A BIPOLAR YEAR, to borrow from behavior displayed recently by frequent newsmakers, 2022 sent Filipino Americans on a roller coaster ride.  

Just when vaccines and boosters finally hit the brakes on COVID-19 in the fall of 2021, emboldening folks to unmask and mingle, new coronavirus variants emerged to shift New Year 2022 and subsequent celebrations back to virtual instead of personal, outdoors rather than indoors. And while the last two months stoked pride and joy with long-overdue triumphs in politics, entertainment and sports -- women as prominently as men, recently arrived or several generations born here, millennial and older, biracial or not – some Fil-Ams also hugged headlines for unsavory reasons.

Last year’s big stories show just how immersed in American society are the many and diverse ripples and waves of immigration from the archipelago.

Politically Empowered

Fil-Ams in top offices shook up the establishment.

Voters sealed the deal for California Attorney General Rob Bonta. (Office of the Attorney General)

• Former California Assembly Member Rob Bonta’s sharply vertical political career smashed another barrier when he sealed his already historic appointed position as Attorney General by winning voters’ approval for the seat on Nov. 8. Gov. Gavin Newsom had appointed the Quezon City-born and first Filipino American elected to the State legislature in April 2021 with the departure of Xavier Becerra to join the Biden Administration as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The first Fil-Am elected to the US Congress TJ Cox faces multiple charges of financial and campaign fraud. (TJ COX)

• The FBI arrested former US Congress Member TJ (Terrance John) Cox on federal criminal charges of wire fraud, money laundering, financial fraud and campaign contribution fraud over a five-year period on August 16. The Fresno Democrat faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for wire fraud and money laundering, 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for wire fraud affecting a financial institution and financial institution fraud. He also faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for campaign contribution fraud. The son of Filipino Chinese parentage made history when he was elected to the 21st congressional district of California and became the first Fil-Am elected US Representative in the state. He had defeated David Valadao for the seat in 2018 but lost to the same opponent in 2020.

THE MIDTERM elections catapulted Fil-Ams across the nation to victory, most of the following marking first-ever state posts for one of their own:

• In New York, Democrat Steve Raga won the race for the State Assembly representing the 30th District covering Woodside, Elmhurst, Middle Village, Maspeth, Jackson Heights and Astoria. The former chief of staff of an Assembly Member is a well-known community advocate for equity and social justice as a nonprofit strategist and Fil-Am organizer.

NC House Dist. 41 Rep. Maria Cervania (Photo by ayhan Arfat)

• California native Maria Cervania, a Democrat, an epidemiologist, strategist, and community advocate, was elected District 41 Representative in the North Carolina House. The Cal grad taught Anatomy at Berkeley HS and PE in the Oakland School District while volunteering at the Berkeley Free Clinic before earning her master’s in Public Health in Chicago. She and her husband moved to Austin and then Phoenix before settling down in Cary near Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.

• The results of the 2016 presidential elections drove New Hampshire’s first elected Fil-Am Luz Bay to run for office. She said she “had to do something” when her heartbreak turned to anger as the new administration executed its policies. Born and raised in the Philippines and a naturalized U.S. citizen as recently as 2002, Bay joined the Dover Democrats and launched her successful campaign last year for the New Hampshire House of Representatives to represent Strafford 21. The three-time cancer survivor with a PhD in Educational Measurement and Statistics is a 29-year psychometrician who wants immigrants and people of color to have the same opportunities that sent her to the state legislature.

Tennessee House Dist. 52 Rep. Justin Jones

• Tennessee House Rep. District 52 Rep. Justin Jones calls himself a “servant leader not afraid to put his body on the line for his community.” The Oakland, California-born activist earned a bachelor’s in political science at Fisk University and is on track to gain a master’s in Theological Studies at Vanderbilt University. A Democrat, he was raised by a single mother, who was studying nursing, and his Black and Filipino grandmothers from whom he learned “the importance of community involvement, care for the environment, and spirituality.”

• Nevada House of Representatives District 14 Rep. Erica Mosca is better known as “Ms. Mosca” to her fifth-grade students. The Las Vegas Democrat and UNLV alum is an education advocate who believes, “The opportunity to attain a college education is the foundation, though not prerequisite, for underrepresented students to become diverse leaders of their own communities.”

Genevieve Mina (Source: Anchorage Press)

• Working as political aide to an Alaska Representative honed State House District 19 Fil-Am Rep. Genevieve Mina’s skills in communications and legislation development. The daughter of 1980s Filipino immigrants says she experienced injustice after her father suddenly died and the family ran their assisted living business but could not get health coverage themselves. The late Thelma Buchholdt, the first Fil-Am elected state legislator in Alaska and perhaps the United States, would approve.

Many FilAm incumbents and aspirants won local polls up and down California, Hawaii and other states. See http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/partner-filipino-americans-garnered-historical-victories-during-the-recently-held-midterm-elections

Immigration Scams

PROMINENT Filipinos on both sides of the Continental Divide admitted to committing immigration fraud in the fall.

• Edmonton resident Carlito “Carl” Benito, a Filipino Canadian who had served as a member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly and his son, Charles, pleaded guilty in October of illegally employing Philippine nationals unauthorized to work in Canada because their temporary work permits had lapsed. Authorities accused the Benitos of the illegal hires for two years from July 2016 through their three immigration service consultancies: Triple Maple Leaf Canada, World Immigration Group Corporation and Helping Migrants Canadian Immigration Corp.

• Burien, Washington, resident Katherine De Leon Evaristo received a sentence of two years’ probation for immigration fraud by the U.S. District Court. Evaristo was a US Customs and Border Protection officer who allegedly entered in a fake marriage with an acquaintance for him to gain US citizenship for $20,000. Evaristo allegedly applied for a fiancé visa for the man to enter the US in 2015. They were “married” in San Diego and he applied for citizenship in 2017. They allegedly lied in their 2019 interview. Authorities were alerted to Evaristo’s scheme when she made an inquiry into her fake husband’s immigration status as a new staff at the Office of Field Operations with the CBP. Evaristo was known to be dating someone else when she tried to access her fake spouse’s records, triggering CBP officers’ investigation. She pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced in September.

• Federal authorities say six Philippine citizens arranged a minimum 400 sham marriages that raked in millions of dollars. Massachusetts US Attorney Rachael Rollins announced the indictments in April in Boston, the residence of one of the victims of the alleged ring. “These weddings were not love stories,” Rollins said as she identified Marcialito Biol Benitez as the mastermind. Benitez allegedly used his Los Angeles employment agency as a front, charging from $20,000 to $30,000 per applicant. Named co-conspirators were Engilbert Ulan, Nino Reyes Valmeo, Harold Poquita, Juanita Pacson and Felipe Capindo David.

Fighting AAPI Hate Crimes

Pioneer Fil-Am organizations joined statewide nonprofits in receiving a total $4 million grants to stop hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from the Asian Pacific Islander Equity Fund. The Fund emerged from political and community leaders’ clamor for resources to combat attacks targeting AAPIs that surged during the rise of COVID and political rhetoric scapegoating the population for the spread of the virus.

Filipino Advocates for Justice received $225,000 to combat crimes targeting AAPIs.

• Filipino Advocates for Justice in Oakland and Union City received $225,000 that executive director Geraldine Alcid said would be used for education and healing programs, and

• Philippine News Today led a media group that received $100,000 for outreach that team leader Francis Espiritu said would inform the public of the history of incidents targeting AAPIs and resources for prevention and helping victims.

• California legislators passed the nation’s first-ever Stop AAPI Hate state-level policy “No Place for Hate” engaging transit and businesses in providing safety for AAPI and vulnerable sectors. The two-bill package goes into effect in January 2023.

Foundation Debacle

Beleaguered ex-ZeroDivide President Tessie Guillermo also sat on the San Francisco Health Commission. (Source: SF.gov)

High-profile nonprofit mover Tessie Guillermo led officers and directors of foundation ZeroDivide as respondents in an April 6 stipulated judgment settlement with the California Attorney General for allegations of misspending $606,000 in “restricted donations given for particular charitable programs on unauthorized expenses.” Donations were allegedly used for “…salaries and benefits for all staff, and on other programs that donors expressly did not want to fund,” the office of the AG had said in its complaint filed April 5.

Guillermo, acclaimed in the AAPI community for a career chairing million-dollar nonprofits, headed the San Francisco-based foundation providing technology to low-income communities. It suddenly shut down in 2016 due to financial stress. She served as ZeroDivide president from 2008-2015 and then “Advisory CEO” or “Executive Advisor” from 2015 to about June 2016, according to the AG complaint.

The settlement required the foundation to “dissolve” and banned “two of its officers from leading charitable organizations in California or holding or soliciting charitable donations from Californians for three years.” The respondents also were required to pay over $460,000 in damages, penalties, and other fees.

The respondents denied the allegations in the complaint.

Beauty & Bravery

Gutsy Filipino Italian Ambra Battilana Gutierrez took down a Hollywood mogul. (Screengrab by Cherie M. Querol Moreno)

Before the @metoo movement took fire, Filipina Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez in 2015 wore a wire that helped New York police investigation into various women’s allegations of sexual assault by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. She testified in 2017 in his rape trial in Los Angeles that he had groped her and put his hand up her skirt during a meeting. In 2019 she told her story in Ronan Farrow’s Netflix expose on Weinstein based on his book of the same title “Catch and Kill.” Weinstein on Dec. 19 was found guilty in 3 of 7 charges by several women including Jennifer Seibel, wife of the California governor. Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault in New York. He faces another 24 years in the latest conviction. Gutierrez, whose mother was originally from Calamba, Laguna, has become an activist against sexual assault for which she has been visible on US talk shows. She was 18 when she placed runner-up for Miss Italy. In 2015 she was a Binibining Pilipinas runner-up.

Bongbong Adversaries, Leni Admirers

Fil-Ams simply had to have their say about the May 9 Philippine presidential elections.

• Did more people really protest the New York visit of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. than attended his speech September at the UN General Assembly as photos of empty seats caught on social media show? The protesters also staged a sit-in at the Asia Society and rallied at the Philippine Consulate to air their sentiments.

• In San Francisco about a hundred former political detainees reminded of their experience in the hands of the military while Marcos’ father ruled the Philippines.

• For context, Filipinos in Portland, Oregon, gathered to discuss martial law, watched a film and held a prayer vigil.

Former PH VP Leni Robredo elated Fil-Am fans when she received honors at Harvard and spoke at the Obama Foundation forum. (Source: Obama Foundation Twitter)

• Around the same time, the welcome mat rolled out for former Vice President Leni Robredo who spoke against disinformation at the Obama Foundation’s Democracy Forum. She was also named among five Hauser leaders at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. “At a time when many challenges stem from leadership shortcomings, these Hauser Leaders bring to campus living examples of principled and effective public leadership,” said Deval Patrick, co-director for the Center for Public Leadership and professor of the practice of public leadership. “Though from different experiences, these leaders share values, values applied in practical ways, that they can now share with the Kennedy School community.”

Health

New California State Department of Public Health guidelines announced in January required health care workers who test positive and are asymptomatic for COVID-19 to return to work, minus quarantine or testing. That prompted strong commentary from ever-vigilant and outspoken Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, president of the California Nurses Association. "It's a major disaster waiting to happen," the dauntless union leader declared in the San Diego Union Tribune. "I think it's callous and it's putting our patients and ourselves in grave danger." Legislators let their constituents down by failing to pass universal health care, added Cortez, a Bay Area RN.

Perpetual Honor

Beth Bulos admires the state highway marker honoring her mother. (Photo by Cherie M. Querol Moreno/Inquirer.net)

Known as the “Godmother of Fil-Am Empowerment,” Alice Peña Bulos is now memorialized with two state highway markers bearing her name on Skyline Boulevard (California Route 35) in Daly City from John Daly Boulevard to King Drive abutting the honoree’s home city of South San Francisco. Through the efforts of Daly City Council Member Ray Buenaventura, District 19 Assembly Member Phil Ting and donors who gave $10,000 required to spare public funds, the Alice Pena Bulos Memorial Highway markers were officially unveiled July 16.

Creative Arts Explore Culture

• Filmmaker Reina Bonta graduated from Yale in the spring and escalated community funding outreach in the summer for “LAHI,” her 20-minute photoplay about intergenerational family ties starring her grandmother progressive social activist Cynthia Bonta, mother of Reina’s father, the California Attorney General. LAHI will be streamed in 2023 on Fil-Am producer Dean Devlin’s streaming service Electric Entertainment.

• New York-based children’s book author Sophia N. Lee and illustrator Isabel Roxas on Aug. 30 released their book Holding On about preserving connections with their grandmothers. It is the first Fil-Am picture book published by Simon & Schuster’s Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Descendants of Louisana pioneer FilAm John Rojas star in Lisa Ling’s series on AAPI culture (Photo by Cherie M. Querol Moreno via Inquirer.net

• TV journalist Lisa Ling in January launched “Take Out,” an 8-episode exploration of Asian American & Pacific Islanders and their contributions to American culture on HBO Max. Series opener “Mix Mix” focused on Fil-Ams of Louisiana, specifically Jean Lafitte Town Mayor Tim Kerner and his dad, who took her to what’s left of the Manila Village in the bayous of Jefferson Parish. Hundreds of residents trace their ancestry to John Rojas, a Filipino who helped build the community.

Game of Brawn

Who says Filipinos do not have the physical qualities for professional sports, among other proclivities?

Houston Rockets star Jalen Green visited his maternal ancestral country for the second time. (Photo courtesy of the Houston Rockets)

• Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green revisited his ancestral country in February, enjoying barbecue and motivating Manila youth to keep practicing if they want to play in the NBA.

• Miami Heat Coach Fil-Am Erik Spoelstra and his staff’s best record in the Eastern Conference got them to coach Team Durant at the NBA All-Star game Feb. 20 in Cleveland. They lost to Team LeBron 163-160.

• Remember David Bunevacz? The former UCLA decathlete and actor who became a heartthrob in Manila was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison by a US District court for allegedly raking in about $35 million by defrauding 100 investors in his cannabis vaping enterprise. He was arrested in April and in July pleaded guilty to charges of securities and wire fraud.

Major Screentime

On the big and small screen, Fil-Ams top-billed major productions that toppled racial barriers.

H.E.R. gave Belle a new look in ABC’s Beauty and The Beast. (Source: Disney/ABC)

• H.E.R. (“Having Everything Revealed” aka Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson), the singer-songwriter-winner of multiple Grammys and an Oscar is the first Black and Filipino to play Belle in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration” aired in December on ABC. Fil-Am fans were thrilled to notice the alibata or Philippine alphabet inscribed on the Vallejo, California native’s pinafore costume.

“Easter Sunday” gave a peek into Fil-Am life. (Source: Universal Studios)

• No standup comic packs a hall like JoKoy so expectations ran high when the self-confessed mama’s boy’s first feature film “Easter Sunday” opened in August. Unfortunately, reception fell short of his usual blockbuster attendance, even with support from Stephen Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. Still, Fil-Ams appreciated watching Jokoy’s take on their lives, their love of karaoke and Manny Pacquiao, parties, and photo opps. Or was that only in Daly City?

Closure

Alexis Gabe was missing for almost a year (Photo courtesy of Oakley PD)

The partial remains of Alexis Gabe were found Nov. 3 in Plymouth outside Sacramento after the Fil-Am was reported missing in January. A dentist confirmed the identity of the remains. Gabe was last seen alive at the home of her boyfriend Marshall Curtis Jones in the town of Antioch. Police say she was murdered by Jones, who was killed in June by police about to arrest him in Seattle when he allegedly tried to attack them with a knife.

Partner for Justice

Cissy Marshall fought for social justice alongside her famous husband. (Source: Getty Images)

Civil rights advocate Cecilia “Cissy” Marshall, 94, widow of the first Black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, died Nov. 22 at her home in Falls Church, Virginia. She was born in Maui to Juan and Honorata (Goso) Suyat who immigrated from the Philippines in 1910.

Cherie M. Querol Moreno is Executive Editor of Philippine News Today, Founder-Executive Director of ALLICE, a Commissioner with the San Mateo County Commission on Aging, and a Program Manager with Peninsula Family Service transportation program.

More articles from Cherie Querol Moreno

The Magazine

Fil-Am Milestones & Millstones 2022