Category Archives: race

As death march ends for Filipino Vets of WWII, a new challenge: Making chicken adobo out of chicken – – – – .

Fil-vet gets first lump sum check

Former U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba,  representing the VA Secretary, presents the $15,000 “Equity Compensation” check to Alberto Bacani, a 98-year-old Filipino American veteran from Alexandria VA, as Philippine Ambassador Willy Gaa looks on, in the Bataan Day of Valor reception at the Philippine Embassy in Washington.

Bacani received the lump-sum payment from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on April 8, in recognition of his U.S. military “active service” during World War II. The first 195 checks were issued on April 6 to qualified Filipino WWII veterans. More than 26,000 applications have been received by the VA and 766 have been reviewed and completed.
(ACFV photo  and caption by Eric Lachica)

But this is where we must go amok.

Normally, it would bring a tear to my eye: the sight of the modern Filipino American hero Taguba (the man who blew the whistle on Abu Ghraib) presenting the first lump sum check to Alberto Bacani, 98, one of tens of thousands of Filipino American vets who have been waiting their entire lives for the U.S. to pay them their due.

But the lump sum money, without interest, is part of a compromise that doesn’t quite make vets like Bacani whole.

Just wait two years to see if anyone is smiling.

On the whole, one must be happy for the Filipino Veterans of WWII who have been finally remembered in that new $787 billion federal stimulus bill passed by Congress.

But being remembered is one thing. Being shortchanged is another.

Nearly 500,000 Filipino nationals who fought under the U.S. flag during World War II were promised full rights and benefits by Roosevelt in 1941. But they were denied by President Truman in 1946 when with a stroke of the pen any and all promises made to the fighting Filipinos were rescinded.

The vets have had their advocates throughout the years, but community politics was all about the Marcos dictatorship until the early ’80s. After that, however, the aging veterans were the rallying cry of the community. And the fight was for “equity”-not compromise.

Every Congress, the battle would be waged. Every year the vets would be a few votes closer. But every year more vets would die. The stall/attrition tactic finds the number of eligible Filipinos down to about 15,000. Lobbying Congress has been its own death march.

To be included in the stimulus is a real breakthrough of sorts. The vets get something: A lump sum of $15,000 for those who are U.S. citizens; $9000 for non-citizens who are in the Philippines.

It’s just not like the $900 a month pension a normal low-income vet would get until the day he dies.

This lump sum comes with a catch. Continue reading As death march ends for Filipino Vets of WWII, a new challenge: Making chicken adobo out of chicken – – – – .

Opening day a struggle, but Giants’ Lincecum still pride of Filipino American ball fans

Tim Lincecum, or as some Filipino Americans call him, “The Preak,” had a tough go yesterday.

During the first inning when runners reached second and third base, I told a friend of mine, “Oh that’s his white half screwing up.”

Hey, the guy’s half-Filipino, we’ll take credit for the good stuff.

Sure enough, Lincecum got the next batter to swing at a pitch, and struck out the side.  “The Filipino part is still working today, ” I said.  But not well enough. After three innings, the Preak was out of the game.  The Giants still won and that’s what counts.

This year the Giants seem like the most Filipino friendly team in the major leagues.  With Sayang Lincecum  getting his Cy Young tonight ( how’s that for you Tagalog punsters), and with the Manny Pacquiao event on Filipino Heritage night on April 21st, the Giants seem to have discovered what ethnic marketers have known for some time:  Ethnic pride and diversity develops customer loyalty and profits.

I know Gary Radnich (the KNBR talk host and a former colleague of mine from my KRON days)  has expressed how puzzled he is about a boxer being feted at a baseball game. But Pacquiao is the great Filipino-American symbol. A fighter, a champion.  Being in a market with one of the largest Filipino American populations in the country, this  is just a great  p.r. opportunity for everyone. Of course  Pacquiao is  pimping his upcoming  fight, but the Filipino community remains one of the less heralded communities in America. This shines a little much needed light on them.

The Giants great success with a losing team  has always been the fact that they’ve always  approached the business as being more than just baseball.   It’s about the park, and the people who come to it 9 innings at a time, to live their   life vicariously through the achievements of their team. Recognizing the ethnic demographics in the greater community is a great formula that can make  baseball fans for life.

When I’m at a game now,  I see so many Filipino families:  a  mom, dad, two to three kids in tow, all with their gloves. And their garlic fries.

And boy, do they love “The Preak,” who is half-Filipino.

The good half.

Jiverly Wong and Binghamton’s legacy: The birth of the immigrant on immigrant hate crime?

Add Dolores Carbonilas-Yigal to the list of Filipino-Americans to fall prey to massive American gun violence. The 53-year old from Cebu province was one of the 14 who died in that senseless gun attack on an immigration education center last Friday in Binghamton, N.Y.The students of varying ages and ethnicities were learning English on their road to citizenship and truly understanding what it means to be American. Unwittingly, they were to meet it head on. America has become a gun-infested nation plagued by senseless gun violence.

These things are difficult to comprehend. More so if you are Omri Yigal, the bereaved widower, who met his wife the old-fashioned way—as a pen pal. Dolores Yigal recently arrived from the RP and was learning English in order to get a job working with children.

Yigal’s violent death comes just about ten years after the death of another Filipino American, Joseph Ileto, a 39-year-old postal worker in Los Angeles who was gunned down in August, 1999. Ileto’s shooting was only slightly more easy to comprehend. His death was due to the unadulterated hate that emanated from a white supremacist named Buford Furrow, Jr.

On Aug. 10, 1999, Furrow, long a member of an established white supremacist group, shot Ileto on his way to attacking a day care center at the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center.

Prosecutors said Furrow told investigators that Ileto was a “good target of opportunity” to kill because he was a nonwhite and worked for the federal government.

Furrow has expressed no regret for any of his crimes and plead guilty to all counts against him in 2001.

But even with Furrow in prison for life, the beat goes on.

If the white supremacist Furrow represents the anti-diversity idea of death to all non-whites, ten years later we find a new twist.

Omri Yigal and the other immigrant victims in Binghamton last week were murdered by one of them, a fellow immigrant from Vietnam identified as Jiverly Wong AKA Voong.

Who needs white supremacists fearing competition from non-whites? Hate? That’s so old school. This is the new reality, where there’s plenty of competition among everyone in the new moderrn and diverse America.

And plenty of guns to take out your frustration in the middle of an economic downturn.

Exclusive interview on NBC’s “TODAY” of Jiverly Wong’s sister a great “get,” but…

The interview shows the difficulty in communicating when English isn’t the language of your source. In the end, it only reveals how with its vast resources the mainstream media doesn’t really know what to do with what it gets.  The interview was painful and awkward, and given the time constraints of live  TV, barely got skin deep on this story.  It needed a translation that only the ethnic media could provide.

But hey, it’s TV. As Don Henley wrote in “Dirty Laundry,” his rock lullaby to TV news, “Get the widow on the set…”

Of course, Meredith Viera was appropriately sensitive and gently probing in her interview of a woman identified only as “Nga.”  Not revealing her name nor location was the price TODAY paid for the exclusive, but identity has been everything in the story. Is it Jiverly Voong or Wong? By allowing Nga her anonymity, they essentially made the story somewhat generic.

This could be about any Asian American immigrant with poor English who had an extremely bad day.

Nga did contradict the notion by some that the acts by her loner brother were predictable. She  said the family members were “surprised and shocked to hear the news.”

When asked if her brother was depressed about losing his job last year, Nga said,”No, I didn’t see that he was very depressed from losing his job. And he was very frustrated from his English speaking skill.”

Clearly, she said he wasn’t depressed. But her diction contradicts that. What did she mean? Live TV doesn’t get at that.

But then came the most revealing answer.

“He didn’t share any of his past and feelings and he kept all his frustrations inside and didn’t want to share with anybody in the family,” Nga said. “And I think this pressure increased his frustration and I’m so sorry that he acted in such a terribly inappropriate way.”

Nga also said she was upset with a police investigator’s use of the words “coward” and “selfish”  to describe her brother. “(The investigator) did not know him. I can see my brother lost his rational thinking. Of course, I’m upset to have him thought of in that way.”

In the end, what realy was accomplished was a way for the family to express its sorrow. “My family was very shocked to hear the news. They were very sorry for all the victims and their families.”

That doesn’t get to why, he did it.  But Nga’s answers hint at what is common for many Asians.

We keep things inside. We don’t share, nor seek help. When there’s a transgression, we don’t express.  In some cases, we don’t know how. So we endure. We don’t fight.  We take it, and take it , and take it.

And then it’s too late.