Pinoys who hate Biden but love the stimulus check

“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that's also a hypocrite!”

—Tennessee Williams

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

A SMALL group of Filipino-Americans in our community in Queens, NYC still can’t accept that Joseph Biden is the new U.S. President.

And they can’t hide their hypocrisy when it comes to salivating for their share of the $1,400 stimulus check per American as contained in the $1.9 trillion stimulus package Mr. Biden signed into law on March 11 afternoon.

“Nadeposit na ba ang stimulus natin? Paki verify nga kung available na (Kindly verify if our stimulus money has already been deposited and if it’s already available),” Grego, 65, a hard-line Republican supporter and loyalist of former President Donald Trump, requested his pal, Deo, 63, in their recent tete-a-tete.

A day earlier (March 12), their fellow Republican supporter, Roman, 70, informed them in jest: “Hindi pala napirmahan ni Biden ang stimulus (Biden failed to sign the stimulus).”

“Bakit? Ano daw ang nangyari? (Why? What happened?)” asked Deo.

“Eh paano fake pala na Biden ang nasa White House. Ang nakikita natin sa TV ay isang impostor na Biden. Si Trump ang pipirma sa stimulus bill para maging law (The Biden who is in the White House is a fake one. What we see in the television is an impostor. It will be Trump who will sign the stimulus bill into a law),” added Roman.

 

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Grego had criticized the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package for being “too much” and “a burden to us the taxpayers.” 

“Puro pasikat ang ginagawa ni Biden at ang mga walang hiya na mga democrats na yan (What Biden and the shameless democrats are doing is to grandstand),” raged Grego, who initially showed signs he wasn’t interested to get his share of the $1,400 direct payment stimulus check for individuals who earn $75,000 or below, a head of household earning $112,500 or less, and married couples making $150,000 or below. 

Those with kids will also get up to $1,400 for each child.

Grego changed his mind when he asked Deo to check if the stimulus money was already deposited.

“Hindi ako interesado sa stimulus na yan. Kawawa ang mga bata sa next generation. Sila ang magbabayad ng utang na yan (I am not interested in that stimulus money. It will be the children in the next generation who will pay for that debt),” Mang Pepeng, 85, a former gun runner in Nueva Ecija before the Martial Law, vowed.

“Kapag nakuha na natin ang pera balik tayo ulit dito ha (If we are able get the money, let’s meet again here),” Deo suggested.

Roman retorted: “Baka sa Martes darating na yan (It might be available on Tuesday).”

With his signature, President Biden checked off his first priority in the White House. 

He also gave a prime-time address March 11 describing how the country will proceed in fighting the virus a year after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic.

The plan sent direct payments of up to $1,400 to most Americans. Direct deposits will start hitting Americans’ bank accounts as soon as this weekend, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced March 11.

 

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The bill extended a $300 per week unemployment insurance boost until Sept. 6 and expanded the child tax credit for a year.

It  will also put nearly $20 billion into Covid-19 vaccinations, $25 billion into rental and utility assistance, and $350 billion into state, local and tribal relief.

“This historic legislation is about rebuilding the backbone of this country,” Mr. Biden said before signing the legislation. “And giving people in this nation, working people, middle-class folks, the people who built this country, a fighting chance.”

Democrats passed the bill in Congress without a Republican vote through the budget reconciliation process. The House approved the measure Wednesday.

Republicans called the proposal “unfit for the moment” as Covid-19 vaccinations pick up and more states move toward reopening their economies. The GOP criticized what it called “funding not needed to fight the pandemic.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

‘Stop justifying the President-reject’s tantrums’

“For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.” 

—Margaret Heffernan

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

MOST Filipinos in our predominantly Asian community in Elmhurst, Queens have finally decided to bury the week-long post-U.S. Presidential Election tiffs as the Americans mourned November 18 the death of a quarter of a million people in the United States from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“(Let’s) move on with our lives and brace ourselves for the pandemic’s deadly spike in this cold season,” appealed Benhur, 72, a retired cop from Bayambang, Pangasinan. “Tapos na ang eleksyon at marami nanaman ang namamatay sa covid. Do you monitor the news?”

Bernhur is among the regular habitues in a Colombian-owned coffeeshop in the corner of Broadway and Elmhurst Avenues, known as the “Crossroads of the World”.

He tangled with President Trump’s loyalist Rolando, who made a scene these past days endorsing the unfounded conspiracy theories being yelled in the social media by pro-Trump groups that “the election was stolen by (President-elect Joseph) Biden.”

Biden has defeated Trump, 306-232.

Three elderly Filipinos have sustained Rolando, 64, a former crew member of a Norwegian oil tanker that got stranded in the Staten Island in 1996, prompting him to “jump ship” and lived in East Elmhurst. 

 

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“Ang iba kasing mga Pilipino na bomoto kay Biden mga stupid (Other Filipinos who voted for Biden were stupid.),” ranted Rolando, who regularly paid for the coffee of those who lent him their ears and wouldn’t oppose him.

“Yan ang dahilan bakit hindi ka pinapansin ng mga tao dito dahil kapwa mo Pilipino ay ini-insulto mo (You have been ignored here because you kept on insulting your fellow Filipinos.),” retorted Benhur, who’s son, Albert, is also a former cop in Connecticut. “Stop justifying the President-reject’s tantrums in the Twitter. Stop insulting your fellow Filipinos.”

Greg, 74, a retired employee of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in Cardona, Rizal, pacified Benhur.

“Hayaan mo sia. Nobody is taking him seriously here. He (Rolando) has become irrelevant,” Greg said. “Umuwi na tayo at mag social distancing na. Mahigit 250,000 na pala ang namatay (as of Novemer 18).

Others in the coffeeshop have also refused to tackle the election result.

“Nakaka sawa na. Let’s wear our masks and stay at home mukhang tumaas nanaman ang covid,” suggested Mang Rody, 80, of Morong, Bataan.

“Huwag na tayong mag debate sa result ng eleksyon. Basta huwag lang kayo ko-kontra kay Rolando,” retorted Mang Pepe, 82, a self-confessed former gunrunner in Nueva Ecija.   

 

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The feud among the retirees ensued as the United States passed a grim milestone on November 18, hitting 250,000 coronavirus-related deaths, with the number expected to keep climbing steeply as infections surge nationwide.

Experts predict that the country could soon be reporting 2,000 deaths a day or more, matching or exceeding the spring peak, and that 100,000 to 200,000 more Americans could die in the coming months.

Just how bad it gets will depend on a variety of factors, including how well preventive measures are followed and when a vaccine is introduced.

The deadliest day of the pandemic in the United States was April 15, when the reported daily toll hit 2,752, according to the New York Times.

There is always a lag in deaths, compared with the rate of infection and hospitalizations, and with the latter measure now hitting records every day—76,830 Americans were hospitalized on Tuesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project—the death toll is certain to go on rising.

Covid-19 deaths have continued their bleak march with little respite throughout the year.

By April 24, 50,000 people had died. 

That number doubled to 100,000 by May 27 and added another 50,000 within two months, by July 29. Two months later, on Sept. 22, the total reached 200,000.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, was a former editor of two dailies in Iloilo, Philippines)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Ayusin mo ang pananalita mo’

“Political debate is of no interest to me. What I want are practical solutions.”

—Carole Bouquet

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WITH more than a week to go before the U.S. Presidential Election on November 3, I missed the regular “fireworks” in my Elmhurst neighborhood for five straight days over the week; but when I came back on Saturday night (October 17), I got lucky to have a ringside eye-witness account of the ongoing heated verbiage among passionate senior members of the Pinoy community in this diverse section of the borough of Queens with a population of two million and three hundred inhabitants in New York City.

The area where the pro-Donald Trump and pro-Joseph Biden joust among the politically inclined Filipinos has been taking place for five weeks now, is in the intersection of the Elmhurst and Broadway Avenues, a 10-minute walk from where I live. 

I’ve been a regular “attendee” and “eye witness” at the same time.

“I’m so pissed off with my friends in Astoria. Akalain mo may isa doon nilapitan ako may importante daw siyang sasabihin. Yun pala e coconvince lang ako na ‘mag democratic tayo ha.’ Sabi ko ano akala mo sa akin batang mosmos na puede’ng ma uto? Bakit wala ba kong sariling pag iisip?” boom Marcelino, 66, a confessed fanatic of President Trump, who “jumped ship” as a seaman in 1998.

 

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“May katwiran naman ang kaibigan mo. Based sa trend ngayon matatalo na talaga si Trump. Halos lahat ng mga swing states bumaligtad na for Biden,” gushed Josito, 68, who became a U.S. citizen during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. “As of this morning naka 15 points na ang lamang ni Biden. Mahirap na ma reverse yan.”

“Yun ang paniniwala nila,” Marcelino snapped back. “Ang mga media lang ang nagsasabi niyan. Mga liberal-controlled and corrupt media. Lalo na ang NBC, MSNBC at CNN mga fake news.”

Marcelino said he believed the Republican votes will “overwhelm” the polling centers during election day on November 3. 

“History will repeat itself. What happened in 2016 (when Mr. Trump defeated Mrs. Hillary Clinton) will happen again this year,” Marcelino predicted. “Napaka tanga mo naman kung boboto ka pa kay Biden. Hindi ka na naawa sa Amerika. Parang wala ka nang utang na loob sa Amerika,” barked Marcelino, while looking at Augusto, 72, a retired clerk at Middlesex county’s Camden city in New Jersey.

Visibly irked, Augusto, holding a cane, ribbed Marcelino in a hoarse voice: “Hindi na maganda ang panlalait mo ha. Ilang bisis na yan. Ayusin mo ang pananalita mo.”

 

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Augusto had voted in the past for Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mrs. Clinton.

He considers Michael Dukakis, a 1988 Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Republican’s George H.W. Bush, to be “one of the most brilliant presidents the United States never had.”

At this juncture, the more calm and moderate Alberto, 63, intervened. “Let’s respect na lang the political choices of one another.”

Alberto, married to his second wife Lolit from Bayawan City, Negros Oriental in the Philippines, said he, too, had an “intense” disagreement with his first wife, a nurse who abandoned him, about politics but he never took it personally.

“Kung papatulan ko ang Marcelino na ‘yan baka mag away pa kami. Dada siya ng dada puro pabor kay Trump eh hindi ba niya naisip na halos lahat ng mga tao sa paligid nia puro Democrats?” Alberto intoned.

Chito, 46, a hospital worker from Leyte and one of the four Republican sympathizers in the crowd, sustained Marcelino: “Kung ako ang tatanungin, si Trump talaga ang dapat manalo. Okay sabi nila racist si Trump. Doon na tayo, but ang titingnan natin dito ay kung sino ang may mas magaling na plata porma; sino ang may mas mahusay na programs. Kung kay Biden tayo babagsak ang economiya ng Amerika. China will laugh at us. As an economist, Trump is good for Amerika.”

 

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“Tama si Chito,” quipped Mang Pepeng, 82, a former gunrunner from Nueva Ecija in the 70s. “Ang sa akin lang tumaas ang Dow Jones ng umupo si Trump. We need Trump to rescue our economy. Eh p_tang ina’ng mga Democrats na ‘yan pati ang BLM (Black Lives Matter) ginawa pa nilang mga heroes.”

Rainer, 70, a diabetic patient who moves around in a walker, enthused: “The issue is not only about racism and who has the better economic programs for America. We must also look at the issue on health care. Tingnan ninyo ang proposal ni Biden to expand the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Biden wants to increase marketplace subsidies, adopt auto-enrollment, and offer a new public option available to those in the individual market or with employer coverage.”

Rainer, who also once tangled with Marcelino when he refused to junk Mr. Biden for Mr. Trump, explained that Biden’s plan “would also reduce the Medicare age from 65 to 60, establish a new long-term care tax credit, and increase funding for rural health and mental health services.”

Biden has promised to enact reforms to reduce prescription drug prices, lower other health care costs, and raise taxes on capital gains and ordinary income for high earner and heirs to the to finance the cost of his plan, Rainer explained before he became the first person in the group to leave.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)