Maniolas

INQUIRER.net U.S. Bureau By: Esther Misa Chavez, September 9th, 2015 01:32 AM Over-All Champions, father and son, Jaden Dumdumaya (9 years old) and his dad, Stan Dumdumaya, with their trophies. Behind are Chito Desuasido, Maria Banatao and Sonny Manuel at the PhilDev golf-wine fundraiser. PHOTO BY ESTHER CHAVEZ SAN FRANCISCO — Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev), a Menlo Park, California-based nonprofit, raised $75,000 at its successful Inaugural Golf Tournament on August 29 at wine country’s Chardonnay Golf Club in American Canyon, California. The amount will be matched by the group’s founder, Dado Banatao. In addition to welcoming 114 golfers, PhilDev also hosted a sold-out wine tour and a dinner-dance affair, attended by over 300 guests. Supported by over 30 volunteers, it was the first time that such a 3-in-1 event was held, with rave reviews from all the attendees. Golfers were delighted to find their custom goodie bags overflowing with gifts and snack items. Winning opportunities ran the gamut from “nearest to the pin” in all Par 3 holes to two “Hole-in-one” prizes: a brand-new Toyota Camry and a one-week get-away in Kauai (no one made a whole-in-one though.) Drinks were available including complimentary beers at the 10th hole hosted by Morgan Stanley. A full house at Grove Ballroom. PHOTO BY TOM NELSON The wine tour was a huge success, with PhilDev arranging exclusive wine tasting and cellar tour stops at premium wineries Silver Oak Winery and Whitehall Winery in Napa. A final stop at Cellar Collections introduced attendees to a variety of new wines. Read More …

INQUIRER.net U.S. Bureau September 2nd, 2015 01:31 AM DELANO, California — The 50th anniversary of the historic Delano Grape Strike initiated by Filipino farm workers will be celebrated with a series of events over Labor Day Weekend, September 5 and 6, in Delano. Dubbed “Bold Step,” the weekend hosted by the newly formed Delano chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) and its parent organization will commemorate the Filipino workers’ momentous decision to strike, which left a legacy of activism in the Filipino American community in Delano and across the nation. The weekend’s events will kick off on Saturday, September 5 at the Filipino Community Hall, the historic building where the strike vote was taken and the headquarters of the first years of the Grape Strike. The program will include a keynote by Rob Bonta, the first Filipino American elected to the California State Assembly, and presentations by strike veterans, scholars, community activists and local community leaders. Highlight A highlight of the weekend will be a screening of the Emmy-award winning documentary, Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers. New York-based filmmaker Marissa Aroy, whose family roots are in Delano, will be present. The weekend will also include cultural performances and bus tours of local historic sites. The Delano Grape Strike began on September 8, 1965, when thousands of mostly Filipino American grape workers, led by Larry Itliong, walked off of the vineyards in Delano. The strike sparked the farm labor movement of the 20th century, Read More …

INQUIRER.net U.S. Bureau/U.K. Correspondent By: Melissa Legarda Alcantara, September 1st, 2015 02:13 AM Filipina OFW contestant in Binibining Pilipinas Israel, from the film “Binibining Promised Land.” FILM CLIP LONDON — A long excerpt from Turkish director Köken Ergun’s short film, “Binibining Promised Land” (2010), which features an interview with Marylou Sulit Muga, a Filipina caregiver based in Israel, screened at a contemporary art film exhibition Wednesday, August 26 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Central London. Ergun’s original documentary, which runs 37 minutes, explores the lives of predominantly female Filipino caregivers based in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa. Opening with shots from a lively Binibining Pilipinas Israel competition, the film tells of OFWs enduring poor working and living conditions but emphasizes the positive social lives they lead in spite of their restricted circumstances. Israel-based OFW Marylou Sulit Muga in “Binibing Promised Land” by Kôken Ergun. FILM CLIP Muga, who cares for an elderly Israeli woman in Tel Aviv, discusses her loneliness at being in a foreign country and thanks the community spirit of her fellow OFWs for alleviating her sadness. “To the Filipino people, everywhere you go, we are one big family,” says Muga. “Filipinos [are] the most resilient and happiest in the world.” Although Muga gets only three single hours of free time every week, she remains grateful for the chance to see her friends and to write articles for the Filipino-Israeli magazine, Pinoy na Babasahin. “There [are] handsome dollars here in Israel,” says Muga. Curator Anna Miyoung Kim Read More …

By: Luis Francia, August 22nd, 2015 02:37 AM NEW YORK CITY— Last month, I spent a little more than a week in the Visayas. I wanted to see what Tacloban was like in the year and a half after super-typhoon Yolanda ravaged it mercilessly, and how Bohol was dealing with the devastation—complete in some instances—of historic Spanish-era churches due to an earthquake a month before Yolanda. Most signs of devastation that rendered the capital of Leyte a series of apocalyptic scenes are long gone, though my taxi driver from the airport reminded me of what it must have been like, when he recounted matter-of-factly five deaths in his family, including his mother and two nieces. Life goes on, as it must, and Taclobanons don’t lie around, bewailing the (mis)fortunes of their city. They put their heads down and go about the daily business of working or studying or whatever it is they need to do or accomplish to get from one day to the next. Still, an air of forlornness and decrepitude pervades the city. It’s easy of course to paint the mayor, Alfredo Romualdez—nephew of octogenarian and former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos—as your traditional trapo, with more than sufficient evidence to justify doing so, but that is too easy a game. Enough slings and arrows have been hurled his way, and it’s a sure bet more will follow. The good citizens, and not just in Tacloban but I daresay in other towns and cities across the archipelago, know Read More …