The retired Commodore Alcaraz comments that despite the paradox of America being a traitor (as far as rescinding the law giving veterans benefits to the few thousands of aging Filipino veterans who fought alongside the Americans during WWII) and a benefactor to the Filipinos, Americans are still loved by the Filipinos in general. The reason, he says, is that the Filipino people are a loving and forgiving people. He also told the Orange County reporter that had the Filipino soldiers possessed the mentality of Osama bin Laden, the veterans could have used many years ago an American airplane to attack the Sears Towers in Chicago or the White House to show our tantrums, as the Filipino veterans were just "discarded" like Bin Laden when US interest switched sides. Every nationality, from the Italians to the Koreans who fought with the Americans, got veteran benefits except the Filipinos! It is ironical and the height of hypocrisy, really, that America refused to honor its commitment to the Filipino veterans amid its wealth.
Right now, the US is spending a billion a day in the war against terrorism worldwide; the cost of this Filipino veterans’ benefit package is but a drop in a huge budget bucket.
Another Filipino-American in Huntington Beach, Efren B. Marfil, who found life in America more desirable than life as a businessman-realtor in the Philippines, says that he desires that the Philippines become the 51st state of the United States, so that we can become more progressive with the American system of government and the way business is conducted. (Efren, dream on! With the geo-politics of the world right now, this scenario of the Philippines becoming a part of the United States will never happen.)
When President Gloria Arroyo sees or calls her buddy in the White House, she should remind President Bush about this very minute yet very important issue about the Filipino veterans’ benefits before all the Filipino veterans die. Like the US government’s reparations to the Japanese people who were sent to concentration camps during WWII, it is better late than never. I hope this Republican president will have the guts to close this sore issue between the Filipino people and the American government.
After high school, thousands of students who are not bound for UC or CSU, or any of the private universities like Harvard, USC or Stanford enroll and obtain their junior college education in a community college. After two years of general education in a local community college, many of them transfer and pursue their higher education in either the CSU or the UC system. Every quarter, thousands of adults also enroll in community colleges in various fields of interest, from advertising trends to zoology, in their pursuit of life-long learning.
With that brief background, this Sunday, I felt very proud and happy to read a feature story with a headline "Honoring a Heritage" in the Local Section of our Orange County Register about the Filipino-American students at UCI asserting their rights to have more classes about their Filipino language and culture. Close to 50 percent of the student population of UCI, jestingly called "University of Chinese Immigrants," is Asian. Out of its 21,286 population, the breakdown is as follows: White Americans (5,433), Chinese (3,261), Koreans (1,698), Mexican-Americans (1,64l), Vietnamese (1,6l4), Filipinos (1,423), East Indians/Pakistanis (693), other Southeast Asians (639), Latinos (632), Japanese (601), black Americans (435), American Indians (85), Pacific Islanders (64), and others (3,067).
Filipinos make up 6.7 percent of the UCI student population, although Filipinos make up only 1.7 percent of the Orange County population (about 49,000 out of almost three million county residents) and 2.7 percent of the state’s population (nearly one million Filipinos out of the state’s population of about 36 million in 2000). It’s encouraging to note that Filipino families in America – whether the parents are college-educated or not – continue to put education of their children as a top priority.
This phenomenon has been confirmed in our financial planning business among Filipino families where the parents’ investment in their children’s education ranks higher than the funding of their own retirement.
Although the UCI Filipino students do not get college credits for taking this class on Filipino language and history, the demand for this special class is great and has become very popular in the campus. Nic Ramos, a Filipino student leader, puts it succinctly, "Having a class in our Filipino language and history somewhat validates our presence in America." Another student, Michelle Garcia, one in a 43-student class who paid $25 each to subsidize a special teacher who is competent to teach the course says, "I am taking this class because I don’t know that much about my home country. A lot of stuff you learn in the news just makes you ashamed."
Filipino students in America today are indeed luckier and also have become more assertive compared to their "submissive" parents. Just 25 or 35 years ago, Filipino students were told to speak "American" and parents did not encourage their offspring to learn Tagalog or Filipino for fear of "confusing" their kids or that their children might acquire the Filipino "accent" like their first-degree immigrant parents. These days, I hear young Filipino students talking in Tagalog like my own two kids and their cousins. There is now a pervasive feeling that if a young Filipino student cannot talk in their home language, he is not complete and is disconnected with his past. Unfortunately, in the past, it is often the Filipino parents who were more "white-washed" than their children. Thank goodness times are changing for the better!