The Filipino ‘race’ factor in Texas 10 saga

(The following paragraphs came straight from Filipinos and Americans who worked closely with the trial. I do not wish to add or subtract from what they wrote. It is important that we read this account from an eyewitness perspective so that Filipinos now and in the future will be able to judge what really happened to the Texas 10 after September 11 I was touched by Neil Durrance, the American defense lawyer who cried in frustration with the way the trial was handled.)

A big part of the defense strategy was to portray the inadequacies of the Filipinos as very recent immigrants as a result of severe cultural differences. This strategy was objected to by the prosecutors describing it as "pulling the racist card." During his closing statements, Michael Samonek, lawyer for Eliseo Tolentino was castigated by the judge several times for trying to point out the cultural differences between Filipinos and mainstream Americans.

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According to defense attorney John Haughton, the judge also ruled out the testimony of Gus Mercado and other expert witnesses regarding Filipino psychology and behavior. Mercado’s position is that the Philippine history of 400 years of subjugation and oppression by colonial rulers and home-grown dictators inculcated a negative cultural trait among Filipinos, especially among the lower, working class. "Particularly when face-to-face with a person in authority, Filipinos have the tendency to be submissive. They have an obsessive desire to please, to serve, to accept the opinion of the person in authority. Rather than asserting their rights, they prefer to suffer in silence for fear of offending the other person, or being thought of as uncooperative, dumb or stupid. They are quick to say "Yes" or nod their heads even if they do not understand the question. This non-assertive mentality can easily get them in trouble." The Judge would not want the jury to hear any of this, according to Haughton.

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The attorneys and the advocates contended that it was important for the jury to hear the cultural differences, "to help erase whatever prejudices are in the minds of the jurors."It will be noted that during the jury selection process, several potential jurors openly expressed their dislike for foreigners, especially the illegal aliens. Others in the jury pool even decried the fact that "Americans are losing their jobs while illegal aliens (pointing to the defendants) are falsifying documents to obtain those jobs!"On questioning by the defense attorneys, several openly admitted that they would have difficulty not thinking of the tragedy of the World Trade Centers while deliberating on the fate of the Filipinos and would be suspicious. Showing complete ignorance of the Philippines and Filipinos, when asked by attorney John Haughton if they would have problems with Filipinos as defendants, a few in the jury pool said they that they would be suspicious of the Filipinos "because of terrorism in their Muslim country."

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"There are very few Filipinos residing in this very conservative town," Gus Mercado told the reporters. "It is imperative that these jurors who are largely ignorant about us, be educated that we are peace-loving, God-fearing and law-abiding members of society, and that these Filipinos on trial are not terrorists, they are not criminals and they are not the illegal aliens that they resent so much. It is very sad that our testimonies that would shed some light on Filipino culture and behavior and in some ways level the playing field was ruled out."

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DFA Assistant Secretary Vic Lecaros who flew in from Manila with two assistants and accompanied by L.A. Vice Consul Naomi Diaz, also tried to inject a cultural discussion into his testimony as a defense witness, over the objections of the prosecutor. Lecaros also gave a well-meaning discussion of the POEA, the official Philippine "agency" that is charged with the responsibility of finding job leads and curbing the proliferation of fraudulent facilitators in America. His testimony about POEA was later skillfully used by the prosecutors against the defendants. "The Philippine representative himself testified that there is an official agency clearing house, said the lead prosecutor David Jarvis. "If this is so, why did the defendants not use this government-approved agency and instead decided to pay a panthom scam artist in Los Angeles to do the job?"

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Initial reactions to the verdicts. Dallas defense attorney John Haughton, who represented Banaban, told jurors that the three men on trial came to the United States to earn money for their families. "They came here to do it legally," Haughton said. The men made the mistake of trusting a "facilitator" whom they paid a"significant amount of money" to help them obtain jobs in the United States, and they relied on a California immigration lawyer who promised to take care of their immigration papers, Haughton said. The arrests and prosecutions outraged some Filipino-American community advocates who charged federal authorities unfairly used ethnic profiling against the workers and sought criminal charges instead of handing the cases over to an administrative immigration judge..The airline mechanics detained after the raid, particularly the Filipino men, were interrogated whether they had any links to the Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf. The outlaw group had become notorious for several kidnappings in the southern Philippines, and US authorities said the group is allied with al-Qaeda.

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Neil Durrance, the human rights attorney who defended Jose Maglalang, gave an impassioned plea to release the innocent Filipinos who had suffered enough injustice from the overzealous government prosecutors. "I love my country, but not my government. I love the Constitution of the United States but not the way the government is arbitrarily exercising the laws and discriminating against the helpless," he said in tears. After the verdict, Durrance left in a hurry, still in tears, muttering:"They are all racists, and they don’t even know it!" He promised to give another interview at a later time. It was not clear from his statement whom he was referring to as "racists" – the jury, the US authorities, or both. He also confirmed that he and his client had agreed to appeal, and "move the trial to another venue where they can get justice". Advocates for the mechanics hoped the jury would see them as hard-working men who did not intend to break immigration laws. "Does it make sense that 10 Filipinos accused of basically the same things get widely divergent fates?" "Whatever happened to the universal dictum of liberty and justice for all, given equally and equitably to all concerned?" Mercado asked . (Toni Heinzl, FortWorth Star Telegram, Gus Mercado, and Suzanne Sprague, news writer from National Public Radio)

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