With the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup happening in Manila now plus the visits of NBA superstars Klay Thompson and Kevon Looney (unrelated to FIBA), the already basketball-crazy nation is in a state of euphoria.

Time was when Filipinos' basketball heroes were homegrown, not imports, and teams carried the names of sponsoring corporations like the Toyota Tamaraws, the YCO Painters and the Crispa Redmanizers. For Filipinos of a certain age, Atoy Co was the superstar not only on the court but in ladies' hearts. Where is he now? PF contributing writer Bella Bonner visits the Fortune Cookie's present world and finds a family man, a grandpa and an avid golfer, not necessarily in that order.

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Many people have had life-changing travels but for FilAm artist/musician Conrad Benedicto, his journey to Tawi-Tawi, the Philippines' southernmost province, was mind-boggling, transcendental and unforgettable. His words and pictures afford us a glimpse of the once-in-a-lifetime experience.

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Memo to the powerful in politics, education and media: If you want to multiply exponentially the number of readers of a news item that you'd rather remained secret, try censoring it. You can be sure that: a) like a genie out of the bottle, it's no longer within your control; and b) pulling out the story will only make things worse because those who didn't pay attention at first now have their interest (and speculations) piqued.

This is what happened when The FilAm, an online magazine based in NY, reported that Speaker of the House Martin Romualdez, the first cousin of the current Philippine president, donated $1 million to Harvard to start a Filipino language course. The Philippines' biggest daily, the Inquirer, picked up the story only to pull it out later, presumably because the paper's bosses were displeased by its publication. Too late; other news outlets were already on to the censorship and wrote the story. So the bigwigs attempt at secrecy boomeranged. The story exploded and, because it involved a Romualdez, evolved into a feeding frenzy around ill-gotten wealth, corruption, power bullying and press freedom.

We are reposting here both The FilAm's original story and the report on its pull-out in the Inquirer, written by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). Oh, and by the way, the Inquirer's publisher is the sister-in-law of the Speaker.

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On an entirely different matter, Positively Filipino is hiring:

Part-Time Social Media Consultant- Anti-Asian Hate Project

Positively Filipino, the premier digital native magazine celebrating the story of the global Filipino community is seeking a social media consultant for 12 months for public education about anti-Asian hate. The project is part of a California statewide project to raise public awareness when incidents and crimes occur, how to report, services available to victims and their families and what the public can do to address the problem.

The new position of social media consultant will work closely with Positively Filipino editors and journalists to identify content, create and post messages on Instagram and FaceBook and tweets on Twitter “X”.

This is a unique opportunity to work in collaboration with some of the most experienced journalists, scholars and activists in the Filipino community to raise awareness of the impact of this dangerous trend and how it is affecting Filipino Americans.

Planned level of engagement 4 to 8 posts per month for 12 months. Compensation: $500 mo.

Qualifications: Facility with Instagram, FaceBook and Twitter “X” preferred. Experience paid or volunteer with related nonprofit or advocacy organizations. Interest in or experience in journalism a plus. Some college helpful. The applicant must be US-based.

Please send your resume with a cover letter, links to sample Instagram, FaceBook and Twitter “X” postings and a writing sample to: filipinos@positivelyfilipino.com.

Funding provided by the State of California.