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Angel and Alyssa to front-act ‘Sikat Ka, Kapuso!’
Unknown to many, as Angel Ram was busy rehearsing for the GMA concert, “Sikat Ka, Kapuso,” she was doing gown fittings, checking her guest list, and just managing her nerves as a bride-to-be. Angel, one of the front acts, wed her boyfriend on February 23 in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, a month-and-a-half before the SKK […]
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Voices of a movement in ‘A Time to Rise’
By Renee Macalino Rutledge From our first wave of immigrants, the manongs of the 1920s and ’30s who risked their jobs and safety fighting exploitative labor conditions on West Coast farms, Filipinos have been politically active in the U.S. Yet the dominant image of the passively assimilated Filipino prevails. “A Time to Rise: Collective Memoirs […]
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Concert producers Robert and Melissa Mendoza and the soundtrack of their lives
By Cristina DC Pastor The couple that headbangs together produces concerts together. Because they can, and because the power of music sends good vibes throughout the 40-year marriage of Brooklyn couple Robert ‘Ogie’ Mendoza and Melissa Rubio Mendoza. From Manila to New York, this couple has bonded through Karaoke singing, watching theater musicals and, of […]
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Madison Avenue parade is on! Amb. Mario de Leon Jr. is honorary Grand Marshal
By Cristina DC Pastor The February 23 meeting between the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. and the community was a running tally of hits and misses: Hits: • PIDCI announced that former Consul General Mario de Leon Jr. is going to be the Honorary Grand Marshal, a new role in the organization’s 28-year history. • […]
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GABRIELA NY activists detained in Cotabato, later released
Social worker Jamy Drapeza and photographer Julie Jamora were part of a five-person delegation that was detained on February 22 on suspicion of being terrorists, and later released. Drapeza and Jamora – secretary-general and chairperson of GABRIELA NY, respectively — together with Dinah Anderson, Adam Shaw, and Tawanda Chandiwana, were reportedly accused by Philippine law […]
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Rod Pangesban’s months-long journey to a fiancé visa
By Cristina DC Pastor Rodrigo Pangesban and Alex Esteban met in Baguio in February of 2016, fell in love amid a sea of blooming flowers, and wed in New York the following year. If you think that was fast, wait till you hear how their application for a fiancé visa went by as if in […]
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Free tickets for balikbayan travelers
Two of the Philippines’s biggest names in business are teaming up to launch a balikbayan promo that gives loyal customers the chance to fly for free. LBC, the leader in “Padala,” and Philippine Airlines, Asia’s first airline, launched the “LBC Moves with PAL Balikbayan Promo” that gives their loyal customers free tickets to the Philippines. […]
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Bipartisan bill seeks to expand coverage of veterans compensation
U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, introduced on February 15 the Filipino Veterans Fairness Act of 2018. February 18 marks 72 years since Rescission Act stripped benefits promised to Filipino veterans. The bipartisan legislation would restore the U.S. government’s promise […]
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Visa-free Taiwan: Not another typical Chinese destination
By Wendell Gaa Until now, Taiwan has honestly been a country which for so long I have overlooked in my lifetime destination bucket list. I’ve always assumed that it would be a mere extension of the coastal mainland Chinese cities of Hong Kong and Shanghai all placed into one island. As I’ve recently discovered, nothing […]