Will Rabiya Mateo finally meet her dad in America?

“Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven.”

—Tryon Edwards

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

NOW that the Miss Universe Organization has set the 69^th competition of the 2021 Miss Universe in the United States on May 16, will Miss Universe Philippines 2020 Rabiya Occeña Mateo finally meet her long-lost biological father who is now reportedly residing in Illinois, USA?

Syed Mohammed Abdullah Moqueet Hashmi, an Indian national, reportedly vanished after Mateo’s mother gave birth to her and brother, Mokmok, in Balasan, Iloilo.

Mateo was quoted in the Philippine press as saying the following in November 2020: “I think it was his plan to abandon us, ‘cause what happened was when he went back to the US, his two brothers are still here studying.”

“And then all of a sudden, all of the connection was cut. And my mother went to the school to talk to his two brothers, but unfortunately they also left for the US.”

“As of the moment, I still have no contact or any trace, where is he right now. The last time I heard, he’s in Chicago and he’s practicing as a doctor.”

Mateo had said her mother never said anything bad about her father.

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Florida is 16 hours and 49 minutes away from Illinois by car, or two hours and 27 minutes away by plane.

Mateo, born on November 14, 1996, is the Philippines' official representative vying for the country's fifth Miss Universe crown when

the Miss Universe competition returns with a live telecast after a year and a half off the air on May 16  at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Hollywood, Florida. 

The competition will be held in the span of seven days and organizers vowed that all safety precautions for Covid-19 will be followed like Miss USA 2020 and Miss Teen USA 2020 competition.

Hollywood is a city on Florida's east coast, between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Palm-dotted Hollywood Beach is backed by the long Hollywood Beach Broadwalk. ArtsPark at Young Circle features an outdoor amphitheater and a striking fountain. Nearby, the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood offers contemporary exhibitions and performances.

The last Miss Universe pageant held in December 2019 was won by Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa, who has worn the crown longer than anyone else due to the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

 

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Miss Universe Organization president Paula M. Shugart announced in a press release March 3  that they've spent months planning a safe competition but they will follow similar guidelines as November's 2020 Miss USA competition held in Memphis.

The Miss Universe competition will air in more than 160 territories and countries across the globe. In the U.S. it will reportedly air in Spanish on Telemundo and the English-language broadcasters will soon be announced.

Miss Universe 2019 Zozibini Tunzi from South Africa, who has been performing her crown duties with utmost sincerity and honest even in tough times like pandemic will be crowning her successor at the end of the event finale. 

The representatives of respective countries have reportedly expressed their sheer excitement towards the date that has been revealed for the pageant and have started to prepare for their final night. 

The organization posted a video on their YouTube channel where the divas could be seen showcasing their confident and graceful walk from their homes.

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

‘Pinoy wins $500,000 New York scratch-off ticket’

“I've done the calculation and your chances of winning the lottery are identical whether you play or not.”

—Fran Lebowitz

 

 By Alex P. Vidal

 

A FILlPINO resident of Queens in New York City was reported to have won $500,000 in a scratch-off ticket on February 24, reports reaching the Filipino community in Elmhurst said.

The winner’s identity wasn’t immediately released upon his request for security reasons, according to a certain “Indat”, an Indonesian who resides across the store where the Filipino winner purchased the winning ticket on Whitney Street in Elmhurst.

Indat said they thought the winner was a fellow Indonesian because he purchased the card in the store near the Indonesian community. 

A certain Kent, also an Indonesian who resides in the Elmhurst neighborhood, reportedly relayed the information to some Filipinos on February 28.

Camilo Galinea Jr., a prominent Filipino-American living in the area, said it was the second time that a Filipino won big time in scratchcard in Queens in recent years.

A male employee of a cargo and remittance center on Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, also won $1 million in the scratch off ticket from the New York Lottery six years ago.

“Umuwi kaagad sa Pilipinas hahahaha (He immediately went home to the Philippines hahahaha),” reported Galinea, 64, a former OFW in Saudi Arabia from Pasay City in the Philippines known in Elmhurst as “Jun Tawa” or “Laughing Jun.”

 

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“It was really meant for him,” said Mario Lena, a chess player from Iloilo City who lives in Woodhaven, referring to the Filipino who won the $500,000. “Basi dugay na ina sia naga taya kag this time naka jackpot gid (he must’ve hit the jackpot after playing scratch-off for so many times in the past).”

Lena, 57, admitted he was also a scratch-off enthusiast. 

“Barato man lang abi ang ticket. Kon kis a kalingawan man lang (the ticket is affordable and I sometimes decided to purchase it for fun),” Lena said, who purchased $20 worth of scratch-off tickets prior to visiting his friends in the park on March 1.

Also called a scratchcard, scratch ticket, scratcher, scratchum, scratch-it, scratch game, scratch-and-win, instant game or instant lottery, a scratch off can be purchased in mini-stores and groceries.

Often made of thin paper-based card for competitions and plastic to conceal PINs, it’s a small card where one or more areas contain concealed information which can be revealed by scratching off an opaque covering.

The player has to find an amount of money three times under the scratch area to win in this scratch game.

 

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Applications include cards sold for gambling (especially lottery games and quizzes), free-of-charge cards for quizzes, fraudulent free cards encouraging calls to premium rate phone services, and to conceal confidential information such as PINs for telephone calling cards (otherwise known as recharge cards) and other prepaid services.

Two years ago, one Jason Pae, 27, won the guaranteed $5,000,000 jackpot prize on the popular “Set for Life” scratch-off ticket in Flushing. Pae purchased his winning “Set for Life” ticket at the Maruti 149 Corporation on 41st Street in Flushing while on his way home from work.

According to the New York Lottery, Pae was the 50th person to claim a prize totaling $1,000,000 or more this year. 

Pae chose to receive his prize money in annual installments of $260,000 before withholdings and will receive a net check totaling $164,590 annually for the rest of his life.

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

 

Alex P. Vidal Quotes

 

Alex P. Vidal Quotes

 

There is a reason

 “If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”

—William Tecumseh Sherman

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WHEN politicians suddenly engage in feeding and gift-giving activities without any reason, there is a reason.

When they start to smile like Mickey Mouse at anyone they meet in the coffeeshops, barbershops, beauty parlors, public markets, malls, and other public places, there is more than meets the eye.

When they begin to shake our hands even if we did not win in any singing contest and visit our houses while we are watching our favorite soap opera on prime time, that means they need us to remember them during the election.

The next election will be on May 9, 2022, or 15 months away, but some political wannabes angling for higher or new positions have ignored the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic and are now visible in many barangays and public places. 

With or without a pandemic, politicians care for themselves first, their political existence and gains, and how to transform them into votes during election day.

They want to be recognized and remembered for purposes of name-recall.

 

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For the meantime, they, most particularly, want to be known as “givers” or “someone who cares for the downtrodden”, an archaic political strategy that is still very much relevant and being accepted by gullible voters until today.

Politicians are the biggest whales in the ocean. They are also opportunists by nature.

If they want something from us, our approval and votes, they will throw their weight around and go ashore near public visibility.

If they don’t need anything, they don’t give a hoot and sometimes we see them only in the next election when they start to again tantalize and mesmerize us.

With the proposed redistricting of Iloilo City as a highly urbanized metropolis nearing its final approval after hurdling the third and final reading in the House of Representatives on February 2, there is a good chance that the House Bill 8477, introduced Iloilo City Lone District Rep. Julienne Baronda, will become a law.

Under the bill, Iloilo City will be divided into two congressional districts: one will be composed of Jaro, Lapaz, and Mandurriao districts while the other legislative district will have the City Proper, Molo, Arevalo, and Lapuz districts. 

 

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If the bill will make it in the Senate and signed into law by President Rodrigo R. Duterte soon, Iloilo City residents will need to elect two sets of Sangguniang Panlungsod councilors and, the most valuable and No. 1 target of some eager-beaver local aspirants, two representatives in the Lower House.

If luck would have it, the Ilonggos will elect two representatives in 2022 and, thus, help spiral the development of Iloilo City in terms of social and infrastructure projects as enumerated by Senator Franklin Drilon.

Iloilo City will also have a “louder voice” in Congress, according to the lady legislator.

Mayor Jerry Treñas has been “fully” supportive of the proposed redistricting even during his term as congressman,

Citing that Cebu, Marikina, and Makati, among others, were also divided into two congregations disitricts, the mayor had said: “As a congressman for nine years, I have seen how a congressperson can help out in the development of our city.” 

Thus it’s understandable why many potential congressional aspirants have started painting the town red, so to speak, amid the pandemic, sending razor-sharp signals that they may be interested to join the  fray in 2022.

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

 

Oops! I did it again

“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”

—Coretta Scott King

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

AS an Asian, I am guilty of being the No. 1 violator of the unwritten rule among Asian Americans in the United States, particularly in New York City nowadays: “Don’t sleep while inside a subway train.”

Mea culpa, I fell asleep for a few minutes on my way to Brooklyn morning on Friday, February 26. It’s a good thing I was safe.

And, oops, I did it again on my way back to Queens past noontime.

We have been supposedly warned to be careful while in public, especially inside the bus and the subway train now that hate crimes involving Asian Americans have soared in these past weeks.

I travel from Queens to Brooklyn vice versa via subway train four times a week and my travel time normally takes one hour and 15 minutes from 90^th Station in Queens to Avenue I going Coney Island in Brooklyn. 

After 10 to 15 minutes of each travel, I usually fall asleep as most passengers do. I wake up about five stations before my final stop.

Not anymore since three weeks ago after a 61-year-old Filipino passenger Noel Quintana, who looked like Chinese like me, received almost 100 stitches after he was slashed across the face by another passenger on the New York City subway on February 3.

Most of us have been alerted that Quintana’s case could be linked to the upsurge of hate crimes perpetrated recently against mostly Chinese nationals referred to as “Asian Americans” in the media.

Quintana was riding the L train to get to work in Harlem when a man walked by and kicked the tote bag that the Filipino worker had set on the train floor, according to a New York Daily News report.

When Quintana confronted the man after he noticed his bag being kicked again, the man took out a box cutter and slashed Quintana across the face from cheek to cheek.

 

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None of the passengers reportedly came to Quintana’s aid.

He got off the train, and was only able to get help from a ticket booth attendant who called 911.

Quintana was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment. He survived.

The assailant was able to flee when the train stopped at First Avenue and 14th Street.

The New York Police have released images of the man and are asking the public’s help to find him. 

The assailant was described as between 20 and 30 years old, wearing a black mask with a Louis Vuitton logo, a black North Face jacket, red bandana, and light-colored sneakers.

Quintana’s experience is among the latest reported subway attacks in the city, and in a series of troubling violence against older Asian American individuals across the country.

In Oakland’s Chinatown, a viral video shows a suspect forcefully pushing a 91-year-old man to the ground. Actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu are offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest in the attack.

In late January, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, who was originally from Thailand, died from injuries after Antoine Watson, 19, knocked him to the ground while on his morning walk in the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco.

The number of hate crimes with Asian-American victims reported to the New York Police Department jumped to 28 in 2020, from just three the previous year, though activists and police officials say many additional incidents were not classified as hate crimes or went unreported.

According to the New York Times (NYT), Asian-Americans are grappling with the anxiety, fear and anger brought on by the attacks, which activists and elected officials say were fueled early in the pandemic by former President Donald J. Trump, who frequently used racist language to refer to the coronavirus.

 

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In New York City, where Asian-Americans make up an estimated 16 percent of the population, the violence has terrified many.

“The attacks are random, and they are fast and furious,” said Jo-Ann Yoo, executive director of the Asian American Federation, a nonprofit network of community groups as quoted by the NYT. 

“It has stoked a lot of fear and paranoia. People are not leaving their homes.”

“The xenophobia and violence is compounded by the economic fallout of the pandemic and fears of the virus, which dealt a severe blow to New York’s Asian-American communities,” reported the NYT.

“Many of the attacks do not result in hate crime charges, because the police need evidence that identity was the motivating factor, like an audible racial slur, a self-incriminating statement or a history of racist behavior by the attacker.”

Two attacks on people of Asian descent have led to hate crime charges in New York, so far this year.

Police said another appeared to come on February 25, after a 36-year-old man was stabbed near the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan and taken to the hospital in critical condition.

The authorities initially said they would pursue hate crime charges, but on Saturday they had settled on several charges, none of them related to hate crimes, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation as reported in NYT.

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

Like father, like daughter

“It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.”

—Niccolo Machiavelli

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

SARA Zimmerman Duterte-Carpio, 42, said she will not run for president in 2022.

“I am not being coy nor am I doing a last minute. If the whole country doesn’t want to believe that, then I can’t do anything about it. Not everyone wants to be president. I am one of them,” Sara reportedly told Reuters recently.

“I thank all of them for their trust and confidence in what I can do but my refusal to run for president is not the end of the world.”

Her father, President Rodrigo R. Duterte, earlier declared he did not want her daughter to run for president saying “women are not fit for president,” a statement that drew a flak from Miss Philippine Universe 2020 Rabiya Mateo, 23.

“My daughter is not running (for president). I have told Inday not to run because I pity her that she will have to go through what I experienced,” Duterte, 75, said at a public event in January this year.

“This is not for women. You know, the emotional set-up of a woman and a man is totally different. You will become a fool here. So... that is the sad story.”

Tell it to the marines, President Digong.

Like father, like daughter. 

 

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They “will not run” months before the campaign period, but “they are running” months before the election day. And win.

A tactic or political strategy that worked wonders for Mr. Duterte in the 2016 presidential election.

“The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy, so that he cannot fathom our real intent,” Sun Tzu wrote in the The Art of War.

When a person is confused they hesitate, wondering what will happen and what they should do.

In war and in election, hesitation can be fatal when it hands the enemy the initiative, giving them first strike or the choice of the next move.

“Hesitation by officers has a devastating amongst conscripts who assume that if officers are not sure what is going on then their doom is assured.” (Changing Minds)

When Mrs. Duterte-Carpio, now the mayor of Davao City, “changes my mind because of insistent public demand (for me to run for president)” in the eleventh hour, her political party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago, has already wormed its way into the different cities, municipalities, and provinces nationwide and secured the commitments of major political leaders and local organizations.

It’s when her rivals are confused and caught flat-footed that Inday Sara will end up capturing Malacanang in a blitzkrieg. 

Father Digong will have the last laugh.

We are not born yesterday, that’s why we know, we are aware, and we understand.

 

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MY friend in Brooklyn, a brave and articulate Caucasian woman, asked me yesterday (February 25) if I experienced harassment while riding in a subway train these past weeks.

“I learned from the news that there’s an upsurge of hate crime perpetrated against Asians like you,” she muttered.

“So far, I haven’t experienced one,” I answered her. “But I will always be on guard.”

Her concern came as New York City increased police patrols and investigations to fight a rise in hate crimes targeting Asian people amid the coronavirus pandemic.

She informed that police would step up investigations and patrols of subway stations, quoting New York City Mayor Bill del Blasio.

There were 28 coronavirus-related hate crimes committed against Asian people in New York City in 2020, compared with three such hate crimes in 2019, according to New York Police Department figures.

There have been two hate crimes against Asian residents in New York City so far this year, according to the NYPD, up from zero of such crimes during the same period last year.

The most recent incident occurred on Feb. 15, according to police officials, when an unknown assailant allegedly used hate speech against an Asian man in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood before punching him and stealing his phone.

There’s no substitute for being alert all the time.

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