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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Volume 19 - No. 33 • 14 Pages

T H E F I L I P I N O A M E R I CA N C O M M U N I T Y N E WS PA P E R

Volume 18 - No. 17 • 2 Sections – 16 Pages

AUGUST 21-27, 2020

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With Biden’s offi cial nomination, Fil-Am DATELINE USA Filipina American activist Democrats ready to get out the vote Amy Agbayani represents FROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA

Hawaii during DNC roll call CELEBRATED Pinay activist and professor Amy Agbayani represented the Aloha State during the state roll call on the second day of the 2020 Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, Aug. 18 Agbayani, an immigrant from the Philippines, announced the final Democratic delegate vote from the state: 23 for former Vice President Joe Biden and nine for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “I came from the Philippines to Hawai’i, the land of indigenous native Hawai’ians,“ Agbayani, 77, said. “Today, I want to speak to my fellow immigrants, to the essential workers on the front lines, to the service

by CHRISTINA

M. ORIEL

AJPress

FILIPINO American Democrats across the country are energized to get out the vote for former Vice President Joe Biden as he officially secured the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination this week. Collectively called the “Filipino Americans for Biden,” representing a national multigenerational coalition of volunteers, the group has been organiz-

ing events during the virtual Democratic National Convention to rally behind the party’s ticket, which includes Biden’s running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris. “It is a real war for the soul of America,” New York-based philanthropist Loida Nicolas Lewis, who serves as the spokesperson for the group, said in an event virtually attended by some 400 supporters on Sunday night, August 16. “On one hand, to make it white again, and on the other hand with Biden and Harris, let us make America, America again and why

As the 2020 US election ramps up, experts assess the Asian American electorate

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Affirmative action remains contentious among AAPIs in CA

With the selection of the first Asian American VP candidate, policy experts highlight importance of data disaggregation, visibility in politics by KLARIZE

MEDENILLA AJPress

Prop 16 would repeal ban on using race and ethnicity in college admissions EVEN amidst a global pandemic, racial justice has remained a key issue for voters. As California gears up for the upcoming November elections, one proposition on the state’s ballot looks at whether race and ethnicity should play a factor in public employment, education, and contracting.

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it has become the No. 1 country in the world.” The group entertained Andrew Yang, a Taiwanese American tech entrepreneur who ran in the Democratic primary, as a guest speaker at the virtual convening on Sunday, August 16. “I love Filipino Americans,” he proclaimed, before sharing that his college friends are of Filipino descent. Niceties aside, Yang bared what’s at stake in less than 80 days. “The truth is that our alternative is Donald Trump u PAGE A2

NEW POLICIES. Passengers of the public utility bus (PUB) along Elliptical Road in Quezon City on Wednesday, August 19 are wearing face masks and face shields. Commuters are reminded that the “no face mask, no face shield, no ride” policy will be strictly enforced in all public transport to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus disease. PNA photo by Robert Oswald P. Alfiller

AS the contentious 2020 election looms in the balance of a disaster-ridden year, the coronavirus pandemic is undoubtedly the top priority among voters. For Asian Americans, the issue is twofold: in addition to a health crisis, it is also a social justice issue. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a string of anti-Asian sentiments and acts of hate plaguing the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, according to previous reports by the Asian Journal. u PAGE A2

US funds $37.5-M project for out-of-school youth in PH Filipino human trafficking survivors urge California Legislature to amend migrant workers’ protections bill by RITCHEL

MENDIOLA AJPress

States Agency for International Development (USAID), in partAROUND 180,000 young Fili- nership with the Department pinos out of school will be sup- of Education (DepEd) and the ported with a new P1.9 billion Technical Education and Skills ($37.5 million) educational and Development Authority (TESemployment program funded DA). The project aims to augby the United States government, the U.S. Embassy in Ma- ment on-going programs such nila announced Wednesday, as DepEd’s enhanced Alternative Learning System and TESAugust 19. The Opportunity 2.0: Second- DA’s skills training programs chance Opportunities for Out- to provide relevant education, of-school Youth is a five-year employability skills, and work project funded by the United experience, the U.S. Embassy

said. The program was launched on Wednesday and featured U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones, and TESDA Director-General Isidro by KLARIZE MEDENILLA Lapeña. Over 500 participants AJPress from across the country joined the virtual event. LIKE thousands of Filipinos, “Through this new partnerAngela Guanzon was attracted to ship, we can leverage a range of resources to maximize the the promise of America. So when she got the opportupotential of the Filipino youth, nity to find gainful employment u PAGE A3 through a recruiter, she didn’t ask any questions. It’s notoriously difficult to uproot and the recruiter made it sound so easy: all Guanzon had to do was come to the United States on the P-1 visa reserved for athletes traveling to participate in sporting events. no boundaries and it’s essential When Guanzon arrived in the for anyone who is sick, has come U.S. by the recruiter (who had into close contact with someone brought more than 10 other Fili- Since being rescued, Jayson De Guzman is a Angela Guanzon, a human trafficking survivor with COVID-19, or is working on pinos), she realized that the re- survivor advocate against forced labor and from the Philippines. the frontlines to come get tested cruiter’s promise that she would human trafficking. Photos courtesy of CAST Los Angeles and receive care and support.” give Guanzon a legal work visa Representatives reminded once she arrived in the U.S. was the community that it is posa lie. sible to have COVID-19 and Guanzon said that she immespread it without experiencing diately was told that she owed symptoms. COVID-19 symptoms $12,000 for transportation to the include cough, fever or chills, U.S. and expenses for the visa. shortness of breath or difficulty The recruiter, who turned out to breathing, fatigue, body aches be a trafficker, said that Guanor muscle pain, headache, sore zon’s salary would be $600 a throat, runny nose or congesmonth with $300 deducted each tion, nausea, diarrhea, or a new month for her debts. It would loss of smell or taste. take more than a decade to pay “Alameda County’s partneru PAGE A4 u PAGE A4

New COVID-19 test site in Oakland offers services in 12 Asian languages, including Tagalog A new multilingual and multicultural COVID-19 testing site tailored for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community was unveiled this week in Oakland’s Chinatown. Located at Madison Park, the site features testing, information, guidance, and support services in 12 Asian languages, including Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Mongolian. Tests are available to everyone. Payment or insurance are not required, immigration status will not be asked, and it is not necessary to be a patient at Asian Health Services to receive a test and follow-up support. The site was inaugurated on

Tuesday, August 18 with Sherry Hirota, CEO of Asian Health Services in Oakland, Colleen Chawla, Director of Alameda County Health Care Services Agency and Dr. Jocelyn Freeman Garrick, Deputy Medical Director for Emergency Medical Services and Lead for Alameda County’s Testing Taskforce present, along with other community organizations. “Placing a testing site in Oakland’s Chinatown centralizes a critical resource within a community that carried the burden of stigma since the early days of this pandemic,” said Alameda County District 3 Supervisor Wilma Chan. “But this virus has

Two Filipino caregivers who were trafficked share their stories and urge all Filipinos to support anti-trafficking legislation

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august 21-27, 2020 • NORCaL asIaN JOuRNaL

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From the Front Page

As the 2020 US election ramps up, experts assess... PAGE A1 t

Former Vice President Joe Biden officially became the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nominee on Tuesday, August 18. Photo courtesy of Democratic National Committee

With Biden’s official nomination...

PAGE A1 t for four more years, which would be an epic catastrophe. We’re talking about the possible disintegration of our way of life between now and then,” Yang told the attendees. GOTV efforts Several Fil-Ams served as convention delegates this week, such as Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA); Rep. TJ Cox (D-CA); Daly City, California Vice Mayor Juslyn Manalo; Artesia Councilmember Melissa Ramoso, Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, chair of the Democratic Party of Hawai’i; and Maria Castaneda, secretary-treasurer of 1199SEIU in New York, to name a few. Though they won’t be physically present in Milwaukee, the delegates have been participating remotely in caucus meetings, policy roundtables and other getout-the-vote trainings. “What we’ve been working on the last several months has been truly a labor of love. Across the nation, we’ve never had such a coordinated campaign of Filipino Americans for a presidential election and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re able to organize effectively and efficiently so it’s important that we’re all here and then win in November,” Ramoso, who also serves as national co-chair for Fil-Ams for Biden, said.

Representatives of the group recognize the sense of urgency in spreading the Biden-Harris platform to eligible Fil-Am voters across the country, especially in battleground states, tapping into millennials and Gen Zers, and eliminating the excuses that have prevented many from voting in elections past. “The Filipino vote matters in this country…Many of our families came here because we believed in the American ideals of freedom and democracy that we did not have in the Philippines,” said Vida Benavides, an advisor for the group who has done similar work for previous Democratic presidential campaigns. “So within that context…we’re not going to take ‘I’m too busy’ to vote…You’re here to be part of the social fabric of this country that we are so much part of.” The coalition is also reaching across the aisle to Fil-Ams who identify as Republicans but have become disillusioned with President Donald Trump’s leadership. “Many Filipinos are Republicans and so I [wanted] to show them that your loyalty to your party ends where your loyalty to your country begins. Our country is at stake in this election because this president that we have is truly bent in destroying whatever we believed in so it

was very important for me to find these well-known Republicans that they are voting for Biden,” Nicolas Lewis said. First 100 days If Biden and Harris are elected, the Fil-Am supporters sounded off on what policies should be prioritized, including recovery for a post COVID-19 country and a pathway for citizenship for Dreamers. Nicolas Lewis added that the new administration should look into current U.S.-Philippine relations as well as the alleged human rights violations during President Rodrigo Duterte’s term. “All I’m saying is that a government of Biden and Kamala should look again in the human rights violations and the extrajudicial killings and the passage of the [Anti-Terror] law in the Philippines, and do something about it,” she said. Fil-Ams for Biden also plan to shift gears as a transition group that will push for qualified FilAms to work at various levels of the administration. “We will be at the table and we will be demanding our seats at the table when it comes to governance,” said Benavides. “Of course, Filipinos are on the frontlines and we will also continue to be on the frontlines of the government.” n

As the pandemic rages on, so do the social and political implications of the crisis, making it the driving issue for the AAPI electorate this coming election. The national party conventions signal the election’s vicinity, when the major party candidates become more than just media fixtures and potential leaders of the “free” world; and, the stakes are higher in an election taking place during a global pandemic. In other words, things become real once the conventions roll around. As a way to gauge the AAPI community’s place in the national conversation, the National Council of Asian Pacific Islanders (NCAPA) held a press briefing highlighting the crucial role AAPI’s play in elections and the magnitude of AAPI visibility in national politics. AAPI groups hope that with the selection of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who is half-Indian American and the first AAPI vice presidential candidate in American history, will punctuate the importance of the AAPI community on a national level. “Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, it is a benchmark of progress, and it is a reminder that diversity should be embraced, not feared,” Gregg Orton, national director of NCAPA, said in the briefing held on Wednesday, Aug. 12. “But it is also important to recognize that as important as it is for governments to look like the people they represent, it’s also important for policies that they create be inclusive as well.” Getting Congress to approach legislation inclusively — that is, to propose bills and measures that address the issues of the oftignored AAPI community — has been an ongoing struggle for AAPIs for years. There are presently 17 AAPI members in Congress, meaning that AAPIs currently serving in either chamber make up nearly half of the number of congressional AAPI’s in history. (Since 1957, a total of 45 AAPIs have served as representatives and senators.) But although AAPI representation in Washington is better than ever before, unifying the entire community as a political bloc continues to be an uphill battle. Finding ways to combat antiAsian racism in relation to the

pandemic chief among the pressing issues that call for solidarity across ethnic and racial lines. One hate crime tracker reported 1,500 anti-Asian harassment, bullying and violence signaling AAPI lawmakers and political coalitions like NCAPA to push for legislative solutions. “It’s critical that political leaders recognize and address the needs of our diverse AAPI community,” said Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), who last week organized a forum with the congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses to work on legislation to address the “alarming uptick” in anti-Asian attitudes and harassment ahead of the November election. The term AAPI itself is a controversial aggregate in itself that is used to describe the vast population of not just Asians and Pacific Islanders but also Native Hawaiians. Disaggregating data to reflect the concerns of the hundreds of culturally disparate ethnic groups under the AAPI label has been a cause for concern for years as the community continues to widen and diversify within itself. In a pandemic that also has catalyzed a trend of anti-Asian sentiments across the U.S., the need for disaggregated data is especially crucial. The Filipino American community, for example, has been struggling to find answers to how the virus affects their own with many turning to whatever paltry data is available. “These are critical disparities that we only know because certain states have elected to disaggregate their public health data by race and ethnicity,” Chu remarked, adding that there should be larger federal effort to disaggregate medical and health data. The pitfalls of reaching for numerical paydirt, however, leads to fallacious media reports utilizing weak data to attempt to answer crucial questions about specific communities, like the Los Angeles Times story in July that reported a 40% mortality rate among Filipinos, a conclusion based on an unsubstantiated and rough list of 48 COVID-19 patients from the Philippine Consulate General in Los Angeles. The lack of nuanced data is fur-

ther couched in the lack of language accessibility for the Asian ESL population, of which about one-third of AAPI and Asian immigrants are limited English proficient. The disproportionality of this has led to difficult outreach efforts to the AAPI community, making it more difficult for AAPI subgroups “to access critical resources,” Chu said. “The information gets conglomerated as a general Asian American or Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander so for us, providing health care and for those who are the ground workers in the grassroots, it’s really hard for us to use that very, very lump sum data to really target the specific vulnerability of people who need more attention,” Katrina Dizon Mariategue, acting executive director of the Southeast Asia Action Resource Center, told the Asian Journal. That being said, while prioritizing disaggregated observations of the massive AAPI community is important, so is the notion of a unified racial bloc that leads with cultural solidarity internally and externally, said Sefa Aina, Board Chair of Empowering Pacific Islander communities, who previously worked with President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on AAPIs. “Our number one priority [in Obama’s advisory commission] was to get federal agencies to disaggregate data internally, [but] we understand that there’s a lot of issues that cross ethnic lines,” Aina told the Asian Journal, urging communities to make the effort to simultaneously work to increase the visibility of their unique needs while investing in issues that don’t directly affect their own. Dizon Mariategue mirrored Aina’s remarks, emphasizing that neither race-wide unity nor fighting for individualistic visibility of subcultures are mutually exclusive. “Disaggregated data is very important for a number of Asian American groups, but I believe that the collecting of this data and the relevance of this data also shouldn’t hinder the ability for our organizations and groups to also work together collectively,” Dizon Mariategue said. “We can collect this necessary data but still work as a broad Asian American identity as well.” n

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Dateline USa

NORCAL ASIAN JOURNAL • AUgUSt 21-27, 2020

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Uber and Lyft may leave California if ordered to classify drivers as employees California judge denies motions to delay injunction by Rae

REPATRIATED OFWs. Some 386 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) arrive via Qatar Airways flight QR3150 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) in Pasay City on Monday, August 17. Eight remains of OFWs, four of whom were killed in the recent bombing in Beirut, also arrived at NAIA Terminal 1. PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan

Affirmative action remains contentious among... PAGE A1 Proposition 16 looks to repeal Proposition 209, which became part of the California Constitution after passing in 1996, and says that California cannot discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to individuals or groups “on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, education, or contracting.” if passed, Proposition 16 would essentially remove the state’s ban on “affirmative action” — the practice of taking an individual’s race or gender into account over factors like test scores and grades in academic settings — from the California Constitution. During a virtual rally held by Asian American and Pacific islander (AAPi) supporters of Proposition 16 on Wednesday, August 12, AAPi community leaders shared their thoughts on why affirmative action is important in California. “This is quite personal,” said Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San francisco. “i would not have been elected to office or in public policy or in politics, but for an affirmative action program when i was 19 that encouraged kids of color, students of color, to enter public policy careers.” As chair of the California Asian Pacific islander (APi) legislative Caucus, Chiu said the same went for his colleagues like Assemblymember rob Bonta, the first fil-Am to serve in the state legislature; Assemblymembers Evan low and Todd Gloria, the first lGBTQ members; and Assemblymember Ash Kalra, the first South Asian member. While the issue of affirmative action does play into career mobility as AAPis continue to trail behind whites in career advancement and earnings, debate over affirmative action has focused largely on college admissions. in California, the issue is especially pertinent to the state’s public University of California (UC) system where AAPi students make up large percentages of many of its campuses’ student bodies. “When we actually looked at the data, it showed to us that if you look at a lot of colleges around the country that have employed affirmative action, you’ve seen Asian-American numbers go up dramatically,” added Chiu. “But in California, since Prop 209 passed, we’ve actually not seen our AAPi numbers go up and when you actually look at the data, it’s very clear we need to do this.” Since Proposition 209 took effect in 1997, admission rates of AAPi students remained nearly the same before and after affirmative action was banned, according to UC data compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle.

opponents of affirmative action argue that advancing Proposition 16 would move away from a merit-based system and thus make it harder for AAPi students to get into the UC system if it were to implement ethnicity quotas. The Silicon Valley Chinese Assocation foundation, one of the most vocal opponents of Proposition 16, said in a public letter defending Proposition 209 that allowing affirmative action would “pit one group of citizens against another simply based on their race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.” “it will minimize the accomplishments of minority groups to a simple result of preferential treatment, a blow to their extraordinary hard work and sacrifice,” wrote the organization’s president, Crystal lu. The group’s sentiment mirrors that of an anti-affirmative action group that sued Harvard University for considering race as one of the non-academic factors looked at for admissions. A federal judge ruled in favor of Harvard University. on Thursday, Yale University was accused by the Justice Department of discriminating against Asian-American and white applicants by using race as a “determinative factor” in its admissions decisions. The university said it used a holistic review of applicants that included other aspects of their backgrounds in addition to leadership experience and academics. Shikha Bhatnagar, executive director of the South Asian network (SAn), said during the virtual rally that a similar anti-affirmative action concern has been voiced in the indian American community. However, she continued, “i believe the data still shows that indian Americans still overwhelmingly support affirmative action.” She added that Proposition 209 would also prevent targeted investments to black and brown students who need extra support. in relation to the fil-Am community, affirmative action proponents point back to the mid-1990s when filipino enrollments at the UC Berkeley’s law school — formerly the Boalt School of law before the name was dropped due to its racist history — declined. They note that after the school’s affirmative action program was dropped, zero filAms and Blacks were enrolled at the school. Thirteen fil-Ams had been enrolled between 1994 and 1996. Manufou liaiga Anoa’i, a Daly City school board member of Samoan descent whose son went to UC Berkeley, said she understands people who may question her son’s opportunities to receive a full scholarship over someone else, but added that the education system was not originally created

US funds $37.5-M project for out-of-school youth... PAGE A1 particularly those who are outof-school or unemployed. With the right knowledge, attitudes, and skills, they will play a pivotal role in this great country’s growth and success over the long-term,” Kim said. USAiD will partner with local governments in 12 cities across the country to set up Youth Development Alliances which will mobilize resources to help their out-of-school youth. The project will also work with over 2,200 employers and at least 50 education or training institutions, including major hubs like Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Davao. The program is implemented

by the U.S.-based Education Development Center, with partners Accenture, Philippine Business for Education, Catholic relief Services, Voluntary Services overseas, and SEAMEo-innotech. Briones, for her part, said opportunity 2.0 is “very important especially for parents who have lost their jobs and workers who used to attend AlS sessions are not able to do so anymore.” “Parents cannot send their children to school. Preparing our learners as alternatives (sic) to formal education, giving them skills, preparing them to prepare for the world outside will surely contribute to the resuscitation of our economy,” she added. n

for students of color. “The reality is when we look at a merit-based system that has just been tainted with systemic racism for many years, we didn’t create the system that we belong to,” said Anoa’i. She added, “A lot of times, expectations are made on communities of color that really aren’t applicable because they’re defining us by rules that are put in place, and policies and procedures that are expected to be administered and adhered to.” (Rae Ann Varona/AJPress)

ann VaRona AJPress

A CAliforniA judge on Thursday, August 13 denied motions by Uber and lyft to extend a deadline to appeal a preliminary injunction that ordered the companies to classify their drivers in the state as employees. At a hearing at the San francisco Superior Court, Judge Ethan Schulman denied the motions after executives at the ride-hailing companies threatened to take their businesses out of California. Both companies are headquartered in San francisco. “i am confident that the court of appeal is capable of acting very quickly where it is necessary for it to do so,” said Schulman. “i am unconvinced that any extension of the 10 day stay is required. Both applications are denied.” in May, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with city attorneys from los Angeles, San Diego, and San francisco filed a lawsuit against Uber and lyft, accusing them of violating Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), which laid out a test determining whether a worker is an independent contractor or employee. Schulman ordered the preliminary injunction on Mon-

day, August 10, giving the companies until August 20 to make an appeal. The lawsuit said that in classifying drivers as independent contractors, the companies were depriving their drivers of employee benefits like overtime pay, paid sick leave, and disability and unemployment insurance. Under the California Unfair Competition law, the companies are subject to $2,500 in penalties per violation, and an additional $2,500 per violation against people with disabilities or senior citizens. At the hearing last week, lyft’s counsel argued that the injunction would cause more harm than good to Uber and lyft drivers. The companies argued that the injunction would also be costly as more money would be needed to amp up human resources and payroll staff. “The proposed injunction would cause irreparable injury to lyft and Uber, and would actually cause massive harm to drivers and harm to riders,” said rohit Singla, counsel for lyft. in an interview with MSnBC, Uber CEo Dara Khosrowshahi said the classification change would likely force Uber to temporarily shut down. “if the court doesn’t recon-

sider, then in California, it’s hard to believe we’ll be able to switch our model to full-time employment quickly,” said Khosrawshahi. Executives at both companies have also said that their drivers preferred to be independent contractors as their business models were based on allowing drivers to work on their own time. According to a survey conducted in May by ridesharing blog, rideshare Guy, more than 71% of the survey’s 734 respondents preferred being independent workers. Before the CoViD-19 pandemic, 81% of drivers said they wanted to remain independent contractors. With the injunction going into effect August 20, both companies have put millions of dollars into Proposition 22 — a measure that will be on the California ballot this november — and allows drivers to work as contractors with benefits like 120% of minimum wage while working, 30 cents per mile, healthcare stipend, and occupational accident insurance among others. Also pushing for Proposition 22 are DoorDash, Postmates, and instacart — food and grocery delivery companies that also rely on independent contractor drivers. n

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Dateline USa

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Six hundred women registered for August webinar on what it takes to get a corporate board seat in California

Next Webinar on Sept. 29 Explores Adding Diversity to Corporate Boards SACRAMENTO – If there was any question about the interest women have in learning how to land a seat on traditionally maledominated boards that govern public companies headquartered in California, the August 13 webinar cohosted by California Treasurer Fiona Ma answered it. More than six-hundred women registered for the nearly two-hour long Zoom webinar. “The success of this webinar is part of the larger narrative of social change sweeping through our lives and our culture,” Treasurer Ma said. “The day has come for this push forward for women and people of color. We need training like this to ensure that those who want to be on a board have the benefit of being fully informed about how it is done.” The webinar, the first of a series, grew out of Treasurer Ma’s interest in ensuring the success of a 2018 California bill (SB 826) that mandates publicly held companies headquartered in the state increase the number of women on their boards by a certain date. The legislation, authored by

Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (Dist. 19) and signed into law by Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr., required corporations with their principal executive offices in California to include one female on their board of directors by the end of 2019. By the close of 2021 it requires them to include at least two female directors if a board has five members, and three female directors if a board has six or more members. The law also requires the Secretary of State to document which corporations are in compliance and to fine those in violation. The webinar presentation was cohosted by Treasurer Ma, the Thirty Percent Coalition, California Women Lead, NAWBO-California, NAWBO-Sacramento, Women in Public Finance-LA, Women in Public Finance-Northern California, Women in Public FinanceSan Diego, and 2020 Women on Boards. Charlotte Laurent-Ottomane, executive director and cofounder of the Thirty Percent Coalition, a national organization that brings together corporate leaders and

institutional investors to address the lack of gender, racial and ethnic diversity in corporate boardrooms, served as moderator. Other participants included: • Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, CEO of 2020 Women on Boards, author of the books “The Board Game” and “Winning the Board Game, a board member of the National Association of Women Business Owners-California (NAWBO-CA), and the co-founder of Berkhemer Clayton Inc, a retained executive search firm. Betsy is credited with originating the concept of SB 826 and being a prime mover behind its passage. • Katie Koster, Managing Director for Public Finance at Piper Sandler & Company. Katies shared her experience and the practical steps she took to gain a seat on a board. She has 24 years of experience assisting municipalities access capital markets to fund critical infrastructure and spearheaded major cultural change at Piper Sandler, transforming attitudes through diversity and inclusion initiatives. n

Filipina American activist Amy Agbayani represents... PAGE A1 t members who wear our flag, to the parents with big dreams for their children.” “No matter where we came from, immigrants belong in our country’s long fight for justice. We belong in the America we are building together.” It’s no wonder Agbayani was chosen to represent Hawai’i given her life-long dedication to civil rights and fair treatment of Filipino immigrants. “Manang Amy is our Rosa Parks,” a student told the Fil-Am Courier in 2017 following her retirement. Born in the Philippines to a school teacher and diplomat, Agbayani received a degree in political science from the University of the Philippines. She immigrated to Hawaii in 1964 and earned her Ph.D. at the University of Hawai’i, where she participated in sit-ins and protests during the civil rights era. Understanding her privileged background, she started to notice in the mid-1960s, when the 1965 Immigration and National-

ity Act led to an influx of Filipino immigrants, that Filipino youth were bullied for lack of English proficiency. She kickstarted Operation Manong at the University of Hawaii, the first-of-its-kind diversity outreach program in which university students mentored immigrant children. The program expanded to reaching out to underrepresented communities to encourage school-aged children to attend college. Securing funding for the program proved to be a difficult task, but Agbayani and other Filipino educators pushed for it, even threatening to sue the Hawaii Dept. of Education. “We really had to deal with policy and make changes in the public schools to make sure [the Dept. of Education] didn’t blame the kids all the time,” Agbayani told Honolulu Civil Beat in 2017, adding that the department often blamed immigrant children for their lack of ambition. Since the 1960s, Agbayani built herself into a formidable figure in Hawaiian politics, be-

Amy Agbayani

friending then-U.S. Rep Patsy Mink in 1975. She then served as a campaign manager and was even appointed to the Judicial Selection Committee by thenGov. Ben Cayetano of Hawaii. “She became really the symbol of civil rights in the State of Hawaii. She can be very charming when she’s telling you that you’re messing up,” said former Hawaii Gov. John Waihee. “She’s one of those many unsung heroes in our state that don’t get the recognition that they should have [gotten].” (Klarize Medenilla/AJPress)

PASSENGER PROTECTION. Passengers of a traditional jeepney along Kamias Road, Quezon City on Wednesday, August 19 wear face masks and face shields as protection from getting infected with the coronavirus disease. Public utility jeepneys are also required to install plastic barriers on the seats as an additional precautionary health measure. PNA photo Robert O. Alfilert

New COVID-19 test site in Oakland offers... PAGE A1 t ships with community clinics like Asian Health Services has been invaluable,” said Garrick, Deputy Medical Director of Alameda County Emergency Medical Services and Lead for Alameda County’s Testing Taskforce. “Members of hard to reach populations are able to access testing from trusted providers in their communities.” Asian Health Services recently completed a survey of 1,300 Asian Americans in Alameda County. Key findings revealed a 3% rate of COVID-19 testing among Asian American, compared to an approximate 10% rate of testing of all ethnicities in California. The study cites high rates of fear and anxiety, loss of jobs, and severe lack of income

and food. “We are fighting back against being both blamed and ignored in this pandemic,” said Hirota. “Our community masked early, felt the rise in anti-Asian hate, and went underground. Now we must ensure that each of us is safe and supported. Our goal is to make sure our community has access to in language and in culture education, testing, counseling, case management, referrals, and compassion. We hope to see our community out in force to test and receive care, in language, and in culture.” The Asian Health Services and Alameda County Community test site is located at Madison Park (810 Jackson Street, Oakland, 94607) on Tuesdays at 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.;

and Thursdays and Fridays from 8:00 am to 4:00 p.m. Appointments can be made atcolor.com/ AHS. For assistance, please call the Asian Health Services Multilingual Helpline at 510-7353222. Testing plays a vital role in stopping the spread of COVID19. Alameda County has a coordinated strategy to place testing sites in areas to best reach disproportionately impacted communities of color, including the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Alameda County is well passed its testing capacity goal of 3,100 tests per day. Additional free community testing sites are available in West Oakland, Fruitvale, East Oakland, San Leandro, Hayward and Pleasanton. n

Filipino human trafficking survivors urge California... PAGE A1 t her off. Guanzon was then sent to work 18-hour days at a retirement home in Long Beach, California. She had to work seven days a week without any days off and the housing that she was promised turned out to be a floor in the hallway, and food would be table scraps. This experience is so alarmingly familiar to many foreign workers who were swindled and then exploited by traffickers. Sometimes victims don’t immediately recognize that they’ve been caught in a trafficker’s scam, but even if they do, escaping is not exactly simple. Traffickers often threaten victims by saying they’ll call the police or warn them that if they get stopped by law enforcement, they will be arrested since they don’t have any I.D. (By this point, victims like Guanzon will have had their passports or any documentation taken away.) “We don’t know anyone here, we don’t know where to go and sometimes you have to try to reason with yourself that, with a trafficker, at least we have a roof where we can sleep and we have food to eat,” Guanzon shared in an Instagram Live event hosted by Freedom United and the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) on Thursday, August 13. Guanzon spoke to a fellow trafficking survivor Jayson De Guzman, who is also Filipino and was recruited by the same trafficker. The two became family in their shared crisis, providing support to each other. “We became like brother and sister,” Guanzon recalled during an emotional moment during

Thursday’s event. “The experience was bad, but I’m glad Jayson was there with me because it also helped me go through the day.” De Guzman’s experience mirrored Guanzon’s story with the recruiter “showing her true colors” by the time it was too late to turn back. Like Guanzon, De Guzman found himself stripped of his documents and vulnerable to the recruiter. “I didn’t really understand what my rights were, so I just had to depend on my trafficker and what she was telling me to do,” De Guzman said, noting that he met Guanzon at the same retirement facility in Long Beach. In California, thousands of foreign workers are trafficked into forced labor every year. Because of its economic promise, it attracts more temporary foreign workers than any other state, and many of these workers travel through third-party foreign labor contractors (FLC). Some FLCs are legitimate recruiters, but many of them take advantage of workers in the Third World who, by the time they’re locked into their unlawful employment in the U.S., depend on the traffickers for food, shelter and visas. California lawmakers have attempted to mitigate worker exploitation for years. In 2014, SB 477 was designed to establish a robust system of oversight for FLCs by requiring the following: registration of FLC; penalizing of California employers for use of non-registered FLC; transparency and honest disclosure of the working terms, conditions and fees before workers are recruited and transported and penalties for violation of these requirements.

SB 477 was signed into law in 2016, but there was an error in the way the law was enforced into “existing legal provisions for farmworkers” Freedom United said. That means that as it is, the bill allows for a loophole that would limit the bill’s scope to only apply to non-agricultural workers on H-2B visas, meaning that SB 477 would only protect about 3% of migrant workers on temporary work visas. Along with CAST, Freedom United is urging California to close the loophole by amending SB 477, starting out by putting forth a petition to garner wider support across the Golden State. Guanzon and De Guzman were lucky in that there was eventually a light at the end of the tunnel. Two years into their unlawful employment, the FBI stepped in when a neighbor noticed that neither ever had a day off; in criminal court, they both testified against their trafficker, who got a five-year prison sentence. But both Guanzon and De Guzman emphasized that so many victims, particularly Filipino victims, are still trapped in forced labor situations with the COVID19 pandemic tightening the hold that traffickers have on their victims. As advocates for CAST, both De Guzman and Guanzon urge Californians to sign the petition to amend SB 477. “There’s a lot of our impact by telling our story and by sharing our story,” said De Guzman. “Public action is the best way to make social change, and we need to show that in California, we all care about our immigrant workers and we need more people to advocate on their behalf.” n

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Filipino data analysts win NASA space apps challenge by Ritchel

Mendiola AJPress

AN app developed by a group of Filipinos that measures the impact of the coronavirus is the winner of NASA’s Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge. Data analysts Nick Tobia, Helen Mary Barrameda, Kristel Joyce Zapata, Theresa Rosario Tan and Miguel Oscar Castelo from CirroLytix created a dashboard for public policymakers and economic planners to measure the impact of COVID-19 on various countries and the virus’ effect on economic and environmental terms. “GIDEON,” which stands for Global Impact Detection from Emitted Light, Onset of Covid-19, and Nitrogen Dioxide, was created using Earth observation, in-country economic and human mobility data, and global infection case counts. It uses news feeds, Google mobility data and coronavirus cases to reveal the multidimensional impact of lockdowns and other interventions. Night lights from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and nitrogen dioxide levels from Sentinel-5P show current impacts as well as forecast effects of lockdowns. Meanwhile, Google’s community mobility reports, global infection data from Johns Hopkins University and nitrogen dioxide data reveal pollution levels produced by human activity and monitor which countries keep air quality

under control as they bounce back from lockdowns and into the “new normal.” Two other Filipino teams were also chosen as global finalists. “Snail Space” — a wordplay for snail’s pace — is an app developed by Arturo Caronongan III, Kevin Olanday, In Yong Lee, Mary Anne Dominique Casacop and Gabriel Santiago from De La Salle University to provide mental care and comfort during times of social isolation brought by COVID19 pandemic. “Sentinellium,” on the other hand, is an app that leverages user data sent through SMS and chat, and space assets like population density, urbanization, and aerosol to provide a more accurate prediction of developing epidemics. It was developed by Harlee Quizzagan, James Andrew C. Cornes, Angela Chua, Alaica Mariño, Joal Rose Lin, and Mohammad Ashraful Mobin, who formed their group during the “hackathon” period. “The use of these modern and advanced technologies will be crucial, especially as the world navigates the fourth industrial revolution. Using big data, cloud and AI (artificial intelligence) applications, for instance, could help us understand the severity of the disease and aid in delivering measures to mitigate its impact,” said Trade Undersecretary for Competitiveness and Innovation Dr. Rafaelita Aldaba. “This really fills me with great optimism that our young and talented startups and Filipinos have

so much to offer and contribute to our efforts to provide solutions to address health and economic crisis,” she added. In May, the United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), along with the European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, National Center for Space Studies of France, and Canadian Space Agency invited coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists to participate in a virtual hackathon dedicated to putting open data to work in developing solutions to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. During a period of 48 hours, more than 15,000 participants from 150 countries created more than 2,000 virtual teams. “There’s a tremendous need for our community’s ingenuity right now. I can’t imagine a more worthy cause than COVID-19 to direct the energy and enthusiasm that always generates such amazing solutions through the Space Apps Challenge,” said Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. The Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge is a special edition of NASA’s annual Space Apps Challenge, an international hackathon that takes place in cities around the world. It is a NASA-led initiative organized in collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub and SecondMuse. n

MEN AT WORK. Workers put up a large billboard in front of the old site of Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) office on Elliptical Road in Diliman, Quezon City on Wednesday, August 19. The billboard shows a picture of a new GSIS QC branch office to rise in the area. PNA photo by Robert Oswald P. Alfiler

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Reinfection

FOR the second time, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año has tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019. Año himself announced this as he went into self-isolation. Cabinet members who interacted with him in recent days have also undergone selfquarantine. Año’s case deserves careful study by epidemiologists, who are still unsure if surviving COVID-19 infection gives the patient immunity, and how long the immunity lasts. Catching measles, for example, gives lifelong immunity, but the common cold keeps recurring, and there is still no cure or vaccine for it. Dengue can recur, with subsequent infections potentially riskier. In certain viral afflictions, however, the next infections are milder than the first. Another possibility is that the results of Año’s previous tests were wrong, and that he actually had not yet rid himself of COVID19. This can pose problems for the reliability of existing tests for the COVID-causing SARS-coronavirus-2, and aggravate the risk of community transmission. There is also no definitive study on whether the antibodies developed by COVID survivors make them

OpiniOn & Features

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completely free of SARS-CoV-2, and whether the survivors remain capable of passing it on to others. Amid all these uncertainties, and in the absence of a vaccine or cure, the best defenses against SARS-CoV-2 infection remain the health protocols already prescribed by scientists: physical distancing; cough and sneeze etiquette; wearing of face mask and, where appropriate, a face shield; regular handwashing with soap and water, or else disinfection of the hands with alcohol or sanitizer; avoiding touching the face with unwashed hands, and staying home as much as possible. In the meantime, public health experts must study Año’s case thoroughly because of its implications on health safety protocols as the country continues the gradual reopening of the economy. The possibility of reinfection is on top of reports that a mutated COVID strain has been detected in Quezon City, which appears to be more infectious than the original. The last thing the country needs is the emergence of a more virulent strain of COVID. Every effort must be made to determine if this can be ruled out. (Philstar.com)

Editorial

The Fil-Am Perspective Gel SantoS-ReloS ELECTION fever is heating up this August as the two major political parties hold their respective national conventions for the next two weeks to formally nominate the next presidential and vice-presidential candidates. The members of each party will also work together to adopt the official platform which will be our guides as voters in choosing the direction they plan the steer the country to and how to get there. We may watch the livestreaming of the Democratic National Convention scheduled for August 17-20, 2020 from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (www. demconvention.com), while the Republican National Convention will kick off on August 24-27, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina (www.2020gopconvention.com). These political conventions are happening amid the coronavirus pandemic and the worst economic recession we are now living in since the Great Depression. As voters, we will have the opportunity to discern conscientiously who among the candidates share our core values and aspirations, and how these values and aspirations are reflected in their statements of their principles, goals, and strategies to help solve our economic hardships, as well as the moral, social and cultural division that has been threatening our Union. As we Americans look forward to this very important and consequential civic exercise of casting our votes for the 2020 presidential election on November 3, most of us are daunted by the threat of COVID-19, which has now infected close to 22 million people

As Trump tries to sabotage USPS and mail-in voting, this is what we should do to cast our votes and make sure they count to protect the sanctity of our elections around the world, with a death toll of 777,150 people and counting. Most developed nations have successfully defeated the virus and have slowly and safely started to open their countries again, but the spread of the virus in the United States continues to be in the uptick under the Trump presidency. The number of confirmed cases has gone up to almost 5.5 million, killing more than 171,340 people. Despite the pandemic and with the urgency of the times, we are empowered to continue exercising our constitutionally protected right to vote through what many generations of Americans have been doing since the 1760s during the time of the Civil War — voting by mail. Spearheaded by the Republican Party led by President Abraham Lincoln, they wanted Union soldiers to be able to exercise their right to vote from the battlefield. For many years thereafter, these mailed-in ballots have been helpful for people who could not go to the polling place on election day. Mail-in-voting has increased voter turnout, especially in places where people can be challenged to go to the polls because of the weather, their work schedule, or other health, logistical and personal reasons. Even President Donald Trump and his family have been casting their votes through mail-in voting. We are now on the battlefield, at war with COVID-19, and We, the People, will want to make sure we cast our votes and have them counted in this democracy to chart our future. However, as the cash-strapped 108-year-old USPS anticipates the

surge in mail-in ballots, Trump has repeatedly refused to sign any legislation with a bailout provision for the essential service. “‘The Postal Service is a joke,’ said the President in May. His administration nixed a bipartisan attempt to provide $13 billion to the Postal Service in March and previously recommended measures to privatize parts of the service,” Fortune reported. In June, Trump appointed a new Postmaster General for the USPS — Louis DeJoy, a Trump ally and Republican donor —who implemented drastic cost-cutting measures that cripple operations and slow down the delivery of mail. No overtime. No new hiring. The removal of mail sorting machines, the very machines that are responsible for sorting ballots. USPS mailboxes in our neighborhoods, where we conveniently drop off our ballots, are seen and confirmed to be hauled away in trucks in many states. On Friday, August 14, USPS warned 46 states that it can’t guarantee delayed mail-in ballots will be counted! “Lawmakers from both parties and postal union leaders have sounded alarms over disruptive changes instituted by DeJoy this summer,” CNN reported. “Democrats claim he is intentionally undermining postal service operations to sabotage mail-in voting in the November election — a charge he denies.” The Inspector General is now investigating Trump’s new USPS appointed chief DeJoy. “DeJoy still owns at least a $30 million equity stake in his former company — a USPS contractor — and that he recently bought stock options for Amazon, a USPS competitor.

These holdings likely create a major conflict of interest,” ethics experts told CNN. How ironic and blatantly hypocritical is it that at the same time he was attacking mail-in voting, Trump’s own absentee ballot to vote in Florida’s primary election on Tuesday, August 18, was en route to Mar-a-Lago. How can this president allow and even promote mail-in-voting in Florida, while demonizing and stopping voting by mail in other states, especially those that tend to vote Democratic? In response to this national emergency, Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced on Sunday, August 16, that “she would call the House back from its annual summer recess for a vote this week on legislation to block changes at the Postal Service that voting advocates warn could disenfranchise Americans casting ballots by mail during the pandemic,” the New York Times reported. Former President Barack Obama posted a message on Twitter on Friday, August 14, saying, “Everyone depends on the USPS. Seniors for their Social Security, veterans for their prescriptions, small businesses trying to keep their doors open. They can’t be collateral damage for an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus.” “If you’re in a state where you have the option to vote early, do that now. The more votes in early, the less likely you’re going to see a last minute crunch, both at polling places and in states where mail-in ballots are permitted. Then tell everyone you know,” he added.

Meanwhile, many Americans find help by going to the website https://represent.us/how-to-vote2020/, which posted a state-bystate interactive guide to help Americans vote safely. “Get prepared to #VoteSafe by seeing if you qualify to vote by mail in your state and requesting your ballot early to avoid flooding election officials. Then, share this page with your friends and family to help them #VoteSafe,” the site reads. The website has laid out important deadlines for each state, but reminds us of the rule of thumb: “The earlier you request and return your ballot, the better.” MEANWHILE, this advice has been shared on social media to make sure we vote and that our votes are received and counted: 1. Request a mail-in ballot. 2. Do not mail it. 3. Google your supervisor of elections to see where you can drop off your mail-in ballot. It’s usually NOT THE POLLING PLACE. All states allow this! Here is what you’re accomplishing by doing this: 1. Your ballot gets in on time no matter what happens to the USPS. 2. You don’t have to worry about standing in long lines and risking infection. You’re just stopping by to drop it off. 3. You still voted! Hooray! Also, when you drop it off, find out how to track it online to make sure it is verified. California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado have systems that can track your ballot just like tracking a package from Amazon. All CA vote centers (which are open for weeks to a month before election day) have ballot drop-

community now numbers over 4 million (2018 American Community Survey) yet the majority of our community (69%) are foreign-born or immigrants. This means that immigration played a huge part in shaping our community. Immigration is the selective recruitment of Filipinos where priority is given to the highly educated and skilled. We have heard of the term, “brain drain” where the brightest, most highly educated and trained Filipinos are recruited away from the Philippines to work in another country, such as the United States. Through selective recruitment, aka immigration policy, more than 2/3rds of our community are among the most educated, most skilled, and the most motivated among Filipinos. They mostly come from middle-class families who can take advantage of educational opportunities in the Philippines, and leverage these for jobs abroad created by labor shortages in different sectors. My brother, a civil engineer and computer programmer with experience in the petrochemical industry, was able to immigrate with his whole family (wife and three children) due to a severe labor shortage of computer programmers to fix the Y2K bug, a couple of years before our calendars turned over into the year 2000. Around the same time, I met a group of Filipino teachers in science and math, fresh off the boat, so to speak, who were recruited to fill shortages of math and science teachers in Los Angeles County.

These are not individuals who experienced racial bigotry growing up. They do not come from families who have been historically denied educational opportunities and jobs. And who had to struggle against discrimination, poverty, and a history rooted in slavery. There is an ironic twist in our historical confrontation with American style white supremacy. At the turn of the 20th century, America sought to annex the Philippines as a colonial territory. Filipinos who had just declared independence from Spain resisted that effort. We lost that war. As a fig leaf for their intentions, the U.S. declared a policy of “benevolent assimilation.” This led, among other things, to the establishment of a nationwide system of public education, and the recruitment of thousands of white teachers to teach at these schools. Americans even established a public university, the University of the Philippines (1908) to give Filipinos access to American style higher education. Since the early decades of the 20th century, Filipinos were being given access to educational opportunities that were being denied African Americans by Jim Crow laws. To be sure, the policy of Benevolent Assimilation was racist at its core since it presupposed that we were subhuman, illiterate savages no different from African Americans. Ample evidence of this is provided in a book, which I coauthored, “The Forbidden Book,” a collection of editorial cartoons from the Philippine-American war period. Contrary to our depiction as subhuman savages, by mainstream American media of

the period, we had an educational system that included the University of Santo Tomas, a European style university founded 30 years before Harvard. We had painters like Juan Luna who were winning awards in Europe, writers like Jose Rizal, whose work was admired even by the Spanish. His two novels, “Noli Me Tangere” and “El Filibusterismo,” were unfortunately thought to have incited the rebellion against Spain, and Rizal was arrested and executed him for them. The American style educational system did turn us into docile colonials for American purposes, a model minority that they could hold up against African American demands for freedom and equality. This disparate treatment between African Americans and Filipinos, plus the selective recruitment of Filipinos via immigration, is largely responsible for the disparate conditions between Filipino and African American communities today. The wedge created by the model minority image enabled Filipinos to occupy that liminal space between white privilege and white supremacy, African Americans meanwhile continued to be kept across that border defined by white supremacists. Filipinos in America have been spared the worse effects of white supremacy by our initial resistance against white America’s efforts at empire. But we have a brotherhood with African Americans that extends back to the Philippine American war when black soldiers broke ranks with their

Filipinos and the model minority myth

Commentary

enRique

de la CRuz

COMMENTING on my previous essay entitled “Utang na Loob,” (published in the Los Angeles Asian Journal issue on July 29, 2020), a family friend wrote: “Why did Asians rise a bit higher than Blacks? Is it their thirst for a good education, a lot of self-esteem and pride in their heritage as well as close family ties that encouraged them to target a higher vision?” To this, I am tempted to just give a short answer. The idea that Asians, particularly Filipinos, are “better” than blacks is a key ingredient of that kool-aid that we have been drinking as former colonial subjects. It is a wedge intended to divide us in the manner of “divide and conquer” from other communities of color As former colonial subjects of the United States, tutored via an American style educational system — which historian Renato Constantino singles out as the main reason for the miseducation of Filipinos — we have a baked-in inferiority complex about white Americans. So it feels good to hear that we are better than Blacks, and eagerly subscribe to the “model minority” myth. This is the idea that Asians,

despite a shared history of racial discrimination with blacks and Native Americans, have been able to overcome their marginalization due to a strong work ethic and family values. And have become America’s model minority. When the idea was first proposed in the mid-1960s, amid protests for civil rights led by African Americans, it was intended to minimize the demands of African Americans, by saying: “Look, if Asians can rise above their oppression and marginalization, then African Americans can too — under the current system — if they adopt the values that make Asian Americans successful.” This is a well-worn but dangerous cliché that white privileged America has fomented upon blacks, and Native Americans to minimize their demands for equality. It is not only misleading, it drives a wedge between Asian Americans and African Americans. For Filipinos who have been miseducated into thinking that their culture is inferior to white western culture, it feels good to hear that there are others in America, Blacks, who are inferior to us. We eagerly and uncritically drink the kool-aid. I do not dispute that our community today, exudes an image of success, and that on a per capita basis, we are doing better than African Americans. But I do not believe that we have overcome in the sense that our values have enabled us to transcend racial oppression and marginalization. Let me explain. Statistically, our

off boxes too! Many government buildings have them as well, so there’s no need to wait until election day when it’s crowded to drop them off. The list of dropoff sites is always posted on each county’s voter info website. NEWSFLASH: USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced on Tuesday, August 18, that all changes being made to the Postal Service will now be suspended until after the November 3 elections. However, he also needs to return all the mailboxes hauled back to the neighborhoods so the people, especially the seniors, can conveniently drop off their ballots. The sorting machines should also be returned to speed up mail delivery process, and overtime pay as well as new hiring should be authorized to support surge in mailed in ballots so our votes will all be counted. “At least 20 Democratic attorneys general across the country are launching a multi-pronged legal effort to push back on the recent changes that disrupted mail delivery across the country and triggered accusations that Trump and his appointees are trying to undermine mail-in voting,” CNN reported. VOTE! SEND YOUR BALLOTS EARLY, AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE COUNTED. Our livelihoods and the future of this nation that we love depend on this process. *** Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community. You may contact her through email at gelrelos@ icloud.com, or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos.

A political cartoon from June 10, 1899 that bore the caption, “The Filipino’s First Bath. McKinley - ‘Oh, you dirty boy!’” Image from “The Forbidden Book” (2004)

white counterparts and defected into the Filipino rebel army. One such noted soldier is David Fagan, of the 24th Regiment of the U.S. Army. Fagan’s heroic exploits with Filipinos even drew notice from the New York Times. He was our “General Lafayette,” in our war against American imperialism. Our robust presence here today, where our communities are able to flourish in the space opened up by historic civil rights legislation passed in the 1960s, is owed to African Americans and their allies who dared to confront racism and white supremacy. We have to be critically wary of suggestions that it is our family values and work ethic that set us apart from African Americans. Those are the myths in that kool-aid calculated to divide us from other communities of color.

The views expressed by our Op-Ed contributors are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the predilection of the editorial board and staff of Asian Journal.

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Friday, August 21, 2020

OMETHING

ILIPINO

LIfESTyLE • cONSUMER GUIdE • cOMMUNITy • MARkETPLAcE

Public charge injunction now limited to Connecticut, New York and Vermont Pres. Trump just implemented which had been subject to a court injunction? Here is the latest news and background: On July 29, 2020 a U.S. District Court issued a nationwide injunction, prohibiting USAtty. MichAel CIS from enforcing, applying, Gurfinkel, eSQ implementing, or treating as effective, Pres. Trump’s new PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s public charge rules, as long as new, stricter public charge there is a national health emerrules seem to go back and gency caused by the COVID-19 forth, like a tennis or ping- outbreak. USCIS then announced on its pong match. It becomes very confusing for applicants as to website it would abide by this which public charge guidelines injunction, and that as long as they should follow: the ones the court’s decision is in effect, that have been in existence “USCIS will apply the 1999 since 1999, or the new ones public charge guidance that

Immigration Corner

was in place before the public charge rule was implemented on February 24, 2020 to the adjudication of any application for adjustment of status on or after July 29, 2020.” However, on August 12, 2020, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals limited the scope of that injunction to only Connecticut, New York, and Vermont. That is because the District Court that issued the injunction only had jurisdiction over Connecticut, New York, and Vermont. Therefore, USCIS may now implement its new public charge rule in all other states within the U.S. except PAGE B3

From egg sAndwiChes to burgers

Chef Alvin Cailan returns to LA with new meat shop, releases first cookbook on upbringing as American-born Filipino by

Christina M. Oriel/AJPress

LAST December, Alvin Cailan put a down payment on the former Chego spot inside Far East Plaza in Los Angeles’ Chinatown without the immediacy, or a defined concept, to occupy it. One possibility was a 12-seat steakhouse offshoot of his “Amboy” project — based on his childhood nickname referring to an American-born Filipino — with select cuts of meat paired with Filipino-inspired side dishes. Cailan, the chef behind breakfast sandwich empire Eggslut, had been living in New York for nearly four years, running his first fullservice eatery called The Usual at the Nolitan Hotel, while traveling across the country in search of the perfect hamburger as documented in First We Feast’s “The Burger Show,” a digital series on YouTube and Hulu. “The plan was always to be bicoastal, having a presence in New York and LA,” Cailan told the Asian Journal in a recent interview. Then, the pandemic hit, prompting the closure of his 125seat restaurant that was built on the premise of “American comfort food cooked by the children of immigrants” and that had garnered glowing reviews, especially for its fried chicken, in magazines CITIZEN PINOY: MORE ANSWERS TO IMMIGRATION QUESTIONS FROM KAPAMILYA, VIA ZOOM, AUG. 23. Luchie of Azusa, CA (center) asks if it like The New Yorker and Vogue. is okay for a green card holder to apply for naturalization if she already has a pending petition for her husband. From Redlands, CA, Ricky The move back to LA became (right) would like to know if his two single daughters (whom he petitioned in 2011 in the F-2B category) can immigrate sooner now that he a chance to test out another idea has naturalized. These are just a few of the immigration questions that will be answered on a brand-new episode of CITIZEN PINOY: Your relating to the “Amboy” brand Tanong, My Sagot – Social Distancing Style, this Sunday, August 23 at 6:15 pm PST/EST (9:15 pm EST thru select Cable/Satellite providers). that would make sense under (Advertising Supplement) the safer at home order. What he

Cailan at Amboy Quality Meats & Delicious Burgers in Chinatown, Los Angeles Contributed photo

brought home were lessons from New York on how to pare down operations, a stark contrast from his previous projects. “As a chef, I realized I am more of a small batch guy who likes to have control over every dish that comes out and the prep involved,” Cailan said. His footing in Chinatown’s Far East Plaza spans back to 2015 when he juggled running Ramen Champ on the second floor as Eggslut continued to attract buzzing lines at Grand Central Market a mile away. A year later, he occupied a space on the ground floor for Unit 120, an incubator that housed pop-ups for

fellow Fil-Am chefs like Isa Fabro’s IsaMADE and the Valencia brothers’ LASA, while operating Amboy as a takeout window for Filipino dishes and barbecue. (LASA permanently took over the space in 2017 when Cailan moved east.) Despite LA’s closure of indoor dining and warnings of a looming meat shortage nationwide, Amboy Quality Meats and Delicious Burgers opened up in the plaza this past May as a “micro-steak boutique” reminiscent of the butchers and delis Cailan frequented in his adopted city. “It’s the way of life back east to talk to someone who is knowlPAGE B2

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LizQuen still with Kapamilya network

By Ferdie Villar TALENT manager and television host Ogie Diaz confirmed recently that the pairing of Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil, popularly known as LizQuen, have received offers from other TV networks and movie outfits. However, he also said that the Kapamilya network has no plans of letting the popular loveteam go anywhere, according to a story in The Philippine Star. “Actually, ang LizQuen ay isa sa mga hindi binibitawan ng ABS-CBN. As per Tita Cory Vidanes, nung nakausap ko, gumagawa naman daw sila ng paraan kung paano maitatawid ‘yung mga love teams na pinoprotektahan nila at sine-secure talaga nila. Alam naman natin ang KathNiel, nandiyan yan. Ang LizQuen andyan din,” Diaz was quoted as saying. While staying with the Kapamilya network remains a priority, Diaz said that having offers from

the other networks and movie outfits is a good problem for his wards. “GMA expressed their interest. TV5 also and ‘yung Viva. Nagbigay sila ng kanilang interes. This is a good problem for us pero siyempre priority muna namin ang ABS-CBN,” Diaz said via his YouTube channel. “Kapag wala talagang maibigay na ang ABS-CBN at in-allow naman silang lumipad sa ibang bakuran, doon pa lang kami magko-consider. Pero at least napakagandang problema nito para sa amin. Actually, hindi ito problema. Isang ano lang ito, isipin,” he added. The same story also revealed that the pairing will team up with director Cathy Garcia-Molina for a movie under the Star Cinema banner. “One time last week, merong pinitch sa aming movie si Inang Olive (Lamasan) sa Star Cinema.

Excited ‘yung dalawa na gawin yung movie provided kailangan mag-flatten ‘yung curve ng pandemya,” Diaz said. The tandem of Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil was last seen on TV via the series “Make It With You,” while the last movie the tandem starred in directed by Molina was 2017’s “My Ex and Whys.” *** Lani Mercado-Revilla, wife of Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., revealed in a recent Facebook post that her husband has been rushed to the hospital as he has developed pneumonia due to COVID-19, according to The Philippine Star. In her post, Mercado-Revilla said, “Father God pls help my husband. He is being rushed to the hospital. His latest X-ray shows that he has developed pneumonia and isolation in a regular facility is no longer ide-

Enrique Gil, one half of the love team of LizQuen, is staying put in the Kapamilya Network. Instagram Photo (@enriquegil17)

al. Hospital care badly needed. Father we lift him up to you. [prayer emojis].” It was on August 10 that the actor revealed he had tested positive for coronavirus. He also said that his wife and kids had all tested negative for COVID-19. *** Former actress Chin Chin Guiterrez is now a full-pledged Carmelite nun. This was revealed by veteran showbiz writer Lolit Solis, according to The Philippine Star. In her Instagram account, Solis said, “Ang gandang balita na ngayon ay isa ng full pledged Carmellite nun si ChinChin Gutierrez. Magandang balita dahil mula sa glittering world ng showbiz heto si Chinchin Gutierrez isang mahusay na actress pero mas pinili ang spiritual growth. Nuon pa balita na pumasok si Chinchin sa kumbento, isang malaking hakbang papunta sa sisterhood at heto ngayon, isa ng madre ng Carmellite mission. Isang mahusay na artista na mas pinili ang maging madre upang masilbihan ang spiritual needs ng tao. Pray for us Sister Chinchin, iyan ang kailangan natin ngayon, ang dasal ng mga tulad mo. Pray for us. #clasiclolita #takeitperminutemeganun #73naako.” As an actress, Chin Chin was known for her roles in movies like “Maalala Mo Kaya: The Movie,” Jose Rizal,” “Mula Noon Hanggang Ngayon Ipaglaban Dingdong Dantes, GMA-7 Primetime King, is the lead actor in Jennylyn Mercado is lead actress in the 2020 Philippine adaptation Mo: The Movie” and “Sa Aking “Descendants of the Sun,” which will be one of three international of “Descendants of the Sun,” which is a remake of the popular 2016 Mga Kamay.” She retired from series to be awarded “Most Popular Foreign Drama Award” at the Korean drama series. The Philippine adaptation is directed by Dominic making movies in 2010. upcoming 15th Seoul International Drama Awards in September. Zapata and also stars Dingdong Dantes. Chin Chin is also known as an

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Liza Soberano is excited to start shooting for the upcoming movie of her love team with Enrique Gil, to be produced by Star Cinema, once the all-clear is given by authorities. Instagram Photo (@lizquenisreal)

Senator Bong Revilla Jr. has been rushed to the hospital due to pneumonia caused by COVID-19. File Photo philstar.com

Former actress Chin Chin Gutierrez is now a full-pledged Carmelite nun. Instagram Photo (@akosilolitsolis)

environmentalist, having been founding chair and president of Alaga LAHAT, which is a member of the Eco-Waste Coalition.

She also is a founding member and office of Mother Earth Foundation and starred in an ad for PETA Asia-Pacific.

Chef Alvin Cailan returns to LA with... PAGE B1 edgeable about fish, cheese, bread or meat,” Cailan said, noting that LA’s Chinatown has several poultry shops, but limited options for raw meat. The shop, operating from Wednesday to Sunday, features meat sourced from smaller producers Cailan has forged relationships with over the years. The options range from the signature Amboy filet cut from the short loin ($11 per person) to a Brazilian-style picanha steak ($20/pp). There are also other items for purchase like a half dozen organic brown eggs or bottled dry rubs. “We’re not like a full-scale whole animal butchery but we do carve out meat and we pull the best steaks that we can out of that…Being able to explain where the meat comes from and how to cook it is something you can’t get much of in Los Angeles,” Cailan said. With his digital show and past pop-ups devoted to burgers, it was a seamless play to have variations of a grilled patty, cheese and toasted bun on the menu. Bearing distinct “regional influences,” the four choices range from the no-frills Ordinaire ($8) to the DH Burger ($17) that packs a 10-ounce dry-aged beef blend, caramelized onions, provolone cheese, garlic confit mayo and burger pickles in between a toasted custom bun. Two types of bundles are available for those who want to cook and assemble burgers at home. “We have a great selection of burgers for really any type of mood. That, I learned by eating at some of the best and longestrunning burger places across the country. You can’t really just survive off of one kind of burger. You have to be flexible and cater to everyone and not just a trend,” Cailan mused. On cultivating an Amboy In reaching his level of celebrity, a cookbook was bound to be an imminent milestone in Cailan’s career. A deal was inked back in 2016 with the basis of “modern” Filipino recipes and his involvement in the national push for the cuisine’s visibility. However, leaving LA and starting to outline a structure led to a self-reflection on how he came to this point, as a child of immigrants from the Philippines, taking that leap to attend Oregon Culinary Institute and subsequently having to cut his teeth at various fine dining establishments.

The butcher shop features 4 types of burgers

Contributed photo

The elements of creating the perfect pan de sal sandwich. Excerpted from AMBOY: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream © 2020 by Alvin Cailan. Photography © 2020 by Wyatt Conlon. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

“I wanted to talk about what I wanted to talk about, which was being a brown kid from a neighborhood where no one really makes something of themselves because the education system wasn’t funded properly,” Cailan said of growing up in Pico Rivera. “There are struggles in creating your own path to success that’s not traditional and the flavors and recipes that got me through those times.” The final iteration is “AMBOY: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream,” with co-author Alexandra Cuerdo, set to be released on August 25 by Houghton Mifflin

Harcourt. Cuerdo met Cailan at a 2015 NextDayBetter event themed around the burgeoning, next-generation Filipino food scene in LA. After the chef’s keynote speech, she privately pitched him the idea of a Filipino food documentary, which would later become “ULAM: Main Dish,” released in 2018. “When Alvin came to me with the book, it was a slam dunk. After working with [him] on ULAM for five years, I have deep respect for him as a chef and creative. So I wanted to do it right,” Cuerdo PAGE B6

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Health@Heart PhiliP S. Chua, MD, FaCS, FPCS COVID-19 affects only the lungs This pandemic has so far victimized (as of August 18, 2020) more than 22 million and killed almost 800,000 people around the globe – nearly 5.6 million, with about 174,000 deaths in the United States alone; and almost 170,000 cases and close to 2,700 deaths in the Philippines. In all cases worldwide, clinical findings have shown that COVID-19 affects multiple organs, foremost of which is the heart. The devastating killer cytokine storm in a full-blown COVID-19 case destroys the lungs and causes inflammation and damage to the heart, the liver, kidneys, and even the brain. Studies the past six months have also shown that people who wash their hands and face often; wear a cap, a mask/face shield, gloves; and practice social distancing when in public have significantly less chance of getting infected. It is prudent to follow this health guideline to protect ourselves and others, especially the vulnerable seniors. While we minimize nonessential travels and are homebound, let us have a positive mental attitude and hope in our heart. This, too, shall pass. Heart disease is inherited Rarely, certain congenital (inborn) structural defects of the heart may be genetic, but in general, we cannot blame our ancestry for the heart diseases that are very common today like coronary artery disease (cause of heart attacks) or heart valve diseases (due to Rheumatic Fever). Although some families seem to be more prone to heart attacks, and the traits could be a part of the genes, the important causative factors in this situation are mostly not heredity but environmental – the lifestyle of family members. These significant etiologic factors include smoking; eating red meat, eggs and other high cholesterol foods; lack of exercise; obesity; unmanaged stress; hypercholesterolemia (elevated cholesterol blood level); untreated hypertension; and diabetes mellitus (especially poorly controlled ones). Sex is bad for the heart On the contrary, sex is good for the heart. The morphine-like opiates and other feel-good hormones our own body secretes during sex or during any happy activity or thought process we have – the physical exercise during sex, and the healthy outlet it provides both partners – actually benefit the heart. Only those with untreated coronary artery disease or heart failure could get into trouble during sex. With proper treatment and medical guidance, these patients can indulge in sex safely. Heart attack is a treacherous enemy. It must be detected and treated before it strikes. This is why medical consultation is important among men or women over 40 years old, or among the younger ones who have symptoms or concerns about their health. Children of heart attack victims will have the same fate This is not true. Even if both parents have had heart attacks

NORCAL ASIAN JOURNAL • AUgUSt 21-27, 2020

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Myths about heart disease ‘Citizen Pinoy: Your Tanong, My Sagot –

or coronary artery disease, their children are not necessarily condemned to the same fate, provided the children live a healthier lifestyle, unlike their parents. If these children stay on a low cholesterol diet; eat fish (instead of red meat), a lot of vegetables, fruits, and high fiber foods; do not smoke; exercise at least 5 times a week; maintain a normal weight; and know how to relax and manage stress, they can escape significant coronary artery disease. Women rarely have heart disease Wrong. As one of the old cigarette commercials stated, “You’ve come a long way, Baby.” Since today’s modern women have entered the “men’s world” – working, smoking, drinking, competing, hustling like men – they have indeed “come a long way,” approximating men in most respects, even in the incidence of coronary artery disease and heart attacks among them. Young women as a rule have greater resistance to coronary artery disease because of the protective effects of the female hormone called estrogen. However, women with unhealthy lifestyles negate the benefits of estrogen and suffer heart disease like men. The 2to-1 (male to female) vulnerability has been narrowing the past 3 decades. Executives are prime victims of heart attacks Not so. We used to believe that top job responsibility and stressful executive positions led to higher incidence of heart attacks. Recent studies have proven this to be a fallacy. In a study, bartenders were found to be more vulnerable to heart attacks than barbers, and barbers more prone than physicians. In another series, bluecollar workers were found to be more susceptible to heart attacks than supervisory personnel and executives. It is obvious that lifestyle, and not the line of work, position or rank, is more of the determinant factor in heart attacks. Those below 40 do not get heart disease Another myth. The youngest patient we did coronary bypass surgery on in Indiana was a 28year-old diabetic Caucasian female who had very high cholesterol level, high blood pressure, and was a cigarette smoker. At Cebu Cardiovascular Center in Cebu City, the youngest heart bypass patient we had was a 34-year-old man. Coronary artery disease does not respect any age, gender, or any person who abuses himself/herself with an unhealthy lifestyle. Exercise damages the heart Definitely does not. The heart can take a lot more challenges than one can imagine. It is one of the strongest muscular organs in the human body. Exercise has beneficial effects on the heart. Even heart attack patients who have recovered from the acute phase are prescribed an exercise regimen. Exercise dilates (opens wider) coronary arteries that supply the heart muscles with oxygen and nutrition. The benefits conferred by regular moderate exercise are “cumulative and lasting.” If in doubt about your fitness to do exercises, consult your physician. High blood pressure is due to heart disease This is another misinforma-

‘You’ve won! Now pay us’ is always a scam By Jim Kreidler Consumer eduCation speCialist, FtC

DURING these difficult economic times, it is easy to imagine our financial problems disappearing by winning a big prize. Who wouldn’t like to win a million dollars, a new car, or a vacation home? But if you get a call from someone saying, “You’ve won,” don’t believe the hype. Here’s how it works. You get a call from someone who says they’re from Publishers Clearing House or some other wellknown organization. They say, “Congratulations, you’ve won a million dollars, a MercedesBenz, and seven thousand dollars a week for life!” or some other amazing sounding prizes. Then they ask you to pay a “processing fee,” “taxes,” or “shipping and handling charges,” to claim your prize. The scammers are trying to push you into a heightened emotional state, to knock you off balance just long enough to steal your money and personal information. The fact is, Publishers Clearing House never notifies winners in advance. And anyone who says, “You’ve won. Now pay us,” is always scammer. Period.

Features

Consider these tips to avoid this scam: • Legitimate sweepstakes don’t make you pay a fee to get your prize. That includes paying “taxes,” “shipping and handling charges,” or “processing fees.” There’s also no reason to give someone your checking account or credit card number in response to a sweepstakes promotion. • Don’t send money transfers or gift cards, or give personal information. Sending money transfers or gift cards (or providing the gift card numbers) is like sending cash: once the money’s gone, you can’t trace it or get it back. The same goes for sending money by mail or using a money order. • Don’t trust your caller ID. Scammers can make any name or number show up on your caller ID. They might use an official-sounding name like Publishers Clearing House or Reader’s Digest. Scammers don’t just scam one person. Tell your friends and family about the scam so they can avoid it. Then report it to the FTC via ftc.gov/complaint. (From Federal Trade Commission)

Social Distancing Style’ answers more immigration questions on Aug. 23

tion. The reverse is true: untreated or poorly controlled hypertension (high blood pressure) can lead to coronary artery disease or even heart failure. High blood pressure is, in most cases, essential or idiopathic AS everyone continues to adjust with life petition for her husband is still pending. (cause unknown), but definitely amid the pandemic, Citizen Pinoy remains A father asks if there is a way to expenot due to heart disease. High blood pressure taxes the heart committed to providing public service to dite the petition for his single daughters if and makes the cardiac muscles viewers by giving updates on immigra- he became a U.S. citizen in 2016 and his work harder, and in many cases tion. daughters’ priority date is February 2011. this causes cardiac hypertrophy On the fourth episode of “Your Tanong, These and more questions will be an(enlarged heart). Early effective My Sagot: Social Distancing Style,” Atty. swered on the fourth edition of “CITIZEN treatment for hypertension reGurfinkel answers questions from Luchie PINOY: Your Tanong, My Sagot – Social duces morbidity and prolongs of Azusa, and Ricky of Redlands, both from Distancing Style” this Sunday, August 23, life. California. at 6:15 pm PST/EST (9:15 pm EST thru seA heart attack dooms a perFind out if it is wise for a green card lect Cable/Satellite providers). son holder to apply for naturalization while her (Advertising Supplement) False. There are millions of heart attack victims who have survived around the world and fully recovered from it and led a normal life. Many have even become much healthier than before by following cardiac PAGE B1 plication because of issues of information and opinions contained herein rehabilitation, having better in the three states mentioned, maintaining status, etc. (including testimonials, “Success Stories,” discipline, through behavioral thereby requiring applicants in I would advise people to be endorsements and re-enactments) are of modification, and after living a the other states to submit the prepared to meet the require- a general nature, and are not intended healthier lifestyle like switching financial declaration (Form I- ments of the Form I-944, and to apply to any particular case, and do to a heart-smart diet, quitting 944). consult an attorney to evaluate not constitute a prediction, warranty, cigarettes, avoiding alcohol Interestingly, as of August your case in reference to those guarantee or legal advice regarding abuse, doing daily exercise and 19, 2020, USCIS has not up- new requirements, just in case the outcome of your legal matter. No practicing stress management. dated its injunction page, nor they are brought back or if attorney-client relationship is, or shall be, Those with a positive attitude in added back the Form I-944 to you have questions or are con- established with any reader. life usually have a higher rate of its forms page, nor provided fused about eligibility or public WEBSITE: www.gurfinkel.com recovery. Follow us on Facebook.com/GurfinkelLaw, guidance on how it will now charge requirements. * * * Twitter @GurfinkelLaw and YouTube: US implement these different pub*** Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a Cardiac lic charge standards within the Michael J. Gurfinkel has been an Immigration TV Surgeon Emeritus based in Northwest Indiana U.S. Call Toll free to schedule a consultation attorney for over 35 years and is licensed, and Las Vegas, Nevada, is an international People who are outside Con- and an active member of the State Bars of for anywhere in the US: medical lecturer/author, Health Advocate, necticut, New York and Ver- California and New York. All immigration 1-866-487-3465 and Chairman of the Filipino United Network- mont may need to wait for services are provided by, or under the (866) – GURFINKEL USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian and anti-graft guidance from USCIS on how supervision of, an active member of Four offices to serve you: foundation in the United States. Visit our to proceed before filing appli- the State Bar of California. Each case LOS ANGELES ∙ SAN FRANCISCO ∙ NEW websites: philipSchua.com and FUN8888. cations, unless it is critical a is different, and results may depend YORK ∙ PHILIPPINES com; Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com. (Advertising Supplement) person files the petition or ap- on the facts of the particular case. The

Public charge injunction now limited...

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Is Korina moving to another network? Chef Alvin Cailan returns to LA with... by Niña

V. GuNo

Inquirer.net

AFTER “Rated K” went off air, could Korina Sanchez be finding her way back to television? The broadcast journalist appears to be dropping hints on the next step in her career through Instagram comments. When she announced via Instagram on Friday, Aug. 14, that her current affairs program “Rated K” will stay online, one Instagram user, @kathnielford2020, asked if it was true that she had negotiations with TV5. “Isa po ako sa malulungkot, kung totoo yan. Isa po kasi kayo sa mukha ng ABS-CBN,” the fan said. (I am one of those who will be

Korina Sanchez Photo from Instagram/@ratedkorinaofficial

sad if it’s true. You are one of the faces of ABS-CBN.” “Abangan ang susunod na kabanata,” replied Sanchez. “Salamat sa pagmamahal.” (Wait for the next chapter.

Thank you for the love.) Sanchez also responded to another social media user, one @phoexzz, who asked if it was true that she was leaving ABSCBN. “Nawala na ang prangkisa eh (The franchise is gone)…,” reasoned Sanchez. Congress denied ABS-CBN’s franchise bid last July after over a dozen hearings on its renewal. The media giant was ordered shut down in May by the National Telecommunications Commission despite pending bills in Congress on its franchise. Sanchez was among the first to be laid off in the “bloodbath” that ensued after Congress’ rejection of the franchise.

JM opens up on dealing with his panic disorder JM De Guzman gave a candid look at how he manages his panic disorder, such as when it interrupts him in his sleep, in hopes that it may also help those in similar conditions. The actor shared a video of him placing a towel on his head and face after it was soaked into a basin of ice, via Instagram on Monday, August 17. “This is what my panic disorder looks like [4 a.m. in the] middle of a good sleep,” he said. “I managed to record this because somehow [I’m] learning to cope with it and just hoping others might relate and to let you know [you’re] not alone.”

He described the experience as “intense waves of emotions. [R]apid heart beat [that’ll] make you feel you are about to pass out or die.” “I use ice to slow down the [heartbeat] and to feel my face because my body is numb, [overpowered] by emotions,” he explained. “[This] maybe caused by a painful trauma in the past.” “[If] you have this too, put ice on your face, head, hand and body. Just pray,” he advised. He also said that those who suffer panic attacks should take deep breaths, and remind themselves that it will pass in 30 or 40 minutes. JM De Guzman

Photo from Instagram/@1migueldguzman

“[Keep] telling that to yourself so [that’s] the only thing running inside your mind,” he recommended. The “That Thing Called Tadhana” star advised to “make the people around you understand [your] condition [and] tell them to stop asking questions and just be there.” De Guzman has been upfront about having anxiety attacks. Back in November 2015, he said in a now-deleted Instagram post that he struggled with “anxiety attacks and bipolar [disorder] and depression.” Shooting while in quarantine proved a challenge in more ways than one for the actor. He admitted in a media conference for the film “Love Lockdown” last May via Inquirer Bandera that he experienced anxiety attacks which could have challenged the directors he was working with. (Inquirer.net)

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PAGE B2 told the Asian Journal. “Through the telling of Alvin’s unique story, I hope I can add another narrative to our history — a voice that is unapologetic and unafraid, that proudly celebrates our culture, and that paints a picture for the bright future of Filipino cooking around the world.” The 13 chapters tread between an autobiography and cookbook as anecdotes give a sense of how the recipes appeared in Cailan’s life, whether they were learned from his parents and lola to those creations served at his restaurants. “It’s a culmination of what it means to be an Amboy — being Filipino and cooking modern or new American cuisine and really making a career out of it but always having the Philippines in mind and heart,” he said. Early on in the preface, however, the authors caution that readers expecting the secret recipe behind the Instagram-worthy egg sandwiches will be “extremely disappointed.” “But this is not a story about a shiny, subway-tiled egg restaurant and its campaign to be America’s next major food chain,” Cailan writes. (Though he rarely speaks now about the expansion of Eggslut, it’s worth noting that the sandwich shop has four locations in the LA area and one in Las Vegas, and has expanded internationally to London, Seoul, Tokyo and Kuwait.) A later chapter covers the company’s origins and then the subsequent accolades and fame it summoned, such as Cailan being named LA’s Rising Star Concept Chef in 2014 and the celebrities who became frequent customers. One familiar recipe is for “The Slut” — a coddled egg on top of a smooth potato purée, poached in a glass jar and served with toasted bread — a dish that Calian said “changed [his] life” after food critic Ruth Reichl wrote that it was “the most decadent breakfast,” forever charting the course of his food truck and later the first brick-and-mortar location. The rawness unearths during the Q&As between Cailan and Cuerdo, based on a month of interviews that felt “like therapy,” they said. One particular angle never captured in the buzzy headlines or “best of” lists were the long hours put in and the relationships fractured while building Eggslut. “We went deep. Old wounds, old fears, how to handle success, how to handle heartbreak.

“AMBOY: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream,” Cailan’s first cookbook is set to be released on August 25.

I asked about it all. Alvin was an open book. After that intense process, something clicked. The book wasn’t ‘The Eggslut Cookbook’ or even the Alvin Cailan story. It was something greater,” Cuerdo described, adding that she suggested the book’s final title to place the story into the context of “the eyes of a Filipino American intimate with sacrifice and struggle.” Despite Cailan’s training in fine dining, the cookbook promises to be accessible for any level of cook. “Anyone could cook through this book. You don’t have to be a chef. Nothing is too crazy,” he said. One caveat is that there are instructions on how to build a fire pit to roast a lechon for a backyard party. What will resonate with many Fil-Ams, or even children of other immigrant groups, is having to scrape together a meal based on available ingredients as their parents worked. The ingenuity of this Amboy left with pan de sal, canned meats, Costco-sized frozen dishes and American condiments comes out in the formula of building the “ultimate pan de sal sandwich; in the cheeseburger lumpia based on memories of sneaking Kraft Singles as lola rolled the wrappers; or while watching his family caretaker “Auntie Cita” make bibing-

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ka (coconut rice cake) with Philadelphia Cream Cheese. “When I show other first generation Filipino Americans [these creations], they all relate to them. They have done some things similar and I think that this is a cool angle because you don’t read that in the Filipino books before me,” Cailan said. What Amboy will look like once indoor service and larger gatherings resume is something to anticipate. For now, it’s bringing the experience home to quarantine chefs, whether through the cookbook recipes or weekly meat supply, or amplifying fellow Fil-Am restaurants nearby. “There are plenty of options to support local restaurants, but there’s something different when you’re actually supporting your own kababayan, the Filipino Americans who own restaurants,” Cailan said. “If you make that your priority like you would ordering tacos, then I think we’ll be able to at least weather this storm. Just keep us a part of the conversation and don’t forget we exist.” Amboy Quality Meats & Delicious Burgers is located at 727 N. Broadway No. 117 in LA’s Chinatown. “Amboy: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream” (August 25) is available for pre-order at nowservingla.com.

(650) 689-5160 • http://www.asianjournal.com

NORCAL ASIAN JOURNAL • AUgUSt 21-27, 2020

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August 21-27, 2020 • NORCAL AsIAN JOuRNAL

http://www.asianjournal.com • (650) 689-5160

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