The Pacman Cometh

In his prize-winning play, The Iceman Cometh, Eugene O’Neill presents a drama about the human need for hope and illusion as a response to the conditions of despair. If ever the Filipino people needed a distraction from the wearying conditions of despair that surround them, now is the time and Manny “the Pacman” Pacquiao is the man to provide the hope and illusion. He is our Iceman.

With his spectacular victory over Miguel Cotto on November 14, Pacquiao has won an unprecedented 7titles in 7 weight class divisions. No one is ever likely to challenge that historic accomplishment - to go from a 112 pound flyweight prince to a 145 pound welterweight king in 10 years. Remarkably, it would have been 8 titles if he had won the light flyweight championship at 106 pounds when he started his fighting career.

With an electrifying performance which made believers out of even the most cynical of doubters, Pacquiao has cemented his claim as the best pound-for-pound boxer of our time. Whether or not his fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. materializes is immaterial to the claim because Mayweather has made a habit of avoiding the best boxers while they were at their prime (Margarito, Cotto, Mosley, to name a few). But not Pacquiao “the Mexecutioner”.

Pacquiao has also achieved the unimaginable for a Filipino. He is now up there in that rarefied territory of elite athletes who made history, achieved global fame, and transcended their respective sports. Think Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, David Beckham, and Michael Phelps. His promoter, Bob Arum, though often given to hyperbole, was really not exaggerating when he said Pacquiao is the best boxer of all time, better than Mohammad Ali.

Even before the Cotto fight, commercial interests were already voting with their dollars and lining up behind Arum’s post-fight statement. Nike’s famous swoosh was ubiquitous with special Pacquiao shoes selling briskly for $135 on retail and $500 on EBay. Even reputable publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times featured articles about the Pacman. Time kicked it up a notch and put him on the cover of Time Asia.

But Pacquiao achieved something else very noteworthy: He has made his very ethnic, very indio-like, brown Filipino face – with no trace of any Mestizo-ness whatsoever – seem “cool” and attractive to Filipinos. Consider all the TV and movie stars of the Philippines today, virtually all of whom showcase light European features. But now they all bow to the brown king Pacman.

Pacquiao’s appeal has crossed over to mainstream America. His easy smile with eyes that light up, the religiosity in his pre-fight motions, the charming grace under pressure, the humility in his words, have made Americans who have seen him on TV overlook his heavily accented and grammatically- challenged English. By all indications, the American public has been smitten with him as his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live showed.

In the process, Pacquiao has instilled national pride among Filipinos who, at the same time, are also finding out on their own that with talent and tenacity, success is possible even with an ethnic face and an accented English. This pride is evident in shirts and jackets and accessories all proudly sporting Pacquiao’s image and Team Pacquiao logos. It is evident in water-cooler conversations all across America – with Filipinos talking of their sense of affinity and similarities of provenance with The Filipino People’s Champ.

How did this poor boy from the poverty-stricken streets of General Santos City in the island of Mindanao get to this point? For sure, he could not have done it in sports like golf or tennis for, although they too are individual sports, the monetary costs of achieving competence in those fields are prohibitive. He certainly could not have achieved it in the sport he loves, basketball, where height is a major factor in success.

Truth be told, savage and primitive though it may appear to some, boxing is probably the most democratic and most meritocratic of all sports. It is “cheap”: poor kids dabbling in it just borrow gloves from each other and practice on their own without the need for any real expense. It is also capable of instant feedback: you get your butt kicked if you can’t hack it, and if you’re not willing to give it your all, you’re better off dabbling in something else before you get into real physical trouble.

For all the good things Pacquiao brings to the country, there is a dark side. In a country of 90-million plus, an overwhelming percentage of which is comprised of poor impressionable kids all dreaming of becoming the next Pacquiao, makeshift boxing gyms and unregulated boxing matches supposedly feeding into the hopes of these poor boys are on the rise all over the land. Most of the Pacquiao wannabes will discover, soon enough, that studying real science subjects in school is a lot easier than learning the “sweet science” of boxing.

In The Iceman Cometh, broken men with hopeful dreams await the arrival of the big-spending Iceman, Theodore Hickman. When he arrives, he encourages his cronies to pursue their ambitions, believing that only failure will make them face reality. “To hell with the truth! As the history of the world proves, the truth has no bearing on anything…The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober,” he says.

Let's ride this pipe dream as long as we can. All hail King Pacman!

Fil-Am History Month

If you google "Chinese American History Month" or "Japanese American History Month", the search engines will all direct you to "Asian Pacific American Heritage Month" which, you will be informed, was enacted on October 28, 1992 to honor the achievements of Asian/Pacific Americans and to recognize their contributions to the United States.

All 30 or so Asian ethnic groups in the US were lumped together as “Asian Pacific Americans” and given one month – May – to celebrate our collective and individual cultures, histories and heritage in the United States. May was selected because the first Japanese immigrants arrived in the United States on May 7, 1843 and the transcontinental railroad, which employed hundreds of Chinese immigrant laborers, was completed on May 10, 1869.

The month actually started stated out as “Asian Pacific American Heritage Week” when Pres. Jimmy Carter signed the Joint Resolution on October 2, 1978. It became a month-long celebration in 1992 when Pres. George H.W. Bush signed the law permanently designating May of each year as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

As a publicly elected official in San Francisco for 18 years, I regularly attended the annual kick-off celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in San Francisco’s City Hall since 1992. It would always be awkward for me when Japanese Americans would recount the day in May of 1843 when the first Japanese immigrants arrived in the US and when Chinese Americans would recall the day in May of 1869 when the Chinese-built transcontinental railroad was completed and I couldn't very well reminisce about that day in May of 1898 when Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish Fleet which later resulted in the US invasion and colonization of the Philippines.

For years since its founding in Seattle, Washington in 1982, it was always the goal of the Filipino American National History Society (FANHS) for Filipino Americans to be given our very own month to celebrate our history and culture in the United States.

At its biennial national conference in 1988, FANHS members unanimously passed a resolution to "establish Filipino American History Month to be observed annually and nationally throughout the United States and its Territories during the Month of October commencing in the Year 1992 to mark the 405th Anniversary of the Presence of Filipinos in the Continental United States.”

The resolution also expressed the belief that such a month long celebration would be “a significant time to study the advancement of Filipino Americans in the history of the United States, as a favorable time of celebration, remembrance, reflection and motivation, and as a relevant time to renew more efforts toward research, examination and promulgation of Filipino American history and culture in order to provide an opportunity for all Americans to learn and appreciate more about Filipino Americans and their historic contributions to our nation, these United States of America.”

Just as Japanese Americans could celebrate the day the first Japanese immigrants landed in California in May of 1843, Filipino Americans could now also proudly commemorate the day the first Filipinos (“Luzon Indios”) landed in California on October 18, 1587, more than 33 years before the first English Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620.

After the FANHS resolution was publicized, Filipino Americans began celebrating October as Filipino American History Month with celebrations and festivities throughout the US. Various states, aside from California and Hawaii, would routinely pass resolutions as Michigan Governor Jennifer Granhom did when she proclaimed “October 2006, as Filipino American Heritage Month in Michigan, and I encourage all citizens to recognize, applaud and participate in this celebration of the many contributions made by Filipino Americans that enhance the quality of life in Michigan.”

But the celebration in various states somehow just wasn’t enough. As the Wikipedia entry on this subject noted, “October as Filipino American History Month has not yet attained the prestige of other similar minority celebrations, such as the Black History Month in February, Women's History Month in March, and the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May. This is evidenced by the fact that no United States Congress has ever resolved to recognize Filipino American History Month.”

The Wikipedia entry now needs to be updated.

On November 3, 2009, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Massachusetts) stood up on the House floor to announce that on October 29, 2009, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had unanimously approved House Resolution (H.R.) 780 celebrating October as Filipino American History Month. It was originally sponsored by Rep. Bob Filner (D-California) with over 50 members of the House signing on as co-sponsors, he said. Rep. Lynch also announced that the US Senate had unanimously passed a similarly worded resolution (S. 298) on October 1, 2009. He asked for the unanimous consent of the House to make the bill into law.

Before the vote could take place, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R- North Carolina) stood up and deplored the lack of substantive resolutions being passed by the House but joined Rep. Lynch in asking for the unanimous consent of the House for HR 780.

When the call was made for the vote, it passed unanimously. October is now Filipino American History Month in the United States! Hurray!

Overpopulation and the Catholic Church

Senator Noynoy Aquino leads in all the presidential polls that have been taken in the Philippines in the last month, receiving more preferential votes than all his opponents combined.

But before his supporters can start planning a yellow-themed celebration in May of 2010, there are still formidable obstacles standing in his way and they are not Manny Villar, Erap Estrada, or Gibo Teodoro.

The first obstacle is the P7.7-billion automated electronic voting machine system contract that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) awarded to Smartmatic, a company that allegedly has ties to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

There is a pervasive fear that automated voting machines can be easily rigged, with no paper trails to document abuses. The voting system source codes can be obtained from the company and manipulated to award votes to a particular candidate. The voters may be at the mercy of computer programmers.

The second obstacle is the Philippine Catholic Church, which issued a “veiled warning” to Senator Aquino indicating that the senator's support of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill could be detrimental to his presidential aspirations.

Other Church officials like Fr. Robert S. Embile have even threatened excommunication to anyone who endorses or supports the RH bill. In a letter published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 20, 2009, Fr. Embile wrote that “any believer who does not abide with the teachings 100 percent is not a genuine Catholic.”

In a visit to Cebu City on October 17, 2009, Senator Aquino reiterated his support for Senate Bill 3122 (The Reproductive Health and Population Development Bill) explaining that it can help provide the sex education that present and future generations need. It is an attempt “to come up with a defined national population policy framework.”

Senator Aquino said he supports the plan to have government health centers ready to let the public avail themselves of contraceptives and that parents should take responsibility for birth spacing. He told the Cebu press that if the Catholic Church will boycott him in the 2010 elections because of his support for the RH Bill, he said he would rather heed his conscience.

“I believe we have a population problem. I believe I have a responsibility to help so that our children have the opportunity to live better lives,” he said. He cited the fact that the Philippine population has “probably doubled” since the first Edsa revolution. Not quite but close.

The Philippine population in 1906 was 6 million people. By 1949 it had increased to 19.3 million; by 1970, the population passed the 38.5 million mark, and by 1989, it had risen to 63.8 million. It was 70 million in 1991, and since 50 percent of the people are under the age of 18, the projection is that the figure will pass 100 million shortly after the year 2010.

As environmentalists have pointed out, while the population has exploded, “the mangrove swamps are being destroyed, and 80 percent of the coral reefs, which are among the richest ecosystems on the planet, have been severely damaged. A third of the soil is severely damaged, two thirds are partly damaged, and the rain forest that once covered over 90 percent of the area will, it seems, soon be totally gone—only 10 percent survives now.”

The issue of Philippine overpopulation came to the fore recently with what blogger Dean Bocobo called the “sheer apocalyptic scale of the Ondoy-Pepeng diluvial calamity.”

As Dean pointed out in his blog, “Overpopulation created our overcrowded cities with their teeming slums and urban sprawl. Overpopulation filled full our waterways with our own garbage, that later submerged the neighborhoods of rich and poor alike. Overpopulation created the thousands of pockets of vulnerable millions that have suffered Ondoy and Pepeng.”

“Overpopulated societies foster poverty and unemployment, and the widespread lack of proper food and water, since whatever is available is being diminished by an ever growing denominator of millions more mouths to feed, clothe, and shelter. And rescue! Overpopulation magnifies the woeful inadequacy of the government to deliver emergency relief and long term reconstruction. Every reconstruction plan and every attempt to achieve a secure ‘preparedness’ against the next Ondoy or Pepeng is forced to deal with a population that is increasing at a rate of more than 2 million people per year.”

The controversy around the Reproductive Health bill attracted the attention of the New York Times which described the problem of poor Filipino women unwilling to have more children but helpless to stop it (“Bill to Increase Access to Contraception is Dividing Filipinos,” Carlos Conde, October 26, 2009). The bill would “require governments down to the local level to provide free or low-cost reproductive health services, including condoms, birth control pills, tubal ligations, and vasectomies. It would also mandate sex education in all schools, public and private, from fifth grade through high school.”

According to one research study cited by the New York Times, 54 percent of the 3.4 million pregnancies in the Philippines in 2008 were unintended with 92 percent resulting from not using birth control and the rest from birth control that failed. Those unintended pregnancies, the study found, contributed to an estimated 500,000 abortions that year, despite a ban on the procedure which is mostly performed clandestinely and in unsanitary conditions.

While the bill seeks to prevent unwanted pregnancies that results in a massive number of abortions, the opposition from the Catholic Church is based on the belief that the bill would legalize abortion by promoting the use of abortion-inducing drugs. In Catholic churches across the country, signs have been posted that read: “Yes to Life! No to RH Bill!”

The New York Times reported that various Catholic officials have been calling on opposition Senator Aquino to renounce his support of the RH bill but he has refused their pleas. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, on the other hand, has said that she will let her Catholic faith guide her. Presumably, her anointed presidential candidate, Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, will toe the same religious line in his attempt to woo the Catholic Church.

The battle lines for the 2010 Philippine presidential elections have been drawn.

The First Nobel Prez Winner

Barack Obama is not the first nor the youngest US president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. That distinction belongs to Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt who was awarded the honor in 1906 for his role ending the Russo-Japanese War. But “Peace” has never been a word associated with Roosevelt’s policies and world view, especially as they affected the Philippines.

Roosevelt was a young author (“The Naval War of 1812”) and noted adventurer in 1891 during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison when he and close friends Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan and Commodore George Dewey had lunch in Washington DC to discuss the question: “How can we be a first-rate nation if we are a second-rate military power?”

Their solution was for the US to “become a first-tier naval power.” In Roosevelt’s words: “We build modern cruisers to start with…Then we build more powerful fighting vessels” which he proposed to call “coastal defense battleships.” They agreed that the US need to establish a string of naval bases from the Hawaiian Islands to the Philippine Islands so that the US could become a Pacific power.

To implement their imperial ambitions, Roosevelt secured an appointment from US Pres. William McKinley to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy in January of 1898. After securing the appointment, Roosevelt wrote Mahan: “What this country needs is a war – any little war will do.”

Their dream of war would be realized when the USS Maine was “blown up” in Havana harbor on February 16, 1898. The Spanish authorities who investigated the explosion determined that it was an accident in the boiler room of the American naval ship. But Roosevelt did not care what caused the explosion as it was the answer to his prayers.

On February 25, 1898, US Secretary of the Navy John Long took the afternoon off to see his physician. Taking advantage of Long's absence, Roosevelt immediately sent a cable to his friend, Commodore Dewey, ordering him to assemble the Asiatic Squadron in Hongkong and prepare it for offensive operations in the Philippine Islands in the event of a declaration of war with Spain. He then issued orders to US squadron commanders throughout the world to “keep full of coal”. He ordered ammunition in war-sized quantities to be purchased and he sent requests to both houses of Congress to pass bills authorizing the recruitment of enough sailors to man the expanded naval fleet he envisioned. He did all this in one afternoon.

As Roosevelt would later write, “Whenever I was left as Acting Secretary, I did everything in my power to put us in readiness. I knew that in the event of war, Dewey could be slipped like a wolf-hound from a leash, I was sure that if he were given half a chance he would strike instantly and with telling effect.”

When Sec. Long came back to work the next morning, he was shocked “because during my short absence, Roosevelt had come very near causing more of an explosion than happened to the Maine.” But, politically, neither Sec. Long nor Pres. McKinley could reverse the orders issued by Roosevelt.

The lust to avenge the Maine explosion, fanned by the yellow press of William Randolph Hearst, with cries of “Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!” pushed the US Congress to declare war on Spain on April 24, 1898, just as Roosevelt had calculated.

Admiral Dewey was dispatched to Manila on May 1, 1898 with orders to destroy what was left of the Spanish Navy which he accomplished without losing a man, making him a national hero overnight.

The Filipinos had waged a war of independence against Spain since 1896 and were on the verge of successfully driving the Spaniards out of their isolated fortress in Manila in August of 1898 when the Spaniards worked out a deal with the Americans to surrender to them if they would keep the Filipinos out of Intramuros. The Spaniards and the Americans then negotiated and signed the Treaty of Paris on December 12, 1898 where Spain "ceded" the Philippine Islands to the US for $20-M.

On December 21, 1898, Pres. McKinley issued his Benevolent Assimilation proclamation ordering his military forces to seize control of the entire Philippine archipelago in order to "Christianize" the population.

When the US had enough soldiers in Manila in February of 1899, newly promoted Rear Admiral Dewey trained his cannons on the Filipino positions and began the naval bombardment that signalled the start of the Filipino-American War. The US would send a total of 130,000 soldiers to invade and colonize the islands suffering casualties of 1,250 men. Estimates are that anywhere from 250,000 to 600,000 Filipinos were killed resisting US colonial occupation.

After the Spanish-American War broke out, Roosevelt resigned his post and led a small US Army regiment in Cuba called “the Rough Riders” earning the Medal of Honor at the Battle of San Juan Hill. As a war hero, Roosevelt returned to New York and was elected governor. Two years later, he was nominated for and elected Vice-President of the US. After Pres. McKinley was assassinated in 1901, Roosevelt at 42 became the youngest US president in history and in 1906, the first and youngest to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, one year younger than Obama is today.

After Roosevelt received his Nobel Peace Prize, he dispatched the US Great White Fleet (16 Navy battleships of the Atlantic Fleet) on a worldwide tour to showcase US military might.

If Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite, had instead established the Nobel War Prize, Roosevelt would have been hands down the perfect choice for the award in 1906.

422 Years Ago

Almost a century after Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the Bahamas Islands on October 12, 1492 and claimed for the king of Spain what would later be called “the Americas ”, Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno “discovered” California on the other side of the continent.

Although Columbus’ discovery is celebrated as a national holiday in the United States, in Spain , and throughout South America, no such honor is bestowed on de Unamuno for his discovery of California on October 18, 1587.

In fact, de Unamuno’s historic voyage has been largely ignored by historians and is only commemorated by the Filipino American community and only because de Unamuno reported in his ship’s log that his crew was composed of “Luzon Indios”.

This historical fact was revealed in Henry R. Wagner’s Spanish Voyages to the Northwest Coast of America in the Sixteenth Century which was published by the California Historical Society in San Francisco in 1929. The book included an English translation of de Unamuno’s account of his voyage to California.

The Spanish interest in finding California stemmed from the development of the Manila-Acapulco trade route, through which Chinese goods were ultimately delivered to Spain. In 1565, with Father Andres Urdaneta at the helm, a return route to Acapulco was found that passed by what we now know as the California coast. On the way back, Urdaneta sighted land, but lost sight of it in the mist.

Over the next 20 years, Urdaneta’s route was used by more Spanish vessels- mostly Manila galleon ships made in Philippine islands - and staffed by crews of “Luzon Indios.”

In 1585, Archbishop of Mexico Pedro Moya de Contreras dispatched Spanish Captain Francisco Gali to proceed to Manila from Acapulco and, on his return voyage, “to reconnoiter down the coast” in hopes of finding the land that Urdaneta and others reported sighting.

Archbishop Contreras also instructed Gali not to stop by China, mindful of the intense interest by Acapulco merchants in establishing direct commercial trade with China instead of having to go through the Spanish “middle men” merchants in Manila .

The Acapulco merchants had given money to Gali’s second in command, Pedro de Unamuno, to make the trade connections with China. Fortuitously for the merchants, Gali died while in Manila , giving command of his two ships to de Unamuno. Before leaving Manila in 1586, the Spanish authorities there reminded de Unamuno again of the Archbishop’s order not to go to China under any circumstances.

De Unamuno’s crew on his return trip to Acapulco was composed mostly of Luzon Indios who were conscripted by the Spanish authorities in Manila to build the galleon ships and to man the crews that would sail on those ships.

The church authorities in Manila were concerned that if the merchants in Acapulco established direct trade relations with China , they would not need to go to Manila to pick up Chinese goods and the Spanish colonial outpost in the Philippine islands would be abandoned.

Despite repeated warnings, de Unamuno disregarded the instructions of the Acapulco Archbishop and the Manila authorities and proceeded to Macao, a destination he later claimed was due to “bad weather and lack of supplies.”

The Portuguese authorities saw direct Spanish trade with China as inimical to their own trade interests so they confiscated de Unamuno’s ships and reported his China incursion to the Spanish authorities in Manila. The Royal Audiencia in Manila dispatched Captain Juan de Argumedo to Macao to arrest de Unamuno and his cohorts and to recover the two Spanish ships. The penalty for de Unamuno’s insubordination was death.

But de Unamuno and his men were able to elude capture and managed to connect with two Franciscan priests who wanted to return to Mexico . One of the priests, Father Martin Ignacio de Loyola (the nephew of the founder of the Jesuit order), loaned de Unamuno money to buy a small Portuguese-built ship in Macao , which de Unamuno christened “Nuestra Senora de Buena Esperanza”.

With his new ship loaded with Chinese goods purchased with the funds provided by the Acapulco merchants and with his crew of Luzon Indios, a few Spanish soldiers, and two priests, de Unamuno sailed for Acapulco from Macao on July 12, 1587.

En route to Acapulco, the mast of his ship broke which compelled de Unamuno to dock in the nearest land to replace the broken mast and to replenish his food supplies. When his crew sighted land on October 18, 1587, de Unamuno entered the bay of what he called “Port San Lucas”. He took possession of the port and the land in the name of the Spanish king much as Columbus did on the other side of the continent a century before.

De Unamuno dispatched his Luzon Indios to act as his scouts as he explored the new land. Two days later, on October 20, his crew encountered natives who attacked them. In the battle that ensued, a Spanish soldier and a Luzon Indio were killed, before de Unamuno's crew was able to safely return to their ship.

On October 21, de Unamuno decided to leave and continue on to Acapulco. About a month later, de Unamuno wrote: “We entered the port of Acapulco on November 22 whence we wrote to Your Excellency and reported at length on the events and hardships of our voyage.”

After researching navigational maps of California and the geographic descriptions provided in de Unamuno’s narrative, members of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) determined that de Unamuno’s “Port San Lucas” is the city of Morro Bay.

On October 18, 1995, Morro Bay City Mayor William Yates officially dedicated a historical marker to commemorate de Unamuno’s landing. In part, the marker reads: “ A landing party was sent to shore which included ‘Luzon Indios’ marking the first landing of Filipinos in the Continental United States.”

On September 25, 2009, the state of California officially declared October as “Filipino American History Month” to honor the first Filipinos to set foot in California.

(This article, in its original form, first appeared in the Op-Ed page of the San Francisco Chronicle on October 17, 1997.)

First Filipinos to Set Foot in California

Almost a century after Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the Bahamas Islands on October 12, 1492 and claimed for the king of Spain what would later be called “the Americas ”, Spanish Captain Pedro de Unamuno “discovered” California on the other side of the continent. Although Columbus ’ discovery is celebrated as a national holiday in the United States , in Spain , and throughout South America, no such honor is bestowed on de Unamuno for his discovery of California on October 18, 1587.

In fact, de Unamuno’s historic voyage has been largely ignored by historians and is only commemorated by the Filipino American community and only because de Unamuno reported in his ship’s log that his crew was composed of “Luzon Indios”.

This historical fact was revealed in Henry R. Wagner’s Spanish Voyages to the Northwest Coast of America in the Sixteenth Century which was published by the California Historical Society in San Francisco in 1929. The book included an English translation of de Unamuno’s account of his voyage to California.

The Spanish interest in finding California stemmed from the development of the Manila-Acapulco trade route, through which Chinese goods were ultimately delivered to Spain. In 1565, with Father Andres Urdaneta at the helm, a return route to Acapulco was found that passed by what we now know as the California coast. On the way back, Urdaneta sighted land, but lost sight of it in the mist.

Over the next 20 years, Urdaneta’s route was used by more Spanish vessels- mostly Manila galleon ships made in Philippine islands - and staffed by crews of “Luzon Indios.”

In 1585, Archbishop of Mexico Pedro Moya de Contreras dispatched Spanish Captain Francisco Gali to proceed to Manila from Acapulco and, on his return voyage, “to reconnoiter down the coast” in hopes of finding the land that Urdaneta and others reported sighting.

Archbishop Contreras also instructed Gali not to stop by China , mindful of the intense interest by Acapulco merchants in establishing direct commercial trade with China instead of having to go through the Spanish “middle men” merchants in Manila .

The Acapulco merchants had given money to Gali’s second in command, Pedro de Unamuno, to make the trade connections with China . Fortuitously for the merchants, Gali died while in Manila , giving command of his two ships to de Unamuno. Before leaving Manila in 1586, the Spanish authorities there reminded de Unamuno again of the Archbishop’s order not to go to China under any circumstances.

De Unamuno’s crew on his return trip to Acapulco was composed mostly of Luzon Indios who were conscripted by the Spanish authorities in Manila to build the galleon ships and to man the crews that would sail on those ships.

The church authorities in Manila were concerned that if the merchants in Acapulco established direct trade relations with China , they would not need to go to Manila to pick up Chinese goods and the Spanish colonial outpost in the Philippine islands would be abandoned.

Despite repeated warnings, de Unamuno disregarded the instructions of the Acapulco Archbishop and the Manila authorities and proceeded to Macao , a destination he later claimed was due to “bad weather and lack of supplies.”

The Portuguese authorities saw direct Spanish trade with China as inimical to their own trade interests so they confiscated de Unamuno’s ships and reported his China incursion to the Spanish authorities in Manila. The Royal Audiencia in Manila dispatched Captain Juan de Argumedo to Macao to arrest de Unamuno and his cohorts and to recover the two Spanish ships. The penalty for de Unamuno’s insubordination was death.

But de Unamuno and his men were able to elude capture and managed to connect with two Franciscan priests who wanted to return to Mexico . One of the priests, Father Martin Ignacio de Loyola (the nephew of the founder of the Jesuit order), loaned de Unamuno money to buy a small Portuguese-built ship in Macao , which de Unamuno christened “Nuestra Senora de Buena Esperanza”.

With his new ship loaded with Chinese goods purchased with the funds provided by the Acapulco merchants and with his crew of Luzon Indios, a few Spanish soldiers, and two priests, de Unamuno sailed for Acapulco from Macao on July 12, 1587.

En route to Acapulco, the mast of his ship broke which compelled de Unamuno to dock in the nearest land to replace the broken mast and to replenish his food supplies. When his crew sighted land on October 18, 1587, de Unamuno entered the bay of what he called “Port San Lucas”. He took possession of the port and the land in the name of the Spanish king much as Columbus did on the other side of the continent a century before.

De Unamuno dispatched his Luzon Indios to act as his scouts as he explored the new land. Two days later, on October 20, his crew encountered natives who attacked them. In the battle that ensued, a Spanish soldier and a Luzon Indio were killed, before de Unamuno's crew was able to safely return to their ship.

On October 21, de Unamuno decided to leave and continue on to Acapulco . About a month later, de Unamuno wrote: “We entered the port of Acapulco on November 22 whence we wrote to Your Excellency and reported at length on the events and hardships of our voyage.”

After researching navigational maps of California and the geographic descriptions provided in de Unamuno’s narrative, members of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) determined that de Unamuno’s “Port San Lucas” is the city of Morro Bay.

On October 18, 1995, Morro Bay City Mayor William Yates officially dedicated a historical marker to commemorate de Unamuno’s landing. In part, the marker reads: “ A landing party was sent to shore which included ‘Luzon Indios’ marking the first landing of Filipinos in the Continental United States.”

On September 25, 2009, the state of California officially declared October as “Filipino American History Month” to honor the first Filipinos to set foot in California .

(This article, in its original form, first appeared in the Op-Ed page of the San Francisco Chronicle on October 17, 1997.)

Beating Ketsana-Ondoy

It was billed as Ondoy-Ketsana, which is O-K, only it wasn’t. Ketsana-Ondoy is more appropriate because it was a walloping K-O that this tropical storm unleashed on the Philippines, akin to what Manny Pacquiao inflicted on Ricky Hatton last May. Only much, much worse.

The photos of the devastation in the hard-hit areas of Metro Manila were harrowing and heart-wrenching: shanties shattered and shorn of whatever little dignity they started with; children wet and shivering, their hapless parents looking fear-stricken and ever more helpless; emaciated animals either dead or scampering; cars and trucks submerged, upended or piled on top of each other; and all sorts of human detritus -- cheap roofing materials, clapboards, furniture and fixtures, textiles and clothes, children's toys, and varying implements of daily living -- strewn all over, pleading to be picked up and cleaned.

And all these against a backdrop of brown, murky water seemingly everywhere, the motif dominant beneath an ominously gray sky, lurking and threatening to unleash yet more pain with more rain.

With water everywhere, the cruel irony is that the aftermath will highlight the very serious problem of lack of water. Clean water, that is, because water reservoirs, water treatment plants, pipes, tanks, and underground wells could not have escaped severe damage or contamination due to the storm.

With the death toll so far rising to more than 300, more deaths are expected in the ensuing months because of diseases related to unsafe water and poor sanitation. With muck, garbage, toxic chemicals, human waste, and God knows what else, all mixed up in this unprecedented massive flood which almost submerged the entire Metro Manila, the next likely chapter is dealing with diseases like typhoid, diarrhea and cholera.

Typhoid and cholera outbreaks occur where water supplies and sanitation are inadequate. People get sick after ingesting water or food that has been contaminated by the feces of infected persons. As always, children are the most vulnerable: according to theWorld Health Organization, on a regular basis, 84% of water-related deaths are in children ages 0 to 14, and about 43% of water-related deaths are due to diarrhea alone.

Not counting the psychological trauma that accompanies every disaster of this magnitude, the damage to private property, public infrastructure, crops and vegetation, and the costs to the economy as a whole, are immense and are still being tallied. The task is monumental. The early figures are out but are grossly understated. Many of the big companies are hobbled, but worse, many small businesses will be closed for good. Tens of thousands of the formerly employed will remain formerly employed.

The images of devastation make the comparison to Katrina easy, but Katrina was a super cyclone (tropical storm 4) while Ketsana-Ondoy was only a baby storm (tropical storm 1). And yet more rain water poured into Metro Manila in 12 hours onSeptember 26 than would normally fall in a whole month in the rainy season, more than what Seattle would experience in total from September through December. Marikina, the hardest hit Metro Manila city, has almost twice the population of New Orleans and is 23 times more dense per square mile.

How did a baby storm cause so much damage? According to Neal Cruz, “the unprecedented amount of rain... caused the rivers to swell and dam reservoirs to fill up. Water had to be released from the dams to prevent the pressure of water from breaking them. This water released from the reservoirs swelled the rivers downstream, causing them to overflow their banks and flood surrounding areas. With the creeks and rivers overflowing with water, there was no place for the rain water to go. So they went to the streets and to the houses and yards of low-lying villages.”

Because this was the “mother of all disasters”, the Philippines needs international help as it has never needed before. The European Community donated 2 million euros ($2.5M), with Germany adding an additional $500,000. Australia came through with $1M, Japan with $220,000 and China with $160,000. But of all the responses so far, the US has been the most underwhelming, with a donation of a measly $100,000 -- a pittance and a source of shame for the 4 million Filipinos in America.

At the end of the day, however, it will boil down to us, Filipinos of all stripes and colors, wherever located and however situated in life, to pull together and help our Motherland and our kababayans get back on their feet.

Below are 10 suggestions on how we can help the Philippines:

1. Get involved with any effort to help the Philippines. Engage your friends, Filipinos or not, and use your networks -- school, church, work, social, familial, Facebook, Twitter or Myspace. If you live in the SF-Bay Area, attend the regular weekly community task force meetings on Wednesdays at 7 pm at the Philippine Consulate. If there is no organized group in your community, create one.

2. Contact the White House (202-456-1111 or www.whitehouse.gov), the US Department of State (202-647-6575 orwww.state.gov), and your local Senator & Congressman (www.house.gov), and tell them that the US's $100K donation is pitifully small and that the US needs to give more.

3. Contact a relative or friend in the Philippines who needs help and send whatever money you can spare to that relative/friend and his/her family.

4. Send canned goods, camping equipment, clothes, blankets, flashlights, transistor radios or anything that might be useful, bring them to your local Philippine Consulate or to LBC and its 60 branch offices throughout the US.

5. Send money to the Philippine National Red Cross (redcross.org.ph), Ayala Foundation USA (af-usa.org), ABS-CBN Foundation (abscbnfoundation.org), Gawad Kalinga (ancopusa.org) or other reputable organizations that have set up operations to provide relief aid to the Philippines.

6. Ask your employer to set up a matching fund to match what you and your fellow employees can raise to send to the Philippines.

7. Ask your church to set up a special collection to raise funds to send to the affiliate church in the Philippines to help the victims of this calamity.

8. If you're a doctor, join a medical mission that will go to the Philippines to help the victims. In the meantime, gather some antibiotics, including the freebies given by the pharmaceutical companies, and bring them to the Philippine Consulate to send to the Philippines.

9. Buy Philippine-made products. Hard-hit Marikina is the "shoe capital of the Philippines" and exports many of its products to the US and other countries.

10. Speak positively about the Philippines, and ask people for a moratorium on bad-mouthing the Philippines and previous aid-relief efforts. You can’t ask people to help someone you are putting down. If you have nothing good to say about the Philippines, then don't say anything and let those who love the country do whatever can be done to help it recover.

Estrada's Motive

Two years ago this month, former Pres. Joseph “Erap” Estrada was found guilty of Plunder by the Philippine Anti-Graft Court (Sandigan Bayan). In a column I wrote about the verdict (“No Tears for Estrada”, September 17, 2007), I expressed my regret that the Sandigan Bayan judges never charged Estrada for his role in the abduction and murders of Salvador "Bubby" Dacer, Emmanuel Corbito and Edgar Bentain.

“According to members of his family, Bubby Dacer was bawled out by Estrada in Malacañang in November of 2000 shortly before he and his driver, Corbito, were abducted by members of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) headed by Gen. Panfilo Lacson and tortured and executed. The PAOCTF soldiers who admitted killing Dacer and Corbito pointed to Col. Glenn Dumlao as their commanding officer. Before he fled to the US, Col. Dumlao pointed to Col. Cezar Mancao and Col. Michael Ray Aquino as the officers who gave him the orders. Before they could point their fingers as to who directed them, Mancao and Aquino fled to the US upon instructions of Lacson. If Lacson had been fingered by Mancao and Aquino, would he have pointed the finger to Estrada?” I asked.

The answer is an unqualified "Yes!". In two privileged speeches delivered on the floor of the Philippine Senate this past week, Sen. Lacson “pointed the finger” directly at Estrada as the man who gave the orders to neutralize Dacer. Lacson said that Estrada had the means, the opportunity and the motive. But Sen. Lacson did not provide the full picture.

Dacer’s problems with Estrada began when Emil Jurado, a newspaper columnist of the Manila Standard daily, wrote in his March 29, 1999 column that a “demolition team” composed of “two former members of the Ramos Cabinet; a former Lakas spokesman and propaganda chief; a head of the Ramos media bureau; and another – a well-known PR practitioner” was formed “for the sole purpose of embarrassing President Estrada by attributing to his administration all sorts of perceived faults and scams with the end in=2 0view of covering up anomalies and scams also committed during the Ramos administration.”

On April 5, 1999, D acer wrote Estrada to deny the charge of Jurado who “virtually identified [him] as the one behind the so-called demolition team.” In his letter, Bubby Dacer assured Estrada of his clear conscience, support and “abiding loyalty.”

On June 7, 1999, Jurado again wrote in his column that “[o]n the flight to Tokyo, the President expressed his great disappointment in a PR man whom he had considered a friend, and in fact is a compadre twice over, who has been identified with a demolition team out to embarrass not only his administration but his presidency as well.”

On June 9, 1999, Dacer again wrote Estrada to refute the “lies” which he believed “were caused by envy” of people “attempt[ing] to drive a wedge” between them. Dacer also wrote Jurado directly to express his “deep sorrow” about the latter’s columns and voiced his suspicion that “Gen. Ping Lacson has been rekindling all the inimical gossip against [him]…in revenge of [his] support for Gen. Bobby Lastimoso,” then PNP Director-General and Lacson’s nemesis in the so-called “Generals’ War,” the long-running feud between the two generals.

When Estrada started looking for a replacement for Gen. Lastimoso, Dacer openly lobbied Estrada against the appointment of Lacson. In his October 8, 1999 letter to Estrada, Dacer noted Lacson’s “ruthless abuse of power in pursuit of his goals.”

Despit e Dacer’s opposition, Estrada promoted Lacson as Director-General of the PNP on November 16, 1999. Lacson, in turn, appointed Col. Aquino as the Deputy Director (and acting OIC) of the PNP-Intelligence Group (“PNP-IG”), the country’s counterintelligence agency.

Col. Aquino then ordered Col. Dumlao to “conduct discrete Background Investigation” on Dacer. He directed Dumlao to monitor Dacer’s visitors and to enter his office at the Manila Hotel to plant listening devices there.

In September of 2000, Dacer met with Butch Tenorio, a PAOCTF consultant, and Dante Tan, the chair of Best World resources (BW) and a businessman crony of Estrada. Dacer again vehemently denied that he was involved in any effort to destabilize Estrada’s government.

After Tenorio and Tan reported their conversation with Dacer, a group of PAOCTF operatives was convened in or about the first week of October 2000 “to neutralize Dacer” after a “clearance from Malacanang was given.” Tenorio and Tan were tasked to handle the expenses of the “operation”; Col. Dumlao and his assistants were ordered to handle the monitoring, surveillance and abduction of the “target individual”; and Aquino and Task Group-Visayas Chief P/Supt. Col. Teofilo Vina were directed to take care of the “final phase.”

On November 21, 2000, Dacer was summoned to Malacanang Palace to meet with Estrada. At the meeting, Estrada informed Dacer that his intel ligence operatives had confirmed to him that Dacer had been actively working with former President Ramos and the opposition to have him impeached. Dacer vehemently denied the charges but Estrada could not be placated. Dacer left the Palace in mortal fear of his life.

On November 24, 2000, Dacer left his home headed for the Manila Hotel for a lunch appointment with former Pres. Ramos. En route, PAOCTF operatives intercepted his car and abducted Dacer and his driver, Corbito, and brought in a van to a town in Cavite. While blindfolded and in handcuffs, Dacer was interrogated by Col. Dumlao who was also ordered to pick up Dacer's attaché case. According to Dumlao, the case contained Best World (BW) documents which Dacer planned to hand over to Ramos. On Aquino’s orders, Dumlao burned the documents at the Balara Dam.

Among the BW documents that later surfaced was a July 1999 letter from BW chair Dante Tan authorizing the transfer of 300,000 shares of BW Stock to PNP Gen. Lacson worth 3.21 million pesos. Another document was a letter from Estrada’s lawyer written on Malacanang Palace stationary directing BW chair Tan to turn over 500 million pesos to Estrada.

Means, opportunity and motive.

EXTEND OVERSEAS VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE

Like many procrastinators, I waited until the last day to register to vote for the May 2010 Philippine elections and it almost proved costly. When I got to the Philippine Consulate at 8:30 a.m., I was informed by the security guard that it was closed because August 31 is a national holiday in the Philippines.

“National Heroes Day, sir,” the guard explained. “But today is the last day to register,” I protested, somehow unreasonably expecting the modest guard to have some authority to change a government policy.

After I left, I phoned a consular official to express my disappointment. The official informed me that there was a misunderstanding because a consular employee was scheduled to be at the consulate to process our registration applications. When I returned at 10:30 a.m., she was there helping a few registrants with their paper work.

After I completed my application, I expressed concern for the many others who wanted to register, but who were told that the consulate was closed and left. How can they be contacted? Could a special exception be made for them so that they could still register to vote?

While I felt sorry for them, I heaved a sigh of relief that I was finally able to register to vote. It was a long time coming.

I recall the time I returned to the Philippines in March of 1986, for the first time in 15 years, along with a “Freedom Flight” contingent of anti-Marcos activists from the Bay Area. President Cory Aquino personally welcomed us at Malacanang Palace and provided us a tour of the Palace.

When we met with members of Cory’s cabinet, many of whom we knew personally because they had been exiled in the US and had attended our meetings of the Ninoy Aquino Movement (NAM), we discussed what issues we wanted enacted by the Cory government.

I told them that I wanted to see the Cory government push for dual citizenship and for overseas Filipinos to have the right to vote in Philippine elections while living abroad. I was certainly not the first nor the last to raise these issues.

I brought up the fact out that dual citizenship has been adopted by more than 80 countries (more than 100 now) including all of Europe, North America, Central America, South America and many countries in Asia. I said that most countries, including20the US, allow for their citizens to vote abroad and the Philippines should not be an exception.

There was general agreement on the overseas voting issue and the Cory government even included a provision in the 1987 Constitution mandating the Philippine Congress to enact legislation extending the right to vote to overseas Filipinos.

But it took five Congresses, four Presidents, 64 filed absentee voting bills and 16 long years before the Philippine Congress finally passed the Overseas Absentee Voting Act, officially known as Republic Act No. 9189, on February 13, 2003.
A month before the February 2003 vote, I joined a large group of overseas Filipinos who traveled to Manila to personally lobby members of Congress to pass this overseas voting bill. I met with Makati Rep. "Teddy Boy" Locsin Jr., who told me that overseas Filipinos had "abandoned the Philippines" and didn’t deserve the right to vote in Philippine elections. I told him that, on the contrary, it was the Philippine government that had abandoned overseas Filipinos. I reminded Rep. Locsin that overseas Filipinos were remitting about $7B a year (then) to the Philippines, singularly responsible for keeping the Philippine economy from sinking. Now that sum is closer to $17B a year which a World Bank study suggests may actually be double that amount.

After our discussion, Rep. Locsin introduced a compromise provision that broke the logjam in February of 2003 paving the way for passage of the Overseas Voting Absentee Act. One of the provisions of the bill specifically excluded elected officials abroad from being able to vote. As a San Francisco elected official until January of 2009, I was ineligible to register to vote.

In November of 2008, Rep. Locsin met members of the San Francisco Filipino community at the Philippine Consulate to express his disappointment that so few overseas Filipinos had availed of the right to vote in Philippine elections.

I told Rep. Locsin that it was all thanks to him. The compromise provision he inserted in the 2003 bill called for overseas Filipino voters to sign an “Affidavit of Intent to Return” to the Philippines to live there permanently after three years, with criminal penalties if they don’t do so. That “poison pill” provision effectively discouraged hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of overseas Filipinos from registering to vote.

Somehow Rep. Locsin saw the light and is now the author of a bill removing that “Affidavit of Intent” provision from the Overseas Voting Absentee Act.

About 500,000 overseas Filipinos registered to vote in both the 2004 and 2007 elections. With 11 million Filipinos now living and working abroad, it was projected that at least 500,000 overseas Filipinos would register to vote for the 2010 elections bringing the total number to over 1M registered overseas voters.

However, as of September 1, 2009, the total number of newly registered overseas voters is just a little over 200,000, far less than half of the projected total. This number would easily double, especially now with the entry of popular Sen. Noynoy Aquino in the presidential race, if the Comelec were to extend the deadline for registration of voters to December 31, 2009.

The main proponent of the move to extend the voter registration period is Sen. Francis "Chiz" Escudero, a likely presidential opponent of Aquino. "There is no legal impediment to Comelec extending the deadline of registration to December,” Sen. Escudero said. "The Comelec, if it wanted to, could make the necessary adjustments should it extend the deadline for registration. Surely, the right of suffrage outweighs its logistical concerns," he added.

Extend the deadline for registration of overseas voters.

Giving Remitters Their Voice

Considering that the globe is mired in a major economic crisis which continues to roil its most advanced countries, the Philippines’ economic picture is impressive. Its unemployment rate is hovering around 7% (while the latest US figure is at 9.7%), and its gross national product (GNP) of about $186B recorded a phenomenal 4.5% growth in 2008. Moreover, while the US economy contracted as of the second quarter of 2009, the Philippine economy managed to grow by 4.4%.

What accounts for this performance? Simple: higher remittances. Which just goes to show that when the going gets tough, the tough overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) – laboring in all the continents except Antarctica – somehow manage to send more money home.

According to the BSP (the Philippines’ central bank), remittances from January to June 2009 totaled $8.5 billion, of which $4.5B came from the Americas. When annualized for 2009, this translates to at least $17B. Though the pace has slowed this year from the almost 10% annual growth recorded for most of this decade, the final year-end tally will likely be higher because remittances usually rise during the Christmas holidays.

It should be noted that the BSP figures only take into account those money flows which go through the formal channels – i.e., money which flow through banks and non-bank financial institutions engaged in money transfer services.

What would the total figures be if they included the value of goods and services which flow to the Philippines using the informal channels and methods – e.g., the “colorum” remitters; the padala system or the cash hand-carried by balikbayans; and the pasalubongs stuffed in balikbayan boxes? What value can be placed on the medical missions conducted by Fil-Am doctors; on those donations to charitable organizations like Books for the Barrios which advance Filipino causes; and on those tourists who visit because of the encouragement, active or otherwise, from their Filipino co-workers and friends?

In her report, “Poverty in the Philippines: Income, Assets, and Access,” Karin Schelzig, a Social20Development Specialist for the Asian Development Bank, cited a World Bank study which estimated actual remittances to be as high as $21B in 2002. That year, however, the official BSP figures only showed total remittances to be around $7.6B.

A rudimentary extrapolation from this data means that the 2009 figure may be as high as twice the $17B estimated for 2009 – $34B – or more.

Given that the Philippine government’s budget for 2010 is about PHP 1.541 trillion (roughly $32B), this means that after financing the operation of the entire Philippine government for the entire year – e.g., after paying for the President, every government worker, every teacher, every soldier, and every congressman/senator and all his/her pork barrel projects – the OFW remitters still have a couple of billion dollars of change left.

A 2008 study by two University of British Columbia professors, Dr. Michael Goldberg and Dr. Maurice Levi, reveals that as a percentage of GDP, remittances account for 13.5% of the Philippine economy and that they have become more substantial than the combined impact of foreign direct investments (FDI) and official development assistance (ODA) funds.

The study also found that in large recipient countries like India, China, Mexico and the Philippines which are characterized by income inequality, volatility, and an absence of developed credit and insurance markets, “remittances can serve as a substitute for financial markets, for example, allowing households to finance investments, including investments in human capital, and in this way spur economic development.”

Further, the study disclosed that “remittances might help investors circumvent the constraints of the financial system to take advantage of high economic returns that are inaccessible to them because of the lack of credit and savings vehicles.”

But economics is not called “the dismal science” for nothing. For every economist saying “good,” there’s another saying “bad.”

A 2009 IMF Working Paper entitled “Do Workers’ Remittances Promote Economic Growth?” postulates that “[t]o the extent that remittance inflows are simple income transfers, recipient households may rationally substitute unearned remittance income for labor income” and that remittances “may be plagued by severe moral hazard problems.”

The paper concludes that “[p]art of the reason why remittances have not spurred economic growth is that they are generally not intended to serve as investments but rather as social insurance to help family members finance the purchase of life’s necessities.”

The IMF study seems to suggest that by helping the poor financially, you are making them worse off and dependent on you. I suspect that hundreds of thousands of OFWs who have seen their remittances send their kids through college, finance the purchase of jeepneys and tricycles, and fund the start of sari-sari stores and other small businesses, will disagree with the IMF study.

The main flaw of the IMF study is the starting premise that the role of remittances is to promote economic growth. It is undisputed that remittances contribute to the economy. But they are not intended to promote economic growth – only sound government policies can do that.

Thus, it is high time that the Philippine government be held accountable to the millions of OFWs remitting nonstop year in and year out, crisis or no crisis, and always reliably bailing out the government despite the endemic and systemic corruption at its core.

That is the goal of the 6th Global Filipino Networking Convention set to take place on January 21-23, 2010, in Cebu, Philippines (www.6thGlobalCebu.com). It will be a forum for the 11 million Pinoys in the global diaspora to voice their opinions on what the Philippine govern ment should be doing with their money which continues to be the singular, most reliable source of support for the Philippine economy. Since their funds virtually finance annual government operations, their voices should be heard loud and clear.

Roasting Greg

Most folks usually associate the word “roast” with cooking either a beast or foul, preferably already dead, with dry heat. But ever since Dean Martin started royally skewering his guests on his TV show in the 1960s, it has also become known as an event where an individual is honored by being affectionately insulted by friends, family and well-wishers.

On Sunday, August 23, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, Greg Macabenta found himself roasted on the grill at the fabulous Intramuros restaurant in South San Francisco by over 200 people who wanted to pay tribute to a man who is admired, revered, and loved by everyone. But since that guy couldn’t come, folks had to settle for Greg. We received a number of congratulatory messages for our event — from people congratulating themselves for not spending $50 just to honor Greg.

But the great Pinay boxer, Hurricane Ana Julaton, came to honor Greg and also, the great Broadway singer, Stephanie Reece, was there, flying all the way from New York just to sing for Greg. Stephanie has done so much for Gawad Kalinga in the Philippines that they renamed a major tourist attraction there after her. It will now be called the “Banaue Reece Terraces”. Greg is probably wondering what all the fuss is about since that’s always the way they’ve called it in his native province of Leyte. Ask Aleex.

I have known Greg for more than 21 years, practically since he and his family immigrated to the US. When I ran for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board in 1990, it was Greg who worked on my campaign literature. Thanks to Greg, I lost by 56 votes. I mean of course, if it wasn’t for him, I would have likely lost by a lot more. At least that’s what he told me.

I want to say two things about Greg. I wanted to say an awful lot more but the Roastmaster, Ben Menor, told me that other people also wanted to say a lot of awful things about him so I should leave time for them.

The first thing I want to say about Greg is that he does not suffer fools gladly. That means he has zero tolerance for fools. Like, for example, when these two fools on the Internet started smearing Greg, he would advise friends to ignore them. “Just press delete”, he would say. When I finally couldn’t resist it and called them “pond scum,” he emailed me to tell me I was being too kind to the vermin.

So if anyone of you who came is ever accused of being a fool, just produce the souvenir magazine for the event and tell your accuser that you’re a friend of Greg Macabenta. If Greg can suffer you, that’s platinum-certified proof you’re no fool.

The second thing I want to tell you about Greg is that he is not really 70. You see 70 years is actually 25,550 days. But each day is really 16 hours long, not 24 hours, because people generally sleep up to 8 hours a day. But Greg is different: he doesn’t sleep. How else can you explain how he’s able to do so many things?

Greg is president of Minority Media Services, Inc., the only Filipino American ad agency that produces ads for US companies that want to reach the 4-million strong Fil-Am community. He is also the main representative in the US of GMA7, the largest Philippine TV network. GMA7’s main competition is ABS-CBN which employs more than 150 employees here in Redwood Shores. That’s 150 for ABS-CBN and only one for GMA7. That means Greg is doing the equivalent work of 150 people.

If you want to get ABS-CBN, you pay $12.99 a month. If you want to get GMA7, you also pay $12.99 a month. But if you want to get both, Comcast has a special price offer of $20 a month for both. Wait -- what? Comcast didn’t buy a souvenir magazine ad? Forget them, folks, get Direct TV instead. It’s cheaper.

Greg even produces a weekly TV show for GMA7 called The Filipinas Magazine Show with his daughter, Cristina Dunham, as host. He called me one Sunday afternoon to ask if he could interview me about what I thought would happen if all the Filipino nurses in the US were to call in sick one day. When he came to my office, I asked him where’s his camera crew and he said, no, it was just him. “But where’s your video camera?” I asked. He took out his tiny Flip video and started interviewing me. What would happen if all the Pinay nurses got sick, he asked. “Well, American housewives don’t know what desperate is until that day happens,” I said.

Greg writes a weekly column that is syndicated in newspapers throughout the US and the Philippines. He is publisher of both the Filipinas magazine and the Ang Panahon newspaper. In Filipinas, he not only writes most of the articles (just kidding), he also does the cartoons (not kidding).

Greg flies to LA every Tuesday morning for his work as a board member of Seafood City, the largest Fil-am owned grocery chain in the US. He’s also active with Gawad Kalinga, the Ayala Foundation, the Philippine American Press Club and a host of other organizations.

Because he was a founder of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) and served as its national vice chair under Loida Nicolas Lewis, I asked him a year ago if he would run for national chair of NaFFAA.

I remember that Greg looked at me incredulously and asked me when could he possibly have time to run the largest Filipino American federation in the US. "I don’t know," I said, “how about between 5 – 7:00 AM? I think you’re free then”. I started to laugh because of course I was just joking. Only, I noticed Greg wasn’t laughing because he was checking his calendar. Yup, it’s true, he said, he was free then. He accepted the challenge.

Truly, when you want something done, always ask a busy person to do it. In less than a year since he was elected the national chair, Greg has rejuvenated and reinvigorated NaFFAA, challenging the organization to be economically viable in order to accomplish its mission of empowering the Filipino community.

So, my friends, when you measure the age of a person who is awake 24 hours a day, you realize that’s 8 hours more than you or me. Every two days (16 hours) adds another day. If you add all the extra days to his life, then you get his real age. By our calculation, in about 5 years, we will be celebrating Greg’s 100th birthday.

So we want you all to “save the date” now (you’ll get periodic notices on Facebook), for our centennial roast of Greg Macabenta on August 23, 2014. Don’t forget now. No congratulatory messages accepted.

Happy Birthday, Greg. Whatever your age is.

Jose Rizal and Ninoy Aquino: Cosmic Brothers

If you compare all the Philippine national heroes from Lapu-Lapu to Cory Aquino, it is unlikely that you will find two heroes more uncannily similar, in how they lived and in how they died, than Dr. Jose Rizal and Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.

Both came from similar class backgrounds - their families were below hacendero level landed gentry; both studied at the elite Ateneo school; both traveled extensively; wrote prolifically and returned to the Philippines despite warnings that they faced certain death upon setting foot on native soil.

Both were tried for treason on trumped-up charges by kangaroo courts which sentenced them to death. Both were executed by tyrants who feared their return and their deaths sparked revolutions that overthrew the tyrannies that caused their martyrdoms.

More than other heroes, Rizal and Aquino fit the textbook mythological model of a “tragic hero” – one born=2 0of privilege, imbued with heroic qualities, and fated to endure great suffering. In the classic mold, Prof. Ronald Santora relates, “the hero struggles mightily against this fate and this cosmic conflict wins our admiration.”

Why did Dr. Jose Rizal in 1892 and Ninoy Aquino in 1983 return to the Philippines knowing of the certain tragedy that awaited them upon their arrival? Was it Fate or Free Will?

Dr. Jose Rizal lived and studied in Europe for almost a decade, obtaining advanced degrees in fine arts, medicine (ophthalmology) and even a doctorate in languages. Rizal also wrote two novels, Noli Mi Tangere and El Filibusterismo, which exposed Spanish abuses in the Philippines.

Aside from his academic achievements, Rizal immersed himself in the Filipino Ilustrado expatriate movement for reforms, organizing forums and contributing regular editorial essays to the movement’s main journal, La Solidaridad.

On November 20, 1891, Rizal moved to Hongkong and established a private practice in ophthalmology there, drawing patients from throughout the crown colony. Before the end of the year, Rizal made enough money to finance the migration to Hongkong of his parents and siblings.

While Rizal was overjoyed to be finally reunited with his family, he was deeply dismayed by the factionalism and lack of unity that plagued the Filipino movement in Europe. As Jose Baron Fernandez noted in his book, (Jose Rizal: Filipino Doctor and Patriot,1980):

“During the first two month s in 1892, the propaganda campaign was in disarray; (Marcelo) Del Pilar in Madrid, abandoned by all except his brother-in-law, (Graciano) Lopez-Jaena in Barcelona, very skeptical of La Propaganda, with its utter neglect of its obligations, and, finally, the new committee of La Propaganda which proposed to Rizal the launching of a new fortnightly paper, as well as the organization of a new party – the Rizalist party. Meanwhile, from Paris came news of the formation of a revolutionary organization called Katipunan (headed by Andres Bonifacio).”

Ninoy Aquino had been incarcerated in solitary confinement by the Dictator Ferdinand Marcos for almost eight years by May of 1980, when he suffered two severe heart attacks within a week of each other. Because of fear of negative publicity if Aquino died while under military custody, First Lady Imelda Marcos ordered him released and quickly flown to the U.S. on May 9, 1980. Everyone expected him to die on an operating table at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, but Aquino defied the odds and survived.

After recuperating from heart surgery, Aquino spent three years in the U.S., setting up a home in the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts with his wife Cory and all their kids. He recei ved fellowship grants from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked on the manuscripts of two books, and delivered speeches throughout the U.S. denouncing Marcos and martial law.

Aquino found himself caught in the factional intrigues of=2 0the anti-Marcos opposition in the U.S. On one flank was the Movement for a Free Philippines (MFP) under Sen. Raul Manglapus which advocated for the return of parliamentary democracy. On the other was the Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino (KDP or Union of Democratic Filipinos) which supported the revolutionary overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship.

In the first quarter of 1983, Aquino received disquieting news about the deteriorating political situation in the Philippines with the consensus forming that the Philippines was just five years away from a full-scale bloody revolution. Because of the declining health of Marcos, Aquino felt it imperative to return to the Philippines to convince Marcos to restore democracy “before extremists take over and make such a change impossible.”

Like Aquino, Rizal too feared the very revolution his own writings had inspired. “Rizal was opposed to Bonifacio’s revolution,” writer-historian F. Sionil Jose wrote. “To seek his support, Pio Valenzuela visited him in Dapitan where the Spaniards had exiled him. Rizal argued against that revolution, saying that Filipinos were not ready for it, that the cost – and the bloodshed – would be tremendous.”

Seeking to avert a bloody revolution, both freely chose to return back to the Philippines to personally make the case for a non-violent reform alternative. But their pleas fell on deaf ears. Rizal was executed in Luneta (now Rizal Park) on December 30, 1896 by a firing squad20of Filipino soldiers acting on the orders of Malacanang Palace. Ninoy was killed at the tarmac of the Manila International Airport (now the Ninoy Aquino International Airport) on August 21, 1983 by an execution squad of Filipino soldiers acting also on the orders of Malacanang Palace.

Rizal’s execution triggered the Katipunan revolution that led to the Filipino people’s overthrow of Spanish rule. Ninoy’s execution sparked the People Power revolution that led to the ouster of the Marcoses from the Philippines.

In their cosmic conflicts against their fates, by their words and by their deeds, Dr. Jose Rizal and Ninoy Aquino transformed the Philippines and the Filipino people.

Who Ordered the Hit on Ninoy Aquino?

Many years ago, while I was waiting in line to see the Agatha Christie whodunit, Murder on the Orient Express, a moviegoer who was exiting the theater screamed out “They all did it!” spoiling the suspense.

Every year, on the occasion of the anniversary of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino on August 21, people ask: Who ordered the hit? Was it the Dictator Ferdinand Marcos? First Lady Imelda Marcos? Marcos crony and business mogul Danding Cojuangco? Armed Forces Chief Gen. Fabian Ver? Or, like Murder on the Orient Express, was it all of the above?

The conventional wisdom points to Ferdinand Marcos as the mastermind because the military scope and precision of the assassination could simply not have occurred without the knowledge and involvement of the loyal Gen. Fabian Ver, who would not have undertaken such an enterprise without the dictator's’ knowledge and approval.

But the sheer audacity and brazen gall of assassinating Ninoy Aquino right at the airport, just minutes after his arrival, in full view of the world’s press, with all the predictable dire consequences to the regime that would ensue, bore all the earmarks of the politically unsophisticated and psychologically unstable Imelda Marcos.
So who ordered it? Let’s review what facts are known.

Ninoy Aquino's plane had just landed in Manila on August 21, 1983 on a flight from Taipei when Philippine soldiers entered the plane, approached Ninoy and placed him under their custody and control. The soldiers quickly hustled him through the crowded aisle and out the airport door, which they immediately shut to prevent anyone from following them to a side staircase.

A few seconds later, shots were fired and Ninoy’s lifeless body lay on the concrete tarmac of the Manila International Airport.

About 16 soldiers (no officers) were later charged with conspiring to kill Ninoy. “The forensic evidence submitted to the trial court," columnist Antonio Abaya wrote, "established that the trajectory of the fatal bullet was forward, downward and medially, the bullet entering Aquino’s skull near his left ear and exiting at his chin. This was consistent with the gun being fired at Aquino by someone behind him who was at a higher plane than he was, such as someone who was one or two steps behind him on a downward flight of stairs.”

Rolando Galman, the hapless patsy brought by his military handlers through tight security at the airport, was positioned at the foot of the staircase. After Aquino was shot once from behind, the soldiers pointed their assault rifles at Galman and shot him several times to make sure he was dead.

After a military van appeared on the tarmac, soldiers quickly loaded the bodies of both Aquino and Galman on to the van, which then sped to a military camp. Several hours passed before their cold corpses were delivered to a coroner for examination.

Barely eight hours later, Marcos announced to the world that “communist hit man” Rolando Galman had killed Ninoy Aquino.

Of course no one believed Marcos and a fact-finding commission he formed in response to world public opinion determined that 16 soldiers were responsible for Ninoy’s murder and they were so charged.

After the soldiers were all convicted of conspiracy in the killing of Ninoy and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Muntinglupa penitentiary, one of them, M/Sgt. Pablo Martinez, later became a born-again Christian and publicly disclosed what the other convicted soldiers refused to do.

In his affidavit, Martinez revealed that he was assigned by Col. Romeo Ochoco, then deputy commander of the Aviation Security Command (Avsecom); Brig. Gen. Romeo Gatan of the Philippine Constabulary (PC); and Herminio Gosuico, a civilian businessman from Nueva Ecija, to escort Galman from a hotel near the airport to the tarmac, to await the arrival of Ninoy from Taipei.

Witnesses who testified at the Agrava Fact-Finding Commission had previously identified Gosuico, a known associate of Marcos crony Danding Cojuangco – along with Air Force Col. Arturo Custodio and two others – as the men who fetched Galman from his home in San Miguel, Bulacan, on August 17, 1983.

Martinez revealed that he was personally recruited for the special assignment by Col. Ochoa, whom he had previously served under. Martinez reported that he and Galman were briefed on the assassination plan at the Carlston Hotel near the domestic airport on the night of August 20, 1983. Briefing them on the details were Gen. Gatan, Col. Ochoco and Gosuico. That evening, Col. Ochoco gave Galman a .357 Magnum revolver, while Martinez was given a Smith & Wesson .38 cal .revolver. Galman had no idea that would be his last evening alive.

On the morning of August 21, 1983, just before Martinez brought Galman to the airport, he said that Galman’s mistress, Anna Oliva, and her sister, Catherine, were brought by soldiers to the Carlston Hotel to have breakfast with Galman. The two women were last seen at their workplace on September 4, 1983 when armed men picked them up. Their corpses were later exhumed from a sugarcane field in Capas, Tarlac in 1988 in a hacienda owned by Danding Cojuangco.

Galman’s wife, Lina Lazaro, was picked up at her home by two men on January 29, 1984 and was never seen again. During the Agrava fact-finding inquiry, Gosuico was identified by Galman’s son and stepdaughter as one of the two men who picked up their mother.
Despite all the testimonies implicating them to Ninoy’s assassination, neither Col. Ochoco, Gen. Gatan nor Gosuico were ever charged with involvement in the conspiracy to kill Ninoy.

Former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez was a Sandiganbayan prosecutor under President Cory Aquino when he came upon a witness with critical evidence, who was willing to testify under certain conditions. Gonzalez went to President Cory in Malacanang to tell her that the witness demanded protection for herself and her three kids. Before Cory would agree to the terms, she asked Gonzalez who the witness would name as the mastermind.

When Gonzalez answered that she would name her first cousin, Danding Cojuangco, Pres. Cory reportedly responded, “Impossible! It cannot be!” She refused the witness’ request for protection and the witness eventually disappeared.

Gen. Romeo Gatan later died of a heart ailment. Hermie Gosuico died under what would be described as mysterious circumstances, leading Abaya to ask: “Did he die of illness or accident, or was he eliminated because he knew too much?"

Of the original known conspirators named by Martinez, only Col. Ochoco is still breathing, reportedly with his family somewhere in Stockton, California.

But Imelda Marcos and San Miguel Corporation CEO Danding Cojuangco are still very much alive and they know all too well who ordered the hit on Ninoy Aquino 26 years ago this week. They can spoil the suspense.

Oust Willie!

The August 1 death of Corazon Aquino produced an unprecedented show of unity in a historically fragmented nation, with hundreds of thousands of people lining up to personally bid her farewell, from marginalized squatters to high society matrons, from leftist revolutionaries to rightist coup plotters. The one discordant note in the otherwise unified sea of harmony came from Wowowee host Willie Revillame, who complained on the air that the Cory funeral cortege was taking the fun out of his hugely popular ABS CBN variety show.

The petty complaint occurred during the noontime telecast of Wowowee on August 3, 2009, when, while a contestant was dancing in the “Willie of Fortune” segment of the show, a window screen showed a live feed of the coffin of Cory Aquino being transported from La Salle Green Hills to the Manila Cathedral. The unwelcome distraction irritated Willie Revillame, the highest paid entertainer in the Philippines (reportedly one million pesos a day), causing him to blurt out on the air in Tagalog:

“If that’s the case, let’s just show it! Because we’re trying to have fun here and then…This hurts me, please. I hope you understand. We’re having fun here and then you’re going to show… It’s not right, OK? It’s ugly! It’s not pretty to me. We’re talking and then you show the coffin of Tita Cory, what? How can we have fun? It’s difficult for us. I’m sorry but for me, it’s true. Don’t get upset because it’s true…After my show, you can show whatever you want to show. Because this Wowowee, what I want…Right? And Tita Cory knows this because my show also made her happy, ok?”

ABS CBN management agreed and ceased showing any further live feeds of the funeral until after Willie’s show.

One “avid viewer of ABS CBN” named Roel C. Saguisag was so enraged by what Willie Revillame said that he drafted an on line petition where he wrote:

“Some may argue that Willie's intention was good, but I rather find these statements rude and arrogant. Wowowee and Revillame are known by millions of Filipino viewers and the show is even watched across several countries through TFC. To react in such way is downright arrogant and disrespectful to former President Corazon Aquino. I know that it was bad taste for ABS-CBN to show a snippet of the funeral on Wowowee, but it was worst for Revillame to react that way…

Was it really hard for him to be humble and human? I believe that this is not the first time that he aired his views and rather arrogant comments on-air. He embarrasses his staff, makes fun of the contestants, and arrogantly acts on TV almost every day. Pres. Aquino taught us humility, and Revillame is showing us the exact opposite: arrogance.”
Saguisag called on the management of ABS-CBN to “stop the arrogant acts of Willie Revillame … and reprimand him because of his actions.” His on line “petition to oust Willie” on www.petitiononline.com has already drawn the signatures of over 45,000 people from all over the world.

The alliance of Filipino journalists (AFIMA) criticized Willie for his on-air remarks. "For him to demand the removal of the little window screen showing the funeral march of the woman who got ABS-CBN back from Marcos is a blasphemy of democracy…He expressed his angst against the Corazon Aquino funeral being shown side by side his Wowowee right before dumbstruck millions of Filipino viewers around the globe.”

Controversy continues to surround the career of Willie Revillame. After starting out in showbiz as a drummer and singer, he starred in a few movies like “Bobocop”, which landed him a job as host of a noontime variety show in 1998 that was later called “Magandang Tanghali Bayan” (“Good Noon, Nation”). In the “Calendar Girl” segment of the show, Willie was suspended by the Movie and Television Review Classification Board (MTRCB) for repeatedly making lewd, crude, and boorish remarks to the contestants. When he returned after his suspension, Willie continued making the same crass offensive remarks causing the TV network to finally replace him.

After his termination, Willie went to the US for several months. Through the intercession of his showbiz buddies like Dolphy and Sharon Cuneta, he was given another chance, hosting a public service TV show called “Willingly Yours” which led to another stint as host of “Masayang Tanghali, Bayan" (“Happy Noon, Nation”). But Willie couldn't stop being Willie. In one segment, he told a birthday celebrant on the air “Sana ma-devirginize ka na” (“I hope you get devirginized already”). The remark caused the MTRCB to order ABS CBN to terminate Willie. Before it could do so, Willie resigned.

After resuming his music career as a singer, Willie was asked by ABS CBN management to return to the network as host of his own noontime game show, one which he helped conceptualize called “Wowowee”. The show, which made its debut on February 4, 2005, was an instant hit in the Philippines and worldwide on The Filipino Channel.

To celebrate its first year, Wowowee offered a chance to win one million pesos to the first 500 entrants at its anniversary show which was set to be held at the 5,000-seat capacity Ultra Sports Arena in Pasig , Rizal. For three days, people camped out by the arena's entrance hoping to be among the first 500 to get in. On February 4, 2006, the gates were opened and a wholly predictable stampede occurred which resulted in the deaths of 73 people and serious injury to hundreds more.

According to network insiders, Willie Revillame urged the management “to go on with the show” despite the tragedy. After hearing this, Dean Jorge Bocobo (“Rizalist”) wrote: “Normally this would be considered a virtue in an entertainer… But NOT after over seventy people were just crushed to death and practically still lying around dead. Maybe he thought he could save the situation with his usual boyish inanity.”

“It comes at a heavy price of human lives lost, but I think noon time shows are going to have to change for the better, if they are to survive at all. These shows seem designed by salacious minds with a genius for commercializing the lowest common denominator in people — lewdness, stupidity, mendacity, opportunism and anything that titillates the seamy underside…I do hope that Willie Revillame is finished for good. And all his ilk. They’re the ones that ought to be stampeded off the face of the earth.”

Wowowee and Willie Revillame appeal to the worst in Pinoys -- racism, chauvinism, disdain towards the feeble, the poor, the mentally inferior, all in the guise of making people laugh. Particularly offensive is the part of his show where balikbayans from all over the world are allowed to waive their dollars at the cameras while the local folks thank them profusely for their generosity. The poor recipients are too poor, too God-forsaken, too humbled by the endemic poverty around them to even recognize that they're being maligned and stripped of any form of human decency.

Willie Revillame may be suspended or may voluntarily take some time off as a result of this latest controversy but he will be back because cockroaches live forever.

Cory's Advice to Fil-Ams

When ABC TV reporter Alan Wong asked me what Filipinos lost with the death of former Pres. Corazon Aquino, my immediate response was “our moral compass, our guiding light.” I thought of Cory as Jawaharlal Nehru once said of Mahatma Gandhi, “the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere.”

But Nehru also added that “the light that has illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country for many more years, and a thousand years later, that light will still be seen in this country, and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts.”

What was this “light” that has gone out of our lives? The August 2, 2009 editorial of the Philippines Daily Inquirer expressed it best:

“It was the light of liberty, the unquenchable flame of democracy, the light of optimism and faith in the Filipino, snuffed out in her husband’s case by an assassin’s bullets, but which lit so many more little flames, so that it dispelled the darkness that had engulfed the country since 1972. It was a light that could not be extinguished by coups and natural disasters, by the mocking of those who saw in her merely a woman, merely a widow, merely a person trying to return power where it belonged—in the people’s hands, to do with as they chose."

When her husband, Ninoy Aquino, was assassinated in 1983, Cory took up the banner of resistance from Ninoy and stood up to the brutal dictator. When she ran for president, Marcos belittled her for being “a common housewife with no experience”. She defiantly replied: "Yes, that's right, I have no experience in stealing, in cheating and in killing political opponents." The battle was joined. In the end, the more experienced candidate fled the country when People Power redeemed the Filipino people’s dignity.

After assuming the presidency of the Philippines , Cory Aquino visited San Francisco on September 23, 1986 and spoke to 4,500 members of the Filipino community at a banquet held at the Moscone Center . As chair of the committee which hosted the largest banquet ever held for a visiting head of state in San Francisco history, I was privileged to sit close to her as she spoke of her fondness for our City:

“San Francisco has a special place in my heart. It was the cool, clear air of a free San Francisco that put the color back in my husband Ninoy Aquino’s cheeks when he arrived here after seven long years of imprisonment. It was here that Ninoy spent much of his convalescence after his triple heart bypass. This is the home of many of Ninoy’s and my most ardent supporters and friends, the home of many of the most vocal and active opponents of the dictatorship.

The Filipino-American community here constitutes one of the largest bases of support for People Power in the Philippines . Even though you are thousands of miles from the Philippines, you took to the streets, you held your own rallies, you let the world know your beliefs and contributed to the groundswell that eventually brought victory to the forces of freedom and democracy in the Philippines.”

President Aquino asked for our Filipino community to help the Philippines not just by sending money remittances and balikbayan boxes to the Philippines but in a more politically sophisticated way:

“You can help by becoming a strong political force in your adopted country and using that force to influence your adopted country’s attitudes towards your mother country. Follow the lead of the Jewish-Americans who, despite being a small minority, form an indispensable pillar of a strong and independent Israel . Surely they are no stronger, no smarter, no more imaginative or dedicated than you are. They may be more organized, more politically oriented, more helpful to each other. And certainly they work hard at keeping America ’s interest in Israel alive at all levels of society - in business, in education, in government, in the arts and sciences.

And so must you with respect to the Philippines . You must guard the image of the Filipino that the February Revolution burnished so brightly. You must guide those joining your ranks so that you enhance the image of Filipinos here. All impressions of you, American though you might be, will hark back to the Philippines .

Strive for political power in this country. Unite. Learn from the new Philippines how people, acting together, have made the difference at home. You too can make a difference here, for your own betterment and that of generations to come.”

Cory also asked us to educate ourselves and our youth about our history and our provenance, our heroes and our pride: “Be proud of your roots. Do not let your children or your grandchildren forget that they came from a land that produced Rizal, Bonifacio, Mabini and yes, Ninoy – men who could stand shoulder to shoulder with the best that this country or the world has produced.”

Not only men but many women too, like Cory Aquino.

My Racial Profile

I may have been more prone to emphasize the race aspect of the July 16 arrest of Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates by Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley because of my own personal experience. When I was arrested on February 17, 2003 by two white San Francisco police officers who responded to a 911 call from a white Walgreens manager who thought I might possibly be using a counterfeit $100 bill to purchase items, I believe I was racially profiled. If I had been white, would I have been arrested that night?

I expressed this viewpoint after the police had handcuffed me and hauled me off to the police precinct where I remained cuffed to a rail in the holding cell before the officers verified from the US Secret Service that my bill was genuine and released me. In an article that appeared in AsianWeek, I wrote that if this had happened to San Francisco Supervisor (now Mayor) Gavin Newsom, the Walgreens manager would never have called the police and the officers would never have arrested and handcuffed Newsom or taken him to a police station to verify the authenticity of his $100 bill.

Two weeks after my article appeared, I received a phone call from Gavin Newsom who was quite upset. “Rodel, why did you use my name? Do you have an axe to grind against me?” he asked. “No, Gavin”, I replied, “I only used your name to emphasize a point. If I had used some other white elected official who wasn’t as well known as an example, it wouldn’t have been as effective.”

Newsom then told me it was “ironic” that I picked him because “what happened to you happened to me”. Shocked, I asked him what happened. Newsom then related an incident that occurred when he was still in the private sector when he brought the daily earnings of his restaurant (Balboa Café) to the bank to deposit. He said the teller began counting the money and applied a counterfeit detector pen to a $100 bill which she found suspicious. The result confirmed that it was fake – unlike in my case where the pen applied by both the Walgreens cashier and manager showed that my $100 bill was genuine.

“So what happened next?” I asked Newsom. “Well, she returned the $100 bill to me and told me to be careful next time,” he answered.

“Gavin, what happened to you didn’t happen to me. If it had been me, she would have called the cops!” I told him. That was precisely the point I was making in my article and Newsom had just confirmed it.

In my 2003 Walgreens incident, Sgt. Jeff Barry, the police officer who was the first to respond to the 911 call, immediately recognized me because our sons were classmates in a parochial school and because of an argument we had about a City College policy (I was then an elected City College Trustee) of not allowing campus police to carry their firearms on campus which, he said, posed a risk to his brother-in-law who was a campus police officer. Barry was very agitated about the issue and demanded that we change the policy.

Because I didn’t agree with his opinion, Sgt. Barry seized the Walgreens opportunity to provide me with a “teachable moment”.

Although he was the first to arrive at the scene, Sgt. Barry remained at the Walgreens entrance, careful to ensure that I didn’t see him. When Officer Michelle Liddicoet arrived and asked him what was happening, Sgt. Barry told her, pointing to me, “It’s that lawyer. He hates cops.” Liddicoet then replied, “Don’t worry, Sarge. I’ll take care of him.” So she proceeded to arrest me, place me in handcuffs and transport me in the back of a police squad car to the Taraval police station.

I did not learn of Barry’s presence at the scene or of his role in my arrest until I read his name in the police report. Barry wanted to teach me a lesson and so I decided to also teach him a lesson. I sued him and Liddicoet for wrongful arrest and for violating my civil rights.

In his July 27, 2009 New York Times op-ed piece, Randy Cohen encouraged Prof. Gates to sue Sgt. Crowley because “filing suit can be a way to pursue social justice.” As Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union explained, lawsuits can be “an important tool for reform when coupled with advocacy and public education efforts and when the circumstances are conducive to change.”

With that perspective, I had also sued Walgreens and it resulted in Walgreens apologizing to me, firing the manager who called 911, and hiring a long-time Filipino American employee to replace him. My lawsuit against the San Francisco Police Department resulted in a major clarification of police departmental policy - officers could no longer arrest suspects who possess suspected counterfeit currency unless there was some probable cause to believe that the suspect was aware that the currency was counterfeit.

My case against Barry and Liddicoet has gone up the Ninth Circuit to the US Supreme Court and back down to the Ninth Circuit and up again to the US Supreme Court. It has resulted in two published Ninth Circuit Court opinions on the issue of whether police officers have qualified immunity to be “immune” from civil lawsuits for their abuse of police powers (“Rodis v. City and County of San Francisco ”).

The Supreme Court decision on my case will affect the lawsuit of the 72-year old grandmother in Texas who was tasered by a highway patrol officer for refusing to sign a speeding ticket and thousands of other cases filed by individuals who have sued police officers for the abuse of their police powers.

After more than six years of litigation and expending tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to press a lawsuit against two officers represented by a City Attorney’s office that has spent and can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money to defend the suit, I often wonder who was really taught a lesson.