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.

Stories This Week

Unsung Heroes Of A Secret Mission by John L. Silva

Play Plunges Actor Alexandra Hellquist In Unresolved Debate by Anthony Maddela

She’s A Farmer And She’s Okay by Ian Layugan

Carlos ‘Totong’ Francisco II: Art On His Own Terms by Primo Pacis

Bologna And Milan: Random Encounters by Criselda Yabes

Read Again:

When Hilario Met Sally: The Fight Against Anti-Miscegenation Laws

A Reunion of Strangers

Historical Memories Are Made of These

[Partner] Attorney General Bonta Releases 2023 Hate Crime Report, Highlights Continued Efforts To Combat Hate

[Video of the Week] How Did Philippine Art Connect Us Globally?

In The Know

‘It’s not all about the medals’: Olympian Margielyn Didal and her skateboarding journey
https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/sports/olympian-margielyn-didal-skateboarding-journey?

Philippine villagers smear mud on their bodies to show devotion to St. John the Baptist
https://apnews.com/article/philippines-bibiclat-mud-people-festival-john

Bini’s Charm and The Road To P-Pop Stardom
https://coverstory.ph/bini/

Years Later, Philippines Reckons With Duterte’s Brutal Drug War
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/29/world/asia/philippines-drug-war-duterte-justice.html?

Anti-American Hate Watch

Family members of woman pushed into S.F. BART train say death is shocking culmination of their worst fears
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/woman-shoved-bart-train-homeless-arrest-

Healing Anti-Asian Racism – The HOPE Framework
https://siliconeer.com/current/healing-anti-asian-racism-hope-framework/

Asian American History is US History, So Why Don’t Schools Teach It?
https://ethnicmediaservices.org/stop-the-hate/asian-american-history-is-us-history-so-why-dont-schools-teach-it/

Bachelorette Jenn Tran speaks out against racist comments
https://asamnews.com/2024/07/01/jenn-tran-bachelorette-racism/

Cops hunt creep who hurled racist insult at Asian man before bashing him with thermos
https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/06/29/cops-hunt-creep-who-hurled-racist-insult-at-asian-man-before-bashing-him-with-thermos/

Funding provided by the State of California.

June 26, 2024

A Love Song's Sad Story

June 26, 2024/ Staff

Next to the Philippine National Anthem, the song "Dahil Sa Iyo" is probably the most familiar song among Filipinos of a certain age who have lived through the kundiman era, the Imelda Marcos era, and even the Nat King Cole/Lettermen (among others) times when they sang the song to please local audiences. Composed by Miguel Velarde Sr. with lyrics by Dominador Santiago, "Dahil Sa Iyo" got its first public airing in the 1937 movie, "Bituing Marikit."

In 1940, the song "Because of You" was introduced in the US and garnered a lot of traction for years in movies and recordings. PF Correspondent Myles Garcia did a deep dive into the provenance and the chords of both songs and, in consultation with a Filipino composer/musician, confirmed that both songs shared the same chord progression 75% of the time. Read all about this "appropriation" issue and the sad tale behind it. Hearing and singing the song will not be the same again.

*****

A memoir in poetry. That's what community leader and LGBTQIA+ activist Therese Rodriguez did in her newly launched book, Paranaque to New York City: 50 Poems. PF contributor Elaine Elinson gives us a taste of this "poetry of witness" which hopefully will lead you to savor the rest and help the Rodriguez-led Asian and Pacific Island Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA) in the process. (There's a QR code at the end of the review you can scan to buy the book.)

*****

Project Phil is a US-based nonprofit whose vision is to help Filipinos obtain education which it views as the way out of poverty. Founded in 2017, the 501(c)3 organization has already given out about 500 scholarships in the Philippines. For the schoolyear 2023-24, over 108 scholarships for high school and college students have been supported. Educator/writer Elaine Joy Degale reports.

*****

There's nothing hoodlum-y about Bugoy Drilon. In fact, the singer/performer is a standout when it comes to connecting emotionally with his audience, according to PF contributing writer Gary Ferrington.

Read Again:

Racism: Reflections of a Bridge Generation Filipino American

Fortune’s Call: Albert Samaha’s Family Saga

[Video of the Week] What Is Filipino Food?

In The Know

Hackers steal data of at least 11 million Jollibee customers
https://asamnews.com/2024/06/24/cybercrime-privacy-breach-jollibee-filipino-food-chain-hacked/

Filipino man jumps into ocean to save drowning boy in Japan, gives too-cool statement after
https://soranews24.com/2024/06/19/filipino-man-jumps-into-ocean-to-save-drowning-boy-in-japan-gives-too-cool-statement-after/

Politician who pushed Philippines natural gas boom is behind firm that planned to profit
https://apnews.com/article/liquefied-natural-gas-lng-methane-philippines-batangas

Melting Spots
https://meltingspots.calmigration.org/map?

Healthier harvests: Organic farming initiative flourishes in Benguet
https://www.rappler.com/philippines/luzon/organic-farming-initiative-flourishes-benguet

Anti-Asian Hate Watch

Texas woman accused of attempting to drown young Palestinian American girl
https://asamnews.com/2024/06/23/texas-woman-accused-of-attempting-to-drown-young-palestinian-american-girl/

Seattle cop put on leave after hurling anti-Asian, sexist slurs at neighbor
https://nextshark.com/seattle-cop-audio-asian-slurs-neighbor

Columbia Univ spokesperson beaten in suspected hate crime
https://asamnews.com/2024/06/26/anti-asian-hate-assault-new-york-washington-diplomat-beaten/

Funding provided by the State of California.

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)