May Your Wishes All Come True

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We wish you a happy, healthy and bountiful 2025. May all your dreams and desires come true this coming year.

This issue marks our 12th year of publication and, as is our wont, we begin by thanking you for the support and encouragement you've given us through all these years. We are still the same group of four that ventured into the digital publication field after years of being in print media. It took quite a lot of learning and tweaking to gain confidence in this new arena. We can't really say we've mastered this; new technologies are coming up swiftly -- too swiftly -- for us to catch up. But we're still here and our goal of bringing the massive, complex Filipino diaspora together via our shared stories remains.

We hope you'll continue to be with us as we navigate the uncertain world that is upon us in 2025. Let's start our trek to the future by looking back to what we are leaving behind, what we've gone through and who we have lost in 2024.

And for a bit of whimsy, we're including some fun items from our first month of being-- January 2013.

This Week’s Stories

The Year of Breaking Up Badly by Ernesto M. Hilario

In Memoriam 2024 by Mona Lisa Yuchengco

The Most-Read Stories of 2024

Read Agains from January 2013:

“Opo Pinoy Style” Infects the Internet

Sex and the Senate by Marilen J. Danguilan

Come Join Me in Portugal by Tiago Gutierrez Marques

[Video of the Week] Chef Lord Maynard Llera

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Staff

Happy Holidays from Positively Filipino!

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To all our loyal readers who make every year worth celebrating,
A peaceful and joyous Christmas and holiday season!

- Lisa, Rene, Gemma and Raymond

This week’s stories

Mary Jane Veloso Comes Home in Time for Christmas by Rene Astudillo

FilAms Among The Remarkable And Famous, Part 64
by Mona Lisa Yuchengco

[Act Against Hate] FilAm Youth Overcoming Adversity by Gail M. Kong and Dr. Hazel Benigno

[Video of the Week] Sugar Pie DeSanto Rocks

In The Know

Maui fire delayed but didn’t stop opening of Filipino food truck
https://asamnews.com/2024/12/18/tagpuan-bounces-back-after-lahaina-fires/ 

Up for a thrilling experience? This glass walkway is opening in Batangas
https://philstarlife.com/living/647228-montemaria-glass-walkway-opening-batangas?

Pampanga’s lantern legacy lights up in Italy
https://www.rappler.com/philippines/luzon/pampanga-lantern-legacy-lights-up-italy/

Why are Fewer Tourists Going to Boracay?
https://www.esquiremag.ph/life/travel/boracay-fewer-tourists-a7940-20241220?

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Staff

Our Compatriots in the Middle Kingdom

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Once upon a time, in the late 1960s and early '70s, friendship organizations in what was then known as Red China, actively invited Filipino students to visit their country. This was before diplomatic relations between the Philippines and China was established so the students had to leave Manila surreptitiously. When Ferdinand Marcos suspended the writ of habeas corpus in 1971 and came out with an arrest list of dissidents, some student leaders who were in China then were stranded. One of them was Jaime FlorCruz, then the editor of the student newspaper of PCC (now PUP); the two others were Chito Sta. Romana, the president of the De La Salle Student Council, and Eric Baculinao, UP Student Council president.

The three lived in exile in China for more than a decade, unable to return to their homeland because they faced arrest. Their exile years weren't wasted years though: they all learned to read, speak and write Mandarin like a native; produced books in Chinese; and gained very deep and valuable insight into Chinese culture and politics. All three became international journalists: FlorCruz with CNN, Sta. Romana with ABC and Baculinao with NBC. 

Their China expertise didn't go unnoticed by the Philippine government. Sta. Romana became the Philippine ambassador under Duterte, until his untimely passing in 2022. Now, under Marcos Jr., FlorCruz is the ambassador. But he remains a journalist at heart. In our lead story this week, Ambassador Jimi writes about some Filipinos who have found their niches and thrived in China, where almost 13,000 of our kababayans now live. 

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One man's dream of a retirement place surrounded by trees has evolved into a showcase of rare Philippine trees. Victor O. Ramos, former secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, now spends his time in his arboretum in Pangasinan, where PF contributing writer Rene Navarro, an old college friend, visited and was amazed. Here's what he saw.

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Quilters are a rare breed and a mother-and-son quilting partnership is rarer still. But Mik Gaspay and his mother May are not just any other quilter. They are artists who see themselves as documentarians of memories. Read this enlightening feature on quilting and history by first-time PF contributing writer, Liana Garcellano.

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Want to join a Filipino Simbang Gabi online? Scroll down to our list below of In The Know links. Rappler is live streaming the daily dawn mass of the Archdiocesan Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Mandaluyong City. 

More This Week

Read Again:

The Birth of Simbang Gabi in San Francisco by Manzel Delacruz
My Tarlac Lights Up the World With Belenismo by Elizabeth Ann Quirino

[Video of The Week] This Short Film Will Make You Miss Your Lola

In The Know

LIVESTREAM: Simbang Gabi 2024
https://www.rappler.com/philippines/video-simbang-gabi-december-2024/

First Filipino winner of ‘The Voice’ stays humble under the spotlight
https://asamnews.com/2024/12/17/philippines-reality-tv-michael-buble-sofronio-vasquez/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup

Family of gay son who died in SF demands feds investigate case as bias crime
https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=news&sc=news&id=336577

Journalist Atom Araullo wins game-changing civil suit vs red taggers
https://www.rappler.com/philippines/journalist-atom-araullo-wins-civil-suit-vs-red-tagging/? 

Sharing the mission of Good Shepherd
https://plus.inquirer.net/news/sharing-the-mission-of-good-shepherd/? 

The Untold Story of the Igorots' Revolt 
https://www.esquiremag.ph/long-reads/features/the-untold-story-of-the-igorots-revolt-

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Staff