“Little People Power”: SF Filipino youth rally for non-profit funding

The gray edifice that is San Francisco’s City Hall cast a large shadow on a small gathering of protestors on Tuesday afternoon.

It wasn’t exactly People Power. It was “little people power.”

On the frontlines were mostly kids who benefit from the West Bay Multi-Service Center’s after-school activities. The group, anchored in the city’s South of Market, the hub and magnet of the city’s immigrant Filipino community, wanted to know why their programs were being threatened. The city’s disbursement of some $9 million in funds for disadvantaged families included ZERO non-profits dedicated to the American Filipino community.

The children stood in the shadows of City Hall.

No one inside with any power came out to speak to them.

The children are innocents in this political folly. So we shall protect them.

It was for their sake that the adults like West Bay’s Rudy Asercion were there to demonstrate publicly the dismay over the lack of funding to his long-standing non-profit of 40 years.

Asercion took over for West Bay in 2006 after the group was implicated in a scandal that involved everything from motorized scooters for seniors to allegations of Medicare fraud at the Wilson Fung Clinic. West Bay’s involvement was relatively minor, but it wrecked its credibility and made it a target for opportunists who want to control the Filipino community politically.

The opportunists did what opportunists do. They exploited the situation and used it to purge what had been for the most part, a viable non-profit network in the South of Market.

At the center of the upheaval is South of Market Supervisor Chris Daly, who plays a major role in the “back story.”

CHRIS DALY’S LETHAL BLOW

On Sep. 29, 2005, West Bay went before San Francisco’s Budget and Finance Committee to seek release of some $351,000 in city funds it was due for its work providing services to S.F. residents. The funds were frozen when Daly questioned West Bay’s alleged involvement in the scandals.

Never mind that an audit by the city’s Office of the Controller, found no evidence that connected West Bay to the Wilson Fung Medical Clinic’s alleged fraud. West Bay merely had sublet space to the clinic, and was the landlord of the clinic.

The findings pretty much put West Bay in the clear. West Bay was even told by the controller’s office that all the city departments that work with West Bay had been consulted and wanted to continue their relationship.

All West Bay had to do is get on the Budget and Finance Committee agenda.

And that’s where Daly and his cohort Tom Ammiano, now a state legislator, did their political magic trick and prevented West Bay from getting the money it needed.

The two never allowed WestBay on the agenda. They had their foot in West Bay’s throat. And they never let up.

Four years later, mostly through Asercion’s fundraising efforts to corporations and individuals, West Bay has managed to stay alive. It’s nowhere near what it was. But it still serves the community well—to the dismay of Daly and his Filipino cronies who run competing non-profits in the South of Market.

THE NEW BATTLE FOR FUNDS, CLOUT

This year’s battle of funds is different. Money is tighter than ever. And new alliances are being drawn. The new budget committee chair John Avalos is a Daly crony.

But the new President of the Board of Supervisors is David Chiu, an independent who has reached out to WestBay and has led an effort to make sure it the community gets its fair share.

Behind the scenes, Asercion and key members of the Filipino community are meeting with the supervisors and Mayor Gavin Newsom to make sure the community isn’t shut out.

The politics behind it all dismaying.

Filipino Daly cronies are already starting an anti-West Bay campaign based in part on the “scandal” that is no longer relevant. They’re also saying West Bay doesn’t represent all Filipinos. True, it doesn’t. But the budget recommendations don’t give a dime to any Filipino non-profit directly. There may be other non-profits out there, but the ones dedicated to the community shouldn’t be subject to the political vindictiveness of an ambitious politician and those in his pocket.

To understand who the “good guys” are in this whole thing, you had to be at the rally Tuesday.

It was all about the kids. They held signs wondering why West Bay was getting nothing. As they marched a cry came from a bullhorn: “What do we want?”

“Funding” said the kids.

Bullhorn: “When do we want it?”

“Now,” said the kids.

The seriousness of the matter was often undercut by the kids’ awareness of what they were involved in: Democracy.

“Give me liberty or give me death,” said one, an homage to Patrick Henry.

When you celebrate your Fourth of July this weekend, think of the West Bay kids. They aren’t giving up. They’ve taken a stand.

It wasn’t “People Power,” it was “Little People Power.”

Now where is the community in solidarity behind them?

San Francisco Filipino Community Rally on Tuesday at City Hall to save non-profits endangered by funding cuts

San Francisco’s estimated American Filipino population of nearly 50,000 (about 7 percent of the city), still gets no respect.

A new recommendation for spending $9 million of city funds for disadvantaged families has just been released.

And guess what? No Filipino non-profits that directly serve the community are included.

There’s hundreds of thousands of dollars for YMCA programs throughout the city (nearly $700,000 to the Hunters Point/BayView Y alone). There’s $650,000 for the Instituto Familiar de la Raza in the Mission. Another $500,000 for the APA Family Support Services in Chinatown. The money trickles down to other neighborhoods and groups throughout the city. But there’s not one Filipino anything in the mix.

$9 million in funds and not a penny for American Filipinos. Are our families in San Francisco doing so well?

Not according to Rudy Asercion, executive director of the West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center in San Francisco. He knows what’s happening on the streets of the city. In the last year, he says his non-profit has helped numerous families hit so hard by the recession they are literally in the dark.

“When families get evicted or the electricity is cut off, they come to West Bay for help,” said Asercion. “In last 6 months alone, we’ve had families who’ve gone six or seven days without electricity. Then they come to us and the lights turn on.”

It’s not easy to let there be light. West Bay runs on a tight budget of around $200,000, mostly from small grants both corporate and private. The after-school program alone costs about $60,000 to run. But it all helps to provide a lot for Filipino families in need.

Asercion talks about success stories like Sarah Ramos, a 4.0 student from Everett (my alma mater). Sarah’s family was homeless until they came to West Bay. The organization was able to get Sarah and her family housing and food stamps. The kids were immediately placed in the after school program. In addition, West Bay helped Sarah, who has a medical issue, get treatment immediately. In the fall, she begins her first year at the city’s prestigious Lowell High School (also my alma mater).

But for every Sarah, there are others who find themselves on a different track in the South of Market. Because of immigration policies, wives and children often come first to America, leaving the husband behind. When families are apart, too often they break up.

“The husband gets a girl friend, then the wife gets a boyfriend, and the young children get confused,” said Asercion. He sees it affect the children at his after school program as it thrusts them into a predictable death spiral.

So now it’s ad all around with parents without jobs, kids without purpose, and now service organizations without funds to help these people cope.

That’s why the $9 million in city funds was considered a critical source of funding for organizations like West Bay. It was the lead applicant in a package which included smaller non-profits that serve the Filipino community (The Filipino Senior Resource Center by Mint Mall, the Family Resource Center, South of Market Employment Center and the South of Market Clinic). West Bay, being the longest standing organization of the group, took the lead. It asked for $317,000, a fairly modest amount.

But when the final recommendations were made West Bay was snubbed. No other Filipino based organizations were listed.

Asercion said without an infusion of these funds, existing programs at West Bay will be threatened.

“This will shut off a big percentage of West Bay’s operation,” Asercion said. “We’ll be constrained to our after-school program.”

But that’s a small part of what West Bay does. Failure to secure funding from the city means that those who work on other outreach projects, like social workers, including tutors and counselors, may soon join the ranks of the people they help—the struggling American Filipino families of San Francisco.

It’s hard to imagine why politicians can so easily ignore the needs of the community.Asercion says he has had an inquiry from Board of Supervisors President David Chiu about the situation. But Asercion says it’s really Mayor Gavin Newsom’s call. The panel that made the recommendations, and the committee that will approve it all, are all made up of Newsom devotees.

A final hearing before the Children and Families (First 5 San Francisco) Commission, is  set for this week.

That means there’s still time to rally.

If you can’t make the rally, Asercion says call Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office at 415-554.6141.

Urge Newsom to make sure American Filipino families in need are not ignored.

Solidarity Rally
City Hall

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, California 94102
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 5PM

Michael Jackson: Never can say goodbye

If Michael Jackson were to speak from the grave, he probably would have one reaction to all the obloviating going on from all corners about his sudden death: “Shut up and play the music.”

Listen to it. Dance to it. Michael isn’t gone. His legacy is there. The spirit is in the grooves, or in this digital age in the unique 1/0 patterns that merged rhythm and blues, pop and rock.

For the last 40 years, Jackson was the eccentric Pied Piper. While some continued to follow him, many got turned off by the sideshow.

But death is redemptive. Now people are remembering what it was that first compelled them to watch, listen, and pay attention.

He was a pop artist and entertainer like no other. Michael once told a reporter that the worse thing you can do when trying to dance is to think. Thinking kills. It’s the music. Listen to the music.

In the last 40 years, Jackson’s music changed American society, broke race barriers, brought people together.

Now it’s the soundtrack of the global mourning for the King of Pop.

Emil Guillermo's amok commentary on race, politics, diversity…and everything else. It's Emil Amok's Takeout!

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