October 01, 2025

Grief, Rage, and a Dream Come True

October 01, 2025/ Staff

We all know that the death of a loved one triggers grief, but Allan Manalo tells contributing writer Wilfred Galila, “Grief is something not to get over; it’s something you learn to live with. Grief is love rearranged.” In “Comedian Allan Manalo’a Life In Bituin,” Galila relates how Manalo has channeled the intensity of his enduring grief from the passing of the love of his life into his one-man show.

Back in the homeland, massive protests have erupted against the biggest graft and corruption scandal in years, over graft from flood control projects. “Kurakot, ikulong!” (“Imprison the corrupt!”) is the enraged public’s overriding cry, and several legislators and contractors are in deep, deep trouble, Rosario Garcellano reports in “Return the Money, Jail the Crooks: Vigorous Protests Again Animate the Motherland.”

A long-held dream of Filipinos in Las Vegas is finally coming true. Filipino Town Cultural District in Las Vegas is here at last, “not just a landmark but a living, breathing cultural destination for locals and tourists alike,” reports Corin Ramos in “Unveiling of Filipino Town Las Vegas Sign Set for October 9, 2025.”

In celebration of Filipino American History Month, keep abreast of our community’s milestones and ongoing contributions in our updated “Filipino American History Timeline.”

[Video of the Week] KQED Celebrates Filipino American History Month

In The Know

Magnitude 6.9 earthquake kills 61, damages heritage churches in Cebu
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2117606/magnitude-6-7-quake-jolts-cebu

Extraordinary day in The Hague for the EJK dead
https://verafiles.org/articles/extraordinary-day-in-the-hague-for-the-ejk-dead

Filipinos Are Addicted to Online Gambling. So Is Their Government
https://apple.news/AsKbAF_CMSRmxhB7vuXbXTw

Keeping his literary legacy alive: Where to read Greg Brillantes’ timeless works
https://www.rappler.com/life-and-style/literature/greg-brillantes-literary-works-available-libraries-online/

Filipino designer Veejay Floresca is 'Project Runway' season 21's winner
https://mb.com.ph/2025/09/26/filipino-designer-veejay-floresca-is-project-runway-season-21s-winner

12 Filipino designers set to shine in Milan
https://tribune.net.ph/2025/09/18/12-filipino-designers-set-to-shine-in-milan?

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

September 17, 2025

From Farm Worker to Warrior

September 17, 2025/ Staff

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