LOS ANGELES—Buoyed by the recent decision of the Office of the Solicitor General backing the ruling of the Senate Electoral Tribunal that Senator Grace Poe is a natural-born Filipino, Filipino-Americans in key cities in the United States and other countries declared they are ready for the electoral campaign to help ensure her victory in the May 2016 polls.
The Fil-Ams were also elated by the Supreme Court decision affirming its ruling to keep Grace Poe in list of presidential candidates running for the 2016 polls.
Lauding the OSG’s move in affirming the tribunal’s decision that embodies a “legally grounded, reasonable and just interpretation” of the 1935 Constitution, Jun Caringal of the Grace Poe For President Movement-North America and the United States also expressed optimism that the Supreme Court magistrates will uphold the rights of foundlings and the sovereignty of every Filipino to choose his own leader following the 12-3 ruling affirming the TROs issued by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on the Commission on Elections en banc decision disqualifying Grace Poe.
According to Caringal, all GPPM chapters in North America and other global areas have been organized to make Poe win and make her the 3rd woman to become president of the Philippines in May 2016.
“We have organized chapters and ad hoc chapters in 20 states in the United States and Canada, 10 regional cities in California and seven global posts all over the world,” Caringal said.
GPMM has 10 city chapters in California, namely: San Francisco (Crispin Mendoza, Ago Fedalizo); Los Angeles, San Diego (Maggie Galvan); Milpitas (Elpidio Estioko); San Jose (Beth Duzon, Evelyn delos Santos Rabanal); Anaheim/OC (Lino Caringal, Sonia Sanchez); San Mateo (Cesar Felipe Ballesteros); Glendale (Jerry Esguerra: Chino Hills Joe Sarmiento, San Fernando Valley Sid Balatan, Santa Clarita James Dullas and Riverside.
GPPM State or Regional City chapters have been also organized in: New York (Rodrigo Luis); New York/New Jersey (Josefino Pacis); Chicago, Illinois (Jose Sumait Diana Gummell); Tampa, Florida; Virginia (D. Goroza Mamaril Andrada: Toronto, Canada (Isaias Agatep, Jing Corl, Cesar Locquiao); Richmond; British Colombia (Neri Cardona); Washington (Athanasius Francis C Catalan; Oklahoma (Ferdinand Erolin); Massachusetts (Ging Fontanilla); Philadelphia; Portland; Oregon; San Antonio, Texas (Sandra Arellano Parish Gerry Casison/ Alfonso Godoy); Fairfax, Virginia; Las Vegas, Nevada (Deo Batarina, Jimmy Erollin, Resurreccion Locquiao Israel, Cynthia Managan Ellazar Banquit: Hawaii (Eliel Corpuz, Perle Ladiana, Cecilia Cabanilla, Rosebella Martinez); Guam (Ronnie Redilla); Tennessee (Richard Gubatan); Rocksville (Belsky Santos); Maryland (Ramon Rosario); Pennsylvania (Aurora Jacob).
The Ad Hoc National Organizing Committee, in charge of organizing chapters based in Los Angeles, is composed of Jun Caringal, Dr. Orlando Cagampan, Dr. Veronico Agatep, Arturo P. Garcia, Macky Fortu, Dina Companion, Lissa Pacheco, Reynaldo Vitug and Melvin Barcenas. They are supported by Urdaneta/Pangasinan, Philippines led by Norma Villasoto Dacanay, Rodolfo Fajardo, and Fe Ranada.
Caringal also announced formation of other GPPM chapters in other parts of the world, namely: Tel Aviv, Israel (Ruth Surop, Yolly Locquiao Salvador, Julie Amor Caringal; Rome (Hilda Deriza Abriam, Vida Ave); Milan/Italy (Adelaida Intendencia); Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Romeo Jun Rupisan); Singapore (Celia Diaz Defato); London UK (Gloria Balbastro, Rodelix Dacanay); and, Cataluna, Spain (Lilia Duzon Pascua).
