April 09, 2025

Traveling While U.S. Permanent Residents

April 09, 2025/ Staff

Once upon a time, in the good old days when the rule of law was respected and immigrants were welcome to the US, green card holders (aka permanent residents) shared the same rights and benefits with naturalized US citizens, except for the right to vote.

Today, green card holders can be stopped at ports of entry and deported, just like international students with valid US visas and other legitimate visa holders. If you're worried that, despite your green card, you might not be allowed back, here's valuable guidance from immigration lawyer Lourdes Santos Tancinco. Note of interest: there's a difference between "arriving alien" and "returning resident." Remember that not all green card holders are in danger of being denied entry. But if you are, you still have rights.

April is National Autism Acceptance Month and two FilAm behavioral analysts from Jacksonville, FL -- Irene Batario (Tita Irene) and Redner Salonga (Kuya Red) -- mark the occasion with a picture book, "Bayani and the ABCs of Me," the first children's book on autism for Filipinos. PF contributing writer Claire Mercado-Obias interviews the two on the making of this landmark book.

Grilling is as Filipino as sinigang and different regions of the Philippines have their own way of grilling food. The town of Bayambang in Pangasinan takes the practice several steps higher with its own term -- inkalot -- and by setting the Guinness World Record of the longest barbecue grill in 2014. Writer Resty Odon celebrates his town's grilling tradition and gives us a lesson on grilling lexicon in this essay which won third prize in the 2023 Doreen Gamboa Fernandez Food Writing Award.

PF Correspondent and intrepid world traveler Rey de la Cruz marks the island nation of Malta as the 125th country he has visited. And of course he meets Filipinos there. Read his Pinoyspotting account this week.

For our Partner post this week, Washington D.C.-based writer/activist Jon Melegrito gives an account of the 2025 Bataan Memorial Death March, now on its 36th year, in White Sands, New Mexico. Today, April 9, marks the 82nd anniversary of the Bataan Death March.

[Video of the Week] South China Sea: Escalating tensions between China and the Philippines

In The Know

Kanlaon Volcano goes on explosive eruption; remains on alert level 3
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2050842/kanlaon-volcano-goes-on-explosive-eruption-remains-on-alert-no-3

Filipinos make history on Broadway: Lea Salonga among 7 on world stage
https://usa.inquirer.net/169480/filipinos-make-history-on-broadway-lea-salonga-among-7-on-world-stage?

Cordillera’s cultural norms push back against political dynasties
https://pcij.org/2025/03/28/cordillera-indigenous-governance-pushes-back-against-political-dynasties/?

Lea Salonga and Her Trans Son Nic Chien Redefine Family, Identity, and Acceptance
https://asianjournal.com/features/lea-salonga-and-her-trans-son-nic-chien-redefine-family-identity-and-acceptance/?

April 02, 2025

Intense

April 02, 2025/ Staff

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the bible of the living, breathing English language, adds words from various languages annually. Last week, it added the Filipino word gigil to its more than 600,000 recognized words, listing it as one of the "untranslatable" words, meaning those that do not have equivalents in the English language. Indeed how do you explain gigil to a non-Filipino without using many words? The OED lists gigil as a noun and an adjective.

Gigil (noun) is "An intense feeling caused by anger, eagerness, or the pleasure of seeing someone or something cute or adorable, typically physically manifested by the tight clenching of hands, gritting of the teeth, trembling of the body, or the pinching or squeezing of the person or thing causing this emotion." As an adjective, "Of a person: overwhelmed by an intense feeling caused by anger, eagerness, or the pleasure of seeing someone or something cute or adorable." The OED cites some awkward examples of the use of the term. Most writeups in media announcing the addition of the word focus on the cuteness aspect, which is understandable. But we Filipinos know that there is more to the word than that.

We know that we are nanggigigil on something so outrageous that it triggers intense ire, like the vloggers who invent stories without any truthful bases, post fake news and cyberbully those who dare call them out on their lies. Philippine-based PF Correspondent Rene Astudillo writes this week about how his name was cited by a Duterte-biased fake news peddler as one of the cyberbullies that should be investigated by Congress, triggering an avalanche of hate messages on him. Read all about it and be informed about relevant laws in "The 'Bully' That I Am."

Another form of panggigigil: when we're overwhelmed by intense admiration of a person or a creative work, much like what we can anticipate when the Filipino movie "Sisa" comes out with the consummate actress Hilda Koronel in the title role. PF contributing writer Cathy Sanchez Babao talked to her friend Hilda (aka Susan Reid) after the latter wrapped up production of director Jun Robles Lana's historical thriller.

And now that we're on the subject of history, there's a new book on the objects of plunder -- a vast collection of paintings and objets d'art -- owned by a certain Jane Ryan and William Saunders (ultimately exposed as Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos). Authored by UK-based artist Pio Abad, the book Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts has a canary yellow cover, a political statement in itself, and is described by PF contributing writer, Ambassador Virgilio A. Reyes, Jr. as "handsome." That makes it worth buying.

World War II stories take center stage when April comes around because of the commemoration of Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) on April 9. This national holiday remembers the Fall of Bataan, a significant turning point in the Pacific theater on April 9, 1942.

Here's a first-person WWII story that chronicles the bombing and its aftermath in Iloilo, from the eyes of a young girl, Maja Teresa Concepcion-Guerrero. She wrote about the events upon the prodding of her younger brother, Rogie Concepcion (a PF contributing writer), who shares the excerpts with us, following Maja Teresa's recent passing at the age of 91. How her recollections were triggered by a random picture of a staircase is a story in itself.

Read Again:

Death of an Army by Antonio A. Nieva

The Spies Who Came in from the Sea by Virgil N. de la Victoria

Re-enacting the Bataan Death March: A Personal Journey by Jon Melegrito

[Video of the Week] Mambo Magsaysay — The first viral campaign jingle

In The Know

Fil-Am, living in US with citizenship claim, detained by ICE – groups
https://www.rappler.com/philippines/overseas-filipinos/alma-bowman-us-citizenship-claim-detained-ice/

Overcome when struck by cuteness? There’s a word for that feeling.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gigil-overcome-cuteness-oxford-english-dictionary-new-words-rcna198316?

[DECODED] Women leaders pay heavy price for criticizing government
https://www.rappler.com/technology/features/women-leaders-criticizing-government-consequences-price-attacks/

Learning about Filipino resistance to the Japanese occupation 80 years ago
https://verafiles.org/articles/learning-about-filipino-resistance-to-the-japanese-occupation-80-years-ago

Brown Filipino Alliance pushes for new Tagalog language program
https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025/03/brown-filipino-alliance-pushes-for-new-tagalog-language-program

Today I Learned: How an Ilonggo Doctor Discovered Erythromycin
https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/today-i-learned-how-an-ilonggo-doctor-discovered-erythromycin-a7921-20250110?

March 26, 2025

Human Courtesies

March 26, 2025/ Staff

In this era of extreme polarization, it's refreshing and important to be reminded of basic human courtesies, even in the most polarizing conflict of all: war. In "Of Fallen Pilots and Military Courtesies," PF contributing writer Soliman M. Santos Jr. calls for "respectful gestures that demonstrate a basic human respect for life lost, regardless of allegiance," following the recent death of two young Philippine Air Force pilots from a plane crash while on a bombing mission on New People's Army (NPA) territory in Bukidnon. The Armed Forces naturally honored the two as heroes while the NPA denounced them as "fascist soldiers." Citing historical precedents in global military history, Santos asserts that "Fighting for your country or people does not mean fighting with hatred or renouncing honor." He knows whereof he speaks. Santos was once a student activist who became a human rights lawyer, a judge and author, who has seen and written about "both sides now."

*****

If you have recently been at JFK International Airport in New York, you must have seen the giant photographs of world-renowned Filipina documentary photographer, artist, and now an author Xyza Cruz Bacani. A former OFW in Hong Kong, Bacani has since emerged as a force in amplifying the voices of migrant women globally, through her art, her photographs and her writings. Our New York-based writer Elaine J.E. Degale profiles this extraordinary Filipina in "Xyza Cruz Bacani's Empathetic Lens."

*****

Following her four-year stint as Executive Chef of Seattle's famous, 75-year-old restaurant Canlis, Aisha Ibrahim is on the cusp of a new culinary direction, this time to promote Mindanaoan cuisine either in Los Angeles or New York. Born in Iligan City, she was six years old when her family immigrated to the US. Chef Aisha has since been recognized by the culinary world as one of the best chefs in the country. PF Correspondent Anthony Maddela follows her evolution in "What’s Next on Star Chef Aisha Ibrahim’s Plate?"

*****

PF Publisher Mona Lisa Yuchengco's list of notable Filipino Americans is on its 66th iteration and still going. It's a never-ending list because Filipino Americans are doing, accomplishing, making waves, and contributing to the American tapestry in extraordinary ways.

Read It Again

The Enigmatic Poetess by Gemma Nemenzo

Pianist Cecile Licad Is a National Treasure by Pablo A. Tariman

The Bold Soprano by Gaby C. Gloria

[Video of the Week] 90-Year Old Filipino Historian Reveals a Secret within our Ancient Language