The Filipino Friends Blog

Ex Philippine President files Libel case against tycoon

Well this story was found on Forbes Magazine – by the Associate press – how I came across this article was I was googling to find some storied regarding the Philippines and this one popped up and it definitely caught my eye…very interesting read…enjoy! 🙂

MANILA, Philippines — Former President Joseph Estrada on Thursday sued one of the Philippines’ richest businessmen and a newspaper over allegations the ousted leader coerced the tycoon to sell shares in the country’s biggest telecommunications company.

Estrada was forced to step down amid massive anti-corruption protests in 2001 after serving only half of his six-year term. He was convicted of plunder in September 2007 but was quickly granted a presidential pardon.

The report said Yuchengco confirmed allegations by Sen. Panfilo Lacson in a speech earlier in the week that Yuchengco was threatened and intimidated by Estrada into selling his 7.75 percent stake in the Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corp. to the group of businessman Manuel Pangilinan 11 years ago.

The sale of Yuchengco’s holdings in PTIC, an owner of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. ( PHI – news –people ), or PLDT, allowed Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Assets Holdings Inc. to gain control of PLDT, the country’s largest telecommunications company. Pangilinan is chairman of PLDT.

“I vehemently deny having committed any unlawful or criminal act against respondent Yuchengco or the members of his family in relation to the sale made by respondent Yuchengco of his PTIC/PLDT shares,” Estrada said in his complaint.

Another Filipina Pride – DC

Did any of you know that the Deputy Mayor of Washington, DC is a filipina?  No, I didn’t know that either, until I received an email from our family mailing lists – the story is below…

Unknown to many Washington, D.C. Deputy Mayor is Pinay. Valerie Santos, 36, a Filipino-American, was recently appointed by D.C.. Mayor Adrian Fenty to this position, where she is responsible for implementing the mayor´s economic development vision.
Furthermore, Santos has been assigned to manage a development pipeline worth more than $13 billion, comprised of public-private housing, retail, office and parks projects throughout the District.

“My father is from Zamboanga and my mother is from Bulacan,” says Santos, who spent a year in the Philippines as a community organizer and a Jesuit volunteer. “I enjoyed working at the grassroots community level,” Santos said. Born and raised in San Francisco, Santos finished college at Santa Clara University. She completed her MBA at Harvard Business School and a Master´s Degree in Public Policy at Harvard University´s Kennedy School of Government. She moved to Washington D.C. in 2003. In 2007, she served as the District´s Planning and Economic Development Office´s Chief Operating Officer. Before joining the District government, Santos was a vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, where she specialized in urban public-private development.
Previously, she was a manager with Ernst & Young´s real estate group and an associate with Hamilton Rabinovitz & Alschuler.
In her capacity as Deputy Mayor, she heads the District´s lead agency in coordinating policies and initiatives with respect to af fordable housing, business at traction and retention, workforce and economic development.
As such, she oversees a cluster of agencies that include the Department of Small and Local Business Development, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Office of Planning and the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

WE will Remember ~ 9/11

I wanted to pay tribute to all that were heroes on this day – God Bless America – let’s stand united and lets be strong and not falter!

I wanted to share with you that I received from an email from my sister – it was written by Amanda in regards to the Lucky Six – of which one of them is our cousin – his name is highlighted (he is married to our cousin Jennifer Willkomm-Greaney).

Talking about September 11, 2001 sometimes makes people sad.  But talking about the heroes on September 11th may not.  There was not just horror on that day.  There was also bravery.  Here are some heroes and what they did.

In addition to the heroes in the Twin Towers in New York, there were also people on the airplanes that made important calls to let people know what was happening to them. Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett Jr., and Jeremy Glick all made phone calls from the plane.  Some to mothers, some to wives, and to a GTE Airfone operator, but all gave some clues as to who the people who hijacked the planes were.  Todd Beamer said, “They’ve knifed a guy and they’ve said there’s a bomb.”  Their calls helped the people on the ground understand what was happening so that the airports could be shut down.

There were also heroes at the Trade Center.  Many of them were police officers and some were firefighters.  There were many success stories.  One of the stories that is told is about the 6 fire fighters who survived.  They are known today as the Lucky Six. They survived because of one reason only; they were helping.  Tommy Falco, Sal D’Agostino, Mike Meldrum, Matt Komorowski, Captain Jonas, and Bill Butler were the firefighters. Josephine Harris, a grandmother from Brooklyn,  was trying to get out of one of the Trade Tower buildings.   She wasn’t walking well (her office had been on the73th floor) and was exhausted when the firefighters came across her as they were heading down to the lobby.  They couldn’t leave her there so they began to help her down to the lobby.  There was a big boom.  The South Tower had just collapsed.   When they were on the fourth floor, Josephine couldn’t go any further.  Then everything started to heave.  The North Tower started to go down.  Then it was noisy, things began to fly around, and there were gigantic dust clouds.  They were hurled around for a moment and then the wreckage settled with them in it.  There was no way out.  But then they saw that, for some reason, the second-floor section of the staircase was still there!  The firefighters placed a harness around Josephine and slid her down.  Remarkably, all seven got out alive.  Faster or slower, they might not have gotten out, but at that pace they did.

Though a lot of people died, still, many survived.  We’ve got to be brave and have faith in ourselves even though we may be grieving for the ones we’ve lost.

WE ARE STILL STRONG