By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2012 Journal Group Link International)

C HICAGO (jGLi) – The National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and G-8 leaders and rallyists have really one thing in common: They each want to end wars in Afghanistan and other countries.

They only differ on the means to do it. The NATO leaders led by President Barack Obama want to do it with lots of elaborate protocols, like doing it in the confines of air-conditioned rooms. While rallyists could do it anywhere, even under the rain-drenching night like last Sunday, May 20, in front of The Art Institute of Chicago at South Michigan Avenue corner East Adams St.

The day started with a violent standoff between anti-riot policemen and demonstrators at the corner of Cermak Road and Michigan Avenue in Chicago’s southside. Several rallyists were injured while many more were arrested.

Although, the 25th NATO summit involves 60 nations, discussing mostly European concerns, some Filipino Americans tried to venture into the perimeter of the rally sites.

Chicago Filipino-American community organizer Marlon L. Pecson said he is interested on what the United States will do after it withdraws its troops from Afghanistan in 2014. “Will the U.S. be interested to re-deploy its returning troops to Asia to deter China from its aggression in Philippine Western Sea (South China Sea) to open the sea lanes to international shipping traffic? This is something I would have loved to ask Mr. Obama if I had a chance to ask a question,” Mr. Pecson said.

Mr. Pecson is an officer of the Chicago chapter of the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance, who obtained a permit to rally before the China Consulate in Chicago last May 11 against China’s intrusion in Philippine Western Sea.

“I just hope the U.S. will not leave the Philippines to fend off threats from the menacing and pesky giant China neighbor, which is claiming Scarborough (Panatag or Huagyan) Shaol, which really belongs to the Philippines by virtue of the Shoal’s proximity to the Philippines (within the Philippines’ 200 exclusive economic zone),” Mr. Pecson added.

NO TO UKAY-UKAY JOURNALISM

F or her part, Yvonne T. Hortillo, freelance writer and volunteer columnist of The Filipino-American Community Builder, a Chicago monthly, said she wanted to cover the NATO rally just to be more relevant and more update with what is happening in Chicago.

The Manila-born Ms. Hortillo said, “I will really feel bad if I write a column or story about NATO that I will only base on local radio, television or Internet report. (She does not want to be identified with what former Filipino sports editor and former North Cotabato Gov. Manny Pinol calls as “Ukay-Ukay” [used-clothing or second hand-sourced] journalist.) When I have all the chance to see the NATO events unfold in front of my very eyes, I will be very authoritative to say that, hey, I was in Chicago to cover the historic NATO event even if I was not given a NATO press accreditation.”

For this reporter, covering NATO was like covering EDSA People Power in 1986, where thousands of people poured out into the street to force the overthrow of President Marcos from Power. But the NATO was tame in comparison to People Power in terms of security as the number of police nearly matched the number of hundreds of rallyists.

The NATO summit was long in planning and plenty of logistics to boot. Its security is backed up by Blackhawk helicopters hovering over downtown (this reporter tried to take a photo of the helicopter under a pouring rain Sunday but the zoom lens was not capable of getting its clear picture), the Illinois National Guard, the Illinois State Police, the Secret Service and “other supplementary forces.”

During the People Power Revolution in the Philippines, I saw several planes from U.S. Clark Air Base hovering around Camp Aguinaldo to deter any Philippine Air Force plane or Sikorksy gunship from threatening demonstrators.

NOT AFRAID OF THE RAIN

D espite the drenching rain, the rallyists in front of The Art Institute of Chicago did not scamper from getting wet. They stood their ground, speaking out, singing and dancing Hula Hoop and waving their placards that urged NATO to end all wars and devote moneys to prop up production, economy and jobs, instead.

I just notice that both the anti-riot policemen and rallyists were ready for the long haul. After almost four hours of standoff, I noticed not one of the rallyists nor anti-riot policemen headed to the urinals to relieve themselves. Perhaps, none of them did not drink a lot of liquids before the standoff.

Not only the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) buses were mobilized to load the anti-riot policemen but also scores of limousine service vehicles were used to transport security people from point to point.

So that onlookers and rallyists could not form and start a group, anti-riot policemen were fielded in each street corner of prospective rally sites, preventing passers-by from getting near a rally site. It was adopting a “divide-and-rule” strategy as anti-riot policemen dispersed any group that tries to assemble in every opportunity.

After the 10 o’clock evening news, when some local televisions were still covering the rally on the spot, the rallyists started to get scarce.

The standoff in front of The Art Institute of Chicago dispersed about 11 p.m. with no violence. I only observed one arrest after a man tossed some empty bottle towards the anti-riot policemen, not knowing that there were some plainclothes men mixing with the rallyists. He was arrested in front of me without a struggle.

There was a new phenomenon though that I observed at the rally. Many rallyists were armed with their own cell phone photo and video cameras. The cell phones have become the rallyists’ best weapons to document police brutality.

Might as well, after all, when the President of the United States is in the caller’s vicinity, it is very hard to call on a cell phone but one can still manage to send a text message. # # #

Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at: (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)

 
T he lack of numbers inevitably leads to a reasonable conclusion that the protest rally against the Chinese over Scarborough shoal did not enjoy popular support despite the media hype that US-based lobbyists have created. The failure is humiliating, to say the least. One of the drum beaters, San Francisco-based Rodel (alias Rodil) Rodis can't be magnanimous in defeat. He tries to stand up, breathes fire and spews garbage. Who would trust this guy?

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  

PROTEST RALLY IN TORONTO

Failing to Whip Up Interests Among Filipinos, 

Organizer Attacks Journalist for Truthful Reporting

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA)

and National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC)

T ORONTO – With the hotshot tag evading him in his nickel-and-dime law practice in San Francisco, California, Rodel (alias Rodil) Rodis has turned to drum beating – or is it paid puppeteering?  – to resurrect what remains of his sagging image.

Like most people of his ilk, he engages in the usual name-calling, passing off old, recycled garbage as news in propaganda attacks to demean my professional and personal life as if his own discredited existence is virtuous, sin-less and without duplicity.

Yet time and again, his false moral ascendancy is stained by a less-publicized - possibly hidden - story of his declaration of bankruptcy to escape a court-ordered payment to a client who had sued him for malpractice and won.

Then there's the unpleasant memory of him being arrested and handcuffed by police for passing what police had thought was a fake $100 bill in a Walgreens store in San Francisco.

These incidents are forever etched in the minds of friends and foes alike. They are reminders of this man who assumes the high moral ground in supposedly providing leadership to the Filipino diaspora with equally questionable lobbyists in Washington, DC

Trust him if you like. But if people ask me, I'd remind them of Janus, the two-faced ancient Roman deity who has come to symbolize a hypocritical person. Is Janus an apt metaphor for Rodis?

Disappointed that the "global" protest didn't come through as he and his cohort Loida Nicolas Lewis had expected, Rodis is throwing tantrums at the very same people who showed up at the protest rally. He loathes them as can be gleaned from his statement.

"Marquez's videos x x x  are absolutely SICKENING," he writes, using me to hit the Toronto rallyists. If the videos are "sickening," then it follows that the people in those videos are "sickening," for without them there would be no videos to begin with. (Coverage at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFlc3USr-E0&feature=channel&list=UL)

I understand his antipathy and I can only hazard a guess on why, at the risk of incurring the ire of these people.

Is Rodis disgusted with the guy who proposed sending people to do a "people power" in Scarborough shoal? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmIawG94tkk&feature=channel&list=UL)

Or with the guy who inquired about people behind the protest? Or the guy who said all of them should be leaders? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q8Ay6X1Thk&feature=channel&list=UL)

Or with all of them gladly obliging Chinese reporters to show some energy in their lacklustre protest? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbWOCG--5Yo&feature=channel&list=UL)

If Rodis is of a sound mind, he would have to be thankful to these people for supporting his and Lewis' diplomatic follies. That's because my videos of the protest are faithful recordings of what transpired on Friday, May 11 on St. George St. near the Chinese consulate.

He questions my use of the phrase "reported intrusion". Unschooled in journalism and without experience in deadline reporting for a world audience, he does not understand the nuances of the profession - journalese as it may be called.

He may be forgiven for his mental lapses though. Had I been in Scarborough shoal and witnessed the intrusion myself, I would have dropped "reported" and affirmed the "intrusion". 

But I can not rely on somebody else's assertion, specially from one with a Janus face. The lawyer in him would tell him it's hearsay or did he not know?

Rodis also makes an issue of my description, thus: "Less than two dozen people marched in circles in a show of protest against the reported incursion of China in a contested shoal in South China Sea. The mass action failed to live up to its billing as a 'global protest'."

He claims that I disparaged the protesters: "Like China, he (that's me) belittles the Filipinos protesting by describing the group as 'less than two dozen marching (sic) in a circle (sic)'." With what he wrote the hint is unmistakable that I should have inflated the numbers.

Which was exactly what he did a few months back when he tried to over-hype the first USP4GG protest by expanding the number of people well beyond the actual figures. How can one trust his judgement? Did he think he was over-charging a dirt-poor client?

Rodis is running out of issues in his bag of tricks. He previously consorted with a foul-mouthed dimwit in Los Angeles, California who shamelessly went on an email binge to attack me personally. It failed. In fact it boomeranged after I found out in my own investigation that this guy is a fake lawyer running a law office. With characters like this in his friends' list, how can one trust Rodis? 

Currently Rodis has a bootlicker in Toronto who obediently does all his bidding. He was among the protesters at the Chinese consulate. One of the reasons I covered this protest was to know him, see how he looks, how he behaves. And I was not surprised to hear him mouth the same sound bites that Rodis dishes out. # # #

Other stories available at: http://digitaljournal.com/user/130094/news 

My news channels can be viewed by clicking the links:

1. The Gotcha Journalist Channel's Currents & Breaking News at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGotchaJournalist#g/u

2. The Filipino Web Channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/FilipinoWebChannel#g/u

3. Filipino Web Entertainment Channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/FilWebEntertainment#g/

For other stories and photos, please visit: 

1. http://currentsbreakingnews.blogspot.com/ 

2. http://torontonewsroom.blogspot.com/

3. http://timecircumstance.blogspot.com/

4. http://travelsthemes.blogspot.com/ 

5. http://gotchajournalist.blogspot.com/ .

By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2012 Journal Group Link International)

C HICAGO (jGLi) – Jose Antonio Vargas, the Philippine-born Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, who outed himself 11 months ago as an undocumented immigrant and who has become the face for the struggle for comprehensive immigration reform, has reminded his audience that the Philippine government is playing an important, if not humanitarian, role in his advocacy. But he is hopeful Filipino nurses and Filipino world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao will express solidarity with him if the inevitable – his deportation – happens.

“Imagine, if Filipino nurses will protest my deportation? Do you think some of the hospitals in America will still operate if they (nurses) go out of the street and protest my deportation?  And what do you think will Manny Pacquiao do?” Mr. Vargas told a group of hundreds of students during a talk last May 9 at the International House at the University of Chicago Coalition for Immigrant Rights (UCCIR) at Chicago’s southside.

Fears of deportation of Mr. Vargas, however, appear to be unfounded as Director John Morton of the U.S.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued on June 17, 2011, five days after Vargas outed himself, a memorandum to his field officers “to ensure that the agency’s immigration enforcement resources are focused on the agency’s enforcement priorities. The memorandum also serves to make clear which agency employees may exercise prosecutorial discretion and what factors should be considered.”

Among those who will be given priority by ICE’s enforcers to be deportated are “individuals, who pose a clear risk to national security, serious felons, repeat offenders, or individuals with a lengthy criminal record of any kind; known gang members or other individuals who pose a clear danger to public safety; and individuals with an egregious record of immigration violations, including those with a record of illegal re-entry and those who have engaged in immigration fraud.”

Mr. Vargas said he has been in 60 events in 20 states in 11 months since he outed himself in a New York Times Magazine first-person account on June 22, 2011, issue and he is still very much in the thick of the fight for immigration reform of a broken system that considers him an illegal immigrant “even if I pay taxes and pay for my social security that I will not benefit from.”

MEMO IN VARGAS’ SIDE

T he same memorandum says when “weighing whether an exercise of prosecutorial discretion may be warranted for a given alien,” ICE officers should consider “the person’s length of presence in the United States, with particular consideration given to presence while in lawful status; the circumstances of the person’s arrival in the U.S. and the manner of his or her entry, particularly if the alien came to the U.S. as a young child; and the person’s pursuit of education in the U.S., with particular consideration given to those who have graduated from a U.S. high school or have successfully pursued or are pursuing a college or advanced degrees at a legitimate institution of higher education in the U.S.”

In either scenario, Mr. Vargas could not be deported because he comes under the exceptions as he arrived in the U.S. 19 years ago in a lawful status as a minor – 12 years old; and had graduated from a U.S. high school and had pursued a college program in the U.S.

Vargas said because he does not have a valid driver’s license that could serve as his identification data (ID), he was blessed to be provided by the Philippine government with a Philippine passport. “When I presented my passport at O’Hare’s TSA (Transportation Security Administration) staff, I kept it already open and hopeful that TSA people did not flip other pages that would show I have no U.S. visa and you know anything can happen.”

When asked by one in the audience if he would encourage other students into outing their illegal immigration status just like what he did, Mr. Vargas said, “Coming out, I’ve gone out twice (another as a gay). I am not to tell you how and when you are going to come out.  I am in a privileged position to be doing what I am doing. If you come out, ask a lawyer first, and join and donate to defineamerican.com. It’s your own choice; subscribe” to our website and tell your own story or watch the best friends forever series documentaries on mtv.com.

Vargas had also paid tribute to his fellow undocumented immigrants numbering 11 millions Americans “love to hate,” who paid $11.2 billion in local and state taxes last year and keep the “Social Security System afloat,” by paying $7-billion a year into the system although they cannot collect the benefits when they retire.

DIG AT OWN EMPLOYER

M r. Vargas, 31, recalled his essay last year where he wrote that when his previous employer, “the Washington Post, reported that undocumented immigrants collected $4.2-billion in refundable tax credits last year, they should have pointed out that, according to the non-partisan, non-profit Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, unauthorized workers paid $11.2 billion in local and state taxes last year, and that included $1.2 billion in personal income taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes and $8.4 billion in sales taxes.”

According to the Center for American Progress (March 2006), the undocumented immigrants’ Social Security and Medicare contributions directly support older Americans as undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive these services. The Internal Revenue Service issues an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) regardless of immigration status because both resident and nonresident aliens may have Federal tax return and payment responsibilities under the Internal Revenue Code. Federal tax law prohibits the IRS from sharing data with other government agencies including the INS (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services). In 2006, 1.4 million people used ITIN when filing taxes, of which more than half were illegal immigrants.

The Manila-born Vargas advocated a “buddy system” in school boards, which should be led by “’white” or “black” teachers, who can create a memo on how to tell a teacher how to handle a situation when children or parents are undocumented. “A white teacher would certainly have the power that we need to give people space to talk about immigration. Afterwards, we can do it in a church” and other institutions, he explained. He hopes to raise the “uncomfortable conversation on immigration reform up to the national level.”

IMMIGRATION REFORM IN A GENERATION

P reparing himself for a long haul, Vargas believes immigration reform will be accomplished in a generation.

Although, he lauded President Obama for favoring same-sex marriage, Mr. Vargas doubts an immigration reform would ever be passed under the Obama administration. Vargas suggested that Mr. Obama would be harshly judged by history “for deporting millions of undocumented immigrants in three years. He is wrong to do this. He will not be justified (for what Mr. Obama did).”

Mr. Vargas said immigration reform nearly came true back in the spring of 2001 when the second President Bush, a former border governor, welcomed Mexico President Vicente Fox in the White House, saying “Oh, there is no real partners to us than Mexico.”

Then, the “DREAM Act was introduced or hatched by Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar. A few months later: 9/11 (attack). All of us were foreigners and strangers to each other. We were terrorized. We got terrorized.”

He cited the case of an American-born Mexican accountant in Georgia, who started crying for fear that she would be stopped in traffic after leaving her wallet behind with her driver’s license.

Vargas said for an undocumented Mexican immigrant, who wants to get past the TSA, he needs to “shave a mustache so you won’t look too Mexican; borrow a laptop so you look like a student with a backpack; wear sunglasses to look Asian; when you present your passport to a TSA, don’t shake your hand. And when you get past the TSA, don’t smile.” # # #

Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at: (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)

By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2012 Journal Group Link International)

C HICAGO (jGLi) – Representatives of the U.S. Pinoys For Good Governance (USP4GG) were barred from handing their petition over to the staff of the China Consulate in Chicago, Illinois, shortly after holding a two-hour long rally across the consulate Friday, May 11.

Ms. Yoly Tubalinal, editor-publisher of Fil Am Megascene, and community organizer Marlon L. Pecson, were turned away as shown in this

video clip

by a Chicago woman police officer and a security officer of the U.S. State Department assigned at its Chicago Field Office when they tried to hand-carry a petition against China’s aggression at the Scarborough Shaol (Panatag or Huangyan) that is part of the Philippine territory.

The officers told Ms. Tubalinal and Mr. Pecson that they would need to make an appointment before they can get in the Consulate located at 100 West Erie St. in Chicago’s near north downtown.

When told that the Consulate’s listed phone number is always busy, the officers just shrugged their shoulders.

This reporter tried to call the phone number listed on the website of Consul General Yang Guoqiang’s phone number, 312-803-0095 and Fax: 312-803-0110, but they were always busy even as the listed email address, chinaconsul_chi_us@mfa.gov.cn, returned as “failure delivery.”

MULLING OVER COMPLAINT

M r. Pecson is studying his options if he will file a complaint against the Chicago police and the U.S. State Department for violating his free speech right for stopping him from gaining access to a public place, like the China Consulate.

Only around 30 Filipino Americans turned up at the rally due to the uncertainties if the City of Chicago was going to give them permit to hold a rally.

It was only on May 7th that Mr. Pecson was able to secure a permit to hold a rally from the Chicago Department of Transportation after arguing his case in a hearing before a panel.

A bigger group – the National Nurses United -- that planned the demonstration and other protest in the heart of downtown was denied a permit for May 18 at Daley Plaza barely a week before world leaders are going to arrive in Chicago for the May 20-21 meeting of NATO.

Pecson argued that there was urgent reason for the City of Chicago to grant him permit because the USP4GG would like to inform the public over the aggressive stance of China towards the Filipinos defending the Scarborough Shaol, which is closer to the Philippines or within the Philippines 200 nautical miles economic exclusive zone and is very much farther away from China at more than 500 nautical miles.

At the rally, Mr. Pecson described the Chicago rally as part of the “Global People Power” that should shock and awe China from preventing Filipino fishermen from fishing at the Scarborough Shaol. “By depriving the Filipinos to fish at the Scarborough Shaol, China is violating the Filipino fishermen’s right to fish and eke out a living.”

MANIFESTO

In its manifesto read during the rally, “On this day, Filipinos spread out all over the world are holding peaceful demonstrations to protest the continuing acts of aggression by China in Scarborough Shoal that is part of Philippine territory.

“Since the stand-off at Scarborough Shoal began over a month ago, the Chinese government has kept insisting on its ‘historic rights’ to Scarborough and other areas that are within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, while refusing the Philippine government’s offer to raise the issue for mediation in the proper international tribunals, as provided for by several global conventions and agreements, mainly, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS.

“At the same time, China has repeatedly warned the Philippine government against moves that could ‘escalate’ the tension or ‘internationalize’ the conflict—a classic case of speaking from both sides of the mouth because it has no qualms about flaunting its military superiority and has, of last count, kept maritime surveillance vessels CMS 75 and 81, and the fisheries patrol vessel FLEC 310, alongside 30 Chinese fishing boats at Scarborough.”

A number of representatives from the Chinese media turned up to cover the Chicago rally. Among were Jessica Hui-Lin Huang, reporter of Chicago-based World Journal, Ethan Zang of suncastv.com, and Liang Yan of Xinhua News Agency based in Chicago.

The Chicago rally was second staged by USP4GG after it held its first last July 8th. # # #

Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at: (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)

By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2012 Journal Group Link International)

C HICAGO (jGLi) – Representatives of the U.S. Pinoys For Good Governance (USP4GG) were barred from handing their petition over to the staff of the China Consulate in Chicago, Illinois, shortly after holding a two-hour long rally across the consulate Friday, May 11.

Ms. Yoly Tubalinal, editor-publisher of Fil Am Megascene, and community organizer Marlon L. Pecson, were turned away as shown in this video clip by a Chicago woman police officer and a security officer of the U.S. State Department assigned at its Chicago Field Office when they tried to hand-carry a petition against China’s aggression at the Scarborough Shaol (Panatag or Huangyan) that is part of the Philippine territory.

The officers told Ms. Tubalinal and Mr. Pecson that they would need to make an appointment before they can get in the Consulate located at 100 West Erie St. in Chicago’s near north downtown.

When told that the Consulate’s listed phone number is always busy, the officers just shrugged their shoulders.

This reporter tried to call the phone number listed on the website of Consul General Yang Guoqiang’s phone number, 312-803-0095 and Fax: 312-803-0110, but they were always busy even as the listed email address, chinaconsul_chi_us@mfa.gov.cn, returned as “failure delivery.”

MULLING OVER COMPLAINT

M r. Pecson is studying his options if he will file a complaint against the Chicago police and the U.S. State Department for violating his free speech right for stopping him from gaining access to a public place, like the China Consulate.

Only around 30 Filipino Americans turned up at the rally due to the uncertainties if the City of Chicago was going to give them permit to hold a rally.

It was only on May 7th that Mr. Pecson was able to secure a permit to hold a rally from the Chicago Department of Transportation after arguing his case in a hearing before a panel.

A bigger group – the National Nurses United -- that planned the demonstration and other protest in the heart of downtown was denied a permit for May 18 at Daley Plaza barely a week before world leaders are going to arrive in Chicago for the May 20-21 meeting of NATO.

Pecson argued that there was urgent reason for the City of Chicago to grant him permit because the USP4GG would like to inform the public over the aggressive stance of China towards the Filipinos defending the Scarborough Shaol, which is closer to the Philippines or within the Philippines 200 nautical miles economic exclusive zone and is very much farther away from China at more than 500 nautical miles.

At the rally, Mr. Pecson described the Chicago rally as part of the “Global People Power” that should shock and awe China from preventing Filipino fishermen from fishing at the Scarborough Shaol. “By depriving the Filipinos to fish at the Scarborough Shaol, China is violating the Filipino fishermen’s right to fish and eke out a living.”

MANIFESTO

In its manifesto read during the rally, “On this day, Filipinos spread out all over the world are holding peaceful demonstrations to protest the continuing acts of aggression by China in Scarborough Shoal that is part of Philippine territory.

“Since the stand-off at Scarborough Shoal began over a month ago, the Chinese government has kept insisting on its ‘historic rights’ to Scarborough and other areas that are within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, while refusing the Philippine government’s offer to raise the issue for mediation in the proper international tribunals, as provided for by several global conventions and agreements, mainly, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS.

“At the same time, China has repeatedly warned the Philippine government against moves that could ‘escalate’ the tension or ‘internationalize’ the conflict—a classic case of speaking from both sides of the mouth because it has no qualms about flaunting its military superiority and has, of last count, kept maritime surveillance vessels CMS 75 and 81, and the fisheries patrol vessel FLEC 310, alongside 30 Chinese fishing boats at Scarborough.”

A number of representatives from the Chinese media turned up to cover the Chicago rally. Among were Jessica Hui-Lin Huang, reporter of Chicago-based World Journal, Ethan Zang of suncastv.com, and Liang Yan of Xinhua News Agency based in Chicago.

The Chicago rally was second staged by USP4GG after it held its first last July 8th. # # #

Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at: (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)

By JOSEPH G. LARIOSA

(© 2012 Journal Group Link International)

C HICAGO (jGLi) – Representatives of the U.S. Pinoys For Good Governance (USP4GG) were barred from handing their petition over to the staff of the China Consulate in Chicago, Illinois, shortly after holding a two-hour long rally across the consulate Friday, May 11.

Ms. Yoly Tubalinal, editor-publisher of Fil Am Megascene, and community organizer Marlon L. Pecson, were turned away as shown in this video clip by a Chicago woman police officer and a security officer of the U.S. State Department assigned at its Chicago Field Office when they tried to hand-carry a petition against China’s aggression at the Scarborough Shaol (Panatag or Huangyan) that is part of the Philippine territory.

The officers told Ms. Tubalinal and Mr. Pecson that they would need to make an appointment before they can get in the Consulate located at 100 West Erie St. in Chicago’s near north downtown.

When told that the Consulate’s listed phone number is always busy, the officers just shrugged their shoulders.

This reporter tried to call the phone number listed on the website of Consul General Yang Guoqiang’s phone number, 312-803-0095 and Fax: 312-803-0110, but they were always busy even as the listed email address, chinaconsul_chi_us@mfa.gov.cn, returned as “failure delivery.”

MULLING OVER COMPLAINT

M r. Pecson is studying his options if he will file a complaint against the Chicago police and the U.S. State Department for violating his free speech right for stopping him from gaining access to a public place, like the China Consulate.

Only around 30 Filipino Americans turned up at the rally due to the uncertainties if the City of Chicago was going to give them permit to hold a rally.

It was only on May 7th that Mr. Pecson was able to secure a permit to hold a rally from the Chicago Department of Transportation after arguing his case in a hearing before a panel.

A bigger group – the National Nurses United -- that planned the demonstration and other protest in the heart of downtown was denied a permit for May 18 at Daley Plaza barely a week before world leaders are going to arrive in Chicago for the May 20-21 meeting of NATO.

Pecson argued that there was urgent reason for the City of Chicago to grant him permit because the USP4GG would like to inform the public over the aggressive stance of China towards the Filipinos defending the Scarborough Shaol, which is closer to the Philippines or within the Philippines 200 nautical miles economic exclusive zone and is very much farther away from China at more than 500 nautical miles.

At the rally, Mr. Pecson described the Chicago rally as part of the “Global People Power” that should shock and awe China from preventing Filipino fishermen from fishing at the Scarborough Shaol. “By depriving the Filipinos to fish at the Scarborough Shaol, China is violating the Filipino fishermen’s right to fish and eke out a living.”

MANIFESTO

In its manifesto read during the rally, “On this day, Filipinos spread out all over the world are holding peaceful demonstrations to protest the continuing acts of aggression by China in Scarborough Shoal that is part of Philippine territory.

“Since the stand-off at Scarborough Shoal began over a month ago, the Chinese government has kept insisting on its ‘historic rights’ to Scarborough and other areas that are within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, while refusing the Philippine government’s offer to raise the issue for mediation in the proper international tribunals, as provided for by several global conventions and agreements, mainly, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS.

“At the same time, China has repeatedly warned the Philippine government against moves that could ‘escalate’ the tension or ‘internationalize’ the conflict—a classic case of speaking from both sides of the mouth because it has no qualms about flaunting its military superiority and has, of last count, kept maritime surveillance vessels CMS 75 and 81, and the fisheries patrol vessel FLEC 310, alongside 30 Chinese fishing boats at Scarborough.”

A number of representatives from the Chinese media turned up to cover the Chicago rally. Among were Jessica Hui-Lin Huang, reporter of Chicago-based World Journal, Ethan Zang of suncastv.com, and Liang Yan of Xinhua News Agency based in Chicago.

The Chicago rally was second staged by USP4GG after it held its first last July 8th. # # #

Editor’s Note: To contact the author, please e-mail him at: (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)