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SPRINGFIELD, Virginia – Filipino American leaders in the Washington metropolitan area are organizing a “phone bank” in support of the candidacy of Vellie Sandalo Dietrich Hall for supervisor of the Mason district in Virginia in the coming elections.

Leading the call are community leaders Maurese Owens and Jon Melegrito who are asking Filipino Americans regardless of their political affiliations to help Vellie, a Republican, win because it will put the community in the political map.

WASHINGTON - Asian immigrants are raising average education levels in many states, with nearly half of them holding at least a bachelor’s degree, according to the new census data released by the bureau of census.

It also said that nearly one in five people living in the United States speaks a language at home other than English, indicating the wide-ranging effects of immigration in the United States.

VIRGINIA – A fire broke out aboard the USS Leyte Gulf, a guided missile cruiser named after the site of the largest naval battle in World War II off the Philippines and five civilian workers were injured, officials said.

The 567-foot warship armed with Tomahawk missiles, torpedoes and Harpoon missiles was undergoing repairs in Norfolk, Virginia recently when the fire broke out below its main deck.

MANILA – Senate President Manuel Villar, a successful real estate developer whose companies advertise in the Manila Mail, is the richest member of the Philippine Senate.

And the poorest member is Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who won election this year even though he is in prison facing charges of rebellion.

The latest statement of assets, liabilities and net worth of (SALN), Villar, the Tondo boy who made good selling low-cost houses, listed his net worth as P921.4 million, up less than 1 percent from the P915.6 million he declared in 2006.

Arroyo sends Puno to discuss details

MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has given the green light to her emissary to start negotiations with convicted former President Joseph Estrada for the grant of full pardon in the spirit of reconciliation.

Estrada was to meet with the President’s emissary, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno on September 26 to discuss the mechanics of the proposed pardon. Estrada has said he will accept nothing except full, unconditional pardon without him admitting any guilt.

MANILA – This was the question uppermost in the minds of Filipinos as the Sandiganbayan Special Division prepared to hand down the verdict on the plunder and perjury cases of President Joseph Estrada on September 12.

Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio said the prosecution team is confident that Estrada will be convicted and Rene Saguisag, co-lead counsel for Estrada, said the defense panel is resigned to a verdict of conviction.

He said the three justices of the Sandiganbayan Special Division are bound by the pronouncements of the Supreme Court which have supposedly rendered virtually nil any chance of an acquittal.

QUEZON CITY – Ousted former President Joseph Estrada was found by the Sandiganbayan court Wednesday guilty of plunder and sentenced to life imprisonment. It acquitted him of the perjury charge.

The anti-graft court also ordered the forfeiture of the P542-million worth of Estrada’s bank accounts and the so-called Boracay mansion in New Manila, Quezon city. It allowed the former President to remain in his Tanay resthouse “until further notice.”

SYDNEY—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo finally got her pull-aside meeting with US President George W. Bush at 11 a.m. September 8, the first day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit here.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer said that in this meeting, Mrs. Arroyo succeeded in getting a promise from the US President to sign the Filipino veterans’ bills if the US Congress passed them. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said Bush was seen jotting down notes as he told Arroyo: "Hey, Gloria, did you finish everything we talked about?

Philippine Ambassador Willy C. Gaa will be the guest of honor and speaker at the opening ceremonies of the 3rd FBA-NA basketball tournament at 7 a.m. on September 1st at the Northern Virginia Community College Ernst Cultural Center, 8333 Little River in Annandale Virginia.

This will be the largest ever gathering of Filipino American and Filipino Canadian players in the Washington metropolitan area. It will also be the first FBA-NA tournament to be held here.

Jose Ma. Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines founder living in exile in the Netherlands since 1987, has been arrested by Dutch authorities in Utrecht Aug. 27 allegedly because he issued the orders to murder his political associates, Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara, in the Philippine several years ago. Reports are that the arrest was based on the filing of murder charges against him by Philippine authorities.

"The communist leader was suspected of giving orders, from the Netherlands, to murder his former political associates in the Philippines, Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara," the Dutch national prosecutor's office said in a statement quoted in an Agence France-Presse report.

WASHINGTON - The US House and Senate Appropriations Committees have voted to maintain foreign military financing (FMF) assistance to the Philippines for fiscal year 2008 steady at $30 million, the same level as that of the previous year, from $11.1 million requested by the Bush administration.

NEWARK, New Jersey - Michael Ray Aquino, 41, a former senior officer of the Philippine National Police, was sentenced July 17 by US District Court Judge William Walls here to 76 months in a US prison for passing classified nformation to opposition politicians in the Philippines as part of a plot to overthrow President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The next day, Aquino’s co-conspirator, former FBI analyst Leandro Aragoncillo, was also sentenced by Judge Walls to 10 years in jail. Both Aquino and Aragoncillo pleaded guilty last year of receiving and passing on secret US documents to Philippine officials. Both apologized in open court for their misdeeds, adding that they never had any intention of harming the United States.

ZAMBOANGA CITY - Italian missionary Giancarlo Bossi, kidnapped more than a month ago, was released unharmed July 20 following negotiations with guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), officials announced .

Looking thin and weak, Bossi was abandoned on a lone stretch of the national highway in Karumatan, Lanao del Norte around 9 p.m. July 19, on his ailing mother’s birthday, according to Chief Superintendent Jaime Caringal, Western Mindanao police director.

Bossi, 57, abducted from his parish in the coastal town of Payao in Zamboanga Sibugay on June 10, said he was treated well during his 40 days in captivity. He said they also promised he would not be kidnapped again should he return to his parish in Zamboanga.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI welcomed the news of Bossi’s release with “great joy”said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. Bossi’s release was revealed in Rome by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

The Filipino Basketball Association of North America (FBA-NA) will stage its third annual Labor Day tournament in Chantilly, Virginia on September 1^st and 2^nd.  The Filipino-American Basketball Association of Metropolitan DC, Inc (FABA-DC Metro) will host the event.  

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MANILA - Is the Arroyo government preparing the people to accept a guilty verdict for former President Joseph "Erap" Estrada?