Filipinos have been in the United States since the 16th century, yet many of their stories remain untold. For the past year, Positively Filipino has been running a series on notable Filipino Americans who have made their marks in this country. There are hundreds, or maybe even thousands more, that need to be added to this story, and we need your help. If you know of a Filipino American who deserves to be included in this line-up, please send us their names and any supporting documents you may have to pfpublisher@yahoo.com. For now, we are including only those who are currently active and visible in the media and the community, regardless of their religious, sexual or political orientation. Thank you.

Eve Cho Guillergan, Judge

Guillergan won the Democratic primary for Civil Court Judge in Queens, New York, District 2. A civil rights attorney, mediator, and daughter of immigrants, she has spent her career fighting for fairness, runs a private practice for 20 years and also has held various leadership positions within the New York City Bar Association, where she currently serves as the director of its Small Law Firm Center. She was born in Korea to a Filipino father from Iloilo City and a Korean mother. She came to the United States at age 12 when her mother married an American soldier. She was raised in Missouri and in Duchess County, New York. As a strong advocate for due process and fair hearings, she said, "The cases heard in court may seem routine, but to those involved, they carry deep personal meaning. Everyone deserves to be heard and to feel that their case matters."

Rev. Andres (Andy) C. Ligot, Auxiliary Bishop of San Jose

Rev. Andres (Andy) C. Ligot *(Source: Diocese of San Jose)*

Pope Leo XIV appointed Ligot as Auxiliary Bishop of San Jose, California. He currently serves as vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of San José, and as pastor of St. Elizabeth of Portugal parish in Milpitas, California. Born in Laoag City, Philippines. Bishop-elect Ligot studied at San Pablo College Seminary in Baguio City, Philippines, graduating in 1986 with a degree in philosophy, and attended seminary at Colegio Eclesiástico Internacional Bidasoa in Pamplona, Spain. He received a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila in 1988, and studied at the Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, receiving a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology (1992), a master’s in theology (1992), a canon law licentiate (1997), and a doctorate in canon law (1999). Father Ligot was ordained on June 14, 1992, for the Diocese of Laoag, Philippines. He was incardinated into the Diocese of San José on March 30, 2004.

In the 1999, with permission form his bishop in Laoag, Ligot started serving in California. He was a chaplain at the Veterans Medical Center in San Francisco and a visiting priest at Church of the Nativity in Menlo Park. He served in the tribunal for the Diocese of San José as defender of the bond (1999-2000), and judge (2000-2003). He was parochial vicar at St. John Vianney parish in San Jose (2003-2005); pastor at St. Lawrence the Martyr parish in Santa Clara (2005-2009); and judicial vicar for the diocese (2008-2021). Ligot has been pastor of St. Elizabeth of Portugal parish in Milpitas since 2021, and vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of San Jose since 2023.

Toni Jaramilla, Lawyer

Toni Jaramilla *(Source: Jaramilla.com)*

Jaramilla’s law firm focuses on employment and labor law and civil rights. In 2025, The Los Angeles Daily Journal selected Jaramilla as a Top Employment and Labor Lawyer. In the documentary, Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel, Jaramilla who represented several employees, talks about working with women who accused American Apparel founder Dov Charney of sexual harassment while working for the popular clothing brand launched in 1989. Because they had already signed agreements to not say anything disparaging about Charney and American Apparel, each complaint was sent to confidential arbitration. She fought to unseal court documents, revealing that American Apparel paid out over $3 million in settlements to victims.

However, some allegations leaked, and the documentary uses a voice actor to read excerpts, describing Charney inviting people as young as 18 years-old to his bedroom and walking around in a towel in front of employees. New hires at the clothing store received gift bags that included a vibrator, a Leica camera, and a Blackberry so they could always be on call, as reported on Time.com. American Apparel is still sold online although it filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and 2016. Jaramilla also exposed the manipulative tactics used in settlement agreements barring victims from speaking out that were later overturned in court.

Dr. Francis Favis, Percussionist

Dr. Francis Favis *(Source: University of Texas, Austin)*

A champion of contemporary music, percussionist Favis enjoys a multi-faceted and multinational musical career. He has performed at prestigious venues and events such as the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, SXSW, the College Music Society, and the Canadian Music Centre. With a focus on today's musical voices, Favis continues to be involved with the creation of new works by living composers. He has worked closely with several acclaimed composers including Kelley Sheehan (Gaudeamus Prize winner) and James Tabata (Morton Gould award winner). Favis is the Assistant Professor of Percussion at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin, with prior studies at George Mason University, and Illinois State University. Francis is a proud artist-endorser of Innovative Percussion and Sabian Cymbals.

Marco Paguia, 2024 TONY Winner

Paguia is a music director, arranger, orchestrator, and pianist based in New York. He was the recipient of the 2024 TONY Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his orchestrations of Buena Vista Social Club. He was the Music director for Gutenberg! The Musical!, Girl From the North Country, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Everyday Rapture (Broadway). Regional highlights include music supervision & orchestrations for Unknown Soldier (Arena Stage) and music direction for Goddess (Berkeley Rep). Paguia was also the music director, arranger and pianist for LaChanze and Lindsay Mendez. He played on the soundtrack to Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. His arrangements and orchestrations have been performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Growing up in Chicago, Paguia says he and his family would watch Broadway-style shows. He told Rappler, “I was very honored and grateful to win the orchestrations TONY, but to be able to celebrate with the musicians as a member of the band was beyond what I could have imagined going into this Broadway season.”

Anthony Donahue, Veteran and Medical Advocate

A recent graduate of Harvard Medical School studying global health delivery (graduating with a 4.0 GPA), Donahue is currently the CFO of a $55-million eCommerce conglomerate, Wylde, Inc., based in Ramona, California. He also received a postgraduate diploma in Diplomatic Studies from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, where he took courses in international law, trade and finance and politics, and completed a study on the evolving strategic posture of military diplomacy. He also volunteers as the U.S. military liaison for the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics, enabling him to reach out to over 30,000 veterans to prioritize quality care through medical research. While Donahue’s knowledge of the culture and language of the Philippines influenced his deployment to the ARMM, his fluency in colloquial Arabic led to multiple Middle East deployments since his graduation from Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, where he majored in International Studies with a minor in Arabic. Donahue was born in a military hospital on Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. His Irish-American dad and Filipina mom were “pen-pals” initially, introduced by his mom’s sister, who had married an American serviceman. Eventually, after his dad made several visits to Manila, his parents tied the knot in the Philippines. “My mother also instilled a veneration of the Filipino culture in me during my upbringing. She enrolled me in Filipino martial arts and was a Filipino folkdance instructor at multiple Fil-Am organizations. I performed Filipino folk dances such as the maglalatik and itik-itik from grade school until I joined the military,” he told The Hawaii Filipino Chronicle, whose publisher endorsed Donahue to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines.

Jeannie Salomon, Founder, Cultural Society

Jeannie Salomon *(Source: Cultural Society)*

Salomon is a professional with over 15 years of non-profit management experience. She is the founder and director of the Cultural Society. She has used her formal training in humanities, business, and education to start the Asian American Connections initiative in the non-profit organization she founded and turned them into many “firsts” in the state of Rhode Island. These included the first, “Uniting the AAPI Community for Change” public art, a three-weekend-long celebration of the AAPI Heritage Month in May 2023, and the exploratory research and creation of the first AAPI history museum for Rhode Island. Jeannie has excellent organizational, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills, patience in training young people, and unswerving faith in mentoring. Her desire to be an effective speaker for the social justice movement has never been stronger. She strives to get rid of the white supremacist beliefs and misinformation that has been rampant in the last few years.

Enzo Manzano, Political Star

Manzano, son of veteran actor and TV host Edu Manzano, serves as the deputy director of community relations at the Carpenter Contractor Alliance of Metropolitan New York (CCA Metro). He is an alumnus of New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, where he earned a Master of Public Administration degree. Manzano gained public attention in June 2020 for staging solo protests in New York against the administration of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. His protests were aimed at raising global awareness of human rights issues and the suppression of dissent in the Philippines. He was also elected president of the Filipino American Democratic Club of New York (FADCNY) in 2023.

Larry Ordonez, Radio Personality

Larry Ordonez *(Source; Hawaii Business Magazine)*

Longtime KNDI radio host Larry Ordonez, who has spent more than 40 years working in media, says he feels like he “helped elevate ethnic radio broadcasts beyond the normal studio setting.” KNDI 1270 AM Radio is a source of news and entertainment for underserved communities. The station broadcasts in 13 languages: English, Chinese, Chuukese, Laotian, Marshallese, Okinawan, Pohnpeian, Samoan, Spanish, Tongan, Vietnamese, Ilocano and Tagalog. The station is owned and operated by Geronimo and Nellie Malabed through Geronimo Broadcasting, Inc. In 2017, he became the station’s first on-air host doing remote broadcasts from his home studio. So, when the pandemic hit, he was ready to help the Filipino community. Ordonez does his “Filipino Radio” program on Sundays and Mondays, and broadcasts news in English, Ilocano, and Tagalog. During the pandemic he partnered with Filcom Cares to broadcast Covid health information to his listeners. In 2020 and 2021, his programs generated an average of about 3,000 to 4,000 listeners. “Ethnic radio fills the gap unmet by mainstream media in reaching out to the underserved,” says Ordonez. Having an outlet to listen to music or news in an individual’s native language is important because people can understand the content and “it gives them that connection to their upbringing,” Ordonez says.

Anika Braganza, Actor

Anika Braganza *(Source: Asian Journal)*

Braganza is a Filipino American actress and singer-songwriter based in New York City. She graduated from NYU Steinhardt and made her Off-Broadway debut as Gilda in The Great Gatsby – The Immersive Show. She is also a member of The Braganza Sisters, a musical trio formed with her sisters, Amaya, and Adriana. Their music is available on various streaming platforms. In 2025, Anika expanded her performance repertoire by portraying O-Ren Ishii in Tarantino: Pulp Rock, a live show that brings Tarantino’s cinematic universe and legendary soundtracks to The CineVita, a new live theatrical venue near SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Source: Google and Wikipedia

The Magazine

FilAms Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 71