Category Archives: blog

Mainstream media finally notices: Olympic champion diver Victoria Manalo Draves is still dead after 19 days

I first heard of Victoria  Manalo Draves’ death more than two weeks ago.  

Draves was an important, iconic figure in the Filipino American community. Born to a Filipino father and a Caucasian mother during a time when mixed-marriages were against the law, young Vicky Manalo  was shunned as a kid in San Francsico from swimming among whites. It didn’t stop Draves from becoming an Olympic champion in 1948.

Of course, that doesn’t mean she gets the respect she deserves on the day of her death.

Today’s obit in the New York Times shows just how far Filipinos, even half-white ones, can be in terms of real inclusion.  

It took the Times 19 days to report the death of an Olympic champion, excusing its tardiness by saying  Manalo’s  death “had not been widely reported.”  I heard about it through the ethnic media.

So the mainstream’s elite newspaper is just 19 days behind in reporting a significant death of a Filipino American. At least now we can measure how far behind the mainstream can be.

So much for diversity in journalism.  At least it wasn’t 19 years.

White House AAPI Initiative: Trying to give more meaning to Asian Pacific American Heritage month in May

The White House is using APA month in May to launch its Asian American Pacific Island Initiative, which hopes to continue what the Clinton administration had started and what the Bush administration ignored.

Kiran Ahuja, the White House initiative’s executive director,acknowledged that the Clinton administration did a lot of work in the tail end of its tenue by identifiying issue areas like education and health as Asian American community concerns. But the Bush administration, she said scaled back the scope and focused on entrepeneurship in its day before finally letting the  White Hous initiative die.

Now Ahuja said she plans to build on the work of the Clinton administration, essentially making up for lost time and lost momentum.

“We’re ready to hit the ground running,” Ahuja told a telephone news conference. The broader focus will include data collection on education, health care and jobs to help identify where Asian Americans are underserved. “We know across the board there are barriers to the community being engaged.”

Ahuja was not specific but said the May roll out will begin an effort that will include  high level agency heads in the government meeting with community leaders.

Again, a good first step as a show of concern for our community. But it does also show how the community has been ignored in some vital areas during the Bush years.

What you need to know about the May10 presidential election in the Philippines

 “Anti-Marcos” used to be the phrase that defined overseas Filipinos’ political involvement.

You were either for or against the legendary dictator. But then came Cory Aquino and “People Power” to wipe the slate clean.  Only she really didn’t. 

She only gave new, formerly shut out oligarchs the opportunity to take their turn playing Marcos, only less brazenly, less openly. They were “anti-Marcos” in their own way, sure.  But for some it was just the style in which they sought their favors . They were “under-the-radar” corrupt. They figured out how to get all they wanted from the people of the Philippines without resorting to dictatorship.  In essence, the era after Marcos has been a time for all the self-serving corruption, but none of the excesses. 

The political style of choice is “Marcos Lite.”

I first used  the phrase to describe President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whom I affectionately call PGMA.  Comparing  current Philippine leaders to Marcos is a helpful  good measure of political progress in the Philippines.  But now PGMA is in a realm all her own. Having declared a “partial” martial law after the Maguindanao massacre (where political families gunned down opponents and journalists) and with a double digit negative approval rating, PGMA’s place in history is already assured. She will be known as the worst president ever in the short history of Filipino democracy.  Worse than the dictator.

And she did it all with a smile. And the support of both Bush and Obama.

That’s how it is when your style is “Marcos Lite.”  No one can tell just how bad you are because you are having such a good time at the public’s expense.

So with the May 10 presidential election in the Philippines around the corner, it’s time to declare who among the current presidential candidates is skillful and stylish enough to mask their corruption and  wear the sash with the phrase “Marcos Lite.”

It’s tough because of the presence of one Joseph Estrada, the ex-Philippine president whose fondness for numbers running  earned him a conviction in 2007 (that was followed by a pardon soon after; The oligarchs protect their own).  Now in 2010, Estrada feels entitled to his old job and has  poll numbers reportedly close to  20 percent.  That’s a lot of people to pay off.  The conviction remains a problem. Marcos would have found a way to avoid it all in the first place.

Then there’s Noynoy Aquino, a favorite of those sentimental for “People Power.” A lot of people like Aquino. But he doesn’t even belong on the list for “Marcos Lite.” Are you kidding?  Sure, he’s an oligarch with ties and connections among the patricians. But compared to his fellow candidates, Aquino’s  too nice, too ethical, too soft-spoken. No one says anything bad about him, except that he’s a soft-spoken bachelor who tries to do the right thing.

You wouldn’t  really want someone like that to be the  president of the Philippines, would you?

Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. But then what you are hoping to see on May 10 is the absolute turnaround of the Philippine democracy.  It could happen, but I think the country is too used to self-serving, money-hungry, egotistical, corrupt oligarchs.

Given the taste for that kind of leader, is there a better person to be declared Marcos Lite than Manny Villar?

Villar likes to play poor kid from Tondo. (My mom was from Tondo, I’ve been to the cockfights in Tondo). But Villar is as they say in America, “dumb like a fox.”  He’s a shrewd businessman/politician who has used his influence to build a massive real estate empire. Some of his deals have been based on the illegal conversion of prime rice lands, and the use of those lands to raise billions of pesos in government loans. Vilar’s questionable deals are well documented among the journalists who refused to be cowed or paid-off by Villar. But there are not many of them.

Villar is spending billions of pesos on his campaign. He is the Meg Whitman in terms of campaign spending. Given that much of his money came from the public trough in the first place, he’s recycling.

Early this year, when I suggested the Philippines needed someone like a Manny Pacquiao, the famous champion boxer who is running for Congress,  to unite the Philippines, I did so half-tongue-in-cheek.  I do think the country needs someone out of norm for a Filipino politician, an  honest, non-politician may have been what the Philippines needed as an inspirational choice, as a real man of the people.  Alas, Pacquiao,who has successfully beaten off world champions, has succumbed to the charm of Villar.

Unfortunately, the record shows that by normal standards of democracy, Villar appears to be the wrong Manny for the job.

Villar does, however, seem perfect for the sobriquet, “Marcos Lite.”

And that’s too bad for the Philippines.

Not for Sale: Rod McLeod wants to be a San Francisco Superior Court Judge–and it won’t cost you a dime

Rod McLeod–an accomplished trial lawyer and partner at one of the world’s biggest firms–is running this June for a Superior Court judgeship in the City and County of San Francisco.

But he doesn’t want to be bought and sold like a common politician.

To McLeod, that would be unseemly.

He’s decided to take zero campaign contributions in order to run as a truly objective and impartial individual, beholden to no one, especially those who might expect that donations come with strings attached.

“I don’t want to be the best judge money can buy,” said McLeod, a native San Franciscan and American Filipino, who went to Saint Ignatius High School, and earned his law degree at UC Berkeley’s Boalt School of Law.

Personally, I’ve been good friends with McLeod for nearly 30 years, and I can say he never takes the easy way out.  I’ve known him as a man of uncompromised principle who stands up for what he believes in—even if it could hurt him.

And it has.

At one time, McLeod was considered a rising star in local San Francisco politics after his appointment to a vacant spot on the city’s Board of Education in the ‘80s.  Winning the seat outright in an open election should have been a cinch, except for his unwavering decision to keep his children in Catholic schools.

That glitch was enough to send McLeod back into the private sector to focus on his stellar legal career (he’s currently a partner at Jones and Day).  Not exactly a hard fall. But definitely, it was the public’s loss. McLeod, who was in the Army for over a dozen years as a paratrooper, has always been ready to serve.  But when I last saw him, the plan was for an early retirement with his wife Naomi in her homeland, Israel.

So in a way, McLeod’s last minute decision to run for the position of retired Judge Wallace Douglas was a real surprise.  It’s also a pay cut.

What wasn’t a surprise was McLeod’s campaign approach.

“Judges shouldn’t be for sale,” McLeod said.

San Francisco is different from other counties where races for judge can cost just a few thousand dollars.

McLeod says two of his opponents have already raised more than $100,000 each. What’s that money buy?  A bit more than cardboard signs.

When politicians like Barack Obama fly in to raise cash, donors give mightily because they believe money buys access and influence. Want to get your pet issues on the radar? Write a check, get an advocate.

What’s a donor’s expectation in a judges’ race?  When you go before him, will the new judge quickly bang the gavel and say, “Not guilty”?( It may save in court time, but let’s hope the judge recuses himself before that happens).

Normally in  hotly contested judge races, the victor need only promise to be tough on crime.

But Superior Court judges do civil as well as criminal cases. McLeod’s two main opponents (an assistant public defender, and an assistant D.A.), may not be as broadly experienced  as McLeod, an accomplished civil litigator.  

When you think of it, voting for judges is just a strange way for the public to pick a competent, fair and impartial judge. Campaign money is really a waste.

That McLeod can’t be bought and paid for makes him an appealing and refreshing choice as the best person for San Francisco’s Superior Court—period.