Free Republic

Is Duterte running for US Congress? He is, but it’s not that Duterte. Republican Filipino-American Edwin Duterte has joined the race for California’s 43rd Congressional District in next year’s US midterm election. While the Philippine president, who shares his last name with Edwin, is widely popular in the Philippines, it will be an uphill climb for the newbie Republican. He will be running against veteran Democrat politician Maxine Waters, who has served in the US House of Representatives since 1991. Waters won the 2016 election by 76.1 percent against her Republican rival. The district covers several cities in Los Angeles...

AS the administration of President Donald Trump begins to take action, the White House has begun filling out its staff to serve the president for the next four years. One of the newest members of the White House Office of the Press Secretary includes Ninio Fetalvo, a 23-year-old Filipino American, who will serve as an assistant press secretary. Fetalvo, who previously worked as the Asian Pacific American press secretary for the Republican National Committee (RNC), will work alongside three other assistant press secretaries. These assistants then work under three deputy press secretaries who report to Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Fetalvo’s...

George Conway, a Filipino American corporate lawyer and husband to US President-elect Donald Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, is being eyed as the next solicitor general of America. Bloomberg and CNN both reported that Conway is on the shortlist of candidates being considered for the third-highest post in the US Justice Department. If Trump appoints Conway to the post, the corporate lawyer will become the first Asian-American solicitor general. While Conway has yet to comment on the matter, CNN reported that he is likely accept the position once Trump himself taps him to be the US government’s top appellate lawyer....

SAN FRANCISCO – About 30 Filipino-American seniors from all over the Bay Area gathered Thursday morning at a community center in a largely Filipino enclave in the heart of San Francisco’s South of Market district. Along with their regular breakfast and a mental health workshop, Rudy Asercion, who directs the West Bay Filipino Multi-Services Inc., also served up a good dose of politics, rallying them to register and vote. He also invited them to the center that evening to watch the vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan in their first and only televised debate. A recent national survey...

In October 2000, at a whole-day conference in New York organized by the Association of Asian American Advertising Agencies (A5), the forerunner of the Asian American Advertising Federation (3AF), "the business case for Asian American marketing" was the focus of discussion. The organizers of the conference wanted to call attention to the importance of Asian Americans as a consumer market and to the fact that this was not reflected in the segment’s share of advertising dollars being spent by corporate America. Ironically, while speaker after speaker spoke in glowing terms about the buying power of Asian Americans, not one touched...

A group of Filipinos and Filipino-Americans is preparing a 500 million-dollar class suit against ABC Network in the United States in response to a slur against Philippine medical schools and Filipino medical professionals, aired in the premiere episode of the fourth season of “Desperate Housewives”. In that episode, the character Susan Mayer (played by actress Teri Hatcher) questioned the credentials of her gynecologist over a disputed diagnosis. Mayer said she wanted to check the doctor’s diploma to make sure it didn’t come “from some med school in the Philippines”. The class suit is being filed by the Northern California chapter...

Plans to condemn Southern Baptist church proceed after 6-0 vote for eminent domain Mar 14, 2006 By Erin Roach Baptist Press LONG BEACH, Calif. (BP)--Another step was taken toward the destruction of the Filipino Baptist Fellowship building March 13 when the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Board voted 6-0 to condemn the church in order to build condominiums, despite testimonies from community members regarding the public good that flows from the religious institution. “I had no illusions that we were going to stop the vote, but what was most discouraging yesterday was the utter lack of any evidence on why this...

Charlotte, Feb. 09, 2005 (CNA) - The Catholic Church in the southern U.S. is flourishing and growing at an impressive rate. But its rebirth in the historical Protestant Bible Belt is not only about numbers in the pews, but the creation of a Catholic culture and a strict adherence to Catholic teachings, says a report by journalist Tim Padgett. Catholics make up about 12 percent of the South’s population. While still quite low, Catholics saw growth of almost 30 percent in the 1990s, compared with less than 10 percent for Baptists, who make up the area’s largest denomination. Reported Padgett....

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (AP) - Standing in the hangar bay of this mammoth aircraft carrier, Seaman Joviena Kay looks across the waves toward the devastated coast of Sumatra, remembering a time 13 years ago when she huddled on the same deck with evacuees from another great Asian disaster. Joviena was 6 years old then, a refugee from a volcano. The Filipino-American eventually joined the U.S. Navy, and she is serving on the ship that rescued her as its sailors help the survivors of an earthquake and tsunami. ``It's horrible, what happened to those people out there,'' she says...

The Daily Herald Northwest, North and Western Chicago Suburbs) is seeking Philippine-born W.W. II veterans now living in the West and Northwest suburbs (again Chicago) for a commemoration of Gen. MacArthur's return landing there 60 years ago. If you or someone you know fits that description, please contact email Mike Comerford, or call 847-427-4568. (E-mail address is mcomerford@dailyherald.com)

HERO’S BURIAL: Gen. John MacDonald, official representative of the US army, hands over the American flag to Helen Therriem, mother of Fil-American US army specialist Solomon Bangayan (inset) who was killed in action in Iraq earlier this month. Bangayan was given the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal as he was buried in his hometown of Sudipen in La Union yesterday.

<p>The day after President Bush announced his temporary-worker proposal, the phone began ringing off the hook at David Dai's office in Tempe. It hasn't stopped since.</p> <p>Most of the hundreds of calls Dai has received over the past week are from Asian immigrants in the Valley wondering how Bush's proposal could affect them.</p>

Former Navy SEAL fights deporting of adopted son By JON FRANK, The Virginian-Pilot © January 3, 2004 Last updated: 1:11 AM Jim Schombs Anyone interested in trying to help Julius Schombs stay in the country should contact one of Virginia’s U.S. senators. Sen. George Allen 202-224-4024 Web site: allen.senate.gov/email.html Sen. John Warner 202-224-2023 Web site: warner.senate.gov/contact/contactme.htm VIRGINIA BEACH — When Jim Schombs returned to the United States from the Philippines in 1986, he brought with him a new wife and her 5-year-old son, Julius. Mother and son were natives of the faraway island of Negros Occidental, and Schombs wanted...