, will present its annual Easter Brunch from 9am to 2pm. The menu will include pancakes, an omelet station, Easter ham, biscuits and gravy and

Springtime in the mountains offers fun for the whole family

much more. At 11am, the Lodge will also hold an Easter Egg Hunt. Reserva-tions are required (760-765-1100) and the prices range from $12.95 (10 and under) to $16.95 for adults.

For shoppers, Julian offers visitors an opportunity to shop at small boutiques, craft shows and one-of-a-kind stores for unique gifts at reasonable prices all in a delightful, picturesque mountain setting. Local merchants have sprung into the season to offer an array of gardening supplies, bird feeders, local crafts, an-tiques, and other items for the home and the outdoor enthusiast.

For more information, visit www.julianevents.org.

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“I think this is the first time that there’s a local movie that

John Lloyd ready for kiss-

ing scenes with Luis

will touch on this. It’s re-ally a good project. It’s not a straight drama. In fact, from what I know, we’ll have lots of light moments which make it more realistic.”

Since they play lovers in the story, it is expected that he and Luis will have kissing scenes.

“Yes. In fact, I9 9m already preparing for it. It’s not really that easy to play a character which requires you to kiss an-other guy on cam. But I trust our director (Olive Lamasan) that the scene will turn out fine. Luis and I will just do it based on how she visualizes the scene.”

Lloydie reveals that to have an idea, he watched the Hollywood film “Brokeback Mountain” which starred the late Heath Led-ger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

It tackles a similar theme on gay love.

“I found it moving and I cried in the end. But for sure, Luis and I will not do the same kissing scene as the actors in the said movie did. Ours will be tamer,” the popular actor explains.


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Dine-In or Carry-Out

Special Events

Catering

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1340 3RD Ave. Suite B Chula Vista, CA 91911(Inside Seafood City Supermarket)

Del & Chit Rivera(Proprietors)

(619) 426-7804

Pinakamasarap na Lechon and Filipino cuisine


10th

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

journalusa.com

* Ang buhay ay parang bato, it’s hard.

* Behind the clouds are the other clouds.

* It’s better to cheat than to repeat!...my personal favorite!

* Do unto others ... then run!!!* Kapag puno na ang salop,

kumuha na ng ibang salop.* Magbiro ka na sa lasing,

magbiro ka na sa bagong gising, huwag lang

sa lasing na bagong gising.* When all else fails, follow

instructions.* Di bale ng duwag, hindi na-

man gulpi* Ang hindi marunong magma-

hal sa sariling wika, lumaki sa ibang bansa.

* To err is human, to errs is humans.

* Pag may usok ... may nag-iihaw

* Mabuti na walang tulog, kaysa sa walang gising..

* Ang taong naglalakad nang matulin ... may utang.

* No guts, no glory... no ID, no entry.

* Birds of the same feather that prays together ... stays together.

* Kapag may sinuksok at wa-lang madukot, may nandukot.

* Walang matigas na tinapay sa gutom na tao.

* Ang taong di marunong lumingon sa kanyang pinanggal-

Mga Bagong Salawikaing Pinoy (new version)

ingan .... ay maystiff neck.* Birds of the same feather

make a good feather duster.* Kapag may tiyaga, may nila-

ga. Kapag may taga, may tahi.* Huli man daw at magaling,

undertime pa rin.* Ang naglalakad ng matulin,

late na sa appointment* Matalino man ang matsing,

matsing pa rin.* Better late than later.* Aanhin ang palasyo kung ang

nakatira ay kuwago, mabuti pa ang bahay

kubo, sa paligid puno ng linga.* Kapag maikli ang kumot,

tumangkad ka na!* No man is an island because

time is gold.* Hindi lahat ng kumikinang ay

ginto ... muta lang yan.* Kapag ang puno mabunga ...

mataba ang lupa!* When it rains ... it floods.* Pagkahaba haba man ng

prusisyon ... mauubusan din ng kandila.

* Ang buhay ay parang gulong, minsan nasa ibabaw, minsan nasa

vulcanizing shop.* Batu-bato sa langit, ang

tamaan ... sapul.* Try and try until you suc-

ceed... or else try another.* Ako ang nagsaing ... iba ang

kumain. Diet ako eh.* Huwag magbilang ng manok

kung alaga mo ay itik.* Kapag maiksi na ang kumot,

bumili ka na ng bago.* If you can’t beat them, shoot

them.* An apple a day is too expen-

sive.* An apple a day makes seven

apples a week. (really expen-sive)--

established his residence.Before becoming a movie star,

Dantes was a police officer for several years in Manila. It was while majoring in Physical Edu-cation in college when he met Professor Presas, the founder of Modern Arnis. His passion for Arnis was rekindled, and Dantes became one of Presas’ top students and closest friend. Presas even choreographed his Arnis moves in most of his mov-ies. After Dantes immigrated to America, he continued his Filipino martial arts training with the late FMA Grandmasters: Antonio Ilustresimo, Leo Gaje, Ben Lima, Johnny Chiuten , Edgar Sulite and others; and with the 88-year old living legend,

Grandmaster Cacoy Canete, founder of the Doce Partes Es-krido/Eskrima system of martial arts.

With his extensive martial arts and bodybuilding expertise and experience, Dantes was listed in the Philippine Martial Arts Grandmasters Hall of Fame in Florida, Martial Arts Hall of Fane in El Paso, Texas, and the Philippine Bodybuilding Hall of Fame. He held the position of Chairman of the International Affairs of Arnis Philippines and the International Arnis Federa-tion, the officially-recognized governing body for Arnis by the Philippine government.

I first met Roland Dantes in August 16, 1981 when my husband and I attended the Kali Association of America (KAA) picnic at a park in Kauai, Ha-waii. The day before, the KAA members gathered at the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall for a martial arts exhibition and testimonial. It was during this event that the legendary Kali Grandmaster Floro Villabrille awarded the title of Grandmaster to Ben Largusa, his designated successor. Dantes dropped by, as he was in Hawaii promoting his movie “The Pacific Connection.”

In October 1, 2004 I met Dantes again when my husband and I attended the World Fili-pino Martial Arts Exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada, which was hosted by Punong Guro Myrlino

Farewell, Roland Dantes: A Life

Well Lived

Hufana of Seattle, Washington. Dantes was one of seventeen martial arts grandmasters and masters who each conducted a one-hour seminar in several kinds of Filipino martial arts systems.

He invited us to come to Ma-nila in November 2005 for the Southeast Asian Games, but un-fortunately, due to prior commit-ments here, we were not able to attend. This was a precedent-set-

ting event because this was when Arnis was officially accepted as one of the sporting events that the Southeast Asian nations will participate in. The inclusion of Arnis as a sporting event in the Southeast Asian Games was one of Dantes’ legacy to the world.

Roland Dantes – you’re gone but not forgotten. You will forever be missed! Rest in peace with the Lord!


Movies to Watch(Following are movies now showing or

soon to be shown in San Diego.)

by Simeon G. Silverio Jr.

Paris - In 1936 Paris three out-of-work friends create a musical and must struggle with their lack of experience and a local thug in order to run the show and raise enough money to buy the theater.

This film is Rated PG-13 by the MPAA. Running time 121 minutes.

Exclusive Engagement Opens Friday, April 10thLandmark’s La Jolla Village Cinemas

8879 Villa La Jolla Drive – (619) 819-0236

Tours”, a breakthrough in Philip-pine tourism that offers a conve-nient and daily sightseeing tour to travelers staying in five star hotels who wish to explore the best of Manila. Its main objec-tive is to leave a positive image of the Philippines with every single ride.

Onboard the Jeepney Tours

The jeepney tours will take the travelers on a fascinating tour of the historical and vibrant city of Manila onboard a custom-built air-conditioned jumbo jeepney which can easily seat 20 people. A tour facilitator will join the passengers for the whole dura-tion of the tour to point out inter-esting landmarks and give you brief backgrounds on the places that will be visited.

Stuck in Manila traffic? Fret not! There is a videoke system onboard to keep the guests entertained on the way back. The jeepney has a cooler for storing cold bottled drinks to keep the guests refreshed and hydrated at all times.

Jeepney Tour guide

The Jeepney Tours is an es-sential introduction to Manila in a fun and informative way and it links the travelers to the

Discover Manila’s best in a Jeepney


Tour guide

Sunset Cocktail Cruise

Pampanga Escapade

main attractions of the city. It is a perfect gift that can be offered to visiting friends and colleagues to experience all the magical sights and sounds of Manila in an entertaining, comfortable and secure environment.

“The Jeepney Tours is a tour-ism breakthrough that we are extremely proud of. Despite all the challenges, our profound commitment to the tourism industry fueled us

to develop a major tourism infrastructure that transports the tourists to a day filled with fascinating experi-ences, a day packed with cultural learning and beautiful memories that will make them remember the Philippines at its best.” Clang Garcia, Managing Director of Jeepney Tours.

The Jeepney Tours can be booked at major five stars hotel with Thematic Tours to choose from.

Intramuros: A Cultural Heri-tage Tour

Metro Manila is the urban capi-tal of the Philippines. Comprised

Intramuros Cultural Heritage

of several bustling cities, it is the country’s bastion of modernity and cosmopolitan appeal. Manila is the premier gateway to any destina-tion in the country. It serves its own menu of attractions and activities. Visit Manila and walk the walls of the old historical town of Intramuros and find out for yourself why it is hailed as one of the best preserved medieval cities in the world.

Spa and Shopping Spree

Travelers can indulge in purely pleasurable activities as they treat

themselves to one fine day in Ma-nila – one of the greatest spa and shopping destinations in Asia! From power spending down to flea market bargaining, one will never run out of options while exploring the malls of Manila, the uncontested shop-per’s paradise. Tourists can pamper their body after a day of discoveries as they unwind and get the treat-ment they deserve amidst a relaxing atmosphere of a serene spa. What an exciting way to spend a day in the city!

Sunset Cocktail Cruise

Manila Bay is known for its captivating sunset. An extraordi-nary sight to behold because of the different play of colors decorating the sky, the Manila Bay sunset is a truly pleasurable experience in the city. Locals and tourists are known to hangout and spend their lazy afternoons by the bay along the historical Roxas Boulevard;

however, a far better treat is to seize the moment while riding on to the sunset with a cocktail cruise. Before sailing away to the cruise, tour-ists will enjoy a sightseeing tour of Manila en route to the Manila Bay harbor where they will board a yacht to experience a memorable ride with their loved ones. Onboard, guests may explore the wide docks of the yacht, and after watching the sun go down, different wines and bever-ages will be served as guests enjoy the sea breeze of the cool night. Perfect for couples looking for a special romantic setting, the Sunset Cocktail Cruise is an ideal affair to remember.

Pampanga Escapade: Fly, Dine and Spa!

Just a short ride away to the north is the charming province of Pampanga. It is a place mixed with a proud cultural heritage and fast developing sites that cater to the international community. It is also a haven for people who want to experience the leisurely pace of the countryside. Start off your day with an English breakfast followed by a tour of a wine cellar. Then enjoy an Ultra-Light Flying experience, a sumptuous lunch and a rejuvenating spa treatment. Welcome and have a good day! Makusuelong pamag-bisita keni Pampanga.

National Museum

The Charm of Tagaytay

Tagaytay is the perfect day trip destination outside Manila. A scenic drive to the countryside treats the traveler’s eye to sights of pine-apple plantations, colorful fruit stands, flowers in bloom, ridges and mountains swathed in green and a breathtaking view of the famous

Onboard jeepney tours.

Taal Volcano – the world’s small-est volcano. Tour this extraordinary city onboard our jeepney and get to enjoy the superb food of Sonya’s English Garden, a walk around and great buys of natural products from the charming honeybee farm and a relaxing treatment at Nurture Spa offering Asian and Filipino healing traditions in native Ifugao huts from the Cordillera province.

For more info about the Jeepney Tours, please contact:

Jeepney ToursTel. No. (63-2) 994-6636 / 638-

6644Email: [email protected]: www.jeepneytours.com

asian journal mar 27 2009

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