Happy Thanksgiving in a Challenging Year

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Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again

When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes

             -Claude Michel Schonberg, Les Miserables

It's still more than a month before 2025 ends. What a challenging, exhausting year it has been, both in our homeland and in our adopted country. An annus horribilis in the true sense when disasters upon disasters -- both natural and man-made -- piled up, leaving us questioning if there really is a thing called hope. Or redemption.

But in the past week alone, if you look at the stories in the US and the Philippines, there are glimmers of light beyond the proverbial dark tunnel. Consider: #MamdaniTrumpvisit #MarjorieTaylorGreene #Comeycase #Houseresignations #Trumpapprovalrating #DPWHarrests #HarryRoquerednotice #ZaldyCowarrant #Romualdez;iability #Batopendingarrest #anticorruptionrallies #antidynastybill to name a few.

Pebbles in a mountain of assaults to our sanity and well-being, true, but hopefully these are trends rather than glitches. Up to us to continue to sing the music of a people who will not be misled again. Huwag na tayo magpabudol. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. 

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Staff

A Lively Day With Our Nobel Laureate

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It has been a disturbing, infuriating, ire-inducing nail-biter of a past few weeks in our homeland. (It's hardly any better in the US.)

Investigations, accusations, scandals and lies are assaulting the sanity of those who have been assiduously monitoring the situation. As young Filipinos make their voices heard through social media, rallies and even during sports events, we wonder where all these will lead to. Will there be more revelations of scandalous corruption? Will there be prison sentences, as majority of Filipinos are clamoring for? An EDSA 4 people's uprising? A regime change?

Confronted with such existential question marks, it was quite a welcome break to listen to Fil-Am superstars Maria Ressa, veteran journalist and Nobel Laureate, in conversation with community icon/Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas at the University of San Francisco. Not that Ressa's presentation was less disturbing (there's nothing comforting about AI and social media scrambling our brains with disinformation). But the difference was that the level of rhetoric was elevating, the discussion truly informative. PF contributing writer Lorna Lardizabal Dietz provides a summary.

Also in this issue, Manila-based contributor Manuel "EG" Hizon profiles Fr. Flaviano Villanueva, one of this year's Ramon Magsaysay Award recipients. Fr. Flavie, as he is fondly called, went through hell-on-earth as a drug addict before he found his vocation as a Catholic priest. He has since devoted his time and passion to helping the downtrodden, particularly fighting for justice for victims of the Duterte regime's extra-judicial killings. During his acceptance speech at the award ceremony, Fr. Flavie dramatically brought out a list of the victims -- a lengthy document that spilled out beyond the lectern into the stage, illustrating that there were tens of thousands that perished.

It's always good to be reminded that there are Filipinos who inspire with their intellect and their commitment to the common good. 

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Staff

War, Family, Faith, and Pageantry

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We have quite a varied lineup this week:

In time for Veteran's Day in the US yesterday, a feature on the children's book, The Horse Soldier: A Wartime Secret by Sandie Oreta Gillis. It is the story of Lt. Edwin Price Ramsey, who led the last horse-mounted cavalry charge in U.S. military history during World War II. It is also the story of the author's grandparents who risked sheltering Ramsey in their house in Pangasinan. An inspirational story of courage during war but told for children. Leodivico Padua Masuli writes about the making of the book.

An American actor and scriptwriter married a Fil-Am movie producer and made a movie called "One Big Happy Family." Lisa Jenner, whose husband is Dean Devlin, found rich material in Filipino family dynamics that, along with co-star Dante Basco, made this 2025 comedy movie a joy to watch. PF's Los Angeles correspondent Anthony Maddela gives us a glimpse.

From North Texas, Jocelyn Alvarez Allgood introduces Yvonne Yngson Gochangco, the reigning Ginang Filipinas America, whose academic and career credentials -- a master's degree in public health, a certified nurse anesthetist -- surpass her 2025 beauty title.

A sobering testimony: when software engineer Michelle Moreno-Apolo was diagnosed with breast cancer, she dug deep into her Catholic faith, instilled in her by her mother, to navigate the harrowing journey of treatments. She shares with us her story of faith.

*****

Last Saturday, November 8, the Maria Elena Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program of the University of San Francisco commemorated its 25th anniversary with one of the most anticipated and well attended events in the city: a conversation with Maria Ressa, veteran journalist and the Philippines' second Nobel Prize winner. Moderating the discussion was another Fil-Am celebrity -- Pulitzer-prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas. Read all about the event here. 

Jose Antonio Vargas leads the Q&A with Maria Ressa

Congratulations to PF regular contributor of Fil-Am history stories Alex Fabros, Jr. for winning 2nd place in the International Affairs category at the 2025 American Community Media Awards (there was a first place tie between Kalynh Ngo of Viet Bao and Shahbod Noori of Tehran Magazine). Here’s the winning story: How Vietnam War Vets Wrestled with the Shadows of the Toxic Orange Mist

Alex Fabros, Jr. with wife Lorraine Wong at the American Community Media Awards last November 7, 2025 in Oakland, CA.

[Partner] FilVetRep Day

[Read It Again]

The General At Ease by Gemma Nemenzo
The Boogie Woogie Boys by Alex S. Fabros, Jr.

[Video of the Week]

'Lies Spread Faster Than Facts'—Maria Ressa at the UN 

In The Know

Sometimes heroes are in a small boat with a salbabida

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/sometimes-heroes-are-in-a-small-boat-with-a-salbabida

Kaya Founders Secures $25 Million in Final Close to Back PH Startups

https://www.esquiremag.ph/money/industry/kaya-founders-bags-25-m-in-final-close-of-fund-

Still recovering from #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth, but we wanted to share this news story covering the unveiling of Dr. Dawn Bohulano’s Portrait at Delta College

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3158291527686077&extid=MSG-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing&mibextid=wwXIfr

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Staff