PACQUIAO A KNOCK-OUT IN VISIT TO WASHINGTON DC

If politics is the art of crafting and wielding influence, Manny Pacquiao has grown to be an astute politician.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid extolled the Filipino boxing champion and later toured him on the Senate floor – a rarely-bestowed honor.

At a press briefing in the Capitol building’s Mike Mansfield Room, Reid acknowledged Pacquiao’s last-minute contribution to his re-election bid in last year’s midterm elections.

Reid was locked in a tight contest with Tea Party favorite Sharon Angle in Nevada until the final weeks of the campaign.

When asked whether he thought Pacquiao’s endorsement put him over the top, Reid replied “sure”.

“I don’t usually bother the President,” Reid added, but he insisted that he meet Pacquiao whose unique life history – born to an impoverished family, a former street peddler pushed into boxing to feed his family and rising to become the only champion to win titles in eight different boxing weight divisions – makes him an inspiration and worthy role model to the youth, American or not.




Pacquiao and his wife Jinky got the invitation that some Philippine presidents have tried but failed to get – a private, closed-door meeting with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo cut short a Middle East trip in 2009 to make an unscheduled appearance at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC – President Obama’s first public event after his inauguration.

Philippine diplomatic officials were so surprised that Ambassador Willy Gaa had to fly back hastily from California to welcome President Arroyo in DC.

It was widely believed Mrs. Arroyo was angling for a “photo-op” with the new US president after she had similarly failed to meet with then candidate Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

President Noynoy Aquino had planned to visit Washington DC after attending the opening of the United Nations General Assembly last year.

But Malacanang and White House aides couldn’t find a mutually agreeable time for Aquino and Obama to meet. President Aquino got all of 7 minutes talk time with President Obama at the sidelines of a US-ASEAN summit in New York.




So Manny Pacquiao, a newly-minted congressman from a largely backwoods province in Mindanao, takes a train from New York where he was promoting an upcoming fight in Las Vegas, and arrives in the US capital where he is not only feted on Capitol Hill but is also getting a chance to break bread with the leader of the free world.

“A lot of that is the enthusiasm Manny created when Sharon Angle who was running against Senator Reid elected to have at her final rally (Senator and former GOP presidential candidate) John McCain,” promoter Bob Arum told reporters.

“I don’t know what you think of John McCain but he’s no contest against Manny Pacquiao,” he remarked.

However, the political realities in Washington DC is that President Obama is poised to fight one of the defining battles leading up to the 2012 presidential elections – pushing a budget that will cut the deficit while creating jobs.

Reid has publicly opposed President Obama’s promise to end congressional earmarks – more derisively known as pork barrel – and could block his most recent initiatives to reduce or cut spending altogether for some social programs dear to Democrats.

The fact that Vice President Biden, who is the de-facto Senate President – was attending the meeting with Pacquiao – appears to suggest this afternoon’s lunch was not going to be free.

But that’s evident to everyone, perhaps even to Pacquiao.

Earlier in the morning, Pacquiao met with Philippine Consul General Domingo “Ding” Nolasco where he briefed the People’s Champ on the SAVE Act – a bill pending on Capitol Hill that would provide reciprocal tariff exemptions for US textiles and Philippine garments.

Pacquiao reportedly promised to bring that up when he gets the opportunity with President Obama.

Reid himself pointed out that Pacquiao was being honored in DC not only because he is “the greatest boxer in the world” but also because he is Filipino and a success story worthy of emulation by the world.

He reminded Americans about the rich, historic ties between the US and Philippines going back to World War II when Filipino soldiers – then part of a US Commonwealth army – “continued to fight even after we left”. Reid pointed to efforts to help surviving Filipino veterans arbitrarily disenfranchised by the US Congress 65 years ago this month.

Reid also talked about the millions of Filipino Americans, including many in his home state of Nevada, who’ve contributed to enriching American national life.

That it takes a Manny Pacquiao to remind Americans about that heritage should be a credit to him.

For a multi-dimensional fighter, Pacquiao is demonstrating a new and interesting facet of his chosen 2nd profession – Pacquiao the politician.

When asked whether he would also endorse President Obama when he comes up for re-election next year, Pacquiao replied with his trademark impish grin.

“Huwag na muna natin pag-usapan yan,” he responded coyly, in the fashion of a smart politician.

HOPE BRIGHTENS FOR FILVETS DISQUALIFIED BY MISSOURI LIST

Senator Daniel Inouye, appropriations committee chairman and long-time champion of Filipino World War II veterans, is filing a bill that will allow the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) to accept proof other than the Missouri List so disqualified veterans can receive lump sum payments.

Retired Maj. Gen. Delfin Lorenzana, special envoy for veterans affairs, revealed this latest development that would address the biggest wrinkle in the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation (FVEC) bill.

It comes a week before Filipino veterans group mark the 65th anniversary of the Rescission Act (Feb. 18) that arbitrarily withdrew recognition and benefits to about 200,000 soldiers and guerillas who served under US military command in World War II.

The FVEC was passed in 2009 to assuage the anger and resentment from surviving Filipino veterans but it still fell short of equity with American World War II veterans.

It provides a one-time lump sum payment of $9,000 for Filipino veterans living in the Philippines and $15,000 for those in the US.

Over a thousand FVEC claims are still pending with the DVA.

A total of 41.234 applications have been processed as of Dec. 23, 2010 – 17,792 were approved for Filipino veterans in the US and the Philippines.

The US paid out a total of $213 million so far (about $80 million or more than P3.4 billion were paid out in the Philippines).

On the other hand, the DVA rejected a total of 23,442 applications – a significant number because the veteran’s name couldn’t be found in the US Army’s National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri.

Under existing DVA regulations, only the NPRC can verify US military service in these cases.

This, despite the fact, the original records for the Philippine Army Group was destroyed by fire in the 1970s and the existing list is actually a reconstruction.

Ben de Guzman, one of the key veterans activist on Capitol Hill, believes almost all of the applications have been processed and the DVA is working on the remaining appeals.

The DVA has not provided a breakdown of the reasons why applications were rejected. However, the DVA’s regional office in Manila has received over 3,600 challenges to their rejections.

Two law suits have been filed – by lawyer Lou Tancinco and a coalition of veterans groups that include the Virginia-based Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC) – to compel the DVA to accept “secondary evidence” other than the Missouri List as proof a Filipino veteran served with US forces and thus qualified to receive the lump sum payment.

Senator Inouye had actually filed a similar measure in 2007 but overtaken by the FVEC.

Senate 66 would have provided a 2-year window for Filipino veterans, their widows or children to provide evidence of wartime service to the Secretary of the Army. It stipulated that “in making a determination, the Secretary shall consider all information and evidence available to the Secretary, including information and evidence submitted by applicant.”

The certification from the Secretary of the Army could have then qualified as evidence for veterans applying for benefits with the DVA, if the bill passed.

REMEMBERING "ANGIE" REYES

We’d just settled on the sofa to watch the day’s TV Patrol when Bing Branigin called, sounding agitated. “This has got to stop,” she told me before breaking the news about Gen. Angelo Reyes’ suicide.

We first met “Sir Angie” when he took over the military Civil Relations Service (CRS) in Camp Aguinaldo.

“You watch him, he’s going to be the chief of staff someday,” an officer whispered to me.

He carried the rank of colonel at the time but friends explained he was assigned to the CRS, which is the psychological warfare arm of the Armed Forces, so he could get his first star – which he did after only a few months.

Reyes was obviously one of the “fair haired boys” in the military – “ang mga pinagpala” as some officers say.

He led the best combat battalions, sent to the best schools and given plum headquarters postings that guaranteed his climb to the top.

We remember him as the man who liked to look you in the eye, always had a firm handshake and wont to accentuate his tales with a laugh that reverberated like artillery blasting away.

As far as we could tell, his men adored him and he in turn cared for them deeply. He cut a fatherly figure among the young officers at the CRS and his subsequent commands (Southern Command, Philippine Army).

Although he carried himself with a huge dose of bravado, we knew him to have a soft heart, especially for junior officers. But he did have a fiery temper and as rarely as we’ve witnessed it, those officers knew how to get out of the way.

Some say he played favorites with his officers. But we remember he rarely brought his old staff to new postings like other commanders, building instead a fresh corps of officers whom he would eventually win over.

He was a crack shot in the practical shooting range. What he gave up in agility, he made up with accuracy.

Reyes was a man who seemed averse to the slog of combat, preferring instead to win his enemies over through reason and persuasion.

On the eve of EDSA Dos – the People Power revolt that overthrew President Joseph Estrada – civil society leaders questioned whether Reyes, as AFP chief, would turn the military against their Commander-in-Chief.

He did, and he would later tell, he just wanted to keep the military intact.

But that decision, consciously or not, also thrust him into the world of politics. It was a world that seemed to fascinate him.

He had invited a few of us to dinner along Tomas Morato one evening when he was already Secretary of National Defense and he appeared to be sounding us out about his prospects for an elective office. We assured him we’d help but urged him to stay off politics. It was just too dirty.

Watching news clips of Col. George Rabusa’s expose in the Senate – that Reyes had pocketed P50 million as “pabaon” or a farewell gift when he retired from the military in 2001 – it was evident he was caught completely by surprise.

He was being questioned by the senator-son of the man he helped oust a decade ago and another senator who was jailed for helping lead a mutiny against a government that he protected.

They are hardly impartial jurors in the quest for justice for about 200,000 Filipino soldiers and sailors, and millions of Filipinos who are the true victims here.

The soldiers we’ve spoken to here in Washington DC quietly applaud the revelations about the financial shenanigans of some key officers of the AFP. But just as they have become distrustful of some of their superiors, they have an even lower appreciation of politicians bent on piling “pogi points” at the expense of the military as in institution.

The congressional investigation is a necessary process for cleaning up the military. It will benefit the AFP and the country in the long-term but there are also perils in sensationalizing this purge for the short-term.

In the end, these soldiers will be looking for solutions, not more air time on TV.

And so we grieve the passing of a man, mortal and imperfect. He chose death over shame.

How many times have we wished other government officials would place equal value on their own sense of honor and reputation?

PINOY BUSINESS TITANS IN BINAY'S SHADOW IN D-C

Two men seemed to prefer standing in the shadows at Vice President Jejomar Binay’s four-day visit in Washington DC last week.

Henry Sy Jr. is the scion of the multi-billion SM retail chain empire. He is also president and CEO of the equally expansive National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) that owns the power lines in the country.

Dr. Jack Arroyo owns the American Eye Center that specializes in Lasik procedures. He also sits as director of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) that administers the country’s national health insurance program.


Henry Sy Jr. with business buddy Dr. Jack Arroyo









Sy is CEO of SM Development Corporation which is responsible for real estate acquisitions, including the construction of condominiums that he says targets the Pinoy middle class market.

They are only starting to tap the overseas Filipino market.

“I’m a relative late-comer,” he told this writer, “I did not know too much about the international market.”

This, from someone who helps run 40 malls – 7 of them overseas (6 in China and one in Guam).

“Real estate is very big business,” he stressed. They’re investing P22 billion to build 10,000 affordable housing units.

They’re on a building binge designed to provide added value to their malls.

Not surprisingly, their hottest selling “My Place” properties are in Makati and another one adjacent the Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

“It’s near almost everything any Filipino needs – a view, hospitals, access to transportation, churches and yes, a mall,” Sy averred.

He emphasized the affordability of their units – priced mostly below P2.5 million (about $58,000) – that he said would exempt them from the Value Added Tax.

Overseas Filipinos comprise about 15% of their market but Sy added, they want to increase this to 20-25%.

Their OFW customers come mostly from the Middle East and Europe.

Sy conceded they haven’t fully tapped the Fil-Am market because of the real estate crash that’s fueled the worst recession in the US since the Great Depression.

“It depends on the US economy but there are signs it is picking up,” he said.

Dr. Arroyo is also eyeing the Fil-Am market to expand the Philhealth, claiming the Philippines’ health insurance system was superior cost-wise to the American system.

He cited his experience with Lasik, a technology developed by Americans in the 1990s, but where they’re now lagging behind practitioners like those in the Philippines.

“The FDA became restrictive, they’ve become more afraid” Arroyo told this writer, adding “America’s troubles with health insurance all boils down to a break down of trust, of patients with their doctors and doctors with their patients.”

He said Fil-Ams who may be reluctant to undergo Lasik in the US, often go home to get the procedure.

“America has become a throw-away society,” Arroyo concluded.

He said they’ve treated over 35,000 persons already, including many past US ambassadors to Manila.

He said about 80% of Filipinos are now covered by Philhealth.

But he lamented not too many overseas Filipinos have heard about the insurance agency’s achievements.

Arroyo revealed OFWs can enroll themselves or a member of their family for P1,200 (about $28) a year.

They cover both in-patient and out-patient coverages as well as special packages for normal birth delivery, newborn care and TB treatment, among others.

“Here in America a large part of the cost of health insurance is the astronomical cost of malpractice insurance,” Arroyo averred.

“And that’s why in the Philippines we can manage on just P1,200 a year,” he said.

BINAY SEEKS L-A-P-D's HELP ON BUS BOMBINGS

Makati Mayor Junjun Binay has asked the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to help train the city’s police.

He met with Los Angeles, California Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the way to joining his father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, in Washington DC.

“We sent him a formal invitation. Since he already planned to visit Asia this year, we also invited him to pass by Makati,” he told this writer.

Makati and Los Angeles have a sister city agreement that goes way back to the administration of Mayor Tom Bradley (1973-1993), Binay revealed.

“We are reviving that,” he explained.

About 16 percent of Filipino immigrants in the United States live in the greater Los Angeles region.

Binay said they want the LAPD’s help for training Makati cops on the latest special weapons & tactics (SWAT), explosives & ordnance (EOD), investigation and other fields of police work.

“If we get help from the city of Los Angeles, it will be a big help in curbing incidents just like the recent bus bombing,” he explained.





Five persons were killed and 14 others wounded when a bomb ripped through an air-conditioned passenger bus in Makati on Jan. 25.

A separate bus bombing killed three persons and wounded 50 others on Valentine’s Day in 2005 near the same stretch of EDSA where the latest bombing occurred.

Meanwhile, the elder Binay downplayed the effects of the bus bombing, pointing out the stock market’s continued robust performance is proof “the trust is there and everyone knows that was an isolated incident.”

Briefing newsmen at the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC, the vice president outlined steps being taken to protect commuters along EDSA, including posting police check points on bus stops, adding more bus marshals, and installing video cameras on buses.

The LAPD has a counter terrorism and special operations bureau that has its own air support division, K-9 unit and SWAT platoon.

Aside from being the country’s financial capital, Makati also hosts the most number of diplomatic offices in the country.

NEW DEFENSE ATTACHE IN TOWN, U-S "HARDWARE" IN PIPELINE FOR A-F-P

Brig. Gen. Cesar Yano assumed this week his post as defense attaché in Washington DC to work for the timely delivery of much-needed American military hardware for the Philippine armed forces (AFP).

Yano is a younger brother of former AFP chief Gen. Alexander Yano.

He graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1980.

Prior to his appointment to Washington DC, he headed the AFP Office of Legislative Affairs.

As defense attaché he will be working closely with the Pentagon for the acquisition of excess defense articles (EDAs) for a military anxious to modernize.

As a major non-NATO ally, the Philippines can bid for the American military’s EDA stockpiles.

On the pipeline are a C-130 Hercules cargo being refurbished at a facility in California’s Mojave Desert and overhaul of Allison engines for all of the Philippine Air Force’s MG-250 “Defender” gunships; the turn-over of a Hamilton-class patrol ship for the Philippine Navy; and night-vision goggles for the Philippine Army.






Officials say the Hercules could be delivered in the next two months, joining two other C-130s already with the PAF.

The Philippine Navy is expected to take control of a Hamilton-class all-weather cutter (WHEC) that’s being decommissioned by the US Coast Guard in March.

The USCG is replacing all 12 of its Hamilton-class cutters with the newer Legend-class cutters.



We were told the Hamilton-class cutter will first sail to a drydock for refurbishing before crossing the Pacific to begin service with the Philippine Navy.

With a length of 378 feet and top speed of 29 knots, she will be the biggest and fastest patrol ship in the Philippine Fleet although she will be about 45 years old by then.

The cost of refurbishing all these assets is being sourced from the Foreign Military Fund (FMF) for the Philippines.

The Philippines got close to $100 million in military assistance from the US during the past three years.



But the AFP needs more – sources say they may try to acquire some 110-foot Island-class patrol cutters that are said to be just what a coastal or “brown navy” needs for anti-terror, anti-smuggling, fisheries enforcement and search and rescue (SAR) operations.

There is keen competition among America’s allies for EDAs, especially the big-ticket items like ships and planes.

Yano will be the AFP’s “point man” and he appears well-equipped for the job.

Yano’s rise in the AFP hierarchy resulted from a cross of combat and administrative duties – starting as a platoon and later, as company commander in Sulu.

He served as operations chief of the Philippine Army in Fort Bonifacio before he was given command of the 302nd Infantry Brigade in Tanjay, Negros Oriental in 2008.

Perhaps a measure of his work, he was one of only 7 AFP officers singled out for capture by the New People’s Army last year.

U-S PRESSES R-P ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Ambassador Luis Cdebaca made sure Vice President Jejomar Binay realized how much in a bind the Philippines is for wallowing in the State Department’s human trafficking Tier 2 watch list for the past two years.

“Sobra sobra”, Binay told this writer, while shaking his head, when asked if Cdebaca had expressed the State Department’s concern.

A mid-morning 45-minute meeting at the Philippine Embassy ran to over an hour as both sides discussed the looming crisis.

Binay is head of an inter-agency council on human trafficking and presidential adviser for overseas Filipinos (aside from his role as housing czar).

The Philippines could easily fall to Tier 3 by virtue of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2008.

The law strengthens federal efforts to combat both international and domestic human trafficking, but it also stipulated that for Tier 2 countries like the Philippines, working hard enough from falling won’t be enough.

Because the Philippines has been in the Tier 2 watch list for two straight years, it will have to get out of the watch list or more ideally, move to Tier 1. If it doesn’t, the Wilberforce Act says the Philippines would automatically drop to Tier 3.

“They’re worried because we might get into a situation when they can no longer help us,” Binay explained.

Falling to Tier 3 could have far-ranging repercussions.

A likely first casualty would be the $434 million in anti-poverty and corruption-fighting grants from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

The agreement signed in the presence of President Aquino in New York last year, carried pro-forma provisions that barred the MCC from doing business with Tier 3 countries.




Other US aid programs could also be imperiled.

Cdebaca reportedly told Philippine officials the country had enough good laws for combating human trafficking, but the government lagged on enforcement.

“The government,” the 2010 State Department report stated, “demonstrated some progress in convicting sex trafficking offenders but failed to convict any offenders of labor trafficking.”

It noted that of 228 human trafficking cases filed last year, 206 cases were actually prosecuted by the courts that led to only 8 people convicted in 5 sex trafficking cases.

Some questioned why not a single labor trafficker has been convicted despite numerous complaints from foreign-bound Filipino workers.

The Migrant Heritage Commission presented an open letter during a Fil-Am community dialogue with Binay last Wednesday evening.




“We are earnestly requesting the Vice President to support seeking to create a Magna Carta for Immigrants Workers Rights,” the statement read.

“This measure should include verification of legitimacy of employers abroad, providing stiffer penalties for human traffickers and establishment of legal help centers in countries where Filipinos are working.”

There are about 12 million Filipinos living or working overseas.

According to international watchdogs the Philippines successfully prevented the departure or off-loading of 21,000 potential human trafficking victims in 2010.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) also reported a 65 percent decline in the trafficking of women and 18 percent of children.

Binay said there was a need to improve coordination among the various agencies directly or indirectly involved in the fight against human traffickers.

“He (Cdebaca) said he hopes we have zero problem so I told him, just watch us,” Binay declared.

“We are going to do a lot of things and we will produce results,” he assured.

He may have struck the right notes in the meeting with Cdebaca, but the official said he’s taking up Binay’s challenge.

“The Vice President cares very much about this,” Cdebaca told us, “with his leadership in the ministerial task force, we’re hoping to see a lot of results this coming year.”

ORDER BANNING REPORTERS IN AIRPORTS RILES MEDIA GROUPS

Media groups are furious over a plan by authorities to ban reporters inside the country’s international airports.

Former Airforce Maj. Gen. Angel Honrado, Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager, wants to keep reporters restricted to the airport’s lobby.

Honrado, once a close-in aide of then President Corazon Aquino, argued this was needed to tighten security at the country’s gateway to millions of visitors as well as Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

The MIAA runs the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and the two other terminals that service international travelers.

“Full access to these airports is indispensable to the work of airport newsmen if only to perform their legal, social and moral duties to the public and exercise inviolable press freedom,” National Press Club of the Philippines president Jerry Yap wrote in a letter to Transportation & Communications Secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus.

“The airports are vital installations where thousands of public interest events are taking place every day and affecting the development of a country,” he stressed.

For reporters, the airport is a virtual gold mine of stories.

Just recently, immigration agents foiled an attempt by six women to slip out of the country by dressing up and pretending to be nuns.

Last December, a vacationing Fil-Am US Navy officer died under mysterious circumstances while in the custody of airport police.

Most news events transpire and the officials who can shed light on them are inside the airport, not at the lobby, reporters pointed out.

Veteran airport journalist Raoul Esperas asked this writer, “What kind of pictures can you get from the lobby? When Ninoy Aquino was assassinated, wasn’t it media that first carried the cudgels? Who will report about the Jun Lozada’s or the Jocjoc Bolante's when the public has no eyes and ears that the press provides.”

Lozada, who blew the whistle on an anomalous deal involving members of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's family and lieutenants, was taken by government agents as he stepped off a plane and he's attributed media's vigilance to foiling an alleged attempt to silence him.

Bolante, implicated in a multi-million-peso fertilizer scam, managed to slip out the country before he could be pinned down. The United States deported him back in 2008.

The MIAA is also a chief source of flight travel information that obviously needs to be disseminated swiftly to the public.

It has accredited reporters assigned to the NAIA which allowed them to more thoroughly check their background.

But they also allow unaccredited reporters who are required to submit written requests from their editors or news managers that at times prove cumbersome when there are breaking news events.

Yap suggested the presence of newsmen deter abuses from the gamut of government agents working at airports, from the airport police to immigration and customs agencies.

“The best and conclusive argument to this is the fact that full access has been enjoyed by airport newsmen for more than five decades without any form of breach of security,” Yap said.

More importantly, he added, banning reporters inside the airport violates the Philippine Constitution that assure, “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of the press.”

Yap said that if the ban is not withdrawn, they will seek a court order to stop its enforcement.

PINOYS ROOT FOR KABABAYANS ON 'OSCARS' NIGHT

Many Filipinos are avid fans of the Oscar Awards because it draws the crème of American cinema and somehow provides an opportunity to validate their own choices.

But the coming 83rd Academy Awards has an added edge for Pinoy audiences as two compatriots vie for top awards in their respective categories.

Hailee Steinfeld is nominated for best supporting actress for her performance in True Grit.

Matthew Libatique is nominated for best cinematography for his work in Black Swan.














Steinfeld is the 14-year-old daughter of Cheri and Peter Steinfeld of Tarzana, Los Angeles in California.

Cheri, an interior designer by profession, is Filipina.

Libatique, 42, is the son of Georgina and Justiniano Libatique – his father hails from Dagupan, Pangasinan and mother is from Lucena, Quezon.

He grew up at Elmhurst in Queens, New York.

Although the ceremonies are still to take place February 27 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, many Filipinos already count Steinfeld and Libatique as winners.

Perhaps a measure of their contributions, both Black Swan and True Grit are seen as strong contenders for best picture.





If she wins, Steinfeld will be only the 3rd supporting actress to take home an Oscar before her 16th birthday – Tatum O’Neal was 10 when she won for her role in Paper Moon and Anna Paquin was just a year older when she got her Oscar for The Piano.



She plays the character of Mattie Ross who hires Rooster Cogburn, played by Jeff Bridges, to avenge her father’s death.

Her co-star Matt Damon described her as a “young Jodie Foster”.

She was chosen near the end of a nationwide search. Some accounts suggested she won the producers over when she auditioned in a 1800s Western outfit sewn by her mother Cheri from clothes bought at a charity store.

Not a bad start for the Fil-Am teenager – earning an Oscar nomination on her first major feature film.

But Libatique is no newcomer to Hollywood. His credits are long as they are impressive.



He worked on both Iron Man movies with director Jon Favreau and Black Swan reunites him with his American Film Institute classmate and the movie’s director Darren Aronofsky. They last collaborated on The Fountain.

Libatique has worked with Spike Lee on Miracle at St. Anna and Inside Man, among others; and Joel Schumacher in Tigerland and Phone Booth that featured Collin Farrell.

He said he got hooked on photography the day his father gave him his first camera.

Libatique’s already annexed the best cinematography awards from Los Angeles and New York film critics for Black Swan.







Natalie Portman is nominated for best actress in Black Swan, a surreal tale of a ballerina unraveling on her way to a starring role in Tchaivoksky's Swan Lake.

He shot much of it with a Super 16mm but also used even less obtrusive cameras to capture New York subway and street scenes.

Through Libatique’s lens Aronofsky was able achieve his goal of blurring the lines between reality and inner tumult of Portman’s character Nina Sayers, producing what one critic described as a “weird, wired, wild energy teetering on the brink of madness”.

All that from a man who once delivered lechon as a teen, and someone Aronofsky swears cooks a mean chicken adobo.

'PABAON' CLOUDS U-S AIDED P-H DEFENSE REFORMS

Philippine and American officials led by Assistant State Secretary Kurt Campbell were holding their first-ever strategic dialogue just as a growing corruption scandal involving the country’s former military chiefs was swirling in Manila.

Campbell assured US help to boost the Philippine’s territorial defense and maritime security capability.

The meetings took place as former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) budget officer, Lt. Col. George Rabusa, revealed in Congress the practice of giving hundreds of millions of pesos as “pabaon” or farewell gift to retiring AFP Chiefs of Staff.

Congress was looking into the suspicious plea bargain agreement between former AFP comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia and prosecutors in the Office of the Ombudsman.

A former state auditor, Heidi Mendoza, broke her silence to protest the Garcia plea bargain.

She was one of six members of a Commission on Audit (COA) team that investigated Garcia’s financial transactions in 2004-2006 and divulged in a report by Ellen Tordesilla and Yvonne Chua of VERA Files, how he managed to divert P200 million from the UN fund.

Mendoza indicated, in a separate interview with ABS-CBN’s Ces Drilon that Garcia also dipped his fingers into funds for the Balikatan, the yearly PH-US military exercise.

The US has committed $45 million for the multi-year Philippine Defense Reform (PDR) program that aims to minimize corruption and make the military’s financial dealings more transparent, among others.



Started in 2000, the PDR was supposed to be fully in place by 2011. “The basis of the reform should be laid in stone in 2010. It stops from being a reform and starts being a normal process,” then Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said.

Military officials have admitted fund diversions routinely happen in the cash-strapped military.

It’s uncertain how this will affect future US assistance – critical for a military long dependent on foreign help.

Under the PDR, the AFP plans to spend about $125 million a year for modernization.

Philippine Navy chief, Rear Admiral Alexander Pama, revealed plans to acquire a Hamilton-class cutter from the US, possibly through the Pentagon’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.

The Hamilton-class is a 3,250-ton, weather high endurance cutter (WHEC) with a range of 14,000 miles and top speed of 29 knots. It has a flight deck with retractable hangar and its main weapon is an Otobreda 76mm gun that can fire 85 rounds per minute.




If the acquisition pushes through, she will be the newest and biggest ship in the Philippine Navy.

The US has sold, donated or leased over 40 warships and scores more of smaller patrol crafts to the Philippine Navy since the early 1950s. Many were acquired third-hand after the Vietnamese and Cambodian navies escaped the communist takeover by sailing to Subic Bay.

The Philippine Fleet is composed of one frigate (Cannon-class), the flagship Rajah Humabon that was built in 1943; 13 corvettes, 59 patrol crafts and 8 transport ships.

The PN acquired three Peacock-class fast patrol boats when Britain relinquished control of Hongkong to China in 1997.

Among its more recent acquisitions from the US were a Cyclone-class patrol boat, the Mariano Alvarez; two Besson-class logistic support vessels (LSVs); and 24 Halter-Marine 78-foot fast patrol crafts (PCFs) that were procured as part of US rent payments for Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base, before the Philippine Senate voted to close them down.

PN officials say only half of their total ships are operational (only 2 of their transport ships – a critical component for an archipelago – can actually put out to sea).



The renewed US interest in strengthening the Philippine Navy stems in part to a March 2009 incident involving the USNS Impeccable that was harassed in the South China Sea, which China claims as part of its exclusive economic zone, according to a paper written by Renato de Castro and Walter Lohman of the Heritage Foundation.

“The AFP needs new defense materiel to execute territorial security operations,” they wrote, adding the military is in a “sensitive transition phase from internal security priority to territorial defense.”

They pointed out that US help is needed to “erode the inertia against changes in the Philippine military”.

JOJO GOES TO WASHINGTON DC

Vice President Jejomar Binay jumps the gun on his boss, trekking to Washington DC in the first week of February to meet with diplomatic officials and the Fil-Am community.

Plans are afoot for President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to visit the US capital in the summer after a planned White House meeting with President Obama last year fizzled out because it could not fit in the two leaders’ busy calendars.

They did get some face time (7 minutes long) at the 2nd US-ASEAN Leaders Summit which followed the opening of the 65th UN General Assembly last September that they both addressed.

Binay is no stranger to the Metro DC community.

He has occasionally graced major functions of the local Alpha Phi Omega (APO) alumni association in northern Virginia but this will be his first trip here after winning the May 2010 elections.

His visit will come just a week after US State Asst. Secretary for East Asia & Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell leads a delegation for the first RP-US Bilateral Strategic Dialogue in Manila.

Campbell will be the highest US official to visit the Philippines this year.

The Strategic Dialogue discusses “a broad range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest”.

Campbell himself will meet with Philippine officials and business leaders on “intensifying economic engagement with the Philippines”.

The meeting with the Fil-Am community in Metro DC is expected to be the highlight of Binay’s visit to the region.



He holds concurrently the position of Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers and Chairman, Housing & Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).

The Virginia-based Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC) is trying to push for the enactment of a “Magna Carta for OFWs”.

Lawyer Arnedo Valera, MHC executive director, revealed he has won commitments from House Speaker Sonny Belmonte and Senators T.G. Guingona and Gregorio Honasan to sponsor the bill in the Philippine Congress.

“There is a need to eliminate visa fraud so there has to be close coordination with receiving countries, integrate existing laws on recruitment and give added protection for OFWs,” he averred.

Valera has been appointed as Representative for Migration and Human Rights by the Foundation for the Support of the United Nations (FSUN) that allows him to push for the OFW agenda within the UN ambit.

Binay’s support for the OFW bill will be crucial.

Over 40 bills ranging from the establishment of an OFW hospital to shuttering recruitment firms victimizing minors to addressing the human trafficking problem in the US are languishing in the House committee on overseas workers affairs.

The Aquino administration is courting US censure after the Philippines was included for a 2nd straight year in the Tier 2 human trafficking watch list in 2010.

So even if Binay has no obvious official business with the US government, his presence here could pave the way for President Aquino’s eventual visit to Washington DC.

THE PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITY MAKES HISTORY AGAIN, TURNS 400

There are few institutions that can match the University of Santo Tomas (UST) – Asia’s oldest university, renown for its doctors and artists, steep in history.

It kicks off a year-long quadricentennial celebration this month.

Last month, a small group of alumni led by husband-and-wife Thomasians, Drs. Rey and Zorayda Lee-Llacer, formally launched the UST Alumni Association in America (USTAAA) in the DC suburb of Arlington, Virginia to time with the celebrations.

The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas (named in honor of its patron, St. Thomas Aquinas) was established on April 28, 1611.

That’s antedated, according to some accounts, by the death of Manila Archbishop Miguel de Buenavides in 1605 who bequeathed his personal property for the establishment of an institution of higher earning; but the process of getting King Phillip III's blessings for the new college and bringing his royal decree back to Manila took 6 years.

The sprawling campus seems to have shrunk over the years as more structures were constructed – it is one of the largest universities in terms of enrolment (about 38,000).


Her teeming community is perhaps more representative of Filipino society – not as elitist as UP or as exclusive as DLSU or as proletarian as UE, perhaps.

The UST community is, for the lack of a better definition – middle class. It’s a microcosm of the Filipino youth.

In my brief stint there, we studied under the belief that UST somehow drew “average” students and turned them into outstanding professionals.

It has produced four presidents (Manuel L. Quezon, Sergio Osmena, Jose P. Laurel and Diosdado Macapagal); six Supreme Court Chief Justices; countless doctors and nurses; 18 national artists in architecture, literature, music, theater and visual arts (and one national scientist); newsmen and pundits; bankers and athletes; and yes, nine saints.

There was something about UST that leaves the impression – at least where we were concerned – that one would get a truly rounded education.

The campus is self-contained with a choice of fast-food establishments, stores and even boasts of one of Manila’s top-notch hospitals.

But for students on evening classes, the lure of watering holes and aroma of grilling barbecue along Dapitan and its lively side streets sometimes prove more powerful than the Dominican’s admonition against doomed souls and we find ourselves on an entirely different kind of discovery.




The UST campus is uniquely situated in the heart of Manila.

We subscribe to the belief you are not a bona fide Thomasian unless you’ve experienced wading through the flood waters along Espana or Dapitan or Gov. Forbes.

Or tried slowly walking the top floor of the main building after the lights have been switched off and past the cadavers medical students use for their anatomy lessons.

During World War II, the Japanese converted the campus into a concentration camp where they reportedly abused, tortured and occasionally executed their prisoners. Hunting for ghosts was a virtual rite of passage for freshmen, at least when we were there.

Sadly, we never got to share in the glory of the Growling Tigers. In our time, they were likely still cubs.

There are plans to open satellite campuses in Santa Rosa, Laguna and General Santos City in Mindanao.

It will be a grand 400th year birthday celebration for this unique learning institution.

For those who’ve walked her quiet sidewalks, drew valuable lessons in and out her classrooms or just lounged under the shade of that old tree outside the ArtLets building, UST leaves a lot of good memories.

THE "ATI'S" OF VIRGINIA & MARYLAND MARK FEAST OF STO. NINO

From Maryland to Virginia, Filipino-Americans celebrated the feast of the Santo Nino – the image of the Infant Jesus.

The Aklan Ati-Atihan of Virginia (AAAV) got a head-start marking the feast on Jan. 8 at the Chesapeake Conference Center in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. It was also an occasion to swear in the group’s new executives, led by incoming president Joy Asban who will serve from 2011 to 2013.

The Ati-Atihan commemorates the Panay (one of the major islands in the Central Philippines) barter in the 13th century.

Malay datus from Borneo established a settlement in Panay with the consent of the Ati’s, the indigenous Negrito community.

When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the area, they replaced the pagan rituals with Christian meaning, assigning the image of the Infant Jesus as the natives’ patron – transforming it as a religious festival.

The highlight of the festival is a parade dictated by the cadence of rhythmic drums, participants divided into “tribes” and carrying different images of the Santo Nino. Dancers are covered in soot to mimic the Ati’s appearance.



Variations have emerged over the years, prompting organizers to schedule the events – the Ati-Atihan goes first in Kalibo, Aklan, followed by the Sinulog festival in Cebu and the Dinagyang in Iloilo.

The festivals were developed into a year-long mardi gras tourist attraction; though less religiously inclined the Binirayan festival in Antique held in April and the week-long MassKara festival held in October draws heavily on the influence of the Ati-Atihan.

In Maryland, the Mother Butler’s Guild of St. Mary marked the 11th Fiesta ng Santo Nino on Jan. 16 at the St. Mary’s Church in Rockville. The 2:00 PM mass was capped by an early evening dinner dance.




The Lord is my Shepherd Charismatic Group held a Filipino mass in honor of the Santo Nino at the Christ the King Church in Silver Spring, MD.

The feast fell on the regular 3rd Sunday Filipino mass at St. Michael’s Church in Silver Spring on Jan. 16. The mass was officiated by Msgr. Mariano Balbago Jr.

This too was followed by a dinner dance held partly in honor of January birthday celebrants.

The celebration was organized by the Fil-Am Ministry of St. Michael and the Migrant Heritage Commission, and featured the Cebu Sinulog Dancers of Metro DC as well as the Ati-Atihan of Maryland.

Through the years, the Ati-Atihan has become a distinguishing facet of the Fil-Am community in the Metro DC region, keeping a presence in some major American events like the 4th of July parade in Washington DC.

FIL-AMS TO JOIN "MARCH FOR LIFE" IN NATION'S CAPITAL

The Fil-Am community, predominantly Catholic, is again lending its voice in the anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia March for Life rallies in Washington DC on Jan. 24.

Hundreds of Fil-Ams from as far away as California, Florida and Illinois are expected to join what organizers believe will be the biggest March for Life event yet.

Ado Paglinawan, northeast regional coordinator for the Couples for Christ Foundation for Family & Life, revealed they are helping arrange bus transportation for Fil-Ams from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia Beach, VA joining the march.

“The March for Life swelled last year as many life issues have become part of the social environment of Catholics,” he said.

He said about 250,000 joined the March for Life last year, double that in 2009, and they expect to top that number again next week with half a million participants.

The March for Life had been held in Washington DC since 1974 on the anniversary of Roe vs Wade, the US Supreme Court decision that paved the way for legalized abortion.

According to a 2008 Guttmacher Institute report, about 1.2 million abortions were performed in the US in 2005, the lowest level since 1976.

Paglinawan admitted the current pro-life debate has been flavored by politics because of President Obama’s liberal policies.

Next week's pro-life focus is expected to again test the call for greater civility in political discourse after the House vote on the President's health care law because of the highly emotional debate on legalized abortion.





“A day after he was sworn into office, President Obama signed an executive order that reversed the Bush-era doctrine that no federal funds be used to finance abortions abroad,” he averred.

He opined the implications of President Obama’s order has weighed as far away as the Philippine’s controversial Reproductive Health bill debate, which Paglinawan said, could get substantial US funding if approved.

“There’s a socio-political flavor because the executive order has worked up Catholics to stand up for life and stop remaining in the peripheries,” he averred.

Tea party leader Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who's one of the loudest voices against abortion on Capitol Hill, will deliver the keynote address at the 2011 Rose Dinner that usually caps the yearly event.

In addition, Pope Benedict XVI created last year a pontifical office for the re-evangelization of “areas previously Christian that may have entered a post-Christian era” that include Europe and North America.

Paglinawan said Catholics see greater vigor in the pro-life movement as part of this increased papal emphasis on re-evangelization of the US.

The March for Life is organized by the non-sectarian March for Life Education and Defense Fund, but is backed by the American Catholic Bishops Conference.
Paglinawan said Fil-Ams will be joining two youth rallies starting at 7:00 AM at the Verizon Center and the DC Armory that together can seat up to 35,000 people.

Washington DC’s recently-ordained Donald Cardinal Wuerl will officiate mass at the Verizon Center.

Paglinawan revealed that he will be joining the adult event at the St. Matthews Cathedral in downtown DC where Dr. Tony Bruchalski, who runs the Teteyac pre-natal clinic in Maryland.

Catholic churches in DC, Virginia and Maryland are also holding morning masses and offer buses to ferry parishioners to the March for Life.

The march itself begins at noon and will pass by Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court.

SHINSEKI VISIT TO MANILA WILL SHOWCASE FILVET BENEFITS

Officials here want to make sure Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki includes Manila in his itinerary when he visits US veterans facilities in the Pacific region this year.

“He said he might be touring the Philippines in 2011 so we’re trying to follow-up his plan for this year – if he can make the Philippines part of his itinerary,” explained retired Maj. Gen. Delfin Lorenzana, head of the Office of Veterans Affairs at the Philippine Embassy in Washington DC.

In his last visit to Washington DC in 2009, Philippine Defense Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina invited Shinseki to visit the Philippines after President Obama signed the bill establishing the $198 million Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation (FVEC) fund.

“They have veterans facilities in Korea, Japan and Guam and we would like to anticipate (his visit) para kung saka-sakali maganda ang dalaw niya dun,” Lorenzana averred.

As of Dec. 23, 2010, a total of 8,878 Filipino World War II veterans living in the Philippines have each received the $9,000 lump sum, equivalent to about P3.4 billion.

The VA's had a fully-staffed regional office in Manila since 1921, which oversees about a dozen benefits for WWII veterans in the country – disability compensation, spousal support, clothing allowance, burial and funeral allowance, and dependents’ educational aid, among others.

The VA has also invested over $20 million since the 1960s to help maintain and occasionally upgrade treatment capabilities at the Veteran Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

Shinseki, a retired four-star US Army general, has worked closely with Capitol Hill to ensure the FVEC's full implementation – when the original $198 million "lump sum" fund was about to be depleted, he convinced lawmakers to use part of his agency’s savings to replenish the fund.

As of Dec. 23, 2010, there were still 1,366 FVEC claims pending.

A total of 41,234 applications have been processed – 23,442 of them were subsequently disapproved.

A total of 8,914 Filipino WWII veterans living in the US have received the lump sum payments.

As of Dec. 23, 2010, the DVA revealed a total of $213 million have been paid out under the FVEC.

Obviously, Lorenzana and other Philippine veterans officials are eager to keep Shinseki on their side. Two bills have reportedly been filed in the current Congress – the refiling of the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification bill and another measure sponsored by California Rep. Jackie Speier that aims to amend the 1946 Rescission Act.

“Hindi natin masabi pero ganyan naman talaga sa Kongreso, we won’t know what will happen to the bills until they are deliberated in the (veterans affairs) committee,” Lorenzana explained.

That committee is now controlled by Republicans.

“Anything can happen, marami naman tayong mga kaibigan na mga Republicans na mabait sa mga Filipino,” he added, citing the support of California Rep. Darryl Issa, a co-chairman of the bipartisan, bicameral US-Philippine Friendship Caucus on Capitol Hill.

“He’s been very friendly with us in the past and I don’t think that’s going the change,” he averred.

WANTED: MORE FIL-AM ENTREPRENEURS

An official of the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) urged Filipino-American business owners to get certified as a minority business enterprise (MBE).

Antonio Cabanas, who supervises the Maryland MBE, spoke about the process of being certified by the MDOT at a talk organized by the Filipino-American Institute of Accountants of Metro DC (FAIA) and Philippine American Bar Association (PABA) at the Acacia Federal Savings Bank in Falls Church, VA on Jan. 14.

Of the nearly 23 million privately-owned companies operating in the US in 2002, over 1.1 million were owned by Asian-Americans, generating $327 billion in income.

Of these companies, 17% had 5-9 employees; 50% had 1-4 employees; and 17% had 5-9 employees – clearly, most of them were not only minority owned but also small-scale.

Patrick Ferraren said 3 million small and minority businesses in the US employ about 5 million Americans.

Cabanas revealed that of the 5,128 MBEs certified in Maryland last year, 262 were owned by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders – and of this number, less than 30 were owned by Filipino-Americans.

John Cabrera, president of the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Washington DC, said he wasn’t surprised by the relatively low number of Fil-Am certified firms.

To be eligible for an MBE certification, the business should be at least 51% owned and controlled by the socially and economically disadvantaged – African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans and women.

The MDOT’s Office of MBE is the certification agency for Maryland (in Virginia, it’s the Virginia Dept. of Transportation and in DC, it’s the Office of the Minority Business Enterprise).

Certification as an MBE (or its twin program, the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program) opens new and wider business opportunities for the certified firm.

In Maryland, state agencies are required to source at least 25% of their procurement contracts from MBE firms.



Cabrera was among the Fil-Am businessmen who attended the FAIA-PABA seminar.

“The important reason for my insurance company to be certified is to get mote opportunities for government contracts,” he said.

He explained that government contracts “are more stable, more long term that will give our company growth”.

Cabrera declared that as head of the Fil-Am business chamber in Metro DC, he encourages more Fil-Ams, especially those who may have lost their jobs due to the recession, to start their own business.

“Filipinos by nature and by our culture are not entrepreneurs. More are professionals and so when they move here a lot of them are not thinking about going into business,” he averred.

“We were raised to go to school, get a good education, get a good job, work for a good company then retire,” Cabrera added.

That affords a greater measure of security especially for newly arrived immigrants but he said owning your own business has its rewards.

“Part of it is different when you’re your own boss. The more you work, the more you earn; you have control on who you want to help and how you grow your business,” he declared.

THE ATENEO "GAKUBATSU" IN P-NOY ADMINISTRATION

It was a gathering of “blue bloods” – not the regal variety – but the hundred-strong Ateneo alumni organization in Metro DC who with President Benigno Aquino III and many of their classmates at the helm back home, can't be blamed if they feel they’re pretty close to being political royalty in the Philippines.

They gathered last Jan. 8 for their yearly New Year’s party in Virginia, the discussion gravitating between latest goings on here and the classmates who’ve joined the Aquino administration.

Perhaps most prominent among them is Executive Secretary Paquito “Jojo” Ochoa (Ateneo Law ’86), who’s recruited many of the Ateneans now in government.

The “Little President” was former Quezon City administrator under then Mayor and now House Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte.



Ochoa’s father, former Pulilan, Bulacan Mayor Paquito Ochoa Sr., was an ally of the President’s father, the martyred Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr.

According to various accounts, the elder Aquino was attending Paquito Sr.’s birthday party in Bulacan during the Plaza Miranda bombing on Aug. 21, 1971.

Jose Amor Amorado (Ateneo Law ’86) is Senior Deputy Executive Secretary. His specialization is said to be litigation and labor and maritime law.

Former Tagaytay City Mayor Francis Tolentino (Ateneo Law ’84) is head of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) that helps oversee the Philippine capital region.

Former Agrarian Reform and Education Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad (Ateneo Law ’85) now heads the Department of Budget & Management.

Julia Abad (Ateneo AB Communications ’00), the President’s former chief of staff in the Senate, now manages the Presidential Management Staff.

Jose Almendras (Ateneo BS Business Mgmt ’81) is Secretary of Energy and fellow Ateneans Jose de Jesus and Gregorio Domingo lead the Departments of Transportation and Trade, respectively.

When he reconstituted the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the President appointed young but very qualified Ateneans to the post – Chairman Juan Andres Bautista (Ateneo Law ’90), Gerard Mosquera (Ateneo Law ’92), Richard Amurao (Ateneo ’92) and Ma. Teresa Chan-Gonzaga (Ateneo Law ’02).

The current Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chief Cristino Naguiat was the President’s college classmate (Ateneo Economics ’81), and so is the new National Housing Authority (NHA) General Manager Chito Cruz.

The President’s circle of Ateneo chums extend even to the legislature that include Sen. Teofisto “TG” Guingona III (Ateneo Law ’84).



Appointing school mates to top positions is nothing new in governance.

US President John F. Kennedy was known to favor Harvard classmates; Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has reportedly surrounded himself with a “civiliki” network of law scholars from the Leningrad State University, especially in the judiciary.

The Japanese coined a word for it – “gakubatsu” – translated as “school cliques” that dominate segments of their society, especially the business world.

A research written by Harvard University professor Mark Ramseyer on Japanese “school cliques” observed that “in the world beyond the university, the graduates of elite schools look out for their own. They talk with each other. They mentor. They help. They lobby their employer to hire still more graduates.”

The President’s supporters argue that if he was appointing a disproportionate number of school mates, that was secondary to their inherent qualifications to fill sensitive positions in government.

This seems to be affirmed by the resume of “blue bloods” in the President’s management team, where graduating from Ateneo often appears incidental to their other academic accomplishments or work experience.

While most Ateneans celebrate the successes of school mates in today’s Philippines – particularly within the Aquino administration – they should also acknowledge they run the risk of reducing the urgent task of governance to the level of a “barkadahan”.

CALIFORNIA SOLON'S BILL AIMS FOR FULL FILVETS EQUITY

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA 12th District) delivers on a promise to file a bill to reversing the 1946 Rescission Law and amending a 2009 law to expand equity compensation to widows and children of Filipino World War II veterans.

Rep. Speier – who won a 2nd term last November – is fulfilling a campaign promise made to Fil-Ams in San Mateo County and southwestern San Francisco, California last June (she’s one of a few US lawmakers with a Tagalog version in her website).

“The Filipino WWII veterans are full Americans who defended an American territory,” Rep. Speier said, stressing “They deserve nothing less than full recognition, full benefits and full equity.”

The proposed bill, tentatively called the “World War II Filipino Veterans Fairness Act of 2011” will virtually repeal parts of Title 38 of the United States Code – also known as the Rescission Act – that stripped recognition for about a quarter of a million Filipino soldiers and guerillas who served under the US Armed Forces during World War II.

It will also amend Section 1002 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that provides for the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation (FVEC) to include widows and children of deceased veterans who would have qualified to get the lump sum payments -- $15,000 for those living in the US and $9,000 for those in the Philippines.

Over 21,000 applications for the lump sum payments were rejected by the Department of Veterans Administration (DVA) – many because their names couldn’t be found in the reconstructed US Army roster – the so-called Missouri List (the original list was destroyed by fire in the 1970s).

As a result, some Fil-Am groups and advocates have sued the DVA in federal courts in California and Washington State.



The proposed Speier bill will authorize the DVA to accept “alternative documentation other than the Missouri List that the Secretary determines relevant.”

As expected, the proposed bill was lauded by Fil-Ams from California all the way to Virginia.

But lawyer Arnedo Valera, who helped file one of two suits against the government, said they will pursue the court cases.

“Eto na yung talagang fight for full equity and recognition,” he averred.

“The law suits were intended to secure the rights of our veterans so there is no contradiction with the lobby work that’s been done. It merely adds pressure,” Valera explained.

If passed by Congress and signed by the President, the Speier bill will qualify Filipino WWII veterans to receive the same DVA benefits given to Americans and foreign allies (the Rescission Act stripped recognition only for Filipino veterans).

It throws the Filipino veterans’ struggle for full equity back to square one.

Various bills have gone through this route in one form or another for half a century until the FVEC – the closest supporters got to full equity and recognition – was passed in 2009.

CLIMBING UP "THE HILL"

It’s uncertain our Rep. Speier’s bill will fare in the House of Representatives – now dominated by Republicans who're bent on cutting spending and had previously opposed the grant of full equity.

Advocates will also have to find a lawmaker willing to sponsor a companion bill in the Senate.

Filipino veterans supporters on Capitol Hill have been working on a "family reunification bill" to expedite the granting of visas to children of veterans living in the US.

They had hoped to pass the measure in last month's lame-duck session; failing that, they're expected to refile the bill in the 112th Congress.

Democrats enjoy a majority in the Senate, albeit slimmer than the one they enjoyed when the FVEC was approved.

Valera conceded a vigorous lobby will be key to passage of the bill.

“Alam natin mabigat ang laban dito but we’re optimistic the Fil-Am community will back this all the way,” he said.

SAVE ACT: LAYING DOWN THE PREDICATE OF MUTUAL NEED

Saving the “SAVE Act” is going to be one of the top lobbying priorities of the Philippines in the 112th Congress.

The “SAVE Act” – Senate 3170 and House Resolution 3039 – was filed in the 111th Congress to give preferential treatment for Philippine garments made from American textiles.

The bills enjoyed partisan support in the past Congress – introduced in the House by Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, it has drawn support from Republican Reps. Brian Bilbray and David Dreier of California, and Judy Biggert of Illinois, among others.

In the Senate, the bill was jointly sponsored by Republican Sens. Christopher Bond of Missouri and John Ensign of Nevada; and Hawaii Democratic Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye.

Philippine officials tried to have the bills approved during the lame-duck session but failed.

The lobby will have to continue under a very different Congress, with spending-conscious Republicans now controlling the House and traditionally sympathetic Democrats enjoying a thinner majority in the Senate.

For one, supporters will have to look for new GOP champions after both Bond and Ensign retired from the Senate.

Proponents say the “SAVE Act” is backed by major US textile mills, apparel trade associations, clothing manufacturers and wholesalers like Ann Taylor, Avon, Columbia Sportswear, Liz Clairborne, Natori, Polo, Ralph Lauren and Urban Apparel.

The bills’ rationale was to expand the market for US yarn and textiles by allowing tariff-free access to the Philippines, generating local demand and ultimately, creating as many as 3,000 new American jobs.

Under this scenario the lower cost of raw materials will help Philippine garments compete with bargain-priced but lower quality Chinese apparel in America as well as the Asian market that US wholesalers have been eyeing for a long time.

The demand for cotton is rising even amid higher production, leading to the commodity’s highest prices in over a decade.

New York cotton futures prices reached 150 cents per pound in early November before settling down to 112 cents per pound. The website said the 75 cents per pound trading range in the New York futures market is the highest since the 1995-96 crop season.

Of the 4.6 million metric tons of cotton produced in the US in the 2010-11 season, 3.4 million tons will be exported and 800,000 metric tons will be consumed by US textile mills.

Higher raw materials could adversely affect textiles producers in the US and the rest of the world.

The US textiles sector is already facing stiff competition from countries like China and Vietnam where textile and garments exports are projected to top $11 billion this year making it the 2nd largest textile exporter to America.

From 1997 to June this year, a total of 1,298 textile mills have been shuttered according to the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO).

Most of these factories are located in North and South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia.

There is a significant Fil-Am population in three of these four states.

Allen Gant, vice chair of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, estimated that the US textile and apparel sector has lost 323,000 jobs even before the recession flared in late 2008.

Clearly, there are challenges and opportunities for the renewed Philippine lobby in Congress.

The campaign can be waged on several levels – the Philippine’s “comparative advantage” isn’t necessarily limited to the nuances of garments-making, but also to the larger politico-economic concerns of concerned vested interests, power blocs and lawmakers promoting their constituent’s agenda.

A vigorous education and information campaign is critical to this effort.

The Fil-Am community, especially in the states that stand to benefit most from the “SAVE Act” will be crucial.

But the bill’s supporters should continue to reach out to the rest of America, especially those people and groups who can amplify the message that America needs the “SAVE Act” just as much as Filipinos.

Unless this predicate of mutual need and benefit is firmly established, we fear this bill will go nowhere.