July 23, 2025

A War’s Toxic Legacy

July 23, 2025/ Staff

Agent Orange. An innocuous enough term for those who were not yet around during the Vietnam War or who are not aware of its folly. But for those who were there, like historian/writer and Vietnam War veteran Alex Fabros, hearing the term triggers a historical trauma, a deep-seated PTSD, an inescapable decades-long physical deterioration, hand-me-down genetic defects to offspring, a bureaucratic nightmare and a generational guilt that permeate the psyches of VW veterans. In other words, Agent Orange, the chemical weapon that the US unleashed in then-South Vietnam from 1962-1971 was, by any definition, a colossal bomb that may be as physically and psychologically destructive as the nuclear bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII.

"How Vietnam War Vets Wrestled with the Shadows of the Toxic Orange Mist" by Alex Fabros, our lead story this week, was not easy to write. Though he wrote the first version a few years ago, Alex had to set it aside several times. The memories and the pain that he endures to this day are just too much. We went back and forth with it for months as he rewrote, re-edited, tweaked. This while he was in and out of the hospital as he continues to bravely battle ailments related to, yes, Agent Orange.

As you read his story -- and we hope you will take it to heart --please take a moment to reflect on the immeasurable costs of war, not just to actual combatants and their families, but to nations and the future of mankind.

*****

Our other stories this week:

"New Residency Fellowship for Fil-Am Writers Launched" by Elaine Elinson introduces the Helen Toribio Kapwa Fellowship for Filipino and FilAm writers and activists at the Mesa Refuge, a writing residency north of San Francisco. The fellowship, named after a FilAm author/activist who passed away a few years ago, now has its first three recipients.

"Trump Immigration Clampdown Facing Backlash" is PF editor Rene Ciria Cruz's column, Edgewise in Rappler, where he dissects the pernicious implementation and effects of Trump's ill-conceived immigration actions that have led to the rapid fall of his poll numbers.

"Soccer, Lola, and the Persistence of Memory" by Anthony Maddela talks about FilAm soccer player Reina Bonta's short documentary, "Maybe It's Just the Rain," which is essentially a love letter to her Filipina lola Cynthia Bonta whose consequential life is definitely film material.

Our Video of the Week: Retired Stockton teacher continues to inspire her Filipino community

In The Know

Filipino workers removed from cruise ship in U.S. during raid
https://asamnews.com/2025/07/20/carnival-cruise-border-patrol-norfolk-immigration-arrests-deportations/

Filipino Americans brace for impact of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
https://usa.inquirer.net/175379/filipino-americans-brace-for-impact-of-trumps-big-beautiful-bill

Filipino sailor recounts Houthi attack: ‘I thought I was going to die’
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/285174/filipino-sailor-recounts-houthi-attack-i-thought-i-was-going-to-die?

Selling babies online? CHR alarmed as poverty drives families to trade children
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/07/15/2458182/selling-babies-online-chr-alarmed-poverty-drives-families-trade-children?

Israel-based Filipina caregiver dies a month after Iran missile attack
https://www.rappler.com/philippines/overseas-filipinos/caregiver-dies-iran-missile-attack-israel-july-2025

This Hidden Library in Makati Lets You Stay and Read Books for Free
https://www.spot.ph/things-to-do/the-latest-things-to-do/this-hidden-library-in-makati-lets-you-stay-and-read-books-for-free-a5229-20250709-dyn?

Original Lyrics to “Lupang Hinirang”
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1070695107898887

April 23, 2025

Goodbyes at Easter

April 23, 2025/ Staff

Just as we were still mourning the unexpected death of Asia’s Queen of Songs, Pilita Corrales, we were shocked by the news that the Philippines’ only superstar, Nora Aunor, died. Nora is Pilita’s balae: Nora’s daughter Lotlot was the long-time partner of Pilita’s son Monching Gutierrez, and the two big stars of the entertainment industry shared three grandchildren.

And as we were still witnessing the pomp and circumstance of National Artist Nora’s funeral (watch our Video of the Week), we got the news that Pope Francis who many Filipino Catholics idolized, passed away. At the end of the same day, another death – Hajji Alejandro, one of the biggest singing sensations of the ‘70s. In the US, 82-year-old Patrick Adiarte who as a young boy played the role of the crown prince in the much beloved musical, The King and I, passed a few days earlier. (PF Correspondent Myles Garcia updated his feature on him, link below).

All this sadness happened within two weeks of the Easter season. It’s as if we don’t have enough stress and sorrow already as we watch the world as we know it implode before our eyes.

But we plodded on, searching for silver linings.

Like pride in our kababayans who have been elected or appointed to important government positions in their adopted countries. PF’s list, compiled by our publisher Mona Lisa Yuchengco, is proof that Filipinos are a positive force wherever they may be.

Like wonderment in the beautiful bonsai creations of ex-ad industry executive Angelito Pangilinan, who is not just a bonsai enthusiast but also an acknowledged advocate of the art.

The glut of empty condo units in metropolitan Manila at present, however, is a mixed bag. While the oversupply may mean prices may go down for the moneyed intending to buy units, there is also the glaring inequity issue, as Manila-based PF Correspondent Rene Astudillo points out.

Despite the contradictions in our realities, we hope you enjoy this issue.

Read Again:

We’re on a Pope Mobile By Nitz Almazora

The Manila Boy Who Would Be King By Myles A. Garcia

Pope Francis and My Brother By Gemma Nemenzo

In The Know

People Gather to Mourn and Honor Pope Francis
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/world/europe/pope-francis-photos-mourning-reaction.html?

Hajji Alejandro, OPM legend and balladeer, dead at 70
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSSg0DjX6uk

A Canadian Company Says It’s Fighting Pollution in the Philippines. Is It Cashing In Instead?
https://thewalrus.ca/plastic-credits/?lid=tyznz7alkt1s

Alexandra Eala: The reality of travel and difficulty of securing visas with a Philippine passport
https://www.tennis.com/baseline/articles/alexandra-eala-the-reality-of-travel-and-difficulty-of-securing-visas-with-a-philippine-passport?

Why the ICC should consider Sara in next round of arrests
https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/why-icc-should-consider-sara-next-round-arrests/?

Clark County Commission establishes 'Filipino Town' cultural district
https://news3lv.com/news/local/clark-county-commission-establishes-filipino-town-cultural-district?

Joel Lamangan and Ricky Lee to honor Nora Aunor with biopic
https://tribune.net.ph/2025/04/20/joel-lamangan-and-ricky-lee-to-honor-nora-aunor-with-biopic

July 03, 2024

Love and Hate

July 03, 2024/ Staff

When we were in elementary school in the '50s, Philippine Independence Day was celebrated on July 4th, the same day as the US. We also sang the American national anthem after we sang "Land of the Morning," the Philippine national anthem in English. It was just a little over a decade after WWII ended and the Americans were still hailed as our saviors.

When the Macapagal administration (1961-1965) changed the date of Independence Day to June 12, the date in 1898 when our ancestors declared our independence from Spain, it triggered an examination of US-Philippine relations, quietly and sporadically at the onset, then evolving into strident anti-Americanism during the Vietnam War and the student protest movement in the early '70s. Martial law suppressed the stridency and the alliance between the US government and the Filipino people continued. Just like any relationship, it went through the peaks and valleys of love and hate.

In a nutshell:

Love: when the US opened its doors to large-scale immigration of Filipino professionals and their families, leading to the emergence of a 5-million-strong Fil-Am community;

Love: when the US supported and enabled the exile of Marcos in 1986;

Hate: the US bases in Clark and Subic were closed down by Philippine Senate fiat in the early '90s;

Hate: President Rodrigo Duterte's very public anti-American pronouncements that accompanied his pivot to China;

Love: President Bongbong Marcos' current embrace of the Mutual Defense Treaty with the US against Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

Tomorrow, July 4, is another Filipino-American Friendship Day. Perhaps it's time for a reexamination to hold the historic relationship of the two countries on an even keel -- an alliance of equals now, not as colonized and colonizer or master and subject.