RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY DRAWS THOUSANDS TO THE MALL

Funnymen Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have proven once more that “if you build it, they will come”.

At the start of the show Colbert said he was hiding in a “fear bunker” afraid no one would show up to Saturday’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” at the National Mall.





The crowd stretched from the foot of Capitol Hill to almost the Washington Monument.

Since the DC police and National Park service (which runs the Mall) stopped giving crowd estimates decades ago, they found another way of sizing up the event.





They asked people to carry a wave from the front rows to where the throng ended. The tsunami of raised hands and shouts rocketed through the Mall for almost a minute – perhaps offering a new form of measurement.








They also installed a seismograph and asked people to jump at the same time. We recalled an old belief that if China’s billions jumped together at the same time, they’d be able to simulate an earthquake.

The “minute-long” sized crowd jumped but experts say they “created” a tremor that was “200,000 weaker than a car colliding with a wall”. Well, so much for the China human earthquake theory.









The rally was very lighthearted, and most carried their own signs that tried to be creative, clever or funny – with “tried” mostly the operative word.

The rally called on Americans to turn their backs on hate and return to good old-fashioned civility – that seemed lost in the highly toxic political campaign season.









“This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism…or to suggest that times are not difficult and we have nothing to fear,” Stewart said.

“They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times,” he stressed, laying the theme of the day’s event.

It was a star-studded event that featured Sheryl Crow, John Legend, Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) and Ozzy Osbourne, Kareem Abdul Jabar and R2D2, among others.






It looked like organizers and police underestimated the number of people attending the rally. There were not enough giant projectors or “Jumbotrons”, and speakers could not reach the crowd at the edges of the Mall.

People climbed up trees and lamp posts just to get a glimpse of, not the stage, but the “Jumbotrons”.





Many were evidently early Halloween revelers; others went to the rally to drive home a point.

They were just tired of the shouting matches that seemed to dominate the debate in America since they elected the nation’s first black president.




“The country’s 24-hour politico pundit perpetual panic conflictinator” did not cause America’s problemas, Stewart said, “but makes solving them that much harder.”

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing,” he declared.

Most Americans, he added, don’t live as Republicans or Democrats but as “people who are just a little bit late for something, often something they do not want to do…but the truth is, we work together to get things done every damn day.”

FIL-AMS WORRIED ABOUT CAMPAIGN RHETORIC VS B-P-Os

Some Fil-Ams are worried about the campaign rhetoric against business outsourcing the days leading up to next week’s midterm elections that could hurt countries like the Philippines.

“This should be a source of concern for Filipinos,” admitted lawyer Wari Azarcon, one of the founding members of the Filipino American Republicans of Virginia (FARV).

President Obama and the Democratic Party have made the issue of business outsourcing one of their key campaign issues. The President has vowed to slap stiffer levies on American companies that ship jobs overseas.

That tack hasn’t been as visible in the Metro DC region, with its large immigrant population, but in Ohio and the President’s home state of Illinois, at least one influential group of Asian Americans have reportedly poured millions to the campaign kitty of Republican candidates who are open to employment outsourcing.

Americans troop to polling stations on Nov. 2 to elect their senators, congressmen, governors and key state and local officials.

The Wall Street Journal said Democratic attacks against outsourcing were alienating erstwhile supporters in the Indian American community.

For the first time, the Wall Street Journal revealed, the Indian-American political action committee (USINPAC) has began spending on GOP candidates because of the outsourcing issue.

Last July, a group of Fil-Ams lobbied Capitol Hill against a bill by Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York, that would impose a 25-cent tax on each call made from an overseas call center to US customers.

“We are for free trade,” Azarcon averred, “and while personally I am committed to the exercise of my power as a consumer to defend the US economy, American companies must have that option to resort to outsourcing if this is the way to be competitive and survive.”

The US is the world’s biggest off-shoring client.

The Philippines is reportedly the 3rd largest business process outsourcing (BPO) destination next only to India (37%) and Canada (27%).

Philippine officials and industry leaders estimate the number of people employed by BPOs will grow from over 400,000 today to 700,000 by 2011. The Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) said Philippine-based BPOs could generate 1.3 million jobs and $25 billion in revenues by 2016.

The Philippine outsourcing sector offers various services, from the dominant call centers to finance, animation, engineering computer-assisted design (CAD), medical transcription and architectural services.

When US banks were forced to temporarily suspend millions of home foreclosures following reports bank officials allegedly didn’t even read the foreclosure papers they were signing, there were suggestions some of those documents may have actually been processed in the Philippines.

Azarcon said American corporations have an obligation to stakeholders and cracking down on US outsourcing contracts could ultimately hurt the economy.

“If these companies go bankrupt because they can not compete in the market, the impact will be more devastating,” he warned.

BOO!

Even during summer, you can only fly to Baguio City, the Philippine’s most popular mountain resort city, at the right time of the day – too early or too late, Loakan’s short runway would likely be shrouded by clouds.

We made one such flight accompanying then military chief Gen. Lisandro Abadia on one of his speaking engagements.

The event was at an old, wooden hotel along Kennon Road, at the edge of town.

Visitors were welcomed by a massive painting of an eerie hallway, faded with age and marked by what appeared to be like short streaks of light which at first glance, we thought were scratches on the canvass. The wooden floor creaked in exertion, and despite the number of people attending the convention, the hotel seemed hauntingly sad and empty.

Near the end of the general’s speech, we went off looking for the restroom, which turned out to be at the very end of a narrow corridor. I felt an odd, unexplainable sensation. I was sure I was alone, then not. Walking back to the ballroom, I felt my hair stand, the skin on my face and hands tingling. I couldn’t wait to get out of that hotel. And on the way out, I noticed that that painting hanging on the lobby was of the hallway with the restroom.

Baguio City is well-known for ghosts. Many friends who went there as unbelievers have returned convinced spirits roamed there.

A dear colleague, Bobby Burgos, then president of the Philippine National Police Press Corps, was so sure ghost tales are meant for children that he kept casting a scary web on the group’s younger female reporters, warning about “visitors” coming in their rooms at Teachers Camp that night.

He consented to be left behind at Teachers Camp, saying he needed a nap, as we left to explore Session Road. We thought it hilarious that a group of journalists covering coup attempts and local wars felt the need to stay close together because of some old wives’ tales.

Bobby got his nap but was roused because he thought we were back. He was upset thinking someone was playing tricks on him. Known to regularly pack a pistol, he demanded that the “culprit” show himself. As he was brushing his teeth, he saw someone walk past behind him through the bathroom mirror. There was no one. It happened several more times.

When we got back to Teachers Camp Bobby was sitting forlornly on a bench at the gate. We’ve never seen him happier to see us. From his tale, we learned it’s wrong to try scaring a ghost.

Even before Americans introduced their version of Halloween in the Philippines, young kids especially in the Tagalog-speaking regions, were already engaged in “nangaluluwa” – serenading homes and pretending to be wandering spirits.

For many, nothing is scarier than death or angry spirits. But as my elders are wont to say, “don’t be scared of the dead, it’s the living you should be more scared of”.

Fear is a powerful tool to influence, control people. Many here live with the dread of losing jobs or homes, of seeing Muslims aboard planes or walking into New York buildings. They’re afraid of blacks swimming in public pools, of Latinos “invading” their communities or government telling people what to do. The list could be endless, limited only by our forebodings and insecurities.

So like the pagans we celebrate Halloween because nothing overcomes fear more potently than humor and gaiety. That’s why I’m going to be at the National Mall this weekend to join Stephen Colbert’s Keep the Fear Alive (that’ll be held simultaneously with Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity).

There’s something inherently funny about people trying to feed on our fears, deliberately offering no solutions except pointing to people they say should be blamed for our misery.

We all have our phantoms – my hair still stands recalling the encounters in Baguio – but that doesn’t mean we can’t laugh and have fun at their expense.

WANTED: SUPERPOWER "PADRINO"

Joshua Kurlantzick, a Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) wrote, “The best way for Washington to respond, in the context of Southeast Asia, is to hide”.

“Not to hide from China,” he hastens to add, “but in some ways to hide America’s response behind the Southeast Asians, who have serious concerns about China’s new assertiveness.”

The question about how to deal with China is perhaps the biggest foreign policy question for the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, as it does with most Southeast Asian leaders.

This will be in everyone’s mind in next week’s East Asia Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam that President Aquino is attending, only his 2nd foreign trip since moving to Malacanang.

When US State Secretary Hillary Clinton was last in Vietnam, her declaration on America’s commitment for the peaceful resolution of overlapping claims in the South China Sea drew angry reactions from Beijing.

China has declared the South China Sea as part of her “core interests” – the same phrase she uses for Taiwan and Tibet.

There are signs of growing nervousness on both sides.

Growing Nervousness

Rick Rozoff, writing for the Centre for Research on Globalization, noted the increased military activity in the region.

He listed the first joint exercise between the US and Vietnam last August, that featured the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington (a 2nd battle group led by another nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is reportedly in the region as well); in June, Malaysia and Thailand joined the US-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercise along with Australia, Canada, France, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and other countries; and earlier this month, the US and Philippines simultaneously held the PHIBLEX joint amphibious exercise and Cooperation Afloat Readiness & Training (CARAT) involving 3,000 American troops and six warships.

Kurlantzick also cited data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) to argue that there is an ongoing “arms race” in the region.

Weapons purchases nearly doubled from 2005 to 2009, he explained, with Vietnam recently paying $2.4 billion for Russian submarines and fighter aircraft, and Malaysia buying its own submarines for $1 billion.

“This arms race has proceeded despite the fact most Southeast Asian nations have no obvious near enemies and if they are involved in conflicts, they tend to be local insurgencies that hardly require the kid of sophisticated air, sea and missile weaponry,” he averred.

In Search of A Superpower “Padrino”

So where does this leave the Philippines, with virtually no external defense capability and a promised but nonexistent military modernization program.

Philippine defense spending as a percentage of GDP has been cut by half in the past three decades from about 1.6% in 1988.

It has over 100,000 troops, about 80% of them ground forces.

Unfortunately, the Philippines is situated in a region that is the 2nd biggest buyer of weapons, next only to the Middle East (according to SIPRI, China is also the 2nd biggest arms spender, next to the US).

With practically no navy and air force, the Philippine has lagged so far behind its neighbors for so long that it will be nearly impossible for her to even build some semblance of parity even if the nation’s defense budget quadruples for say, the next decade.

The Philippines will have to rely on the security umbrella provided by others, particularly the US.

RP security tied to arbiter’s role

But the Philippines will still have a role to play in the power dynamics between the US and China. It has no choice, because the country will be in the frontline of any possible conflict. It was the Philippines that alerted the world on Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, when the military discovered permanent Chinese structures on Mischief Reef.

President Obama had earlier made the Philippines the US’s “point-man” in Southeast Asia.

“Hiding behind the Southeast Asians will be more effective with China,” Kurlantzick argues in CFR’s “Expert’s Roundup”.

“China expects relatively confrontational behavior from Washington but over the past decade it has spent significant resources trying to upgrade its tires with Southeast Asia, and warnings from the Southeast Asians do carry real weight in Beijing,” Kurlantzick wrote.

“Washington,” he averred, “ should whenever possible, enlist Southeast Asian leaders like Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Philippine President Benigno Aquino to help make its claims for continued American roles in the region.”

HOLLYWOOD MAKES A MOVIE ABOUT SONGWRITER'S PHILIPPINE TOUR

Will one of my favorite comedians, Steve Carell, get to see our mother country when he works on a big-screen adaptation of a documentary about an American songwriter elevated to the status of a rock star by performing, not in the United States, but in the Philippines?

There was a time when you mentioned Dennis Lambert in America and all you’d get was a blank stare.

Well, Lambert wrote “Rhinestone Cowboy”, “Ain’t No Woman Like The One I’ve Got”, “We Built This City”, “Baby Come Back” and a few of my all-time favorite tunes, “Of All The Things” and “Ashes To Ashes”, among others (he’s wrote over 600 songs). Ring a bell now?

Those songs were recorded by such famous artists and groups as The Commodores, The Righteous Brothers, Glen Campbell, Tavares, Natalie Cole and The Four Tops but fame and the big bucks eluded Lambert himself.

In 1972, he released his solo album and it flopped everywhere (that is, everywhere except the Philippines).

So in the 1990s, he retreated from New York City and settled into a job selling mini-mansions in Boca Raton, Florida.

That was where he got an offer to do a music tour in the Philippines.




It turned out he was more famous in Manila than Memphis.

His son Jody followed his father around in the Philippines with a camera and crafted the documentary Of All the Things, that Carell is now transforming into a full length feature film.

Lambert came to the Philippines with Paul Williams (“Rainbow Connection”, “Evergreen”, and for Ally McBeal fans “I Know Him By Heart”, etc.) and performed before a packed crowd for a Valentine’s Day concert at the Araneta Coliseum in 2007.

They also performed at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City, the Central Bank auditorium in Davao City; the Limketkai Atrium in Cagayan de Oro City; and the Central Philippine University auditorium in Iloilo City.

Of All the Things has been described as hilarious and heartwarming and the story itself, fascinating – attributes that may have attracted Carell to the project. “Lambert’s a mensch who gets to be a rock star for a couple of weeks,” said the website Creative Loafing.

His Philippine concert tour, he said, “remains a bright spot in my heart and in my mind.”




Carell (The Office, Dan in Real Life) seems comfortable in both comedy and drama, leading some Hollywood columnists to speculate the film might be turned into a “dramedy”.

Reeling him into this movie almost guarantees box-office success here – but even it doesn’t, I know at least one place where it will be – good old Philippines, where the people have proven they know their music.

PINOY WWII VETS STILL TOP FIL-AM CONCERN

We can’t blame Democratic congressional candidate Ben Frasier for promising to support bills for Filipino World War II veterans if he wins on Nov. 2.

But Frasier, who’s vying for the 1st District of South Carolina, is no stranger to Filipinos – after all, he’s been married to one for the past 28 years.




Zenaida Frasier, a native of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija, Zenaida runs the family business – a detective agency, driving school and limousine service in Rockville, Maryland.

She is also one of his biggest fund-raisers. She claims to have raised a significant amount from Fil-Ams in the Metro DC region, although Frasier is running in South Carolina’s historic Charleston region where there are very few Fil-Ams.

“It’s always been his dream to serve his people,” Zenaida says of her husband’s maiden foray in national politics. “He’s also committed to helping Filipinos, by opening more job opportunities, working on immigration reforms and giving justice to Filipino veterans,” she explained.

Filvets still hot button issue

The plight of Filipino World War II veterans remains a hot button issue for the Fil-Am community.

Before it adjourned last month for the campaign season, the US Senate passed a resolution recognizing October as Filipino American History Month.

“Filipino American servicemen and servicewomen have a longstanding history serving in the Armed Services, from the Civil War to the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, including the 250,000 Filipinos who fought under the United States flag during World War II to protect and defend this country,” the resolution read.

The Senate acknowledged that the “roles of Filipino Americans and other people of color have been overlooked” by American history.

Historic contribution: Pinoy war heroes

The resolution cited, for instance, that nine Filipino Americans have won the Congressional Medal of Honor – America’s highest award for valor.

They include Pvt. Jose Nisperos of San Fernando, La Union, a soldier in the 34th Company of the Philippine Scouts, who became the first Asian American to win the coveted medal; Navy Fireman 2nd Class Telesforo Trinidad of Aklan who continues to hold the distinction of being the only Asian American sailor to receive the Medal of Honor during peacetime; and Sgt. Jose Calugas of Leon, Iloilo who earned the medal during the battle at Culis, Bataan on Jan. 16, 1942.

It resolved to “renew efforts toward the research and examination of history and culture to provide an opportunity for all people in the United States to learn and appreciate more about Filipino Americans and their historic contributions to the Nation”.

In fact, those “historic contributions” are still questioned by even some in Congress who have blocked full equity and recognition for surviving Filipino World War II veterans.

The government granted last year a one-time lump sum payment for Filipino veterans in the US and the Philippines.

The Department of Veterans Administration (DVA) reported that as of Sept. 1, 2010, they have received a total 41,562 applications for the lump sum -- $9,000 for those in the Philippines and $15,000 for those living in the US.

More veterans denied

More applications have been rejected than granted (49% vs 41%). The DVA denied the applications of 20,492 veterans. Over 4,000 more applications are pending.

A group of veterans and veterans’ widows filed recently a class suit to compel the government to accept other evidence as proof a veteran served with the US Armed Forces in World War II, as well as allow widows to collect payments for deceased but qualified veterans.

Ben de Guzman, executive director of the National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity (NAFVE), revealed that in a meeting of the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders with Deputy Director Christina Lagdameo, “we made it clear that our veterans continues to be a priority for the Filipino American community.”

Despite the lack of progress on immigration reforms, De Guzman said they were encouraged that the Filipino World War II Veterans Reunification Bill was included in S-3932, the latest immigration reform measure introduced by Sen. Bob Menendez.

On various fronts, it’s clear the Filipino veterans issue remains a top concern for Fil-Ams.

NONOY MENDOZA (April 16, 1935-Oct. 16, 2010)

Veteran public relations practitioner and journalist Nonoy Mendoza, who helped conceptualize the Balikbayan program and adviser to American presidents and legislators, passed away Saturday in Fairfax, Virginia.

Mendoza ran the Twenty Outstanding Filipino Abroad (TOFA), one of the oldest Fil-Am award giving bodies in the United States, and the online news service PinoyGlobal.com.

He was in frail health since suffering a series of heart attacks earlier this year. We last saw him at the TOFA awards gala in Washington DC last month.

He suffered another attack last week and had been confined at the Virginia Hospital Center until his demise early Saturday morning. He had a history of heart ailments. He was 75.

Ambassador Willy Gaa said he was saddened by the news, noting that “Nonoy used his talents to promote the Philippines and the interests of Filipinos and the larger Asian community in the United States for many years.”

The last time we got a chance to shoot the breeze was at a dinner he tendered for Ben Cal, an old friend and comrade in the Defense Press Corps (DPC) which he covers for the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

He was among the first Fil-Am community leaders we met in Washington DC. Nonoy and my father worked in the pre-Martial Law Manila Chronicle, where he was Pacific Northwest and Canada bureau chief in 1960-65.



Over a slow, leisurely supper overlooking the Potomac River marina, he pressed on the need to highlight the positive aspects of Filipinos and the Philippines.

He prided himself as a journalist (he’s been a member of the National Press Club since 1993) although much of his accomplishments revolved around thinking up ways to boost Filipinos as well as the Asian-Pacific Islander community.

He revealed how he first broached the concept for a “Balikbayan” program to then Tourism Secretary Jose Aspiras as a way to entice Filipinos, especially those who’ve done well in the US, to go back, relax and enjoy, rediscover their roots, and more importantly perhaps, to see how they could help the Philippines.

The government formally launched the Balikbayan program in 1989. It provides incentives for all Filipinos who have been out of the country for a year or longer, including those naturalized in another country.

Nonoy was appointed to then President Gerald Ford’s advisory board on Asian-American affairs; served as public relations assistant to then Congressmen Matthew Martinez of California and Ben Blas of Guam. DC Mayor Marion Barry Jr. appointed him to the Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs in 1996. And he served as an Asian American specialist in the 1984 Reagan-Bush presidential campaign.

He established the TOFA in 1990 after surviving his first heart attack, convinced God had spared his life for a purpose. The roster of TOFA awardees is a virtual who’s who of outstanding Filipinos in the US and Canada.

More recently, he started PinoyGlobal to practice his concept of positive reporting, convinced that news should be a source of information as well as inspiration.

“That is something our people yearn for, especially for those who’ve been away for so long. Living in a different country, we want to be proud of the country of our birth, and I know there is plenty that we can be proud of,” Nonoy declared.

OUR 'IRRATIONAL' LOVE AFFAIR WITH BASKETBALL

We could barely make out our one-time basketball idols at the Sandburg Middle School gym in Alexandria, Virginia.



They included Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) stars Yoyoy Villamin and Billy Ray Bates of the fabled Crispa Redmanizers; Eddieboy Mendoza and Manny Victorino of Great Taste; Tim Coloso of Anejo Rum; Rickey Relosa of Alaska; Ricky Magallanes of San Miguel Beer; Richard Bognot of U-Tex; Alwin Espiritu of Talk Tex; and Ato Morano who played for Coke.



The event was organized by PBA alumni Ricky Magallanes, who's settled in Northern Virginia. The one-time coach of the Philippine and Vietnamese national teams is also the founder of Edge Basketball Sports Management and Training which conducts basketball clinics here.

Most of the former PBA stars settled in the East Coast, particularly in New York and New Jersey.

Perhaps the newest arrival was Victorino who still counts the length of his stay in Rahway, New Jersey by the months.




“We still get together to play basketball when we have the time, especially during weekends like today,” Villamin told us, adding he was now engaged in the construction trade in New Jersey.

“Life’s alright so long as you’re not too picky about work,” the former Redmanizer explained.



Generations of Pinoys, myself included, rely on their favorite PBA stars as a point of reference in their lives.







There was a tinge of nostalgia watching them play against “select seniors” of the Fil-Am Youth Basketball Association (FYBA) which promotes the sport among Fil-Am school-age kids in Metro DC.

The Crispa-Meralco rivalry, for instance, looms largely in the memories of my grade school years that was later supplanted by the Crispa-Toyota rivalry when we stepped up to high school. There’s much I’d prefer to forget about that era (if I hadn’t already), but those basketball games – especially Crispa’s grand slam campaigns – wasn’t one of them.

Playing 3x3 or with a full-court complement, we pretended to have the point-making accuracy of an Atoy Co or Bogs Adornado, or aerial acrobatics of Freddie Hubalde (certainly the cause of one sprain too many) or the blocking prowess of a Philip Cesar. It was as irrational as a people nursing dreams of world titles by crashing bodies with 7-foot behemoths.







Basketball’s pervasive influence on Filipinos piqued the interest of a young journalist from New York, Rafe Bartholomew, who joined us in Virginia.

He told us his book “Pacific Rims” (published by NAL Hardcover and released last June) was the product of more than three years of research, although the actual writing took him 8 months.

He said a Sports Illustrated article on how basketball was played in different countries, including the Philippines, was the germ of his book.





He hanged out with PBA players, politicians, the neighborhood “tambays” and even played some games in rural fiestas, in a quest to understand the Filipinos’ deep-rooted affinity to the sport.



Bartholomew spent so much time in the Philippines, he conversed with Victorino in grammatically impeccable Pilipino with an American twang.

Chicago Sun Times columnist Rick Telander said Bartholomew “turns the Philippines into a hoops carnival, teaching us as much about this complex nation as any history book.”

Book author James McBride (The Color of Water, Miracle at St. Anna, etc.) said Pacific Rims “is more than a front row seat to a body-twisting, triple-clutching, no-look passing basketball world in flip-flops.”

We asked Bartholomew if he’s figured out, in his years of immersion in Philippine basketball, why we love it so much? He just smiled.

THE GEOPOLITICS OF RELIGION: P-NOY'S CLASH WITH CATHOLIC CHURCH

Even President Aquino’s most avid fans here are hedging their support for his stand on the controversial reproductive health bill that’s fanned the simmering debate between the government and Catholic Church.

Dr. Arlene “Bambi” Lorica, a Virginia-based “holistic pediatrician”, revealed how she squirmed while delivering a lecture on artificial contraceptives in school.

“Hindi ko ma-take. Masyado malakas ang influence ng simbahan sa akin,” she said, but also admitting she is a “conditional supporter” of artificial family planning methods.

Lorica was among Fil-Ams from the Metro DC region who travelled to New York just to see President Aquino during his visit there last month.

“I don’t think the government should promote any type of family planning,” said Anne Tabligan, a young Fil-Am professional in Washington DC.

She opposes excommunicating the President but added, “if his beliefs continues to run counter to the teachers of the church, maybe he should consider changing his religion.”

US promoting “backdoor abortion”?

Pro-life activist Eileen Cosby has been lobbying the US Congress to cut off aid for artificial contraceptives in the Philippines and blames State Secretary Hillary Clinton for promoting a “backdoor approach to abortion”.

Cosby, who helped establish the Washington DC-based Filipino Family Fund, reminded President Aquino that he “ran on the legacy of his parents and the trust of the people that are now being betrayed.”

Cosby urged him to “return to the church and fully embrace all the church has to offer”.

The reproductive health bill has languished in the Philippine Congress for the past 14 years – largely because of the Catholic Church’s strong opposition.

President Aquino met with leaders of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) earlier this week that Palace spokesmen described as only the first of a series of meetings on the thorny issue.

The President may have inadvertently stirred the hornet’s nest when he told a The Filipino Channel (TFC)-organized town hall meeting in San Francisco last month that “government might provide assistance to those without means if they want to employ a particular method.”

The debate over women’s health, family planning, artificial contraception and abortion is no more heated in the Philippines as it is in the US.

A Pulse Asia survey in 2009 showed 82% of Filipinos believe government should not only educate couples but also provide them with services and materials so they can practice the family planning method of their choice.

Compelling medical, social reason

The Guttmacher Institute based in Washington DC estimated that from 400,000 to half a million Filipino women had an abortion in 2000, and that millions more defy the Catholic Church’s ban on artificial contraceptives. The United Nations says 46% of Filipino couples practice some form of contraception.

There are now over 92 million Filipinos, according to the Philippine Census Bureau, making the Philippines the 12th most populous nation in the world.

That’s after the government curbed population growth from 2.36% in 2000 to 1.8% according to World Bank statistics.

Dr. Lorica said she would support contraception “only if there is a compelling medical or social reason”.

“I feel from a medical standpoint, the use of condoms can be justified for purposes of safe sex practices,” she explained. Other forms, she noted, carries side-effects.

“The government should weigh the pro’s and con’s and combine the medical and ethical perspectives,” Lorica averred.

Battling for souls: The geopolitics of religion

The Catholic Church in the Philippines is especially vociferous in its opposition because it’s largely seen – even by Catholics in the US – as a place where they can hold the line against what they see as the pervasive evil of abortion (which they equate with artificial contraception).

“Abortion is illegal in the Philippines,” Fr. Jerome Magat, vicar of the St. William parish in Stafford, Virginia said in an earlier interview, “We come from a country where abortion is taboo and we have a culture that values the family. Filipinos carry all these traits that are so ready-made to be converted to such strong players in the pro-life movement.”

The battle for the Filipino soul, as the church sees this clash, has deeper implications for the Catholic Church’s evangelical ambitions in Asia.

Many years back, we were shown a special corner of the San Carlos seminary in Makati where the church trains missionaries bound for communist China.

It’s not something the church likes to talk about, our guide told us. “This is God’s army that’s destined to save Chinese souls,” he revealed.

“Like the Greek pilgrims of 2,000 years ago, so too the men of our time…ask believers to not only speak of Jesus but to make Jesus visible in every corner of the earth,” Pope Benedict XI homily on World Mission Sunday this week proclaims.

“I hope President Aquino can man up,” Cosby declared.

“Fil-Ams are concerned,” she said, “we can accept foreign aid but we can not accept the kind of health care that not even Americans want.”

U-S TAPS I-M-F TO KEEP AN EYE ON PHILIPPINE'S B-I-R

The United States has tapped the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to closely watch the progress of reforms in the Philippine’s Bureau of International Revenue (BIR).

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which doles out development grants under the auspices of the US State Department, and the IMF signed today a “partnership agreement to provide capacity-building support for the reform and modernization of tax administration in the Philippines.”

An MCC statement pointed out this was the first time such a partnership has been forged between the US government and IMF.

The MCC said it will provide $4.6 million (to be taken from the $434 million Compact grant for the Philippines) to pay for technical assistance by the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department.

While the bulk of the MCC Compact agreement will go to poverty-alleviation, road-building and livelihood projects, more than $54 million was also earmarked to computerize and streamline the BIR’s operations that is designed to go after tax-cheats and improve collections.

Under their agreement, the MCC will pay for a “resident advisor” to be posted with the BIR as well as a “significant number of short-term technical assistance missions by IMF experts”.

The MCC said it expects the IMF will be able to send an assessment mission to Manila next month and deploy the “resident advisor” to the BIR before the end of the year.

The Philippine’s quest for an MCC Compact grant had been mired by repeated failure of the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to pass the agency’s “corruption test”.

President Benigno Aquino III has made fighting graft and corruption one of the pillars of his administration, but there are still lingering doubts that he’ll be able to deliver on that promise.

The BIR had often been seen as one of the most graft-prone agencies in the Philippines. The World Bank, IMF and other international financial organizations have often cited the need for the government to plug loopholes in revenue collections so the Philippines can raise enough money to pay for expanding basic services and development.

The MCC said it expected to get the first report “on the BIR’s commitment to reform” from the IMF in early 2012.

The partnership agreement was signed by Murillo Portugal, IMF Deputy Managing Director, and Patrick Fine, MCC Vice President.

“The agreement will serve as a solid foundation for success in reforming the Philippines Bureau of Internal Revenue as was as a solid foundation for productive collaboration between the IMF and MCC,” Fine said.

PINOY MUSIC TEACHER FEATURED IN HIT TV REALITY SHOW

When Rhex Arboleda sings praises at church lately, it won’t only be for worship but perhaps also to thank his good fortune after he was chosen for the hit TV series “Extreme Makover: Home Edition”.

Many Fil-Ams will be introduced for the first time to Arboleda and his family when the episode airs on ABC this Sunday.

He was a music teacher back home, went to the United States in 2002 to pursue a master’s degree in education at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and has been making waves ever since.

He composed the inspirational “Song of Moses” and posted it on MySpace in 2008. He wrote four more songs, then another four. A company named QuickStar Productions saw his song on MySpace and offered to include “Song of Moses” in a CD compilation of Christian music where proceeds would support a church and community in Uganda.

That CD was released last June. Arboleda is now trying to produce his first solo album of worship songs.

“Part of my writing is my desire to serve God and a way to give a good message out there,” he was quoted by the news website The Compass.

Thousands of American families vie to be in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”, a reality show that provides home renovations for less fortunate families. It is produced by the same outfit that comes out with “Big Brother”, “Fear Factor” and “Deal or No Deal” that is associated with Disney-ABC.

Arboleda admits he’s an avid fan of the show. He described being selected as “a huge outpouring of blessings from God”.


Arboleda and his wife Claire have five children, four boys and a girl – C.J., Joshua, Calix, Cullen and J.R, ages 2-10.

“Every father wants to have the best for their family. We all work hard to provide,” he Maureen Wallenfang in “The News-Record” and posted in postcrescent.com.

Their 586 square-foot house on 770 Elm Street in Neenah was old and moldy, and told Wallenfang some of his children suffered from allergies and asthma. Their new home is 4,200 square-feet and reportedly valued at $300,000.

In a statement, Disney-ABC described Arboleda as one of “Neenah’s hometown heroes”.

“Rhex has distinguished himself by locally leading the movement to banish childhood obesity. In 2004, he created ‘Move to the Groove’ which is designed to get both teachers and students up on their feet and in shape. Less like gym class and more like play, this dance-fitness program is already being used in several local elementary schools,” they said.

So aside from getting a new house, the show’s producers have also redesigned an old ice cream truck to make “Move to the Groove” more accessible to school kids in the area.

The show promises to be an eye opener for many Americans as well as Filipinos. As an added attraction the Arboleda episode will also feature popular “Dancing with the Stars” dancers Derek Hough, Mark Ballas, Tony Dovolani and Chelsie Hightower.

U-S GRANTS EXTRAORDINARY PERMIT FOR PINOY CHILD ABUSE VICTIM TO BE REUNITED WITH MOM

Helen de Ocampo led his 33-year-old son John Eric to their new home in Fort Washington, Maryland over the weekend – a world away from the virtual cages and beatings he grew up with in the Philippines.

John Eric is severely disabled. A bout with meningitis left him mentally damaged and retarded as a child. Half his body paralyzed, he can barely speak or hear. But his physical defects were the least of his ordeal.

Helen’s troubled marriage finally disintegrated when John Eric was only 14. She decided to try rebuilding her life in America, where her five siblings lived. She entrusted the boy to her estranged husband in Loang, Northern Samar, promising to send money to help support him.

Deprived of a mother’s nurturing care, John Eric’s life quickly spiraled into a hellish world of deprivation and abuse.

Because she kept sending money to her ex-husband, Helen believed John Eric was being cared for. After all, she told us, he was living with his father.

“For years, I asked his father if I could take John with me, and he always said no,” Helen explained.

In 2007, her brother’s wife in Florida vacationed in the Philippines and offered to look into John Eric. She found him in a half-abandoned padlocked shack no larger than a 5x5 cubicle with no toilet and a floor made of dirt.

Helen quickly organized a rescue and through her in-law’s help brought John Eric to the Calamba Medical Center in Laguna. The doctors quickly became suspicious of his bloated abdomen and operated on his intestines which, they discovered in horror, was filled with dirt and even pieces of plastic straw and cellophane.

Helen by then had acquired US citizenship and filed a petition to bring John Eric to the US. But the average wait for a child older than 18 years old currently stands at 13 years. She became even more distressed after learning that the cousin she had entrusted John Eric to after the surgery was also beating him up.

“When we first filed the petition, John Eric still had all his teeth,” lawyer Arnedo Valera, executive director of the Virginia-based Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC), told us. “Now, he’s lost most of them.”

Perhaps by a stroke of luck, Kenneth Lutbecker, chief of the humanitarian branch of the Office of Refugees, Asylum and International Operations at the State Department, took an interest in John Eric’s case. They initially denied Valera’s pleadings but the family (Helen has since remarried to Albert de Ocampo) filed an appeal.

“We didn’t even know that John Eric’s case has significant public benefit, but that was the reason cited by the US government to grant our appeal and give John Eric a humanitarian parole,” Valera explained.

It was so unusual that the US Embassy in Manila initially rejected the humanitarian parole papers that Helen hand-carried there.

According to Valera, the humanitarian parole has to be approved by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Nepolitano herself. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) apologized for the mix-up and transmitted the documents that allowed Helen to get a “boarding pass” for her son.

“It wasn’t even a visa,” Valera averred, “but had the force of clearly demonstrating the great compassion of the United States for people like Helen and her son who was a victim of a severe injustice.”

Helen, who earned a nursing degree from the Columbia Union College, is now looking forward to a future with John Eric and her husband Albert.

The pain may have stopped but it could take years for John Eric to overcome the trauma of nearly two decades of physical and mental torture. It's going to be process for him as well as for Helen and Albert, but at least now he’s got a chance.

SOLLY & AHMED

Have you noticed how they play the same two or three songs for line dancing?

It was a salubrious October evening with a hint of the coming autumn. I imagined the Lutheran church hall in Bethesda is usually filled with hymns but this evening, there was the tune of “Toro Toro” (I’ve never really had the compunction to find out if that’s really the song’s title).

“I’ve been to hundreds of this,” a man outside the hall door told no one in particular.

He whispered to me, he’d smuggled in whiskey and offered to pour some in the Styrofoam cup I was holding, half filled with lukewarm coffee.

“No thanks,” I replied. Though it wasn’t that far crossing Maryland to Virginia I have trouble driving in the dark.

The hall was filled with Pinoys. The party was organized by the Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao Association – they say they’ve been in existence for years but that was the first time I heard about it, much less been in one of their events.

Inside, the rudimentary rows for line dancing were formed, half the eyes gazing on their partner’s feet, their own struggling to keep pace with the lazy, numbered steps.

The other half of the room was doing their own ballet – filling paper plates with their fill of menudo and afritada and pancit from the buffet table, they now zigzagged back to their tables, trying not to hit or be hit by prancing feet or flailing hands.

SOLLY

On any other Saturday evening, Solly might be in that happy throng.

This evening was actually dedicated to her. Part of the night’s proceeds will help buy her a plane ticket back home. You see, Solly, at 57 years old, is dying. A cancerous tumor is growing in her brain and her doctors have given her only a couple of months more.

Solly is the sister of a friend of a friend – which in the cosmos of Pinoys in this part of America translates to family.

She arrived in a wheelchair. Sullen, her face swollen from the chemotherapy. Her smile was labored as friends and strangers took turns to wish her well with an embrace, a hug, a kiss.

Solly’s younger sister, Flor, watched from a corner, fighting the tears welling in her eyes. She knew this was also Solly’s despedida.

Solly is divorced from her Jamaican husband who, we heard, has taken a younger wife, also a Filipina, someone he met in one of estranged couple’s vacations in Manila.

Their son lives on campus in North Carolina; but tonight, he kept a vigilant eye on his mother.

Her own eyes were transfixed on the line dancers, perhaps reminiscencing happier days. She couldn’t resist the urge to stand and dance but she was quickly helped back to her seat, exhausted and sobered. Solly may be resigned to her illness but not her fate. Not yet, at least.

Her life was at apogee, the point of no return where the voyage is shorter moving forward. If she becomes any sicker, the cost of going home will become prohibitive. Bed-ridden, no airline would agree to convey her without a complete medical team accompanying her.

If she puts off her return any longer, Solly would have to make that trip in an urn.

She is going home to Bicol on November 13.

AHMED

The woman puffed furiously on her cigarette. She had a distinct Bisaya accent; she revealed she was originally from Samar. I never got to ask her name because I never got the chance, as she shared her tale of Ahmed.

Ahmed was her husband who died fairly recently, she replied to our nonexistent question. He was a Muslim. He died from cancer of the larynx.

“I didn’t even know there was that kind of cancer,” she said, talking rapidly as many Bisaya women I know seem wont to do.

She revealed that Ahmed didn’t like to attend these Fil-Am gatherings. “He let me go there anytime. I often got home late, sometimes past midnight and all he asked was if I enjoyed it.” His trust was unquestioning.

“He accepted me even after knowing I already had five children. He even helped me bring them here in America,” she said, confessing that she didn’t have papers in her first few years in the US. A TNT, tago-ng-tago, one of thousands of Filipinos who entered the country on a tourist visa then decided to stay, living in the shadows.

“Ahmed was a good Muslim,” she insisted, “He did not force me to convert to his religion. He didn’t even forbid me from cooking pork at home. He was a good and kind to me,”

She pulled more smoke from her stick.. “I don’t believe this will give me cancer,” she said defiantly in between coughs.

“Ahmed died after only six months,” she recounted, “But he didn’t smoke, he did not drink. He was very clean; I think more than I could ever be. He liked everything to be organized and orderly all the time.”

“I don’t think I will ever find a man like Ahmed. He helped me fix my life, and opened opportunities for my children. God has a way of making things right,” she said thoughtfully.

“Sometimes discover all of a sudden that He gives us someone when we least expect it and they do God’s work here on earth.”

She stomped on what was left of the cigarette and walked back inside, a smile standing for hello and farewell.

On the drive back home to Alexandria, I decided to avoid the GW Parkway even if it could have brought me home quicker. I had noticed the herd of deer grazing by the road side because the sun was still setting. But in the dark, they are known to dart across the two-lane parkway, their eyes lit red by a car’s headlights offering very little warning to unwary motorists. Tracking I-495 was longer but it will take me home as well.

MY TO-WATCH LIST AFTER "WAITING FOR SUPERMAN"

The provocative crafting of “Waiting for Superman” trains the klieg lights on the crisis gripping America’s public schools.

But for me it also helps me better understand and appreciate the work Filipino educators bring to their schools and communities they serve.

The Filipino teachers, from Baltimore and Prince George’s County in Maryland to Washington DC, often talk to us about their daily struggles – the sometimes perilous challengers of working in the poorest and most underserved communities.

They speak about their schools, but more than anything else they talk about their students.

They have become invested in their wards. The film underlines the need for good teachers.

Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman” is doing to American public education what he did for global warming through his award-winning “An Inconvenient Truth”.

The documentary followed children from Washington, Harlem, the Bronx, East Los Angeles and Redwood City in California escaping their underperforming schools for better charter schools by winning a lottery.

Their stories are dramatic as they’re heart-wrenching; and we can’t help but be saddened by a stark reminder that a good education – that greatest of equalizers – can often be so arbitrary.

We’ve drawn up a list of other documentaries we’d be watching on the big screen (time and budget permitting).

Freaknonomics. A documentary based on top selling Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s innovative and practical exposition of modern economics. The anthology examines different phenomenon (e.g., the world of Japanese sumo wrestling) that the Washington Post described as “provocative” and “hilarious”.

Inside Job. A documentery by Charles Ferguson promises to “cut through the fog of disinformation and punditry” about the 2008 US financial meltdown. Critic Bob Mondello told National Public Radio: “You can’t be a film critic for long without falling in love with the efficiency of documentaries…pretty much any 30 seconds in the documentary ‘Inside Job’ will make you want to throttle the nearest banker, broker or economic analyst.”

Gerrymandering. Documentary by Jeff Reichert delves into the “fine art” of redrawing voting districts. With the 2010 Census results coming out in the next few months, we’re curious how they’re going to change voting districts that could change the face of Congress and the nation itself. NBC’s Scott Ross: “Reichert not only manages to keep things light – no mean feat for a topic that can devolve into wonkery – he even builds suspense, as Proposition 11’s day of reckoning draws near, a story that was lost amid the furor of Proposition 8 on gay marriage.”

ASIAN AMERICANS OUT OF WORK LONGER

America’s unemployment problem is hitting a disproportionately higher number of immigrants, a Washington DC-based think tank revealed, even as a separate research revealed jobless Asian Americans are out of work longer than any minority group in the United States.

“Immigrants in the US are particularly vulnerable to job losses during economic downturns,” the Migrant Policy Institute (MPI) said in a report released Oct. 7.

The study estimated that the unemployment rate (national average 9.7%) among Asian Americans has risen from 6.3% in 2009 to 8.1% in the first quarter of 2010. It also revealed that nearly 200,000 Asian Americans have been forced to settle for part-time jobs.

“Unemployment among immigrants in the US is somewhat more cyclical than among natives. But in contrast to many European countries, US immigrant and native unemployment track each other very closely and almost never diverge more than 1 percentage point,” the MPI explained.

The MPI report observed that native and foreign-born employment increased during the recession in education and health services; foreign-born gained and native born lost jobs in services, transportation, utilities, mining and information; and jobs for both native and foreign born declined in manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, construction and financial activities.

“Overall, Hispanic immigrants have fared significantly worse than natives, while Asia immigrants have fared significantly better,” the report observed.

Asian Americans holding out for better times?
But research by the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) revealed another phenomenon for Asian Americans who did lose their jobs.

Professor Kent Wong discussed in an interview over National Public Radio (NPR) how Asian Americans have stayed out of work longer than blacks, Hispanics and other minority groups despite their perceived edge in education.

“There are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes with regard to the Asian American workforce. Many assume that because of the high numbers of college graduates…there are not problems with low-wage employment or unemployment, and that’s just not the case,” Wong told NPR.

US Labor Department statistics show nearly 52% of unemployed Asian Americans – compared to 45% of whites, almost 51% of blacks and 42% of Hispanics – have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer.

Asian Americans, Wong pointed out, tend to gather in urban areas and live in ethnic enclaves. We add to that the different support structures and manner by way these are delivered to compatriots among the different ethnic Asian American sub-groups.

Language, cultural barriers make finding jobs harder
NPR writer Yuki Noguchi noted how the economic recession has highlighted the weaknesses of this peculiar social and economic framework.

“The community is reinforcing in good times but during a downturn Asian Americans lack the networks or language skills to find jobs outside their community or industry. Whereas Latinos of different nationalities are bound by a common language, there are about a dozen languages spoken in the Asian American community,” Noguchi wrote.

Sociology Associate Professor Margaret May Chin was also quoted by NPR as saying this phenomenon could stem in part by how many work in the cash economy and the fact Asian Americans usually live in multigenerational households.

Chin surmised an unemployed spouse might be compelled to hold out for a job that comes with health benefits. Many more decide to go back to school.

Some of these findings are reflected in the MPI study as well.

It noted, for instance, how labor force participation among Asian youths have declined faster than, say, young Hispanics. The MPI said their study suggests that at a time of widespread joblessness Asian American youth trade off between work and study while Hispanic immigrant youth try to combine the two or don’t enroll in school altogether.

“Prior to the recession in 2007,” the MPI study showed, “upward of 4/5 of Asian immigrant and native born youth who did not participate in the labor market were enrolled in school; by contrast, among Hispanic immigrants, only about half were enrolled in school”.