Enough is Enough!

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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

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Staff

From Farm Worker to Warrior

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A Fil-Am kid browned and brawned by months of farm labor under the sweltering California sun realized that preparing for war is hardly a dinner party. Read what it's like to be in a boot camp as America enters the Vietnam war theater.

A multi-province introduction to unique and unexpected Filipino dishes can either whet or blunt your appetite, but it will always be fodder for interesting conversations. How can you not talk about chopped pig cheeks, fermented shrimp that emerge days later smelling rotten but delicious with roasted fish, and pork blood cooked with tamarind juice and fish sauce? How about beating a live chicken to death until its blood rises to the skin surface, before roasting the now-dead fowl -- feathers and all -- on an open flame? 

Are we hungry yet?

Not exactly palatable but a new book written by a German author about a German development worker who returns to the Philippines to look for his old love, only to be confronted by a nightmare scenario that engulfed a revolutionary movement. The novel is fiction but based on real life. Riveting story, disturbing but important reading.

Are DINKs the solution to the Philippines' rapid population explosion? Find out what they are and how they think.

Our Video of the Week is a timely anthem for unsettled times: “Di Niyo Ba Naririnig?”

[Read It Again]

Ten Lesser-Known Photos from the Martial Law Years That Will Blow You Away by FilipiKnow

What If Magellan Had Survived Mactan? by Penélope V. Flores

In The Know

‘We Haven’t Learned Our Lesson’: Victims Recall Martial Law in the Philippines
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/world/asia/philippines-victims-marcos.html?

What you need to know about the Love Bus, the revived 70s PUV returning to roads
https://philstarlife.com/news-and-views/389025-what-you-need-to-know-love-bus?page=2

Study identifies hardwood used in Juan Luna's 'Spoliarium'
https://philstarlife.com/news-and-views/283118-juan-luna-spoliarium-hardwood-used?

Sean Rhyan's toughness rooted in his Filipino heritage
https://www.packers.com/news/sean-rhyan-s-toughness-rooted-in-his-filipino-heritage-2025

The colonial mindset: A review of 'Magellan'
https://mb.com.ph/2025/09/14/the-colonial-mindset-a-review-of-magellan?

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Staff

The Delano Grape Strike

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September 1965 was a milestone year for American farmworkers in California. On September 8 of that year, the historic Delano Grape Strike began, initiated by Fil-Am union leaders Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz and Pete Velasco. On September 16, the Mexican workers joined the striking Filipinos. It took five years before the American grape growers yielded and the strikers declared victory. As photographer/chronicler David Bacon wrote, "The strike was a watershed struggle for civil and labor rights, supported by millions of people across the country, breathing new life into the labor movement and opening doors for immigrants and people of color."

Historian/writer Alex S. Fabros, Jr. was there in Delano (and before that, Coachella) as part of the grape-picking workforce when the strike began. In part 4 of his series on that historic year, he gives an insider view of what was happening in the Filipino worker camps in preparation for the strike, as well as the strike's early days. His actual participation lasted only 10 days though because he was drafted into the US military to fight in Vietnam. On September 19, 1965, as his fellow farm workers continued their march towards rewriting American labor union history, Fabros was on his way to boot camp to begin a life that defined his personal history.

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Staff