Filipinos complete special operations training, PH defense attache speaks to graduates

Students from the Philippines completed recently a course at the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School at John C. Stennis Space Center in South Mississippi.

NAVSCIATTS Cmdr. Don Speights and Philippine Defense Attache Capt. Salvador Henry Quinto (PN) served as hosts and addressed the 49 graduates from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Guyana, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

In his address, Capt. Quinto stressed the development of the modern soldier. “There are some realities we need to face,” he explained, “Gone are the days that men and women turned into soldiers and sailors by the mere display of sheer strength and their willingness to fight.”

“While most of us joined the service driven by a spectrum of reasons - like patriotism, bloodlines, career, rewards, dreams or even adventure…Today’s military now needs dedicated professionals, responsible experts, and men and women with various skill sets and competencies,” Capt. Quinto averred.

Cmdr. Speights stressed that strengthening global relations and building partner capacity will continue to be a priority for him and his staff.

“While the forefront of our shared global struggle over the past year has focused on Covid-19, we realize global challenges that threaten the security of all our nations and existed prior to the pandemic such as terrorism, illicit drug networks, human trafficking, organized crime, and great power competition,” he explained.

“We must not forget, regardless of our situations and where we are from, we can only counter these challenges by working together. Your service and continued dedication to your countries and international partnerships will no doubt ensure our success against these shared global challenges.”

NAVSCIATTS, which was originally formed as a US Coast Guard mobile training team in 1961 in Rodman, Panama, trains for foreign special operations, combat support, and combat service support.

This semester, students received training in six of the command’s 10 formal courses of instruction, including diesel and outboard motor maintenance, tactical communications, welding and applied repairs, coastal patrol, and UAS (unmanned aircraft) planning and operations. 

“Warfare of this new century requires membership in a profession that shares organic unity and consciousness in various disciplines that make us special and distinct apart from the ordinary men,” Capt. Quinto said. 

Since 1963, more than 13,000 international security force professionals from 123 countries have trained with NAVSCIATTS.

Photos courtesy of NAVSCIATTS 

Forgotten history: Fil-Am scholar wants to tell story of Filipina nurses in Bataan and Corregidor

The Fil-Am scholar who fleshed out the saga of over 1,200 European Jews fleeing Nazi Germany and found a haven in the Philippines in the late 1930s has her eyes set on the largely untold heroism of Filipino nurses during the battles of Bataan and Corregidor.

Dr. Sharon Delmendo, book author, Fulbright scholar, English professor at St. John Fisher College and history detective discussed the tale of the nurses during a recent talk in the home of Sonny and Ceres Busa in Virginia.

She revealed her efforts to dive into records at the MacArthur archives in Norfolk, Va.

“The contributions of Filipina nurses in Bataan are a shamefully neglected chapter of history,” Dr. Delmendo wrote.

“There are so many Filipina nurses serving all over the world today – and still neglected— I think this is a timely subject,” she averred.

Her first book history “The Star-Entangled Banner: One Hundred Years of America in the Philippines" (Rutgers University Press, 2004) unearthed the story of “Manilaners” - German Jews who found  safe harbor in the Philippine capital in World War II. 

Her trail-blazing research led to documentaries and movies, including a biopic on Philippine Commonwealth Pres. Manuel L. Quezon that revolved around the rescue of the Jews. 

Existing literature focus on the “Angels of Bataan” or the “Battling Belles of Bataan” - US Army and US Navy nurses who were caught by the outbreak of the Pacific War in the Philippines. 

There is scant reporting about the presence, much less experiences of Filipina nurses in Bataan and Corregidor. 

The most compelling evidence perhaps is a letter from Capt. Josephine Nesbit, Assistant Chief of Nurse in Manila when the war broke out, listing the names of Filipina nurses assigned to Army hospitals in Bataan and Corregidor. They were brought by the Japanese to the University of Sto. Tomas, where their American counterparts were also detained for much of the war.

“These Filipina nurses unquestionably served loyally and efficiently and perhaps you may be able to them some deserved recognition,” the Surgeon General, Maj. Gen. Norman Kirk wrote Gen. Douglas MacArthur in August 1945.

Dr. Delmendo is ready to take the cudgels and fulfill Gen. Kirk’s wish for the Filipina nurses, largely forgotten.

She believes the achievements of the war-time Filipina nurses paved the way for the acceptance of their modern-day successors in America. Since 1960, more than 150,000 Filipina nurses have found work in the US.

 

Lorenzana bats for MDT review to help PH face China threat

The Philippines wants its 70-year-old defense pact with the United States to recognize threats from China’s “hybrid warfare” in the South China Sea - that didn’t exist in the 1950s - and which now pose a danger to the Philippines, the US and the rest of its allies in the Indo-Pacific region, Philippine Defense Sec. Delfin Lorenzana said in a forum here this morning.

In a virtual conference sponsored by the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington D.C., Mr. Lorenzana pointed to growing menace from China. He pointed to the de facto annexation of Scarborough Shoal, only about a hundred miles off the coast the country’s main island of Luzon.

When the Philippine-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) was signed Aug. 30, 1951, the US still had its air and naval bases at Clark, Pampanga and Subic, Zambales. Both were closed after the Philippine Senate rejected 12-11 on Sept. 16, 1991 a proposed treaty that would have extended a Marcos-era lease to keep the bases.

The MDT also made the Philippines one of only two US treaty allies in the region. For a time, Southeast Asian security revolved around the US security umbrella especially during the bipolar Cold War where the Soviet Union was perceived as the primary threat. The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) patterned after Western Europe’s NATO, relied heavily on the deterrence of American bases in the Philippines.

The MDT binds the Philippines and US to come to each other’s aid if either is attacked. Questions have revolved around Article V that defines the meaning of an attack and its purpose, specifying an attack on a “metropolitan area by both parties or on the island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific or on its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.”

Mr. Lorenzana said, however, that the Philippines wants a review of the MDT to crystallize both nations’ positions on three areas:

-Clarification of US commitments amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, including the “possible expulsion of Filipino troops” in Kalayaan Island or from remote outposts such as those aboard the BRP Sierra Madre that was grounded on Ayungin Shoal in 1999. 

-Inter-operability of US and Philippine assets to confront state-sanctioned intimidation and other hostile activities like those from China’s “hybrid warfare”. It has sent out hundreds of boats at a time and shooed away fishermen from neighboring economic zones. They’ve also enforced an air defense identification zone (ADIZ), warning off passing planes.

 

-Modernization of the Philippine military. The US has to move away from providing “Vietnam-era” armaments, Mr. Lorenzana urged, and support their efforts to acquire advanced weapons to build an adequate deterrent.

 

While the Philippines has benefitted from the MDT, said Mr. Lorenzana, it was never enough to let the Philippines stand on its own two feet.

He stressed it was time for the Philippines to “stop outsourcing our national defense to the US”. The defense chief pointed out that if the US really wants to make the Philippines a steady, reliable partner in confronting China, it will have to help make the Philippines strong enough to face the bully. 

Mr. Lorenzana is scheduled to hold talks with counterpart Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on Friday.

Fil-Ams turn out in “fellowship” with an old friend

For a soldier who’s had numerous deployments throughout a storied career, Delfin Lorenzana, the 72-year-old Philippine Secretary of National Defense might count Washington D.C. as a second home, and tonight his friends came in full force to welcome him at the National Harbor in Maryland.

He came game for the event, billed as a “fellowship” and spent as much time “kodakan” (which was a LOT) as he was answering questions that ranged from the communist insurgency (talk about forever wars) to the Marawi siege to speculations of a run for the Philippine Senate.

He confessed that there’s only one race he’s dreaming of - a final run in the Marine Corps marathon, the gruelling 26-mile foot race that runs through D.C. and Virginia that he’s finished nine times, “before my knees run out”.

“I’ve toyed with the idea,” he finally conceded, intimating that Pres. Rodrigo Duterte had asked him to try a Senate run. He said “no” after asking his wife - who’s had to forsake the bliss of retirement twice before, when he accepted the US posting and later as defense chief - and after surveying the field.

Over 20 years in Washington as defense attache then special envoy on veterans affairs enabled him to cultivate deep contacts in the Pentagon, State Department and Capitol Hill. 

His work lobbying for recognition for Filipino World War II veterans led to the passage of the $265 million Filipino Veterans Equity Fund in 2009 and paved the way for the grant of the Congressional Gold Medal in 2015. That frequently placed him in close touch with key lawmakers from both chambers and both political parties. Few Philippine officials can match this familiarity with intricacies of the American legislative and military apparatus.

Seated at far end of the presidential table was 94-year-old Rey Cabacar, a US Navy veteran who served on a PT Boat in World War II and later on a minesweeper during the Korean War. After retiring, he opened a barber shop in Oxon Hill, a Filipino enclave in Maryland, not far from here.

Gen. Lorenzana recalled how he would drop by for a haircut and Mr. Cabacar would refuse to charge him. They knew each other because Mr. Cabacar was one of the stalwarts for Filipino veterans recognition on Capitol Hill.

The defense chief, like most of the militarymen at the Philippine Embassy, were habitues at Arsenio “Tito Al” Alpapara’s “karaoke bar.” The former Constabulary major had built from scratch the most successful distribution network of Filipino food products in the Metro DC area, supplying everything from M.Y. San Skyflakes to longganisa to his trademark Tito Al’s Chicharon. 

The karaoke chamber was built in a corner of his Oxon Hill warehouse. Tito Al took his music as seriously as his business and found a kindred spirit in the likes of Gen. Lorenzana. 

But on one of his earlier sorties at Tito Al’s, he ran afoul of another Maryland institution -Judge David Valderrama, the first-ever Filipino American to win elective office in the US Mainland. He held the 26th District seat in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1991 to 2003, a post currently held by his daughter Kris.

With his deep baritone, Judge Valderrama has been known to belt a Frank Sinatra ballad with gusto. So when Gen. Lorenzana started singing “My Way”, he got a quick rebuke from the Judge because everyone knew that while he was around that was “his” song.

The wealth of anecdotes about Gen. Lorenzana is testament to the friendships he’s built over many years. To many Fil-Ams in Metro D.C. he’s one of them.

He is scheduled to speak about the South China Sea dispute before the Center for Strategic & International Studies on Wednesday and meet with US Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin on Friday where aides say they will discuss ways to improve the US-PH Mutual Defense Treaty that turned 70 years old last Aug. 30.

 

U-S NAMES PH N-G-O CHIEF AS ONE OF CHAMPIONS IN CAMPAIGN VS HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Former Labor Undersecretary and migrant worker rights activist Susan “Toots” Ople is being honored this week by the State Department for her work in fighting trafficking in persons (TIP).

Every year, the State Department fetes individuals around the world who’ve devoted their lives to the fight against human trafficking. They work often in great peril to protect victims, punish offenders and raise awareness of criminal human trafficking activities.

Ople is the youngest daughter of former Senate President, longtime Labor Secretary and journalist Blas Ople.  She heads the labor advocacy organization named after him, writes for the tabloid Tempo and the Panorama weekend magazine, has a radio program on dwIZ station and serves as consultant for the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Manila.

She has been deeply involved in various campaigns to stop human trafficking and abuses by illegal recruiters, including the creation of an OFW Re-integration Council and improving the labor justice system in the Philippines (e.g., Ople has tirelessly denounced contractualization practices in the country that she views as one of the chief impediments against improving the lives of Filipino workers).

She finished grade school at St. Theresa’s College in Quezon City, secondary education at Sandusky High School in Michigan, and the University of Sto. Thomas where she earned a Communication Arts degree in 1984. She took post-graduate studies at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

The Philippines barely missed US sanctions for her seeming ambivalence to the problem of human trafficking. Two years ago, the country was removed from the Tier 2 watch list, after teetering on the verge of being demoted anew to Tier 3 where the US government would have been legally bound to stop giving aid to the Philippines.

Although the TIP campaign is described as gaining impetus, especially after President Aquino signed a law (RA 10364) last February to stiffen penalties and offer better protection for victims of human trafficking, the problem remains serious.

The Philippines, the 2012 State Department report said, “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” but acknowledged “it is making significant efforts to do so.”

Vice President Jejomar Binay, former chairman of the Inter-Agency Council Against Human Trafficking (IACAT) which is credited with helping to turn the tide, blamed poverty, ignorance and crime as chief culprits of the TIP crisis in the Philippines. The country, he added, remains a source, destination and transit point of human trafficking.

“Men, women and children continue to be subjected to forced labor in factories, construction sites, fishing vessels, agricultural plantations, mines, quarries, and private homes, where many trafficked women and girls suffer sexual abuse, rape and physical violence,” Binay said recently.

The State Department’s decision to honor Ople apparently recognizes the growing role of non-government organizations (NGOs) in combating TIP. The Blas Ople Policy Center is one of the key civic groups that have been able to mount a global campaign while overcoming the domestic political, economic and religious barriers which usually make a nationally coordinated drive difficult.

At least 5 of the 29 TIP-related convictions reported last year were the result of cases filed or prosecuted by NGOs, the State Department noted. It also lamented the alleged lack of understanding of the country’s anti-trafficking labor network among “many judges, prosecutors, social service workers and law enforcement officials – a significant impediment to successful prosecutions.”

Meanwhile, the government has tightened the watch against recruitment agencies, seaports and airports to physically block movement of potential victims, but Ople is lobbying to push the war closer to the frontline. “What’s said is we rely on immigration as the last sentinel when it should be on the prevention side, in the barangays (where it starts),” she explained in one TV interview.

Despite the recent impressive economic strides, she believes many Filipinos – most of them the poorest of the poor, women and children – will remain vulnerable to traffickers. “Even if we say the economy is growing,” Ople averred, “The time it takes to cascade all these gains is so slow. Then you have these sweet-talking recruiters. All they need is the promise of a better life.”

OAKLAND FIL-AM, BAGUIO LASS GET DIPLOMAS FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA AT ANNAPOLIS RITES

Two Filipinas, born on either side of the Pacific, were among this year’s graduates of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., getting the rare honor of receiving their diplomas from President Obama, the American Command-in-Chief himself. 

Christine Layug shakes hand of President Obama at US Naval Academy graduation rites in Annapolis, Md.

Christine Joy Jiao Layug of Oakland, Ca. was one of several Filipino-American graduates, shining a light perhaps on one remarkable facet of the Filipinos’ long-running affinity with the US Navy. Joining the Navy has become a generational rite for many Filipinos – Christine Joy, for instance, has 10 uncles either actively serving or retired from the US Navy – not counting her father Roy and maternal grandfather (now both retired).

On the other hand, Chinna Louise Eulogio Salio was the only Filipino graduate in Annapolis Class 2013. Born in landlocked Mountain Province and studying to be a nurse, it was almost inevitable she would be drawn to nearby Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City but she too was pulled by the lure of the sea, choosing to go to Annapolis (where incidentally, her younger brother Kendrick is now a sophomore and when he graduates, they will become the first Filipino sister-brother alumni from the US Naval Academy).

Ever since President William McKinley signed an executive order in 1901 authorizing the recruitment of 500 Filipinos in the US Navy, it has been career pursued by Filipinos ever since. Aside from the stability and relative prosperity it offers, the US Navy also provided a gateway for thousands of immigrant families, fueling the growth of the large Fil-Am communities from San Diego, Ca. to Penscaola, Fl. to Norfolk, Va.

The US Navy still casts a long shadow in the Philippines, where its presence is largely seen as the country’s chief deterrent against the aggression and bullying of its more militarily powerful neighbors.

Although she already an ROTC scholarship, Layug said she chose to go to Annapolis because “no other university or college in the US gives the unique training, discipline and academic and physical challenges.” Her mom says Christine Joy has been dreaming of going to Annapolis since high school, likely drawing inspiration from her father and all the other relatives who served in the US Navy.

She was in the Dean’s list and graduated with honors in her Major – Applied Mathematics – eliciting little surprise when she opted for a sub-specialty in Operations Analysis. She’s also part of Catholic Daughters organization in the USNA campus, where she’s a cantor and according to one of the group’s leaders “had the voice of an angel.”

As may be typical of a Filipino “Navy family”, her graduation from the Academy last week was a great source of pride, perhaps made special because she got her diploma from her Commander-in-Chief himself. Her grandmothers – Emily Jiao and Gloria Layug led a tiny army of aunts, uncles and cousins who witnessed the event.

Layug’s next stop is basic flight school in Pensacola, Fl. but she also has ticket via a Burke Scholarship to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Ca. She sees a long and illustrious career in the US Navy, predicting she’ll be staying beyond the minimum 5 years after graduating from the Academy.

Chinna Salio was featured in an Associated Press story on women at the US Naval Academy (this photo was published in the Los Angeles Times)

Salio is the eldest in a brood of six. She was pursuing a nursing degree at the Benguet State University when she veered sharply to the PMA, passing the entrance examinations in 2008. On her sophomore year, she took the competitive tests for the US military service academies and became one of three who made it through (the others graduated last week from West Point and the US Air Force Academy in Colorado).

She is a champion marksman in her class, showing off her medals during a brief vacation at PMA earlier this year.

Salio has been an achiever for most of her life. She was a scholar at the Philippine Science High School (Cordillera campus). She proudly reveals that her younger brother Kendrick, whose passion includes sailing, is now a sophomore in Annapolis and his twin Kenneth is studying aircraft engineering in Canada.

After the graduation rites at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (which pays homage to famous naval and Marine battles including several in the Philippines), Salio was commissioned as an Ensign in the Philippine Navy by Capt. Elson Aguilar, the concurrent Defense and Naval attaché in Washington DC.

Salio is already on her way home to the Philippines where a warm welcome awaits her both at Navy Headquarters and from family in Baguio City. She wants to be a surface warfare officer because that’s where she sees she can put all the lessons learned from the world’s most advanced navy to good use.

Though their paths now diverge, each joining a navy that can’t be more polar apart, Layug and Salio bring a common denominator other than their roots – the drive to serve, to leave their mark and in the cusp of a long voyage, hope and the unshakeable excitement of the future beckoning.

PINAY TEACHER VIES FOR TOP DC TEACHER LEADERSHIP POST

Times are changing, says Washington DC special education teacher Marisol Angala, adding that the diversity that’s fueled much of the growth in places like the nation’s capital should be reflected in their workers unions as well.

Angala, a University of the Philippines-trained teacher at the Jefferson Academy Middle School for the past decade, has been outspoken and passionate about finding better ways to educate America’s school children. It’s driven her to an unprecedented campaign for the presidency of the 4,000-strong Washington Teachers Union (WTU).

She is one of hundreds of Filipino teachers – the vanguard of a foreign recruiting binge by US public schools – who were lured by the promise of better pay and a slice of the “American dream”.

They filled an acute teacher shortage especially in tough, troubled inner city schools that struggled to meet standards imposed by the Bush-era No Child Left Behind Act. The Filipino mentors can be found virtually everywhere in America, from top-tier East Coast academies to sparse Indian reservations in the New Mexico desert.

“Times have changed,” Angala declared, “and public education has evolved.”

She wants to steer WTU towards her vision of the future. “There’s a battle being waged right now,” Angala averred, “It’s not about unions standing up for teachers; it’s about teachers standing up for themselves through their unions.”

“There are so many things happening right now at the local and national level which lead to frustration, anger and all those are harmful not only to the teachers but also to the children whose lives we continue to influence daily,” she said, adding that “when I empower, encourage and inspire teachers to do their best for the kids, I am impacting the lives of more than just the students in my classroom.”

Angala is a familiar face in the education protest scene of DC (something she attributes to years at UP where she says she learned stand up for what’s right). She was WTU’s vice president for special education from 2007-2010, a member of the Asian & Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), the Teacher Leaders Network and the Delta Kappa Gamma International Society for Key Women Educators.

She is board certified as an exceptional needs specialist and was named Outstanding Special Education Teacher (2008-2009) by the National Association for Special Education Teachers (NASET). She also has two blogs – “Digital Anthology” is the online extension of her classroom and “Teacher Sol” where she tackles education-related issues, including the plight of Filipino mentors in Maryland.

She says the “prospects are both exciting and frightening” as she cobbled a multicultural and multi-generational ticket which, she vowed, would bring "real" changes in the WTU. “We have exceptional candidates in our slate (4 of them are also Filipinos), who carry the promise of being real game-changers because of our diversity, problem solving skills and courage to speak on behalf of our teachers and students,” she explained.

They are pressing for an “objective and fair evaluation system and due process aligned with that system.” She sees the inordinate emphasis on high-stakes tests and the lack of support and resources to teachers as the biggest problems bedeviling the DC Public School system today.

“We should now be thinking how we can change our traditional practices to better reflect the tasks assigned to our schools, teachers and students,” she said, stressing that “teachers should be treated as partners in reforms.”

Her “platform” includes providing more resources to DC public school teachers, lower class sizes especially for schools in poverty-stricken communities, and building respect for teachers.

Unions, she added, are “only as good as their members. I believe we need to set higher expectations and standards for ourselves so we can inspire our students and encourage them to do what it takes to be successful in life. We need to take control of our actions and not sit by as others define effective teaching for us.”

If Angala sounds like she’s gearing for a fight, that’s probably because she’s been there before. A tireless advocate of change, she was part of the WTU panel that negotiated a “progressive” teachers’ contract which led to a 15 caseload limit for special education teachers, among other concessions.

She promised to “rebuild our teacher’s union and make great things happen” as WTU president. The ballots have been mailed out and should be back in the Post Office by June 7.

Her feisty attitude is stark contrast to the publicity that Filipino teachers have received lately – as hapless victims of illegal recruitment, from Prince George’s county in Maryland to the Baton Rouge parish in Louisiana. Angala offers the contrasting image of a fighter ready to pounce on behalf of her fellow teachers and perhaps more importantly, for the school kids.

DIPOLOG LAD WHO DREAMED OF FLYING, SOARS AT U-S AIR FORCE ACADEMY

Growing up on the fringes of the Dipolog city airport, Theodore Karl Quijano was bitten early by the lure of flight and that has taken him all the way to Colorado, where he graduates next week from the US Air Force Academy.

With the cost of college proving too much of a burden on his family, Quijano decided to apply at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City, and later saw the opportunity to fulfill his childhood dream by competing for a slot in the USAFA.

“I grew up right next to the airport,” he revealed. “I saw planes land and take off every day and the sight made me dream to be able to fly those aircraft one day.”

He not only learned to fly, he soared in the Academy, achieving feats that should make Filipinos proud – he was given command of Cadet Squadron 10 last Fall after being assigned as Cadet Wing Chief of Standardization and Evaluation, said to be one of the highest positions in the Academy managing over 4,000 people, during the Summer. A year earlier, he was also made Superintendent of CS-10.

“God, family and country – it was clear to me that I was doing this for them, not for myself,” Quijano averred. “I wanted to work for something bigger than myself. This made me stand out in the Academy and drove others to have the same outlook.”

As part of the graduating class of 2013, he marches with honors at Falcon Field next Wednesday. He belongs to the Superintendent’s (overall excellence) and Dean’s (academic excellence) list. Quijano will also receive the Outstanding Basic Cadet Award from the Academy’s Commandant for finishing 1^st in the class of 1,300 cadets for military excellence.

In addition he will get his Parachutist Badge, Space Wings (for completing the space operations program that taught him, among others, how to operate satellites), Glider Pilot Wings and the Powered Flight Wings.

Quijano ranked 2^nd in athletics for his batch and is the only Filipino cadet (out of 15 who preceded him in the USAFA since 1956) to get a perfect physical fitness score in the Academy’s 500 Club.

The eldest in a brood of seven, he learned early on the challenges of being a leader in the family. “My father inspired me with stories about successful people both in the military and corporate worlds, and how I should work to be just like them when I grew up and help send my siblings to school.”

“But most of all I learned from my parents the value of living with honor, integrity and service to others,” Quijano said.

He spent three years at the University of the Philippines (UP) campus in Diliman, Quezon City but the expenses were taking a toll on the family finances, Quijano explained, so he grabbed the opportunity to enter the PMA where he not only got a free education, he also got a modest stipend and the guarantee of a good job after graduation.

He later took the tests to qualify for the United States Service Academies – one of the most rigorous examinations that allows only the brightest and strongest candidates from all over Southeast Asia to join West Point (Army), Annapolis (Navy and Marines) and the Air Force Academy (the Philippines used to have yearly slots reserved in these schools until the US closed its military bases in the country).

Life in USAFA wasn’t easy, Quijano conceded. There wasn’t much difference in training concept with PMA, he added, but it still took a heavy mental, physical and emotional toll partly because he was so far from home and family.

“I couldn’t let my American counterparts look me down; that’s why I strived to be better at everything I do every single day – whether it’s military, athletics or academics. It just so happened I excelled militarily and athletically. I had the right attitude which PMA equipped me with and it helped me get through the difficult times,” Quijano explained.

After the graduation ceremonies, the foreign cadets are usually ushered to a separate ceremony where they will get their officer’s commission from their respective countries. The Philippine Air Force’s DC-based military attaché, Col. Arnel Duco is expected to swear him in as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the PAF.

“I intend to serve my country to the utmost of my abilities,” Quijano stressed. “I will use what I learned here to be an asset for change and innovation in the military. I will do what I can at my level to hopefully affect the bigger system.”

It’s been a long journey for the young man whose dreams were built watching the planes fly in and out of the runway close to their home. So, near the end of four years of study and toil, the newly-minted Philippine Air Force officer declared his most ardent wish, “I hope to fly the Philippine’s aircraft soon.”

PH ENVOY BLASTS CHINA ANEW ON SEA SPAT BUT IS MUM ON TAIWAN

The country’s top envoy in Washington DC appeared to shift the focus of maritime spats with neighbors from the Philippine’s northern frontier back to the west where a large Chinese fishing fleet was headed to the disputed Spratly islands.

“Over the past two years, the whole world has seen the increase in belligerent activity in the waters in our part of the world, particularly in the areas in and around the West Philippine Sea,” Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia told the annual meeting of the World Affairs Council of Greater Hampton Roads last Friday.

His press release over the weekend made no mention of the more immediate conflict with Taiwan which has stopped hiring Filipino workers, cut trade ties and carried out a much-publicized saber-rattling naval exercise after the Philippine Coast Guard killed a Taiwanese fishermen in waters they both claim as part of their territory.

“When another country stations its boats on a shoal that is a mere 120 miles from our mainland and more than 400 miles from theirs, the Philippine cannot just keep quiet,” he stressed. Adding to his China tirade, Cuisia said “When another country declares that it owns about 75 percent of what the Philippines owns as exclusive economic zone, we are duty bound to stand up and protect it.”

The BRP Ramon Alcaraz begins sea trials off the Carolina coast before making the long voyage home next month.

The part of the Balintang Channel where the shooting of the Taiwanese fishing boat occurred is claimed by both the Philippines and Taiwan as part of their exclusive economic zones. Efforts to define that maritime border and possibly craft a joint use agreement have been stymied by the Manila’s “one China policy” where it only recognizes the government in Beijing. 

The United States has expressed concern over the May 9 flare-up and called on both sides to lower the tension. The Philippines and Taiwan are longstanding American allies, crucial to its long-term designs to reign in China and ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea through which, Cuisia pointed out, $1.3 trillion-worth of US products flow through yearly.

Some officials here say the Philippines is eager to put the crisis with Taiwan behind them and focus on the South China Sea where China has actually, and in some instances, virtually occupied Philippine territory. They have built permanent structures on Mischief Reef just 130 miles off Palawan and last year, cordoned off Scarborough Shoal which lies 120 miles off Zambales in the main Luzon Island.

Two Chinese spy ships have reportedly dropped anchor last week about 6 miles west off the Philippine-occupied Ayungin Shoal, near Mischief Reef.

The Philippines has hauled China to a United Nations tribunal on the laws of the sea to have the latter’s claim, the so-called 9-dash-9, declared as invalid. China alleges that ancient maps assigned her ownership over virtually the entire South China Sea.

The Philippines has sought and received military assistance from the US, a treaty ally with which it has a mutual defence pact. “We are look at opportunities for assistance in training, capacity building and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” Cuisia averred.

As part of President Obama’s pivot to Asia, the US is stepping up its military presence in the region, including more frequent US Navy visits to the Philippines. Although Cuisia emphasized the American “rebalance” in Asia also entailed intensified economic and trade ties, there is no mistaking the security bias towards containing a militarily resurgent China and shielding America’s allies against her growing belligerence.

As if to emphasize that dimension of PH-US relations, Cuisia visited the USS Wasp, the Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship which is being prepared to accommodate the US Marines variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Aircraft. He was able to speak with the ship’s Filipino-American crew members during the brief visit.

PHILIPPINE ARMY’S ‘WANTED GENERAL’ GETS LEGION OF HONOR, HANGS THE UNIFORM

Who would think that the general, who once had an “arrest warrant” put out by communist insurgents, could also be a “sorbetes magnate” who last week was given one of the highest decorations a grateful country can give as he closed here in Washington DC a storied military career?

Maj. Gen. Cesar Badong Yano was the country’s defense attaché since 2011 and is credited with working with the Pentagon for the procurement and delivery of two badly-needed high-endurance patrol ships for the Philippine Navy as the Philippine military shifted focus on external defense and the country’s vast maritime borders.

He officially ended that stint and retired from military service – after 34 years, 4 months and 9 days – on his birthday last May 10.

The citation for the Philippine Legion of Honor Award extolled his “eminently meritorious and valuable services” enhancing diplomatic and security relations with the United States as well as Canada.

The citation said Yano provided the Department of National Defense and Armed Forces of the Philippines “vital information that served as basis in the decision making of government policy makers…relentlessly engaged Washington DC-based security experts and think-tanks to discuss security implications to the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region and submitted numerous reports very relevant to the present security dynamics in the regional and global arena…”

Under his watch, the Philippine Navy procured two Hamilton-class weather high-endurance cutters (WHECs) that were re-christened the BRP Gregorio del Pilar (currently the PN flagship) and BRP Ramon Alcaraz. A Philippine Air Force C-130 “Hercules” cargo plane was also successfully overhauled in Mojave, Ca. and the AFP itself got $2.8 million-worth of new weapons and various military supplies.

But Yano already had a distinguished career even before he arrived in Washington DC. A native of Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte, he received his commission from the Philippine Military Academy in 1980.

He is the flipside of a deeply respected tandem in the Philippine Army – his elder brother Alexander (PMA Class ‘76) was a former Chief of Staff of the Philippine Armed Forces (2008-09). When we first interviewed him after taking over the Washington DC post, the younger Yano said he decided to join the military so he could watch his brother’s back. And in a Facebook post of his awarding and retirement ceremonies at the Philippine Embassy last week, his “Kuya” was among the first to greet him, welcoming him to the “retired ranks”. It would appear the siblings still keep an eye out for each other.

The younger Yano cut his proverbial teeth leading a reconnaissance platoon with the 1^st Infantry “Tabak” Division in Sulu.

He was a team leader at the Presidential Security Command – which strongman Ferdinand Marcos transformed into his Praetorian Guards – during the People Power uprising that eventually led to his ouster and midnight-hour escape to Hawaii in 1986. Though the popular revolt was relatively peaceful, it severely tested the Filipino soldiers’ professionalism and patriotism; Yano stressed that to this day, he is proud he never disobeyed orders yet upheld civilian supremacy and democracy.

He led an army intelligence team in Southern Luzon, served as assistant chief of staff for civil military operations and spokesman for the 4^th Infantry Division in Northern Mindanao. He got his first command, the 29^th Infantry Battalion, in 1999.

His field assignments were book-ended by a detail as military aide to then Senate President Ernesto Maceda in 1997 and headquarters duties at General Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo and the Philippine Army headquarters in Fort Bonifacio from 2000 to 2004 and later as the military’s chief liaison with Congress in 2010.

By 2005, Yano was back in the field, serving as chief of staff of the 7^th Infantry Division and later the Northern Luzon Command, both based at Fort Magsaysay in Cabanatuan City.

Two years later he was given command of the 302^nd Brigade which had combat battalions operating in the islands of Cebu, Bohol and eastern half of Negros, and appeared to have done such a good job against the New People’s Army (NPA) that they issued a “warrant of arrest” against him and six other army field commanders.

And as he swaps dress suit and combat fatigues with more lively civilian attire, another facet of the man has emerged. It turns out he’s also a “sorbetes magnate” of sorts – he owns a large fleet of ice cream carts – those innocuous, colorful, street-bound push carts that are as much as part of most Filipinos’ childhood as bubblegum or “patintero”.

Nothing perhaps conjures up happy childhood memories faster than “dirty ice cream”, slowly dripping down a sugar cone under the summer sun. They’re refreshing and cheap, but the income Yano made from his “sorbetes” carts helped send his children to Ateneo and LaSalle which he couldn’t have afforded on an honest general’s pay.

If there were qualities that I thought would explain his life’s many successes, it would be his sincerity, humility and keen eye for opportunities. The first piece I posted about him on the internet in 2011 received so many hits I was sure he had a fan’s club back home. I realized then Cesar Yano leaves lasting friendships because he never gets tired of creating new ones and this has made him a “wanted man” wherever he goes and in whatever endeavor he decides to do.

MAIDEN FIESTA DRAWS OUT FIL-AMS OF CENTRAL VIRGINIA

The nascent Filipino community in the Virginia heartland celebrated a coming-out-party of sorts when it organized their first fiesta at the Richmond Convention Center last Saturday (April 27).

“We don’t know how big we are,” said Rudy Bolipata, a long-time Richmond resident. “But when we have gatherings, we notice there are always a lot of new faces.” He said community leaders cooked up the Filipino Fiesta not only to showcase the Filipino’s rich cultural heritage but also partly to gauge just how large they are. And from the fiesta’s smashing success, they obviously were large enough.

The last Census suggests there are fewer than a thousand Filipinos in Richmond, the seat of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and its adjacent counties. About an hour-and-a-half’s drive from Washington DC, this old and historic city lies between the large, rapidly-growing Filipino-American communities in the national capital region and the Tidewater region which includes Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Newport News, among others.

“Dati isang association lang kami,” Bolipata explained, “ngayon mayrun na ibang lumulutang.”

From parishes and neighborhoods, Filipinos are slowly showing their collective clout. Perhaps evidence of this was last weekend’s Filipino Fiesta that was attended by Fil-Am Congressman Bobby Scott (3^rd Dist., Va.) and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and former Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe who will be battling for the Governor’s post in November (Cuccinelli dropped by in the morning and McAuliffe arrived shortly after his Republican rival left, according to Bolipata).

Some might be surprised that there’s been a Filipino American Association of Central Virginia (FAACV) since 1972. Romy Hernandez, another longtime Richmond resident, said one of the most active Filipino organizations here is from the Our Lady of Lourdes parish which will be holding its 8^th annual Filipino festival this August.

One of those parishioners is University of the Philippines-trained educator Eddie Ilarde who volunteers to teach folk dances to 2^nd generation Fil-Ams here. A math teacher by profession, he says he’s just one of about 200 Filipino teachers in Richmond and nearby Chesterfield, Petersburg and Hanover.

“You bring whatever you have and you share it,” he explained of the Kultura Pilipino, a Fil-Am cultural ensemble that includes both young Fil-Ams and their non-Filipino friends who’ve been enamored by the regal “Singkil” or the lively “Maglalatik”.

“Mga ka-klase ng mga anak namin,” Ilarde explained of their recruits, “Kapag nakikita kami mag-practice they want to join because the dances are very challenging and we encourage them to come.”

There are others helping him with the teaching, Ilarde says, some former members of the world-renown Mabuhay and Bayanihan troupes who’ve settled in the region. 

“We have a relatively young community,” Bolipata averred. “We have (Filipino) teachers, nurses and IT professionals who work for companies here. We have doctors – there are 14 of them in Petersburg. Maraming lumilitaw because of mixed marriages – you can see them now but not before.”

 

Some Filipinos from other parts of the country have decided to settle there. “Mas tahimik dito kumpara sa ibang lugar,” he added.

Among them is Vellie Dietrich Hall, a successful businesswoman and political activist from Butuan City, who with husband Harry sold their house in Springfield (Northern Virginia) and moved to the outskirts of Farmville (no, not the Facebook app, it’s actually the seat of Prince Edward county, west of Metro Richmond).

A longtime Republican stalwart, she’s been part of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s board of advisers since 2010. She recently opened Vellie’s Boutique and Specialty Gift Shop at Diamond Hill in Lynchburg, at the foothills of the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains. Diamond Hill is a retreat facility that offers bed and breakfast style lodging “where Southern hospitality and Asian elegance meet”.

“Sigurado next year this is going to be bigger,” Bolipata enthused, telling no one in particular that the cavernous Richmond Convention Center might be too small for the Fil-Am community’s next fiesta. “The first is always the most crucial, how you start and make it happen. With this group, you can expect it to be bigger and better.”