2 december 1-3, 2021 • SoCal ASIAN JOURNAL
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From the Front Page
BONIFACIO DAY. A man dressed as a revolutionary fighter waves the Katipunan flag during the 158th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila on Tuesday, November 30. Bonifacio led anti-Spanish revolutionary Filipinos in organizing the Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan or KKK. PNA photo by Avito Dalan
PH suspends, testing, quarantine... PAGE 1 well as those with incomplete doses or without a negative COVID-19 test result will be required to undergo quarantine for five days. However, travelers from “green” countries who arrived prior to Nov. 28 may still follow quarantine protocols assigned to their country of origin upon the date of their arrival. Nograles also announced that the IATF suspended Resolution No. 150-A (Series of 2021), which allowed the entry of fully vaccinated nationals who don’t need a visa in the Philippines, amid the increasing threat of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. “With Omicron designated as a Variant of Concern, the IATF likewise approved the recommendations to strengthen local COVID-19 response,” the statement read. “These include strongly enjoining the local government units to heighten their alert for increasing and clustering of cases and emphasizing the
need for active case finding; to immediately conduct contact tracing and isolation of cases detected from case surveillance among the community, including domestic and international travelers; and to use RT-PCR testing in order to allow for whole-genome sequencing of collected samples,” it added. Further, the Philippines added more countries to its “red” list. Effective until Dec. 15, the countries classified as “red” are South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy. This means international travel of all persons, regardless of vaccination status, coming from or who have been to “red” countries/jurisdictions/ territories within the last 14 days prior to arrival to any port of the Philippines will not be allowed. “Only Filipinos returning to the country via government-initiated or non-government-initiated re-
patriation and Bayanihan Flights may be allowed entry subject to the prevailing entry, testing, and quarantine protocols for Red List countries/jurisdictions/territories,” said Nograles. Meanwhile, there are currently 41 countries, territories, or foreign jurisdictions classified as “green.” Among them are American Samoa, Bhutan, Chad, China (Mainland), Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Federated States of Micronesia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China), India, Indonesia, and Japan. Also included in the “green” list are Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Montserrat, Morocco, Niger, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Paraguay, Rwanda, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sint Eustatius, Sudan, Taiwan, Togo, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, and Zambia. n
Bong Go withdraws, says he was...
PAGE 1 seek the presidency (I was shocked. Imagine, in a span of hours, you suddenly become the candidate for president. Others had years to prepare for it.) According to Go, his family did not want him to run for president and he did not want to add to Duterte’s problems. “In the past few days I realized that my heart and my mind are contradicting my actions… Those are my reasons. That’s why I am withdrawing from the race,” he said.
Go’s withdrawal leaves the ruling party without an official candidate for next year’s polls for now. Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who is also PDP-Laban executive vice president, said members of the party would meet to talk about Go’s decision. “This is (a) very new (development) as far as PDPLaban is concerned. I think PDP-Laban will have a series of meetings to discuss this and let’s wait for the statement to be issued by the PDP-Laban,” Nograles said during the
“Laging Handa” public briefing aired over state-run PTV. The chief executive’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara DuterteCarpio, is the running mate of presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos, the son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Commission on Elections spokesperson James Jimenez said the poll body’s “law department has no authority to accept any filings, considering that today is a holiday.” He added that Go is not entitled to substitution since he is withdrawing voluntarily. n
‘I’m done’: Manny Pacquiao says he misses... PAGE 1 I grew up in boxing, so I understand that this is sports,” said Pacquiao in an AFP interview. “I miss boxing, but I don’t think boxing still likes me. Well, I’m already turning 43 years old so it’s enough for me. I mean, I’m done,” said Pacquiao. Pacquiao, often regarded as
one of the greatest boxers of all time, is the only fighter to win World titles across seven and eight weight classes. Starting as scrawny light flyweight, Pacquiao would win his first World title at flyweight before winning his heaviest one at super welterweight. He has since retired after he
lost to Yordenis Ugas in a bout for the WBA Welterweight Super title in August 2021. Pacquiao, who was already a senator when he fought Ugas, then turned his focus to the presidential race as the standard bearer of the Probinsya Muna Development Initiative (PROMDI) party. n
Fil-Am student dies during amateur boxing... PAGE 1
This was an entirely avoidable and unnecessary death that will be fully investigated,” Lasso said in a statement. “While it is early to know all details, it appears there were multiple safety measure failures by both UNLV and Kappa Sigma Fraternity,” he added. On Friday, Nov. 26, the Valencia’s family attorney released another statement, vowing to leave “no stone unturned” to find out how a 20year-old college student ended up in a boxing match. “The Valencia family is heartbroken over the loss of Nathan. Our preliminary investigation reveals mistakes were made and safety precautions overlooked. We will be completing a full investigation to determine how UNLV and the Kappa Sigma Fraternity could allow and promote an event like this to take place. College students should not be placed in a situation where they are pitted against each other for combat. “Kappa Sigma Fight Night” is an event that has been held annually and was well known to both UNLV and the national Kappa Sigma Fraternity,” the statement read. “We will leave no stone unturned to determine how a 20year-old ended up in a schoolsanctioned amateur fight that
Nathan Valencia Photo courtesy of GoFundMe
cost him his life. The family has asked for privacy during this time to grieve,” it added. For his part, UNLV President Keith Whitfield assured that the university is “committing all available resources” to review the incident. “We are shocked and heartbroken as we mourn the loss of one of our own. Coping with the loss of life is always difficult, especially under these circumstances. UNLV is committing all available resources to review the incident and determine how off-campus events like these can be as safe as possible,” he said in a statement. “Our deepest sympathies go out to his family, friends, and loved
ones. I am sure words cannot describe their feeling of grief and emptiness. They are in our thoughts during this very difficult time. The Rebel community shares their loss,” he added. Likewise, Kappa Sigma Fraternity offered their condolences to Valencia’s family. “Kappa Sigma Fraternity is greatly saddened by the loss of Nathan Valencia at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Our deepest condolences, thoughts and prayers are with the Valencia family and the entire UNLV community,” it said in a statement. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with medical and funeral expenses. As of this writing, it has raised over $50,000 of its $100,000 goal. “Nathan was actively a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at UNLV. He had so much love for his chapter and valued the genuine connections he was able to make,” the page’s description read. “Nathan passed away on November 23rd at the young age of 20. Although Nathan is not here with us physically, his spirit will forever live on through everyone that knows him. Nathan was taken from us too soon, but I know we have gained the best guardian angel,” it added. (Ritchel Mendiola/AJPress)
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SoCal ASIAN JOURNAL • deCembeR 1-3, 2021
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With federal COVID sick leave gone, workers feel pressure to show up at work by Rae
ellen Bichell Kaiser Health News
DAY 1. Medical front-liners are busy preparing vaccines and injecting them at The Tent along C5 Extension Road in Las Pinas City on Monday, November 29. The venue is among the thousands serving as jab sites for the three-day nationwide vaccination drive “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” that will end on December 1. PNA photo by Avito Dalan
Los Angeles County pushes vaccinations anew... PAGE 1 Johnson vaccines, the brands administered to the majority of skilled nursing facility residents, became available on October 22, 2021. Out of the 341 skilled nursing facilities in L.A. County, 336 completed their rollout of booster vaccines. Public Health is working with the remaining skilled nursing facilities to offer County mobile vaccine team assistance to ensure all eligible residents are offered their booster dose this upcoming week. In addition to the quick administration of boosters to residents, all skilled nursing facilities staff are required to be fully vaccinated as of September 30, 2021 according to the state health officer order; all eligible staff were offered boosters as well. Skilled nursing facilities report that 96% of staff and 90% of residents are fully vaccinated. Public Health on November 30 released the latest data on COVID-19: 843 new COVID-19 cases (1,527,132 cases to date); 28 new deaths due to COVID19 (27,166 deaths to date); 569 people currently hospitalized with COVID-1. Nearly 9,421,000 individuals tested and 15% of people tested positive. There are 568 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized. Testing results are available for more than 9,413,000 individuals, with 15% of people testing positive. The test positivity rate is 2.45%, an increase from last week’s same-
day rate of 1.0%. The increased test positivity rate likely reflects a significantly reduced volume of testing associated with schools being closed. As the County prepares to deal with the possible threat of Omicron, a new variant of concern, the most important strategy remains making sure that everyone 5 years and older gets fully vaccinated or receives their booster dose as quickly as possible to reduce transmission of COVID-19. Given that there continues to be substantial transmission of COVID-19 and the uncertainty about the level of vaccine efficacy against this new variant of concern, all residents and workers need to be sure to adhere to vaccination verification and masking requirements and wear a mask when indoors or at large outdoor mega events regardless of vaccination status. “To everyone who has lost a friend or loved one to COVID19, we send you our deepest condolences,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “Over the course of our month long drive to roll out boosters in skilled nursing facilities, cases and hospitalizations dropped among the residents of these facilities far more dramatically than they did among the population at large. Clearly boosters, along with very high vaccination coverage with two doses among staff and residents, make a difference by enhancing protection. We encourage all adults 18 and over
eligible for booster doses to go ahead and get that booster dose as an important way to protect from getting infected and spreading the virus; since transmission remains substantial across the county, this additional boost makes a difference.” COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and are recommended for everyone 5 years old and older to help protect against COVID-19. Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status. Appointments are not needed at all Public Health vaccination sites and many community sites where first, second, and third doses are available. To find a vaccination site near you, or to make an appointment, please visit: www.VaccinateLACounty.com (English) If you need assistance you can also call 1-833-540-0473 for help: Finding an appointment Connect to free transportation to and from a vaccination site, or Schedule a home-visit if you are homebound. For more information regarding COVID-19 in LA County you can also visit the Public Health website at www.publichealth.lacounty.gov here you will find information on: COVID-19 sector protocols & best practices, COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboards, and COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive and, Recovery Dashboards n
ECONOMISTS and public health experts alike say paid sick leave is an essential tool — like testing, masks and vaccines — in the effort to prevent COVID-19 infection and keep workplaces safe. Yet the U.S. is in the midst of another COVID holiday season, and federal laws that offered COVID-related paid sick leave to workers have expired. Colorado, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh are among a small number of places that have put in place their own COVID protections, but many sick workers across the country must wrestle with difficult financial and ethical questions when deciding whether to stay home. “Millions of workers don’t have access to paid sick leave, and we’re still in a pandemic,” said Nicolas Ziebarth, a labor economist at Cornell University. The U.S. is one of only a few industrialized nations that have no national paid sick leave policy. By contrast, Germany, Ziebarth’s homeland, has had one for nearly 140 years. The coronavirus pandemic led to short-term change. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act mandated paid sick leave nationally, a first in U.S. history, according to Ziebarth. The law included about two weeks of full pay for employees who were quarantined or seeking medical attention for COVID-like symptoms and additional weeks at partial pay to care for a child stuck at home because of COVID. But the paid sick leave mandate consistently applied only to employers with 50 to 499 employees and lasted just nine months, expiring at the end of 2020. After that, employers could decide whether they wanted to continue offering paid sick leave in return for tax credits, though those expired at the end of September. About 5% of U.S. employees used the federal COVID sick leave protection, Ziebarth and his colleagues wrote in the journal PNAS, and it appears to have helped flatten the curve of the pandemic initially. But it wasn’t enough. The number of people who were sick with any kind of illness but couldn’t take time off went from about 5 million per month before the pandemic to 15
million in late 2020 — even with the federal leave in place. People with the lowest incomes are the least likely to be covered by paid sick leave, said Dr. Rita Hamad, a social epidemiologist and family physician at the University of California-San Francisco. “We’re just left with whatever patchwork of employer and state policies that existed before, which leave the most vulnerable people least covered,” she said. The Build Back Better Act, which is up for a vote in the Senate after passing the House on Nov. 19, may grant some paid medical and family leave so workers can deal with longer-term illnesses or caregiving, but it does not include time off for recovering from short-term illness. Jared Make, vice president of A Better Balance, a national legal nonprofit advocating for worker rights, has been pushing federal, state and local lawmakers for years to expand paid sick leave and has drafted model legislation. He said 16 states, Washington, D.C., and about 20 localities have permanent paid sick time laws. One of the most generous, New Mexico’s, will take effect in July. Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York and the District of Columbia provide COVIDspecific emergency sick leave, as do Pittsburgh and a few cities in California, such as Los Angeles, Oakland and Long Beach. In some places, employers are taking the initiative to address the problem. A recent KFF survey of about 1,700 employers from across the nation found that 37% of workers work in a place that expanded or started paid leave, either to recover from an illness or to help a relative recover from one. Meanwhile, 1% of workers had their paid sick leave reduced or eliminated. Still, calls to A Better Balance’s free legal help line have skyrocketed since the pandemic began, Make said. “Many workers are either risking their job, or they have no choice but to go to work when they’re sick, and it’s a real public health concern.” In August, local public health departments in California asked state leaders to extend paid sick leave to all workers, saying that failing to do so discouraged people from getting a COVID vaccine and disproportionately affected disadvantaged communities.
Many people who have avoided vaccination are afraid they’ll suffer side effects that will force them to miss work for a day or two, which they can’t afford, Hamad said. But without federal funds to reimburse employers, California and other states would have to find money to pay for sick leave — and there’s little enthusiasm among lawmakers for passing the costs on to businesses. “It is a glaring gap, in our opinion, that the federal government hasn’t continued some form of even COVID-19 emergency sick leave,” Make said. “It’s obviously PAGE 4
LOS ANGELES COUNTY METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (LACMTA) REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL LACMTA will receive Proposals for PS78835 - I105 ExpressLanes Roadside Toll Collection System at the 9th Floor Receptionist Desk, Vendor/Contract Management Department, One Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012. All Proposals must be submitted to LACMTA, and be filed at the reception desk, 9th floor, V/CM Department, or via email at bids@metro.net on or before 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday, January 27, 2022. Proposals received after the above date and time may be rejected and returned unopened. Each proposal must be sealed and marked Proposal No. PS78835. For a copy of the Proposal/ Bid specification visit our Solicitation Page on our Vendor Portal at https:// business.metro.net or for further information email Victor Zepeda at zepedav@ metro.net. 12/1, 12/8/21 CNS-3531159# ASIAN JOURNAL (L.A.)
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California joins states trying to shorten Addressing the holiday blues and persevering... wait times for mental health care by April
Dembosky Kaiser Health News
WHEN Greta Christina fell into a deep depression five years ago, she called up her therapist in San Francisco. She’d had a great connection with the provider when she needed therapy in the past. She was delighted to learn that he was now “in network” with her insurance company, meaning she wouldn’t have to pay out-of-pocket anymore to see him. But her excitement was shortlived. Over time, Christina’s appointments with the therapist went from every two weeks, to every four weeks, to every five or six. “To tell somebody with serious, chronic, disabling depression that they can only see their therapist every five or six weeks is like telling somebody with a broken leg that they can only see their physical therapist every five or six weeks,” she said. “It’s not enough. It’s not even close to enough.” Then, this summer, Christina was diagnosed with breast cancer. Everything related to her cancer care — her mammogram, biopsy, surgery appointments — happened promptly (like a “well-oiled machine,” she said), while her depression care stumbled along. “It is a hot mess,” she said. “I need to be in therapy — I have cancer! And still nothing has changed.” A new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October aims to fix this problem for Californians. Senate Bill 221, which passed the state legislature with a nearly unanimous vote, requires health insurers across the state to reduce wait times for mental health care to no more than 10 business days. Six other states — including Colorado, Maryland and Texas — have similar laws limiting wait times. Long waits for mental health treatment are a nationwide problem, with reports of patients waiting an average of five or six weeks for care in community clinics, at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities and in private offices from Maryland to Los Angeles County. Across California, half of residents surveyed by the California Health Care Foundation in late 2019 said they had to wait too long to see a mental health care provider when they needed one. At Kaiser Permanente, the
state’s largest insurance company, 87% of therapists said weekly appointments were not available to patients who needed them, according to a 2020 survey by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents KP therapists — and was the main sponsor of the California wait times legislation. “It just feels so unethical,” said triage therapist Brandi Plumley, referring to the typical two-month wait time she sees at Kaiser Permanente’s mental health clinic in Vallejo, east of San Francisco. Every day, she takes multiple crisis calls from patients who have therapists assigned to them but can’t get in to see them, she said, describing the providers’ caseloads as “enormous.” “It’s heartbreaking. And it eats on me day after day after day,” Plumley said. “What Kaiser simply needs to do is hire more clinicians.” Kaiser Permanente says there just aren’t enough therapists out there to hire. KP is an integrated system — it is a health provider and insurance company under one umbrella — and has struggled to fill 300 job vacancies in clinical behavioral health, according to a statement from Yener Balan, the insurer’s Northern California vice president of behavioral health. Hiring more clinicians won’t solve the problem, said Balan, who suggested that sustaining one-on-one therapy for all who want it in the future wouldn’t be possible in the current system: “We all must reimagine our approach to the existing national model of care.” Kaiser Permanente lodged concerns about the wait times bill when it was introduced. And the trade group representing insurers in the state, the California Association of Health Plans, opposed it, saying the shortage of therapists would make meeting the two-week mandate too difficult. “The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this workforce shortage, and demand for these services significantly increased,” said Jedd Hampton, a lobbyist for the California Association of Health Plans, in testimony during a state Senate hearing for the bill in the spring. Hampton referred to a University of California-San Francisco study that predicted California
PAGE 1 alternative to meeting in person, but for me, it sucked, to put it bluntly.” Aside from the obvious threat of the usual cold season ailments — and, of course, the onset of a new Covid variant — seasonal affective disorder and other types of depression is the top issue facing families and individuals this holiday season. “Without support, mental health problems can quickly snowball and have a deep impact on our lives,” LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said at a press conference hosted by Ethnic Media Services on Monday, Nov. 22. “But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Our county is committed to providing residents with the tools to get well and thrive,” she said. Depression, anxiety, and mental health disorders exacerbate when social inequalities and isolation exist, and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated all manner of stress on millions of families. For Fernandez, loneliness was one of the hardest things to overcome. “I never felt depression before the pandemic, but it hit me so hard, being so far away from my family,” said Fernandez, who added that her family lives in the
would have nearly 30% fewer therapists than needed to meet demand by 2028. “Simply put, mandating increased frequency of appointments without addressing the underlying workforce shortage will not lead to increased quality of care,” Hampton said. Lawmakers pushed back. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who authored the bill, accused insurers of overstating the shortage. State Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino) said that the therapeutic providers are out there but that insurers are responsible for recruiting them into their networks by paying higher rates and reducing administrative burdens. If insurers want more young people to enter the mental health care profession, they must improve salaries and working conditions now, said state Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento). (A 2016 KQED investigation uncovered multiple ways that insurers save money by keeping provider networks artificially small.) As bipartisan support for the bill grew in Sacramento, insurers withdrew their formal opposition. But whether other states have the political will, or the resources, to legislate a similar solution is unclear, said Hemi Tewarson, executive director of the nonpar- PAGE 3 tisan National Academy for State a huge shortcoming given where Health Policy in Washington, we are in the pandemic.” D.C. Although California may Colorado, which is experiencbe able to force insurers to hire ing a COVID surge, passed last more therapists, she said, places year what Denver-based Make like New Mexico, Montana, Wy- considers the strongest COVID oming, and parts of the South sick leave protections of any don’t have enough therapists at state. The law, which allows any any price. employee to earn up to six days “They don’t have the provid- of paid sick leave per year and ers, so you could fine the insurers takes effect fully in January, says as much as you want, you’re not that when local, state or federal going to be able to, in the short officials declare a public health term, make up those wait times if emergency, employers must they already exist,” she said. supplement workers’ accrued The new California law is a leave so an employee can take up solid step toward improving ac- to two weeks of paid sick leave cess to mental health care, with for, in this case, COVID-related communities of color standing reasons. The emergency leave to benefit the most, said Lonnie provision won’t expire until at Snowden, a professor of health least February. policy and management at the However, some employers University of California-Berke- aren’t complying. As of early ley. African Americans, Asian November, Colorado’s Division Americans and Latinos face the of Labor Standards and Statismost barriers getting into care, tics was looking into complaints Snowden said, and when people related to the sick leave law that of color do come in for treatment, were filed against 71 employthey are more likely to drop out. ers, according to outreach manu PAGE 8 ager Eric Yohe. That represented
Bay Area and that she had moved to LA County to attend school in 2018. The big Zoom hangout with her family last year was bittersweet, she said: seeing her family made her smile, but the bounds and limitations of virtual “For one, there was a lot of crosstalk so it was hard to get a word in. Secondly, a lot of families that were together and sharing a Zoom square seemed to be enjoying their individual parties. They all made all this amazing food and I felt so sad I was just eating really lame leftovers,” she added, laughing. But she didn’t realize until weeks later how hard the 2020 holiday season affected her. “I started just feeling so down out of nowhere. I think I was just so burnt out from the monotony of life at that point that it was hard to concentrate,” she said. “I didn’t know how to define it because I just never thought I could really have depression, like real, crippling depression.” And Fernandez isn’t alone in thinking that. In many communities, especially immigrant communities, depression and all manner of mental health is still stigmatized to the point where it’s just safer to not talk about it. “For generations, people of col-
or have not been able to use their voice. We’re used to being silent, to stuffing our feelings,” Dr. Jorge Partida del Toro, chief of psychology at the LA County Department of Mental Health, said during the press conference. “We learn that what makes us strong is to be silent. We need to teach our children that the opposite is true, to stay connected and share,” he added. Del Toro added that the COVID19 pandemic has made it difficult for people who have lost loved ones to “grieve properly.” “The ritual of being able to let go and say goodbye is interrupted and because we’re afraid of being so open and honest, there’s a tendency to hold onto this prolonged grief,” he said, adding that this accelerates self- destructive behaviors like self-harm, addiction, suicide attempts, violence, and other indirect ways of expressing “unresolved grief.” Noting the economic downturn, job losses, and general financial frustrations that the pandemic brought on, Barger noted that these stresses and mental health issues, which can feel so individual, are wildly common. But communities, like the Asian American community, may feel less inclined to merely recognize
u PAGE 8
With federal COVID sick leave gone... about 8% of all its wage complaints under investigation. Yohe said his division had already restored paid time off for “a good number” of employees under the new law. Colorado’s leave law still has limitations. Workers don’t get “refills” of COVID leave if they get sick again or a relative gets sick — just 80 hours total from January 2021 until the public health emergency ends. And the law allows some workplaces to force employees to use their paid time off instead, as long as they notify employees in advance and offer at least two weeks of PTO to full-time employees. Jamie Bradt, a special-education teacher at a high school in Mead, Colorado, found herself in that situation this month after testing positive for COVID. Bradt, who is fully vaccinated, thought she could tap into statesanctioned COVID sick leave. But her employer, St. Vrain Valley Schools, told her she would have to use her PTO, which she had been saving up for about de-
cade. “It is so frustrating that I’m being punished for accruing my leave,” said Bradt, who was isolating at home. The district did not respond to questions. Policies that push employees to work when they’re sick are counterproductive, said Barbara Holland, an adviser at the Society for Human Resource Management, a national trade group. “It’s a communicable disease,” she said. “You don’t want them showing up in the workplace.” Since the federal provisions expired, Cristina Cuevas and her colleagues at a Minnesota school have been required to use their accrued sick and vacation time if they come down with COVID. Recently, a co-worker of Cuevas’ went to work sick, assuming it was a cold. “She actually had COVID the whole time,” Cuevas said. The school had to shut down briefly, Cuevas said, and several students got sick. California Healthline correspondent Rachel Bluth contributed to this story. n
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SFIO acquires PH-based tech and software development hub LNS+ to establish global, cross-industry innovation ecosystem RECENTLY, OTC:SFIO Starfleet Innotech, Inc. (Smokefree Innotec, Inc.) announced its acquisition of Philippinebased software development company LEENTech Network Solutions (LNS+), marking the asset management company’s new direction towards technology development. With LNS+ and its subsidiaries now on board, SFIO is formalizing the team into their new Technology and Software Development Division. According to SFIO CEO and Chairman Jeths Lacson, this new expansion kicks off a fiveyear innovation roadmap of transformative collaborations across each of the company’s five divisions: Franchising, Food Manufacturing and Distribution, Coffee, Property Development, and the recently-formed Technology and Software Development. With 11 years of operation, LNS+ has established itself as a leading hub for technological excellence in the Philippines. Today, the company and its subsidiaries command a growing roster of over forty engineers, designers, systems architects, UX specialists, blockchain developers, and project managers. In addition, they’ve partnered with over 17 universities to build a sustainable and thriving talent pool. Altogether, LNS+ represents a fully fleshed-out ecosystem of tech builders. With this lat-
est acquisition, SFIO now fully owns and operates six ecosystem players: • LEENTech Network Solutions – Software & Platform Development • Webworx Design Studio – Web Development, UI and UX Design, and Graphic Design • Qalidad Solutions – Software Testing and Quality Assurance (Department Unit) • Voltz Security – Vulnerability Assessment and Security (Department Unit) • Livewire365 – Server Architecture and Maintenance • DHQ Digital Marketing – Digital Marketing Services. “With the LNS+ teams formalized into our new tech division, all our existing businesses and future businesses immediately benefit from having a full suite of digital transformation partners,” Lacson said. Now, Lacson plans to scale their digital transformation efforts globally with the establishment of tech innovation hubs across key strategic regions. LNS+ Founder Richard F. Prodigalidad, who now serves as the CEO of SFIO’s Technology and Software Development Division, sees this as both a fulfillment of his ambitions for LNS+, as well as an evolution of its mission. “When I founded LNS+ back in 2010, my original mission was to develop technologies that would be used throughout the world,” said Prodigalidad.
“With SFIO’s expansion plans to establish tech hubs in New Zealand, Australia, Dubai, and the United States, that original mission is really becoming a reality in a very concrete way.” “I built LEENTech to be a startup enabler, launching dozens of tech projects and spinning them off into their own businesses,” Prodigalidad said. “It’s easy to build an app or a website, but to launch a company – that takes more than code. Our mission at LNS+ was to invest in talent, nurture engineers and designers into entrepreneurs and leaders. As an asset management company, SFIO has the same mission – to build leaders. By investing in talent, what we’re really doing is giving them the best possible shot at long-term success.” With the establishment of their global hubs, that goal has now expanded. SFIO’s international reach presents a lucrative opportunity to not only build solutions across borders, but to also showcase the massive potential of tech talents in emerging markets like the Philippines. Pulling from Richard’s mission as a startup enabler, SFIO intends to be a catalyst for change in both the industries
they operate in and the communities they serve. Now serving on SFIO’s toplevel management team, Prodigalidad’s current mandate is to survey the asset management company’s portfolio for opportunities to both streamline existing operations with technology, and build entirely new systems to disrupt the industries they operate across. As SFIO begins to establish its global presence through strategic acquisitions, joint ventures, and the establishment of its tech hubs, a number of promising projects have already cropped up at their new tech division. For SFIO’s recently announced joint venture with real estate company Omnicor, Prodigalidad’s tech division will be developing community wellness monitoring tools and health data systems to be incorporated into a state-of-the-art “tech village” in Montemaria, Batangas in the Philippines. Looking across the group’s franchising, coffee, and food manufacturing and distribution divisions, Prodigalidad’s team will also be working on a unified, streamlined logistics platform. This platform will leverage machine learning
and similar AI applications to achieve real time data analytics for a truly scalable solution. With this project, SFIO aims to not only standardize the operations of their different businesses across the supply chain, but to also bring value to their franchisees and ultimately, their customers, who will now benefit from a truly seamless, tech-powered system. Utilizing their in-house expertise in blockchain technology, the group also intends to revolutionize how asset management companies manage their portfolios. Investors can expect instant insights and the ability to participate in SFIO’s growth in real time, using digital tokens powered by the blockchain. It’s a novel application of decentralized technologies that the group hopes will set a new golden standard for trust and transparency. “The reason we’re able to take on all these projects is we’re being strategic about not reinventing the wheel,” said Prodigalidad. “Over the years, we’ve built a series of modular technologies that we can easily deploy in order to rapidly build e-commerce platforms, e-learning tools, food delivery services,
decentralized apps – whatever our clients need. Now we’re taking all those tech engines, as I call them, and running them full throttle across SFIO’s different ventures.” The end goal of these ventures, says SFIO CEO and Chairman Lacson, is to leverage technology in order to collaborate towards greater efficiency and shared profitability. Similarly, the breadth of proprietary platforms the tech division will be developing, as well as the related trademarks and intellectual property, promises to bring new value to the asset management company in the mid- to long-term. “I come from the startup world so my job now is to bring that disruptive mindset and marry it with the broad resources of SFIO,” Prodigalidad said. “It’s been a really thrilling experience for me and my team so far, and we’re all very excited to be joining the SFIO community.” SFIO, which has just filed its Q3 financial reports in line with their broader plans to uplist onto the Nasdaq, will be publishing more news about their upcoming projects in the weeks to come. (Advertising Supplement)
6 DECEMBER 1-3, 2021 • SoCal ASIAN JOURNAL
OPINION
Moderate corruption risk
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FEATURES
COUP attempts were staged in the past partly due to accusations of graft in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. A former AFP and defense chief fatally shot himself by his mother’s grave amid allegations of corruption. Since then, measures have been instituted to put an end to corrupt practices in the AFP and Department of National Defense, starting with the simplification of rules and procedures in supply procurement to plug opportunities for red tape and graft. It is unclear if the tradition of pabaon – millions given away to top military officers prior to their retirement – remains in place. Two former military comptrollers were indicted in connection with procurement anomalies in the AFP. Earlier this month the Sandiganbayan affirmed its order on the forfeiture of P102 million worth of property illegally amassed by retired comptroller Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot. But victories in the antigraft campaign in the military and defense establishments have been spotty. Last June, the Supreme Court affirmed a plea bargain approved by the Sandiganbayan, under which former AFP comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of direct bribery instead of plunder, which reduced his sentence. After spending six years behind bars, Garcia walked free in
December last year. Such developments have surely contributed to the country’s middling score in the latest Integrity Index in government defense and security, as drawn up by London-based Transparency International. TI gave the country a score of 55 out of 100 – “moderate risk” in the index, which rates the quality of institutional controls to manage corruption risks in defense and security institutions in 84 countries. TI reported that the Philippines was “particularly weak” in oversight of policymaking and procurement, with the risk “critical” in whistle-blowing and corruption monitoring. Transparency also “remains limited” throughout the sector including financial management, according to TI. Defense and AFP officials have said reforms continue to be implemented to plug opportunities for corruption. TI did note that corruption risk mitigation “is relatively robust” in Philippine military operations. Such effort must be sustained, alongside continuing housecleaning in the military and defense establishments. (Philstar.com)
Editorial
Philstar.com photo
Economic challenges for next president Demand and Supply BOO CHANCO FINANCE Secretary Sonny Dominguez summed up the economic challenges for the next president and they are daunting. Almost makes me wonder why anyone wants to be president, assuming they have a clean heart and the best intentions. Sec. Sonny identified the four big challenges as ballooning domestic debt, high global inflation, worsening inequality, as well as climate change. I want to add two more, food security and the continuing COVID pandemic. This is why voters must be very careful in selecting the next president. Popularity alone or even the goodness of heart alone are not enough. We need a new president who is not part of the political oligarchy that has ruined our economy and has the training to nurse the economy back into the pink of health. Some are quick to blame Sec. Sonny, as Duterte’s economic manager, for the economic problems he mentioned. But let
us not forget that Sec. Sonny has had to deal with the challenge of financing our pandemic response. We have seen how prudent Sec. Sonny has been even in borrowing from abroad. There were those who were urging him to borrow more and take advantage of our good credit rating. But Sec. Sonny knows our bureaucracy has a serious execution problem and a bad record in quickly and efficiently utilizing allocations for direct assistance to those who need it most. Having more money than the bureaucracy can properly and honestly absorb only leads to temptations like Pharmally. Now that we have gone into election mode, I guess Sec. Sonny wants to remind everyone, candidates and voters, to think about the serious problems we are facing. Our lives depend on it. That’s why I earlier suggested that candidates for president be required to name their shadow Cabinet members for the most critical positions. We need to know if their Finance Secretary nominees, for instance, are competent and trustworthy. We also need to hear the candidates themselves speak of how they view the problems brought up by Sec. Sonny. So far, I have heard nothing but platitudes and populist solu-
tions like suspending oil product taxes. So, can we hear the presidential hopefuls tell us how they plan to manage the debt we have accumulated and grow our GDP? Our borrowings ballooned because of weaker revenue collections due to the pandemic-induced economic slump. Government also had to spend more to assist distressed families during lockdowns and to finance the increased requirements of our shaky health system. The increased borrowings brought up the Philippines’ debt-to-GDP ratio, which is used to measure an economy’s ability to repay its obligations, to 54.6 percent in 2020 from a record-low 39.6 percent in 2019. By end-September, our debtto-GDP further climbed to a 16-year high of 63.1 percent, above the 60-percent level deemed by credit rating agencies as manageable among emerging markets. No wonder some ratings agencies have warned us of a potential credit rating downgrade. Our government’s outstanding debt will further climb to a record P13.42 trillion by end2022 from the P11.73 trillion programmed by this year’s end. According to NEDA chief Karl
Kendrick Chua, “consumption and investment will be lower in the next 10 years due to lower demand in sectors that require social distancing (e.g., amusement, tourism, restaurants, public transportation). Consequently, tax revenues will be lower.” So, do the candidates have strategies for fiscal consolidation? Will they be honest about their taxation plans? The next administration may have no choice, despite the election promises, to implement new or higher taxes. Cutting public spending will slow down GDP growth. Then there is inflation. Our headline inflation rose beyond the government’s two to four percent target range of a manageable rate of increase in prices of basic commodities this year. Basically to blame is the high cost of food, especially pork due to supply shortage. Managing the inequalities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic is the next big challenge. The most vulnerable sectors like the poor, women, and school children will take longer to recover from the pandemicinduced slump. Sec. Chua pointed out that for example, no face-to-face classes means less learning and lower future income, productivity, and competitiveness. ADB estimates that each year
of lost schooling translates to around 10 percent permanent lower wages in the future. Then there is climate change. Our farmers and fishermen need support to help them cope with the negative effects of climate change on their livelihoods. Our food security depends on this. Not to forget… the pandemic is still around. Just when we thought we could relax our restrictions to help our travel industry, this new variant, Omicron, comes around. By now, we must have a better playbook than lockdowns. We need to invest on our health infrastructure, not just hospitals and health centers, but also on properly compensating our health workers to make it worth their while to serve at home rather than go abroad. PhilHealth must be reformed. Growing our economy requires investments. Since the government will need all the cash they can muster just to run its operations, the Public Private Partnership concept is the only option. The big problem is attracting PPP investors after the Duterte administration broke a lot of covenants with past PPP investors like Manila and Maynilad Water. Then there is this nuisance suit against Megawide for supposedly violating the
anti-dummy law. That Mactan Cebu airport contract won by Megawide went through several legal reviews, including a suit filed in the Supreme Court. After delivering on the commitment and winning awards as a model PPP project, Megawide officials are facing this criminal case. That’s how to kill the PPP concept for the future. A retired investment banker noted that potential foreign investors will stay away after the government refused to accept international arbitral rulings, parametric formula for tariffs, long pending toll adjustments, refusal to accept liability for MAGA (Material Adverse Government Action), which are standard international provisions for PPP. These are probably not issues raised in presidential campaigns, but are vitally important. The new president will have to address these issues to attract investors, foreign and local, on Day One. (Philstar. com) *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
*** Boo Chanco’s email address is bchanco@ gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @ boochanco
Bloody, bizarre twists in election ‘teleserye’ Commentary
SEGUNDO ECLAR ROMERO PHILIPPINE elections have been known to be quite colorful, with red as their most dominant color, as seen in the amount of bloodshed they generate — before, during, and even after every election. Many candidates, their families and supporters have become casualties in this political exercise considered as the ultimate indicator of a thriving democracy. But more often than not, this democratic indicator happens almost always “at gunpoint,” to partially quote the title of a book published by Vera Files in collaboration with The Asia Foundation in 2011.
Edited by Yvonne T. Chua and Luz D. Rimban, “Democracy at Gunpoint: Election-related violence in the Philippines” includes nine reports describing and providing backstories of bloody incidents associated with elections in different provinces in the country, five of which are in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, now the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. These provinces are Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. I am reminded of this book again as families of the victims of the tragic Maguindanao massacre commemorated last Nov. 23 the 12th anniversary of that gory and most horrendous of all election-related bloodbaths in Philippine history. That single incident in 2009 killed 58 people, including 32 Central Mindanao-based journalists.
Also among the victims were Genalin, the wife of Toto Mangudadatu, then pregnant; some relatives and friends, and their lawyers. Twelve years after this tragedy, families of the victims are still demanding for justice as well as monetary reparations from the Ampatuan family. “Understanding Election Violence in the Philippines: Beware the Unknown Assassins of May,” a recent peer-reviewed article based on academic research, echoes the findings and analysis in the 2011 Vera Files book. The article was published in Pacific Affairs (Vol. 94, No. 3, September 2021) and written by Tom Smith of the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom, and Joseph Anthony L. Reyes of the Lund University of Lund, Sweden. It notes that the Duterte administration has exacerbated this violence
through the promotion of vigilante type of killings that mainly characterizes President Duterte’s war on drugs. The authors believe that this deadly war can fuel another violent election period. The research on which the article was based covers 13 years, from 2004 to 2017. The authors tallied all electoral violent incidents during those years, and noted the following: (1) Unidentified assassins are largely responsible for the killings of candidates, their campaigners and supporters, and “fruitful investigations” to these killings are rare; (2) Media reporting on election and related violence has become increasingly dangerous, and cited the killings of some journalists and radio broadcasters; (3) Election violence is difficult to monitor and currently falls between the cracks of various international
election monitoring initiatives. The authors’ findings are quite worrisome. We will continue to face this sad reality, given the bizarre twists and turns of the electoral “teleserye” we watch everyday on our small screens. We watched, highly perturbed, how the President, his daughter, and his unofficial valet/caregiver changed or withdrew their original certificates of candidacy to “adjust” to new political alignments. Sara Duterte resigned from a party she herself founded, Hugpong ng Pagbabago, to become a vice presidential candidate under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Lakas-CMD party. Sen. Bong Go flip-flopped from being a vice presidential hopeful to a presidential wannabe in a matter of weeks. This added a rather dark, insidious plot to the teleserye. Mr. Duterte downgraded his original plan
from being president to being senator. Was this an anticipated losing of face just in case his daughter garners higher votes than him? The plot thickened when Sara Duterte recently announced her “return” to the Hugpong party, with her partymates welcoming her with open arms. But the most bizarre twist was how she was able to wangle not only the leadership of the party she resigned from and returned to, but also that of the new party she joined, LakasCMD. Whew! Where will all these lead us to next? Abangan. (Inquirer. net) *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
*** Comments to rcguiam@gmail.com
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Dateline PhiliPPines
7
Marcos seeks dismissal of disqualification petitions by EvElyn
Macairan Philstar.com
ANTI-VIRUS. Manila residents queue up for Covid-19 vaccines at the Justice Jose Abad Santos General Hospital in Tondo on Tuesday, November 30. The venue is among the jab sites of the capital city that has signified full support for the three-day nationwide vaccination drive “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” until December 1. PNA photo by Jess M. Escaros Jr.
DOF: PH borrowed P1.15-T to fight COVID-19 pandemic The Philippines’ borrowings to finance the prolonged fight against COVID-19 already hit P1.15 trillion, adding to the pandemic-induced fiscal scarring which could be aggravated by foregone revenues from stimulus measures and the bigger budgets to be enjoyed by local governments, the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Tuesday. While the COVID-19-related loans totaled $22.58 billion, the DOF said in a statement that the total financial cost — including interest payments — amounted to a bigger $28.91 billion or P1.47 trillion. “The projected amount of interest payments until maturity is $6.32 billion or P320.85 billion. These loans will mature between 2024 and 2060,” the DOF said. These higher financing costs borne by the government were among the challenges the DOF wanted to be addressed by the fiscal consolidation plan it was crafting, to be pitched to the next administration to narrow the budget deficit and repay ballooning debt. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III also flagged the possible “long-term economic
scarring” if the national government’s revenues cannot keep up with expenditures on public goods and services, which will be reduced starting next year by implementing the Supreme Court’s Mandanas-Garcia ruling. “Tax revenue losses from the pandemic-induced economic slump, the rise in debt to fund our COVID-19 response, the looming revenue impact of our economic recovery measures, and lower spending efficiency as a result of the Supreme Court decision to expand the share of LGUs [local government units] from the NTA [national tax allotment] must be adequately addressed by the next administration’s economic team,” Dominguez said. Next year, LGUs will receive over P959 billion in NTA, formerly called internal revenue allotment (IRA). To recall, the Supreme Court granted in 2018 and reaffirmed a year later the petitions of Batangas Gov. hermilando Mandanas and former Bataan Gov. enrique Garcia Jr., which stated that the LGUs’ IRA should come from 40 percent of the collection of all national taxes — the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) tax
take, as well as the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) collections of import duties and other taxes. “Based on our estimates, the implementation of the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling will yield lower economic growth because local governments spend less efficiently,” Dominguez said. “The DOF’s estimates found that implementing the high Tribunal’s 2018 decision will yield 3-percent lower economic growth, because the higher LGU allocation will be subject to a lower spending efficiency,” Dominguez said, referring to the share to total disbursements of productive expenditures which goes back to the economy, generates multiplier effects, creates jobs, stimulates demand and improves the quality of life. Dominguez said the national government spends more than twice as efficiently as LGUs. The World Bank had estimated that LGUs might fail to spend as much as P155 billion from their NTA next year. Up to this year, LGUs’ IRA represented two-fifths of national internal revenue taxes collected by the BIR. u PAGE 8
problem DEALING WITH INSURANCE CLAIMS? We’ll take it.*
MANILA — Presidential aspirant former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the Commission on elections (Comelec) should dismiss outright the petition that sought the cancellation of his certificate of candidacy (COC) because he is qualified to run for president. In a statement, Marcos, through his legal counsel estelito Mendoza, said that this was their position in a fivepage answer they submitted to the Comelec. Aside from their request for outright dismissal of the petition against Marcos, they also asked for the petition to be discussed in face-to-face argument and not through virtual or video conferencing. The case stemmed from the petition filed by a group led by Fr. Christian Buenafe who claimed that Marcos could not run for public office because he was convicted by a Quezon City court for his multiple failure to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985. They argued that his conviction perpetually disqualified him from seeking any public office as the same involves moral turpitude. But Marcos’ camp countered that the petition is “bereft of any specific allegation of a material representation required under Section 74 of the Omnibus election Code.” “It is relevant and the commission can take judicial notice, that respondent had previously been elected to several elective positions in government, specifically inter alia provincial governor of Ilocos Norte, member of the house of Representatives and member of the Philippine Senate,” Mendoza said. Taking into account the qualifications of the various elective positions he has been elected to and occupied as enumerated, he said “it is of judicial notice that the respondent has all the qualifications of a president under Section 2, Article VII of the Constitution and consequently there can be
no violation of Section 78 in relation of Section 74 of the Omnibus election Code upon which a petition such as the one now before the commission.” Mendoza said the former senator did not commit a crime involving moral turpitude. “(What) is clear and
certainly beyond dispute is that the CA (Court of Appeals) decision does not, and no inference can be made from its decision that (Marcos), BBM (Bongbong Marcos) in this case, has been found by the CA of committing a crime involving moral turpitude,” he added. n
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‘Drug war’ victims’ kin to ICC: No genuine local ‘Unity walk’ for Leni 2022 launched in Makati probe, no investigation into Duterte accountability by Moises
Cruz ManilaTimes.net
MANILA — There is no genuine domestic investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” and the probe does not cover policy review, families of victims told International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan amid the Philippine government’s request for deferment. Sectoral group Rise Up, assisted by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, wrote to Khan and asked his office to have the communication they sent be considered the same in the assessment of the Philippine government’s deferral request. This was after Khan said, in a document dated November 18, that his office will temporarily suspend its investigation into the Philippines as it “assesses the scope and effect” of the government’s request for deferral. But Rise Up asserted: “Contrary to the claim of the Philippine government, there is no genuine domestic investigation much less prosecution being conducted into crimes against humanity, in the context of ‘War on Drugs’ campaign.” No Duterte in review The Philippines, in its letter to the ICC signed by Ambassador to the Netherlands Eduardo Malaya, said that the government is thoroughly investigating all deaths reported in anti-narcotics operations in the country. He also cited the latest review of the Department of Justice (DOJ), including the release of an information matrix on 52 cases where administrative liability was found on the part of law enforcement officers.
But Rise Up countered that the proceedings in the Philippines’ letter do not cover investigations “into crimes committed as a part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population pursuant to a state or organizational policy.” The Department of Justice’s matrix of 52 cases of deadly “war on drugs” operations — a minuscule number compared to tens of thousands deaths in rights groups’ count — also treated the crimes separately, “ignoring any evident connection between the various acts,” they added. “Consequently, they do not deal with the widespread and systematic nature of the crimes nor the state policy that drive their commission,” Rise Up added. The Duterte administration has long denied that there is a policy of killing in its “war on drugs,” although the president in his speeches has encouraged security forces to shoot first if they are in danger. He has also promised to protect cops who kill in the line of duty. They also told the ICC prosecutor that Duterte, whom they called “the person most responsible” behind the “war on drugs” campaign is not under any investigation. His former police chiefs who played key roles in the campaign are also not being probed. “No tangible, concrete and progressive investigative or prosecutorial steps of any kind are being undertaken, by the Philippine government, against the aforementioned persons,” they added.
They also pointed out that Duterte would have to approve access to information related to the “war on drugs” campaign and that this restriction applies even to the Commission on Human Rights. ICC wants info on the investigation Last week, Khan said his office will ask the Philippine government to provide “substantiating information” on proceedings cited in its deferral request. He explained that the Philippines must provide information that is “of tangible evidence, of probative value and a sufficient degree of specificity, demonstrating that concrete and progressive investigative steps that have been or are currently being undertaken to ascertain the responsibility of persons for alleged conduct falling within the scope of the authorized ICC investigation.” Khan also said that while his office has temporarily suspended the investigation into matters cited by the Philippines in its deferral request, it will continue its analysis on information it already has in hand. He added that they will also look into any new information they may receive from third parties, and will actively assess the need for applications to conduct for the preservation of evidence. The Philippines maintains the ICC has no jurisdiction on the cases, also claiming incorrectly that the treaty the government signed and ratified to join the court was never valid. The Philippines left the ICC in 2019. (Philstar.com)
California joins states trying to shorten... PAGE 4 Oversight and enforcement are needed for the new rules to work, said Keith Humphreys, a psychiatry professor at Stanford University. Kaiser Permanente has data systems that can track the time between appointments, but other insurers set up contracts with therapists in private practice, who manage their own caseloads and schedules. “Who would keep track of whether people who’ve been seen once were seen again in 10 days, when it’s hard enough just to keep track of how many providers we have and who they are see-
EMPLOYMENT
ing?” he asked. Questions like that one will fall to state regulators, primarily the California Department of Managed Health Care. The department has fined insurers $6.9 million since 2013 for violating state standards, including a $4 million penalty against Kaiser Permanente for excessive wait times for mental health care. Previous state law required insurers to provide initial mental health care appointments within 10 days, and the new law clarifies that they must do the same for follow-up appointments.
Greta Christina, who gets her care at a Kaiser Permanente facility, said she is desperate for the new law to start working. It takes effect on July 1, 2022. Christina thought about paying out-ofpocket in the meantime, to find a therapist she could see more often. But in a cancer crisis, she said, starting over with someone new would be too hard. So she’s waiting. “Knowing that this bill is on the horizon has been helping me hang on,” she said. This story is part of a partnership that includes KQED, NPR and KHN. n
EMPLOYMENT
SUPPORTERS of Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, a presidential aspirant in the 2022 national elections, launched a “unity walk” in the cities of Makati and Las Pinas on Tuesday, November 30 to coincide with the birth anniversary of national hero Andres Bonifacio. Cesar Espiritu of the Bikers’ Makati said about 1,000 people from various sectors gathered for the event that started on Makati Avenue and ended at the University of Makati. “Running priest” Robert Reyes who participated in the unity walk
Supporters of Vice President Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo, a presidential apsirant in the 2022 national elections, launch the ‘unity walk’ in Makati City on Tuesday, Nov. 30. MainlaTimes.net photo by Moises Cruz
said there was a “need to vote for the light and reject darkness”. “I think Christmas will also come on May 9, 2022, “ Reyes said.
As her supporters rallied around her presidential bid, Robredo visited Sorsogon and Masbate to meet with multisectoral leaders. n
Addressing the holiday blues and persevering... PAGE 4 when any kind of psychiatric intervention is needed. The American Psychological Association found that while 18% of the general American population has sought mental health services and help, only about 8.6% of Asian Americans have ever done so. As previously written about in the Asian Journal, reasons such as familial shame, lack of education in mental health, and practical barriers like linguistic inaccessibility often stop Asians from seeking psychiatric help. “Mental health stress doesn’t discriminate. Please know that you are not alone. The holiday blues can impact anyone of any
age and background,” she said. “It is OK to ask for help. It is not a weakness, it is a sign of strength that you are putting your health first to be able to be there for your family.” Two things really helped Fernandez better manage her depression: getting the courage to talk to her younger brother about how she’s feeling and meditation. “My brother and I have a relationship where we don’t really talk about serious stuff, but I just called him and asked, ‘Hey, are you also kind of feeling not so good?’ And to my surprise, he said he was and we just started talking about how life just generally sucks and how we’re feel-
ing about being so far from each other,” Fernandez said. “We started talking on the phone more and sharing what we’re doing to feel better on the day-to-day and he shared with me that he tried meditation, so I decided to give it a go and it’s really helped me out,” she said, noting that she uses the Headspace application, which actually has collaborated with LA County to cater to residents of the vast and diverse county. For those seeking mental health resources, LA County has an around-the-clock hotline, (800) 854-7771 that can help residents connect with mental health professionals. n
DOF: PH borrowed P1.15-T to fight...
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The NTA, meanwhile, was based on LGUs’ 40-percent share from all tax revenues collected three years prior, hence next year’s allotment had 2019 as the base year. LGUs’ 2022 NTA jumped from an estimated IRA of only P846.31 billion for next year without the so-called Mandanas ruling. This year, LGUs’ IRA amounted to P695.49 billion. Next year’s implementation of the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision on the Mandanas-Garcia petitions reduced the government’s fiscal space, such that President Duterte issued Executive Order (EO) No. 138 in June to transfer to LGUs the responsibility to spend on local infrastructure, agriculture, social welfare, health care, and livelihood, among oth-
er sectors included in the Local Government Code. While the Supreme Court’s Mandanas ruling will provide LGUs with more money, they were expected to struggle spending their larger budgets to implement big-ticket programs and projects devolved by the national government through EO 138. Dominguez also pointed to foregone revenues to be inflicted by the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) as well as Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) Laws. While both were “crucial to a quick economic recovery,” Dominguez said that for 2021 to 2024, these two laws would result in revenue losses reaching P1 trillion on average each year. For instance, the CREATE Law
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cut the income tax rate slapped on large corporations to 25 percent while slashing the levy on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to 20 percent, retroactive to the middle of last year, from 30 percent previously, which had been the highest in Asean. The government was hopeful that firms’ tax savings from CREATE would be reinvested amid economic recovery from the pandemic-induced slump. The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) had estimated the CREATE Law will shed P118.8 billion from tax collections next year; P115 billion in 2023; and P106.5 billion in 2024. This year’s revenue loss from CREATE was estimated to reach P138.2 billion. (Inquirer. net)
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FOOD AS A LOVE LANGUAGE
Angela Dimayuga on ‘Filipinx’ and her mission to help drive Filipino cuisine forward C
by MoMar G. Visaya / AJPress
HEF Angela Dimayuga wanted to explore Filipino food seriously as a professional cook but when she was just starting, she was told that that Euro-centric cuisine was the way to go in order to be seen. When she started to cook European food, she realized that the food she had at home growing up, the dishes from her Lola and mom were actually very technique-driven and needed to be honored on their own. Through the years, she made waves as a celebrated chef and an activist. This year, she added ‘author’ to her name and came up with her debut cookbook called Filipinx: Heritage Recipes From the Diaspora. “The idea, that we can all come together to really celebrate our cuisine as a love language to communicate with each other and bring us closer together, I think this is the moment. It has been a moment and I’m just coming to it but I feel very welcome,” Dimayuga told us at their book launch party in Brooklyn. The book, co-written with Ligaya Mishan of the New York Times, offers 100 personal recipes culled from her family and the years of learning the cuisine from her mom and Lola. The title is a nod to the neighborhood Dimayuga grew up in San Jose, which was predominantly Filipino and Mexican. “I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area around a lot of Latinx culture where there were a lot of Filipinos and Mexicans, so I like to call that a merge of brown culture. I chose to use the word Filipinx in
In her debut cookbook, acclaimed chef Angela Dimayuga shares her passion for Filipino food with home cooks. AJPress photos by Momar G. Visaya
honor of the gender neutrality that Latinx brings because that’s very important to me,” she shared.
The book is deeply personal for her because it was her inward journey of thinking about her heritage, honoring her ancestors - both living and the dead, and exploring the idea of who she is and what home is. Dimayuga is the fifth of six children of Filipino parents who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s. For this book, she collaborated with Ligaya Mishan, one of her favorite writers, to come up with this dream project. The idea that she wanted to do a book with Mishan began as early as 2017. At that time, however, Dimayuga went through career changes and she had a family project to work on. A different opportunity materialized in 2019: her 10-recipe suite for New York Times where she got to work with Mishan and felt that the moment was right to dive deep into this book project. Doing that spread for The Times (Angela Dimayuga’s 10 Essential Filipino Recipes), Dimayuga had to draw from inspiration from her own experiences. She was then creative director for food and Filipinx offers 100 deeply personal recipes—many of them dishes that define home for Angela Continued on Page 10 Dimayuga and the more than four million people of Filipino descent in the United States.
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Gawad Kalinga USA to celebrate hope through music Angela Dimayuga on ‘Filipinx’ and... with ‘riSING Together’ concert The Asian Jour nal MDWK MAGAZINE - December 1, 2021
From Page 9 culture at the Standard hotels, coming from her successful stint as the star chef at Mission Chinese Food. “I knew it because this is what I grew up with. I feel really lucky that I grew up around really delicious Filipino food because that’s, you know, that’s a privilege. That’s not an experience that everyone gets to have,” she shared. “But that was a way of expressing love if we didn’t always say it, we would always have the food. And so the process was also it came very intuitively.” The two began working on the book around March of 2020, the beginning of the pandemic. By this time, Dimayuga had already left her job at Standard, which made diving into the project easy and really quick. Trained in restaurant kitchens in New York City, Dimayuga returned to her roots, discovering in her family’s home cooking the same intense attention to detail and technique she’d found in fine dining. Filipinx was made in six months, all work done remotely. They wanted to cook with family and friends but the lockdowns prevented them from doing that so doing it remotely was the only way to go. “So I feel honored that I had something so meaningful to do during such a quiet time. I wanted to get to know my family better by just understanding how I feel about them,” she said. Dimayuga said she felt overwhelmed the first time she held the book. “I still feel like it’s very surreal to hold an object that is a relic of this time. I think of it, it feels like a time capsule. And even the recipes that I did there, it’s kind of like capturing being a young person up until the point that I was 35 and even my relationship to those recipes are already evolving.” The 36-year-old chef was included in the Zagat’s “30 Under 30” List in 2015 as an upcoming culinary star and was
together with the Ryan Cayabyab Singers. Sharing the THE impact of the stage are seasoned multiCOVID-19 pandemic is felt hyphenate performer Gary all over the world, but the Valenciano, online sensation challenges that come with and Filipino-American artist AJ it are even more daunting Rafael, and singer-songwriter for those who belong to Kiana Valenciano. the poorest sectors of the “I have been in close community. In the Philippines, coordination with GK since a weakened economy and the first year of inception of the fear of contracting a viral the Ryan Cayabyab Singers as disease add to the burden of a powerhouse singing group the less fortunate, who have and it has been some years already been struggling to since we did a project with make ends meet each day. GK. This is a most opportune Now, more than ever, the time to collaborate again need to come together in the with an organization I believe spirit of “bayanihan” is crucial in,” shares Mr. Cayabyab, to support poverty-stricken fondly known as Mr. C. “I Filipinos. look forward to working with Gawad Kalinga (GK) USA three exciting artists in Gary will lead the charge through V, Kiana, and AJ, and I can’t riSING Together, a virtual wait to showcase the Filipino’s celebration of hope through excellence in music creativity music, in partnership with and artistry!” world-class Filipino talents AJ chimes in, “When GK who are lending their voices approached me to ask if I can to inspire, encourage, and be a part of the concert, it was move people during this most automatic.” precious season of giving. “If there is any opportunity The event is headlined by to help or do a concert, as long National Artist for Music as I’m free, I’ll be there. That Maestro Ryan Cayabyab is the impact that GK has on By eric
Angela Dimayuga said she wanted to collaborate with New York Times food writer Ligaya Mishan for Filipinx.
Angela Dimayuga with her mom, who flew in from San Jose to attend the book launch in Brooklyn.
nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award in 2016 and named a 2017 Rising Star Chef. An industry veteran, Dimayuga has been, in her own words, “quietly cooking, putting my head down and doing what I do”. Now, she is being given the opportunity to share her deep culinary knowledge and her experiences in numerous kitchens with the world. “The idea of sharing Filipino food, knowing that other folks have paved the way is a true honor and a way that I can communicate what I feel about Filipino culture and my own place in it, and everybody’s experiences so for me, it’s a language. Food is a language to explore our culture and drive it forward,” she said. Dimayuga hopes that the book becomes an opportunity for readers to see a reflection of their own experience whether they’re Filipino or not. “I would really hope that nannies around the world, working in spaces where they’re not around other Filipinos can see versions of their food being celebrated, and I want it to be also for honorary Filipinos. I feel like we have many of those that want to understand our culture and our cuisine,” she said. Dimayuga said that her
mom and Lola are a huge part of this book. She mentioned that she was lucky enough to receive a lot of her mom’s recipes, compiled in a Microsoft Word document. The collection includes, among others, Tita’s version of this, Tito’s version of that may be the same dish, but different recipes. This gave her the creative freedom to modify their recipes based on ingredients that were readily available when she was growing up in the Bay Area. Now, it is her turn to share these recipes with the world. “Well, I think it’s really interesting that now people can reach my food by opening the book and making it at home. I provide a lot of opportunities for people to be creative themselves, replicating something that I made or riffing off of them,” she said. For now, Dimayuga has embarked on a book tour, going to different cities across the United States. There’s also a dinner she is doing in Mexico City to promote the book. Beyond that, she hopes to make more books someday and explore her art practice. “My ultimate dream is to continue finding opportunities to explore myself, explore our stories and continue to share them,” she said.
SayNo
me. I’m excited to be part of this and working with Mr. Ryan Cayabyab. It still doesn’t feel real – I wouldn’t believe it until I watch him singing along to one of my songs on video,” adds the popular YouTube artist. riSING Together is presented by Seafood City and The Filipino School, and sponsored by MVMi, Pray.com, Shining Light Foundation, Tagline 360, Skills Simplified, Assistantly.com, Pinoy Monthly, and Asian Journal. The event is powered by VEAP (Virtual Events and Activations Platform), and will be streamed online on December 11, 4 PM PST/6 PM CST/ 7 PM EST in the US, and on December 12, 8 AM in the Philippines. Registration is free, but donations towards GK’s various efforts to help poor and vulnerable families are most welcome. Be part of GK USA’s riSING Together concert and spread love and hope through the power of song. Please visit www.gk-usa.org to register for the event.
Filipino American actor/director Angelo Reyes: A rising star of the indie film scene By Nicole
Muj
THE industry is taking notice of Filipino-Italian American actor/director Angelo Reyes, who is currently taking his short 21st & Colonial out on the festival circuit. The film, which he wrote, directed and stars in, was screened recently at the San Diego Filipino International Film Festival and names an official selection of the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles. He also recently took part in the fourth annual Production Without Borders Showcase during the American Film Market, alongside some of the top names in the entertainment industry. Following is an exclusive interview with this rising star of the indie film scene. You are quite an accomplished actor. Why made you decide to pursue directing as well? AR: Directing was a role that I knew eventually I was going to get to do. I wanted to train as an actor first and fulfill my goals. When I felt comfortable and had the opportunity to direct, I decided to take the challenge. I thought that having experience directing and running a production would make me a better actor as well, and vice versa. Then I wrote 21st & Colonial. I had a vision for the story and it had to be a certain way. Since we were going to make a short film concept prior to the feature film, I thought that this was a perfect time for me. What inspired you to make 21st & Colonial? AR: I began a journey and mission when I started writing screenplays. I wanted to produce true human impact stories that ignite the heart. Give a voice to stories of people that sometimes we don’t hear of or maybe we forget about. My last production Groomed was based on a true story about domestic human trafficking in Virginia. It went behind the scenes of what human traffickers do and what it looked like and followed the character throughout the process. 21st & Colonial was no different. I was inspired to write this story back when I was watching the news, where an African American male named Omar was shot 14 times by police while sitting in his car, unarmed at a bank drive-through. He cashed a fraudulent check, which would have been a misdemeanor if convicted. I was introduced to the family by a close friend. I spent the day with the family, and I was deeply moved. As I researched Omar’s death further and the details surrounding this fatal encounter, it grew to be more complex. The story plays out a 24-hour period in the characters of Omar and Carlos, both the victim and the police officer. I wanted to write an unbiased story. You will see this in a parallel narrative as it builds up to where they have a fatal encounter. No money will ever bring back their son or heal the wound of this tragedy. Telling Omar’s story is one way we can honor him. What has been the response to the film so far? AR: It has been interesting. After screenings, the audience
21st Colonial poster
were quiet, which was worrisome at the time. But when the theatre lights came on and it was time for the Q&A sessions, I had a tremendous number of compliments. I had touched on subjects in the short concept that I didn’t even mean to, such as trauma, PTSD, etc. I then realized this film became much bigger and tells a much larger story. This was good to know as I get ready to turn this concept into a feature film. You star in 21st & Colonial as well as directed (and wrote) the film. What were the challenges you faced having to wear so many hats? AR: This was a big task but with the right team it made my job a lot easier. I was more prepared with 21st & Colonial because my last film, Groomed, as I had the same roles to fill. I believe that was my trial run. I learned a lot from that production. Even though 21st & Colonial was a short film concept, my team and I spent six months prepping every scene. I worked closely with my Director of Photography, Leah Anova. I learned that the DP is my best friend. If I was going to pull this off being in front and behind the camera, we both needed to have the same vision and chemistry. In the end it worked out. It prepared me for the feature film. How have your international roots helped you in your career in the entertainment industry? AR: Absolutely! Being able to speak other languages fluently gave me an upper hand. I can immerse myself in many characters and backgrounds. It’s very challenging but that’s what acting is all about. I love learning about different cultures, languages, and people’s stories. This has helped me a lot throughout my career. NM: Specifically, what are you doing to promote diversity within the Asian-American entertainment community? AR: The best way for me
to help my Filipino and Asian community is to include them in every aspect of my productions. This includes cast and crew. I do my best to search for writers, producers, actors, etc. in the Asian community to create a good balance and give opportunities or a start to their careers. It’s a small step but a step that is necessary. What is also important is to create human impact stories that ignite the heart. I do this by creating a broad story that every audience can relate to and write around Filipino characters. And last but not least, provide guidance and mentorship. Who was been the greatest mentor to you (in the industry)? The one person that really helped me and especially getting 21st & Colonial off the ground is Mr. Michael Goi. He gave me advice with my acting career choices and introduced me to people. He introduced me to who is now my ‘Ate’ (means older sister in Tagalog), Leah Anova, a talented and amazing cinematographer. He told me to just do the work and get this film under my belt, and everything else will fall in place. He has been a great mentor to me and I’m grateful for him. The little things he has done for me has made me a better artist and human being. Passing down his knowledge and expertise has made me realize I have a bigger purpose now. I want to be able to return the favor and help other artists, especially in the Asian and Filipino communities. So, thank you Michael! What’s next on the horizon for you? AR: Next up is the 21st & Colonial feature film. I am hoping to have everything ready to film in 2022. I’m still working as an actor and training constantly. I have written four scripts, so once 21st & Colonial is done, I have others ready right behind it. I can’t wait to show you what I have in store.
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‘Make unconscious addictions part of your awareness,’ Maxene advises By Alex
BrosAs Inquirer.net
EVERYBODY has a dark side, and actress and yoga teacher Maxene Magalona
believes everyone should face that side head on. Magalona thinks that the earlier one does this, the better, as per her Instagram page yesterday, Nov. 27.
Immigrant Living: 101 and Beyond Monette AdevA MAglAyA
(ExcErptEd from the conclusion of a 3-part article) “Have you ever heard … There is news of suicide of shadow work? This is the that hits you harder because practice of getting in touch with you personally know the person the parts of yourself that you’ve who took his own life. By all repressed — or what many accounts, he has led a good life might refer to as their ‘dark but unknown to all, was going side.’ It involves diving into through overwhelming personal the unconscious material that struggles, quietly wallowing shapes our thoughts, emotions, in darkness and despair never and behaviors,” she said. wanting to cause a ripple and People have the tendency simply gave up. to deny the existence of this In many cases, those in their dark side, something that Mag- immediate family orbit say, they alona has a solution for. never saw it coming and will be “The goal is to make those left wondering WHY. Suicide, unconscious addictions, such as contrary to the lyrics of a the pain of a traumatic event, popular song, is never painless. part of your conscious awareThose left behind who will ness so that you can work on have to pick up the pieces deal them. This is how we can come with the heavy pall of gloom face to face with the parts of and perhaps even guilt, that ourselves that we have uncondescends on them for a long sciously rejected just because time. we do not like them. They make So how does one deal with us feel uncomfortable which the dark night of the soul? is why we just tend to deny I don’t know about you but them,” she explained. it seems to me that darkness But living in denial, for can only be fought and won Magalona, is “unhealthy and it decisively by seeking the light. is just impossible to run away Only light can dispel darkness. from yourself.” Psychotherapy, antiShe thus suggests: “You depressants and all other known have to face your inner darkscientifically proven ways of ness and learn how to embrace dealing with mental illness and it so that it can be integrated the eventual sickness of the soul into your entire being.” may be of some help. “We are all made of both But as in anything, the first light and dark, good and bad, step is to acknowledge and pretty and ugly, cute and anadmit the condition as a serious noying. Face it. Embrace it. This cause for concern and to seek is how you become whole,” she help right away. This is the added. “If you can accept and crucial first step towards healing. integrate your own darkness, And the hardest…… then who can ever use it against The courage to recognize you? No one. This becomes and admit one needs help may your power. And this is how you not be enough though. Humility take your power back. THIS is is a key ingredient. The afflicted the real kind of self-care.” must reach out to someone he can trust, someone who cares about him and lead him to those that can help. This is when fervent heartfelt prayers, his own and those of others, can assault the heavens for mercy. In many cases, the bigger part of defeating the darkness of the soul lies within one’s self.
Maxene Magalona Photo from Instagram/@maxenemagalona
Whatever happened to happily ever after? “ … You have changed my mourning into dancing, O Lord, and have girded me with joy, alleluia…” —Psalm 30 Seek the light every which way possible, both physical and spiritual. Even the very act of being exposed to sunlight can fight off the sadness that afflicts many when the fall and winter seasons with their diminished amounts of sunlight come every year. If you have strayed from the Christian faith, COME BACK , renew and rekindle that relationship with God. He is the vine; we are the branches. Cut off from God, we wither and die. In daily life, seek the company of genuinely happy people who have that buoyant tendency to lift others. They have the force of high tide that lifts all boats. Cheerfulness is the daylight of the soul. Bask in joyfilled people’s megawatt light until you can generate your own. It may just be a flicker of hope in the beginning that grows into a bigger flame that may become a bonfire blazing within one’s soul. Quite possibly, with the Holy Spirit’s help, that once-ailing soul can become a light bright enough to give hope to others similarly situated. Like anyone else, cheerful people do have problems and undergo dark times. But they have within their inmost core, a steady spark of God’s light that enables them to tap into a wellspring of joy, no matter what season of the soul they are going through. You must stay away from negative, depressed people. Darkness can and will go viral given the chance. They have twice the force of gravity to bring you down to the depths of despair. In my pedestrian view, since deep depression is essentially a disease that afflicts the mind and withers the soul, all physical
remedies seem to me to fall far short of true healing. A spiritual illness can only be cured by spiritual means. Match the method to the madness. A leap of faith is a must. God is light and only God can dispel the darkness of one’s soul. Without God, one can do nothing. The promise is clear for many who have remained steadfast in their faith. Faith is the solid and unwavering core belief that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead so we may live happily ever after far beyond death into eternity. This is the ending really worth seeking for every life story. Rock solid faith brings a bottomless well of hope. Faith gives us a deep, down to the marrow, heartfelt and genuine appreciation of God’s unfailing love to see us through and bring us home in His own good and perfect timing. God gave us life as a gift. Our gift to God in return, is to live as joyfully as possible the whole enchilada, the full measure of that life until we are called home. What then is the ultimate weapon against dangerous depression that afflicts many today? It is JOY, the pure and simple expression of gratitude for GOD’S ENDURING LOVE. Christmas always reminds many hearts and homes of God’s gift of love and joy. *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.
*** Nota Bene: To send feedback, email monette. maglaya@asianjournalinc.com
Will I have to pay spousal support if I file for divorce? Barrister’s Corner Atty. Kenneth UrsUA reyes THE purpose of spousal support is not defined by the legislature in that its purpose varies according to the facts and circumstances of each case. The facts and circumstances of a particular case may be such which call for no spousal support, or for support for a very limited period of time, with the purpose to assist the supported spouse to “get back on his or her feet” as a single person, or until community property is distributed. On the other hand, the facts and circumstances of another case may call for support for an extended period of time, perhaps until death of the supported spouse, the purpose for which to provide assistance to one who cannot support himself. The two situations mentioned hereinabove are extreme cases, on opposite ends of the spectrum. Quite obviously, the facts and circumstances in a particular case may be such which call for some amount of support for some period of time, though not until death of the supported spouse. For example, the court may order support for that period of time required for the supported spouse to obtain or complete an education, to allow the supported spouse to take
care of the children until they reach an age where a return to employment would be more feasible, or to become selfsupporting within a reasonable time. Although the use of standard guidelines based on income is encouraged in the award of temporary support, such guidelines cannot be used in awarding permanent spousal support. As indicated hereinabove, the award of support is in large part based on the facts and circumstances of the particular case. In determining spousal support, the court considers numerous factors, set forth in Family Code Sec. 4320. They include: 1) The extent to which the earning capacity of each party is sufficient to maintain the standard of living established during the marriage, 2) The extent to which the supported party contributed to the attainment of an education, training, a career position, or a license by the supporting party, 3) The ability of the supporting party to pay spousal support, taking into account the supporting party’s earning capacity, earned and unearned income, assets, and standard of living, 4) The needs of each party based on the standard of living established during the marriage, 5)The obligations and assets, including the separate property, of each party, 6) The duration of the marriage, 7) The ability of the supported party to engage in gainful employment without unduly interfering with the interests of dependent children in the custody of the party, and 8) The age and
health of the parties. The factors set forth hereinabove are only several of the many factors the court will consider in deciding the issue of spousal support. In that the amount and duration of an award is largely based on the facts and circumstances of the case, it is advised that one who is requesting support, or is opposing a request for support, obtain experienced counsel, who will be able to present the facts and circumstances in the best light possible. *** Please note that this article is not legal advice and is not intended as legal advice. The article is intended to provide only general, non-specific legal information. This article is not intended to cover all the issues related to the topic discussed. The specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you. This article does create any attorney client relationship between you and the Law Offices of Kenneth U. Reyes, APLC. This article is not a solicitation. Attorney Kenneth Ursua Reyes is a Certified Family Law Specialist. He was President of the Philippine American Bar Association. He is a member of both the Family law section and Immigration law section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He is a graduate of Southwestern University Law School in Los Angeles and California State University, San Bernardino School of Business Administration. He has extensive CPA experience prior to law practice. LAW OFFICES OF KENNETH REYES, APLC is located at 3699 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 747, Los Angeles, CA, 90010. Tel. (213) 388-1611 or e-mail kenneth@ kenreyeslaw.com Visit our website at kenreyeslaw.com. (Advertising Supplement)
SB19 marks 3rd anniversary with ‘Our Zone’ By IzA IglesIAs ManilaTimes.net
AFTER the highly successful “Back in the Zone” concert in August, the day’s hottest boy band will grace the virtual stage anew with “SB19 2021: Our Third Anniversary Concert.” Josh, Pablo, Stell, Ken and Justin — who will always remember 2021 for their nomination to the Billboard Music Awards Top Social Artist/s Award — are making sure to give their fans the entertainment they deserve at the twoday concert which also serves as the culmination of their
anniversary celebration. “Sobrang overwhelming and happy po kami na finally, it’s happening. Makakapag-perform na kami at matutuloy na kami sa Araneta Coliseum. Before, nangangarap lang kami na sana maka-perform sa stage ng Big Dome kasi marami na din kaming napanood na concert doon,” shared Josh in virtual media conference. “We aim na kahit ngayon hindi pa tayo pwede sa live audience, at least nandoon pa rin kami sa stage na iyon at virtually, mapapanood nila kami. Sisiguraduhin namin na worth-
while yung gagawin namin na performances at mageenjoy sila na parang kasama pa rin namin sila. Of course, hopefully in the future, gusto naming ulitin ito with live audience,” he added. SB19 is set to perform three new unreleased tracks at the concert through a special “Live Comeback.” On November 17, the title of the first track was officially released called “Nyebe.” A new teaser was also released on November 20, connoting a disco theme and genre. More teasers for their upcoming songs will be released soon.
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