Maniolas

Expat Rovaira Dasig Rovaira Dasig remembers when she first saw Monday Street and the house in Mandaluyong to where her mother had been sending balikbayan boxes packed with American goods for as long as she could remember. “I felt really tall,” Dasig, who stands about five-foot-three, says. The roads were cramped, the rooms were tiny, the ceilings low, everyone was shorter than she was. She saw a kid pooping in the street. The houses were made of exposed cement blocks, cobbled together as materials became available. Everything was bathed in the cold, dim light of cheap fluorescent bulbs. That neighborhood, where she might have grown up if her mother hadn’t made their way to the United States, isn’t a slum. The people who live there own their homes and have decent, working-class jobs. But it’s a far cry from where she grew up in America. The small town where her mother eventually settled the family sits at the foot of Mount Rainier, outside Seattle. The air was clean, and it was the sort of place that had homecoming football games, county fairs and Daffodil Princess contests. It was a place where Dasig could grow up and be class president and valedictorian, then study economics at Wellesley College, the elite East Coast institution. The Pulse website at http://pulse.ph/ (Source: pulse.ph) Binan-born Dasig, 26, was born in Biñan, Laguna, and moved to America as a toddler. Her life has followed the trajectory imagined by every Filipino ever to have applied for an immigrant visa at the US Read More …

Lines of immigrants applying for special driver’s license now a common sight in California DMV branches. SAN MATEO, California — No more pedaling the bicycle or ridesharing with relatives and friends to work or to bring the children to school. This month, the Department of Motor Vehicles started issuing special licenses to people who cannot prove their legal presence in the country. So-called irregular Filipino immigrants are among the people joining the long lines of applicants for a California driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Roughly, one in four Filipinos are undocumented in the US, said Joanna Concepcion, of the Filipino Migrant Center, “and it’s important that Filipinos are well-informed about how this new law could benefit them. “ Since January 1, when AB60 — the Safe and Responsible Driver Act — became law, thousands of undocumented immigrants have applied for driver’s licenses. California joins nine other states to grant undocumented immigrants access to licenses but with applicable limitations. Immigrant advocates say some applicants who previously held licenses under Social Security numbers that were not their own have been told they will need to meet with a DMV investigator. Undocumented immigrants who fraudulently obtained a California driver’s licenses before it was legal won’t be able to a new car until state authorities review their driving records. The DMV expects to field 1.4 million applications in the fist three years of the program aimed at boosting road safety and making immigrants’ lives easier. According to Seth Ronquillo, of Asian Read More …

Michelle Serrano (second from right) with her supportive family. PHOTO BY MARISA ROQUE TORONTO, Ontario — Michele Serrano has always been drawn to “conceptualizing, creating and building.” While growing up, she wanted to be an architect and her art projects were good enough to go on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario and other government buildings. She then acquired a string of professional titles in business and immigration. Now, Michelle Serrano has gone full circle, back to her love of conceptualizing, creating and building, and combining them with her desire to help others. Serrano is running to secure the nomination as the federal Liberal Party’s ‎ candidate in Scarborough South West for the upcoming federal election. If she gets the nod to be the federal Liberal Party’s person, her name will go on the federal election ballot. And If she wins that election — no one knows when the Prime Minister will call for federal elections — she will be the Member of Parliament representing the riding of Scarborough SW. “You get sick of hearing people being taken advantage of.  You can’t keep complaining and not do anything about it,” she says. So this time the residents of Scarborough South West, where she grew up, may become the recipients of her talent and expertise in crafting doable strategies for government and the framework in which to build them. “Having grown up in Scarborough South West, I am aware of the different issues that matter to the constituents of the area. I intend to Read More …

Wesley So (left) shakes hand with Anish Giri of the Netherlands in the Tata chess tournament in Wijk ann Zee, the Netherlands. CHESSDOM.COM PHOTO LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Wesley So bowed to an old nemesis, grandmaster Anish Giri of the Netherlands after an epic, eight-hour battle ending in his first loss. But he remained just one point behind the tournament leader with one round left in the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk ann Zee, the Netherlands. Giri beat So after 111 moves in the 12th round, handing the Filipino his first loss in about a year and grabbing solo second with eight points behind Margnus Carlsen, who is showing the way with 8.5 points. The 20-year-old Giri, the youngest in the tournament, outplayed So in a queen-and pawn endgame, promoting a distant passed as the Filipino grandmaster gallantly held on, hoping for at least a perpetual check to draw the game. Despite the loss, his first since April 2014 – a span of 55 games – the 21-year-old So remained within striking distance with 7.5 points, a point behind Carlsen, the Norwegian world champion who drew his 12th round match. So will play the white pieces against another Dutch player, Loek Van Wely, in the 13th and last round today, Sunday. Giri, who beat So in 2010, also in Wijk ann Zee – “when we were kids”, So said – jumped to No. 5 in the world in live rating, with 2797.2, ahead of former world champion Vishy Anand, while Read More …

Wesley So (left) plays white against Ivan Saric of Croatia in the Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk ann Zee, the Netherlands. CHESSDOM.COM PHOTO LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Wesley So crushed Ivan Saric of Croatia in the 11th round and crept closer to the top of the standings of the Tata Steel chess super-tournament in Wijk ann Zee, the Netherlands. The 21-year-old So took out the Croatian grandmaster in only 26 moves of a Ruy Lopez to grab solo second with 7.5 points, only half a point behind the tournament leader, world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway. “Anything is possible,” said the Bacoor, Cavite-born So, now playing under the US flag, in a post game interview. “Having the opportunity to win the tournament is simply amazing. It’s something I could not envision before the tournament.” It was So’s fourth win against seven draws to remain as the only player in the 14-man tournament without a loss. The victory also pushed up So’s live rating — daily updates of the chess ratings of top world chess players, usually updated within a game in a top tournament, and based on official FIDE ratings — to 2788 points. That also pushed So as the top US player, 12 points better than the erstwhile highest-rated player, Hikaru Nakamura. Although no official records are kept, close followers of So’s career said it was the 54th straight game, dating back to the fourth round of the 2014 Bill Wright Saint Louis Open that So has not Read More …