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L O S A N G E L E S

DATELINEUSAFROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA

September 26-29, 2015

SEAFOOD CITY 1

Volume 25 - No. 75 • 4 Sections – 32 Pages

VICE President Jejomar Bi-nay played coy when asked to confirm if Senator Ferdi-nand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. would be his running mate in 2016, saying the announce-ment should come from Mar-cos himself.

In an interview on the side-lines of the 22nd National Public Relations Congress in Makati on Friday, Sept. 25 Bi-nay remained secretive about

Binay-Marcos a done deal? Let’s wait for Bongbong Marcos’announcement– Binay

MANILA – Filipino fisherfolk who rely on waters near the dis-puted Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal submitted an appeal to United Nations against state agents of the People’s Republic of China.

In the urgent appeal penned by Center for Law Philippines coun-sels Harry Roque Jr. and Gilbert Andres, 16 fishermen residing in the coastal town of Infanta, Pan-

Filipino �shermen sue China before UN

MANILA – The close-in patrol-ling of United States (US) near artificial islands in the South Chi-na Sea would encourage China to place more weaponry on the area, an analyst said.

Analyst: US patrol in South China Sea may prompt China to arm up

A FILIPINO pilgrim was among more than 700 who died Thurs-day, Sept. 24, during a stampede at the annual Muslim hajj in Saudi Arabia, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed Friday, Sept. 25.

1 Filipino dead in Saudi Arabia hajj stampede“The Philippine consulate Gen-

eral in Jeddah has confirmed that one local Filipino pilgrim died in the stampede in Mecca,” Foreign Assistant Secretary Charles Jose sent in a text message statement to reporters, according to In-quirer.

Per the family’s request, the

OAKLAND, Calif. — Rosemarie Varona and her husband visited an auto dealership in 2009 and decided to take out a loan to pur-chase a car.

“We were so happy. I came here 20 years ago and this was my first new car,” says Ve-rona, who is originally from the Philippines.

The couple negotiated with the dealership to finance the car through their own bank, Patelco, but the dealership did not follow through. “It was all lies,” says Varona. “I even received a letter from Patelco saying that they

Immigrants unaware of US protections against �nancial abuse

AMERICANS are shouldering an increas-ing amount for medical costs, with deduct-ibles outpacing the average employee’s wage growth in the last five years and overall infla-tion, according to a new report.

US workers saw their out-of-pocket medi-cal costs rise again this year, as the average deductible for an employer-provided health plan jumped nearly 9 percent in 2015 to more than $1,000.

Though lower than in previous years, the annual increase surpassed wage growth and overall inflation by a wide margin, and

Healthcare costs rise nationwide

More US employees are shouldering the burden

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by MARC JAYSON CAYABYABInquirer.net

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by ROSETTE ADELPhilstar.com

by AGNES CONSTANTEAJPress

by PATRICIA LOURDES VIRAYPhilstar.com

NEW YORK – Pope Francis’s his-toric six-day visit to the United States continued on Friday, Sept. 25 with an address to the United Nations, an in-terreligious meeting at the 9/11 Me-morial and other scheduled events

across the city. Francis’s second day in New York

started with a speech delivered before the UN General Assembly, marking the fifth time a pope has visited the intergovernmental body.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said of the 78-year-old pontiff, “In no other hall, from no other platform, can a world leader speak to all humanity.”

Francis began his speech remark-

ing on the work of the UN and pro-ceeded to call for peace and environ-mental justice.

“[T]oday’s world presents us with many false rights and at the same time — broad sectors which are vulnera-ble, victims of power badly exercised: for example, the natural environment and the vast ranks of the excluded,” he said. “These sectors are closely in-terconnected and made increasingly

fragile by dominant political and eco-nomic relationships. This is why their rights must be forcefully affirmed, by working to protect the environment and by putting an end to exclusion.”

Environmental destruction is inter-twined with injustice and would be detrimental to humanity, the pope said.

“We human beings are part of the

US PAPAL VISIT 2015

“No doubt, if Beijing feels its new outposts are being threat-ened, this will increase its moti-vation to arm up,” University of Western Australia Prof. Andrew Chubb said in his article released on East Asia Forum.

Chubb noted that the US mil-

gasinan and Sta. Cruz, Zambales accused the Chinese of violating their human rights.

The fishermen said they are physically prevented from con-ducting their means of livelihood by Chinese Coast Guard and other maritime agencies of China that patrol the fishing areas around the shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc. The Chinese officers are distinguished by their orange uniforms and markings on the maritime vessels they use.

The Chinese authorities threat-

en their livelihood with water cannons and “no fishing” warn-ings and deprive them of shelter during inclement weather, the fishermen added.

The petitioners said the Chi-nese violated their rights to an adequate standard of living, food and life.

“We request that you urgently intervene, remind, and direct China and its state agents to respect the human rights—in-cluding the right to livelihood,

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by MOMAR G. VISAYA,CHRISTINA M. ORIEL

AND ALLYSON ESCOBARAJPress

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FROM THE FRONT PAGE

environment…Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity,” Francis said.

“A selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosper-ity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and the disadvantaged.”

Francis touched on other sub-jects, such as the elimination of nuclear weapons, calling on the world leaders to work toward “the complete prohibition” of them. He also went on to com-mend the Iran nuclear deal, say-ing it is “proof of the potential of political good will and of law, ex-ercised with sincerity, patience and constancy.”

He also urged world leaders to “stop and prevent systematic religious violence against ethnic and religious minorities and to protect innocent peoples,” refer-ring to conflicts in Syria, Ukraine, Iraq and parts of Africa. He went on to speak about other interna-

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tional issues, such as drug traf-ficking and slave labor.

After the pope’s speech, lead-ers convened to formally adopt a new set of Sustainable Develop-ment Goals, an agenda of 17 tar-gets designed to end poverty and hunger by 2030.

Pope Francis then proceeded downtown to visit the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum and meet with family members of some of the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The mood was simultane-ously joyous and a little somber. Chants of ‘Francisco’ and ‘Pope Francis’ broke the silence a cou-ple of times as the pope met with each family member.

“We’re not Catholic but we are religious. I will ask him to pray for the victims, their families and this place,” said Tom Roger.

Roger, who is from Roches-ter, NY lost his daughter Jean Destrehan Roger, a flight atten-dant on American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the North Tower.

The pope described Ground Zero as a place where “we shed tears” and mourn those who were the victims of a “mindset which knows only violence, ha-tred and revenge.”

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his vice president in 2016.When asked if a tandem with

Marcos is a done deal, Binay said: “Basta ang nabasa ko sa pahayagan, hintayin niyo na lang po na siya ang magsalita, si Mar-cos.”

“Sabi niya mayroon siyang sasabihin. Abangan natin,” he added of Senator Marcos, the namesake of his father, dictator

Ferdinand Marcos who was top-pled in a people’s uprising.

A report from the Philippine Star published last Wednesday said that Marcos will announce his presidential bid in a gathering of political leaders in Mangaldan, Pangasinan, citing statements given by top officials of the newly formed Pagkakaisa ng Mga Pili-pino Para sa Pilipinas (PPP). But Marcos quickly denied it.

Binay had named three choic-es for his vice president – Mar-cos, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) vice president Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, and a third choice he refused to name.

While Marcos from the Nacio-nalista Party is open to running with Binay, Honasan said a pos-sible tandem called “BiHon” (Bi-nay-Honasan) does not appeal to him and said he prefers to stay at the sidelines and help Binay in his presidential bid.

Binay is eyeing Marcos despite being a lawyer-activist during the Marcos dictatorship. Binay was even a member of the Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, In-tegrity and Nationalism (Mabini), which campaigned against the ousted President Marcos’ rule. The group included former Sena-tors Rene Saguisag and Joker Ar-royo.

Binay also sang a different tune about the Marcos dictator-ship. Even when he was a human rights lawyer-activist detained

Binay-Marcos a done deal? Let’s wait…t

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“I feel many different emotions standing here at Ground Zero, where thousands of lives were taken in a senseless act of de-struction,” the pope said. “Here grief is palpable.”

In his remarks, Pope Francis prayed to God to bring “peace to our violent world” and to “turn to your way of love” to those who jus-tify killing in the name of religion.

Following the meeting, Pope Francis and other VIP guests in-cluding Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani proceeded to the museum for an Interreligious Meeting at the Ground Zero Memorial.

“We can and must build unity on the basis of our diversity of languages, cultures and reli-gions,” the pope said in Spanish.

He also told those present that “together, we are called to say ‘no’ to every attempt to impose uniformity and ‘yes’ to a diversity accepted and reconciled.”

“It is a source of great hope that in this place of sorrow and remembrance I can join with leaders representing the many religious traditions which enrich the life of this great city,” he add-ed. Joining him were religious leaders representing Islam, Ju-daism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism.

In the afternoon, he met with schoolchildren and offered a spe-

cial blessing to refugees and im-migrants living in East Harlem, a predominantly Hispanic neigh-borhood.

The pope drove through Cen-tral Park on Friday evening — where an estimated crowd of 80,000 people waited for hours after securing tickets in a city-sponsored lottery — on his way to Madison Square Garden for a Mass for 20,000 faithful.

First papal visit to Congress In the first-ever papal address

to both houses of Congress on Thursday, Sept. 24, Pope Francis brought to light important issues ranging from immigration to gun control to climate change, ad-dressing the diverse crowd of po-litical leaders and top lawmakers.

Appearing at the balcony of the Capitol, the pope was sur-rounded to his right and left by House Speaker John Boehner and Vice President Joe Biden, both of whom are devout Catho-lics, NPR reported.

“I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’,” the pope began, to the applause of thousands, who were granted a limited amount of tick-ets for the joint meeting. “I am so grateful for your presence here.”

To begin, the head of the Cath-olic Church reminded legislators of the function and purpose of

government: “A political society endures when it seeks, as a vo-cation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerabil-ity or risk. Legislative activity is always based on the care of the people. To this, you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you.”

He called on Congress to seek “effective solutions, rather than getting bogged down in discus-sions.”

Francis urged political leaders to take vigorous action on issues largely favored by liberals, and concerns widely dividing both houses of Congress: including his powerful defense of immigra-tion, a critique of modern-day US capitalism, a call for the en-dorsement of environmental leg-islation, an end to war and a cry to help the poor, refugees, and those incarcerated.

“Politics is, instead, an expres-sion of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one, the greatest common good,” the pope said, also citing the ex-amples of historical leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and Martin Lu-ther King, Jr.

As the 266th Pope, Francis (whose birth name is Jorge Ma-rio Bergoglio) also recognized

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the right to adequate food, and the right to life—of the Filipino fisherfolks over their traditional fishing grounds and safe refuge in the Scarborough Shoal (Pana-tag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc),” the lawyers said in the appeal ad-dressed to the UN body.

The fisherfolk’s lawyers noted China’s international obligation under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and customary international law in stating their request.

In June, the Center for Law legal counsels also filed urgent appeal against Chinese coast

guards for the fisherfolk of Subic and Masinloc Zambales.

On Thursday, Sept. 24 Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. also called on the government to ask China to stop harassing Filipino fishermen.

“The first item in the agenda is to ask China to stop harassing our fishermen because they are just fishing and have no other motive in going there; it’s international waters anyway,” Marcos said.

“Let’s make an arrangement with China that we will talk about fishermen only and not the con-tentious issue of who owns the territories. I think China will agree to that arrangement. That’s one big step,” he added. ■

Filipino �shermen sue China…t

itary’s plans to send planes and ships within 12 nautical miles (nm) of China’s reclamation projects appears to have been stalled.

The United Nations Conven-tion on the Law of the Sea states that artificial islands do not have territorial sea of their own.

Therefore, patrols within 12 nm of submerged features are on safe legal grounds and will not be considered as a violation of any country’s territorial waters.

However, small “rocks” that are above sea level at high tide may be entitled to 12 nm of ter-ritorial sea.

The American patrols would need strong evidence that a dis-puted area is entirely submerged

in its natural state to enter within 12 nm of the area.

The US defense establishment is seeking to assert freedom on navigation near China’s artificial islands to help stabilize the terri-torial dispute in the area, Chubb explained.

“Carefully differentiating be-tween different legal categories of features would answer the region’s desire for the United States to support a rules-based order in maritime Asia, while not becoming a source of additional tensions,” Chubb said.

The US patrols would only be free to roam around outside the 12 nm radius of the islands to serve its purpose of asserting freedom of navigation.

“Entering the zone, but refrain-

Analyst: US patrol in South China Sea…ing from pressing further, would clearly signal that the purpose is to demonstrate that no territorial seas exist, as per international law, rather than threaten any state’s positions in the area,” the analyst said.

The analyst pointed out that US ships or aircrafts traversing within the 12 nm of artificial is-lands would only become a ma-jor issue for mainland China if its state media coverage makes it one.

“Confrontation, would not nec-essarily be the preferred choice for the Chinese public,” Chubb added.

In August, a naval vessel of the US military sailed past Chinese ships patrolling the South China and West Philippine seas. ■

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DFA declined to identify who the victim is.

Other victims came from Sen-egal, India, Morocco, Pakistan and Iran, according to Agence France-Presse.

Hundreds of Filipino Muslims participate in the pilgrimage to Mecca each year, with more than 8,100 among the two million pilgrims that participated in the third day of the hajj, according to ABS-CBN News. This year’s death toll this year was one of the worst, coming after 1,426 deaths in July 1990 when pilgrims suf-focated in a tunnel near Mecca, GMA News reported. In addition

to the deaths, the Saudi civil de-fense service said that at least 863 were injured this years.

The incident occurred at ap-proximately 9 am in a large val-ley called Mina, which is about three miles away from Mecca and has been where previous hajj stampedes have taken place. Hundreds of thousands of pil-grims had crowded at Mina to throw pebbles at one of three walls that represent Satan as the last major ritual of the hajj, Rap-pler reported.

The Saudi civil defense direc-torate said the tragedy happened as a number of pilgrims were simultaneously in motion at the

intersection of two streets, pro-ceeding toward a sizable struc-ture overlooking the columns, Philstar reported.

Interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki credit-ed the hundreds of deaths to the “great heat” and “fatigue of the pilgrims,” according to Rappler.

One Saudi minister said pil-grims were at fault for the inci-dent because they did not com-ply with hajj rules.

Health Minister Khaled al-Fa-lih told El-Ekhbariya television, “Many pilgrims move without respecting the time tables” set for the hajj. “If the pilgrims had

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his own role as a promoter of peace, and religious leader of the Catholic Church: “It is my duty to build bridges and to help all men and women, in any way possible, to do the same.”

In his speech, he defended re-ligious freedom and the structure of the traditional family, dividing his views of marriage with that of President Barack Obama, ac-cording to the New York Times.

He was also less explicit in condemning abortion, but called for a defense of life “at every stage of development.”

“I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without,” he said. “Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life.”

Touching upon other points he made the day before, in front of the White House lawn, the Pope noted himself as “the son of im-migrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants.” He called for the further respect of immigrants and refugees, and for a major haul to the immigration system.

“We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best as we can to their situation,” he comment-ing, referencing the biblical Gold-en Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

He also advocated for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, calling every life “sa-cred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dig-nity…a just and necessary pun-ishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.”

Encouraging those living in a poverty to have hope, Fran-

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marked the continuation of a trend that has rapidly shifted healthcare costs to workers, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The analysis, released Tues-day, Sept. 22, was conducted by nonprofit organization Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Education Trust. It indicated that over the past de-cade, the average deductible that workers must pay for medical care before their insurance kicks in has more than tripled, from $303 in 2006 to $1,077. The av-erage is seven times faster than wages have risen in the same pe-riod, the report said.

Four in every five workers who are insured through an employer pay a deductible, Kaiser stated, in which they are required to pay some of their medical bills prior to the start of their coverage.

“It’s a quiet revolution,” said Kaiser Foundation President Drew Altman. “When deductibles are rising seven times faster than wages…it means that people can’t pay their rent. They can’t buy their gas. They can’t eat.”

By comparison, workers’ wages increased 1.9 percent be-tween April 2014 and April 2015, according to federal data, while consumer prices declined 0.2 percent.

Raising deductibles and co-pays has traditionally been a way for employers to keep premiums in check. The new report also shows that premium growth re-mained “modest” in 2015.

“Deductibles are rising a little bit every year – almost $100 a year – and then that really adds

up, in combination with flat wages,” said Altman, according to CNN. “If wages were keeping up with the growth of cost shar-ing, it wouldn’t be a big deal for people. But the pain level is sig-nificant. It really affects budgets because their wages aren’t rising at the same time.”

This year, an average em-ployer-provided health plan cost workers $1,071. That is down nearly 1 percent from 2014, marking the first time that the survey has documented an abso-lute decline in workers’ share of premiums.

The average family plan cost workers $4,955, up 3 percent from last year. By comparison, employees’ share of health insur-ance routinely increased by dou-ble digits in the early 2000s.

Businesses continued to pick up the bulk of the cost of health coverage for their workers, pay-ing more than $5,000 on aver-age for a single plan, and over $12,500 for a family plan.

Employers’ rising health costs are often singled out as a cause for “stagnant wage growth in recent years, as businesses have put money into health benefits that might otherwise have gone to workers’ paychecks,” the LA Times said.

Employers say the higher de-ductibles allow employees to have a greater financial stake when selecting a doctor or order-ing a test, the New York Times reported.

“It truly is to engage employ-ees as better health care con-sumers,” Laurel Pickering, the chief executive of the Northeast

Business Group on Health, told the Times.

Additionally, a greater deduct-ible puts the responsibility on the worker to determine if it is worth visiting the doctor or requesting for a test, Robert Reiff, head of the employee benefits consulting business for insurance brokerage firm Lockton Companies, told the Times.

The climbing costs have heav-ily affected America’s middle class, the Times reported, with many individuals opting to skip out on going to the doctor due to out-of-pocket expenses, such as co-pay fees, despite the slow-down in the growth of healthcare cost.

“It may be tamping down on unnecessary care, but we’re see-ing a lot of evidence of skimping on necessary care,” said Sara Collins, vice president for health care coverage and access at nonprofit group Commonwealth Fund, according to the Times.

A recent report by the Center for American Progress showed that employers are largely pock-eting savings, while passing along higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs to workers.

Unaffordable deductibles are also emerging as a major issue for health plans being sold on marketplaces created by Presi-dent Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The marketplaces, now in their second year, were initial-ly designed to help people with-out private or employer-provided insurance.

Most of the nearly 10 million people in marketplace plans

Healthcare costs rise…t

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never received an application.”Instead, the dealership at-

tempted to finance the car through a different company at a higher interest rate.

Varona shared her story with a group of Bay Area ethnic media journalists and community orga-nizers at a press event organized by New America Media for Hous-ing and Economic Rights Advo-cates (HERA).

HERA, a California non-profit legal services organization, pro-vides free financial and legal counseling to California resi-dents who have been subjected to predatory lending, can’t access affordable credit, or are dealing with homeowner problems such as foreclosures or poorly regu-lated homeowner’s associations that have the power to go after delinquent members.

“Why lawyers? The debt col-lection system in our country is not very functional,” says Maeve Elise Brown, co-founder and ex-ecutive director of HERA.

“The same debt can get sold and resold multiple times to dif-ferent entities until you don’t know the name of the person who’s collecting money from you, you don’t recognize the dollar amount, it’s all different

from what you originally knew,” Brown explains.

Brown states that most con-sumers are unaware of the federal and state laws that protect them from predatory lending and other forms of financial abuse, and that HERA’s role is to spot and address violations of those laws.

HERA attorney Megumi Tsu-tsui describes the cases of two clients who applied for loans at check cashing stores to deal with emergency expenses.

“They were monolingual Spanish speakers,” Tsutsui says, “but they were given a contract in English telling them how much it would cost to take out this loan. They were never told in their language how much it would cost them. [One was] charged 80 percent interest,

which was $1,750, to take out a $2,500 loan. The other person was charged a 180 percent in-terest rate, so it cost him $6,800 to take out a $2,500 loan.”

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LOS ANGELES city officials this week said they would de-clare a state of emergency on the growing issue of homelessness.

They also proposed spend-ing $100 million to reduce the number of people living on city streets, the Associated Press re-ported.

City Council President Herb Wesson, members of the council’s Homelessness and Poverty Com-mittee, and LA Mayor Eric Gar-cetti announced the plan Tuesday, Sept. 22 outside of City Hall, while a few homeless men and women dozed nearby on a lawn.

“These are our fellow Ange-linos,” Garcetti said. “They are those who have no other place to go, and they are literally here where we work, a symbol our city’s intense crisis.”

An emergency declaration and funding will require action by the full City Council. Wesson did not specify where the money would come from, but he said budget analysts would find it “somehow, someway.”

The first rollout of funds—pro-jected for Jan. 1, 2016—would go toward permanent housing and shelter, his office said.

The Council’s action came the morning after Garcetti proposed to release nearly $13 million in newly anticipated excess tax rev-

LA o�cials to declare state of emergency on homelessness

by ALLYSON ESCOBARAJPress

enue for short-term housing ini-tiatives. The bulk of that money, they said, would be dedicated to housing homeless veterans.

If approved, the two initiatives could steer additional resources toward the LA’s vast homeless population, which recent esti-mates have put at more than 20,000 and growing. The major-ity of homeless men, women, and youth live on the streets, from LA’s downtown Skid Row, to Santa Monica and Venice Beach.

Alice Callaghan, a longtime ad-vocate for the homeless on Skid Row, said the proposed funding would not be nearly enough to stop the loss of affordable hous-ing, especially in rapidly gentri-fying areas in downtown and on the west side of Los Angeles.

“A hundred million dollars won’t even buy all the homeless pillows,” she said, contrasting LA’s proposal with New York City’s $41 billion affordable hous-ing plan unveiled last year. “A hundred million certainly won’t build much housing — and what we really have here is a housing crisis.”

Details of the councilmem-bers’ proposal were not immedi-ately available, but officials said generally they would look to ex-pand outreach and services for homeless men and women living on the streets, and aim to boost the number of local shelters, pro-grams, and resources aimed at

diverting people from homeless-ness when they are in the care of the city.

Garcetti added that he wanted to see “increased capacity and longer hours at shelters” ahead of the anticipated arrival of El Nino, an ocean-warming storm expected to brings months of heavy rains to Southern Califor-nia this winter.

Earlier this year, a study by a top budget official found Los An-geles already spends $100 mil-lion a year on homelessness—much of it on arrests and other police-related services.

However, city departments have no coordinated approach for addressing the problem, reports said. Without clear guidelines, departments instead tend to rely on ad hoc responses, according to the report by City Administra-tive Officer Miguel Santana.

Callaghan said she feared the bulk of the new money would go toward “reducing the visibility of the homeless ahead of a pro-posed bid to bring the Olympics to Los Angeles in 2024,” which includes about $6 billion in both public and private spending.

“They can spend billions on getting the Olympics,” she said. “But not on getting people off the sidewalks.”

Meanwhile, City Councilmem-bers said they hope to have a draft strategic plan on homeless-ness by December of this year. ■

Hillary for Nevada campaign plans Filipino community outreachIN efforts to elect Hillary Clin-

ton as the next president of the United States, the Hillary for Ne-vada campaign has reached out to the Filipino community in Las Vegas.

Last week, campaign organiz-ers hosted a potluck-style Filipi-no Kamayan Dinner, where vol-unteers and staffers feasted on lechon and other staple dishes with Filipino supporters from southern Nevada.

“Our campaign is focused on meeting volunteers where they spend time, building commu-nity, and getting people from all backgrounds engaged in our ef-fort to elect Hillary Clinton,” said Don Andres, a Filipino-Ameri-can organizer supporting Hillary Clinton who has family in the Philippines. “We want to run a campaign that looks like Nevada, and that means reaching out to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community proactively.”

Nevada’s Filipino population more than doubled from 2000 to 2010; it is the fastest grow-ing population of Filipinos in the United States.

“Filipinos are the largest AAPI constituency in Nevada,” said Ian Leviste, a Filipino-American organizer with the campaign. “Clark County is required to provide printed voting materi-als in Tagalog because Filipinos constitute a large portion of the community. Our outreach is cul-turally competent and focused on meeting where they live, work, and spend their free time. What we have heard about Hill-ary Clinton is that many in the Filipino community support her because she has a strong foreign policy record, she will promote small business growth, and she will protect Social Security and Medicare. We want to continue to amplify that support now through Election Day and will put in the work on the ground to

get that done.”AAPI community leaders at-

tending the Kamayan Dinner in-cluded Rozita Lee, Margie Gon-zales, Kate Torres-Recto, Susan Rowland, Josefina Beck, Cindy Delos Santos, Michelle Portugal, Christina Llorente-Drost , Julz Martinez, Roy Umali and Felipe Danglapin.

“We support Hillary Clinton because she is for comprehen-sive immigration reform,” said Kate Torres-Recto, a commer-cial loan specialist and longtime Asian American community leader. “There is a groundswell of support for her in the Filipino community in Las Vegas because she is the only candidate who has reached out to us and she is the only one with a clear plan to re-unite families and prevent our homes from being broken up.”

The Clinton campaign asked

attendees to sign “commit to cau-cus” cards, which are an orga-nizing tool used to secure votes before the Nevada caucus on February 20. They also recruited volunteers and signed attendees up for shifts to do outreach ac-tivity. Thus far in the campaign, the Hillary for Nevada team has engaged more than 3,000 volun-teers across the state, and that team is growing every day.

“This is a very positive and important way to campaign be-cause we are both sharing our culture and engaging volunteers throughout Las Vegas in a unique way,” said Margie Gonzales. “Hillary’s team is the only team active in the Filipino community, and we are going to make our voices heard come caucus day. We’re not going to forget who was working with us since day one.” ■

qualify for subsidies to offset their premiums, but deductibles in many of those plans cost thou-sands of dollars.

“Deductibles are a big prob-lem for consumers,” said Peter Lee, executive director of Cov-ered California, the largest state marketplace in the country.

Covered California now re-quires health plans to exempt some office visits from deduct-ibles, so that consumers are not discouraged from getting neces-sary healthcare and attention.

The average deductible for a silver plan on marketplaces na-tionwide in 2015 is more than $2,500, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Beyond costs, the new report contains more encouraging news about the endurance of employ-er-provided coverage, as 57 per-cent of employers reported offer-ing benefits, from 2014.

More and more large busi-nesses provide health benefits, with 98 percent of firms with 200 or more employees offering their workers at least one stable health plan.

This year, employers with at least 100 full-time workers will have to provide benefits or pay a penalty, according to law. The requirement will apply to em-

ployers with at least 50 full-time employees in 2016, though Re-publicans and Democrats are working on legislation that could change this mandate.

The survey also looked at the potential impact of another provi-sion in the Affordable Care Act.

The possibility of a new excise tax, the Cadillac tax, which was created under the legislation on costly coverage plans, may fur-ther drive up the deductibles that Americans who are insured through their employer must pay.

“Those changes likely will shift costs to workers,” said Gary Claxton, Kaiser Family Founda-tion vice president who monitors the employer survey, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The last major provision an-ticipated to be implemented in 2018, would apply to plans that provide high-cost benefit plans and is widely opposed by la-bor unions and major business groups, among others.

The report states that 20 per-cent of employers offer plans that would be subject to the Cadillac tax, although 13 percent of large firms that provide health cover-age are already moving to avert it by, among other things, offering more affordable plans. (Agnes Constante and Allyson Escobar/AJPress)

Healthcare costs rise…t

during the dictator’s rule, Binay said it is time to move on from the issue of thousands of human rights violations during Marcos’ rule, saying it is no longer an is-sue now.

“Enough of vindictiveness. Let’s move on. Human rights (during the martial law) is no lon-ger an issue,” Binay said when asked about a possible conflict

with picking Marcos as his run-ning mate in the 2016 elections.

Aside from Marcos and Hona-san, among those mentioned as Binay’s possible running mates are Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, former Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Davao City Mayor Ro-drigo Duterte, and Pag-Ibig Fund president and chief execu-tive officer Darlene Marie Ber-berabe. ■

Binay-Marcos a done deal…t

followed instructions, this type of accident could have been avoid-ed.”

Thursday’s incident comes weeks following the death of more than 100 individuals when a construction crane crashed into Mecca’s Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia.

Separately, two Filipino pil-grims died during the hajj while performing rituals, ABS-CBN News reported. Aleem Abdulwa-hid, head of the Filipino pilgrim delegation, identified the indi-viduals as Jadir Sali and Amman Hayudini, according to the news bureau. Their deaths are not re-lated to the stampede. ■

1 Filipino dead…t

cis said, “[…] in times of crisis and economic hardship a spirit of global solidarity must not be lost…The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought con-stantly and on many fronts.”

As the session came to a close, he talked about caring “for the common good,” emphasizing the importance of creation and tak-ing care of the earth, calling for “an integrated approach to com-bating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”

Quoting from his second en-cyclical Laudato Si’, he said: “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the en-vironmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.”

Finally, the pontiff ended with a brief comment on gun control, and a collective cry for ongoing social justice and world peace.

“Being at the service of dia-logue and peace also means be-

ing truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts through-out our world,” he said. “Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict un-told suffering on individuals and society? […] In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the prob-lem and to stop the arms trade.”

The pope’s speech in English was the longest, perhaps most challenging appearance of his pa-pacy, the NY Times said. Francis, who speaks native Spanish and fluent Italian, has admitted his discomfort in speaking English.

But on Thursday, he clearly addressed 138 Catholic House members and 26 senators--near-ly 31 percent, compared with 22 percent of the overall Catholic adult population.

Urging and encouraging these national leaders from all walks of life, Pope Francis said, “The chal-lenges facing us today call for a

renewal of that spirit of coopera-tion, which has accomplished so much good throughout the his-tory of the United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges de-mand that we pool our resources and talents, and resolve to sup-port one another, with respect for our differences and our con-victions of conscience.”

On Saturday morning, Pope Francis was scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia before departing for Rome the next day. His final events while in the US include a Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, visits to Inde-pendence Mall and a correctional facility and the closing Mass for the World Meeting of Families, the largest gathering of Catholic families. ■

t

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Tuesday, 09/08/15 from 3:30 - 4:00 PSTas Atty. Aquino-Silva & Atty. Loew Answer

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Richard M. Loew, Esq.

This type of lending is illegal under the California Civil Code 1632, which stipulates that the terms of a contract must be provided to the borrower in a language they can understand. California’s most common lan-guages–Spanish, Korean, Chi-nese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese–are protected under the code.

Like Varona, many of HERA’s clients are immigrants who have negative items on their credit re-ports or sometimes no credit his-tory at all.

“What a lot of people don’t re-alize when they’re coming to this country is that a large part of this economy is built on credit scores and credit history,” Tsutsui says. “If you don’t have a credit history or you have a bad credit score, it could impact what the cost of credit is to you and what interest rate people charge you.”

In the Bay Area, credit scores are also having a growing impact on whether people can access af-fordable housing. HERA clients have been denied affordable housing due to credit history, unpaid collections, or too much existing debt, such as large stu-dent loans.

“Student debt is very difficult to get rid of,” says senior attor-ney Noah Zinner. “If you fall be-hind on a credit card, you have options; there are limits to what they can do to come after you.”

Federal student loan debt is unique, Zinner explains, because tax returns and even public ben-

efits are not protected from col-lectors.

Zinner says that HERA has been heavily involved in advoca-cy to reform federal student loan debt discharge rules. Right now, he considers the best-case sce-nario for most borrowers to be a payment schedule of 15 percent of the student’s discretionary in-come for 25 years. He notes that many clients find this prospect dismaying.

“The things that everybody needs in order to move ahead,” says Zinner, “like housing, edu-

cation, a car if you need to get to work [are] becoming inacces-sible to people, or accessible at such a cost that you’re basically becoming a servant to your own debt.

“Although there seems to be wealth growing in the Bay Area, it’s very much a superficial wealth [that’s] only accessible to a very few.”

This report is part of a project to educate consumers about fi-nancial abuse in partnership with Housing and Economic Rights Advocates (HERA). For more information, go to www.heraca.org. (Sarita Hiatt/New America Media)

Immigrants unaware of US…t

ON Friday morning, Sept. 25 John Boehner announced his resignation as Speaker of the House, giving up his seat in Congress in an unexpected move occurring just a day after he invited Pope Francis to speak at a joint congressional meeting. The Ohio Republican’s tenure was marked by fierce confrontations, even with President Barack Obama and his own party. “My heart is full with gratitude for my family, my colleagues, and the people of Ohio’s Eighth District. God bless this country that has given me--the son of a bar owner--the chance to serve,” he said in a statement. Boehner, a devout Catholic, was visibly and deeply moved by his private exchange on Thursday with the Pope. He admitted that he expected to serve through the end of last year, but changed his mind after former House majority leader lost his seat in 2014. “I woke up this morning, and I said my prayers…and I decided, you know, today’s the day I am going to do this,” he said. Boehner’s last day in office will be October 30.

AS the Holy See finishes his historic first visit to the US, Pope Francis will spread his message of faith, hope, and love in the form of music. His Holiness will release a pop/prog-rock album titled “Wake Up!” on November 27. The Vatican-approved LP, in collaboration with Believe Digital, will “feature the Pontiff delivering sacred hymns and excerpts of his most moving speeches in mul-tiple languages, paired with uplifting musical accompaniment ranging from pop-rock to Gregorian chant,” Rolling Stone reported. He will address topics close to his heart, including social justice, dignity, poverty, and the environment. A pre-order is now available on iTunes, with an instant down-load of the first single featuring Pope Francis’ speech on the Joy of the Gospel: “Wake Up! Go! Go! Forward!”

A FEDERAL judge has ruled that Warner/Chappell Music does not hold a valid copyright claim to the famous “Happy Birthday to You” song. The company had asked for royalties from anyone who wanted to sing or play it with the lyrics as part of a profit-making enterprise. The song’s original copyright, obtained from the song’s writers and bought for $15 million in 1988 by Warner/Chappell, only covered specific piano arrangements of the song and not its lyrics. Plaintiffs in the case are eye-ing class-action status to recoup millions of dollars in licensing fees. “’Happy Birthday’ is finally free after 80 years,” said Randall Newman, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

MARTIN Winterkorn resigned as chief head of Volkswagen on Wednesday, Sept. 23, taking re-sponsibility for an emissions cheating scandal that has cast the car company in a very negative light. Last week, Volkswagen admitted that some of its diesel cars--11 million, to be exact--were equipped with software built to fool emissions tests in the US, and possibly worldwide. The case would be referred to German authorities for possible criminal prosecution. “I am not aware of any wrongdo-ing on my part. As CEO, I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines,” said Winterkorn, 68, who had run Volkswagen since 2007.

OPINION FEATURES

“FIRST. Love ought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words. Second. Love consists in a mutual communica-tion between the two persons. That is, the one who loves gives and commu-nicates to the beloved what he or she has…I will consider how God dwells in creatures; in the elements, giving them existence: in the plants, giving them life; in the animals, giving them sensation; in human beings, giving them intelligence; and finally how in this way he dwells also in myself, giving me existence, life, sensation and intel-ligence…I will consider how God labors and works for me in all the creatures on the face of the earth; that is, he acts in the manner of one who is laboring. For example, he is working in the heavens, elements, plants, fruits, cattle, and all the rest—giving them their existence, conserving them, concurring with their vegetative and sensitive activities, and so forth. Then I will reflect on myself.” – Contemplation to Attain Love of Jesuit Recruits, as cited by Chris Lowney, He-roic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-year-old Company [Jesuits] that Changed the World, 2003.

Pope Francis generates so much enthusiasm from people, wherever he goes, as he embodies love, humility, wisdom and uncommon warmth, thaw-ing out chills of hostility. It is as if his presence in the United States, on Sept. 22-26, electrified the crowds, as his tweets have gone viral, and on Face-book, became trending news.

Prior to his historic visit to the US, the Holy Father hosted both the Cuban and the US delegations to broker the peace talks between the two countries. The long-standing conflict has now turned into a new chapter of peace-building, with embassies opening up in both Cuba and the United States.

Arrival ceremonies at the White House’s South Lawn

I got to 17th and Pennsylvania at 3:40 am on Wednesday, Sept. 23 and already, Reuters, Fox, Associated Press and Korean Television were in line. Net-work television crews and morning talk

shows were allowed to set up before 5 am, and security checks for hundreds of journalists took two hours for all of us to get press cards and our camera equip-ment checked.

11,000 ticketed guests had gathered at 9:15 am. By now, the sun had tem-pered the chill, making for a beautiful morning, with blue skies and mild tem-peratures.

The Program started with Ruffles and Flourishes and Hail to the Chief. The President and Mrs. Obama greeted His Holiness Pope Francis, followed by introductions to the official welcoming committee. The National Anthems of the Holy See and the United States fol-lowed, with Musical Troop in Review.

Loud cheers erupted when the Holy Father arrived.

President Barack Obama welcomed the Holy Father. He jokingly referred to the White House’s backyard as not being typically this crowded. He un-derscored the gathering as reflective of “the size and spirit of today’s gather-ing and the deep devotion of some 70 million American Catholics. It reflects, as well, the way that your message of love and hope has inspired so many people across our nation and around the world.”

The president spoke of the Pope’s unique qualities as a person, “In your humility, your embrace of simplicity, in the gentleness of your words and the generosity of your spirit, we see a living example of Jesus’ teachings, a leader whose moral authority comes not just through words but also through deeds.”

He spoke of “the Lord’s most power-ful message is mercy. And that means welcoming the stranger with empathy and a truly open heart—from the refu-gee who flees war-torn lands to the im-migrant who leaves home in search of a better life. It means showing compas-sion and love for the marginalized and the outcast, to those who have suffered, and those who have caused suffering and seek redemption. You remind us of the costs of war, particularly on the powerless and defenseless, and urge us

toward the imperative of peace.” These drew loud applauses.

The president spoke of the Vatican’s role in thawing out the chill in US-Cuba relations as well as the need to take care of our common home. “And, Holy Father, you remind us that we have a sacred obligation to protect our planet, God’s magnificent gift to us. We sup-port your call to all world leaders to support the communities most vulner-able to changing climate, and to come together to preserve our precious world for future generations. Your Holiness, in your words and deeds, you set a pro-found moral example,” he said.

The White House, during a confer-ence call with the open press, in prepa-ration for the visit of the Pope, recog-nized common values shared with the Vatican on climate change.

The president remarked, “Here at home and around the world, may our generation heed your call to never re-main on the sidelines of this march of living hope. For that great gift of hope, Holy Father, we thank you, and wel-come you, with joy and gratitude, to the United States of America.”

Pope Francis’ remarks centered on dialogue, of tolerance, of being inclu-sive

“Mr. President, I am deeply grateful for your welcome in the name of the all Americans. As a son of an immigrant family, I am happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families.

I look forward to these days of en-counter and dialogue in which I hope to listen to and share many of the hopes and dreams of the American people.”

The Pope addressed the Joint Session of Congress and Senate on Thursday, Sept. 24 and traveled to Philadelphia for the eighth World Meeting of Fami-lies over the weekend “to celebrate and support the institutions of marriage and the family at this critical moment in the history of our civilization,” he said.

“Mr. President, together with their fellow citizens, American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safe-

guarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination.”

The Pope reminded us all that cher-ished freedoms are America’s most pre-cious possessions, and “to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.”

On climate change, the Pope found it “encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution. Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a problem, which can no longer be left to our future generation. When it comes to the care of our common home, we are living at a critical moment of his-tory. We still have time to make the change needed to bring about a sus-tainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. Such change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition not only of the kind of world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of people living under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has been part of this group of the ex-cluded, which cries out to heaven and which today powerfully strikes our homes, our cities, our societies. To use a telling phrase of the Reverend Martin

Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on a promissory note, and now is the time to honor it.”

These imperative statements drew the loudest applauses.

St. Augustine Catholic Church’s Choir of Washington, DC, sang “Total Praise” after the remarks and energized the crowds.

Moments later, the Pope appeared on the balcony with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Crowds gathered included Los An-geles Bishop Robert Barron, who told a group of reporters, that he was a guest of NBC’s “Today” show. Maria Shriver interviewed Robert Barron on what might be expected from the Pope, “He’ll speak of Jesus Christ, but also of basic human values that appeal across the denominational lines and to the sec-ular world. He’s someone very at ease with that kind of communication.”

I spoke to Maria Peña, of La Opinion, about the Pope’s remarks, “It was short, poignant, did not emphasize immigra-tion [although she thinks that will be addressed in the Joint Session of Con-gress and Senate] instead, emphasized climate change. It was good, all togeth-

Pope Francis: The world is our common homeAt the White House, Washington, D.C.

u

JUST when many think America was fast be-coming secularized, growing more detached from religion and/or its spirituality amid so many chal-lenges that beset the nation, Pope Francis’s visit to the United States has revealed that the people of this country thirst for spiritual guidance and a reason to believe again.

Thousands and thousands of people from differ-ent walks of life — young and old, men, and wom-en, rich and poor, powerful and helpless -- went out of their way to see Pope Francis in person by going to Washington DC, New York City and Phila-delphia this week.

For Catholics, this was like being on a pilgrim-age, especially for those who do not have the means to attend the Papal Audience of the Pontiff in Rome. For most Catholics who cannot go to any of these locations that the Pope was visiting, fol-lowing the news coverages on the Pope’s visit was the closest they could get to being blessed by the Pope’s presence.

Kababayans say the Pope awakens within them

the true meaning of their faith — love, mercy and compassion — that the Pope embodies in his own life. This is the same message that has drawn in even people of different faith, and even those who are agnostics or atheists. Pope Francis’ nonjudgmental approach to his ministry has the power to awaken the faith of every person in the goodness of man — of himself and other people, no matter how different they may be from each other.

We have also seen the convergence of politics and religion when Pope Francis addressed the American people through men and women of US Congress. He also spoke to world leaders and their representatives in the United Nations.

Boldly, yet with respect and compassion, the Leader of the Catholic Church urged Congress to work together for the common good. As CNN reported, Pope Francis challenged America to

embrace millions of undocu-mented immigrants and join a global campaign against climate change and poverty. He also called for a fairer world econ-omy, the abolition of the death penalty, the protection of eth-nic and religious minorities, the outlawing of the global “blood” trade in arms and the protection

of the family.Speaking in the United Nations, the pope la-

mented over the destruction of the environment through a “selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity.” He also called on rich nations to help the underdeveloped countries, ad-vocating ton their behalf access to adequate food, water and housing, saying they have the right to lodging, labor and land.

Many political leaders were teary eyed as the Pope spoke, making many Americans, includ-ing Fil-Ams to wonder if this could mean a bet-

ter working relationship between the factions in Congress. After all, House Speaker John Boehner himself announced his resignation from Congress beginning in October, as a result of his discern-ment and enlightenment with the help of Pope Francis.

The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast Balitang America asked its viewers in an online poll the question: “DO YOU THINK POPE FRANCIS CAN INFLUENCE US LAWMAKERS ON CONTRO-VERSIAL ISSUES LIKE IMMIGRATION?”

Half of those who voted were positive in their responses, while the other half contend that Pope Francis may be popular, but he should not meddle into the political affairs of the country and should just stick to religion and faith.

* * *

Pope Francis’s visit awakens America’s faith

GEL SANTOS-RELOS

The Fil-Am Perspective

IT’S an isolated case, Malacañang assured the public on Friday, Sept. 25, as several countries issued travel advisories following the kidnapping last Monday of three foreigners and a Filipina in a resort on Samal Island in Davao del Norte.

No isolated case

A check online will easily de-bunk the Palace assurance. It’s not an isolated case, and it’s not going to be the last unless the government responds decisively and ends this lat-est hostage incident quickly. Samal Island, a popu-lar travel destination, will suffer the consequences of a prolonged hostage situation, with other tour-ist spots around the country also affected by the fallout.

Two Canadian tourists, their Filipina compan-ion and the Norwegian resort manager who were seized by about a dozen gunmen on two motor-ized outriggers last Monday have reportedly been taken to a remote mountain region in Davao Ori-ental. The kidnapping has prompted travel adviso-ries from the foreign victims’ countries as well as Australia, Britain and New Zealand.

The attack is particularly troubling because it

was staged in an area that is sup-posed to be relatively safe. The Re-gional Peace and Order Council in the Davao area is chaired by Davao

City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who is known for treating troublemakers with an iron hand.

The kidnapping has also raised concern about the safety of participants in the upcoming lead-ers’ summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Coop-eration forum. The resorts of Samal Island could have lured some of the APEC participants for a visit.

Only a quick resolution of the crisis can salvage the situation. As of yesterday, however, security officials still had not identified the kidnappers, with some officials saying the trail had gone cold. President Aquino must lean harder on his se-curity officials to resolve this kidnapping ASAP. (Philstar.com)

Guest Editorial

er. I like the finishing touch of someone yelling out, “We love you Pope Francis.” She also shared the story of Jersey Vargas, who gave a handker-chief of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the Pope, and who at her tender age of 10 years old met with Pope Francis to save her father from deportation and to call on the president and Congress to act on immigration reform.

Shortly after 10 am, the crowds were dispersed, leaving behind empty plastic bottles, once with water to satisfy the biological thirst of these thou-sands gathered.

For this writer, this momentous occasion was a satisfaction of her spiritual thirst, a wish to see Pope Francis in person, as a personification of a moral authority whose actions are aligned with his beliefs. But also, Pres. Obama and their ap-pearances onstage made for a sacred moment, given their shared common values on big ticket item issues: climate change, poverty, refugees and “the conviction that all members of the hu-man family have equal value and infinite worth and should have the opportunity to realize safe and productive futures for themselves; the belief that reconciliation can happen not only between people but also between nations; the conviction that we must secure the unalienable right of all people to practice their faith according to the dic-tates of conscience, standing against those who would target people for violence, persecution, or discrimination based on their religion; and the duty to manage the resources of the earth today in such a way that will allow our children and grandchildren to live their lives abundantly tomorrow.”

But also to represent the Asian Journal amongst these hundreds of journalists, as I covered these historic firsts of convergences at the White House. I felt a sense of pride, a feeling that I was once an immigrant, now an American citizen/journalist, getting access to walk on the soft grass of the ver-dant South Lawn, and to have a photo taken with hundreds of journalists, thousands of citizens, fel-low Catholics and non-Catholics warmly welcom-ing the Holy Father in the United States. To be privileged in this manner with God’s grace to a

lapsed Catholic of 25 years, is indeed God’s bless-ings in many ways!

I got to talk to young folks who waited since 2:30 am. One is Duddh of Washington, DC, formerly of Philadelphia: “It is momentous, once in a lifetime that we are not going to pass up.”

Another is Maria, from West Virginia, who was “feeling great, excited and has been waiting since dawn.”

Brandon, who came from New York, found the Pope “inspirational, a leader, like no other, who will work on issues that matter to humanity” and even though he was lined up since 2:30 am, “it was worth every second.”

* * *

Pope Francis: The world is our…t

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DATELINE PHILIPPINES

A PHOTO of a young Filipina doing homework on the street has garnered much attention in the online community.

The image, taken by a local resident, shows a barefoot girl believed to be Cielo Gonzales sit-ting on a canister while writing on a piece of paper placed on top of a thin paperback book, Mir-ror Online reported. The photo gained more than 12,000 likes on Facebook, as of press time.

In an interview with TV Patrol, Jenalyn Gonzales, 10, the sister of the girl believed to be 7-year-old Gonzales and her sister, are documented wearing pajamas while sitting on a flattened card-board box on the side of the road. According to the report, Jenalyn was teaching her sister to write.

Gonzales should have been in first grade by now, but she had to stop going to school. Her moth-er, Linda, who picks up trash for a living, could only afford to send Jenalyn to school, according to TV Patrol.

The television news station further stated that the photo that went viral was taken of Gonzales

Photo of Filipina girl studying on streets goes viralby AGNES CONSTANTE

AJPress

studying under the Manila Light Rail Transit.

The viral photo elicited com-ments from a number of social networkers.

“I appreciated this child’s determination to learn. I hope someone could help her to pur-sue her studies, and organiza-tion, or foundation. God bless her,” one individual wrote.

Other responses criticized the Philippine Department of Educa-tion.

“How useless is the Depart-ment of Education? What point have they in this country? What services do they offer?”

The new viral photo comes a few months after a photo of a homeless Filipino boy, Daniel Cabrera, using light from Mc-Donald’s to do homework gained a huge popularity on the Inter-net. Cabrera is 9 years old and a third-grade student in Mandaue City, according to Rappler.

Cabrera’s photo, taken by a medical student named Joyce Torrefranca, drew comments from people expressing how im-pressed they were with his efforts to study. It also led to a fundrais-ing page established specifically for him, which raised P234,134, the Daily Mail reported. ■

MANILA – Sen. Grace Poe still topped the list of preferred presi-dential candidates for the 2016 national elections, according to the latest Pulse Asia survey re-leased on Thursday, Sept. 24.

Poe scored 27 percent, a three-point decrease from her previous rating of 30 percent in the same survey.

Meanwhile, Vice President Je-jomar Binay garnered 21 percent, a slight drop from his 22 percent rating in the previous quarter.

Former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II jumped to the third spot with 18 percent, a significant increase from his previous rating of 10 percent.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte scored 15 percent, fol-lowed by Sen. Ferdinand “Bong-bong” Marcos Jr. and Manila

Poe still tops presidential polls despite drop in ratings – Pulse

by PATRICIA LOURDES VIRAYPhilstar.com

Mayor Joseph Estrada, both with 5 percent.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santia-go garnered 4 percent while Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and former Sen. Panfilo Lacson both got a rating of 1 percent.

Poe also topped the vice presi-dential survey with 26 percent while Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escu-dero scored 25 percent, an in-crease from his previous 12 per-cent rating.

Both Cayetano and Marcos scored 7 percent in the vice pres-

idential survey while Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos and President Benigno Aquino III both scored 6 percent.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Lacson both garnered 5 percent, followed by Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Ro-bredo with 2 percent. Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares scored 0.4 percent.

The survey was conducted in partnership with ABS-CBN from August 23 to September 3 among 1,200 respondents nationwide.

Among the preferred vice pres-idential bets, only Escudero has declared his bid for the 2016 elec-tions. Escudero and Poe will run as a team in the upcoming polls.

On the other hand, Binay will be the presidential candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance while Roxas will be the Liberal Party’s standard-bearer. ■

Filipino nurse sentenced 4 months inSingapore jail for sedition on social media

A FILIPINO nurse working in Singapore was sentenced on Monday, Sept. 21, to four months in jail for insulting Singaporeans on Facebook and lying to police investigators afterward.

Ello Ed Mundsel Bello, 28, a former employee of government-run Tan Tock Seng Hospital, pleaded guilty to a three charg-es: one count of violating Singa-pore’s sedition act by promoting feelings of ill-will and hostility us-ing social media and two charges of lying to police, according to the Associated Press (AP).

He was sentenced to three months in prison for the charge related to Facebook and one month for providing police with false information, Agence France-Presse reported.

District Judge Siva Shanmu-gam, who sentenced Bello, said there was no place for xeno-phobic comments in Singapore, as they present “a threat to our social stability and security,” ac-cording to AP.

“The local-foreigner divide has remained a challenging fault line in our society in recent times,” Shanmugam said.

“Unlike the limited effect and reach of distinct racial or reli-gious issues, this divide affects all and sundry and cannot be regarded as any less delicate or sensitive in the current context,” he added.

In a Jan. 2 Facebook post, Bello wrote: “We take their jobs, their future, their women, and soon, we will evict all SG loosers (sic) out of their own country.”

A subsequent comment written by the Filipino read: “we will kick

out all the Singaporeans and SG will be the new filipino state.”

The early January social media post further read, “The best part, I will be praying that disastors (disasters) strike Singapore and more Singaporeans will die than I will celebrate. Remember Pinoy better and stronger than Stinka-poreans.”

Prosecutors originally sought a five-month sentence for Bello to “send a clear message to like-minded individuals that their behaviour will not be tolerated,” Agence France Press reported.

Philippine authorities on Aug. 27 said they respected the Sin-gapore court’s decision to con-vict Bello of sedition, according to AP.

Mark Goh, Bello’s lawyer, told GMA News that his client, long before the trials, said he is “truly ■

by AGNES CONSTANTEAJPress

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SHOWBIZ&STYLEJOURNAL

THE world’s first armless pilot and first armless black-belt in the American Taekwondo Associa-tion has added another item to her ever-growing resume of ac-complishments: the subject of a documentary depicting her life.

“This was a very important documentary to inspire so many other people, and at the same time it helps me share my life with the world to let them know that I’m happy, that I live a pro-ductive life, and ultimately any-one can and they can accomplish anything despite whatever chal-lenges, whether they be physi-cal, emotional or psychological. We can achieve great things and I’m glad to be able to share that in this documentary called ‘Right Footed’,” Jessica Cox said before a screening of the film at the Hollywood Film Festival on Thursday, Sept. 24.

Cox, 32, was born in 1983 without arms due to a rare birth defect. Yet despite that chal-lenge, the Fil-Am is able to write, drive, put on her contact lenses with her toes, type 25 words per minute, eat with chopsticks, tie shoe laces, swim, fold clothes, pack a luggage and juice an or-ange, among a number of other things the average person is able to do.

In “Right Footed,” Cox dem-onstrates a great number of activities she is capable of and

Armless Fil-Am Jessica Cox shares life story in new documentaryby AGNES CONSTANTE

AJPress

even shares personal episodes, like how she felt angry and self-ish when she was younger, and footage from her wedding day. The documentary reveals that she was fitted for prosthetic arms when she was 3 years old, which led her peers to call her names such as “robot girl.” Eventually, she decided not to use the arms, which she said felt like a “jail cell.”

Today, Cox has been a mo-tivational speaker for 10 years and continues to do so. “Right Footed” shows her journey from being a speaker, to a mentor for children with disabilities, and to disability advocate who helps share the voices of people with disabilities worldwide.

The film has so far won the title of best documentary at the Mirabile Dictu Film Festival in

Vatican City in Italy.“Jessica’s story is an inspira-

tion to people all around the world,” said Jeff Meer, executive director of Handicap Internation-al, a non-profit organization Cox has been involved with for about two-and-a-half years. “Handicap International works with hun-dreds of thousands if not millions of people around the world who are drawing tremendous inspira-tion from the work that she does. In particular, her work inspiring kids who are differently abled to go to school is a real model for what we’d like to see all over the world.”

“Right Footed” also follows Cox during a visit to the Phil-ippines after Typhoon Haiyan destroyed Tacloban City in 2013. With familial ties in Guiuan, East-ern Samar, where her mother is

originally from, part of the film is devoted to the time she spent in the area.

“My story, my message and my inspiration growing up that all is linked to the Philippines. And resilience that my mother had, being born and raised in Eastern Samar and all the chal-lenges in her life, they ended up helping me and her resilience ended up becoming my resilience and helped me to aspire and break through all the barriers” Cox said.

Nick Spark, who directed the film, noted that “Right Footed” conveys Cox’s pride in being a Fil-Am.

MOONLIGHTING

by MYLAH DE LEON

PHILADELPHIA—Pope Francis sits on the most exalted throne on earth with no army or kingdom, beyond a tight fist of land in the middle of Rome that is filled with immense wealth of history He was elected Pope because of his relationship with heaven.

It is said that when they handed their ballots with his name on it, it was almost a sacrament.

The papacy is mysterious and magical. It turned a septuagenar-ian into a superstar. While reveal-ing almost nothing about himself, a thousand and more days before, he raised hopes in every corner of the world, which perhaps never could have been fulfilled.

We think of the elderly tradi-tional clergy who pine for the old Latin mass and a young devoted women who wishes she could be a priest. Both have hopes.

Rarely has anyone on the world stage captured so much attention and admiration -- young or old, faithful or cynic, rich or poor -- who has placed him or herself at the very central con-versation of our time. The pope spoke of wealth and poverty, fairness and injustice of transpar-

The rock star fascination with Pope Francis

to meet, missions to launch and words to speak.

His Holiness says, don’t just preach, listen, don’t scold, words won’t change, but the tone and temperament will, including the music. His focus is on compassion and he prays all the time.

He doesn’t seem older than his actual year. His attitude is mild, deliberately humble. His voice is soft, deliberately suave. He knows how to be brilliant by modeling mercy and transpar-ency. One starts thinking of Ren-naisance popes that led an army into a war.

The pope is not only a spiritual leader, but also a Head of State. One wonders if he ever struggled in not allowing the spiritual power to be confused with temporal power and in keeping a religious power to be confused for becom-ing a political one? Even as we know that the Church should interest itself in all aspects of life, Christian religion doesn’t confuse itself. While taking care of the moral progress of mankind, it is also concerned with its social well being.

We already know that he has pulled papacy out of the Palace into the streets with balance judgement and mercy, magnifying the message of the Church and its power to do good.

There will be a general aura of merriment when Pope Francis celebrates the World Meeting of Families here in Philadelphia. The Festival of Families is an in-ternational celebration of family, community and faith.

“FASO Goes Pops!” on No-vember 14 continues the Filipino American Symphony Orchestra’s tradition of presenting quality, entertaining concerts. FASO, re-turning to the iconic Alex Theatre in Glendale where it earned cheers and praises for its very successful “FASO Goes Broadway” last April, tackles pop music this time.

“If the audience enjoyed ‘FASO Goes Broadway,’ this one will bring them to another level of fun and excitement,” promised Robert “Bob” Shroder, the musi-cal director and conductor of the only Filipino symphony orchestra outside of the Philippines. “We auditioned a set of incredibly talented young singers to join FASO for this concert. You will be amazed to see young Pinoy kids perform covers of Michael Jackson and Bruno Mars and some of our favorite OPM (Original Pilipino Music) numbers.”

“We are very excited about this show because it is the first time that we are featuring pop music – both mainstream and OPM,” added Luis “Louie” Ramos, FASO board vice president and ar-ranger-in-residence. “We will be honoring iconic OPM composers in the show.”

Shroder shared what’s in store for the audience: “We are open-ing the concert with an old school William Tell overture by Rossini. Then, we’ll kick it right off with mainstream pop music of the 1970s and 1980s. Wear your

jersey shirts and blouses, bell bottom pants and platform shoes to dance to 70s tunes like those of the TSOP.”

The acclaimed maestro stressed, “Of course, our sentimental OPM love songs, as performed by our talented featured singers, will also highlight the evening. We will also honor several Filipino composers, most of whom will be present at the concert.”

Ramos said, “We are also fea-turing songs by these renowned Filipino composers who are based in the U.S. – ‘Lift Up Your Hands’ by Cecile Azarcon; ‘Tayo ay Pilipi-no’ and ‘Hanggang Huli’y Ikaw,’ SJ Gandia; ‘Let It Go,’ Robert Lopez; ‘Give Me a Chance’ and ‘Till I Met You,’ Odette Quesada; ‘Minsan Lang Kitang Iibigin,’ Aaron Paul del Rosario; ‘Tatak ng Pilipino’ and ‘Ikaw Lamang,’ Dodjie Simon.”

The night’s featured performers will be announced soon.

In keeping with its much-ad-mired commitment and tradition to spotlight deserving talents, FASO is excited to present the guest vo-calists in the coming show.

Ramos announced, “After hold-ing three rounds of auditions, we selected these performers, some of whom are as young as 8 years old: Bryce Gomez; Ian Chen, who plays Evan Huang in ABC’s ‘Fresh off the Boat’; Jokai Dawson, who will be performing ‘Billie Jean’; Sydney Haik; Gian Paolo Jimenez; Michael Keith Pronda; Mikaela Bautista; Therese Masangcay; De-

nise Gonzales; Gabrielle Current, 2015 Rose Parade princess; Shelby Miguel; and Daryl Ogalino, ABS-CBN’s ‘TFCkat USA’ Grand Sing-ing Champion 2012 and ‘Tawag ng Tanghalan’ Grand Singing Champion 2008. These talents will be joining Dennis Jardiel, Erwin Andaya, Mike Zuniga, Nilo Alcala and Sharon Rose Orosco as our guest vocalists.”

“Shelby Miguel is a cancer survivor who battled Burkitt’s Lymphoma at the age of 4,” Ra-mos added. “According to Shelby, ‘Singing healed me once, and now I sing to help others.”

Around 55 orchestra members will perform under the baton of Shroder. He said, “Our trumpet section will hit the center stage to perform Leroy Anderson’s ‘Bugler’s Holiday.’ ”

Ramos will also arrange pieces for the show along with Saunder Choi, Melvin Corpin, Vince Reyes and Naldy Rodriguez.

“FASO Goes Pops!” is spon-sored by Island Pacific Supermar-ket and SMART World Mobile. The show is for the benefit of FASO, a non-profit organization, to sustain the orchestra as it continues to serve the community with per-formances, like the one they will experience in November, and its youth programs, which include the summer music camp.

Tickets to the show on Nov. 14, 7pm, are now available online:http://www.alextheatre.org/event/faso-presents-faso-goes-pops.

‘FASO Goes Pops!’ on Nov. 14

ency, modernity, globalization, the role of women, the nature of marriage and the temptation of power, all in a leadership rare in our time. He has kissed the face of a disfigured man, washed the feet of a Muslim woman, offered to baptize the child of a divorced woman, posed with a man for a selfie, others that do not want to let go of his hand even though ushers and security guards try to keep him from moving -- all acts that have resonated beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church. He knows that before his day is over, he has more pilgrims

LIKE many big projects, writ-ing a cookbook requires years of preparation, hard work and worry, culminating with that mo-ment when you present your ‘baby’ to the world. I was excited to officially introduce my cookbook, The Age GRACEfully Cookbook to members of the press and culinary, health and wellness experts on a recent evening at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. My book is a collection of illustrated recipes that incorporate ingredients, which I call FoodTrients, that help you look and feel younger not only on the inside, but also on the outside. All of my recipes are the result of my passion for food and years of experience cooking, baking and running skilled nursing facilities. To create the recipes, I scoured scientific studies, dug into long-es-tablished knowledge of medicinal herbs, sought out natural ingre-dients from cultures all over the world and drew on memories of my mother’s culinary wisdom.

At the event, I was fortunate to have celebrity chef, Eric Greenspan join me on a panel to discuss the recipes in my cookbook and how they promote health and well be-ing deliciously. Eric is the owner of The Roof on Wilshire, Maré and Greenspan’s Grilled Cheese. He’s also appeared on the TV programs, Iron Chef and Celebrity Cutthroat Kitchen, notably defeating Chef Bobby Flay!

I gave Eric an advance copy of the book and asked him what he thought. In his enthusiastic style, he told the assembled writers, “Quite honestly, there were a lot of ingredients in it I didn’t recog-nize or that I don’t use in my own recipes, but Grace works them into everyday dishes. There are things like moringa, a plant with super nu-tritious leaves that she adds to veg-etable soup. Milletis a high-protein grain that she stuffs into tiny sweet peppers as an appetizer. She even prepares amazing noodles in Green tea. I was impressed by how well the flavors work together. What I love about Grace’s book is that her recipes are very accessible and easy for the average home cook to execute. I’m already thinking about how to work moringa into my grilled cheese sandwiches!”

Our panel’s moderator, TV personality Robb Weller, asked

Age GRACEfully Cookbookdebuts at Four Seasons event

many questions including how I became interested in cooking (my mother’s cooking school back in the Philippines when I was a child) and where to find the more unusual ingredients (you can find jackfruit or jujubes online or in ethnic grocers like 99 Ranch Markethere in the Los Angeles area or online from specialty produce suppliers like Melissa’s ). Robb asked what new health and wellness trends I have been noticing, to which I replied, reishi mushroom powder, a great immu-nity-booster and ashiwagandha, a medicinal plant from India that’s been used for thousands of years to treat stress, fatigue and to pro-mote muscle strength. It’s with some pride that I like to point out that I was promoting the benefits of chia seeds (anti-inflammatory, high in Omega-3s) many years ago when most people associated them with Chia Pets, those ceram-ic animals that people exchanged at Christmas! In my cookbook there are recipes for a sweet Chia Seed Treat and a refreshing Chia Frescabeverage.

After the panel discussion con-

cluded, all of the attendees were invited to our FoodTrients buffet featuring various recipes fromThe Age GRACEfully Cookbook. Judg-ing by how many people went through the buffet line more than once and the many empty plates, I was very gratified. Guests enjoyed Grilled Artichokes with Moringa Dip, Fig Salad, Carrot Quiche, Green Tea Noodles with Edamame, Stuffed Turkey Rolls, Shrimp and Moringa Curry, Al-mond Blueberry Parfaits, Brazil Nut Tarts and more.

The evening was distinguished by the beautiful setting, delicious food and the lively conversation between members of the media, including The Asian Journal, The Hallmark Channel, Epicurious, the local ABC and CBS affiliates, the Jewish Journal, the Huffing-ton Post to mention a few. The Age GRACEfully Cookbook is available now on the FoodTrients website, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. This cookbook was truly a labor of love and my greatest reward is sharing delicious food that can help you live longer and better.

by GRACE O

LAS VEGAS—The Annual Grand Dragon Master Baccarat Champi-onship, with a total global prize pool worth over $10,000,000*, kicks off the Las Vegas leg of the competition on Oct. 2, 2015 at The Palazzo. The global championship spans Las Vegas Sands properties in Macao and Singapore.

The Grand Dragon Master Bac-carat Championship provides baccarat enthusiasts the ultimate tournament experience. Las Vegas players can compete for a portion of a $1.6 million prize pool over three tournaments - the $280,000 Golden Dragon Baccarat Tourna-ment, the $350,000 Ruby Dragon Baccarat Tournament, and the invitation-only $1 Million Royal Dragon Baccarat Tournament – all culminating in the Global Final to be held at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in March 2016.

The $280,000 Golden Dragon Baccarat Tournament takes place from Oct. 2 through Oct. 5 and Oct. 9 through Oct. 12. This tournament features a $35,000 daily cash prize pool. All Grazie members receive one complimentary tournament

entry per day. Unlimited rebuys can be made for $50. The top three daily winners in the Golden Dragon Baccarat Tournament will automatically advance to the Semi-Finals of the Ruby Dragon Baccarat Tournament.

The Ruby Dragon Baccarat Tournament offers a $350,000 cash prize pool with daily prize pools of $75,000. Ruby Dragon Baccarat Tournament preliminaries take place Oct. 16 and Oct. 17. All Grazie members will receive one compli-mentary tournament entry per day, and unlimited rebuys can be made for $150. The top six daily winners in the Ruby Dragon Baccarat Tour-nament preliminaries will advance to the semi-final round on Oct. 18, where the top six finishers will receive one complimentary entry each to the semi-final round of the invite-only $1 Million Royal Dragon Baccarat Tournament on Nov. 7.

In addition to sharing in a $1,000,000 promotional chip prize pool, the top three finishers in the invitation only Royal Dragon Bac-carat Tournament will advance to the Global Final at Marina Bay

Sands in Singapore in March 2016. Each advancer to the Global Final will receive round-trip transporta-tion to Singapore, accommoda-tions at Marina Bay Sands, and a food and beverage allowance for the player and a guest. In addi-tion, each advancer will receive one complimentary entry to the Semi-Finals of the Global Final Tournament.

The traditional table game of baccarat has taken on a new level of popularity with American audi-ences, so much so that The Vene-tian and The Palazzo have taken strides to make the game much more accessible to players with traditional tables available from only a $25 minimum bet, as well as the only Imperial Baccarat on the Strip – a live dealt $5 minimum baccarat played on an electronic betting terminal.

For more information, visit venetian.com/dragon or call 866-898-8013.

*Based on accumulated total prize amount from Las Vegas, Macao, and Singapore.

World’s largest baccarat tournament returns to The Venetian and The Palazzo Las Vegas on October 2 with $10,000,000 Global Prize Pool

Complimentary entry for Grazie members in first two tournamentsof the Annual Grand Dragon Master Baccarat Championship

THE LBC Foundation, in co-operation with Project Pearls, aims to move love this Christmas through its project BOX A SMILE. The LBC Foundation is the Cor-porate Social Responsibility arm of LBC Express. Together with Project PEARLS, a non-profit organization, whose vision of seeking to protect and provide the basic human rights of the poorest of the poor children in the Philippines, BOX A SMILE will be launched on October 1, 2015.

Box A Smile is a project that aims to deliver a Happy Christ-mas to children in poverty in the Philippines. LBC Customers from North America who sends a box via sea or air from October 1 to November 30, 2015 may elect to participate in the program, where a portion of their transaction fees will be donated to Box A Smile. The funds raised will be used to give Christmas gifts to benefi-ciary children at a gifting event (Christmas party) organized by Project Pearls. LBC Foundation is targeting to collate 3,000 Christ-mas Gift Boxes.

Come December 2015, the distribution of Christmas Gift Boxes to children aged 4-14yo in underprivileged areas of Helping

Help us BOX A SMILE for 3,000 kids this Christmas

“[An] extraordinary part of the movie takes place in the Philip-pines and I think one thing that’s really apparent about this movie is it celebrates someone who is incredibly proud to be a Filipino-American and somebody who is very active in that space. But this is somebody [whose] core values are all about being a Filipino-American,” Spark said.

While the documentary was received positively among view-ers during its Thursday screen-ing at the Hollywood Film Fes-tival, Cox admitted to feeling a little bit “exposing” by opening up in a “very vulnerable way” at the start of the project.

“[And] I’m a person who val-ues my privacy and I have always been that way my entire life. So it took kind of stepping outside of that and realizing what this could do for people, how this could inspire people. At the same time it was almost redeeming for me because I grew up my entire life having to explain to people ... I can do things just fine, and here I am showing it on a large scale

Armless Fil-Am Jessica Cox...to audiences in hundreds and thousands I’m able to do what it is and I felt so compelled to do as a child. When I’d get frustrated and people would see me and feel so sorry for me and I didn’t want that pity, I wanted them to see that [I] have a wonderful life, wonderful family, my parents, my husband. Being from a Filipino culture, I have that support system and that resilience,” Cox said.

With the documentary out, Cox is now busy helping dis-tribute the film, but she’s also looking to continue to do moti-vational speaking and promote her new self-help book, “Disarm

Your Limits,” which came out in March.

“I think what’s next is to con-tinue to do motivational speak-ing, get the book out there and also to continue to inspire, as we are doing, more on a personal level,” Cox said.

She’s also tackling archery and thinking about taking on a new challenge, perhaps high-performance driving and a flight across the country, citing she has only flown in Arizona.

“Right Footed” wi l l be screened at more than 20 other film festivals across the United States.

Land, Tondo, Manila, Brgy. Batia, Bocaue, Bulacan, Zambales will be held.

With this, we encourage your participation in bringing smiles

to children in need. Visit your nearest LBC branch or call 1800-338-5424 for more information on how you can help.

BY MONET LU

G. TÖNGI

The Global Kababayan

Programming of Kababayan Today, September 28-October 2, 2015

THE press conference for the Beautiful Life Celebration 2015 was held at Omni Hotel on Saturday, September 19. Among the recipients of this year’s awards are the Queen of Queens, 10 Most Beautiful Young Filipino Americans, Dis-tinguished Men and Women of the Year, and Special Awards of Distinction. The awardees were joined by their families and friends.

Walking into a room full of familiar and new faces was wel-coming, as everyone was jovial and high-spirited.

The program began on a high note with Sonny Madera.The media personalities, photogra-

phers, and social bloggers were acknowledged for their atten-dance and support. Monet Lu, the charismatic, the brain, and the President/Founder of the Beautiful Life Celebration was so proud to introduce the 2015 awardees, who are outstanding and highly deserving with their overwhelming achievements and successful stories.

Monet Lu explained that the event recognizes the ex-traordinary work and life of our fellow Filipinos in their chosen fields of endeavor. It celebrates the great choices they made, the lives they now lead and the legacy they will impart to the Fil-Am community.

The Woman of the Year 2015 is Ms. Olivia Quido-Co while the Man of the Year 2015 is Jefferson Nino Lim. The other honorees are Trin-ity Foliente with Distinguished Award of Excellence in Com-munity Service, Dr. Christina Lopez for Dentistry, Mr & Mrs Van & Marilou Dichoso as the Couple of the Year, Alex Pineda in Interior and Jewelry Design, Marlou Colina in Busi-ness & Styling, Laarni Campo in Sales and Marketing, Ami Almerol as Business Woman of the Year, Emerita von Seyfried as Scientist, Cora Buffa in Nurs-ing Services/Entrapreneurship, Joel Vera Sebastian in Makeup

September 28- Despite her handicap, armless pilot and mo-tivational speaker Jessica Cox has inspired many to pursue the unthinkable. Besides having a book out, she also recently has a documentary called “Right Foot-ed” which is making its rounds at various film festivals.

September 29 - Members of the Fil-Am organization, Kapit Bisig Kabataan, share their ex-periences after going back to the motherland for a series of relief efforts and immersions to learn their roots and give back to the land of their ancestors.

Clique 7882, all Red Lion’s or Alumni of San Beda College in Manila, shares an event that will bring us back to the sounds and

vibe of the 80s.September 30 - Midweek News

Updates from the Asian Journal.Iconic composer Odette Que-

sada shares how she was able to create her heartfelt songs.

Professor Brandon Reilly gives a rundown of what to expect for the month of October with a com-prehensive timeline for Filipino American History Month

October 1 - Elosia Gomez Bo-rah launches Filipino American History Month. Borah, is a retired librarian from UCLA who has dedi-cated her life’s work to the Filipino American historical experience. She shares the Filipinos first ar-riving in Morro Bay and talks

about Antonio Miranda, one of the founding fathers of Los Angeles.

October 2 - It’s Foodie Fridays with Jenny Castaneda. Jenny’s recipes are taken from her blog, Paleo Foodie Kitchen where she encourages healthy alternative ingredients Paleo style to her Filipino Food Recipes. She will show us how to make Bistek Beef Wraps!

***

The Beautiful Life Celebration

AS stereotypical as it is, there is some sort of “label” attached to being an “Am-Boy” (American boy) or a “Fil-Am” (Filipino-American). Some would have it that most of these “hybrid” Pinoys usually come off as arrogant or entitled. Which is why it is not only surprising – but such a relief to know – that one of their kind is totally the opposite of what we described as the typical Amboy. I am of course talking about the very humble and down-to-earth rockstar, Sam Milby.

Sam Lloyd Lacia Milby was born and raised in Troy, Ohio. Milby is the youngest son of Filipina Elsie Lacia who hails from Surigao, Philippines and Ameri-can entrepreneur, Lloyd Milby. Not many people know that one of Milby’s first big break is in a toothpaste commercial in 2005. He later on became more famous as one of the housemates of Pinoy Big Brother in the same year.

One of his earlier media ap-pearances is in the music video of “Just A Smile” by Barbie Almalbis, which was used to promote that toothpaste product.

As a housemate in the ‘Big Brother’s house, Milby, for me, is the most charming. Rumor has it that his fans intentionally voted him out of the house so that he would exit sooner and they can finally meet him in person. Milby was defeated by his fellow housemate, Jayson Gainza during their one-on-one eviction. Right after his exit from the PBB house, countless movie and television offers poured in, and he was later hailed as the newest “heartthrob” of Philippine Cinema.

Sam Milby: Not your typical ‘Amboy’

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this young man. Some say that Milby is low profile and easy to get along with. It is no wonder that he is the most famous among his PBB counterparts. He headlined the romantic comedy “Kahit Konting Pagtingin,” opposite Angeline Quinto (also starring Paulo Avelino) on ABS-CBN, he starred in his first antagonist role as Eros in the dark melodrama “Huwag Ka Lang Mawawala” with Kc Concepcion & Judy Ann Santos. Milby also fin-ished “Death March”, his fourth in-dependently produced film (Cannes Film Festival entry) and received good reviews for his action scenes in “Kimmy Dora Ang Kiyemeng Prequel”. He also headlined in “The Gifted” under Viva Films with Anne Curtis & Cristine Reyes.

In 2006, he was launched as a member of all-male group, “Cov-erboys” with John Lloyd Cruz, Za-njoe Marudo, Rafael Rosell, Victor Basa and Jake Cuenca. From be-ing just another Pinoy Big Brother housemate, the Filipino-American looker has outshined even his own popularity with sold-out concerts and Platinum albums, top-rating TV soaps (including Maging Sino Ka Man with John Lloyd Cruz, Bea Alonzo and Anne Curtis, which launched his career as a dramatic television actor), blockbuster mov-ies and big product endorsements

to his name. He is a regular stay in the Sunday musical variety show, A.S.A.P. since 2007 up to present, and a member of ABS-CBN’s elite circle of homegrown talents, Star Magic co-managed by Corner-stone Entertainment Inc.

Milby has also won several act-ing awards and this has only made the young actor more grateful and driven to improve his craft. In fact, he is one of the few Filipino actors who ventured into Hollywood. Milby has been taking acting classes and trying out his charm and talent for a chance at Hol-lywood. While this is not impos-sible, I am sure that his fans from the Philippines would definitely miss him if he everything worked out for him in the US.

Aside from being an actor, commercial model, and recording artist, Milby is a jack-of-all-trades. His hobbies include motocross, hockey, figure skating, tennis, golf, playing guitar, and singing.

Sam Milby proved to be one of those Fil-Ams who does not need to have “attitude” in order to get attention. He worked hard for everything he has achieved in the industry and does not rely on the fact that his accent gives away his pure American blood. I have to say that even though PBB are receiv-ing flak for their notorious display of “real-life norms”, they did one thing right in introducing this fine young Am-boy who may look “Am-boy” on the outside but definitely a humble “Juan” on the inside.

Good luck on your career, Sam.

Artistry, Faith Bautista in Busi-ness Development & Financing, Cora Aragon Soriano for Joey Soriano Posthumous Award, Mul Tayoba as Fashion Designer of the Year, Minnie Resurrec-tion in Home Care industry, the impressive Natasha Gill as the Young Achiever Awardee and John Mina as Fashion & Style Awardee. Jay Perez for

Cosmetologist and Loida Atien-za for Brokerage/Mortgage.

Among the Most Beauti-ful Young Filipino American 2015 who attended were Jas-mine Reyes, Danielle Viray, and Richie Anne Sol iven. Ab-sent were Lindsay Bernek-ing who sent Kim Flores on her behalf, Pamela Lising, and Krystal von Seyfried who was in Boston.

The Queen of the Queens in attendance were Vina Lelim Nacionales as the Queen of the Philippines World, Maryann Ramos as the Queen of the Philippines Earth, Christina Helena Villaflor as the Queen of the Philippines Asia, Monet Atienza Marual as the Queen of the Philippines Continental, and Win Win Winters as the Queen of the Philippines In-ternational. The Queen of the Philippines Universe, Camille Agbayani missed the event.

Michael Walker had the plea-sure to introduce Lou Baron as one of the awardee of the night, who garnered an honor given

by the prestigious Los Ange-les Music Awards for her first album entitled “Feeling” and “Good at any age” as the Break-through Album of 2014. She was honored as the first and on-ly Filipina to receive such an outstanding recognition.

The event concluded in great delight as everyone continued to chat, exchanged laughters, and shared lasting memories through their cameras, iPhones, Android, etc.

The Beautiful Life Celebra-tion organizers thanked the attendees for sharing their time and effort and for the wonder-ful camaraderie, meeting old friends and gaining new ones That is the beauty of the Beau-tiful Life Celebration, being happy and celebrating life. The most glamorous event will be held at the Omni hotel in Los Angeles on November 21 2015.For ticket information, please reserve at (818) 653-3177 and (213) 216-4923 and monet-salon@aol.com.

SEAFOOD CITYFOOD SERVICE

FPFC

COMMUNITYJ O U R N A L

ATTY. ROBERT REEVES MICHAEL BHOTIWIHOK

AND NANCY MILLER

Your ImmigrationSolution

ON April 9, 2015, the Admin-istrative Appeals Office issued Matter of Simeio Solutions, LLC (“Simeio”) holding that an employer is required to file an amended or new H-1B petition before transferring an employee to a new place of employment not covered by an existing, ap-proved H-1B petition. The deci-sion raised several questions.

On July 21, 2015, the US Citi-zenship and Immi-gration Services (“USCIS”) issued Final Guidance to clarify when an employer must file an amended or new H-1B pe-tition for compli-ancewith Simeio. While the Final Guidance quelled some concerns, the USCIS may address questions not resolved by the Final Guid-ance in the future.

The Final Guidance focuses on three time frames when an em-ployer must comply with Simeio.

First, is the Safe Harbor. If an employee moved to a new area of employment on or before April 9, 2015 and the employer failed to file an amended or new H-1B petition, the employer may file the amended or new petition by January 15, 2016 and it will be considered timely filed.

Second, if the employee’s change in place of employment requiring a new LCA occurred after April 9, 2015 but before August 19, 2015, the employer must file an amended or new H-1B petition by January 15, 2016. Failure to file by January 15, 2016 will cause the employer to be out of compliance and the employee may be found to have failed to maintain H-1B status.

Third, applies to those changes occurring on or after August 19,

Final guidance after Simeo when to �le amended or new H-1B petition

2015. An employer must file an amended or new H-1B petition before the employee starts work-ing at a new place of employ-ment not covered by an existing, approved H-1B petition.

In addition, employers must comply with Notices of Intent to Revoke, Notices of Intent to Deny and Requests For Evidence (“RFE”) issued before July 21, 2015. Where a Notice of Intent to

Revoke was received by the em-ployer and the response period has not ended, filing an amended or new H-1B petition along with the prior response may avert re-vocation. In instances where an employer received a RFE or No-tice of Intent to Deny, the safe harbor period may be satisfied if a certified copy of the LCA for the new employee work location was included at filing. It is important to note that an employer may not file an amended or new petition as a response to a RFE or Notice

of Intent to Deny.When an amended or new H-

1B petition is denied, but the original petition is valid, the employee may return to the original place of employment. Also,the employee must be able to maintain valid nonimmigrant status at the original place of employment. For pending peti-tions, the filing of an amended or new petition allows for an

employee ’ s w o r k s i t e l o c a t i o n change. In circumstanc-es where the employee ’ s H-1B status expires while s u c c e s s i v e amended or new petitions are pending, denials for any petition, requests to

amend, or extensions of status will result in denials of succes-sive requests.

Under the Final Guidance, there are limited exceptions for employers. An employer does not need to file an amended pe-tition when the employee moves within an “area of intended em-ployment,” provided that no ma-terial changes in employment exist and the original LCA is posted at the new location. Short term placements (generally up

u

“ When an amended or new H-1B petition is denied, but the original

petition is valid, the employee may return to the original place of employment. Also,the employee must be able to maintain valid

nonimmigrant status at the original place of employment.”

Annual Awards Banquet presented by TOYOTA

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

The Globe Theatre Universal Studios Hollywood

Black Tie Optional

Honorees

Business Enterprise of the Year CJ America, Inc.

Media Company of the Year Wong Fu Productions

ABA Chairperson Award

Honorable David E. Ryu

Corporation of the Year U.S. Bank

Advocate of the Year Richard Chacon

Celebrating the success of Asian owned businesses.

abala.org ǀ @ABALosAngeles ǀ #ABAAwards

Emcees

James Kyson Mei Melançon

Entertainment

Paul Dateh Maker Empire

ATTY. RAYMOND BULAON

Minding Your Finances

VICTOR SY, CPA, MBA ANDARLENE AL-OS,CPA, MBA

Tax Tips

ARE you facing insurmount-able debt problems? Are credi-tors threatening you with law-suits, judgments or a wage garnishment? Are you afraid of losing what little you have and wonder how you are going to survive if you can’t even pay for life’s basic necessities like rent, mortgage, food, transportation, etc., let alone pay your bills?

Making the right decisions is critical to your financial survival when facing debt problems. No one ever wants to be in this situation and it could be one of the most challenging situations you’ll ever face in your life. But don’t despair. At one time or an-

Procrastination can be your greatest enemy when facing debt problemsother, everyone experiences fi-nancial challenges in their lives. Don’t worry about things that you can’t control. You’re bet-ter off spending your energy on those things that you can. One of those things is your power to de-cide that enough is enough and that you will do something about it now instead of just worrying and feeling sorry for yourself. Procrastination can be your big-gest hurdle in changing your life for the better.

You have rights under fed-eral law to file bankruptcy and get immediate relief from debt. Bankruptcy is nothing more than a legal remedy that allows you to regain control of your finances so that you can get back on your feet as quickly as possible. Of course, it is not the answer to all financial problems but when appropriate for your situation, it may be the

only way for you to get out of the mess you’re currently in.

Briefly, Chapter 7 allows you to cancel or discharge your debts but in return, you must give up whatever non-exempt assets you may have. The good news is that most people don’t have much and whatever little they have, they are often protected by the exemption laws in bank-ruptcy. So it is a misconception that “once you file bankruptcy, you will automatically lose ev-erything.” The truth is that most people keep everything they have (homes, cars, bank ac-counts, retirement plans, etc) and they lose nothing at all.

Chapter 13, on the other hand, is a debt reorganization or debt consolidation plan. The court requires you to submit all your income information as well as a monthly budget to assess your

1. MAIL your payments to be received on time. The monthly due date is the date of receipt at the IRS Service Center, not the date of mailing.

2. Use certified mail with re-turn receipt.

3. Do not skip one payment and double up on the next payment. One skipped payment causes the entire installment agreement to default.

4. Make each payment in the exact amount of the agreement.

5. If you have to pay a differ-ent amount, pay more but not less. Pay an extra whole install-ment, not just a few dollars that would just add to confusion. Pay-ing less is equivalent to a missed installment that is in violation of the agreement and therefore will also cause the entire agreement to default.

6. Enclose a reminder notice from the IRS with your payment. If you do not receive a notice to pay (especially in the first month or two), attach a copy of Form 9465, 433-D Installment Agree-ment, or acceptance letter with your check.

7. Write your Social Security Number (or federal I.D. num-ber for business) on top of your check (preferably in red).

12 tips to keep acurrent installment agreement with the IRS

8. Write “Installment #1”, then “Installment #2” on the lower left-hand corner of your check. This helps both you and the IRS keep tract of your payments.

9. Make your check payable to the Department of Treasury and mail that check and notice to the IRS address written in Form 433-D (Do not rely on old addresses. The recent reorganization trans-ferred mailing addresses to dif-ferent area centers).

10. Mail a copy of your check and the notice to your accoun-tant and file a copy to a manila folder labeled “IRS Installment Agreement.”

11. If you have an agreement approved by telephone, keep bugging them for a formal agree-ment (a signed one). You do not realize how valuable that written agreement is until you need proof of such agreement and the IRS personnel assigned to your case had already been transferred or reassigned.

12. Follow these tips to keep an approved agreement in place. It keeps the government at bay from garnishing your wages, seizing your bank accounts and other properties. Do not blow it by missing a payment, sending late payments, paying the wrong amount, or using the wrong ad-

dress. Good Luck.PS: If you pay by automatic

debit from your account (the pre-ferred method), make sure that you have enough funds in your bank account.

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ATTY. JEFF KHURGEL

Immigration Essentials

WHILE the existing I-601A Provisional Waiver Program is limited to benefitting children and spouses of US citizens, a proposed rule will expand the categories of beneficiaries. The new rule, proposed by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), will expand the waiver to benefit children and spouses of Law-ful Permanent Residents (green card holders.)

One of the most challenging realities facing immigrants in this country is the 3/10 year rule. The rule is used to punish indi-viduals who have accrued unlaw-ful presence in the US and then departing. If a foreign national has remained for more than 180 days in the United States without permission – either from having entered the United States with-out inspection, having entered with a visa that has since expired, having entered with a crewman’s visa, or having entered the Unit-ed States to marry a fiancée or fiancé but failed to do so – they will not be given permission to legally re-enter the United States for 3 years after departing. If they have remained unlawfully pres-ent in the US without permission for more than one year, they will not be given permission to legal-ly enter the US for 10 years after departing.

The harsh consequence of ac-cruing unlawful presence arises when a foreign national becomes the beneficiary of a family peti-tion – either through a familial or spousal relationship with a US Citizen or a Lawful Perma-nent Resident. In order for the foreign national to adjust their status to a Lawful Permanent Resident, he or she must first re-

ceive an Immigrant Visa, which requires them to submit a visa application and later attend an interview at the US consulate in their country of origin. Once this person leaves the United States to attend the visa interview, they may trigger the 3/10 rule, and are not allowed to re-enter the US for either 3 or 10 years, depending on how long they remained un-lawfully in the US.

Thankfully, there is a waiver that allows foreign nationals who have accrued unlawful presence to ask for permission to enter the US legally, even when they are subject to the 3/10 rule. In order to qualify for this waiver, the foreign national must prove that their US Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident spouse or parent will suffer extreme hard-ship if the foreign national is not allowed to live in the United States or if the spouse or parent joins the foreign national in the country of origin.

Until a few years ago, the for-eign national had only one op-tion – to apply for this waiver after they had already departed the US, and after they attended their visa interview in their coun-try of origin. If USCIS denied the waiver application, the foreign national would be unable to re-turn to their families in the Unit-ed States for either 3 or 10 years. Alternatively, even if the waiver application were approved, the wait time for an approved waiver could leave the foreign national in suspense, sometimes up to months, before being allowed to legally re-enter the US.

In March of 2013, USCIS an-nounced the Provisional Waiver Program, which provides a sec-ond option to the above scenario. Under the Provisional Waiver Program, a foreign national

who is in the United States, and whose only ground of inadmis-sibility is unlawful presence, can apply for the waiver and receive a decision before they depart the US to attend the visa interview in their country of origin. This was a positive development for those foreign nationals who wanted the peace of mind that they would be allowed to re-enter the US after having departed for their Immi-grant Visa interview.

The Provisional Waiver Pro-gram makes the process of ob-taining a waiver easier, but it narrows who can qualify for the waiver. Whereas the traditional waiver allows the foreign nation-al to prove extreme hardship to either their US Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident spouse or parent, the Provisional Waiver Program allows a waiver only for those foreign nationals who can prove denial of the waiver would result in extreme hardship only to a spouse or parent who is a US citizen.

Under the proposed expan-sion which is the subject of this article, USCIS may grant a provi-sional waiver to foreign nationals who can prove extreme hardship to their spouse or parent, wheth-er the spouse or parent is a US citizen or a Lawful Permanent Resident. Thus, the expansion opens up the possibility for chil-dren and spouses of Lawful Per-manent Residents who have ac-crued unlawful presence to apply for the waiver while remaining in the United States.

The proposed Provisional Waiver expansion rule was pub-lished in the Federal register on July 22, 2015, and the agency is allowing the public 60 days to comment on the proposed regu-latory change. If and when the fi-

Proposed provisional waiver expansion will bene�t children and spouses of green card holders

ability to pay. Your Chapter 13 plan payments will be based on the surplus income as deter-mined by the Court. Chapter 13 allows you to keep valuable prop-erty such as your home or car (al-though you were behind on your mortgage and car payments at the time of filing) and will stop foreclosure and repossession im-mediately on the day your case is filed. Credit card debts are in-

cluded in your monthly payment under Chapter 13 and, in most cases, they can be significantly reduced or even totally elimi-nated.

Being in debt is not the end of the world. There are options available and the sooner you act, the sooner you will be on your way to getting the relief that you need badly. Call us for a free consultation at Toll-Free 1-866-

477-7772. We have offices in Los Angeles, Cerritos, Pasadena & Valencia.

* * *

u

ATTY. C. JOE SAYAS, JR.

Protecting Employee & Consumer Rights

BEGINNING October 2015, the USCIS will allow persons who have an approved family-based or employment-based immigrant petition, but who are waiting for their priority date to become cur-rent, to file their adjustment of status (green card) application even though their priority date is not yet current. The benefit of this new USCIS policy is that you and your immediate family can apply for work authorization and be able to work until your priority date be-comes current.

Under the new Visa Bulletin, 2 charts per visa preference cat-egory will be posted:

1) Application Final Action Dates (dates when green cards may finally be issued)

2) Dates for Filing Applications (earliest dates when the green card application can be filed)

Example applying the above chart: an unmarried son who is the beneficiary of an approved I-130 petition filed on August 20, 2005 by his US Citizen parent can file his adjustment of status applica-tion since it was filed before the cut-off date (“Date of Filing Ap-plications”) of September 1, 2005 for F1 preference category. With the filing of the adjustment application, he can also apply for work authorization. When the “Application Final Action Date” changes to a date later than his August 20, 2005 filing date, the USCIS can proceed with approving his ap-plication, and issue him a green card.

Another example: A beneficiary of an approved I-140 petition in the 3rd employment-sponsored preference category with a priority date of December 20, 2014 can file his adjustment of status ap-plication since it was filed before the cut-off date (“Date of Filing Applications”) of January 1, 2015 for 3rd preference category. With the filing of the adjustment application, he can also apply for work authorization. When the “Application Final Action Date” changes to a date later than his December 20, 2014 filing date, the USCIS can proceed with approving his application, and issue him a green card.

* * *Darrick V. Tan, Esq. is admitted to practice law in California and Nevada. Mr. Tan is a gradu-

ate of UCLA and Southwestern University School of Law. He is a member of the Consumers Attorney Association of Los Angeles and is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Philippine American Bar Association.

USCIS allows bene�ciaries of approved immigrant petitions to �le green card application

and obtain Work Authorization earlier

Q: AS a mobile technician, I travel to patients to obtain labo-ratory specimens. I drive the company vehicle, which I ga-rage at my home, to do my job. I cannot use the vehicle to run personal errands while working. I cannot even use it to drop off my child at school. My employer pays me per patient. I do a lot of driving to patient locations and usually work more than 8 hours per day. Am I entitled to addi-tional wages? What are my rights in this situation?

A: Even though you are paid per patient, you may be en-titled to additional pay for the time you spend driving to your employer’s clients’ locations throughout the day.

Generally, an employee’s com-muting time between home and work is not considered hours worked. This rule applies wheth-er the employee works in one location or at different job sites. However, travel during the work day related to the employer’s business, or done at the employ-er’s instructions, is considered hours worked and, therefore, must be paid.

Additionally, California law requires that employees be com-pensated for all time during which an employee is subject to the con-trol of the employer. If, during the travel time, the employee is really “subject to the control of the em-ployer” then the employee must be paid for this time.

These very issues embroiled well-known tools company, Black & Decker, in a lawsuit, when it was sued by its field technicians who worked in the

Is driving part of your job? You may be entitled to back wages!

field doing construction, service, repair, technical and/or mainte-nance work. The employees al-leged that they were required to drive small company trucks to as-signed work locations from home and return to home from those locations. While driving the com-pany trucks, they were required to wear company uniforms, pro-hibited from taking passengers, prohibited from running personal errands, prohibited from hauling personal non-work related gear, required to proceed directly from home to work and back without making unauthorized detours or stops, and required to monitor their work cell phone by keeping it on and answering calls from the employer.

However, the company then instructed them to deduct the first and last 30 minutes from their time sheets as unpaid time. The employees argued that all the time they spent driving to and from work being under the con-trol of their employer is consid-ered “work hours” and should be paid. Rather than proceed to tri-al, the employer decided to settle the case and pay the amount of $4,970,000 to two subclasses of employees: About $2.4 million will go to the field workers class for unpaid wages (with an aver-age payout of $7,965) and about $1,025,000 will go to employees who received defective paystubs from the employer (average pay-out is $1,280).

It is common for service tech-nicians and other field workers to drive company vehicles to the customer’s home or place of business to service or install a product. For such employees,

the employer may have imposed certain requirements and restric-tions on them from the time they leave home up until the time they return home. If so, these field employees may be entitled to additional wages, such as the following:

1) wages for the drive time 2) overtime wages if the work

plus drive time exceed 8 hours 3) minimum wage penalties 4) premium wages for meal

periods that were not provided5) premium wages for rest pe-

riods that were not provided6) penalties for the delay in

paying any type of wages 7) penalties for pay stubs that

did not correct information re-garding the employee’s wages

Whether travel time should be paid to employees may at times be a confusing issue. Employees who spend a significant part of their time driving at work can benefit from consulting with a knowledgeable employment at-torney.

ATTY. KENNETH URSUA REYES

Barrister’s Corner

Early �ling of adjustment of status application and work authorizations available October 2015

Applicants with priority dates earlier than the above stated dates may be eligible to file for adjust-ment of status right now so it is important to check your “priority date” as shown in the notice of ac-tion/ receipt to your I-130, I-140, and or your labor certification against the above dates and categories to determine if you are now eligible to file for ad-justment of status under the revised procedure.

* * *

* * *

THE Department of State and the USCIS revised the procedures for determining visa availability for applicants waiting to file for adjustment of status. The revised procedure will be available beginning October 2015.

In the past, an adjustment of status applicant cannot file for adjustment of status until their pri-ority date is current. The priority date is generally the date when the relative or employer petition is properly filed with the USCIS. For employment based petitions that require a labor certification, the priority date is usually the date the labor cer-tification is accepted by the department of labor. This applies to both family based and employment based petition.

Under the revised procedure, there will be a separate chart for the adjustment of status filing

dates and a separate chart for the application final action dates. The adjustment of status filing dates would allow applicants to file adjustment of status application early even if their priority date is not yet current under the final action date chart. This will allow the applicants to obtain work authorization while their adjustment of status is pending. Hav-ing a work authorization card allows applicants to obtain a social security number and identification and or driver’s license.

This revised process is meant to improve the DOS’s ability to more accurately predict overall immigrant visa demand and determine the cut-off dates for visa issuance published in the Visa Bul-letin.

The new adjustment of status filing date for Oc-tober 2015 is listed below:

October 2015Dates for Filing Family-Sponsored Adjustment of Status Applications

01MAY09 01MAY0 9 01MAY01 01JUL95 01SEP05F2A 01MAR15 01MAR15 01MAR15 01MAR15 01MAR15FSB 01JUL10 01JUL10 01JUL10 01JAN96 01JAN05F3 01APR05 0110R05 01APR05 01OCT96 01AUG95F4 01FEB04 01FEB04 01FEB04 01MAY98 01JAN93

Dates for filing employment-basd adjustment of status applications emplyment-based all chargeability areas exept those listed CHINA - Mainland born INDIA/MEXICO/PHILIPPINES

1st C C C C C2nd C 01MAY14 01JUL11 C C3rd 01SEP15 01OCT13 01JUL05 01SEP15 01JAN15Other 01SEP15 01JAN07 01JUL05 01SEP15 01JAN15Workers4th C C C C CCertain C C C C CReligiousWorkers5th C 01MAY15 C C CTargeted EmploymentAreas/RegionalCentersand Pilot Programs

nal rule is published, the rule will indicate the date on which for-eign nationals may begin to ap-ply for provisional unlawful pres-ence waivers under the changes.

If you have any questions about whether you or a loved one may benefit from this new proposed

rule, please contact a licensed immigration attorney.

***

Proposed provisional waiver expansion will…t

to 30 days) of an employee at a new worksite do not require an amended or new petition. The same holds true for non-work-site locations such as where an employee participates in de-velopmental activity, where an employee spends little time, or when an employee’s job is peri-patetic in nature. Peripatetic in nature means an employee is pri-marily at one worksite location and travels to other locations for short periods of time.

It bears noting that Simeio presumes prior Labor Condition Application (“LCA”) compliance- meaning the employer has filed an LCA before the employee

changes worksite location. If LCA deficiencies exist, then filing an amended H-1B petition under Simeio will neither protect the employer nor employee.

A new environment of compli-ance has been created where em-ployers must understand the post Simeio world to avoid adverse action. Without this indispens-able knowledge, employers run the risk losing valuable company assets like employees, time, and money. Further, H-1B employees run the risk of falling out status which could negatively impact their ability to continue to live and work in the United States. Employers should consult an experienced and knowledgeable

t

Final guidance after Simeo when to �le…immigration attorney for an un-derstating of Simeio compliance and whether an amended or new H-1B petition is necessary.

***

Americaalendar of EventsacrossC

ADVERTISE YOUR EVENTS!PRE-EVENT AND POST-EVENT

GO DEEPER. GO WIDER. LET THE WORLD KNOW.CALL ASIAN JOURNAL: (818) 502-0651DISPLAY AD SIZES AT SPECIAL RATES

FOR NON-PROFIT GROUPS

This September, San Diego Restaurant Week, presented by Lexus Dealerships of San Diego, will CELEBRATE LOCAL... keepin’ it fresh - really fresh. San Diego Restaurant week returns September 20th - September 26th for ONE WEEK ONLY to “Celebrate Local” at all 180+ participating restaurants. Choose from a three-course dinner or two-course lunch deal to satisfy your cravings. NEW THIS YEAR, San Diego Restaurant Week will be partnering with Jacobs and Cushman San Diego Food Bank to provide backpacks for children in need within the San Diego community during the ALL FOR KIDS campaign. Ditch the dirty dishes and join over 150,000 fellow diners as we celebrate San Diego’s thriving culinary scene and the homegrown, local businesses that provide us with the produce and products we love! Tickets are not necessary for this delectable week of discounted dining, but reservations are recom-mended! Visit SanDiegoRestaurantWeek.com for more information, including a list of partici-pating restaurants, or to make your reservations in advance!

Where: Gold Coast Casino & Hotel (4000 Flamingo Rd. Las Vegas, NV 89103)When: Sept. 25 and 26; Grand Reunion Sept. 26 at 7:00 pmFor details and information, please contact Renato Umayam at 323-841-3516, Nida Matias

at 818-394-9178, Greg Lacondola at 702-334-8068, or Arnold Navarro at 318-779-6254.

The Los Angeles Builder Lions Club will celebrate their 25th Anniversary and Annual Outstanding Parents Night on October 10, 2015 at the Almansor Court banquet hall (700 S Almansor St, Alhambra, CA 91801). Music will be provided by The Midnight Motion Band. For further questions, please call Lion Bill Menor (323) 465-0613, Lion Yoli Ramo (213) 305-1332, chairpersons or Lion Tita James, co-chair at (818) 203-2325.

The Officers and Members of the Philippine Medical Association headed by President Dr. Arnel Joaquin, and Auxiliary President Divinia Encina will be holding a whole day event to be held at the Reef on the Water in Long Beach, CA on September 26. Assemblyman Rob Bonta and the Philippine Consul General Leo Herrera-Lim will participate in the discussion of the law that was passed by the State Legislature regarding full immunization of children before going to school with no exemption. There will be a Dinner Show with performances by the Tausala Polynesian Dancers. It will be a Luau event wherein all the past Presidents of the Auxiliary will be presented after their 35 years of service to the PMASC. The dinner ticket is $70.00 (if paid before August 31) and $80.00 after the due date. For dinner show reserva-tions: please contact Noli R. Zosa, M.D. or Mrs. Nena Zosa at (562) 572- 2481.

The Philippine American Society of Certified Public Accountants (PASCPA-LA) will hold its 29th Installation of Officers and Induction of New Members for 2015-2016 on Saturday, September 26 at the Embassy Suites (800 N. Central Ave., Glendale, CA 91203). Networking starts at 4:30 pm and the Program starts at 7:00 pm. The theme for this event is “Leading the Path to our Future Leaders.” Our Incoming Officers include President, Marie Domingo; EVP, Vee Cristobal; VP-Membership, Fernando Austria; VP-Membership Youth, Kathleen Reyes; VP-CPE Val Creus; VP-Community Service, Monette Santillan-Rivera; Secretary, Sheila Falcon; Treasurer, John Domingo; Auditor, Sonia Laureano; PRO, Jason Malabute; Board of Directors, Glo Cajanap, Pete Sinambal, Tess Miguel, Enrico Pena and Erika Dumandan. For more information and sponsorships, please call the Incoming President, Marie Domingo at (323) 256-7770, the Event Coordinator, Glo Cajanap at (818)913-1991 and VP-Membership, Fernando Austria at (213) 400-2744. Please RSVP at events@pascpa.org.

What: Association of Oriental Mindoro 22nd Anniversary Celebration and Induction BallWhen: Saturday, September 26Where: The Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel (5855 West Century Blvd. Los Angeles, CA)Time: 6:00pm, No Host Cocktail; 7:00pm DinnerAttire: Strictly FormalDonation: $65 (prepaid admission only)Please contact: Elsie Amansec - (310) 376-5260, Fred Villao - (714) 932-1932, Erli Conti - (818)

425-5926.For additional information, please email me Nilda at frednil620@sbcglobal.net or nildavillao@

yahoo.com, or visit http://www.omasc.org/.

The legacy of Naomi Palma-Armada, who died of a heart attack June 10, lives on. On October 3, from 6pm to midnight, the Philippine Heritage Institute International (PHII), a private non-profit foundation founded by Naomi in 1989, will present Tribute 2015: White House Millennium Council Award to Outstanding Filipino American Nurses (on its 17th year) and President’s Award: Profiles of Service, Pillars of Community (on its 8th year) at the Shera-ton Cerritos Hotel (12725 Center Court Drive, Cerritos, CA 90703). Parking for the event is free. Attire: Formal or Filipiniana. Music provided by The Midnight Motion Band. For more information, contact president Josie E. de Jesus (714) 272-0300; joestarisdejesus@gmail.com, or event chair Norma Merza (562) 947-0248; norma.merza@yahoo.com.

Please join us at the Carson Library (151 E. Carson St. Carson, CA 90745) on Oct 3rd, from 1-4pm, at the Carson Library to hear stories of individuals from the books, “Filipinos in Carson and the South Bay” and “Hawaiians in Los Angeles.” Join with FANHS-LA Chapter, the Filipino American Library, Friends of the Carson Library, APALA, and other community leaders as we celebrate October as Filipino American History Month and the birthday of Larry Itliong, one of the main organizers of the 1965 UFW Delano Grape Strike. There will also be a screenings of Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the UFW, and America Aloha: Hula Beyond Hawaii; both are educational documentary films about the Filipino and Hawaiian ex-perience in America. This is a FREE event with a talk, book signings by the authors, and light refreshments afterwards. For more information and to RSVP, please contact roseeibanez@gmail.com.

Kultura Festival, an all-ages, contemporary Filipino-American food and arts festival, will take place in Logan Square’s Emporium Arcade Bar in Chicago on Sunday, October 4, from 11 AM to 6 PM. Presented by Filipino Kitchen, this festival is carefully curated to appeal to those who personally identify with Filipino culture, food, and those who are curious or uniniti-ated. With a craft beer bar, food trucks, special guest chefs, and an expected 2,000 festival guests and staff, Kultura Festival aims to highlight the best of Filipino cuisine to Chicago and the Midwest. Tickets can be purchased for $10 general admission at https://ti.to/fili-pino-kitchen/kultura-festival, $5 for students and seniors. More information can be found at http://filipino.kitchen/kulturafestival.

The UNITED LAB-USA will celebrate their 32nd Anniversary on Saturday, October 17, 2015 at Royal Garden in Cerritos. The association is headed by Rey Guieb, President. Music will be provided by The Midnight Motion Band. For other questions, please call Felix Belen, outgoing president at (626) 839-0736.

ATTY. LAWRENCE YANG

Debt Relief

Chapter 20NEVER heard of Chapter 20?

That’s because in the Central District of California, most courts don’t allow Chapter 20, except in Riverside. Riverside bank-ruptcy court allows Chapter 20. What is Chapter 20? First, you do a Chapter 7 to discharge your debts. Then you file a Chapter 13 to avoid a junior lien on your residence. The two together is a Chapter 20. Clients, husband & wife are in their fifties. They owe $100K of credit card and personal debt. Wife is a registered nurse. Husband is a warehouse person. They owe two mortgages on their residence. They owe a balance of $480K on the first, and $120K on the second. They have not paid the first mortgage for six months and there are arrears of $20K on the first. They have not paid the 2nd for a year and owe arrears of $12K on the 2nd.

The house surprisingly is still upside down. There is no equity supporting the 2nd. The current fair market value of the house is $420K. Even though they haven’t paid the first for six months, there is no notice of default yet. There-fore, foreclosure has not started. They want to save the house and get rid of all unsecured debt of $100K. Should they file Chapter 13 because of the mortgage de-fault and because they want to get rid of the 2nd trust deed, or should they do a Chapter 7? The best strategy for clients is to do a Chapter 20. First, they do a Chap-ter 7. That will discharge all their debts. Then, they do a Chapter 13 to remove the 2nd trust deed. However, the time frame is criti-cal. If the Chapter 7 sails through without problem, they get a dis-charge in four months. In the fourth month, they will still own the house because foreclosure has not yet started. When they get their Chapter 7 discharge on the fourth month, they can then file a Chapter 13 to remove the 2nd trust deed.

What this strategy will allow them to do is not worry about paying a portion of the unsecured debt of $100K in the Chapter 13 because that has been discharged

Client seeks Chapter 20 relief to avoid lien

Senior protects house from $100K judgment lien with Chapter 7

in Chapter 7, it will also allow them to cure the default of the first mortgage over 60 months in the Chapter 13, and most impor-tantly, when they strip the 2nd mortgage in the Chapter 13, there is no unsecured portion of the 2nd trust deed that has to be paid in the plan because the Chapter 7 discharged the 2nd trust deed. In other words, the Chapter 13 plan only has to pay the arrears of the first mortgage. The plan doesn’t have to pay any unsecured debt because they are all discharged in the Chapter 7, including the 2nd mortgage, which becomes unsecured debt of $120K when it is avoided by the LAM motion in the Chapter 13.

Note that you can only do this if your residence is still upside down now and for the next 4 to 5 months, and that there is no risk of foreclosure of your residence in the next 4 to 5 months. Start-ing this month, even bankruptcy courts in the Central District of California, namely, Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, and Santa Ana will allow Chapter 20 because the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on July 9, 2015 in Re Boukatch, that the Court of Ap-peals was joining the ‘growing consensus of courts’ allowing debtors to use Chapter 13 to strip off wholly unsecured liens after receiving a Chapter 7 discharge. So, they now recognize Chapter 20 debtors. Prior to this ruling, you can only get a Chapter 20 in Riverside.

Chapter 7Client is 68. I saw him last year

and I told him last year to file his Chapter 7 at that time to prevent a judgment lien on his residence from happening. But being the stubborn person that he is and one who seems to revel in pro-crastinating, he decided to not file his Chapter 7 last year. Last year, he was sued for $100K in a busi-ness lawsuit, which he decided not to defend against. Probably because he knew he was guilty. A default judgment was entered two months ago. Still he waited and did not do anything to protect his house. If he filed for Chapter 7 two months ago, the judgment

of $100K would have been wiped out, thus preventing a judgment lien for $100K on his house from happening this week. This week, he received a notice of involun-tary judgment lien on his house for $108K, which I warned him about last year. Now, he wants to file the Chapter 7. After the judg-ment lien came in, the IRS fol-lowed with $90K of tax liens.

Well, it not that simple any-more. His residence has $300,000 of equity. Even if he qualifies for $175K equity exemption, there still $125K of free equity on which the lien attaches. He can-not remove the judgment lien on the $125K at this late time. He is afraid that creditor may move to sell his house because of the lien, is this possible he asks? Of course the creditor can move to sell the house because creditor has a secured lien on the house, and if that is not paid, he can ask the superior court to allow him to sell the house so he can get paid.

Chapter 7 now will prevent creditor from taking the next step of selling his house because the discharge will prevent credi-tor from taking any further steps to collect the debt, including asking the court to sell client’s house. So, the Chapter 7 still protects his house by prevent-ing the judgment creditor from selling his house because of the lien, so he can live in the house until he dies and the judgment creditor will not be able to do anything to collect the judgment. Frankly, I don’t know how this client thinks. I warned him early enough to file Chapter 7 last year to prevent this from happening. Makes no sense to me at all.

“By day the Lord directs His love, at night His song is with me - a prayer to the gold of my life.” — Psalm 42:8h.

REVERENDRODEL G. BALAGTAS

To Live With Faith

LIKE millions of Catholics, I find myself glued to the televi-sion this week, watching Pope Francis visit the United States of America and hearing him speak to the whole world, not as a po-litical leader, but as a true shep-herd and the Vicar of Christ on earth. And I must admit that I am so proud of our Holy Father and my Catholic Christian faith.

Pope Francis is finally gain-ing back the moral authority of the Catholic Church through his words and actions. His speeches speak to the entire humanity. His clamor to promote the dig-nity of every human person, to foster human fraternity and to work together to protect the en-vironment speaks to the hearts of citizens of this world. Without a doubt, his genuine concern for the poor and weak mem-bers of the so-ciety and his credible acts of simplic-ity, mercy and charity have inspired not only Chris-tians but non-believers as well.

“To give to each his own, to cite the classic definition of justice, means that no human individual or group can consider itself absolute, per-mitted to bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals or their social groupings,” he said in his speech to the United Na-tions.

To this remark, the U.N. del-egates gave him a loud and long applause. “Our world demands of all government leaders a will which is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and im-mediate measures for preserving and improving the natural envi-ronment and thus putting an end as quickly as possible to the phe-nomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its baneful conse-quences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour, including prostitution, the drug and weapon trade, terrorism and international organized crime,” the pope delineated. Again loud applauses came from all the at-tendees of the 70th Session of the General Assembly of the

The Pope and his tireless e�orts to enter into dialogue with all people of the earth, our ‘common home’ United Nations.

The Holy Father has been clear about his mission in his journey to the United States. As he said in his speech to the US Congress, he came to enter into a dialogue with leaders and citi-zens of the free and brave coun-try of the United States of Amer-ica. “I would like to enter into dialogue with the many elderly persons who are a storehouse of wisdom forged by experience, and who seek in many ways, es-pecially through volunteer work, to share their stories and their in-sights. I know that many of them are retired, but still active; they keep working to build up this land. I also want to dialogue with all those young people who are

working to realize their great and noble aspirations, who are not led astray by facile proposals, and who face difficult situations, often as a result of immaturity on the part of many adults. I wish to dialogue with all of you, and I would like to do so through the historical memory of your peo-ple,” the pope stated.

Even his speech to the US Bishops focused on this theme of dialogue. “Dialogue is our method, not as a shrewd strat-egy but out of fidelity to the One who never wearies of visiting the marketplace, even at the elev-enth hour, to propose his offer of love (Mt 20:1-16)…The path ahead then is dialogue among yourselves, dialogue in your presbyterates, dialogue with lay persons, dialogue with families, dialogue with society. I cannot ever tire of encouraging you to dialogue fearlessly,” he told the US Bishops.

Pope Francis’s emphasis on entering into dialogue with one another as habitants of this earth, our “common home,” con-nects well to the Gospel Reading

of this 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time. When John was alarmed at seeing someone driving out demons in the name of Jesus, he complained to Jesus. To his surprise, Jesus responded, say-ing, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9:38-43).

Implicit in this remark of Jesus is a call to affirm other people who may not share our religion but are doing good works for humanity. Implicit in his words is his summon to us his to enter into dialogue with all people to work for the common good.

“I pray to Almighty God that this will be the case, and I assure you of my sup-port and my prayers, and the support of all the faithful of the Catholic Church, that this Institution, all its member States, and each of its of-

ficials, will always render an effective service to mankind, a service respectful of diversity and capable of bringing out, for the sake of the common good, the best in each people and in every individual,” Pope Francis concluded during his address to the United Nations.

Like Pope Francis, may we never get tired of walking on the path of dialogue with all people! After all, we are all children of God and inhabitants of this “common home”, journeying to our final home with our Creator in heaven!

* * *

“To give to each his own, to cite the classic definition of justice, means that no human individual or group

can consider itself absolute, permitted to bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals or their social

groupings.” – Pope Francis

PASADENA, CA — The Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE) is now officially accepting applica-tions for the 2015 - 2016 CAUSE Veterans Initiative program.

The CAUSE Veterans Initiative is a civic leadership program for veterans and active duty service-members who are seeking com-munity leadership roles outside of the military. The Veterans Ini-tiative program was specifically designed for veterans especially interested in increasing the ac-cessibility and awareness of avail-able veterans resources as well as learning how to effectively ad-vocate on behalf of Asian Pacific American (APA) veterans issues. In this program, participants are provided with mentors, profes-sional development opportuni-ties, issue and policy briefings as well as other social capitals that are essential to helping other vet-erans successfully transition into a civilian lifestyle.

During this nine-month pro-gram, participants will not only gain insight on issues related to

Applications now open for CAUSE Veterans Initiative program

the veteran community and how to provide assistance, but will also be exposed to opportuni-ties for individual professional development. Exclusive ac-cess to a network of prominent mentors and enhanced political awareness are a few notable ex-amples.

Candidates should be active duty servicemembers or veter-ans discharged under honor-able conditions. Ideal candi-dates should be 18-28 years of age and must be able to attend all mandatory events. Priority will be given to those applicants demonstrating a strong interest in APA affairs.

Download the application from our website here: http://bit.ly/cvi2015-apply

All applications must be re-ceived by CAUSE via email at info@causeusa.org no later than Friday, October 2, 2015. Top candidates will be notified of their acceptance by early Octo-ber. Please contact CAUSE at info@causeusa.org or at (626) 356-9838, if you have any ques-

tions. It is the policy of Center for

Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE) to pro-vide equal opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual preference, age, or disability.

* * *Center for Asian Americans

United for Self-Empowerment (CAUSE) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan, community-based organization with a mission to advance the political empower-ment of the Asian Pacific Ameri-can (APA) community through nonpartisan voter registration and education, community out-reach, and leadership develop-ment.

For press registration and in-quiries, please contact CAUSE by phone at (626) 356-9838 or by email at aki@causeusa.org. General information can be ob-tained from our website, www.causeusa.org. Our office is lo-cated at 260 South Los Robles Avenue, #115, Pasadena, CA 91101. ■

&MARKETPLACESHOWROOM

by PRINZ P. MAGTULIS Philstar.com

Philippines among growth leaders in Asia Paci�c in 10 years

ATTY. MICHAELGURFINKEL, ESQ

ImmigrationCorner

Business Quote of the Week“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn

from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”

- Thomas J. Watson, Former chairman and CEO of International Business Machines (IBM)

PH leads group mobilizing fund to counter global climate change

Employment-based green card revoked because of fake job

A COUPLE came to my of-fice for a consultation who was in tears and panic because their “American Dream” was crum-bling around them. They are al-ready permanent residents (green card holders), but just received a notice that the USCIS was intend-ing to revoke their green cards! The reason? They had a fraudu-lent employment petition, based on a fake job.

According to this couple, upon arriving in the US, they went to an immigration consultant (rather than an attorney) for advice, as-sistance, and representation. The consultant told them he had sev-eral staffing agencies and prom-ised them that, for a hefty fee, one of his staffing agencies could petition them for an employment-based green card. What’s more, they did not even have to work for the petitioner!

Although those promises were too good to be true, the couple quickly took the bait, and put down their hard-earned money. After all, what a deal! While other people had to “play by the rules”

(by having a “real” employer petition them), this couple was elated they had found a shortcut or quick-fix to their immigration situation. And, when their green cards were later granted, they convinced themselves that they had “gotten away with it.”

Now, their green cards were be-ing revoked/rescinded, and they will likely be placed in deportation/removal proceedings. According to the USCIS’s notice, the consul-tant’s offices were raided, and he confessed to his fraudulent em-ployment schemes: that although his corporations had petitioned hundreds of people, there really were never any “real” jobs. His records (including the names and addresses of his “clients”) were also seized and reviewed in detail by the government. The USCIS apparently has been tracking all those “employees” petitioned by this consultant’s shell (or bogus) corporations. And that was how this couple got caught! Some-times, people are “caught” with “fake job” green cards when they apply for citizenship, and they are questioned at their naturalization interview on whether they ever worked for that employer, and are

told to provide verifiable pay stubs and tax returns to prove it.

Fortunately for this couple, there are other forms of relief (or defenses) available to them, if and when removal/deportation de-fense is required.

If you obtained a green card through a fake job, you may al-ready want to consider seeking the advice and guidance of a rep-utable attorney, to see if there is a way to repair the damage, or to already consider your options and defenses if you should ever re-ceive the same type of notice from the USCIS, that your green card is being revoked.

* * *

Asian Development Bank: PH at risk for slowest economic growth in 4 years

by AGNES CONSTANTE AJPress

WITH decreases in exports and agricultural production, the Philippine economy is headed for its slowest economic growth in four years, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Along with lackluster public spending, the Manila-based ADB has trimmed its 2015 growth projection for the Philippines from 6.4 percent to 6 percent, accord-ing to CNN.

ADB moved to update its 2015 Asian Development Outlook on Tuesday, Sept. 22, after the econ-omy posted slower growth rates in the first two quarters – 5 percent in the first and 5.2 percent in the second – due to a weakened global demand for exports and the contraction in agricultural output caused by El Niño, Rappler reported.

Recently, the peso also fell 4.6 percent against the US dollar by mid-September, “as global vola-tility took hold of global markets causing foreign funds to exit developing markets,” Rappler reported.

The bank further forecasts that the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is set for its slowest growth since 2000 at 4.4 percent this year and 4.9 percent in 2016; growth for

greater developing Asia will also slow from 6.3 percent to 5.8 per-cent for 2015 and 2016, the ADB predicts.

“There are considerable head-winds to growth in Asia although it remains the largest source of global growth. Risks to the outlook increased coming from capital flow reversals and cur-rency depreciation although these are manageable,” said Joseph Zveglich Jr., ADB director for macroeconomic research, accord-ing to Philstar.

However, among Southeast Asian countries, the bank main-tains positive prospects for the Philippines, which has an above average growth rate.

“All in all, growth will [remain] favorable. We assess that eco-nomic expansion will continue and will accelerate on the second half of the year,” ADB Country director Richard Bolt said in a briefing, Philstar reported.

Despite low gains in the first semester of the year, the Aquino administration is aiming for a 7- to 8-percent growth rate for 2015.

“After a slow start to the year we are now seeing a pickup in fiscal spending which combined with spending linked to the May 2016 elections will help lift the domestic economy,” Bolt said.

MANILA - London-based Capi-tal Economics Ltd. predicts the Philippines would be one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia Pacific, achieving an average six to 6.5 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the next decade.

Gareth Leather, emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, said the Philip-pines has bucked the economic slowdown across large parts of emerging Asia over the past couple of years.

“The positive outlook for in-vestment is one of the key reasons why we remain optimistic on the outlook for the Philippines. We think growth in the Philippines will average around six to 6.5 per-cent over the next decade. This would not only represent a big improvement on its performance over recent decades, but it would also make the Philippines one of the fastest growing economies in the region,” Leather said.

He pointed out the Philippines has enjoyed a major reversal of fortunes in recent years after it

by LAWRENCE AGCAOILI Philstar.com was labelled as the “sick man of

Asia” growing an average of just over six percent since 2010.

“Not only has this made the Philippines one of the region’s fastest growing economies dur-ing this period, it has also made it one of the few countries in the region to see economic growth accelerate compared with the previous decade,” he added.

He noted that investment growth has averaged just under 10 percent since 2010 after aver-aging an annual average of just 3.6 percent from 2000 to 2009.

The ratio of investments to gross domestic product (GDP) in the Philippines went up to 22 percent but is still much lower compared to other countries in the region.

“Investment plays a key role in driving economic growth. In the short term it provide a direct boost to domestic demand, but it also helps over the longer term by boosting the productive potential of the economy,” Leather said.

Leather said, the prospects for the Philippines remain bright amid the country’s low savings

MANILA - The Philippines will lead 19 other countries in the establishment of a group that will tackle how to cope with natural di-sasters and calamities by mobiliz-ing funds toward climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Finance Secretary Cesar Puri-sima chairs the Vulnerable 20 (V20) group which will hold its in-augural meeting on the sidelines of the annual gathering of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washing-ton, D.C. on Oct. 8.

The group will “enable vulner-able countries to steer a high-level policy dialogue pertaining to action on climate change and the promotion of climate resilient and low emission environment,” according to a statement at the V20 website.

Among others, the group aims to develop key strategies to eas-ily disburse public and private funds to respond to catastrophes. Sharing best practices on dealing with disasters and their impact to economies is also part of the group’s tasks.

Finally, V20 also seeks to devel-op approaches to climate finance and engage in “joint activity and other collective actions” in the future, the statement said.

The group’s membership spans three continents and is led by the Philippines and Timor Leste in Southeast Asia as the nations belonging to the Pacific Ring of Fire, economies at the pathway of typhoons and most prone to other natural calamities. Vietnam is likewise a member.

Small Pacific countries voicing out actions to limit the rise of sea waters and attend to the climate change phenomenon are also part of the group. They are Madagas-car, Maldives, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Bhutan.

Other member-nations are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barba-dos, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Nepal, Rwanda, Saint Lucia and Tanzania.

According to the meetings schedule, technical working groups and finance minister depu-ties will open the inaugural gath-ering on Oct. 7. Finance ministers will then follow suit on Oct. 8.

The V20 is established pursu-ant to the Costa Rica Action Plan 2013-2015 which laid out the group’s priorities when it first met informally in Warsaw Poland two years ago. Aside from climate finance, the plan mentioned the need to tackle the impact of cli-mate change to health, human rights, labor, migration, and sci-ence.

Georgetown Mortgage’s Rancho Cucamonga branch manager Agnes Santos-Claveria announces their grand opening

PLDT, Smart step updigital innovations

Gov’t needs to make PH more business-friendly

AGNES Santos-Claveria is the Branch Manager of Georgetown Mortgage (GTM) in Rancho Cu-camonga in California. She takes pride in being a part of a company that has a strong presence in multiple states that has thriving housing markets. Agnes serves as the conduit to Filipino American community members in Southern California who are in the market for a first home or to help current homeowners seeking to refinance or restructure their mortgages.

Georgetown Mortgage recently held the Grand Opening of its Ran-cho Cucamonga Branch at 9587 Foothill Boulevard on September 15, 2015 with many colleagues and luminaries in the real estate, mortgage and other related indus-tries in the region. As promised, it was a fun event complete with a taco caterer, dessert bar, raffle prizes and $500 lender credit discount coupons that were given away.

The company’s presence is intended to cater to the burgeon-ing needs for housing in the communities it serves. To do so, Georgetown is building its network of strong, mutually ben-eficial relationships with business partners in the real estate industry and other mortgage-related third party service providers such as title, escrow and insurance com-panies.

Georgetown is a direct residen-tial mortgage lender that started as a small brokerage company in 2001 in New Mexico under the helm of Mr. Roy and Barbara

Jones. The couple decided to move to Georgetown in Texas in 2003 where they put up their own mortgage office under its present name. It now has over 65 branches in 9 states which include Texas, Arizona, California, among others.

There are many reasons that sets Georgetown Mortgage from their competition. They offer flexible mortgage programs that include Reverse Mortgage, 95% Construction Financing, FHA 203k and Homestyle Renovation loans, as well as the standard loan programs – FHA, Conventional, USDA, VA and Jumbo loans. They also offer niche programs, such as the No credit, work visa, Foreign National loans, Asset Depletion and the Co-op Condotel programs.

What’s more, the company of-fers 18 business day closing. Ask Agnes for details. The company also offers competitive fees and interest rates, having the ability to work with borrowers on pricing that is most appropriate to their financial situation.

As a kababayan, Agnes hopes to help Filipino American home-buyers who may be looking to buy their first home, second or vacation home or rental property. She can also help existing hom-eowners lower their mortgage payments, shorten their loan term or take cash out from the equity of their homes through refinanc-ing. Agnes feels privileged to have served other markets and communities as well, such as the

other Asians, Hispanic and non-Hispanic market segments.

Working with realtor referral partners and past clients have al-ways been a sustainable business strategy for Agnes, extending her network by continuous, en-ergetic networking. She derives a great sense of fulfillment when she gets people into their homes or get them out of a particularly stressful mortgage payment pro-gram.

Giving back to the community is part of what Agnes’ Power Team’s branch in Rancho Cucamonga is all about. As a committed donor to the ABS CBN Foundation In-ternational (AFI), Agnes and her team pride themselves in giving back to disadvantaged Filipinos by extending a helping hand that

might spell the difference between hope and despair in their lives. Through the various projects of AFI like Bayan Ni Juan, a com-munity development project and Sagip Kapamilya, Agnes hopes that their involvement would help bring positive changes in the lives of kababayans In that uniquely Pinoy spirit of Bayanihan.

Come visit the Georgetown Mortgage office in Rancho Cu-camonga. Agnes’ warm, friendly Power Team would love to talk to you. The branch office is lo-cated at 9587 Foothill Blvd (near Archibald and Foothill Boulevard cross streets). Call Agnes San-tos- Claveria at (626) 731-2162 or email her at santosagnes@me.com.

MANILA - Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Smart Communications Inc. are looking to bring more digital innovations to consumers follow-ing the introduction of PayMaya Visa Card.

“As our group leads in build-ing the physical infrastructure of a modern Philippines, we are also at the forefront in deploying digital and citizen-friendly ser-vices. We look forward to bringing even more innovations to the Fili-pino consumer in the near future,” PLDT and Smart chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said in a statement on Friday, Sept. 25.

The statement was made fol-lowing the launch of the PayMaya Visa Card by Smart eMoney Inc., the digital financial innovations unit of PLDT and Smart on Friday, Sept. 25.

The PayMaya Visa Card is the first live beep card in the market that combines the best of online transactions with a physical pay-ments card.

By using the PayMaya Visa card with beep, customers can easily purchase train fare for the Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT), just like a regular beep stored value card and tap it on contactless terminals.

The PayMaya Visa card with beep can be used to swipe for purchases in physical stores and for online shopping.

As a special limited offer until the end of the year, commuters can avail of the PayMaya Visa Card with beep for free plus a bonus P30 beep stored value just by loading their PayMaya account with P100 in PayMaya activation booths in selected LRT and MRT stations.

“This is another breakthrough in Smart Money’s storied jour-ney since the introduction of its pioneering mobile money Smart Money platform more than four-teen years ago,” Smart e-Money president Orlando B. Vea said.

To avail of the new card, cus-tomers just have to download the PayMaya mobile app and go to the activation centers to get the PayMaya Visa card with beep.

by LOUELLA D. DESIDERIO Philstar.com

Users of the PayMaya mobile app can also buy discounted pre-paid Smart and Talk N’ Text load.

For upgraded PayMaya ac-counts, they can also use their PayMaya Visa card with beep to withdraw cash from the PayMaya wallet from any automated teller machine, as well as easily send money to other PayMaya users with upgraded accounts.

To make it more convenient for customers, Smart eMoney is broadening the availability of PayMaya load centers to include not only train stations but other es-tablishments such as 7-11 stores, Robinson’s business centers, SM business centers, MiniStop stores, Smart Jump centers and Smart Padala outlets nationwide, among others.

Smart eMoney, together with Voyager Innovations, the digital in-novations arm of PLDT and Smart, has been introducing several innovative services and partner-ships in the areas of payments and e-commerce.

Earlier, BMI Research, the think-tank arm of the Fitch group said the product offering of Smart Money will be strengthened through partnerships, and give Smart an edge over rival operator Globe’s GCash service.

Smart eMoney is the first non-financial institution in Asia to be granted by Visa with an issuing and acquiring license.

For more information on the PayMaya Visa Card, consumers can visit www.paymaya.com.

Asian Development Bank: PH...He added that increased invest-

ments in public goods and infra-structure, coupled with higher private consumption and more jobs, could prompt more growth, according to CNN.

“Recently enacted reforms to improve competitiveness and to attract investment will play a key role in the future growth as will continued reforms and invest-ments in infrastructure and other public goods,” Bolt said.

Along with lower growth rates predicted, the ADB also forecasts lower inflation because of lower oil prices that are likely to carry on

Philippines among growth...rate.

“The positive outlook for in-vestment is one of the key rea-sons why we remain optimistic on the outlook for the Philippines,” he said.

Likewise, First Metro Invest-ments Corp. (FMIC) as well as University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) expect the country’s GDP expanding faster at 6.2 percent this year from 6.1 percent last year.

The robust outlook was an-

until 2016, according to Philstar.In spite of slowed growth, Rap-

pler reported that the ADP still anticipates that Asia will maintain its role as the largest contributor to global GDP, although it may require reforms to pull through.

“Emerging markets are fac-ing receding capital flows and depreciating currencies – a trend that may be exacerbated by the upcoming rise in US interest rates. Implementing macropru-dential policies and developing local currency bond markets can bolster financial resilience and mitigate risks to borrowers,” the ADB report stated.

chored on the higher con-sumption due to the May 2016 national elections as well as the improving government spending.

“With government spending getting into high gear, especially as the May 2016 elections come closer, and a little nudge from exports, we see the economy topping the Association of South-east Asian Nations and East Asian countries’ growth, except China’s, with a projected full year GDP growth of 6.2 percent.

by PAOLO G. MONTECILLO Inquirer.net

REFORMS instituted by the Aquino administration have al-ready taken deep root and would likely continue to bear fruit well past 2016, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

A change in leadership next year would do little, senior of-ficials predicted, to reverse the gains made over the past five years, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, social welfare and education.

Focus should then be on pursu-ing additional changes that would make the country more business-friendly, which would help attract fresh investments that lead to higher job creation and economic growth felt by a broader base.

“The next administration will want their own policy direction, but if we break it down to basics, it’s hard to imagine a future ad-ministration not wanting to im-prove employment,” said Richard Bolt, ADB’s country director for the Philippines.

ADB urges new leadership to pursue additional reforms

Since 2010, President Aquino’s government has succeeded in in-creasing the state’s infrastructure pipeline, despite implementation delays. A clear plan has now been laid out for the construction of new roads, bridges and airports, among others, either by the gov-ernment itself or through public-private partnerships (PPP).

In education, annual spending has increased exponentially and the recent shift to a K-12 format for basic schooling, putting the Philippines at par with its neigh-bors, was a welcome develop-ment, Bolt said.

The recent passage of the Competition Law would help break down barriers to entry for several industries while the new Cabotage Law would bring down the cost of transporting goods around the archipelago, the of-ficial added.

Another landmark program is the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme, which the ADB funds and which

WIN Hyundai: Two giant locations to serve youTHERE’S no better place

for kababayans to shop for Hyundai vehicles than WIN Hyundai in Carson, Calif.

Established in 2011, the young dealership started with the goal of becoming the premiere Hyundai dealership. Since then, it has lived up to its aim by consistently ranked among the top five dealers in the district. In 2012, the dealership, which is also Equus Certified, was also ranked No. 1 in district sales.

WIN is proud to carry Hyundai vehicles. On Wednesday, July 22, J.D. Power and Associates ranked the automaker No. 2 among non-premium automakers in the 2015 Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study.

“Finishing among the top two non-premium brands in this year’s J.D. Power, the APEAL Study shows Hyundai takes design, technology, features, and performance seriously across the entire lineup. Having the best-selling Sonata ranking among the top two in its class is a remarkable accomplishment and we are committed to delivering the highest customer experience possible to our owners,” said Mike O’Brien, vice president of corporate and product planning at Hyundai.

WIN Hyundai offers a wide selection of quality Hyundai vehicles and extends its offerings across the Los Angeles area with its two locations: one in Carson and another in El Monte. On both sites, customers can find new and certified pre-owned vehicles – including the Santa Fe, Sonata, Elantra and Genesis Coupe – to meet a variety of budgets and preferences. Because the Carson and El Monte locations serve just about anyone and everyone in Southern California, its experienced sales representatives are prepared and eager to help customers find the cars that best fit their preferences and needs.

When it comes to purchasing a Hyundai, WIN specializes in working with all types of credit, good or bad, and has the ability to refinance current loans.

Additionally, although it sells Hyundai cars, the dealership services vehicles of all makes and models and currently has an oil change special of $19.95.

Beyond the highly-praised brand WIN offers Southern California residents, it has departments dedicated diverse groups found throughout the Los Angeles region, including Chinese, Korean, Hispanic and Filipino communities.

“We want to make the buying process as easy as possible, so we understand communicating in your native language can be important to completely understanding the purchasing and financing of your vehicle,” said Munir Younis, general sales manager of the dealership.

Younis, who is of Middle Eastern descent, grew up in the Philippines and can speak Tagalog fluently, just as the Filipino sales representatives at the dealership.

“We have a dedicated team that serves the largest Filipino community in the U.S. We believe in giving back to the community and have participated in multiple sponsorship opportunities with multiple Filipino groups and organizations, including the Philippine Independence Day Foundation,” he said.

Among Filipino members of the WIN Hyundai Carson team include long-time car industry veterans Jun Milan and Jay Trinidad.

“WIN is a great dealership and customer service is the best it can be,” Milan said.

Also on the Filipino team is Franklin Magarro, the dealership’s

internet sales manager.In addition to its on-location

offerings, those shopping for Hyundai cars can browse WIN’s inventory online with user-friendly filters. Whether you know specifically what make and model you’re looking for, are trying to shop based on a budget, or simply want to browse through what is available, the dealership website makes it easy to shop around from home. Live chat is also available and sales representatives are happy to assist customers via phone.

The small, privately-owned organization, has created multiple jobs for Southern California residents through its two branches and is one of the highest tax-revenue generating companies for the Carson and El Monte.

WIN Hyundai is also the designated dealership for national Hyundai commercials aired on television.WIN Hyundai Carson

2205 E 223rd StreetCarson, CA 90810(877) 354-4253Monday through Saturday:

9am to 9pmSunday: 10am to 8pmWIN Hyundai El Monte3462 N Peck RoadEl Monte, CA 91731(877) 290-2164Monday through Sunday: 9am

to 9pmwww.winhyundai.com

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rewards families for keeping chil-dren in school and making them attend regular health checkups. “These are more than just cash handouts,” Bolt said of the CCT.

The country’s next president should focus on further bringing down the cost of doing business. The education system should also be designed to produce graduates that Philippine industries needed, Bolt pointed out.

In a report on Tuesday, the

Gov’t needs to make PH...

Online resource for new driversMOST young people look for-

ward to the day they get their driver’s license, but they should know that with the newfound free-dom also comes the responsibility of caring for their car.

To help new drivers become more comfortable with the auto service and repair process, the Car Care Council, the source of information for the “Be Car Care Aware” campaign promoting regular vehicle care, maintenance and repair, has a variety of online resources including a video en-titled “Auto Service and Repair: What to Expect.” It provides valu-able information on such topics as finding the right auto repair facil-ity, what happens at the shop and what questions to ask. The video also covers consumer rights and the manufacturer’s warranty.

Also available at www.carcare.org/car-care-guide is a free 80-page booklet in English and in Spanish. The popular guide uses easy-to-understand language and includes descriptions of major vehicle systems, questions to ask a professional technician, and a checklist to remind drivers what vehicle systems need to be main-tained and when service or repair

should be performed. Special sections on fuel economy and environmental awareness show new drivers how to get better gas mileage and make their vehicle more environmentally friendly.

The Council’s online cus-tom service schedule and e-mail reminder service can also help young people remember to include car care in their busy schedules. This free, easy-to-use resource can be personalized to help make auto care more con-venient and economical. There’s also a general service schedule that can be printed and followed.

New drivers should be sure to consult their vehicle owner’s manual for specific recommenda-tions by the carmaker.

“Before handing over the keys to new drivers, it’s a good idea to take some time to educate them on the importance of preventative maintenance and how proper ve-hicle care relates to the reliability and safety of their car,” said Rich White, executive director of the Car Care Council.

For a copy of the council’s “Car Care Guide” or for more information, visit www.carcare.org. (ManilaTimes.net)

Manila-based multilateral lender slashed its 2015 growth forecast for the Philippine economy fol-lowing the country’s lackluster performance in the first half.

In a report, the ADB said it saw gross domestic product (GDP) expanding by 6 percent in 2015. This was down from a July fore-cast of a growth of 6.4 percent. The growth forecast for next year of 6.3 percent was kept.

“After a slow start to the year, we are now seeing a pickup in

fiscal spending,” Bolt said.Soft global conditions damp-

ened demand for the country’s exports in the first half, keeping economic growth at 5.3 percent. Government spending also fell short of state targets, dragging down overall growth numbers.

ADB’s forecast falls short of the government’s full-year target for the year of at least 7 percent. Meanwhile, the rest of the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow by 5.8 percent.

Top car color choices of men and women WHEN it comes to car colors,

men and women follow different roads.

Colorful findingsA recent study by iSeeCars.

com of more than 30 million cars revealed some illuminating infor-mation about just how the sexes diverge:

• Surprisingly, the favored car color of men is red, a hue they have a greater preference for, versus women, by 12.3 percent. Next is orange, which men prefer more by 11.8 percent, and black by 9.6 percent.

• Metallic colors are more popu-lar with women. As opposed to men, women have a greater pen-chant for silver cars by 9.2 percent, brown by 9.1 percent and gold by 7.3 percent.

• Red and black, preferred car color picks of men, are also the top colors for sports cars. For pickup trucks, white is the most popular color.

• Orange, a less-common car color option but a favorite of men, is found on sports cars and coupés more than any other vehicle type.

The study was conducted by

iSeeCars.com, a car search engine that helps consumers find the best deals on used cars.

What it all means“These study results could sug-

gest that women are more practical in their choices. For the most part, they may just want to buy a reason-ably priced car that safely drives them around,” suggested Phong Ly, co-founder and CEO of iSeeCars.com. “On the other hand, for men, perhaps they may be a bit more idealistic about cars, preferring something that has speed and is fun to drive.” (ManilaTimes.net)

Longo Lexus o�ers the ultimate conveniences in customer amenities

WE all know that the process of buying a car is not just as sim-ple as buying a new pair of shoes at the mall. It is a long process that involves careful comparison between vehicle models, review-ing the car’s specifications with regards to the needs of the buy-er, and of course, the negotia-tions for the financing packages and promos.

As such, it is very important for Longo Lexus that its custom-ers are supremely comfortable and well-pampered if they are going to make that important decision of which Lexus they will drive home.

As a car dealership, there are many reasons why Longo Lexus has been an Elite of Lexus dealer since 1992. One of those reasons includes the ultimate conve-niences that they offer in cus-tomer amenities. As one of the leading Lexus car dealerships, Longo Lexus provides not only pre-sales conveniences, but also noteworthy post-sales services.

Longo Lexus is known for the unique amenities that they offer to dealership customers.

One of those unique amenities include an on-site Auto Club of Southern California (AAA) cen-ter. The AAA branch offers DMV services, airline, car, and hotel reservations, discounted movie and local attraction tickets, AAA membership application process-ing, OnBoard Teen Safe Driver Program, auto and home insur-ance, and more. Sign up at our AAA branch in Longo, and you’ll receive a special $13 discount off the original membership price.

Aside from from the on-site AAA branch, Longo is also the first dealership in the US to of-fer Verizon Wireless and Verizon Wireless Neighborhood services on-site. Offering the latest tech-nologies in telecommunications, mobile accessories, and services, Longo’s on-site Verizon branch makes it even more convenient for customers to stay connected with the world. Our Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer is open from Monday to Friday, 7am-7pm; Saturday, from 7am to 5:30pm; and Sunday, from 8am to 4pm. Please call (888) 811-5201.

While waiting for your car to come out of our premium car-care service lines or while you’re going through our wide inven-tory of luxurious Lexus vehicles, you can enjoy a quick bite at Sub-

way or a nice re-freshing drink at Starbucks.

If you want to pamper your car, you can also shop at the Lon-go Lexus Parts Boutique, which carries a wide selection of gen-uine Lexus parts and accessories for your vehicle. With over 31,000 parts and acces-sories in stock, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for.

The after-sales services of a dealership is just as important as the pre-sales amenities. And it these after-sales services that make buying a vehicle at Longo Lexus a truly rewarding experience.

We offer complimentary loaner vehicles for your use while your car is in our service center. For inquiries, on our loaners, please call our coordinators at 1-800-597-0813.

For your convenience, we also offer complimentary shuttle ser-vice to take you to your office, home, or even the mall—basically anywhere within a 15-mile ra-dius—while your vehicle is being serviced.

If you don’t have time to make the drive to our dealership, our Longo Lexus Mobile Service Van and Truck can provide routine maintenance services, such as oil changes and tire rotations, right at your home or office. Appoint-ments can be made up to 6 months in advance.

Similarly, if your service require-ments need the car to be physi-cally present at our Longo service center, we offer complimentary flatbed truck pick-up and delivery of your vehicle to and from our dealership. Our Longo Lexus Mo-bile Service Van and Truck, and our complimentary flatbed truch pick-up and delivery service are exclusively for cars that are pur-chased from Longo Lexus, and are located within 60mile radius from Longo.

Please call 1-800-597-0813 to schedule your appointment.

Also, for every service appoint-ment, each vehicle receives a com-plimentary car wash in our Longo Lexus Car Spa.

For our clients who wish to use other cars, aside from those among our fleet of loaner Lexus cars, they can avail of the services of our Enterprise Rent-A-Car offices.

With two branches on the Longo Premises, Enterprise is ready to address all your car rental needs. Please call (800) 969-6519 for more information.

We understand that life’s daily grind requires our customers to be always on top of everything while keeping up with an on-the-go lifestyle. Which is they are more than welcome to work at our Longo Business Center where they can work on our com-puter terminals, free of charge. We also offer complimentary Wireless Internet Access (Wi-Fi) to our customers throughout the facility. This is particularly useful for our customers with mobile devices, laptops, and tablets.

While you wait for your car to come out of our service center, your kids can enjoy and have a good time at our Children Play Area, where we offer video games and other activities for the young ones.

Longo Lexus customers will also be offered complimentary use of our iPads while they are waiting for their vehicle.

For more information on our Longo Lexus Guest Services, please log on to www.longolex-us.com/GuestAmenities or call (626) 539-2956.

Longo Lexus is located at 3530 North Peck Road, El Monte, CA 91731.