This issue marks the 8th year of Positively Filipino's publication. As some of you know, there are only four of us putting this e-magazine to bed but we are supported by our writers pool of over a hundred contributors (and counting). To them and to all of you, our readers, we owe our continued existence. Thank you for sticking with us.

We begin 2022 with the continuing dissection by the former chair of the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Andres Bautista of the realities of the Philippine electoral system. For this issue, he continues debunking "the Big Lie" of 2016, which has real-life repercussions on the 2022 election.

A controversial decision by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to redesign the 1,000-peso bill by replacing the images of three WW II heroes -- Josefa Llanes Escoda, Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos, and General Vicente Lim -- with the Philippine Eagle has triggered an uproar. Historical researcher and author Desiree Ann C. Benipayo makes a case for keeping the three in the 1K bill.

Aside from the martyrdom of Escoda, Abad Santos and Lim in the hands of the Japanese conquerors, they have another thing in common as history professor Jose Victor Z. Torres states. Find out more in "The Last Time They Were Seen Alive."

One of the best memoirs I've ever read on growing up a Fil-Am male is the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Tizon's Big Little Man, published before he wrote that highly controversial essay, "My Family's Slave." Retired Philippine Ambassador Virgilio A. Reyes, a regular PF contributor, writes about Tizon's heartbreaking deep dive into the psyche of being male, gifted and brown in a society that values white the most.

New Year toasts may be over and done but a Meyer Lemon Frozen Margarita is timeless. For the Happy Home Cook, Elizabeth Ann Quirino shares her concoction.

Our Video of the Week offers a good start to the New Year: a frank, painful and ultimately inspirational TED talk by former Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach on her mental health challenges.

In The Know

Yssa Mei Panganiban talks Hawkeye and representing her Filipino Heritage in exciting interview
https://www.theilluminerdi.com/2021/12/30/yssa-mei-panganiban-hawkeye/?fbclid=IwAR2nyjlAaHSxWFbiT6rYRqPMdWC7okbuM4b3KoIqDhNv0KY4zUNAPWlsCcc

Everybody’s Favorite 24-Hour Filipino Bakery Has Finally Reopened
https://www.kqed.org/arts/13896138/ling-nam-starbread-filipino-bakery-senorita-bread-24-hour-daly-city-open?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=202101127Arts&mc_key=00Q1Y00001xHmruUAC

The Untold Story of the Igorots' Revolt
https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/the-untold-story-of-the-igorots-revolt-a00293-20201023-lfrm?utm_source=Facebook-Esquire&utm_medium=Ownshare&utm_campaign=20211211-fbnp-long-reads-the-untold-story-of-the-igorots-revolt-a00293-20201023-lfrm-fbold&fbclid=IwAR2DyzvtS3H8THJ1OWk4Shzc14iQiek905O2XFPf5Q7h82Yq47-Vn0xAiSY

Listening to the lost peoples of Philippine history
https://philstarlife.com/geeky/482691-philippine-history-regalado-trota?page=3&fbclid=IwAR2axT4AMVCY48c-OxOjrJJlzDTkhY3HWZudUWVfNI12SnLjHsVmEUrIIEU

Scars of Empire: Harvard’s Role in U.S. Colonialism in the Philippines
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/12/13/wikstrom-scars-of-empire/?fbclid=IwAR2TNvBMUBtkW4mrHAo4P2NJkx6NEyex3CVqbbx_J5pLrwbx0U3qJ4WCQX0

Quezon City: The History of New Manila & Doña Magdalena Hemady
https://lakansining.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/quezon-city-the-history-of-new-manila-dona-magdalena-hemady/?fbclid=IwAR1QT7NOv452xdsVnZ6wRhOs2wsqN4EFa98xsefvNDWEZSEctEsB-rgzB7Q

What an incredibly stressful and exhilarating week! Not one you want to happen often yet one you want to re-live, if only in your mind, every once in a while as a reminder that bad things (people, events, policies) have an expiration date.

For Filipinos who were in Manila pre- and post-EDSA People Power Revolt in 1986, the sense of deja vu was unmistakable. But, from that historic experience also comes a tale of caution. The reach and tenaciousness of the tentacles of authoritarianism can last for generations, as ace journalist and Columbia U journalism professor Sheila Coronel warns in her op-ed piece in the Washington Post yesterday.

Rocky days ahead notwithstanding, let's claim this moment to celebrate the Fil-Ams, both Democrats and Republicans, who won their races.

And a historical correction, as the city of Watsonville, California issues a long-delayed apology to the FilAm community for the 1930 anti-Filipino Watsonville race riot that resulted in the death of Fermin Tobera. The resolution states:

"The City Council, now after ninety years, formally apologize for the actions taken by the City's residents against the Filipinos in Watsonville, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s in Watsonville and commending these Filipino Nationals and their children, the Filipino Americans for their notable accomplishments and contributions to the Pájaro Valley."

Read Again the story of what happened then: https://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/in-the-heat-of-the-night-the-exeter-and-watsonville-riots-1929-1930