September 24, 2025

Enough is Enough!

September 24, 2025/ Staff

For many sectors of the Filipino diaspora, the most compelling (read: emotion-triggering, disbelief-baiting, thought-provoking) drama nowadays is not on Netflix or Hulu or the usual streaming services.

It's the ongoing investigations on high corruption among government officials happening in the Philippines (usually on YouTube). What started out as outrage against the sub-standard or completely absent flood control projects (that nature exposed with rainfall so devastating) has now ballooned into a new national passion that pervades all sectors: looking for evidences of corruption in every nook and cranny of government.

The effort is multi-generational (the tech-savvy Gen Zs are in the forefront), multi-sectoral, unencumbered by class, age and ideologies. During the massive rallies on September 21, families including small children filled up EDSA and to a certain extent, Luneta. The mood, according to reports, is angry, impatient, no longer willing to accept cover-ups or half-hearted efforts by investigators. It goes with a lot of skepticism -- will Congress have the guts to punish their own? Will the powerful be exempt? Along with these are the high expectations that will determine the fate and legacy of the Marcos II administration.

Of course there are efforts by certain groups to derail and debunk, single-minded as they are to effect a regime change. But their activities have been epic fails, powered as they are by their delusions. So far.

Our homeland right now is teetering on a tightrope and we who are watching from afar can only hope that the next month or so will be a game changer. As the rallyists chanted last Saturday, "Tama Na, Sobra Na, Ikulong Na!" This is the closest to "off with their heads" that the Filipino nation -- generally a forgiving lot -- can muster.

Stories This Week

First Filipino Photographer Felix Laureano and his Milieu by Vicente Salas

Baguio’s Timeless Souvenirs by Rene Astudillo

FilAms Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 71 by Mona Lisa Yuchengco

[Read It Again]

Remembering Nora Daza, 1929-2013 by Noel A. Añonuevo

Halo-Halo? In Hungary? by Jennifer Fergesen

[Video of the Week] Filipino Professor Talks to a Descendant of Jose Rizal

Pinoy scientist returns home after studying at Harvard University
https://www.pep.ph/lifestyle/extraordinary/187977/pinoy-scientist-home-after-studying-at-harvard-a717-20250804?

Fil-Am dad killed in Louis Vuitton burglary crash in Chicago
https://usa.inquirer.net/179728/fil-am-dad-killed-in-louis-vuitton-burglary-crash-in-chicago?

How a Filipino educator became Arizona’s top history teacher
https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2025/9/20/-for-sat-8-am-how-a-filipino-educator-became-arizona-s-top-history-teacher-0800?

Jessica Sanchez Transforms “Die With A Smile” Into Pure MAGIC!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMB3674nFOY

June 19, 2024

Hope and Optimism

June 19, 2024/ Staff

When second-termer Senator Risa Hontiveros took over the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, little did she anticipate that her unwavering advocacy of the rights of the constituencies under her ambit would lead to a high-profile investigation with national security implications. Hontiveros has become known as a meticulous and expert questioner during Senate hearings, sparing no one, not even the powerful. We had a long one-on-one conversation with the Senator when she visited the San Francisco Bay Area last week and we found hope and optimism in this lady who now leads the genuine political opposition in the Philippines.

Among the many celebrations in June -- it's Juneteenth today in the US and Jose Rizal's 153rd birth anniversary in the Philippines -- are LGBTQI+ Pride Month and National Cancer Survivors Day last June 2. We celebrate both with appropriate stories this week.

We have a situationer on the growing disquiet in the LGBTQI+ community in the San Francisco Bay Area as the 2024 US presidential campaign revs up the divisive rhetoric against non-mainstream communities. And a personal account of a breast cancer struggle that paved the way to an entrepreneurial venture.

But we don't need any official proclamation to shine the light on the June batch of FilAms Among the Remarkable and Famous, the 58th edition.

Read Agains:

Two Centuries of Filipino Immigration to the US

Rizal’s Cook Remembers a Good Man

Rizal's "Kiss"

[Video of the Week] The Filipino Story (Episode 2)

In The Know

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/

New protection for undocumented families applauded
https://asamnews.com/2024/06/18/dreamers-immigration-reform-citizenship-made-easier/

The Best Filipino Restaurant in the Bay Area Isn’t a Restaurant at All
https://www.kqed.org/arts/13959765/best-filipino-restaurant-oakland-tipunan-ghost-kitchen

Torn from Family at Birth Because of Parents' Leprosy, Woman Reunites with Brother 53 Years Later (Exclusive)
https://people.com/torn-from-family-because-of-parents-leprosy-woman-reunites-brother-53-years-storycorps-exclusive-8661113

Medal of Honor Monday: Army 1st Lt. Rudolph B. Davila
https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3407437/medal-of-honor-monday-army-1st-lt-rudolph-b-davila/

Anti-Asian Hate Watch

FBI official admits mistakes, vows to improve relations with Asian-American communities
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3266087/fbi-official-admits-mistakes-vows-improve-relations-asian-american-communities

Playground named after grandma fatally beaten in San Francisco
https://asamnews.com/2024/06/17/yik-oi-huang-peace-and-friendship-park-beating-victim-san-francisco/

Woman sentenced to 40 days in jail in viral hate crime in Texas
https://asamnews.com/2024/06/18/racist-tirade-plano-texas-video-social-media-esmeralda-upton-sentenced/

Public Policy Inst. of California Releases Data on Hate Crimes
https://www.postnewsgroup.com/public-policy-inst-of-california-releases-data-on-hate-crimes/

Woman arrested for alleged hate crime against 2 Asian residents in Bellevue
https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/bellevue-hate-charges

Funding provided by the State of California.

June 05, 2024

Time To Swoon in June

June 05, 2024/ Staff

It's June and, like clockwork, summer weather (now commonly termed a heat wave) begins in the western hemisphere. In our motherland, June is expected to bring the monsoon rains so desperately needed for the parched earth of the long, extremely hot summer of 2024.

Like the previous month, June is packed with celebrations: LGBTQ Pride Month and its string of parades and revelry happens this month. For Filipinos everywhere, the annual Independence Day festivities gather communities for parades, dances, competitions and food. And then there's Rizal Day, celebrated every year on June 19, and Fathers' Day on June 16. In the US, it's also Immigrant Heritage Month, a little-known commemoration that should interest us who have made the US our adopted country.

June of course begins the travel cycle, and the travel industry is anticipating the full impact of what has become a post-pandemic byword: revenge travel. We have been posting stories about enticing places to visit since spring, and will continue to do so this summer. One of them, in this issue, is the journey of a daring couple, both septuagenarians, who completed the challenging Kumano Kodo, Japan's equivalent to the Camino de Santiago of Spain. Since they've done both pilgrimages, the two got their Dual Pilgrim Certificate, earned by just about 5,000 long-distance walkers.

Last month, we posted a couple of articles from Canada and reached out to Filipino-Canadians to write more. So this issue, we're posting another two; from Toronto, our regular contributing writer gives us the story of the making of the first anthology of Fil-Can writing; and from Vancouver, a first-time contributor writes about a Filipino who was a high-ranking official in Metro Vancouver but, upon retirement, returned to her first love and is flourishing.

A look back: One afternoon in 1999, Fil-Am mail carrier Jojo Ileto was doing his rounds when a man asked him to mail a letter. There was nothing unusual about the request and Ileto gladly acceded. As he turned, the man took out a gun and shot Ileto twice. He was a random choice, clearly a hate crime. So much has happened since, yet so much still remain the same. We're reposting the story from 25 years ago because we must not forget.

Read Agains

Exceptional Philippine Churches by John Silva

Death by Discrimination by Bert Eljera

[Partner] Helping AAPI Communities Heal From The Pain Of Racism

[Video of the Week] LGBTQ Couple Excited By Their Baby Boy