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Arena Stage Artistic Director, Molly Smith promises that this 2007-08 season will be diverse- in form, in theme, in mood, in tone. The dynamic line-up includes musicals and drama, classics and premieres. It will make you laugh, cry, sing. . . and think. Arena Stage is located at 1101 Sixth St. NW, Washington D.C. For tickets and info, call 202-488-8300.

CHICAGO - Catherine “Kathy” Tanco-Ong. the low key and unassuming manager of the Philippines’ International Little League Association of Manila (ILLAM) that nearly snared the 27th Junior World Series title Aug. 18, never dreamed of staking a claim to an honor dominated by men. “I was just a chaperon of my children in the sports that they love.

Suddenly, other parents nudged me into guiding the ILLAM team," Ms. Tanco-Ong told this columnist on how she got involved in baseball.

In earlier times, ice was used to chill treats for royalty during hot summer days. Today, it’s used to cool the masses, serving as balm for nasty burns and welcome relief from sizzling heat.

But there’s another kind of ice that’s dreaded even in the hottest of summers. This one literally sends terrifying chills up the spine. It’s Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. It’s mission, while ostensibly reassuring, is actually quite frightening when read between the lines: “To protect America and uphold public safety ...by eliminating vulnerabilities that pose a threat to our nation’s borders."

Our paths crossed, for the last time, at San Francisco’s International Airport. The family and I were heading for our Bangkok flight gate. We bumped into former Senator Benigno Aquino, striding toward his Boston plane.

The years blur most of our chat that day. We laughed recalling my securing a “carrier pigeon’ — a sympathetic Air India manager — to sneak his article, smuggled from a Fort Bonifacio prison cell, under martial law censor noses, to Bangkok Post editor Theh Chongkadikhij.

AFP given 3 years to wipe out terrorists

MANILA – A 5-man bipartisan group of American congressmen visited Zamboanga city August 24 just days after a terrorist homemade bomb exploded in the heart of the city, injuring a dozen civilians.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas),head of the delegation, said they will support more assistance and support to the Philippines in its fight against the Al-Qaeda linked terror group after they met with American troops training Filipino soldiers and local officials in Zamboanga city.

In other developments, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave the armed forces three years to eliminate the Abu Sayyaf, the communist New People’s Army and other terrorist groups in the Philippines.

WASHINGTON D.C. – A "watchlisted" Filipino American who was "detained" by authorities for nine days in Manila early this month is now back in the United States.

Prof. Annalisa Vicente Enrile, chair of the New York-based Gabriela-USA, claimed she was "harassed, intimidated and prevented" from leaving Manila on Aug. 5 after she attended a human rights meeting there. She was finally allowed to leave on Aug. 14 without getting an explanation as to why she was on the government’s watchlist.

When Enrile, a US-born Filipino American professor of the University of Southern California, was stopped at the NAIA, she was told by the immigration officers that she was on the government’s watchlist. Not even the US embassy was able to help her as she was given the run-around by Immigration, the Department of Justice and the National Intelligence Coordination Agency (Nica).

Apologies to all our readers. The page one story about the opening of the FBA-NA basketball tournament in Virginia Sept. 1 was all wrong.

The venue, which was changed by the organizers, was not at the Northern Virginia Community College but at the George Mason University sports complex, also in Virginia. And Ambassador Willy Gaa was not present to open the ceremonies Sept. 1.

Rudy Sinon of FABA said the schedule was finalized only on Aug. 24. Unfortunately, Alfonso Torrillo, the Manila Mail columnist who wrote the story, was not informed of the change. Once again, our apologies.

THE EDITOR

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.

RICHMOND, Virginia – The US Attorney for the Eastern District of Northern Virginia has upgraded the embezzlement charges against retired Filipino priest Rodney Rodis into the more serious federal offenses of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

The US attorney indicted Rodis, 51, of 13 counts of federal offenses in Richmond Aug. 22. Because of this development, state prosecutors who originally indicted Rodis of embezzlement in Louisa county last year said they might have to drop their case against Rodis, leaving the burden of prosecuting him to the district attorney’s office.

SUNNYVALE, California – Sgt. Michael Tayaotao, a 27-year-old Marine, may be the first Igorot Filipino American ever to be killed in action in Ambar Province in Iraq early this month.

Tayaotao, a bomb disposal technician with the Camp Pendleton-based 7th Engineer Support Battalion, was killed Aug. 9 in Al-Anbar province, the Pentagon has said. The Marine joins the 3,697 other American troops killed in the war, according to the Department of Defense’s latest tally. It was his third tour of duty.

LAGAWE, Ifugao – The 65-year-old mother of slain American Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell took the witness stand August 21 during the first of the two-day scheduled hearing on the ongoing murder trial of the suspected killer, Juan Donald Duntugan.

Linda Campbell flew all the way from Fairfax, Virgina, with Julia’s sibling Geary, 42, to testify before Judge Esther Piscozo-Flor of the Banaue Regional Trial Court. She told the court of the pain she felt upon learning that her second child, who had been away as Peace Corps volunteer in far-off Philippines, had been brutally killed.

WASHINGTON D.C. – Filipino Americans have expressed their outrage over the “detention” of a Filipino American activists in Manila on Aug. 5. Their anger has not subsided even after reports came that Prof. Annalisa Vicente Enrile, chair of GABRIELA-USA and professor of Southern California University, was finally allowed to leave. Dennis Garcia, husband of Professor Annalisa Vicente Enrile, said she returned from Manila Aug. 14, nine days after she was stopped from leaving Aug. 4 by Philippine authorities because she was on the “watchlist.”

WASHINGTON D.C. - Dr. Noel Chua, a Filipino American doctor who supporters claim is a victim of southern injustice, will finally have his day in court. After languishing for one year in jail because he was denied bail, Dr. Chua will finally face a jury trial Sept. 10.

Chua’s actual trial started with jury selection slated on Sept. 4, and a pre-trial hearing on Aug. 20. The litigation will be presided over by Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams, the same judge who last year denied Chua’s motion for bail.

MANILA – The Philippine Senate will investigate the local affiliate of a New York-based recruitment firm with alleged Malacanang links due to alleged abuses in the hiring of Filipino nurses for jobs in the United States. Sen. Panfilo Lacson has asked for the probe as e filed Resolution 73 which seeks to look into the activities of Sentosa Recruitment Agency as well as the government’s indifference to the plight of 26 Filipino nurses allegedly victimized by the company.

MANILA – The resumption of peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) did not push through Aug. 21 in Malaysia. Malacanang said the raging armed hostilities in Mindanao have nothing to do with the development.

Earlier, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the peace talks would resume as scheduled despite the offensive against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan, saying the MILF was not the target of the military operation.