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Th e F i l i p i n o–Am e r i c A n co m m u n i T y ne w s p A p e r

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Volume 23 - No. 11 • 2 Sections - 16 Pages march 18-24, 2016

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by Edu Punay Philstar.com

DATELINEUSAfrom the AJPress NEWS TEAM AcroSS AMEricA

AFTER CLOSED-DOOR SESSION. Maia Santos-Deguito, RCBC Jupiter branch manager, and her lawyer emerge from the executive session of the Senate blue ribbon committee, which is looking into the laundering of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank. Inquirer.net photo by Grig Montegrande

RCBC bank manager feared for her life, witness says

$81-M LAUNDERING SCANDAL

by JEffErson antiPordaManilaTimes.net

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Philrem to return P10-M to Bangladesh

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the bank manager of the rizal Commer-cial Banking Corp. (rCBC) Jupiter Branch in makati City, maia Deguito, facilitated the transfer of huge amounts of cash because she feared for her life and the safety of her family, a witness told senators on thurs-day.

romualdo Agarrado, a reserve officer of rCBC, claimed to have witnessed how De-

SENATE INQUIRY ON MONEY LAUDERING. Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman Sen. TG Guingona III (center), Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto (2rd from right), Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano (right) and Senators Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV (left), Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara (2nd from left) and Joseph Victor Ejercito (seated) in a huddle during a break of the continuation of the Senate inquiry on the reported laundering of $81 million that suspiciously went through the country’s financial system, including local casinos. Senate photo by Alex Nueva España

guito withdrew P20 million from the bank account of William so Go on february 5, 2016 and load it on her car.

on february 9, Deguito called Agarrado and her assistant, senior customer rela-tions officer Angela torres, to her office to explain what happened earlier.

she told them that she had to proceed with the transactions otherwise she or her family will be killed.

Super Tuesday Part 3: Trump and Clinton dominate primary night

oN tuesday night, march 15, five more states held key presidential primary contests--ohio, florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and missouri--where two party candidates emerged as front-runners of the race.

hillary Clinton swept all five contests in florida, Illinois, North Carolina, missouri, and ohio, racking up more delegates to solidify her lead for the Democratic nomi-nation. the victories bolster Clinton’s claim that she is her party’s only candidate who can win diverse states that will be pivotal

in the November general election, CNN re-ported, even despite her surprise loss in michigan last week.

“We are moving closer to securing the Democratic Party nomination and win-ning this election in November,” Clinton told supporters during a victory speech in West Palm Beach, florida, where her biggest win (214 delegates, 64 percent of the vote) took place.

Clinton added that by the end of the night, she would have two million more

Al Gore tells Filipinos: Use ‘people power’ to address climate change

by alExis romEro Philstar.com

mANILA—former Us vice president and environment activist Al Gore on Wednesday, march 16 urged filipinos to use “people power” to convince leaders to act on climate change and to counter the influence of industries opposed to the phasing out of coal.

Gore said groups advocating climate action should organize themselves and use technology like the social media to spread their message and express their concerns.

“People in social media can serve as counter balance (to the coal lobbyists),” Gore said during the Climate reality Leadership Corps training in Pasay.

“I believe it’s (social media) a revo-lutionary that can dramatically increase people power,” he added.

Coal-fired power plants emit carbon, which has been linked to rising global temperatures, climate change, rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions. environment activists claim that climate change poses the greatest threat to the global economy and endangers the lives of people living in disaster-prone areas like the Philippines.

there have been calls to phase out coal and to promote the use of the en-

FORMER US Vice President and global climate action advocate Al Gore on Wednesday urged the public to act as a “counterweight” to governments and big businesses that continue to use coal-fired plants and other polluting sources of energy. On the third and final day of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Manila, Gore urged some 750 climate warriors from 33 countries to “summon the political will to be in the streets, knock on doors and organize others to build a counterweight to business.” Inquirer.net photo by Richard A. Reyes

vironment-friendly renewable energy but these are being opposed by industries and skeptics who are not convinced that climate change was caused by human activities.

Gore stressed that people who care about

the environment should go beyond posting online comments.

“meet with other human beings. meet them in the eye,” the former Us vice presi-

SC junks appeal on vote receiptsmANILA—It’s final: voters will get re-

ceipts on election day.Despite bringing voting machines to

the supreme Court for an actual dem-onstration on thursday, march 17, the Commission on elections failed to per-suade the sC to reconsider its order to issue voters’ receipts on may 9.

Voting unanimously, the sC affirmed its unanimous decision last week requir-ing the Comelec to activate the receipt-generating feature of the machines.

the sC tossed out the Comelec’s ap-peal for lack of merit immediately after

the foreign exchange remittance company that con-verted into pesos the $81 million stolen from the Bangla-desh central bank thursday, march 17 apologized to the ambassador of the impoverished south Asian nation and offered to return all proceeds it made from the transac-tion.

speaking before the senate blue ribbon committee, Philrem services Inc. president salud Bautista said her firm would issue a check in the name of the government of Bangladesh representing her company’s earnings from the deal.

IN THE HOT SEAT. Salud Bautista, president of Philrem remittance company, responds to questions during the Senate hearing on Thursday, March 17. Inquirer.net photo by Grig Montegrande

Filipinos in US laud the late Sen. Jovito Salonga

Program allows int’l STEM grads to stay longer in US

INterNAtIoNAL students who earn their degrees in highly-sought stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields may be able to ex-tend their stay in the United states lon-ger.

the revamped stem optional Practi-cal training program, or stem oPt for short, adds an additional seven months to the previous length of stay required, while offering some safeguards to ad-dress labor concerns voiced by hun-dreds of American workers and stem students, reported the Us News & World report.

According to Us Immigration and Customs enforcement (ICe) records,

sAN frANCIsCo — Us-based fili-pinos extolled the late senate President Jovito salonga, who passed away at 95 on march 10 as a towering fighter for democracy, in the Philippines and while he was in exile in the United states.

Lupita Aquino-Kashiwahara, sister of salonga’s contemporary senator Be-nigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr., fondly recalled that Ninoy called salonga “Prof,” a sign of respect and admiration for the latter’s intellect and role as one of Ninoy’s lead lawyers during his “kangaroo trial” be-fore a military tribunal during martial Law.

“I remember Jovy (salonga) as one of the leaders of the opposition forces who fought against the tyranny of dic-

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Two vote counting machines – one which prints receipts and another configured to only have on-screen verification – sit at the session hall of the Supreme Court for demonstration during oral arguments on the Voter Verification Paper Audit Trail feature of the machines on Thursday, March 17. Philstar.com photo by Edd Gumban

march 18-24, 2016 • Oc/IE aSIaN JOUrNaL http://www.asianjournal.com • (818) 502-0651 • (213) 250-9797A�

From the Front Page

RCBC bank manager feared...PAGE A1

INAUGURATION. President Benigno S. Aquino III with Solar Philippine Chief Executive Officer and President Leandro Leviste and Department of Energy Undersecretary Donato Marcos during the inauguration of the P5.7 billion Calatagan Solar Farm in Barangay Paraiso in Calatagan, Batangas on Wednesday, March 16. Malacañang photo by Robert Viñas

Agarrado said he got scared because of Deguito’s statement.

“She just looked at me with a blank stare and said: I would rather do this than get killed, or my family,” Agarrado said.

In a scam that shocked the fi-nancial world, unknown hackers tried to steal around $1 billion from Bangladesh’s deposits with the US Federal Reserve in New York on February 5.

They got away with $81 mil-lion — sending it to the RCBC branch managed by Deguito — before the scam was uncovered.

Authorities have lost track of the money, with significant amounts believed to have been laundered through Philippine casinos.

“We are sorry,” Bautista said, adding Philrem did not know the funds were stolen from Bangla-desh.

She said the firm would im-mediately write a check for P10,474,654 and turn it over to Bangladeshi representatives.

Earlier during the Senate hearing, Maia Deguito, branch manager of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) which is at the center of the money-laun-dering scandal, said Kim Wong had referred to her the supposed holders of the four fictitious ac-counts, who received part of the money stolen from Bangladesh Bank.

Deguito also linked RCBC pres-ident/CEO Lorenzo Tan to Wong.

Wong is among those being investigated by the Senate in the laundering of $81 million but he skipped the hearing because his lawyer said he had been out of the country since March 4 for medical treatment.

‘Referred accounts’After she testified in a closed-

door session, Deguito answered some of the questions from sena-tors during the resumption of the public hearing.

Asked by Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile how the four bank accounts were cre-ated at the RCBC branch on Jupi-ter Street in Makati City, Dequito said the four were “referred ac-counts.”

She described Wong as a friend of Tan.

Deguito said she has known Wong for six years now, hav-ing met him when she was then working with Export Bank in 2009 “through client friends.”

Philrem to return P10M to...

Although low-level bank of-ficers in Manila have been im-plicated, no-one yet knows who was behind the heist.

Acting on a request from the US Federal Reserve, RCBC headquarters issued an order to recall the $81 million from Deguito’s branch on February 5.

But on that day, Deguito trans-ferred $66 million to accounts of businessman William Go, RCBC legal affairs head Maria Celia Fernandez-Estavillo said.

Pressed by senators, Deguito denied being fearful for her life. The senators granted her re-quest for a closed-door execu-tive session.

Fernandez-Estavillo told the senators that the $81 million

stolen from the Bangladesh Bank eventually ended up in the account of Philrem, a foreign exchange brokerage.

Philrem President Salud Bau-tista said $30 million was trans-ferred to a casino junket opera-tor who is of Chinese descent.

The rest of the money was transferred to Philippine casi-nos, $29 million to Bloomberry Resorts, which operates the Solaire mega-casino in Manila, according to the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

Another $21 million was transferred to Eastern Hawaii Leisure, which operates a ca-sino that caters to a mainly Chi-nese clientele in the northern province of Cagayan, it said. (With reports from AFP)

Deguito’s backer“He (Wong) wanted to help

me in the marketing budget for the bank,” she said in reply to the question why Wong referred the account holders to him.

Deguito said she met Wong through “common client friends” and identified Jason Go as one of them.

Tan said Wong was buying cars from Go, the car dealer who earlier was identified at the hear-ing as the one who recommend-ed Deguito to RCBC.

RCBC lawyer Macel Fernan-dez-Estavillo said Go was a “val-ued client of the bank.”

“I met Wong through Jason Go. Jason Go has been helping me in getting clients for whatev-er bank I am assigned,” Deguito said.

Go was Deguito’s client in Ex-port Bank.

Deguito said Wong became a client of hers when she was working for East West Bank.

Asked about his association with Wong after Deguito claimed that the RCBC president was a friend of Wong, Tan said Deguito “seems to know him better.”

“I have no business (with him),” Tan said, noting that he met Wong in 2002 because he was a restaurant owner. But Tan said he had not seen Wong in 12 or 14 years. Tan repeated he also knew Go.

Thursday ClubAsked whether he was a

member of the so-called Thurs-day Club that included Go and Wong, Tan said he was not part of the group.

On questioning by the blue ribbon committee chair, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, Deguito

said she attended the birthday party of Go in the last quarter of 2014 and in attendance were Tan and Wong, among others.

“Wong and Tan walked to-gether and Mr. Tan told me to take care of that guy (Wong),” Deguito said.

Deguito also said Tan invited her to join RCBC when she re-signed from East West Bank in 2013.

Tan said he did not remember attending Go’s birthday party as Deguito had said.

“I never invited her to join (RCBC) …. She is portraying herself as someone special and that I brought her in. That did not happen,” Tan said of De-guito, this time on her claim he invited her to join the bank.

Wong to return to PHWong will return to the Philip-

pines to appear before the Sen-ate blue ribbon committee, ac-cording to his lawyer.

“In the letter, he expressed willingness to appear before the committee on March 20 on-wards,” Wong’s lawyer Macel Fernandez told the committee.

Fernandez said his client, a Fil-ipino citizen, would address the allegations against him when he appears before the committee.

Wong left the country on March 4 to undergo a medical treatment in Singapore, his law-yer said.

Guingona set the next hearing on March 29 at 1:30 p.m.

Asked if Wong would be avail-able at such time, Fernandez said: “He will be available but it depends on the outcome of the medical treatment.” (Christine O. Avendaño, Niña P. Calleja, Daxim L. Lucas/Inquirer.net)

votes than her opponent, Bernie Sanders, and hold a lead of more than 300 delegates.

“We are going to stand up for American workers and make sure no one takes advantage of us--not China, not Wall Street, not overpaid corporate executives,” she said.

In exit polls conducted by NBC News, of those who voted across the five states in the Super Tuesday primaries, only about half of Demo-crat primary voters say they would be satisfied with the outcome if their favored candidate doesn’t end up the eventual nominee.

About half of Clinton supporters in those states say they would be satisfied if Sanders were the even-tual party nominee.

Sanders would need to win about 72 percent of the remaining del-egates in order to do so, according to CNN estimates, and time may be running out for him unless he can start racking up huge victory margins in coming state contests. However, most Democratic strate-gists expect Sanders to stay in the race for several months.

Clinton’s campaign strategy has been questioned recently, particularly with Sanders’ big win in Michigan, but gave the Vermont senator a tougher climb for the

Super Tuesday Part 3: Trump and Clinton...nomination after winning more of the Midwest. Clinton’s multiple victories on Tuesday foreshadowed a general election battle with Republican front-runner, Donald Trump.

Trump prevailed in the biggest contest of the night, winning in Florida, North Carolina, Missouri, and Illinois.

“This was an amazing evening,” he said from Palm Beach, Florida, where he gained 99 delegates--the top prize--and 46 percent of the state vote. “This is my second home, Florida. To win by that kind of number is incredible.”

The New York real estate billion-aire has won in 18 states so far.

“We’re going to make our coun-try rich again. We’re going to make our country great again, and we need the rich in order to make the great, I’m sorry to tell you,” he said.

Gov. John Kasich managed to best Trump in his home state of Ohio, ridding him of 66 crucial delegates.

“We are all very, very happy,” Kasich told CNN. Despite his win in only one state, it is unclear how he can overtake Trump, who is far ahead in the delegate race.

“I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land,” he

told supporters in Cleveland. “I’m getting ready to rent a covered wagon; we’re going to have a big sail and have the wind blow us to the Rocky Mountains and over the mountains to California.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also claimed “a good night” from a rally in Hous-ton. He and Trump are locked in a tight battle for Missouri, where the Associated Press reported extremely tight ratings throughout the night. In the end, Cruz was second in the state, winning 40.7 percent of the vote (and zero del-egates) to Trump’s 40.9 percent.

At the end of the night, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, having lost disastrously in his home state, dropped out, leaving three Repub-lican candidates in the race.

“America is in the middle of a real political storm, a real tsunami and we should have seen this com-ing,” Rubio, who has been fighting bitterly with Trump, said in his final speech. “While we are on the right side, this year, we will not be on the winning side.”

Trump, however, was sweet in his last words to Rubio, congratu-lating the senator for “having run a tough campaign.”

“He is tough. He is smart and he has got a great future.” (Allyson Escobar/AJPress)

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dent said. “This system can be made to

work if and only if the people in this room decide to make a differ-ence, find ways to connect with one another and use the fabled strength in number,” he added.

Gore also encouraged partici-pants of the training to arm them-selves with knowledge about the climate.

Al Gore tells Filipinos: Use ‘people...“We cannot underestimate the

power of the coal lobby but getting a lot of people to advocate this in the national and local level will make a difference that this change will happen,” La Viña said.

“It’s not a fight that can be won in the inner circles or inner rooms of Malacanang or Congress. It has to be won in the streets. It has to be won in the plant sites and spill over to Congress, the executive branch and even to the judiciary,” he added.

La Viña said the building of new coal-fired plants is a roadblock to efforts to address clmatye change.

“We have lots of coal-fired plants already being built. Except some communities fighting that, there’s not much we can do,” La Viña said.

“The first thing the Philippines should do is put a cap on coal,” he added.

La Viña noted that the Philippines has committed to reduce carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030 in the climate action plan it submitted to the United Nations.

“We have no space to make mis-takes for ecosystems forests, marine coastal fisheries…We have to pre-serve and conserve them. Even if we do everything in energy, if we lose our forests and misuse our land, we will not meet the 70 percent (reduc-tion goal),” he added.

Climate Change Commission Secretary Emmanuel de Guzman said the government is revisit-ing its climate action plan or the so-called intended nationally determined contribution to meet its targets.

“Right now, the national agen-cies concerned are developing their respective national roadmaps and examine existing policies to be able to really deliver the targets they set per sector and deliver the aggregate (carbon emission) reduction of 70 percent by 2030,” de Guzman said.

Last December, world leaders who attended the Paris climate talks reached a landmark deal that aims to hold global warm-ing “well below” two degrees Celsius. They also agreed to pursue measures that would limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-indus-trial levels.

Critics of the Paris agreement, however, claimed that the deal was too vague on important issues like climate finance for vulnerable countries.

“Someone who has political should be in the streets knocking on doors, organizing others to create a powerful political counterweight,” he said.

Antonio La Viña, dean of the Ateneo School of Government and a member of the Philippine del-egation to the Parks climate talks, agreed that the climate issue is something that should be brought to the streets.

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Honda introduces legislation to reunite families

LET GIRLS LEARN. First Lady Michelle Obama views murals by Mr. Brainwash, left, a Los Angeles based graffiti artist, during an event marking the one-year anniversary of Let Girls Learn, hosted by the US Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at Union Market in Washington, DC on Tuesday, March 8. White House photo by Amanda Lucidon

the oral arguments, during which Comelec officials demonstrated how compliance with the SC or-der would adversely affect the conduct of the polls.

In a press conference just 30 minutes after the conclusion of the oral arguments, SC spokes-man Theodore Te announced that 13 justices voted to deny the poll body’s motion for reconsid-eration.

Te stressed that the denial of the appeal was final, meaning no more motion for reconsideration would be entertained.

The high tribunal stood firm on its ruling that the verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) feature of the vote counting machines (VCMs) is mandatory under Republic Act 8436 or the Automated Election Law.

In its ruling, the SC said the law clearly states that receipt-printing capabilities should be put in place as part of the required minimum safeguards.

It rejected the warning of the Comelec that the ruling would have “far-reaching implications” on the conduct of the polls.

On interpellation by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen during oral arguments, Comelec Com-missioner Christian Robert Lim admitted that it is still possible to print receipts but that the elec-tions would have to be moved to May 23 to allow more time for a reconfiguration of the source codes.

Lim explained that the voters’ receipts would not carry secu-rity features, such as the ballot ID, without touching the source code.

But he admitted that the re-ceipt could also be printed with-out touching the source code and only through reconfiguring the secure digital (SD) cards of the voting machines.

In response, Leonen said the SC did not specifically direct the Comelec to reconfigure the source codes but merely to issue vote receipts.

He noted that the poll body’s timeline for the election would be reduced if the source code is not touched.

Leonen also stressed that it is not within the statutory mandate of the Comelec to postpone the elections in the entire country but in selected areas only.

Poll chief’s worryComelec Chairman Andres

Bautista also assured the SC that the poll body would comply with the order.

“You can rest assured that we will do our best given the circum-stances. My reservation is what kind of elections are we going to have in May if we are going to force issues,” he lamented.

The SC was also not convinced with the arguments presented by Solicitor General Florin Hilbay,

SC junks appeal on vote...who represented the Comelec in the case.

Hilbay cited repercussions of the ruling on the conduct of the elections, including extension of voting period to an average of 20 hours, a degraded voter experi-ence that could result in voters prematurely leaving polling plac-es, higher incidence of machine malfunction and failure and open-ing new opportunities for cheat-ing.

“Every interpretation entails a cost. In this case this cost trans-lates to a substantial and unantici-pated burden on the preparations of the Comelec,” he warned.

He argued that there is no need for the VVPAT as the Comelec has adopted several other measures to ensure honest and credible elec-tions, including random manual audit (RMA) of polling precincts and the continuous review of the source codes.

“All other problems are mana-gerial problems that are not supposed to be addressed to the Court but to the Comelec,” Leonen stressed in response to Hilbay’s arguments.

The case stemmed from a peti-tion filed by a group led by former senator Richard Gordon.

‘Simple receipts’In an interview after SC’s issu-

ance of the ruling, Bautista said they would only print “simple” receipts to make compliance easier.

“Now that the Supreme Court has decided, we submit and we comply and we will try to do our best and still ensure a credible elections on May 9,” he added.

“What will happen now is that voters will see the ballots through the onscreen verification for 15 seconds and then the receipts will be printed but they will contain only the ‘Republic of the Philip-pines’ and ‘Comelec,’” he said.

The poll chief said “simple re-

ceipts” would not contain security features like hashcode, polling precinct number and the name of the voting centers.

The SC also ruled that the voter receipts can be used as reference materials or evidence in electoral protests.

But Bautista said he could not say yet if the “simple” voter re-ceipt could be legally binding as it would be bereft of security fea-tures.

He added it is now up to law-yers to look into this.

“I’m happy with the decision because, at least, we can proceed now (with our preparations). But personally, I would have not done it but even if I disagree, I will not be disagreeable. Meaning we will comply,” he maintained.

No choice but to complyWith the SC decision, the Com-

elec has no choice but to comply with the law on the printing of vote receipts.

“With the denial of its motion for reconsideration, the Comelec should prepare accordingly. It should stop issuing statements that will instill fear in the minds of the people that there will be post-ponement or failure of elections,” Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said.

“Instead, it should adopt mea-sures that will minimize the de-lay in the voting process that will surely be brought about by the is-suance of vote receipts,” he said. Gonzales suggested that the Com-elec create an additional board of inspectors (BEI) for one clustered precinct.

Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez said the Comelec should stop floating scenarios, including no-el (no election), ma-el (manual elec-tion) and po-el (postponement of election). (With reports from Sheila Crisostomo, Helen Flores, Paolo Romero, Marvin Sy, Jess Diaz)

WASHINGTON, DC—US Rep. Mike Honda (D-Silicon Valley, Calif.) joined several of his Con-gressional colleagues at a press conference introducing the Re-uniting Families Act (RFA), a piece of commonsense legisla-tion designed to cut the backlog causing the separation of 4.4 million family members from US citizens and green card holders.

“Today’s press conference was to show our commitment to the family values that Amer-ica stands for,” said Honda on Thursday, March 17. “America was built by families of immi-grants, spreading out across our nation, building their homes and their dreams. Right now, far too many of those dreams are being put on hold because of bureau-cracy that simply does not need to be.”

Some of these families have been waiting for more than 20 years to be reunited, because of a broken immigration system. The RFA will, in part, help that backlog by making use of thou-sands of visas that have been un-used, over the past two decades. It will also exempt husbands, wives and children of green card holders from numerical caps.

“Family unity is a cornerstone of our immigration system,” said Mee Moua, executive director of Asians Advancing Justice, one of several outside groups that have endorsed the RFA. “Since the founding of our nation, immi-grants have come to our shores to create better lives for their families. But today, our broken immigration system hurts fami-lies by keeping loved ones apart for years, and often decades. We need to update our immigration system with commonsense solu-tions like those included in Con-gressman Mike Honda’s Reunit-ing Families Act to strengthen our communities by strength-ening families. We at Advanc-ing Justice | AAJC are proud to support the Reuniting Families Act and commend Congressman Honda for championing family reunification.”

The RFA would also ensure that same-sex, interfaith and other couples unable to wed in their home countries are still treated the same as opposite-sex couples.

“In most of the world, same-sex permanent partners do not have access to marriage equal-ity,” said Aaron Morris, ex-ecutive director of Immigration Equality. “The Reuniting Fami-

lies Act provides these loving, committed couples the ability to stay together just like every other immigrant family. We are grateful to Congressman Honda for his leadership in crafting and introducing this critical legisla-tion.”

The RFA is currently support-ed by more than 65 Representa-tives. Several of those, including Reps. Xavier Becerra, Chairman of the House Democratic Cau-cus; Judy Chu, Chair of the Con-gressional Asian Pacific Ameri-can Caucus; Barbara Lee and Raul Grijalva, joined Honda at the press availability announc-ing introduction. They joined several of the groups supporting the RFA.

“More than four million spouses, children and parents are waiting in backlogs that can last more than two decades, and Asian American immigrant families are disproportionately affected,” said Chris Kang, ex-ecutive director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Ameri-cans. “Updates to the family-based immigration system are long overdue. Indeed, compre-hensive immigration reform is long overdue. NCAPA strongly supports the Reuniting Families Act, which would reunite these family members, strengthen our communities, and bolster our economy. Congressman Honda has been a tireless leader--on this issue and on behalf of all Asian Americans--and we thank him for introducing this bill to-day.”

Not only will reunited families bring loved ones back together, but it will create economic ben-efits including increased con-sumer spending and worker productivity.

“Family based-immigration systems in America have not been modernized in the past 20 years, leaving millions of immi-grants and families separated due to visa backlogs,” said Greg-ory Cedana, executive director of the Asian Pacific American La-bor Alliance. “APALA applauds Congressman Honda for reintro-ducing the Reuniting Families Act to help reunite immigrant families and create a more fair, just and inclusive family-based reunification process.”

“NCLR thanks Representative Honda for his steadfast leader-ship on reforming the family immigration system,” said Ja-net Murguía, National Council of La Raza President and CEO.

“Family unity is a fundamental principle in our country, and it is against our values to separate spouses from one another and parents from their children for up to a decade as we currently do in our outdated immigration system.”

“Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service strongly be-lieves that our nation’s immigra-tion system must stop tearing families apart and must instead protect family unity for all mi-grants and refugees,” said Linda Hartke, LIRS President and CEO. “For this reason, we welcome the Reuniting Families Act, a bill that contains key reforms that will allow family members to reunite with their loved ones more quickly. As people of faith, we view family as the basic unit of strong communities and con-gregations. The value of family strengthens our resolve to stand for meaningful and just reform of this nation’s family-based im-migration system.”

The RFA is also supported by National Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Na-tional Council of La Raza, Ser-vice Employees International Union, HIAS, Church World Service, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Ser-vices, Immigration Equality, Hu-man Rights Campaign, National Center for Transgender Equal-ity, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, OCA Asian Pacific American Advocates, National Korean American Ser-vice & Education Consortium, South Asian Americans Leading Together, Asian Pacific Ameri-can Labor Alliance, Southeast Asian Resource Action Center, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organiza-tions and National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance. n

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Rep. Mike Honda (D-Silicon Valley, Calif.)

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BEST FOOT FORWARD. For the third edition of “In Her Shoes,” a yearly campaign by the National Youth Commission to highlight women’s issues, the police chief of La Trinidad town walked in high heels, while members of militant women’s groups, students, teachers and sidewalk vendors danced to the theme song of the One Billion Rising Revolution before joining a unity march down Session Road. Wearing purple and pink T-shirts, women lined the streets to witness their menfolk march on the city’s Malcolm Square in heels. Inquirer.net photo by Kimberlie Quitasol

Filipinos in US laud the late Sen. Jovito...tatorship, both in the Philippines and during his exile in the US He was a man of principle and vision, qualities that seem to be in short supply among those who are in the political arena. He will be missed,” shared Kashiwahara.

Philippine Consul-General in San Francisco Henry Bensurto Jr. believe the whole country was saddened by the passing of “a very good man who was a very integral part of contemporary history, a very valiant defender of democ-racy, an institution when it comes to human rights, and the struggle for freedom and dignity.”

“Having participated in those struggles for democratic rights, I am saddened to see a good man die,” Bensurto intimated. “His legacy includes all the things that he fought for, democracy, human rights, freedom, human dignity, these are values that we will continue to hold dear to our hearts and continue to fight for and ensure not to lose again. This is something we will carry in the next decades or so and have to fight for and exert a lot of effort to preserve. The whole country and the next generations will forever be grateful to him and he has our love and admiration.”

Senator Heherson Alvarez, erstwhile secretary-general of the Movement for Free Philippines (MFP also led by Senator Raul Manglapus) and a founding chair-man of Ninoy Aquino Movement

Program allows int’l STEM grads to...there are approximately 70,000 students currently in OPT--of those, about 23,000 are study-ing in Science, Technology, En-gineering, or Mathematics fields. Some of these students were selected as skilled foreign work-ers eligible to apply for an H-1B, starting in October 2008, as part of the old program. Others can choose to continue their educa-tion, while some will depart the United States.

ICE and the United States Citi-zenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials have estimated that approximately 12,000 people will take advantage of the new STEM extension.

The new STEM OPT rules were initially proposed in October 2015 by the Department of Homeland Security, after a federal judge va-cated the previous rules that Au-gust. The judge’s action also left an estimated 50,000 STEM work-ers and their employers hanging, until the DHS drafted a replace-ment for the public student visa program, which essentially paves the way for hands-on job training and experience after graduation.

According to Numbers USA, the original STEM extension was struck down “because DHS did not go through the public and com-ment process when they issued the extension in 2008, which vio-lates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).”

District of Columbia District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle gave a six-month deadline for a replacement program to be devel-oped, after a technology workers’ labor union filed suit against the first STEM OPT program.

Huvelle’s ruling centered on procedural issues discovered in 2008 with the rule’s original imple-mentation.

DHS proposed the new rule on October 19, 2015, and received over 50,000 public comments. They had until February 12 to es-tablish the rule under the correct APA procedures.

Beyond offering graduates more field experience, the exten-sion serves to give immigrant stu-dents more time. “If my work visa gets denied this year, I still have two more opportunities to apply, and I can keep working with the country,” said 24-year-old Shruthi Aramandla, a New York University graduate from India working as an engineer.

According to USCIS, the new STEM program has four new, no-table features:

(NAM), recalled that Salonga was a guerilla fighter maltreated in prison during the Japanese occu-pation.

“We deeply mourn the loss of a fellow freedom fighter against a home grown oppressor,” Alvarez said in an email message. “The clarity of his democratic vision was the spine for his vigorous consci-entious objection to martial rule, contrary to the current attempts of twisting history that the dark era of the Marcos conjugal dictator-ship was the ‘golden age’ in our country.”

Alvarez recalled that under a restored democracy, Salonga vig-orously asserted Philippine sover-eignty, helping terminate the US bases agreement.

“He impressed me as an intel-ligent man with high principles and integrity,” said attorney Ted Laguatan who worked closely with Salonga in uncovering “the billions (of dollars) stolen from the Filipino people by the Marcoses,” preparing the mechanism for the search “even before the dictator’s downfall. He devoted his entire life to public service and contin-ued even after the serious injuries he suffered in the Plaza Miranda bombing. Truly an admirable man.”

Rodel Rodis, also an attorney and an INQUIRER.net columnist said Salonga w was his inspiration in becoming a lawyer: “I knew he topped the bar in 1944 and that he went to Yale.”

“I met him personally in 1986 after he was appointed by Presi-dent Cory Aquino as chair of the Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG) tasked with the recovery of the billions of dol-lars Marcos and his cronies stole from the PH government. He came to San Francisco and I met him as a volunteer PCGG attorney,” Rodis said.

Rodis recalled that Salonga went to Pasadena and interviewed Marcos paramour Dovie Beams about what she knew of the Mar-cos wealth. Beams told them that she didn’t know that much be-cause she barely got out of the country after Imelda tried to get her killed.

“I got to know him personally and I was impressed by the sharp-ness of his intellect and inspired by his passionate love of our country. He was a patriot of the first order,” Rodis said.

For her part, author, editor and journalist Gemma Nemenzo be-lieves that if Senator Salonga was set as the standard by which Fili-pinos choose their leaders, no one in the current crop of politicians would pass.

“He was the last of the great statesmen, along with Senators Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tanada, Jose W. Diokno — people who made us proud at a time when be-ing a legislator was considered a sacred trust, not a means to plun-der or to abuse.” (Jun Nucum / Inquirer.net)

• Extended stay – The old OPT program allowed STEM graduates to stay for up to two and a half years for on-the-job training. The new program extends the time to three years, enabling workers more meaningful time to train in often highly technical STEM jobs. It also provides extra time for those in the process of applying for study grants.

• Protections for American and foreign workers alike – Under the new regulations, employers must submit formal training and men-toring plans (in line with US work-ers in similar employment posi-tions) to the government for OPT STEM employees. Companies must also pay foreign workers the same wages American counter-parts make. STEM students must also not replace a full-time, part-time, temporary or permanent US worker.

• Greater visa opportunity – By extending the OPT STEM program to three years, the new program potentially provides participants a third opportunity to apply for a more permanent H-1B work visa. An estimated 250,000 people ap-plied for this visa in the 2014 fiscal year with only about a third gain-ing approval.

• Quality education assurances – The new program also offers

some safeguards to assure for-eign students study at legitimate schools. To work under the OPT STEM program, students must meet requirements such as ob-taining their degrees from accred-ited American institutions. The rule protects students from some disreputable for-profit colleges, and guards the country against frauds who would simply enroll in a degree mill programs to gain the OPT STEM extension.

The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers’ lawsuit brought to light exploitation con-cerns with the program, regarding replacing American workers with cheaper foreign labor.

A hearing on the issue is set for May in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. De-spite the challenge, according to US News & World Report, ICE’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program will move forward with plans to provide informational sessions about the new program for employers, academic institu-tions and eligible students. ICE also plans to secure training pro-grams and mandate employer oversight, in order to prevent fraud.

The new OPT STEM extension will take effect on May 10. (Allyson Escobar / AJPress)

VANDALIZED. The EDSA People Power Monument on White Plains, Quezon City, has been defaced with a message showing support for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Malacañang says the graffiti incites “justified anger” among Filipinos. Photo by Celso Santiago/EDSA People Power Commission

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Dateline PhiliPPinesSantiago to skip Comelec debate to try new anticancer pill

Balikatan 2016 kicks off in Palawan, Panay

by Frances Mangosing Inquirer.net

by JaiMe Laude Philstar.com

MANILA—This year’s first phase of the US-PH Balikatan series had its soft opening on Wednesday, March 16 with the joint launching of construction and medical engagements in Panay and Palawan.

Capt. Frank Sayson, Phil-ippine-side exercise spokes-man, said five different school buildings and scores of local residents in the two islands benefited from the shoulder-to-shoulder joint American and Filipino activities.

Balikatan is an annual Philip-pine-US military bilateral train-ing exercise, a signature ele-ment of the alliance focused on a variety of missions including humanitarian assistance, mari-time law enforcement and envi-

ronmental protection.This year’s joint military drills

will take place in various areas of the country following the exer-cises’ official opening on April 4 and will run until April 15.

A beachhead landing to cap-ture an “illegally occupied area by foreign forces in Panay” will be conducted by combined Fili-pino and US troops on the beach-es of the capital town of San Jose in Antique.

Antique province in Panay di-rectly faces the island province of Palawan.

“Throughout the joint exercis-es both forces will be working to-gether to enhance maritime law enforcement throughout the Phil-ippines to meet annual training requirements and enhance tech-niques, tactics and procedures as a critical part of interoperability of our forces,” Sayson said.

The annual joint military drills will also be conducted in Crow Valley in Tarlac, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Clark Air Field in Pampanga, Subic Bay in Zam-bales and in Palawan, all aimed at improving the ability of both forces working together.

“One of the main joint opera-tions for this year’s exercise will be the conduct of a joint rapid reaction force as part of the dis-tributed operations in the vicin-ity of Panay, demonstrating the partnered capability in rapid re-sponse,” Sayson said.

Invited as observers to this yearly joint military event are the military representatives from seven Southeast Asian-member states – Brunei, Cambodia, Indo-nesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and regional allies In-dia, Japan, South Korea and Timor-Leste.

PrESIdENTIAL candidate Sen. Miriam defensor Santiago will not attend the debate hosted by the Commission on Elections in Cebu on Sunday, March 20 to undergo a clinical trial for a new anticancer pill.

“I am very sorry to miss out on the debates, but it would be a dis-service to the country if I forego the opportunity to get rid of my cancer completely and strengthen myself further to serve the Filipino people,” Santiago said in a state-ment on Thursday, March 17.

The senator, who was diag-nosed with a stage 4 lung cancer in 2014 but claimed she is in re-mission, joined an international

clinical trial to gain free access to the medication, which would

have cost her-half-a-million pe-sos every three weeks.

Presidential candidate Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago during the Presidential Debates 2016 held in Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro City. Inquirer.net photo by Lyn RillonBalikatan is an annual Philippine-US military bilateral training exercise, a signature element of the alliance focused on a variety of missions

including humanitarian assistance, maritime law enforcement and environmental protection. US Navy photo by Scott Barnes

Frontrunner Escudero feels threatened by rivalsby ghio ong

Philstar.com

MANILA—despite his lead in election surveys, vice presiden-tial candidate Sen. Francis Es-cudero said it is still anybody’s ballgame.

In a roundtable discussion with The Star last Tuesday, March 15, Escudero stressed that he does not have the kind of resources his rivals have.

For instance, he stressed that one of his rivals Camarines Sur rep. Leni robredo is supported by the machinery of the Liberal Party.

“Why should I not be scared of Leni? She is the administration candidate, they have all the re-sources, they have been spend-ing a lot on ads,” he added.

Pacquiao hints at fighting on after Bradley boutMANILA—Manny Pacquiao

once declared that his fight with Timothy Bradley next month will be his last.

But with just a few weeks left before the showdown, Pacquiao has raised doubts about his plan to hang up his gloves soon.

In an article by Lance Pug-mire of The Los Angeles Times, Pacquiao said he isn’t ruling out fighting again after his third clash with Bradley.

“We do not know. It’s hard to say if I’m finished. I can’t say I don’t want to come back,” said the Filipino icon.

Pacquiao is gunning for a Sen-ate seat in the May elections, and the Social Weather Stations ranked him at No. 7 in its latest pre-poll survey—a good indica-tion that he might achieve his goal.

Top rank Inc. chief Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s longtime promoter, has said that he doesn’t believe it will be the last time we’ll see Pacquiao in the ring. In fact, the veteran promoter isn’t market-

ing Pacquiao-Bradley 3 as Pac-quiao’s final bout as a profes-sional.

right now, everything is pos-sible.

Whether Pacquiao will call it quits or continue on as a prize-fighter depends on the result of the elections and his fight with Bradley.

Boxing fans will know after April 9.

“My decision will come af-ter this fight. I’ll go back to the Philippines and … [might] have a new job to do and be focused on,” Pacquiao said.

If you’ve been religiously fol-lowing Pacquiao’s career, you know that nothing’s certain.

by dino Maragay Philstar.com

World’s happiest: Philippines ranks 82ndby charMie Joy PaguLong

Philstar.com

MANILA—The Philippines is the 82nd happiest place out of 157 economies, according to a report by the Sustainable de-velopment Solutions Network (SdSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

The report, which urged na-tions, regardless of wealth, to tackle inequality and the envi-ronment, showed the Philippines as a happy place to live in, one notch higher than China.

The top 10 this year were Switzerland, Iceland, denmark, Norway, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Aus-tralia and Sweden.

The United States came in at 13th, followed by the United Kingdom at 23rd; France, 32nd, and Italy, 50th.

Syria, Afghanistan and eight sub-Saharan countries are the 10 least happy places on earth to live, the report said.

The bottom 10 countries were Madagascar, Tanzania, Liberia, Guinea, rwanda, Benin, Afghan-istan, Togo, Syria and Burundi.

In Asia, Singapore (22nd) was categorized as the happiest country to live in, followed by Thailand (33rd), Taiwan (35th), Malaysia (47th), Japan (53rd) Hong Kong (75th) and Indonesia (79th).

“There is a strong message for my country, the United States, which is very rich, has gotten a lot richer over the last 50 years, but has gotten no happier,” said Jeffrey Sachs, head of the SdSN and special advisor to UN Secre-tary General Ban Ki-moon.

While the differences between countries where people are hap-py and those where they are not could be scientifically measured, “we can understand why and do something about it,” Sachs, one of the report’s authors, told re-uters in an interview in rome.

“The message for the United States is clear. For a society that just chases money, we are chasing the wrong things. Our social fabric is deteriorating, so-

cial trust is deteriorating, faith in government is deteriorating,” he said.

The report, now in its fourth edition, ranked 157 countries by happiness levels using factors such as per capita gross domes-tic product and healthy years of life expectancy.

It also rated “having someone to count on in times of trouble” and freedom from corruption in government and business.

“When countries single-mind-edly pursue individual objectives, such as economic development to the neglect of social and envi-ronmental objectives, the results can be highly adverse for human wellbeing, even dangerous for survival,” it said.

“Many countries in recent years have achieved economic growth at the cost of sharply ris-ing inequality, entrenched social exclusion, and grave damage to the natural environment.”

Yardstick of happinessThe first report was issued in

2012 to support a United Nations meeting on happiness and well being.

Five countries – Bhutan, Ecua-dor, Scotland, United Arab Emir-ates and Venezuela – now have appointed ministers charged with promoting happiness as a goal of public policy.

The 2016 survey showed that three countries – Ireland, Iceland

and Japan – were able to main-tain their happiness levels, de-spite external shocks such as the post-2007 economic crisis and the 2011 earthquake, because of social support and solidarity.

Sachs cited Costa rica, which ranked 14th, ahead of many wealthier countries, as an exam-ple of a healthy, happy society, although it is not an economic powerhouse.

Escudero said he is also threatened by Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, who both have lots of money.

He added that Marcos has many allies, hidden or other-wise, and banks on the memo-ry of his father being a former president.

Escudero said he has no backing from the military, un-like Senators Gregorio Hona-san and Antonio Trillanes, both soldiers with “deep roots in the military.”

Escudero and Marcos were statistically tied in the lead for the race for vice-president in the latest survey conducted by Pulse Asia and commissioned by ABS-CBN from March 1 to 6. Escudero got 25 percent and Marcos 22 percent.

His lead in the surveys, Es-cudero said, was “something to smile about, however close the gap may be.”

The report, which urged nations, regardless of wealth, to tackle inequality and the environment, showed the Philippines as a happy place to live in, one notch higher than China. Philstar.com file photo

Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley AJPress file photo by Andy Tecson

Sen. Chiz Escudero

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Gel SantoS-ReloS

The Fil-Am Perspective

Philstar.com photo

THE world today is characterized by intense global competition and rapid technological change. According to a human capital theory, economic development is a function of the quality of a nation’s education system. In other words: the more and better educated the people, the better the chances of reaching economic development. The key to success is a well-educated, technically skilled workforce producing high-value-added, knowledge-intensive goods and services.

Job hunting

It is graduation season in the Philippines and up to 700,000 graduates are expected to join the nation’s labor market of 41 million.

However, the Trade Union Con-gress of the Philippines (TUCP) warned that these fresh graduates would have difficulty finding im-mediate employment due to the job-skills mis-match crisis in the country.

“Out of the 4,239,392 domestic and interna-tional job vacancies offered in 3,686 year-round job fairs activities held in 2014 and 2015 nation-wide, only 391,088 were hired on the spot out of the 1,286,073 applicants,” TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay said. He added that the job-skills mismatch crisis in the country has been going on -- and it continues to grow. Competition is esca-lating, so employers are putting additional quali-fications in the job descriptions.

Tanjusay also said that heightened competi-

tiveness in the job market -- with little or no adjustment on the part of the learning institutions -- makes job hunting in the country worse than ever.

According to the Department of Labor and Em-ployment (DOLE), out of every 1,000 job appli-cants, only 10 would likely be hired. The majority of the aspirants will not be able to penetrate the labor market and many will eventfully become part of the unemployed.

Those who will fall through the cracks will seek better employment opportunities abroad. It is esti-mated that more that around 4,000 Filipinos leave the country to work abroad every day.

The country has been internationally recognized for its diverse and talented human resources. The skills of Filipino workers continue to impress for-eign employers, making more countries favor the quality of Filipino service. It is awe-inspiring that

Editorial

Filipino workers are in demand and valued by other countries. However, it is also alarming that their own country cannot grant them the same op-portunity.

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are glorified as modern heroes, but back home, the reasons why they left remain harsh realities.

With the impressive showing of the current economy, the protection and promotion of eco-nomic rights of all Filipino workers should be given appropriate actions. The government must continue to generate decent employment opportu-nities that will entice OFWs to come back or local employees to stay. (AJPress)

A WEEK before Super Tuesday 3 -- when five states were slated to vote for the candidate whom they believe should be their party’s nominee for the next president of the United States -- Donald Trump has been criticized from the left, the right, and everyone else in between. The latest round of criticism comes after violent encounters had erupted during his campaign ral-lies between his supporters and those who are op-posed to catapulting him to the highest post of the land.

While candidates may not have direct control over how their supporters may act during cam-paign rallies, Trump’s detractors contend that the problem here was that it has been the billionaire reality show/real estate mogul’s rhetoric and atti-tude against those who oppose him. Even worse, they argue, his toxic regard and public statements against undocumented immigrants, Hispanics, Muslims have gone overboard, and have planted seeds of hatred and divisiveness among his sup-porters.

His critics allege that Trump does not really promise to “Make America great again” if he becomes president, as his popular slogan goes.

What he is allegedly instilling in his avid fans is that “he will make America white again.”

The Daily News even wrote that “the 2016 Republican front-runner’s decision to push divisive rhetoric and policy has opened the door for an array of white su-premacy groups, that suddenly feel emboldened and legitimized

by Trump’s hateful bombast, to rejoin the national conversation.”

Trump says he never condones violence, but his detractors say his hate speech and bold combative statements negate his statements, and do in fact, encourage violence among his supporters.

Some of Trump’s statements were quoted by Vox:

[1 February 2016, Iowa] “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell. I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise.”

[26 February 2016, Oklahoma] “In the good old days, they’d rip him out of that seat so fast. But to-day, everybody’s politically correct. Our country’s going to hell with being politically correct.”

[29 February 2016, Virginia] “Get him out of

here please. Get him out. Get him out ... Are you from Mexico? Are you from Mexico? Huh? Are you from Mexico?”

[4 March 2016, Michigan] “Get out of here. Get out. Out! ... This is amazing. So much fun. I love it. I love it. We having a good time? USA, USA, USA! ... All right, get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court. Don’t worry about it ... We had four guys, they jumped on him, they were swinging and swinging. The next day, we got killed in the press — that we were too rough. Give me a break. You know? Right? We don’t want to be too politically correct anymore. Right, folks?”

However, Trump’s supporters remain unfazed and continue to defend him by saying that that’s what they like about him: he is not a traditional politician. He is bold, unafraid and does not bother to be “politi-cally correct,” and that he is the kind of leader that America “needs to get things done.”

After Trump’s big wins on Super Tuesday 3, we will see if his momentum will continue and

make him clinch the nomination of the Republi-can Party.

* * *Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos

Is Donald Trump fostering divisiveness and violence in his presidential campaign?

WHY all the hassle over the two social se-curity numbers (SSN) allegedly used by Sen. Grace Poe when she was living in the US?

In the Philippines, there must be a lot of people who are paying monthly social securi-ty premiums but can’t remember their SS numbers. This, aside from the fact that millions in our country don’t have social security coverage at all.

But in the US, the SSN is a price-less code that you cannot afford to be without and you must know by heart. It serves as your virtual password to making major purchases such as a house or a car, dealing with financial institutions, securing government per-mits and licenses, and gaining access to restricted information, as well as be-ing employed, being paid wages and receiving social security benefits.

But you have to be in the US legally, either as a citizen or as a permanent resident (or green card holder).

You may also be entitled to your own SSN if you are in the US legally but not allowed to work, such as a foreign stu-dent on an F-1, M-1 or J-1 visa. The SS card would bear the legend “Not valid for employment.” As a temporary visi-tor with a working visa, you could also secure your own SSN but it would bear the notation, “Valid for work with INS authorization.”

Needless to say, a person with a questionable immigration status or a TNT (meaning Tago ng Tago – liter-ally, “always hiding”) cannot legally have a social security number.

The SSN is such a sensitive number

that you may refuse to divulge it to a pri-vate business entity or you may be asked for only “the last four digits” of the num-ber. And in making a major purchase that requires revealing the SSN, you do it much

like keying in a bank PIN – without anybody looking.

Note that a person in the US may have his own SSN from birth. And ev-eryone literally carries it to the grave - never to be used again. Thus, when that number appears in official records as having been used by someone other than the original bearer, that is a red flag.

Using an illegal SSN carries a major risk because any enterprising individ-ual, particularly a lawyer, journalist or private investigator, can do an online search and find out the identity of a person who has used a certain SSN.

This appears to have been the case with Poe. Someone keenly interested in her personal background – presumably because of her candidacy for president – dug up not one but two SSNs attrib-uted to her. One SSN appears to have been assigned to her in 1992 after she got married to a US citizen. The other one SSN 005-03-1998, according to online records, was released in Maine in the 1930s to a person who is either dead or is now well past his mid-90s (some online records refer to the per-son as deceased).

Philippine Daily Tribune publisher-editor, Ninez Cacho-Olivares, accept-ing a reported challenge of Poe for the journalist to come up with “proof”

concerning the illegal use of SSN 005-03-1998 (as published in her paper’s March 7 issue), apparently did due dil-igence and came up with incriminating results:

“The Tribune found evidence that in-dependent presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe and her husband Teodoro Llamanzares purchased a property in the State of Virginia in 2006 with the use of Poe’s spurious US Social Secu-rity Number (SSN).”

Cacho-Olivares also wrote about other instances when the questionable SSN was used by a certain Llaman-zares, Grace P:

“More evidence of SSN-005-03-1988’s use -The records showed that it was first reported use for 2914 Post Office Box in Fairfax county in Merri-field, Virginia 22116-2914 on February 2, 1999; then at 129 Kingsley Rd SW, Vienna, Virginia in Fairfax county on June 1, 1999 and at 12021 Sunset Hills Rd Reston, Virginia on September 1, 1999.

“It was last used at 42931 Shel-bourne SQ, Chantilly, Virginia in Loud-on county on May 1, 2006.

“Grace Poe Llamanzares and her husband, Teodoro are listed as the owner of a home located at 42931 Shebourne Square. Chantilly, Virgin-ia, with a listed amount of $420,000, with named residents Grace Poe Lla-manzare (without an s), Mary Poe, Grace Poe, Teodoro Llamanzares and M. Llamanzares. The SSN used was SSN-005-03-1988, the dead person’s SSN.”

When news of the spurious SSN first hit the newspapers, Poe’s spokesman dismissed it as a lie. He pointed out that the number happened to coincide

with the date that Poe enrolled at Bos-ton College and that it was assigned to her as her college ID number.

In fact, the Department of Homeland Security states the following:

“Are you temporarily in the United States to attend a college, language, vocational, or nonacademic school with a non-immigrant F-1, M-1, or J-1 student classification? Your school may ask you for your Social Security number. Some colleges and schools use Social Security numbers as student identification numbers. If you don’t have a Social Security number, the col-lege or school should be able to give you another identification number.”

Assuming that Poe enrolled at Bos-ton College on a student visa, it is pos-sible that the school asked her for her SSN and, having none, decided to as-sign her an ID number corresponding to her date of enrollment.

But there are some problems with such an explanation. Firstly, would that mean that others who enrolled on that same date were also given the same ID number? Secondly – and this is the one most difficult to understand – why was that supposed ID number in her married name? Shouldn’t it have been in her maiden name, since she had not yet gotten married in 1998?

Thirdly, why was SSN 005-03-1998 used several times by a person going by the name of Llamanzares, Grace P well after Poe had graduated from Boston College (in 1991)?

It is common knowledge in America that many temporary visitors who de-cide to overstay find ways to secure a social security number. In flea markets in California, hawkers openly sell it (of course, keeping an eagle eye peeled

for immigration agents). Some of these numbers are, quite

likely, those of deceased individuals. Others may be the fruits of identity theft. And still others may be random numbers dreamed up by vendors that coincide with genuine SSNs.

Unless Poe can give a credible ex-planation for the uncanny coincidence of two SSNs being used by a person of the same name, then there certainly is something fishy, and it’s not in Navo-tas or Malabon.

Of course, to many of Poe’s undying supporters, this may be a “so what?” issue. Aside from the fact that we Pi-noys tend to be loyal to our idols, whether right or wrong, there must be thousands in our country who have relatives in America using illegal SSNs. So what’s the big deal?

Could that be the reason why the major newspapers like Philippine Dai-ly Inquirer and Philippine Star, have not bothered to write about this matter (except for one single PDI story about the insistence of Poe’s spokesman that the Tribune report was untrue). Per-haps they think that a possible case of identity theft by someone aspiring to become president of the Philippine is not important enough.

But to US authorities, it is a big deal. Using another person’s SSN is a felony and subject to a stiff fine and imprison-ment.

This problem could hound Poe for many years, whether or not she is al-lowed to run for president or whether or not she wins the presidency.

Note that in the US, an unpaid park-ing ticket can hound a recalcitrant all the way to the grave. (gregmacaben-ta@hotmail.com)

GReG B. MacaBenta

Street Talk

Did Grace Poe illegally use a dead person’s social security number in the US?

Donald Trump

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BRING BACK THE BILLIONS. The millennials are not as vulnerable at all, as how they are perceived by the older generations. Donning electronic bowties like the one Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos as a young man wore on a family yacht party in the now-infamous Marcos Home Videos, the iBalikangBilyones ng Mamamayan (BBM) Movement demanded that Marcos return his family’s ill-gotten wealth as a prerequisite to becoming the nation’s Vice President. “It is incredibly sad that some of our fellow youth have fallen victim to historical white-washing,” said Bea Reyno, a spokesperson of the BBM Movement and a member of the UP Diliman University Student Council, in a statement.

China on EU’s South China Sea position: Don’t look at usCHINA on Tuesday, March 15

pointed to rival claimants after the European Union came out with a statement against the deployment of missiles and military forces in the South China Sea.

EU High Representative Fed-erica Mogherini on March 11 said recent military activities in the key trade route is a major concern as it affects regional security and free-dom of navigation and overflight.

“The EU therefore calls on all claimants to refrain from militari-sation in the region, from the use or threat of force, and to abstain from unilateral actions,” Mogh-erini said.

Lu Kang, Chinese Foreign Min-istry spokesperson, blamed “coast-al countries” it failed to name for being the “crux and root cause” of the longstanding maritime row.

“[The] territorial disputes [are] caused by some coastal countries’ illegal occupation of some islands and reefs of the Nansha Islands in violation of the UN Charter and the basic norms guiding international relations since the 1970s,” Lu said at a press briefing, calling the dis-puted Spratly (Kalayaan) Islands by their Chinese name.

The Philippines controls a handful of the habitable features in an area of the South China Sea it calls the West Philippines Sea, while Vietnam and Taiwan also occupy some islands nearby. China, meanwhile, has prevent-ed access to Philippine-claimed Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and has built islands hosting military outposts and runways in recent years.

Apparently referring to the Unit-ed States, Lu suggested that other countries in the region and outside of it should also work on the non-militarization of the waters.

“I want to stress that non-mili-tarization of the South China Sea requires the concerted efforts of countries both in and outside the region. It is hoped that relevant parties can respect history and ef-forts made by regional countries in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Lu said.

The US Navy has been conduct-ing freedom of navigation opera-tions near artificial islands China built on contested reefs and fea-tures in the waterway. The emerg-ing Asian power claims over 80 percent of the maritime conduit as historically its own.

by Camille Diola Philstar.com

China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang

Aquino: Foreign leaders respect PH’s good governance

MANILA—It only took the ad-ministration of President Aquino for foreign leaders to respect the Philippines—which used to be the “Sick Man of Asia”—after the government laid out the princi-ples of good governance, accord-ing to the interior secretary.

Speaking before governors during a meeting of the League of Provinces at the Century Park Ho-tel in Manila on Monday, March 14, Aquino said he could relate to the anecdote shared by Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento on how foreign leaders treated Filipinos shabbily.

“There was a time when state leaders would even treat us like we were beggars. Now they are asking me how I was able to spur our growth and economy,” he said.

“And I told them: good gov-ernance is good economics,” he added.

Sarmiento told the President the story of foreign immigration agents doubting the purpose of his travel.

Aquino said he experienced the same thing, and on the na-tional level, unlike Sarmiento

who was a former mayor in Samar province. “And I told Mel, we are in the same situation.”

Sarmiento cracked a joke that when he was still a local chief executive, he envied other local officials from other countries that every time they are invited to a conference abroad they easily pass the immigration process.

His foreign counterparts had always been “welcomed,” but when his turn at the immigra-tion desk came, the agent would always look at his passport, visa and match this with his face, re-peat the process, then check the watch list.

Sarmiento also recalled the fi-nal common query: “What is the

by Delon PorCalla Philstar.com

purpose of your visit?” to which he would reply, “I was invited to this conference.”

The immigration agent would then make a follow up: “Do you have proof?”

He would then be forced to go over his files and show the official invitation.

Sarmiento also vividly remem-bers how the 100 pieces of busi-ness cards he brought remained intact, as nobody would exchange cards with him, probably out of fear he might solicit for fire trucks or ambulance.

In the same meeting with the governors, Aquino reminded local executives that the government does not need to make promises since they have delivered much in terms of massive infrastructure projects across the country.

Aquino endorsed the candidacy of Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II before the gov-ernors.

He asked the governors to help Roxas continue the daang matu-wid policy of his administration.

Aquino said he endorsed Roxas and his runningmate Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo because he can personally guarantee that both will continue the reforms he initiated in government.

SC junks Janet Napoles, Gigi Reyes pleas to stop trialby eDu Punay

Philstar.com

MANILA—The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, March 15 junked the bid of accused pork barrel scam operator Janet Lim-Napoles to stop her plunder trial before the Sandiganbayan.

In full-court session, the jus-tices of the high court unani-mously voted to also dismiss a similar plea of lawyer Jessica Lucila “Gigi” Reyes, former chief-of-staff of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile who is also facing plunder trial in the anti-graft court.

Both Napoles and Reyes asked the SC in their separate petitions in 2014 to nullify the resolutions of the Sandiganbayan and the Of-fice of the Ombudsman approv-ing their indictment for plunder over the multibillion-peso Prior-ity Development Assistance Fund scam.

The SC dismissed their peti-tions for lack of merit. “Accord-ingly, the assailed resolutions and orders of the Office of the Om-budsman and the Sandiganbayan are hereby affirmed,” read the dispositive portion of the ruling

read by SC spokesman Theodore Te in a press conference.

“In so acting, the Court found that neither the ombudsman nor the Sandiganbayan committed grave abuse of discretion in find-ing probable cause to charge peti-tioners and to order their arrest,” Te explained.

The ruling means the plunder trial of Napoles and Reyes should proceed.

Apart from the petitions of the two principal accused in the pork barrel plunder cases, the high tri-bunal also dismissed the petitions of Napoles’ children, Jo Christine and James Christopher, question-ing the arrest warrants issued against them over the separate graft charges filed against them by the ombudsman before the Sandiganbayan.

The petitioners all claimed vio-lation of their right to due process in questioning their indictment over the PDAF scam.

Napoles is currently serving jail time at the Correctional Insti-tute for Women in Mandaluyong City after she was convicted by a Makati City court of serious illegal detention.

She was found guilty of illegally detaining PDAF scam whistle-blower Benhur Luy. Reyes, on the other hand, is detained at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

The Office of the Ombudsman, on the other hand, has filed graft charges against former Bukidnon representative Cadido Pancrudo Jr. before the Sandiganbayan for his alleged involvement in the pork barrel fund scam.

Also indicted were former Na-tional Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) president Alan Javellana, direc-tor for administrative and finance Rhodora Mendoza, accounting division officer-in-charge Maria Ninez Guañizo, paralegal Victor Roman Cacal and Uswag Pilipinas Foundation Inc. (UPFI) president Mark Espinosa.

The indictment stems from the unlawful disbursement of Pancru-do’s PDAF allocations amounting to P8.2 million in 2008.

The ombudsman said the government suffered undue in-jury when respondents conspired with one another and diverted the amount to fictitious or ghost projects. (With Michael Punong-bayan)

Pres. Benigno Aquino III

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by AJPress

Happily ever after:things to know before tying the knot

Love may be universal, but weddings are as diverse as each couple getting married. Like the intricate Mehendi ceremony in India where the bride’s feet and hands are decorated with elaborate patterns and the breaking of glass underfoot to end a Jewish wedding, Filipinos

have their share of fascinating, if not eccentric, wedding customs. The Asian Journal briefs you on what to expect from a Filipino wedding and how amusingly more fun it can be.

KASALANG PINOYMarriage, according to

Modern Oxford dictionary, is “a union of a man and a woman, typically recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife.” Intuitively, matrimony poses a rather subjective sense of the matter—often in strict or outlandish fashion—but it gener-ally induce a concordant purpose which is to formally marry two individuals. Regardless of the how it is done nor the words spoken, the underlying intention remains to be that of shared affection.

Much like love, marriage—or at least the ceremony akin to it—in the Philippines goes back to pre-colonization years. Before the introduction of Christianity in the country, the people have been celebrating this union in a

rich, cultural fête reflective of their local credence.

According to history, prior to the Spanish colonization in the early 15th century, a wedding in the Philippines usually lasted for three days. Both the bride and groom are brought to the babaylan’s (a tribal priest/priest-ess) home on the first day, during which the babaylan performs the first blessing: the couple’s hands are joined together over a container of bigas (uncooked rice). Marking the denouement is the act of blood compact—not for the squeamish—where the babaylan pricks both the couple’s chest to draw a small amount of blood that will be mixed with wa-ter. The couple announces their love three times before drinking the water with their blood and

All photos by Marc & Phoebe Aviles of This Is It Photography

eating the rice taken from the same container on which their hands were adjoined on the first day.

It was only in the 18th century

Wedding etiquette 101 The rules of planning a modern wedding are constantly

changing. While it is up to the couple to set the tone – wheth-er adhering to or breaking old-fashioned rules – here are a few tips to consider:

• Don’t put gift registry information on the invitation – Tradi-tion says that the practice of including gift registry information on the invitation is considered inappropriate and in poor taste. Instead, share the information on your wedding website or through word of mouth.

• Scrap the cash bar – Guests shouldn’t be obliged to shell out money during the wedding reception, Bridal Guide says. If offering more expensive alcohol options falls out of the budget, the couple can instead provide basic options like beer and wine.

• Take the time to greet each guest – Since friends and relatives have traveled and blocked off their day to celebrate the wedding, it’s imperative for the newlyweds to greet each guest individually.

• Send out handwritten thank you notes – Generally thank you notes should be sent out no longer than three months after the gift was received.

For guests, there are some rules to consider as well: • Don’t wear white – One of the long-standing wedding

taboos has been that guests should not wear white or ivory. Though brides these days don’t always wear a traditional white dress, the rule that guests should not appear to wear some-thing that would upstage or take attention away from the bride still stands. Guests, however, can wear an ensemble with some white in it, as long as it’s not all white.

• Bring a plus one only if indicated in invitation – If it doesn’t say “plus one” on your invitation that means you were invited alone. however, if the couple has allowed you to bring a guest, kindly include his/her name on the RSVP so they can include the name on the seating card. It’s also important to make sure that the plus one can come. Generally a plus one means a date; though some wedding experts say you can ask if you can bring a close friend instead, if you feel comfortable having that conversation with the couple. (AJPress)

when Filipinos, majority of them, started to embrace the Catholic faith and exercise most of the cus-tomary practices concordant of the norms and ideologies of the time. The common “white wed-ding” was the traditional praxis in the subject of matrimony where the bride would wear white and the rest of the entourage would dress up in a formal garb reflec-tive of the couple’s preference or stature. And although the conven-tional “white wedding,” popular-ized by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom in her wedding to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg of Gotha on the 10th of February 1840, implies the use of a white wedding gown with european textile and a lace veil—in this case, honiton lace—the Filipinos have adapted to this custom and made it uniquely their own by us-ing indigenous materials like piña (fiber produced from pineapple leaves) to make the veils, barong (groom’s clothing), etc., all equally representing their rich culture and skilled craftsmanship.

Despite foreign influences, weddings in the Philippines can be distinctly Pinoy; and no matter where in the world it is held, it’s not that difficult to tell because you will know you’re in a Filipino wedding when:

There are more than ten people in your entourage espe-cially when all these people are present:

Principal SponsorsCommonly known as Ninongs

or Ninangs, these people serve as witnesses to the marriage and act as symbols of wisdom and support for the bride and groom. These are often friends or rela-tives (aunts or uncles) whom the couple respect and admire. The principal sponsors are the official

Picture Perfect: How to cHoose a wedding PHotograPHer

It’s one of the most important days in your life and of course, it is a must to remember your wedding day through photos. the thing is, not every person is photogenic and most likely, she/he will be busy and nervous about other things. this is why having a good wedding photographer comes in as he or she will know your good angles to create the perfect memories.

Marc and Phoebe Aviles of this Is It Photography have been in the photography business since 2007, and have received numerous awards in Engagement/Wedding categories notably the Accolade of Excellence for Commercial/Wedding/Portrait/Glamour in 2009 and 2010 from the Wedding Portrait

& Photographers International (WPPI). (this Is It at 980 El Camino Real, suite 380, santa Clara, CA 95050 / (408) 888-2561 / www.thisisitphotography.com.)

the husband and couple team shared some tips on how to choose the right photographer for your pre-nup/engagement and wedding day:

1. Talk to your photographer candidate. tell all your concerns, like what you’re looking for, and get answers.

2. Review the photographer’s works. You must like their style. If you are paying top dollar, don’t choose a photographer who doesn’t have any experience in

weddings. Wedding photography is a different skill set than other photographies — it’s a mixture of (a) photojournalism where you have to be fast, quick, to capture the story of what’s happening, anticipating reactions, etc; (b) landscape photography to capture the bride and groom in a landscape scenery; (c) portrait photography to ensure you’re captured in your flattering features and body language or pose; and (d) product photography to capture macro shots of rings, wedding details like dresses, shoes, veil, centerpieces etc.

3. Review the photographer’s contract and ensure all your requests and whatever you paid for are in the contract.

4. Work with someone you are comfortable with.

witnesses of the state whose sig-natures are necessary in the mar-riage contract part from those of the bride and groom’s.

Secondary SponsorsThey play an important role

in the wedding ceremony. These people are often close friends or relatives of the bride and groom and function as the following:

Coin SponsorsOriginated in Spain and

Rome, arras (Spanish term for earnest money) or arrhae, refer

to the wedding coins given by the coin sponsors to the bride and groom. Traditionally, these thirteen (13) coins symbolize prosperity and the groom’s ability to provide for his new family. Modern interpretation would express that while these repre-sent the twelve (12) apostles and Christ, these coins are also signs of the couple’s commitment to mutually contribute to the rela-tionship, their children, and the

Continued on Page 6

Continued on Page 5

march 18-24, 2016 3www.asianjournal.com

China Southern Airlines: Another viable option of flying to the Philippines

One of the most precious traits of the Filipinos is our close family ties. Compared to other cultures Filipinos keep their relationship with their families intact. That being said, for us Filipinos who are residing overseas “vacation” generally means taking a trip back to the Philippines to visit and spend sometime with our families and friends.

naturally a trip way across the other side of the globe could be expensive especially during holidays when we all wish to be with our families. Fortunately

there are several options available to Filipinos flying to the Philippines or to any points in Asia. One of them is China Southern Airlines, which flies to Manila with a stopover at Guangzhou, China.

China Southern Airlines is Asia’s largest airline in fleet size and passengers carried. It is therefore a surprise to know that many Filipino travelers have not flown or traveled via China Southern Airlines, which offers one of the lowest fares going to Asia if you travel at the right time, day or month.

For its LAX-Guangzhou flights

the airline utilizes its new Airbus 380 aircraft which passengers will find very efficient, with comfortable economy seats. China Southern Airlines A380’s eight exclusive “Platinum” Privates Suites offer the finest in customer service amenities like a motor-driven seat that is fully adjustable to any preset position and a 33 inches wide and 80 inches long full flat beds. Its SFO-Guangzhou flights meanwhile uses the Boeing 787s, and from new York, it’s the Boeing 777s.

In addition, China Southern Airlines has one of the shortest

layovers, with only about 1 hours and 30 minutes. If you are a US passport holder you are granted a visa free stay of up to 72 hours when taking an international transfer via Guangzhou. Plus China Southern Airlines passengers with layover between 8 to 48 hours may now be offered complimentary hotel accommodation – which could reach up to five-star standard.

The next question is: What do you do if you are stuck in Guangzhou for a long layover? Don’t despair. You will not run out of things to see and do in Guangzhou if you want to explore the city using the 72-hour free visa program.

One option is to take the one and a half hour evening cruise on the Pearl River. This cruise comes with a private hotel transfer plus a knowledgeable private guide to point out all the highlights to you. This cruise takes you beneath the striking Guangzhou and Haizhu bridges, pass the glittering landmarks like the Zhuhai Square, the Aiqun Mansion, once considered China’s highest building, the north Gate Square of Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall and the amazing architecture on Shamian Island. The cruise will also take you to White Goose Pool, also known as “night Moon Over the Goose Pool”, one of Guangzhou’s top attractions. You’ll also see Xinghai Concert Hall, Guangdong Art Museum and Guangdong Overseas Chinese Museum on ersha Island.

Back on solid ground you may want to see the Canton Towers, which at one point was the largest in the world, and still dominates Guangzhou’s modern skyline at over 2,000 feet. It is home to the world’s highest and largest outdoor observatory.

You may also visit Yuexiu Park. There’s so much history here. However, this park is so big that you can spend at entire day just exploring it on its own. There are old city walls, unique sculptures

and lakes with paddle boating. If you have time, check out Guangzhou Xiangjiang Safari Park, the largest animal park in Asia with more than 400 species of wild animals including more than 70 white tigers.

Of course, you won’t want to leave Guangzhou without trying Cantonese food, especially the dim sum which ranks the best in the whole country.

International long haul flights, no doubt, could be very exhausting. A relaxing city tour in Guangzhou is an excellent way to break that long journey to your final destination, as personally experienced by travel agents who participated in the Fam Tour jointly organized by GTT International/Majestic Vacations and China Southern Airlines last november 6 to 13, 2015 headed by GTT International Regional Director eliza Chung and Flora Wang, China Southern Airlines’ Director, Sales Development Division Southwestern Region and Purificacion Molintas, PDOT-San Francisco Tourism Attache. The fam tour was held in cooperation with the Philippine Department of Tourism as part of continuing education of travel agents on Philippine tourism products.

Of course, for Filipinos a trip to the Philippines would seem incomplete without visiting

Boracay, Palawan, Cebu and other popular tourist destinations in the country, which are among the highlights of various Fam Tours held last year.

Boracay, which is consistently rated as one of the top beach destinations in the world is high on everyone’s list. The same could be said about Palawan which boasts of the Puerto Princesa Underground River, named as one of the new 7 Wonders of nature, Coron and el nido – both of which are attracting local and foreign tourists alike all year round.

So, for your next trip to Asia, you may want to try flying China Southern Airlines. You will not only get a real value for your money, you will also have the chance of exploring Guangzhou before heading to the Philippines and enjoying our own amazing tourist destinations.

***Manny V. Ilagan is a Tourism Specialist

with over 23 years experience in the tourism and travel industry. He provides travel consultancy services to some of the biggest wholesalers and tour operators in the country as well as to some airline companies. He is the former Tourism Director-OIC of the Philippine Department of Tourism-Los Angeles, where he worked for over two decades. As a writer, he has written numerous articles about travel and tourism which have been published in various Filipino-American newspapers in Los Angeles.

China Southern Airlines’ Airbus 380 aircraft that flies the LAX-Guangzhou route.

CZ A380 First Class CZ A380 Platinum Private Suite

CZ A380 Business Class CZ A380 Economy Class

Participants to the joint DOT-GTT-China Southern Airlines Fam Tour to Guangzhou and the Philippines held November 2015.

march 18-24, 2016 4www.asianjournal.com

Diego Loyzaga: I did not start mauling incidentDiego Loyzaga, son of actor

Cesar Montano, discredited the claims made by two brothers who claimed that they were mauled by the young actor’s friends.

in an interview with ABS-CBN which aired on Tuesday night, Loyzaga said that the alleged order to hit brothers Wilmer Angelo and Wilmer Paolo Lopez after a miscommunication at the Palace Pool Club in Taguig City did not come from him.

“Never, ever did it come out of my mouth na sinabi ko na ‘sapakin mo ‘yun’ or anything along these lines,” Loyzaga said.

While conceding that he had a miscommunication with the Lopez brothers, Loyzaga said that it has been resolved before the mauling incident took place.

The TV actor, who is Montano’s son with actress Teresa

Loyzaga, also denied harassing the girlfriend of Wilmer Angelo as claimed by the brothers.

Loyzaga insisted that he had no intention to beat up the brothers as he even invited them to join them at their table.

“it was never my intention to hit them. Kinaibigan nga namin sila eh (We even befriended them). We met them at the club. We asked them to sit with us. We drank together,” he said.

He also lamented that people were quick to judge him without hearing his side of the story.

“i just find it unfair that everyone’s suddenly ganging up and agreeing the other side’s story without having to hear what we have to say,” Loyzaga said.

The alleged mauling incident happened early Sunday morning. The Lopez brothers claimed

that it was Loyzaga who ordered his friends to hit them after a disagreement inside the posh Taguig club. (Inquirer.net)

Aiko Melendez on Jomari Yllana: ‘We don’t want to ruin a beautiful friendship’

“THey say that in life, you only have this one great love—[in my case] that could be Jomari [yllana],” actress Aiko Melendez admitted to media recently.

“i guess it’s because he was my first in everything. He’s my first husband. i gave my heart to him first,” she explained at a recent press conference for her latest drama series “The Story of Us.”

The actress said she was glad to have maintained a good relationship with Jomari who, she added, has matured a lot since their marriage was annulled in 2003.

According to her, Jomari “has been a responsible father” to their 17-year-old son Andrei.

Aiko also has a daughter, Marthena, 9, with her second husband—former fashion model Martin Jickain (their marriage was annulled in 2010).

Then came Aiko’s big reveal.Aiko, who claimed she is

currently “single but dating,” said she has recently made a pact with

by Marinel r. Cruz Inquirer.net

Jomari.“i told him, ‘Dada (her pet

name for Jomari), if we’re both single in three years’ time i think we should just get back together.’ He laughed and said i was crazy, and then said i have a point,” the actress recalled.

However, Aiko said they both feel scared to commit to each other right now. “We don’t want to ruin a beautiful friendship.”

“We’ve been talking a lot,

since he has decided to get into politics. i’ve been sharing with him some tips,” said Aiko, who ran for councilor in Quezon City in 2003 and won.

Aiko claimed she had long gotten over her tiff with Ara Mina, who was reportedly the cause of their marital breakup in 2001.

“The Story of Us,” codirected by Richard Somes and Will Fredo, features Kim Chiu, Xian Lim and Zsa Zsa Padilla.

Diego Loyzaga

Aiko Melendez

EMPLOYMENT PSYCHIC SERVICES

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AARP Foundation Tax-Aide provides free tax assistance and preparationTo find a Tax-Aide location near you offering assistance in other languages,

visit www.aarp.org/findtaxhelp or call 1-888-AARPNOW

Side notesVena Amoris Latin for Vein of LoveIf you’re an Austen

fan—or a reader of any English classic nov-els—you probably wear your engage-ment ring on the fourth finger of your left hand, or would prefer to wear it there if you’re not engaged...yet. Many have argued about its authenticity and scientific relevance, but it is believed that this Vena Amoris is the vein on the third finger of your left hand that runs directly to your heart.

Old custom suggests that giving arinola (chamberpot) as a wedding gift would bring good luck—both to the newlyweds and the giver. (Mary May Portez)

Sukob: Double weddings bring bad luck. Final touches: The bride is not allowed to fit the final wed-

ding dress before the wedding. Sneak peak: The groom must never see the bride on her

wedding gown before the wedding as this will bring bad luck.

Illustrations by Kenno Samulde

Put a ring on it. Where?

Old wives’ tale—or is it?

Believe it

WASHINGTON, DC—This year, AARP Foundation is again providing free tax assistance and

preparation for taxpayers with low- to moderate- income through the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program. AARP Foundation Tax-Aide, in its 48th year, is the nation’s largest free tax assistance and preparation service, giving special attention to the older population. Taxpayers do not need to be a member of AARP or a retiree to use this service.

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide has more than 5,000 locations in neighborhood libraries, malls, banks, community centers and senior centers. There’s no fee and no sales pitch for other services and AARP membership is not required. Some locations offer assistance in additional languages, including Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese.

“Our bilingual volunteers generously give their time to help taxpayers who don’t speak English or speak English as a second language prepare their returns,” said Daphne Kwok, AARP Vice President of Multicultural Leadership, Asian American

and Pacific Islander Audience Strategy. “We need more bilingual volunteers so if you can help translate, please join our Tax-Aide volunteer team so that we can expand our services to Asian American & Pacific Islander communities.”

In 2015, AARP Foundation Tax-Aide’s 35,000 volunteers have provided 2.6 million people with free tax help. AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteers are trained and IRS-certified each year to ensure their knowledge of revisions to the U.S. tax code. Taxpayers who used AARP

Foundation Tax-Aide received $1.3 billion in income tax refunds and more than $250 million in Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs).

For more information on documents to bring to the tax site or to locate an AARP Foundation Tax-Aide site, visit www.aarp.org/findtaxhelp or call 1-888-AARPNOW (1-888-227-7669). AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is offered in conjunction with the IRS.

About AARP FoundationAARP Foundation is working

to win back opportunity for struggling Americans 50+ by

being a force for change on the most serious issues they face today: housing, hunger, income and isolation. By coordinating responses to these issues on all four fronts at once, and supporting them with vigorous legal advocacy, the Foundation serves the unique needs of those 50+ while working with local organizations nationwide to reach more people and make resources go further. AARP Foundation is a charitable affiliate of AARP. Learn more at www.aarpfoundation.org.

Advertising Supplement

AARP Tax-Aide sites are open and ready to help people prepare their tax returns. Some sites offer assistance in additional languages, including Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, and more.

For pre-nuptial / engagement shoots:

1. Maximize your pre-nup day. Schedule your trial make-up on the same day, after your trial make-up you can go to engagement shoot

2. Come prepared. Make sure your hair and make-up are done, and you have clean nails and have shaved.

3. Prepare wardrobe and accessories. Do different looks or styles per location, and the B&G ‘s wardrobe must not be too clashing, but instead complement each other.

4. Personalize your pre-nup. Some examples include going to the place where you first met, or if both love sports, go to a track and field or baseball court.

Picture perfect: How to choose a wedding...From Page 2 5. Scout locations. Check out

places where you like to do the shoot and discuss it with your photographer.

6. Be open, comfortable and sweet. Enjoy the moment with your fiancé while being photographed. Your affections will show in the pictures.

7. Prepare wardrobe on how you want to be photographed. If you want something extravagant, style like you mean it. If you just want simple tees and jeans because that’s your personality, then it’s okay too. If you want to look good in pictures, make every effort to look good in your wardrobe.

On the day itself:1. Do your homework. Plan

months or a year before your wedding, but on the day of, let go

of control because you already did your homework and it’s now time to relax and enjoy your day. DON’T stress out on any small or big details because your stress will show in your facial expression body language, and it will be captured in the photos.

2. Enjoy your wedding day. Enjoy your bride/groom, enjoy the company of your parents, siblings, families, and friends. A photojournalistic style of wedding photography will capture your candid and emotional moments. Feel your wedding day. It’s okay to cry and show your tears of happiness — that means you are human and enjoying important moments of your wedding, and those real moments make good pictures.

3. Give your photographer a

copy of your timeline at least two weeks before the date and ask your his/her opinion about it to ensure you have enough time for photos.

4. If you got a well-experienced photographer, then you are in good hands. You don’t have to worry about your angles and poses because a skillful photographer will bring out the best in you.

5. Prepare a list of group pictures beforehand and assign somebody to call out the groups, so that you won’t have to call your people. Remember your photographer won’t know who your friends or relatives are, so they can’t chase anyone. Inform your friends and relatives that you want them to be in the formal group pictures so that they won’t be missed in the photos, and this will make most use of your schedule. (Malou Liwanag-Bledsoe)

Gary Kelly

Ian Nguyen

Ian Nguyen

Jason Rivanis

Maritza Lizarraras

Rosa Baer

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march 18-24, 2016 6www.asianjournal.com

Monette

AdevA MAglAyA

ImmigrantLiving: 101 and Beyond

I CAME across an email message from a legitimate contact telling a sad story and asking for emergency money in a far-off land. I googled some phrases and sure enough, it was a scam. Out it went with the spam trash.

My take on this: my contact’s email was breached and his contact list hacked. This is one of the reasons I am loath to forward emails sent by well-meaning friends, no matter how funny.

What is amazing is that people have been victimized by this scam all over the world when a few keystrokes would have verified it and a bit of common sense would have raised one’s suspicions.

There are rough estimates of $183 million per year on average that have been scammed from the unsuspecting on the internet. The figure could be more since a big percentage of people will not admit to being conned.

The electronic age has brought us wonders and unbelievable convenience defying space/time constraints and accomplishing things we can only do in previous times if we were physically present in one place. With an internet connection, we can do great and wonderful things that were the stuff of science fiction not so long ago.

But there is a sinister side to the internet. And it gets darker as moral turpitude appears to be on the rise and our capacity to be shocked is diminished with every jaw-dropping crime. There was a time when crime was met with swift and appropriate punishment. For as long as the laws which were structured in the past cannot keep up with these phenomenon of cyber crimes, it is in our best interest to learn how to become savvy net users and defend ourselves from the onslaught that comes electronically.

The amount of available crud (translate that to disgusting things like porn, scams and gambling and some such variation of evil) on the net is staggering. In the book I wrote, there is a chapter dedicated on avoiding the pitfalls of scams and the schemes of con artists designed to separate you from your hard-earned money. This time, the level of sophistication is up several notches higher as unemployment and the current economic morass worldwide is driving people to desperation.

If we are internet users, we are all at risk, unless and until we take the necessary psychological precautions to deal with this and become relatively “scam proof.” No one is sacrosanct. These scams are designed to prey upon two basic weaknesses ingrained in our DNA wiring as humans: GREED and FEAR.

Here’s one blanket caveat to keep us on our toes about how lottery scams and cons play out in cyberspace. REMEMBER — and I can’t emphasize this often enough, on this matter, and perhaps, other significant areas of life — IF IT’S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS. Okay, repeat that as your mantra.

The scams that feed on greed are so sophisticated that they can send a seemingly authentic check by mail from a real bank with so many zeroes on it. If you bite at the first overture, they then ask for a processing fee from you for you to

Tips on scam-proofing yourself“There is a sucker born every nanosecond.” —A play on a quote mistakenly ascribed to circus impresario, P.T. Barnum

get the rest of the winnings. This is called the Nigerian scam apparently because the first perpetrators allegedly were well educated but destitute Nigerians who found that their facility for the English language could be exploited to scam millions using the internet.

The scam has spread and morphed with mind-boggling variations but with only one nefarious purpose — to separate you from your money. No one race or culture has the monopoly on these. These can originate anywhere in the world. I have had mine come in purportedly from G8 as well as impoverished countries. If you have not consciously joined any lottery, why in heaven’s name would you think you have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning even one thin dime? Also, legitimate lotteries will NEVER, repeat NEVER, ask you for money in order for a winner to claim a prize.

Some scams feed on your fear. One of the most deceptive things is to receive an email from your bank instructing you to click on a link and verify your information since someone supposedly is accessing your account and if you don’t verify your information, particularly your pin number or password, this can result in a temporary hold on your funds.

The modern term for this is “phishing” which refers to the activity of defrauding an online account holder of financial information by posing as a legitimate company. I received one of these phishing calls which had a legitimate ID on the caller ID asking us to call a number and even left a reference number claiming to check on some gas card purchases. I told her I need to verify if her call is legitimate. I detected a hint of dejection in her response. Sure enough, a check on the phone number she left indicated it was a phishing call.

No legitimate financial entity will ask you for financial information online. Cut scammers off at the knees with the simple expediency of calling the fraud unit of your bank or credit card company yourself. Take the bull by the horns. Generate the call. Get the telephone number from your statement or your card and DO NOT CALL THE NUMBER that the caller or e-mailer provided you with. It’s a trap.

If it is an email, hit the spam button and empty the trash. Don’t just delete it. Sure, they will morph into another form but be proactive and make it more difficult for them. These scams are like viruses or shape shifters and can mutate faster than the speed of light. PC users are more vulnerable to spammers/scammers and pesky pop-ups than Mac users. But this too can change. C’est la vie.

Is there karmic justice? Because con artists rarely ever see the faces of their victims or know the full extent of the damage that they wreak on real people with real lives, these crimes seem impersonal in nature and rarely, if ever, do con artists get their comeuppance. Translate that to jail time or some form of punishment, like being exposed to an anthill, boiled in oil or tickled to oblivion… Just kidding of course… Con artists should be happy we no longer live in Medieval Times.

Often, these scammers are based overseas outside of any jurisdiction. The wheels of justice grind ponderously, exceedingly slow and you sometimes wonder if crime stoppers and society in general, would ever catch up with this distinct phenomenon of the interesting times we live in.

If you think only the “little people” are at risk, think again. Governments and institutions have become easy targets for sophisticated, often juvenile hackers. Cyber crime has reached daunting proportions and has reached the institutional level. Supposedly uber secure websites such as that of the CIA, NSA, FBI, Scotland Yard, the US Congress and mega-corporations like Sony, Nintendo, Citibank and a host of others have recently been either hacked or brought to a halt from the comforts of a teen-ager’s bedroom.

A few years ago, a 19 year old, baby-faced, reclusive boy from England named Ryan Cleary, is alleged to have been responsible for bringing down the websites of the CIA and Scotland Yard. The teener stayed glued to his computer holed up all day in his room filled with posters of scantily clad women.

The upside to be gleaned from such high-level security breaches is that this exposes the weaknesses of such websites. It also shows how vulnerable we all are. The electronic security industry sees the potential of a business that can change the architecture of the internet by piping the flow of information.

For government operatives to use unsecured email to conduct top secret operations is like dangling fresh bait to a sea of sharks.

Clearly, these breaches, like Julian Assange’s wikileaks, are not for monetary gain but for the notoriety and the bragging rights of being a once lowly unknown gnat bringing down behemoths. The motive is deeply rooted in probably what Andy Warhol once said in 1968, “In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.”

But those big holes are for the big boys to plug. As for the ordinary cyber citizens, simply proceed with caution when online. In cyber matters, a healthy dose of cynicism and a smidgen of common sense work as well as an ounce of prevention.

Be on guard. Better yet, UNPLUG for long stretches from Facebook or any other social media or from following inane and insane celebrity tweets on Twitter and strive to live in the REAL WORLD.

Grill mouthwatering salmon steaks brushed with butter and sprinkled with lemon juice or create panini sandwiches on your grill pan. Dance like mad, with or without a partner in private or in a dance hall. Take time to sip your tea or tend to your garden in the spring. Laugh with the kids. Log off for long stretches of time and create something that will make your heart glad. Get back and live in the real world rather than the virtual world. It is our way of affirming that indeed, life is for living.

* * *Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To send comments, e-

GK-Rotary-LGU collaboration for the common good

ErniE D. DElfin

The Metamorphosis

(PArT 2 of 2)LAST January, two District

Governors-elect from the Philippines (Quezon City D3780 and Northern Luzon D3790) Atty. Dwight Ramos and Raul Peralta, with their lovely spouses visited our young and tender GK e-Rotary Club here in Orange County, after their mandatory week long Governors’ training in San Diego. That first visit and couple meetings before they flew back home germinated the seed for further collaboration on projects that will benefit the poor. Another ambitious project is a business mentoring project tentatively called “Entrepreneurial Development for Socioeconomic Advancement” (“EDSA,” a different kind of revolution) that will train, coach, mentor, guide young men and women and hopefully can also provide some financial capital to the best viable business plans that will be submitted to the sponsors.

Preliminary work: meeting, discussing the project and doing the necessary needs assessments in the project areas, has started to be able to complete the a formal application for a Global Grant from the Rotary Foundation by this summer. We need local “partners” in the project areas (Pangasinan, La Union, Quezon

City and/or Bulacan) like colleges or universities that already have the facilities and logistics for training students and scholars to be sent by the district rotary clubs as their “scholars. To make it a competitive, comprehensive and successful project, we are also seeking more local Rotary Clubs in the Philippines as well as Rotary Clubs in North America to provide some the financial “seed money” to be matched by District Funds and the Rotary Foundation Matching funds. We are hoping that this Entrepreneurial Development and Mentoring project will inspire and empower many people and will have some measurable impact to the communities where the projects are implemented

As this is a pilot for our GK eRotary Club, we are investing time and energy to meet like-kind- organizations like the Farm Village University in GK’s Enchanted Farms in Bulacan to explore potential collaboration for a win-win relationship, with the beneficiaries as the primary focus. With initial discussions with Gawad Kalinga founder, Tony Meloto, while he was in Los Angeles, he was inviting this writer to visit him and to meet the young entrepreneurs who are based and already engaged in small to medium sized social enterprises in the Enchanted Farms of Bulacan. We are hopeful

that GK and our E-Rotary Club will have a good match for this entrepreneurial project aimed in creating more entrepreneurs and self-employed people among the lower economic strata of Philippine society.

We also plan to explore possible “partial eclipsing” and support from GO Negosyo NGO, that has created successful entrepreneurs the last several decades. Any GO Negosyo leaders out there who would like to help us help the poor is very much welcome to collaborate with us in our mission to help create more entrepreneurs in the Philippines. The needs for a massive wave of entrepreneurs in the Philippines are great, to stem the tide or stop the massive export of our OFWs to other countries, doing menial jobs or dirty tasks as domestic helpers that their employers/bosses do not want to do. Too much to do, so little time!

Any reader interested to support us, either in the Philippines or in the Rotary world, especially in the USA or Canada is most welcome.

Please contact me, ASAP. Thank you and May all of you have a blessed Lenten Season and Easter Week, soon!

* * *Email me at ernie.gkerc@gmail.com Websites: www.gkerc.com / www.rotary.

org

community. Veil SponsorsRegarded as the “cloud”

denoting the presence of the Lord over the matrimony, the veil represents purity and oneness. This sheer piece of fabric signifies the couple’s commitment to pro-tect each other and the groom’s strength and responsibility to safeguard his soon-to-be wife. Veil sponsors are usually close friends of the bride and groom.

Chord SponsorsThe yugal or chord draped

over the shoulders of the couple getting married is usually made from silk but other wedding cords could also be a string of flowers, link of coins, or a chain designed to look like a double rosary. Cus-tomarily, the chord is looped to form a figure eight (8) to symbol-ize infinity and everlasting fidelity.

Candle SponsorsAlthough some couples

choose to have their parents light the wedding candles, candle sponsors are usually the married friends of the bride and groom. This lighting of candles plays homage to the similar practice done in christening and as a way to signify the light of Christ and His presence and guidance to the couple’s married life together. The couple can decide, later on, if they will opt to have a unity candle which they will light using the two wedding candles to sig-nify the joining of their families.

Matron of Honor (If married) | Maid of Honor | Bridesmaids

The matron of honor or the maid of honor is expected to help the bride with the wedding preparations and is ideally ex-pected to organize the bachelor-ette party. She could also serve as one of the witnesses of the ceremony. Often the sister of the bride or the closest friend, she is the official attendant of the bride. Her role entails helping with other wedding-related tasks like bridal shower, coordinating with suppliers, deciding on invitations and motifs, coordinating with the suppliers, and many other miscel-laneous to-do’s. During the actual wedding ceremony, the maid of honor acts as the bride’s right hand who will be communicating with the wedding planners on behalf of the bride.

Best Man | GroomsmenHe is the counterpart of both

matron of honor and the maid of honor. He could be the brother or the best friend of the groom. The best man has the vital responsibil-ity of safeguarding the wedding rings before the ceremony. He can also act as legal witness to the marriage.

Flower GirlsPerhaps one of the wedding

highlights, the flowers girls are

From Page 5

Happily ever after: Things to know...

often relatives of the bride and groom that serve as “little assis-tants” of the bride. According to history, the reference of “flower girls” dates back to ancient Rome during which marriages are celebrated by a parade of offerings. The flower girls (young virgins) at that time would carry sheaves of wheat and herbs as a symbol for prosperity and fertil-ity. During the Medieval Era, wheat was replaced with garlic to ward off evil spirits. It was only in the early 18th century, Victorian Era, when the concept of flower girls carrying actual blooms was observed. These “flower girls” would carry bas-kets filled with herbs and fresh blossoms.

Ring BearerThis little page boy has the

responsibility of carrying the wedding rings during the cer-emony: a custom that is believed to have originated from the ancient Romans and Egyptians during a time when pillows and cushions were considered luxury. As a common practice of the affluent, the ring bearers would showcase these pillows carrying wedding offerings like pieces of gold, silver, or jewelry.

Coin BearerUsually a young boy present-

ing the wedding coins or arrhae to the groom. This practice, which is believed to have been an influence of the Spaniards, symbolizes the groom’s pledge and commitment to provide for his wife.

Bible BearerCould be a relative or a friend

of the bride and groom, although modern day weddings often have bible bearers as young boys not older than ten years of age. The bible bearer’s main responsi-bility is to present the bible aloft while marching with the entou-rage during the ceremony.

The monetary dance be-comes a showcase of aesthetic and wealth

Observed in several parts of

the world particularly in Poland, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia—to name a few—is a distinct Spanish influence. Although the actual practice may differ from country to culture, the monetary dance serves as a creative, if not enter-taining, way to offer monetary gifts to the newlyweds.

In the Philippines where cre-ativity often is at par with one’s individuality, monetary dances are reflective of a family’s stature.

One (or more) of the rela-tives is part of the entertain-ment

In a Filipino wedding, there’s bound to be a talented relative. A violinist, pianist, drummer, or an angelic singer—heck, even a self-confessed artist—there’s always that prodigy in the family (both sides) and a wedding is the best stage to showcase such talent.

Nothing goes to wasteYou may never admit it, but

you did think of taking some of those desserts to go. Filipinos are known to be resourceful and—excuse the word—frugal. They simply cannot fathom throwing away good food and expensive flower displays.

There’s lechonHaving lechon on any oc-

casion is unmistakably Pinoy. A Filipino wedding without lechon is not a celebration. Period.

No mater how distinct wed-dings are around the world they serve as paragon of love and hope. Questions of “will you marry me” have been asked many times in different languag-es by men (or women) of varying stature from all over the globe with an optimistic statistic that many have said YES. A down-right gamble waging your ego, reputation, emotional invest-ments, hopes, and entire being for an answer that determines your future. Because above all else, it remains to be the most basic, if not consequential, love. And we all deserve it. (Mary May Portez)

Illustration by Kendrick Tan

Alden: What I do for Maine is out of free will

MANILA—Eight months into their wildly popular Kalyeserye segment for “Eat Bulaga,” Alden Richards said he still getting to know Maine Mendoza.

The GMA-7 actor added that he considers the 21-year-old actress “special.”

“Mahirap po kasi magpadalos-dalos sa mga desisyon to get into a commitment,” Alden said when asked about the real score between him and Maine during his launch as the newest endorser for medicine Neozep on Wednesday, March 16.

The two young stars, who have catapulted to love team fame thanks to their onscreen partnership on “Eat Bulaga,” have been constantly questioned by fans and the press if their relationship has turned from friendly to romantic the past few months.

This is especially after Alden

by ChuCk Smith Philstar.com surprised Maine during her

birthday earlier this month by renting a private plane and going to Boracay, where the young actress was staying at the time. Many see this as a sign that Alden and Maine may been becoming more than friends, just like their “Eat Bulaga” onscreen alter egos.

Alden said Maine, too, is also trying to enjoy what they have right now since she’s new in showbiz.

But he said: “Masaya po kami ni Maine kapag magkasama. I’m very happy kapag kasama ko siya, on and off cam. ‘Yun ang maganda ngayon kasi nabibigyan kami ng chance off cam, without cameras, without anyone following us.

Alden added, perhaps in reference to those who doubt that his gestures for Maine are scripted and “showbiz” and not genuine: “Kung ano naman po ang ginagawa for Maine, I’m

doing that out of free will, hindi pilit, walang nag-plant, walang nagsabi.”

“At this point po, we’re still having fun. We’re still getting to know each other kasi it’s been, what, eight months pa lang.”

Nonetheless, the Pambansang Bae said Maine is one of the most special women in his life right now.

“I’m very happy whenever I am with her,” he said.

Alden spoke to members of the press to promote the cold medicine, which tagged Alden’s family members, such as Alden’s grandmother and siblings, for its new commercial.

What’s next for Alden and Maine after their movie last December and their ongoing Kalyeserye? Alden said there’s a movie in the works, although he can’t divulge the details yet. They will also be part of the annual “Eat Bulaga” Lenten Special, to be aired next week.

Maine Mendoza and Alden richards

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