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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was celebrated this last Monday. Amid the freezing temperature in the New York area, it was a day to remember the work of a man whose dream was to free African Americans from the yoke of being treated as second class citizens.
These days, African Americans enjoy several federal legislations which provide access and legal protection in the area of public accommodations, housing, voting rights, schools, and transportation.
Through his courageous advocacy, he changed the way America viewed and treated minority citizens, who historically faced racist, restrictive laws as part of their daily living. And thanks to King, we as a community of ethnic origin, who are neither white nor black, received the same rights and privileges as they did.
King, through his speeches and writings, has taught us many things. But aside from his famous I Have A Dream speech he delivered in 1963 to more than 200,000 civil-rights marchers at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., we are reminded of his speech, The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life, he delivered at the New Covenant Baptist Church in Chicago on April 1967.
In that speech, he said: "If life itself is to be complete, it must be three-dimensional." Reflecting from the twenty-first chapter of the book of Revelation, he said that we can fit three words in a complete life that is three-dimensional. These words are: length, breadth and height.
The length of life, he says, is the inward concern for one's welfare, which causes "one to push forward, to achieve his own goals and ambitions." The breadth of life, he says, "is the concern for the welfare of others." And finally, the height of life, he says, "is the upward concern for God." A life that is complete has to have three.
We like to think the life of a community in the same terms. Without these three elements, it wouldn't be as vibrant, united, and strong as it should be. Perhaps King drew his vision of changing the face of America from this principle.
That's a legacy we should all learn from.
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NEW YORK --- It seems the weather has its way of affecting the sense and sensibility of board members of the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI), particularly Sofia Abad and Dr. Baby Bleza. They are having a cold war and both need to chill out.
This unfortunate relationship can be traced from the time Abad lost her bid to become treasurer and Nimia Lacebal, PIDCI president, appointing Abad as Budget and Finance Officer, a post that is not specified in the organization's by-laws.
Adding to this unconstitutional knee-jerk reaction was Lacebal's failure to define the specific role of Abad. To make matters worse, Abad was made a signatory to all checks, which again, was in violation of its by-laws.
Apparently, with the blessings of the president, Abad took such new-found power to duplicate, if not overlap, the functions of Dr. Bleza.
With such a disorderly structure of responsibilities, no matter how subtle Lacebal and Abad may plan to ease out Dr. Bleza from performing her treasury job, a resultant fault-finding would likely occur. And at its board meeting on Jan. 9 held at Lacebal's residence, it happened.
Instead of providing solution to a mistake, Abad came blazing with a three-page memo chastising Bleza for “disregarding procedure in matters of issuance and handling of payments.” Abad recommended to board members that the treasurer “be replaced and be relieved of her duties and responsibilities” immediately. Bleza was not present at that meeting.
The mistake was the absence of another check signatory for three checks that were issued; these were only signed by the treasurer. Abad claimed “this action of her (Bleza) was an intentional deviation from the resolution passed by the board.”
To make a long story short, they are all at fault. If Abad and Lacebal signed a cash disbursement voucher, which was a requirement before any check issuance, why didn't Lacebal signed the check as well?
This business of check issuance happened at an earlier meeting on Jan. 4. With all of them seated together, was it that a big effort? Assuming there was only one signatory, why did Lolit Gillberg, former auditor and overall chair, give the checks to the recipients?
According to inside sources, when Dr. Boy Pangan, another director, previously asked for a check, Lacebal immediately signed it after giving Bleza a run-around. What gives? Are Lacebal and Abad conspiring to put down Bleza?
As it turned out in its meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 19, after Bleza answered Abad's memo in its entirety, Abad was relieved of being a check signatory. Instead, Gani Puertollano, PIDCI vice president, took her place. That was a logical and appropriate action.
What is this I hear that Raul Estrellado was holding some proxy votes that night? Were he and his friends ready to dump Bleza, who he apparently said he “did not respect?” How could Estrellado be so blunt and uncaring?
Has Estrellado lost his sense and sensibility? Or is the in-fighting that's been going on making him edgy and amateurish? If I were Estrellado, I'd go outside of the room and cool off when discussions become heated.
Snide remarks wouldn't help him look smart. Even if he thinks Lacebal is the president who deserves respect, that doesn't make Lacebal spotless from all that is happening in PIDCI. The buck stops with Lacebal.
It appears that Lacebal is out of direction. If she herself has no sense of where to take this organization to, how could she impart sensibility to her board? It's close to a hundred-days now since being president and yet no fund-raising has been initiated. Is she in lullaby-land or is she overwhelmed by all the work that has to be done?
Is Juliet Payabyab influencing a lot of Lacebal's decisions? If she is, it doesn't surprise me why Lacebal is failing in her leadership. No matter how she tries to thaw the cold relationship between Abad and Bleza, it is not working. Well, she did that to herself. Had she not insisted to put Abad in power play, everything would have worked out smoothly.
Is there some sign of sense and sensibility with what is going on in PIDCI?
Send comments to rickyxpres@aol.com or visit Website at PinoyOnBoard.com.
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In my fridge sits a bottle of bagoong that I add to rice, meat or anything to satisfy that craving for the “unknown” – for that occasional “something” Filipino, immigrants like me sometimes look for. It was a gift from Jenny, the same friend who gifted me with Jessica Hagedorn’s latest novel last Christmas in order to satisfy that literary longing for “something Filipino.” And boy did I satisfy that craving and get even more. You know how Pinoys love to throw around the phrase “world class talent?” Hagedorn is definitely that and Dream Jungle proves once again why.
Set in Marcos-Era Philippines, Dream Jungle revolves around two seemingly unrelated events: the discovery of a stone-age tribe living in Southern Philippines and the arrival of an American film crew to make a Vietnam War movie. In the book, we meet a cast of colorful characters including a wealthy Tisoy playboy-adventurer, a poor probinsyana woman who starts out as a maid and ends up an exotic dancer, a Fil-Am writer coming home, and a jaded American actor. The story is told through the different characters with their different accents and life-histories, like voices in a dream – always interesting, surreal-like and yet so focused. The plot seems almost too-weird-to-be true but what is weird is that the book is based on actual events!
Being a Martial Law baby, I immediately recognize the two big events that inspire this novel –Elizalde’s Tasaday Discovery which becomes the Taobo Hoax ; and the film Apocalypse Now which becomes Napalm Sunset. The story is so rich, and Hagedorn tells it so well. For a Filipino like me, the story resonates not only for its historical allusions – but because of its atmosphere and its soul --from her descriptions of seedy bars in the Malate area to the seedy truths about Philippine society. I smile at the conversations between Zamora’s household helpers Sputnik and Rizalina, and at the midget-waiters I am familiar with from the Hobbit House. Everything feels so familiar.
In Dream Jungle, everyone eventually moves on, and some even move away. In real life, though things may have changed in the Philippines after Marcos, many things have remained the same – Filipinos are still obsessed with Hollywood stars and the elite class, politicians are still corrupt, the poor are exploited. And at the heart of it all is the country with her tragic beauty, and her people who somehow manage to be naïve, jaded and hopeful all at the same time.
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Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn, author of Dogeaters, is a New York Times Notable Books. Published by Penguin Books, 2003.
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