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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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NEW YORK --- The Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI) voted Dan de Guzman as the Grand Marshal of this year’s Philippine Independence Day Parade.
This year’s parade commemorates the 108th anniversary of the declaration of Philippine independence.
De Guzman, a successful business entrepreneur and real estate manager, is an active leader and volunteer in the tri-state area’s Filipino-American community.
He is a ballroom dancing aficionado who pioneered ballroom dancing as a major recreational activity in the Filipino-American social scene. He founded and is the current president of the elite Starlight Ballroom Dancers Association.
De Guzman was also recently voted president-elect of the Federation of Philippine Societies in New Jersey, Inc., an umbrella organization of component associations in the state.
In other community volunteer endeavors, de Guzman has supported and assisted local organizations in their projects, including the medical-surgical missions of the Association of Philippine Physicians in America (APPA).
He is the founder and first president of the UST Engineering Alumni Association, having graduated from that school with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering.
De Guzman also loves to play golf. He is an active member of the Samahang Pilipino Golf Club and the Swag Golf Club. His love for golf and ballroom dancing has brought him numerous citations and awards for these occupations, capped by winning a “Top Amateur” title in a leading Professional Amateur ballroom dancing contest.
The 2006 Grand Marshal’s first love, he readily professes, is his family. He is a devoted husband, father and grandfather. He is married to Dr. Daisy de Guzman, an internist who maintains a highly successful private practice in Newark, New Jersey.
The couple have two children; Michael, a BS Business graduate, and Michelle, a physician’s assistant married to Dr. Mojares, also an internist. The latter couple has two sons.
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WashingtoN, D.C. --- The Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) is accepting applications for the organization’s second scholarship competition.
Asian and Pacific Islander Americans who are entering college for the first time in the fall of 2006 are eligible, provided that they are United States citizens or permanent residents. The deadline for submission of applications is February 15, 2006.
In its first full year of operation, APIASF distributed $330,000 to 165 applicants during the 2005-2006 academic year.
This year, APIASF plans to match that level, and will increase the number of scholarships awarded if additional funds are secured. Previous scholarship recipients have came from 30 states, the District of Columbia, and several of the Freely Associated States in the Pacific.
They have followed courses of study ranging from the sciences, to the arts, to the humanities, to education, and hospitality fields. They have excelled at two-year colleges, as well as four-year colleges.
And they have been drawn from more than a dozen ethnic communities, including Filipino, Cambodian, Chamorro, Chinese, Hmong, Japanese, Laotian, Korean, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, South Asian, and Vietnamese.
“Many Asian and Pacific Islander Americans encounter huge obstacles in obtaining higher education,” said Robert Underwood, Chair of APIASF, who is a former Congressman from Guam and former Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. “Many of our scholars are the first in their families to attend college, and are from low-income backgrounds.
Many are also recent arrivals to the US from countries where only the wealthy had access to higher education.
The U.S. Census shows that several of the ethnic groups with the lowest academic achievement rates are Asian or Pacific Islander American, and they need a helping hand.
APIASF was formed to see that all Asian and Pacific Islander Americans have the opportunity to pursue a higher education, regardless of their ethnicity, national origin, or financial means.”
APIASF’s scholarship recipients must have a minimum 2.7 grade-point average. Each scholarship award is for $2,000. Awards are made on the basis of academic record and plans, community service, financial need, and leadership. Scholarship decisions will be announced in May of 2006.
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San Francisco, CALIFORNIA --- The University of San Francisco Center for the Pacific Rim announces a new fellowship program for Filipino journalists.
Beginning in the Fall of 2006, the Yuchengco Fellows Program for Young Professionals in the Media will select one Fellow per semester to study in San Francisco, and offer a stipend of up to $27,500 to cover expenses including travel, lodging, room and board.
The Yuchengco Fellows Program is designed to:
(1) Support young Filipino journalists of accomplishment and talent and provide an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the Philippine diaspora;
(2) Provide tools to improve and elevate their journalistic skills; and
(3) Produce a body of journalistic work on issues related to the Philippine diaspora that the USF Center for the Pacific Rim can share with the broader public, including students, faculty and a global audience.
Applicants must be of Filipino nationality or ethnicity between the ages of 28 and 35. The deadline for applications for the 2006 Fall semester is March 31, 2006.
The program was generously funded by Philippine Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco for a period of three years. Ambassador Yuchengco also established the Ma. Elena Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program at USF in 1998, in memory of his daughter who graduated summa cum laude from USF.
“There are EIGHT million Filipinos working overseas, in almost every country in the world,” said Barbara Bundy, executive director of the Center for the Pacific Rim.
“Labor is one of the Philippines’ top exports, and this migration has created a new middle class for the country. But the stories of these people are not being told; the sacrifices are not being recognized; and the emerging family and socio-economic conflict is not being addressed. Journalists can play crucial roles in shaping public opinion and policy, and in bringing these stories and issues to the attention of people of influence,” she said.
For more information on eligibility and application requirements, please call the USF Center for the Pacific Rim at (415) 422-6357 or visit www. pacificrim.usfca.edu.
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NEW YORK --- Noted concert pianist Raul Sunico , who is now dean of the Conservatory of Music of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, will perform at a gala piano recital on April 22, 2006 for the benefit of the Chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz.
This was announced by Rev. Erno Diaz, director of the Chapel, who is spearheading a major fundraising campaign for the Chapel that has been officially designated for the Filipinos by Cardinal Edward Egan, Archibishop of New York.
The recital will take place in the Cathedral High School auditorium on 56th Street and 1st Avenue. at 2:00 pm.
Sunico, a former trustee of the Philippine Pastoral Center, will fly to New York from Manila just to do the exclusive benefit piano recital.
Father Diaz said he is calling on the friends of Raul Sunico and the Philippine Pastoral Center to patronize the piano recital.
Father Diaz also said he is forming a special recital committee from among friends of Raul Sunico, past and present trustees and volunteers of the Philippine Pastoral Center.
Former PPC volunteer Flora Libay, presently based in Los Angeles, has been asked by Father Diaz to help coordinate the committee. Those who are interested to join the committee can call Father Diaz at 212- 966-1019.
The San Lorenzo Chapel, now on its fifth month, needs repair, said Fr. Diaz.
The fundraising campaign will have three phases, namely: first, the commemorative donors’ campaign; second, the founding donors campaign; and third, the general campaign.
A commemorative donor adopts or sponsors a specific feature like a chapel pew or Stations of the Cross or a specific chapel program or project.
For more information on the commemorative opportunities and the campaign in general, call Fr. Diaz at 212-966-1019.
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