(Continued on page 3)(Continued on page 15)

‘Lighter’ De La Joya no matchto Pacquiao, says GAB Exec

(Continued on page 3)

Bill Clinton to Pres. Arroyo: You look 20 years younger

By Marichu Villanueva Philstar, December 03, 2008

HONG KONG – Former US President Bill Clintonintroduced President Ar-royo as a “college classmatewho looks 20 years younger

CLASSMATES: President Ar-royo and former US President Bill

Clinton discuss nancial issues at

the Clinton Global Initiative Asia forum in Hong Kong recently.

than me” during yesterday’sopening plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative(CGI) Asia Meeting beingheld here.

Mrs. Arroyo ew here

upon Clinton’s invitation for asit-down discussion of globalJohn Lloyd Cruz, oneof the most sought after artists in the Philippinestoday, has given his fullsupport to the newest project of ABS-CBNInternational.The famousactor appearedagain in an ABS-CBN BigAtinTV commercial toannounce the BigayTodo Sweepstakes,giving away $1000to ten lucky USresidents monthlystarting December and $10,000 to threegrand draw winners,on top of two grandhomecoming pack-ages which includeroundtrip tickets for two to the Philip- pines, hotel accom-modations, pocketmoney, DutyFree shoppingspree plus other sur- prises. Grand draw is slated

Santa copsdeployed inmalls

By Cecille Suerte Felipe Philstar, December 02, 2008

With only 23 days beforeChristmas Day, around 220Santa cops or policemenwearing Santa Claus’ red hatwill again be deployed in

Feria Internacional

- A woman from Candon, Ilocos Sur arrang-es her Christmas lanterns with prices ranging from P10 to P15depending on the design and size at the trade fair in Candon City,now celebrating the 112th Feria Internacional de Candon. It was

in Candon, Ilocos Sur where the rst world trade fair was held 112

years ago. ANDY ZAPATA JR.

John Lloyd gives hisall-out support to ABS-CBN

to happen in March of thecoming year. Thoseinterested need not sub-scribe to TFC to join.According to JohnLloyd, he continuesto support ABS-CBN in a bigway because he believes in theadvocaciesof the com- pany. As a full-

edged Kapamilya,

John Lloyd givesutmost importance

to the condence

given to him bythe network thathe does his best toreturn the trust by being serious and passionate in hiswork.While shootingthe new TV commer-cial, the youngac-tor-commercialmodel amazedthe

Our neighborhood in Sampaloc, Manila in the

Philippines in 1956 when I rst saw Chua and

his sons, is thousands of miles and yearsaway from my present community inAmerica. But the memory of theharsh life they lived, the only thingthey were able to pass on to their children, lives vividly in mymind and makes me wonder about the fairness of it all

By Simeon G. Silverio, Jr.

Publisher & Editor

The San Diego Asian JournalSee page 5

Chua

SAN DI-EGO, California,December 5,2008 - Several participants of Fr. FernandoSuarez’s recenthealing massesin San Diegoclaimed to have been healed after being touched by

More people healed during FatherFernando Suarez’ recent healingservices in San Diego

the visiting Filipino healing priest. People whose body pains had been eliminated,ailments cured, eyesightsrestored and other maladieshealed, offered testimoni-als right after the services.One crying father of severalchildren declared himself to be cured of cancer in atestimonial after the mass in

(Continued on page 9)

National City. He said thathe was touched and prayedover by Father Suarez sev-eral weeks ago.Fr. Fernando Suarez heldEucharistic Celebrationsfollowed by Healing Ser-vices at the Our Lady of Mt.Carmel Church in RanchoPenasquitos on November Asian Journal, SANDIEGO 12/06/08 -- About7,000 fans descended onCox Arena on November 29, Saturday to watch and participate in the hit televi-sion show, Wowowee. TheABS-CBN program is head-lined by the station’s popular television host Willie Revil-lame. The three-hour showstretched out to 10:00 p.m.The world tour or road-show version known as“Wowowillie: NamamaskoPo” is marketed to overseasFilipinos around the globe.Calla Lily EntertainmentProduction sponsored theevent in San Diego. The

roadshow has traveled to ve

other destinations prior tocoming to San Diego. A pro-gram in Dubai is planned for next year. A stop in Califor-nia is also in the works.Charice Pempengo de-livered a memorable per-formance. Her powerfulvocals shone through evenas a crowd of fans huggedand tugged at the star while

Wowowee draws7,000 fans in San Diego

she was performing when shedescended from the stage.The star followed her act witha special duet with teen idolBilly Crawford, who had ear-

(Continued on page 16)

lier performed solo, enthrall-ing fans. Angelica Pangani- ban, and Lito Camo likewiseentertained the audience

REDWOOD CITY, CA, November 18, 2008

– In the tradition of worldwide box-ofce hits,

“Milan”, “Dubai”, “Caregiver” and “For the First

Time”, Star Cinema prepared a blockbuster lm

shot both in the Philippines and Australia to culmi-nate its series of 15

anniversary offerings this year.This holiday season, ABS-CBN International’sStarry Starry Store brings to U.S. shores

LandDown Under

, starring the Philippines’ leading loveteam,

Piolo Pascual and Angel Locsin, who will bothgrace premieres in Los Angeles on December 6 and inSan Francisco Bay Area (Redwood City) on December 7.

The scheduled U.S. premieres of

Land DownUnder

are a two-in-one celebration. Aside from being the climax of Star Cinema’s 15

year, they

Piolo, Angel to grace“Land Down Under”premieres in LA, SF

(Continued on page 4)

COMING TO THE U.S.:

RP’s leading loveteam, Piolo Pascual and Angel Locsin, arecoming to Los Angeles and San Francisco this December for the premiere of LAND DOWN UNDER. (Photo courtesy of Star Cinema)

The secret of “FDP+”

Maybeline M. Cui and her mom Agnes Manansalala - De Joya, pose in front of their Filipino Desserts Plus in National City . The

eatery has become a major hit in National City, always lled with

customers from morning to evening.See story on page 20.

Father Suarez touches one parishioner.

December 5 - 11, 2008

Msgr. Gutierrez

Entertainment

San Diego’s Tim Espinosa Makes...

What Do Santa Clausand John the Baptist....

Sports: Boxing

Page 2December 5 - 11, 2008 Asian Journal - (619) 474-0588 Visit our website at http://www.asianjournalusa.com

Philstar

Shortly after her presidency,Cory Aquino went on a pilgrim-age to the shrine of St. Francis inAssisi, Italy. The guide told her and her companions, “You know,St. Francis would always ask theLord for more sufferings.” Whenshe got back to her hotel, Corygot down on her knees and toldGod, “I don’t think I’ll ask for more sufferings. But if more suf-ferings come my way, I will notcomplain.”And she was true to her prayer.When she found out on March11 this year that she had coloncancer, the disease that claimedher mother Doña DemetriaSumulong-Cojuangco, she didnot ask God, “Why me?”Instead, she told stunned rela-tives and friends, “I have had itgood. I cannot complain.”She then told her doctors some-thing her late husband Ninoy hadalways said before he enplanedfor Manila on Aug. 21, 1983 tomeet his fate: “If this is the endof the road for me, so be it.”But, as Cory recalled to PeopleAsia in an exclusive interview,she did not want to turn her back on life, either.When her physicians explainedto her the treatment options, her

ﬁghting spirit conquered her

fatalism and she said, “Let’s gofor it. “Since the start of her chemo-therapy cycles last March, Coryhas experienced no pain, “justdiscomfort,” she tells me. “Thereare good days and there are baddays but I am reacting well tomy medicines.”“I have not lost my hair, butmore and more of them fall off now. Anyway the doctors saythey will grow back again,” shesays with optimism.Her daughter Pinky Abelladasays that her mother’s strong willto live and absolute faith in Godis already “half the battle won.”I asked Cory why she seems

even more spiritually fortiﬁed

every time her “quota” of suffer-ing is raised.“Jesus Christ came down toearth to suffer and die, and weshould also ask ourselves whywe have been put on earth, and

it is to fulﬁll God’s mission for

us.”

But must we suffer?

“It is not like we have achoice,” she says matter-of-fact-ly. She would tell her daughter Kris when the latter said that her main fear was that she (Cory)would have to suffer so much,“Kris, everybody has to experi-ence suffering.”Cory admits that she oncethought that when she hit 75 inJanuary this year, she could takeit easy. Much like the time shetold Ninoy when they were inBoston in the early ‘80s that theworst was over in their lives.“And I used to think, or I liketo think, that there was a quotafor suffering, and that all of ushad served our quotas. And I

felt I had ﬁlled up mine,” she

recalled in an interview. “And Iremember when we were livingin Boston, I would write haikus.You know, the Japanese way of writing verses? And in one of them, I had said, ‘The worst of my life is over, I hope. And maythe best please come soon.’ AndI had shown it to my husband. Isaid, ‘I hope the worst is over.’And he said, ‘No, Cory, I’mafraid it’s not.’ And I said, ‘Mygoodness, what else will happen’?”

Unforeseen battle

Of course nobody could fore-see that Cory, who has been ingood health all her life (exceptfor bouts of asthma and a boutwith vertigo and a sprained ankleduring her presidency) was goingto be put to the test some more,and that her next battle was go-ing to be with her health.On Christmas Eve 2007, shewas rushed to the hospital for high blood pressure. She had

ﬂu-like symptoms and loss of

appetite after that. She also hada persistent cough, which shethought was asthma-related. Butwhen the cough wouldn’t go

Cory Aquino:

“I’ll be painting again”

away and her appetite did notreturn, she underwent a batteryof tests and found out on March11 that she had colon cancer.Pinky, who was abroad at thetime the diagnosis was made,said “it was the worst night of my life.’Kris, in her diary published inKris magazine, wrote: “Momseemed to be taking everythingwell. She kept saying that shewas 75 years old, she’s lived afull life, she became President,she has good kids and goodsons-in law. And whatever God’swill was, she was okay.”Kris said that after Cory’scolonoscopy on March 19,during which the cancer was

conﬁrmed, her mother told her

to draft a statement to share withthe public.Cory moved to her daughter Ballsy’s house where her daugh-ters take turns sleeping withher. Pinky recalls that her momdoesn’t complain about the dis-comforts of her illness and evenasks permission if she couldleave one light on at night.

Down but never out

I asked Cory if her cancer was

her most difﬁcult trial yet. “No,”

she answered immediately,“because it involves only me.My greatest suffering was when Ninoy was imprisoned.”She says she was able to sur-vive the seven years and sevenmonths of Ninoy’s incarceration because just when she thoughtshe was at the end of her rope,the rope always became longer.She recalls the day they were brought to Ninoy in Fort Mag-saysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija,where he was under solitary

conﬁnement. After weeks of

not knowing whether Ninoywas dead or alive, Cory and the

children were ﬁnally allowed to

see him.“That was one of my worstexperiences because I’d alwaysthought of Ninoy as being ableto handle anything and every-thing,” recalls the former Presi-dent. “And then there he was,suddenly no longer in controland that he seemed to havegiven up. He was crying. I’venever seen him cry before. I onlymanaged because I had taken atranquilizer before going there.And Ninoy, in his diary wrote, ‘Ireally felt so ashamed of myself Iwanted to be so brave in front of Cory and the children and thereI was, sobbing. And Cory was soin control.’ He didn’t know… ”But probably the worst day inher life was when she was testedto the limit as both wife and

Former President Cory Aquino

mother. As Ninoy was recuperating from a 40-day hunger strike at the Veterans MemorialHospital, the family’s two dogs brutally attacked Kris, biting her thigh and missing her femoralartery by a hairline.When Cory gathered enoughstrength to visit Ninoy that dayand tell him of what happenedto Kris, husband and wife justlooked and each other and cried.“I remember this: I was think-ing, what will happen next?Parang both of us were saying,ano ito? What have we done todeserve all of this?” Cory recalls.Though she was devastated by Ninoy’s assassination on Aug.21, 1983, she feels that his incar-ceration had prepared her for it.Besides, she said, dying for thecountry was Ninoy’s dream.“He said that he has alwayswanted to die for our country,and he got his wish,” says Cory.For her part, she amazingly

ﬁnds a silver lining to her illness.

“It is to remind us human beingsto prepare for anything, and ac-cept it as part of God’s plan.”She isn’t afraid of death nowas she was not afraid of it whenrebel soldiers stormed Malaca-ñang in 1989 and she refused tosurrender to them.

Cory today

These days, Cory is in goodspirits, but doesn’t deny that shehas “bad days.”Her cancer cell count has beenreduced dramatically, but is stillabove normal.She takes each day one dayat a time, praying four rosarieseveryday with her daughters andgrandchildren.Since it will soon be the 25thyear of the martyrdom of Ninoy,I asked her her thoughts on themilestone. “I hope our fellowFilipinos, especially the young,will continue to appreciate howmuch Ninoy suffered for our country. I hope they will ask themselves what they can offer,too, to help this country moveforward. Ninoy showed the way.I hope they will be inspired byhim.”While convalescing in her daughter Ballsy’s house, Coryreads a lot of spiritual books andnewsmagazines like Time and Newsweek. “My grandchildrenget me DVDs, too,” she addshappily.While recuperating from her chemo, she discovered that shenot only enjoys mangoes, butthey have also been very goodfor her digestion. “So I havemangoes three times a day!” shelaughs.She has temporarily stopped painting (one of her latest worksfetched P600,000 at a recentcharity auction for breast cancer patients), but plans to do so im-mediately “when I return to myhome on Times St., where mystudio is.”Despite everything, the Philip-

pines’ ﬁrst woman president and

Time magazine’s “Woman of the Year” in 1986, believes sheis blessed. “Don’t worry, I havelived a full life,” she repeats. “Icannot ask for more.”

Christmas Rush

- People brave the crowds in Quiapo, Manila to buyChristmas gifts for their loved ones. JONJON VICENCIO

Page 3 Asian Journal - (619) 474-0588 Visit our website at http://www.asianjournalusa.comDecember 5 - 11, 2008

By Alex P. Vidal/PNS

Now that Oscar De La Hoya hasweighed down to only 145 lbs, itwill be easier for Manny Pacquiaoto knock him out when they squareoff on December 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada.This was the observation madeyesterday (November 14) by Gamesand Amusement Board (GAB)commissioner Angel Bautista who believed that “a thinner and lighter Oscar De La Hoya will be no matchto Manny Pacquiao.”“Wala na. Payat na payat na si DeLa Hoya. Kaya na siyang pabag-sakin ni Manny,” Bautista said.

The GAB ofﬁcial from Cavite

added that “Pacquiao will be ahunger tiger on December 6 and heknows that his win over the legend-ary De La Hoya would make him

the ﬁrst billionaire boxer in Asia.”

Bautista said he was not impressedwhen De La Hoya, a 10-time worldchampion, displayed his thin frame before the press recently in a publicworkout in his training camp in Big

Bear, California.

“It showed that he has reduced

tremendously and this will deﬁnitelyaffect him in his ﬁght with Manny,”

Bautista said.The commissioner said “it was adifferent story when De La Hoyadid not reduce that much.”“Kinabahan ako noon dahil anglaki at tangkad ni De La Hoya,” headded. “Pero noong nakita ko siyasa TV na payat na payat na, sabiko kayang kaya na sia ni Manny na pabagsakin.”He said unlike Pacquiao, the

reigning World Boxing Council(WBC) lightweight kingpin, who

does not stop training, De La Hoya’s

‘Lighter’ De La Joya nomatch to Pacquiao,says GAB Exec

Oscar Dela Hoya and Manny Pacquiao.

training was off and on these past

months. “This explains why when

he reduced his weight, he lookedanemic and this will give Pacquiao achance to knock him out.”De La Hoya’s camp revealedthat his weight is now 145 lbs, two pounds down from the required 147lbs. De La Hoya himself admittedthat “weight will not be a problem”for him saying he loves what he isdoing when he trains together withhis sparring partners.De La Hoya said he was con-

ﬁdent of beating Pacquiao in his

division (welterweight) where heonce reigned as undisputed worldchampion.Meanwhile, Muhammad Ali’sageless trainer Angelo Dundee,who was hired by De La Hoya tosupervise his training, declared: “I

feel that Oscar is a better boxer than

Pacquiao. Style wise and condition-

ing wise, I am conﬁdent Oscar will

beat him.”Bautista said he will be at ringsideat the MGM Grand “to witness his-tory unfolds.”

BFP to keep an eye on 168 Mall’s ﬁre code compliance

- A vendor arranges different kinds of Christmas decor at a stall in Divisoria, Manila.

Manny Marcelo

John Lloyd giveshis all-out supportto ABS-CBN

(Continued from page 1)

crew, not only because of his actinggenius but also because of his pro-fessionalism. John Lloyd came in tothe studio with his lines memorizedand gave the right emotions to every

scene. The ABS-CBN Global CRM

Director, Jeanette Beltran, whoobserved the commercial shoot andwas with John Lloyd in the highlysuccessful ‘One Kapamilya Go’ held

in Ontario, California, noted that

“John Lloyd is very apt to be theendorser of BigAtin. He was able tocapture the essence of the program – that it was designed for all Filipinosin America, honoring their achieve-ments and helping them lead better lives especially during these criticaltimes. We were right in choosinghim.”

The BigAtin endorser expressed,

“I see myself as an ordinary personwho makes people happy. I’m gladthat I’m able to do that.” Whenasked about the Bigay Todo Sweep-stakes, John Lloyd said, ”I hope our fellow Filipinos will not let this op- portunity pass them by. It’s so easyto join and the prizes can go a longway to help them.”

ABS-CBN BigAtin Bigay Todo

Sweepstakes is open to all legiti-mate US residents who may or

may not be TFC subscribers, 18years old or older, except thoseliving in Puerto Rico, Guam, The

Virgin Islands, US territories and possessions. More informationabout the sweepstakes can belocated atwww.bigaytodosweep-stakes.com

(Continued from page 1)

issues, including the ﬁnancial crisis

triggered by the credit crunch that

hit major US banks and ﬁnancial

institutions.

In presenting Mrs. Arroyo, Clinton

remarked: “I’m especially proud of

her extraordinary leadership. But

I’m embarrassed to say this, she ismy college classmate who looks 20years younger than me.”While Mrs. Arroyo walked to thestage, dressed in black top and pants

with red coat over it, Clinton hastily

added, “Make that thirty years less.”The 62-year-old Mrs. Arroyo

laughed softly. She and Clinton were

classmates at Georgetown Universityin Washington where she pursued her

Bill Clinton toPresident Arroyo: Youlook 20 years younger

foreign relations degree while her father, the late Diosdado Macapagal,was the president of the Philippines.

Mrs. Arroyo, meantime, told Clin-

ton that the Philippines under her leadership has done its “homework”which is now helping the countryweather the looming economic crisis.Eleven former and present heads

of state were invited to the CGI Asia

Meeting being held at the GrandHyatt Hotel in Wanchai.

Clinton invited the President to be one of ﬁve panelists on the topic

“Balancing Growth, Sustainabilityand Equity” during the opening ses-

sion of the CGI Asia Meeting. The

reunion of the two leaders came after

a long while since Clinton stepped

down from the White House in Janu-ary 2001 and Mrs. Arroyo was sweptinto the presidency after the EDSA-2 people power revolt that ousted for-mer President Joseph Estrada.

Before throwing the ﬁrst questionto Mrs. Arroyo, Clinton related to

his audience his initial conversa-tions with her before the start of the plenary session.“I asked her (Arroyo) how thePhilippines is doing and she said,

‘Relatively speaking, we’re doing

very well.’ And she pointed out thatshe just got very high credit ratingin the recent credit survey which

is good except everybody else isdown,” Clinton said in jest.

“I thought it would be helpful if I

ask her (Arroyo) basically to explain

how the Filipinos are being affected

by the current ﬁnancial crisis and

what she thinks she can do mosteffectively and whether the same policies will apply in other Asian

countries,” Clinton said.

In response, the President recitedher government’s subsidy to riceand public transport at the height of the oil price crisis, and the tempo-rary lifting of tariffs on oil productsearlier this year that were fundedthrough the windfall collections of

the government from the expandedvalue-added tax (EVAT).

“But we couldn’t do any of thoseif we did not have the revenues thatcame from our painful reforms of the past several years. So the biggestchallenge is not really what steps totake but the resources needed to beable to carry out those steps.“So it’s applicable to other coun-

tries. Certainly the steps are appli-

cable but the challenge would be if were they able to do their homework beforehand to be able to have a

strong ﬁscal position to do all these,”the President told Clinton.Before answering Clinton’s ques-

tion, Mrs. Arroyo took the oppor-tunity to relay her congratulatory

message to Clinton’s wife, New York

Sen. Hillary who was nominated theother day by US President-elect Ba-rack Obama to become his Secretaryof State.“Now to go to your question, asI was telling you earlier the Philip- pines is doing relatively well in thisglobal crisis. But that is small com-fort to the average Filipino who feelshigher prices for the food that he or she has to buy, or the gasoline thathe or she has to buy,” she candidlyadmitted.“So it’s important for us to be ableto make sure that the global crisisdoes not become a crisis in our country,” the President said, addingthat in order to do this, the Philip- pine government would be needingthe resources it was able to generate

through a number of unpopular ﬁscalreforms she pushed in Congress, in-

cluding the raising of the EVAT from10 to 12 percent a few years back.