A Hundred Days

President Obama came out with a reflective piece on the significance of Filipino immigration to the US for Filipino American History Month, a first from a sitting American president. Read it here.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte just passed the 100-day mark of his administration and opinions fill up the full spectrum. With the latest Social Weather Stations survey showing a 76 percent satisfaction rating for the president's performance in office, and the constant flow of controversial and outrageous statements coming out of his mouth, President Digong is alternately revered and opposed by a divided nation. Here are four opinion pieces that reflect the divide:

Filipino American journalist Rene Astudillo writes on "Open Letter to My President";

Manila-based communications specialist Manuel Hizon provides as a situationer, "Making Sense of Change";

San Francisco-based lawyer/columnist Rodel Rodis educates us (and hopefully the President's men) on the Leahy Law that has interesting repercussions on US-Philippines relations; and Contributing Writer Myles A. Garcia weighs in with a satirical piece, "Dinuguan a la Duterte."

Our Happy Home Cook recipe for this week: Minatamis na Saging, a Filipino merienda favorite, from Richgail Enriquez's vegan kitchen. Take note of Richgail's reminder to use organic brown sugar for the recipe. Non-organic brown sugar, she says, is not vegan.

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Congratulations to the Winners of the 2016 Plaridel Awards
Lotis Key - Best Entertainment Story “Standing Room Only” 
Manzel Delacruz - Best International Reporting (tie) “Missions Possible”
Elizabeth Ann Quirino, Honorable Mention for Best Tourism Feature “My Tarlac Lights Up the World With Belenismo”

Month of Months

October is chock-full of commemorations; Wikipedia lists 17, among them National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, LGBT History Month, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Awareness and National Bullying Prevention Month (which we should probably celebrate more, considering what's happening all around us). The big one for our community is Filipino American History Month, officially declared by the US Congress in 2009. We mark this annual celebration with the first of a four-part documentary entitled "Filipino Americans: Discovering Their Past for the Future" in our Video of the Week.

Award-winning Filipino American author Marivi Soliven writes about domestic violence in mail-order families, "Carino Brutal - Plain Talk About Domestic Violence," after getting angry about NBC's planned sitcom on the topic. NBC has since scrapped the series following massive protests from the Fil-Am community, but as Marivi reminds, the problem of domestic abuse remains a festering wound.

Celia Ruiz Tomlinson, life lover, cancer survivor and compelling raconteur, makes hospice real for us in her piece about her late husband's last days, "A Ringside View of Hospice." "After eight years of [second] marriage," she says, "I became a serial widow."

And speaking of deaths, Positively Filipino mourns the passing of three giants in their respective fields:

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, she of the quick wit and acerbic tongue, "the best president the Philippines never had" (according to an avid supporter), on September 29 in Manila, from complications of cancer;

Danungan "Danny" Kalanduyan, a master musician and teacher from Maguindanao who introduced and taught the tradition of kulintang to a new and appreciative generation of Filipino Americans, on September 28, in California, from a heart ailment; and

Ceres Alabado, esteemed author of children's books and young adult literature, on October 3. Mrs. Alabado's most famous book, Kangkong 1896, about a 15-year old Filipino who joined the Katipunan, introduced the Philippine Revolution to generations of young Filipinos.

On a lighter note, our Happy Home Cook feature this week is from LA-based chef and cookbook author, Marvin Gapultos: Sweet Corn and Coconut Panna Cotta, his own twist to the traditional maja blanca.

Nostalgia in These Times

This is an unsettled and unsettling time in the Philippines and in the US. As a way to temper the tempest that might be creating havoc in our minds and hearts, let's indulge in some nostalgia. As Dr. Neel Burton, a columnist for Psychology Today, states, "The hauntings of times gone by, and the imaginings of times to come, strengthen us in lesser times."

Here are some Read Agains to take you back to relatively gentler times:

Postcards From the Age, a compilation of early 20th century postcards by Jonathan Best, illustrates the link between the US and its new colony, the Philippines.

Before Elorde and Pacquiao, There Was Luis Logan by Myles Garcia, previously untold story about the Spanish immigrant to the Philippines who won numerous boxing medals for his adopted country.

At Play in the Field of the Haves by Lou Gopal gives quite a colorful story of the origins of the Manila Polo Club, when Filipino elites played with the American colonizers.

Back to the present, veteran journalist and regular contributor Cherie Querol Moreno takes us with her as she visits family in Icking, a pastoral town in Bavaria, in southern Germany.

In Oak Forest, Illinois, Kusinang Pinoy touts Ilocano culinary culture as Positively Filipino Contributing Writer Rey de la Cruz reports.

From Kusinang Pinoy comes another version of the Ilocano staple, pinakbet, our Happy Home Cook feature this week.

On Video of the Week, we look back at Marissa Aroy's 2008 documentary "Little Manila: Filipinos in California's Heartland."