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Leading HK right-to-abode appeal

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     What tourists in Hong Kong called “a site for sore eyes,” led to this columnist’s wish to view what that ‘site’ was all about when a remarkable opportunity arrived very late last month.
     There, they were, convincing large groups of Filipinos, from both genders, leading  
equally large protests involving various ethnicities, described by those who had followed their beginnings characterized thusly, fighting for ‘residence rights to focus on basic law.’ 
     This columnist assured their spokespeople that none of their statements would be traced to them as news sources; they discussed how anonymity has served as their ‘security blanket,’ while the end ‘was not in sight.’   
     Reportedly, Hong Kong’s city government had asked the Court of Final Appeal to seek a ruling from Beijing ‘on the power of the National People’s Congress to interpret the Basic Law.’ That same Court is ‘hearing an appeal by domestic helpers whose claim for permanent residence, under Article 24, after living in the former Crown Colony for more than seven (7) years was rejected by a lower court.’
     Since the constitutional challenge was mounted by Filipinos, Evangeline Banao Vallejos and Daniel Domingo, who, it was reported, have each worked in Hong Kong (HK) for more than twenty (20) years, it spurred great interest among numerous residents of that location, so anxiously awaiting the Court’s decision. 
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Telltale Signs: Huge indifference towards overseas Filipinos

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Rodel Rodis

 

 
Part 2 and Conclusion
 “In 2016, when Filipinos come together as one nation to decide on the next administration, one of our biggest legacies to voters around the world is an OVA law that offers flexibility in terms of new technologies,” Pimentel said. Under the amended Overseas Voting Act, “the participation of overseas Filipinos in the election of national officials would be as easy as their turning on their computers and connecting to the Internet to register or to vote,” Pimentel said. 
Global Summit delegates trooped to the Philippine Senate building on Feb. 28 to personally thank Sen. Pimentel and Sen. Loren Legarda for their support of the OVA bill. During a roundtable discussion about issues of concern to overseas Filipinos, Sen. Legarda encouraged “former Filipinos” to invest in the Philippines. At that point, I said “Senator, there is no such thing as a “former Filipino”. You can be a former Philippine citizen but never a “former Filipino. Once a Filipino, always a Filipino.” Sen. Legarda readily agreed.
 
 
While Sen. Legarda and Sen. Pimentel were meeting with the Summit delegates, another Team PNoy senate candidate, Cynthia Villar, was busy putting her foot in her mouth. When she was interviewed on TV by host Wennie Monsod who asked her why she intervened in favor of nursing school diploma mills in 2005, Villar replied that there was no need for Philippine nurses  to graduate with Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN) degrees since they only wanted to become “room nurses” or caretakers anyway. 
The social networks of global Filipinos exploded with fury. Here is one comment, among thousands that were posted: “Telling your precious Pinay nurses that they don’t even need to have a BSN because they only want to work abroad as a room nurse and that they don’t really need to be good because they are only there to be a caretaker for others is utterly degrading and demeaning. And by the way, there’s no such thing as a “room nurse”. Operating room nurse, yes. Emergency room nurse, yes. But a room nurse? Seriously?”
 
Villar should not underestimate the influence of outraged Philippine nurses working abroad who remit billions of dollars of their salaries to their families in the Philippines. One word from them to their relatives and Villar’s hopes to succeed her husband in the Philippine senate will be dashed.

IMMIGRATION ROUNDTABLE

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Atty. Lourdes Tancinco

 

 
By Lourdes Santos Tancinco, Esq.
 
 
The real solution to resolve the lengthy backlog is for visa numbers to be increased across the board.
 
 
Looming threat to family visa petitions
 
The bi-partisan group of eight U.S. senators last week revealed that it is considering decreasing the number of family visas and eliminating the two family based categories. Although there is no final draft yet, it is likely that the third and fourth family preference categories will be eliminated in the proposal. These are petitions by U.S. citizens on behalf of their adult-married children and siblings.   There will be a reduction of at least 90,000 family visas that will limit the ability of US citizens to petition their relatives. 
 
In line with the Senators’ framework for comprehensive immigration reform of “attracting the best and the brightest”, they are more inclined to allocate visas for the employment based category. The idea is to shift the number of visas allocated for family in favor of employment based visas without adding visas to the total worldwide numerical quota. The Immigration and Nationality Act specifically provides an annual numerical cap of 226,000 in the family based category and approximately 154,000 in the employment based preferences. 
The approach being considered is based on the assumption that the total number of visas available should only be fixed to what is provided for by existing law. If ever there is a change as proposed, visas are simply going to be re-allocated. 
 
No Shifting of Visa Numbers
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Free assistance in preparing taxes

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California taxpayers have state and federal programs available to assist in filing returns.  
 
 
Free assistance  in preparing taxes
By Assemblymember Phil Ting
 
 
 
It’s March, which means the deadline for filing your personal income tax returns is just around the corner.  Tax Day, April 15, will be here sooner than you think.  It’s best to file as soon as possible so get started on the process early.  Whether you’re filing on your own or using a service, you’ll want to start gathering the necessary documents in order.  It will be helpful to have on hand the social security numbers of your spouse, children and dependents, your W-2 forms and other forms about your income, and last year’s tax return.
For your state income tax return, you can find the necessary forms at FTB.CA.GOV.  The Internal Revenue Service offers free filing software online at IRS.GOV/Filing.
Preparing one’s income tax returns can be a challenging process, especially considering the recent changes in state and federal tax laws.  Thankfully, as a California taxpayer you have state and federal programs available to you to assist you as you file your return.  
If you earn less than $51,000 per year and are unsure of how to properly file your taxes, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) programs are available to you to ensure you get the best return possible.  VITA offers help to qualifying taxpayers regardless of age, while TCE is tailored to assist senior citizens.  
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PROPOSED FUNDING CHANGE

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That would mean much-needed additional dollars for state school districts with many Filipino American and minority students.
Help for English learners, 
underprivileged students 
By Neil Gonzales
Chief Correspondent – Nothern California
SAN FRANCISCO – A proposed change to the way California funds its public schools would boost services for English-language learners and low-income students, a panel of education-finance experts said recently.
That would mean much-needed additional dollars for school districts with many Filipino American and minority students such as San Francisco Unified and Los Angeles Unified. 
Still, the experts expressed concerns, including making sure the funding would indeed go directly to the neediest students. 
“Most school districts in the state – 90 percent or more – would receive a significant increase in funding over the next several years under the proposal,” said Jonathan Kaplan, among the panelists during the March 13 briefing hosted by New America Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit coalition of ethnic news organizations. 
“Some school districts that have large proportions of English learners or low-income kids would see dramatic increases in funding,” said Kaplan, who works as a senior policy analyst for the California Budget Project, an independent fiscal- and policy-research organization.
In January, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed the Local Control Funding Formula in the state budget, which is scheduled to be approved June 30.
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