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MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021 Serving San Diego Since 1987 • 12 Pages

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DATELINE

FROM THE AJPRESS NEWS TEAM ACROSS AMERICA

CA’s My Turn COVID-19 vaccine scheduling system now available in Tagalog CALIFORNIA’S COVID-19 vaccine scheduling tool My Turn is now available in 12 languages, including Tagalog.

MyTurn.ca.gov — a website that allows the state’s residents to schedule appointments and be notified when they’re eligible — has been updated to include five new languages in an effort to be accessible to more residents, the California Department of Public Health announced on Monday, March 22.

“California’s remarkable wealth of diversity is always top of mind as we create and perfect the tools that will ensure every resident can easily access life-saving COVID-19 vaccines — regardless of the language they

550 East 8th St., Suite 6, National City, CA 91950 Tel: (818) 502-0651 • (619) 474-0588 • Email: info@asianjournalinc.com

CALIFORNIA’S FIRST FILIPINO AMERICAN ATTORNEY GENERAL

Rob Bonta nominated to serve as the state’s top prosecutor

by Christina

M. Oriel

AJPress

CALIFORNIA is set to have its first Filipino American attorney general.

Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Alameda), who

became the first Fil-Am in the state Legislature, is making history again after Governor Gavin Newsom nominated him to be the next chief law enforcement officer on Wednesday, March 24.

“Thank you, Governor Newsom, for the privilege and honor of a lifetime,” Bonta said on Wednesday,

speaking from International Hotel Manilatown Center in San Francisco, surrounded by his family. “I’m so humbled in the trust, faith and the confidence that you placed in me.”

His nomination is subject to confirmation by the

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‘IT FELT LIKE WE FAILED OUR COMMUNITIES TO KEEP THEM SAFE’:

Filipino Americans mobilize to combat anti-Asian hatred across United States

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by Klarize

Medenilla AJPress

Governor Murphy, Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver and local elected officials visited the St. Matthew AME Church in Orange to observe congregants and community members getting vaccinated. Photo by Edwin J. Torres/ NJ Governor’s Office

HISTORIC APPOINTMENT. Assemblymember Rob Bonta (3rd from left) was nominated by Gov. Gavin Newsom (3rd from right) to serve as California’s next attorney general. The announcement was made on Wednesday, March 24 at International Hotel Manilatown Center in San Francisco, the site of the 1977 International Hotel Eviction and the city’s historic Manilatown neighborhood. Joining Bonta and Newsom in photo are Chet Canlas, production manager, Bonta’s mother Cynthia Bonta, Manilatown Heritage Foundation Executive Director Caroline Cabading, foundation boardmember Eleanore Fernandez, and Johnella Fernandez-Payne.

Photo courtesy of Jibril Alvarez/Manilatown Heritage Foundation

NJ pauses reopening as COVID-19 cases spike House passes two immigration bills, sets pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth

NEW confirmed cases continue to rise in New Jersey in the past few weeks, prompting Gov. Phil Murphy to pause the reopening of the state.

Speaking on CNN, Gov. Murphy said Monday that the state battles a surge in COVID-19 variants .

The governor, speaking on CNN, said any further reopenings or capacity increases are on pause in the Garden State because of the increase in virus variants.

“My guess is we won’t be opening up further capacities for some time now … because of the caseload,” Murphy said. “We’ve got

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FEMA to reimburse funeral expenses for some COVID-19 victims THE U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced its plan to offer funeral assistance to families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has brought overwhelming grief to many families. At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters. We are dedicated to helping ease some of the financial stress and burden caused by the virus,” the agency said on its website.

Under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, FEMA has earmarked $2 billion to reimburse individuals and households for COVID-19 related funeral expenses incurred after Jan. 20, 2020.

“We are working with stakeholder groups to get their input on ways we can best provide this assistance, and to en-

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THE U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, March 18 overwhelmingly passed a pair of immigration bills designed to overhaul the American immigration system, including creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.

Commonly known as DREAMers, these undocumented immigrants would earn permanent resident status that would lead to naturalization, according to the American Dream and Promise

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FOR Asian Americans across the country, the events that unfolded on Tuesday, March 16 at three Asian-owned spas in Atlanta punctuated a mounting fear: the community isn’t safe.

A 21-year-old man entered three different massage parlors in the greater Atlanta area and gunned down workers and patrons, killing eight people in total, including six Asian women.

The event was shocking and reverberated beyond

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Report: 83 Filipino registered nurses in the US have died of COVID-19

by Christina

M. Oriel & Ritchel Mendiola AJPress

OVER 80 registered nurses of Filipino descent have died from the coronavirus, making up 26.4% of total RN fatalities in the United States since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a new report.

The National Nurses United on Thursday, March 18 released an update to its September 2020 “Sins of Omissions” report, finding that at least 329 RNs have died of COVID-19 and related complications since the beginning of the pandemic.

March 26 to mark ‘These attacks feel more personal’: #StopAsianHate Virtual California’s Fil-Am chief justice responds Day of Action and Healing u PAGE 4

to violence against Asian Americans

by Ritchel

Mendiola AJPress

CALIFORNIA Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye has condemned the violent attacks against Asians and Asian Americans in the United States.

In a statement issued on Friday, March 19, the Filipina American chief justice shared that the recent hate crimes felt “more personal” since she is a member of the community being targeted.

“Anti-Asian violence, like any violence based on prejudice, bias, or fear of the

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California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye

by Christina

M. Oriel

AJPress

ASIAN American lawmakers and community leaders are observing #StopAsianHate Virtual Day of Action and Healing on Friday, March 26 in the wake of the Georgia shootings that killed eight individuals, including six Asian women, and as nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents have been recorded across the country.

The initiative, first started by Rep. Grace Meng of New York and California Assemblymember

Evan Low, encourages community members, corporations and organizations to speak up and condemn the rise of anti-Asian attacks and discrimination on social media by using the hashtag #StopAsianHate.

“We are asking everyone throughout the country to stand up for Asian Americans during this difficult and challenging time for our community. Everyone must do their part to end these acts of hate — call it out, prevent it, report it. We need every person to step up and stand

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MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021 • SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL

http://www.asianjournal.com • (818) 502-0651 • (619) 474-0588

From The Front Page

‘These attacks feel more personal’...

File photo from October 2019 shows Gov. Gavin Newsom after signing AB32, authored by Assemblymember Rob Bonta, which moved for California to be the first in the nation to ban for-profit, private prisons and civil detention facilities. On Wednesday, March 24, Newsom nominated Bonta to serve as the state’s next attorney general.

PAGE 1 other, is reprehensible. Because of who I am as an Asian-Filipina, because of my parents, my aunties, friends, and connected communities of color, these attacks feel more personal,” said Cantil-Sakauye.

Nearly 3,800 anti-Asian incidents have been reported in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021, according to new data from Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition that tracks such incidents.

Of that number, 503 incidents took place in the first two months of 2021 alone. Some of the attacks have also resulted in deaths like the case of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee, who died from injuries after he was knocked on the ground during a morning walk in San Francisco; and 74-year-old Juanito Falcon who sustained a skull fracture injury after he was punched in the face in an unprovoked attack, as previously reported by the Asian Journal.

Recently, a series of attacks in Atlanta left eight

people dead, six of whom were Asian women.

Cantil-Sakauye, for her part, urged everyone to “do better,” noting the country’s inefficiency in addressing racism.

“We can and must do better. We deepen our understanding by advancing diversity and respecting our differences. In respecting our differences, we strengthen our social contract. In strengthening our social contract, we abide by the rule of law,” she said.

“As we pass and approach many anniversaries relating to the pandemic, it is disheartening that while we have made progress on the virus, the disease of racism remains,” she added.

Cantil-Sakauye is the first Asian American and Filipina American and the second woman to serve as California’s chief justice. She was nominated in 2010 by then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the state’s highest judicial office and was retained in office by voters later that year.

Rob Bonta nominated to serve as the... CA’s My Turn COVID-19 vaccine scheduling...

PAGE 1 California State Assembly and Senate within 90 days, according to the governor’s office.

“Rob represents what makes California great — our desire to take on righteous fights and reverse systematic injustices,” Newsom said in a statement. “Growing up with parents steeped in social justice movements, Rob has become a national leader in the fight to repair our justice system and defend the rights of every Californian. And most importantly, at this moment when so many communities are under attack for who they are and who they love, Rob has fought to strengthen hate crime laws and protect our communities from the forces of hate. He will be a phenomenal Attorney General, and I can’t wait to see him get to work.”

The 48-year-old Fil-Am’s ascension to the top post comes after outgoing Attorney General Xavier Becerra was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 18 to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I stand here because of so many people who come before me, including people like the Asian Americans and Filipino Americans who assembled right here at the International Hotel on August 4, 1977,” Bonta said, crediting his activist parents Warren and Cynthia, who organized against evictions at the San Francisco residential hotel.

This is Newsom’s third historic appointment to a key post since January, following Alex Padilla being tapped to take over Vice President Kamala Harris’ Senate seat, and Dr. Shirley Weber, a former assemblymember, for secretary of state. Padilla became the state’s first Latino U.S. Senator, while Weber is the first African American in her role.

A grassroots campaign within the Filipino American community — and the broader Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community — started in December in a bid to get Bonta appointed following President Joe Biden’s nomination of Becerra as health secretary.

Groups, including Fil-Am advocacy organizations and lawyers associations, sent endorsement letters to Newsom’s office and organized virtual press conferences amplifying Bonta’s work in the legislature.

“Mr. Bonta has demonstrated himself to be one of the most effective and capable leaders in the legislature during his tenure. He has an excellent track record of authoring bold, ground-breaking legislation and building strong coalitions,” a group of over two dozen past and former Fil-Am elected officials wrote in a letter to the governor.

They argued that his experience would be a fit to address the state’s challenges, which include recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, civil rights movement against systemic racism and the rise in hate crimes, including against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

The endorsements also came from notable unions and caucuses, such as the California Faculty Association and the Latino Caucus of California Counties.

High-profile activists and personalities, from CNN’s Van Jones to “Orange is the New Black” actor Diane Guerrero, similarly were vocal in support of the Fil-Am lawmaker on social media.

On a representation level, advocates argued Bonta’s appointment would be a win as California is home to the largest AAPI population in the U.S. with over 5 million. Fil-Ams are among the top two largest Asian ethnic groups in the state with a population of over 1.6 million.

“It’s rare for me [to] make any political endorsements, but I’ve admired @RobBontaCA for years: his support for criminal justice reform and immigrant rights, the multiracial coalition he builds and attracts,” wrote Jose Antonio Vargas, author and immigration activist, in a Feb. 18 tweet. “Representation matters, especially since Filipinos are

often underrepresented in America’s civic life. Filipinos are the largest Asian group in CA––the first Filipinos landed in what is now CA in 1587.”

“Rob makes me proud to be Filipino American in California,” Vargas added.

In recent weeks, following a slew of attacks on Asian Americans, particularly elders, in the state, AAPI lawmakers and activists doubled down on the need for Newsom to appoint a representative from the community.

Of the nearly 3,800 incidents of hate and discrimination since last March, 1,691 (44.5%) were reported in California, according to Stop AAPI Hate. “[Bonta] understands as the son of immigrant parents what it’s like to come to this country when English is not your first language, for example, when there is mistrust of law enforcement,” state Treasurer Fiona Ma said during a press conference on Wednesday, March 17, a day after the Atlanta shooting that claimed the lives of eight individuals, six of whom were Asian women.

Ma, along with other elected officials, said an AAPI attorney general could help mend fears and tensions between immigrant communities and law enforcement.

The state’s API Legislative Caucus, which is comprised of lawmakers in the state Assembly and Senate, came out in support of Bonta after initially recommending four AAPI candidates.

Assemblymember Evan Low, who serves as vice chair of the caucus, said that through the appointment, Newsom “has once again shown his commitment” to the AAPI community.

“Hate crimes targeting the API community have skyrocketed over the last year, and we need a champion who will make the pursuit of justice for these victims a top priority. I have full faith AG Bonta is the right person to meet this moment,” Low said.

Bonta was reportedly among the contenders for attorney general in 2017 when Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. Becerra, then a congressman representing the 34th congressional district in Southern California, was ultimately selected by former Gov. Jerry Brown.

The Fil-Am lawmaker in November 2020 was reelected for a fifth term to represent the state’s 18th Assembly district, which covers the East Bay areas of Oakland, Alameda, and San Leandro. He currently serves as the assistant majority leader, and sits on several committees, including appropriations and health.

Amid the protests over the summer, Bonta introduced a bill to classify racially motivated 911 calls as hate crimes. His legislation record includes a 2019 bill, which was signed into law by Newsom, to phase out the use of all private, for-profit prisons, including both prisons and immigration detention facilities in the state.

In response to the recent hate attacks, Bonta introduced AB 886, which seeks to fund community-based organizations that provide culturally competent mental health services for victims of hate violence and restorative justice programs, and to expand eligibility for victims of hate violence to access compensation funds even if they do not file a police report.

The measure also seeks “to proactively increase the likelihood that an individual who caused the harm would not do additional harm,” Bonta said, as previously reported by the Asian Journal.

On Wednesday, he said one of his top priorities as attorney general would be to build bridges with communities that have “been othered, that have been persecuted, that have been targeted.”

“That will be one of my top priorities — to make sure that we protect those who are facing the forces of hate and that we hold accountable those who perpetrate hate violence against others in our com-

PAGE 1 speak,” said Tomás Aragón, CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer. “The My Turn website and hotline play a key role in alerting Californians when they are vaccine eligible, and helping them schedule an appointment, so we want to ensure it is accessible to everyone.”

The department said 1.6 million appointments have been scheduled through the platform since its launch on Jan. 25.

The website is now available in Armenian, Japanese, Khmer, Punjabi, and Russian, along with languages already offered: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and English.

By going to MyTurn.ca.gov, residents can find out whether they’re eligible for the vaccine by answering a few questions. If they’re eligible, they can schedule an appointment; if not, they can register to be notified when they’re eligible or when appointments open up.

Questions include age range, whether the individual has certain conditions that put them at risk for extreme complications from COVID-19, and what type of industry they work in.

Individuals who do not have access to the internet can sign up for an appointment by calling My Turn’s toll-free hotline 1-833-422-4255, open weekdays 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and weekends from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. My Turn operators can provide on-demand assistance in English and Spanish, translators who speak more than 250 languages are also available as needed.

Currently, California residents who are eligible for the vaccine include health care workers; long-

term care residents; individuals over the age of 65; those who work in education and childcare, agriculture and food and emergency services; people who live or work in congregate residential settings (e.g. incarceration/detention facility, homeless shelter, or behavioral health facility); public transit workers, including airport workers for commercial airlines; and individuals age 16-64 who are at higher risk.

Vaccines are available for about 4.4 million people who are considered at higher risk for serious COVID-19 illness. Those individuals include cancer (current with weakened immune system), chronic kidney disease (stage 4 or above), chronic pulmonary disease (oxygen dependent), down syndrome, solid organ transplant (leading to a weakened immune system), pregnancy, sickle cell disease, heart conditions (such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies but not hypertension), severe obesity (Body Mass Index ≥ 40 kg/ m2), and Type 2 diabetes mellitus with hemoglobin A1c level greater than 7.5%.

Health care providers may also vaccinate individuals with developmental or other severe disabilities or illness if: The individual is likely to develop severe life-threatening illness or death from COVID-19 infection; acquiring COVID-19 will limit the individual’s ability to get ongoing care or services vital to their well-being and survival; and providing adequate and timely COVID care will be particularly challenging as a result of the individual’s disability. Individuals with “physical and behavioral disabilities,” such as those with a serious mental illness and substance use disorder, are also eligible. (AJPress)

CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS. A sanitation personnel disinfects a church along Malakas Street in Barangay Pinyahan, Diliman, Quezon City on Thursday, March 25. The Quezon City government encourages sanitizing public places to help curb the spread of COVID-19.

PNA photo by Robert Oswald P. Alfiler

munity,” he said.

Bonta, who was born in Quezon City, Philippines, immigrated with his family to California’s Central Valley, where his parents worked for the United Farm Workers of America, organizing Filipino and Mexican American workers.

“Those lessons stuck with me, and it became clear to me that an injustice against one is an injustice against all. It made me want to become an attorney to fight for people who’ve been wronged, who’ve been hurt, who’ve been harmed, who’ve been mistreated, and be their champion,” Bonta said on Wednesday.

He obtained a law degree from Yale Law School and clerked for Judge Alvin W. Thompson of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut before moving to San Francisco law firm Keker & Van Nest.

Prior to his election to the state Assembly in 2012, Bonta was San Francisco’s deputy city attorney for nearly a decade, and served as director of the Alameda Health Care District and then part of

Alameda’s City Council as vice mayor.

Other candidates who were reportedly considered for attorney general included Rep. Adam Schiff, California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, and state Sen. Anna Caballero.

If confirmed as attorney general, Bonta will serve through 2022 and will have to run for election. He said he knows “what it takes to win” and has the infrastructure in place” to launch a campaign.

With his momentous appointment, he joins another Fil-Am in a top state post — Tani Cantil-Sakauye, chief justice of the California Supreme Court.

“In California, we have created the most diverse state in the nation, and the most robust democracy in the world. And while that sign may have said, ‘Positively No Filipinos Allowed’ in the the 1920s, in today’s California, everyone is not just allowed, we belong,” Bonta said. “I will do everything in my power to make sure everyone continues to belong and that I fight for them.”

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SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL • MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021

NJ pauses reopening as.... Filipino Americans mobilize to combat...

PAGE 1 these variants: whether they be Brazil, South Africa, UK, New York City, whatever it might be – they’re in New Jersey.”

According to state data, the state’s seven-day average of new cases was 3,391 cases as of Tuesday, up 11% from a week ago. Hospitalizations have also risen in recent weeks and have hovered between 1,900 and 2,000 patients, but on Monday, the number of people hospitalized across the state surpassed 2,000 patients for the first time in nearly a month.

Vaccination efforts have expanded and as of this week, 3.45 million vaccine doses have been administered in the state, and more than 3.6 million residents have received at least one vaccine dose and more than 1.2 million people have been fully vaccinated.

The state’s goal is to vaccinate 70% of its adult population by the end of May. Despite all the vaccination efforts and constant reminders, New Jersey doubled the national average of new cases within the

past week.

“We are back to leading the nation in the spread of this virus.

Only you all, by the millions, can stop the spread of this virus,” Murphy said in his press briefing earlier this week. “As I have said and we have said repeatedly, the presence of vaccines -- which is great, and we’re among the nation’s leaders in getting the shots into arms -- it does not mean the pandemic is over. We still have work to do together.”

Murphy also responded to questions about the state appointment system for vaccine not running smoothly for residents looking for a spot on the line, saying that there is a big “supply-demand imbalance”.

“The biggest challenge we have is we don’t have enough doses,” he said. “If you have not been able to get an appointment and you’re anxious about that, we have nothing but sympathy and I promise you you’re going to get it. And it may not be as soon as you’d like, but that’s because we don’t have the supplies that we’d like.” (by Momar G. Visaya/AJPress)

FEMA to reimburse funeral...

PAGE 1 list their help with outreach to families and communities.

FEMA will begin to implement COVID-19 funeral assistance in April,” said FEMA. To be eligible for funeral assistance, the following conditions must be met: • The death must have occurred in the United States, including the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.

• The death certificate must indicate the death was attributed to COVID-19.

• The applicant must be a U.S. citizen, non-citizen national, or qualified alien who incurred funeral expenses after January 20, 2020.

• There is no requirement for the deceased person to have been a U.S. citizen, non-citizen national, or qualified alien.

To apply for funeral cost assistance, the following documents must be submitted: • An official death certificate that attributes the death directly or indirectly to COVID-19 and shows that the death occurred in the United States, including the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.

• Funeral expenses documents such as receipts and funeral home contract that includes the applicant’s name, the deceased person’s name, the amount of funeral expenses, and the dates the funeral expenses happened.

• Proof of funds received from other sources specifically for use toward funeral costs as FEMA will not “duplicate benefits received from burial or funeral insurance, financial assistance received from voluntary agencies, government agencies, or other sources.”

FEMA will start accepting applications in April.

Those eligible for funeral assistance will receive a check by mail, or funds by direct deposit, depending on which option was chosen during the application process.

“Additional guidance is being finalized and will be released to potential applicants and community partners as soon as possible. In the meantime, people who have COVID-19 funeral expenses are encouraged to keep and gather documentation,” FEMA said. (AJPress)

PAGE 1 the Asian American community. #StopAsianHate began trending on Twitter. Celebrities and public figures of all races began echoing party lines of unity and stopping racism.

But a week after the Atlanta shooting, the outrage over anti-Asian racism is beginning to fizzle out in the mainstream. A grocery store shooting in Boulder, Colorado — which claimed the lives of 10 people — on Monday, March 22 reignited the broader issue of gun violence in America.

But the Asian American community doesn’t have the luxury of treating the Atlanta shooting and the disturbing rise in anti-Asian violence as last week’s news.

Just as Black Americans haven’t halted their goal in mitigating police brutality because “Black Lives Matter” isn’t trending or Central Americans who continue to advocate for humane practices at the southern border, the fight for racial justice and undoing dangerous misconceptions for the Asian American community doesn’t stop because it’s not the headline of the day.

Since February 2020, members of the Asian American community — and the greater Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community — have been acutely aware of the rise in anti-Asian harassment, violence and bullying with the onset of the coronavirus crisis.

According to the Stop AAPI Hate tracker, between March 19, 2020 and Feb. 28, 2021, there have been 3,795 reports of discrimination and assaults toward the AAPI community. Physical assaults comprised the third-largest category of all incidents and women are 2.3 more times likely to be harassed and/or assaulted, as the Asian Journal previously reported.

The virus was reported to have stemmed from China, so an erroneous relationship between the virus (which has taken millions of American lives and continues to disrupt millions more) and anybody who appears remotely Chinese was forged.

As such, Chinese were the largest ethnic group (42.2%) to report to the Stop AAPI Hate tracker, followed by Koreans (14.8%), Vietnamese (8.5%) and Filipinos (7.9%).

The statistics and number of reports are jarring and present a warped and dissonant view of the country that many Asian immigrants who relocate to the U.S. saw as a beacon of opportunity and upward mobility.

Political leaders, particularly Democrats like President Joe Biden, have argued that events like Atlanta are un-American. Biden made a point that his administration would combat hate and violence toward Asians, signing a measure proclaiming such on his first week in office.

“But for all the good that laws can do, we have to change our

Tiffany Garnace, southern region secretary for the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), participated in the Georgia rally with a sign sharing the names of Asian American victims of hate attacks and crimes. Photo courtesy of Tiffany Garnace

EXPRESS YOURSELF.

Hundreds gathered Saturday, March 20 at Atlanta’s Liberty Plaza, adjacent to the Georgia State Capitol, to demand justice for the victims of shootings at massage businesses four days prior and to denounce racism and misogyny against Asian Americans.

Photo courtesy of Tiffany Garnace

STOP ASIAN HATE. From Fullerton, California (top) to New York City (bottom), communities came together on Saturday, March 20 to denounce the recent shootings in the greater Atlanta area that left eight individuals, including six Asian women, dead and the nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents that have been reported since the start of the pandemic.

Photos courtesy of Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva and Augee Francisco

hearts. Hate can have no safe harbor in America. It must stop. And it’s on all of us — all of us, together — to make it stop,” Biden said in remarks on Friday, March 19.

Early reports from Big Media outlets — e.g. CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post — framed the mass shooting as merely a mass shooting; the race and gender of a majority of the fatalities were a mere footnote, and it wasn’t until Asian Americans called out the incident as part of the longer string of attacks toward the community.

Taking a deeper look at the finer distinctions of anti-Asian racism, especially the details of each hate incident reported over the last year, represents a startling reality: historically and presently, racism and the experience of being a minority in America are seemingly inextricable.

Derogatory rhetoric promulgated by the previous administration and misnomers, such as the “China virus” and the “Kung-Flu,” has led many within the Asian American community to directly connect such expressions to the violence.

But while the hateful language may have spurred the thousands of reported incidents, they merely punctuate a dark and grimy history of anti-Asian attitudes that have made their mark in policy and society — a phenomenon that led to the persecution of Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese and South Asians that began in the 19th century.

For Tiffany Joy Garnace — an Atlanta-based Filipino American organizer who was born and raised in the American South — and the robust AAPI activist community in the region, the effort to combat anti-Asian racism didn’t begin with the Atlanta shooting, but it punctuated the scope of the problem.

“The Atlanta incident finally woke up the AAPI community that it can occur here and it’s frustrating for me as a community organizer.

Prior to the shootings, we were trying to find community solutions,” Garnace told the Asian Journal.

She and Atlanta AAPIs have been trying to brainstorm preventative measures that could have helped recent victims like Thai American Vicha Ratanapakdee of San Francisco, Filipino and Chinese American Danilo Yuchang of San Francisco, Chinese American Pak Ho in Oakland and the numerous elderly AAPIs who’ve been targeted at alarming rates for the last two months.

“It felt like a responsibility and indeed it felt like we failed our communities to keep them safe,” Garnace said.

“The sad thing is that there is this preconceived notion [that] in the South, especially in Georgia, these incidences happen only in

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MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021 • SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL

From The Front Page

http://www.asianjournal.com • (818) 502-0651 • (619) 474-0588

‘WORDS HAVE CONSEQUENCES’:

Biden, Harris meet with Asian American leaders, denounce violence following Atlanta attacks

by Christina

M. Oriel

AJPress

The Good Shepherd Convent in Baguio City, known for its ube jam, says farmers are having a hard time growing the purple yam, forcing them to make use of white yams.

Philstar.com photo

Good Shepherd nun behind famous ube jam dies at 102

by Ritchel

Mendiola AJPress

SISTER Fidelis Atienza, the Filipina nun behind Baguio City’s famous Good Shepherd ube jam, has passed away at the age of 102.

In a Facebook post, the Religious of the Good Shepherd (RGS) confirmed that Atienza died on Saturday, March 20, at the Good Shepherd Community in Quezon City “after 66 years in religious life.”

“She never considered herself ill or infirmed. Her hands were never weary, as she was still helping turn plastics into ecobricks until her shoulders ached from too much pushing of plastic into the plastic bottles,” the RGS noted.

In 1951, Atienza entered the Novitiate of the Good Shepherd in Los Angeles, California. She made her first profession in 1954, and her final profession in 1957.

Atienza established the Marian Bakery in the 1960s and made use of host cuttings for the delicious “crispies,” the forerunner of the angel cookies of today.

According to the RGS, Atienza started making the beloved Good Shepherd ube jam during her assignment in Baguio City.

“She was the original mastermind behind the ube jam, enabling the congregation to send thousands of youths to school,” it added.

Aside from Baguio, Atienza’s various ministries included dozens of community apostolates in Cebu, Quezon City, Manila, Hong Kong, France, Rome, and

Sr. Fidelis Atienza Photo courtesy of the

Religous of the Good Shepherd

Tagaytay.

In 2019, she was transferred to the Good Shepherd Community in Quezon City where she dedicated “each moment of her day praying for the needs of the Church and the Congregation.”

“She would ask her caregivers to bring her to the oratory every day, spending most of her hours in quiet communion with the Good Shepherd whom she adored all her life,” the RGS said.

“The children in the compound were very fond of their oldest playmate; she was a delight and a source of joy to everyone whom she met,” it added.

Atienza’s remains are at the chapel of Good Shepherd Convent on Aurora Boulevard, Quezon City, but the wake and services will be private. Inurnment will be at Good Shepherd Columbary in Quezon City, to be announced on a later date.

Report: 83 Filipino...

PAGE 1 The data collection tracked deaths up until February 11, 2021, and also found that at least 3,233 health care workers, including RNs, have died from the virus.

Of the 329 deaths, 83 individuals were of Filipino descent, the report found.

“Eighty-three (26.4%) of the 314 registered nurses, for whom race/ethnicity data is available, who have died of COVID-19 and related complications are Filipino. They make up 4% of registered nurses in the United States,” it said.

Among the 170 RNs of color who have died, nearly half (48.8%) have been Filipino. The data comes from 314 registered nurses for which race and ethnicity data is available.

Other highlights of the report include six states — New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, and Florida — account for 176 (53.5%) of the 329 total registered nurse fatalities.

The NNU documented the deaths using news articles, social media, obituaries, union memorials, federal and state reports, and its own internal reporting.

“NNU believes many of these deaths would have been prevented if greater effort had been made to plan for and overcome the pitfalls of just-in-time supply chain management,” it said.

“Scaling up the capabilities for the stockpiling and rapid distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) must be among the highest priorities of the hospital and nursing home industries and federal and state agencies going forward,” it added.

Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, a Filipina American RN and a president of the NNU, called the amount of nurse and health care worker deaths “unconscionable.”

“We call on the CDC to fully recognize aerosol transmission and to update and strengthen its COVID-19 guidance to provide protection from inhalation of virus in the air,” Triunfo-Cortez said in a statement. “It is unconscionable that so many nurses and health care workers lost their lives. We look forward to the impending issuance of an emergency temporary standard on infectious diseases by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to provide comprehensive occupational health protections to nurses, other health care workers and all essential workers.”

The union estimated that

there have been 791,158 cases of COVID-19 infection among health care workers as of Feb. 11, 2021, but believes that number is an undercount “because only 18 states are providing infection figures for all health care workers on a daily, semiweekly, or weekly basis.”

Kanlungan.net, a digital project started in May 2020 by transnational feminist organization AF3IRM, has been independently tracking all health care worker deaths of Filipino descent in and out of the Philippines.

“How are we supposed to demand justice and talk about egregious working conditions when they’re not even naming our dead? Without data, your campaign will only go so far,” Jollene Levid, a union organizer and member of AF3IRM’s transnational committee which spearheaded the project, told the Asian Journal in a May 2020 interview.

According to its site, which is frequently updated using at least two sources, 189 health care workers of Filipino descent have died in the United States, compared to 44 health care workers in the Philippines, it found.

Among the Filipino/Filipina American nurses who have died from complications related to COVID-19 in the past year, as reported by the Asian Journal include: • Rosary Castro-Olega, 63, a nurse who came out of retirement to join the frontlines, becoming the first health care worker in Los Angeles taken by the virus on March 29, 2020; • Celia Lardizabal Marcos, 61, who was only equipped with a surgical mask when she responded to a patient suspected to have COVID-19 at CHA-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. She died on April 17, 2020; • Maria Guia Cabillon, 63, the head nurse at Kings County Department of Emergency Health in Brooklyn, died on April 26, 2020 after a month of battling the disease; • Joshua Obra, 29, a Disneyland aficionado and nursing supervisor at a Long Beach skilled nursing facility who died on July 6, 2020.

In January 2021, Pinay nurses who have passed away include Amelia Agbigay Baclig, 63, who worked for almost three decades at West Covina’s Queen of the Valley Hospital, and Rowena “Wendy” Miguel, 53, a licensed vocational nurse from Whittier, California.

UNITED States President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with Asian American leaders in Atlanta on Friday, March 19, three days after eight people, including six Asian women, were fatally shot at three spas in the area.

“Racism is real in America and it has always been. Xenophobia is real in America, and always has been. Sexism too,” said Harris, the first woman and the first Asian American in the country’s second-highest post. “A harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us. The president and I will not be silent. We will not stand by. We will always speak out against violence, hate crimes and discrimination wherever and whenever it occurs.”

The Atlanta trip was previously scheduled to promote the passage of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, but shifted to focus on listening and supporting the Asian American community amid the violent attacks.

The president and vice president spoke with local Asian American elected leaders and representatives of social justice and nonprofit organizations in a closed-door meeting for about 80 minutes before addressing the nation from Emory University.

“Whatever the motivation is, we know this: Too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying, waking up each morning for the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are at stake,” Biden said.

New data released on Tuesday, March 16 from Stop AAPI Hate — a national coalition created during the beginning of the pandemic — revealed that from March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021, the reporting center received 3,795 firsthand incidents of racism and discrimination from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Of that number, 503 incidents took place in the first two months of 2021 alone. Women are 2.3 times more likely to report the versus men, the group also found.

Biden continued his remarks citing some examples of the fear and hatred, from grandparents afraid to leave their homes to small business owners being attacked.

“Some of them are the most vulnerable people in our nation — the elderly, low-wage workers and women. In fact, Asian American women suffer twice as many incidents of harassment and violence as Asian American men,” Biden said. “We’re learning again what we’ve always known: words have consequences.”

Biden, who has experienced his own share of grief in losing family members, ended the speech by offering condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the shooting.

“I assure you, the one you lost will always be with you. The day will come when their memory brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye, as unbelievable as that is now. It will take a while.

And I promise you it will come. When it does, that’s the day you know you’re going to make it,” he said.

During the meeting, a letter, signed by over 180 national AAPI organizations, was delivered to Biden and Harris calling for emergency safety and relief by committing $300 million — $100 million toward community-based solutions to address the most vulnerable members of hate and bias, including women and the elderly, and $200 million for long-term safety and recovery.

The organizations said the commitment would go toward: • Providing funds for holistic wrap-around victim assistance services including in-language hate reporting, mental health, comprehensive support, system navigation and advocacy for victims and survivors • Creating alternatives to law enforcement including violence

prevention, crisis intervention and transformative justice programs that are culturally and linguistically accessible and that focus on vulnerable members of our communities including but not limited to working-class people, undocumented and immigrant communities, women, LGBTQ communities, people of faith • Creating a federal interagency task force staffed at the White House that coordinates efforts of the federal government, and meets regularly with local and national AAPI organizations and advocates, coordinates governmental response, that protects the civil rights of AAPI communities, provides arts and cultural programming, and supports development and dissemination of in-language public outreach materials and resources • Supporting community-based organizations that are on the frontlines of crisis response and recovery to build community infrastructure over the long term • Supporting programming that encourages cross-racial dialogues and community building • Providing relief for AAPI essential workers and low-wage workers who are confronting the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism, including support and benefits for undocumented and immigrant AAPI community members • Resources should be disaggregated to ensure that they are appropriately directed to Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities and organizations on the ground • Including the voices of Pacific Islanders by meeting specifically with Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities and adding NHPI representation on the COVID Equity Taskforce.

“The Asian American and Pacific Islander community need help to recover — not only from the devastating violence brought down on us by racist scapegoating, but from the economic damage and loss of health and life brought on by the pandemic. We need support that recognizes and addresses the realities we’re living in and flows to the people who need it most. That requires actual, long-term investment,” National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum Executive Director Sung Yeon Choimorrow said in a statement.

Earlier on Friday, Biden urged Congress to “swiftly” pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, legislation introduced by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) that addresses the rise of hate crimes and violence targeted against the AAPI community by assigning a point person at the Department of Justice to expedite the review of COVID-19-related hate crimes.

The bill would also provide support for state and local law enforcement agencies to respond to these hate crimes, and coordinating with local and federal partners to mitigate racially discriminatory language used to describe the pandemic.

In his first week in office, the president signed an executive order on Jan. 26, which included directives to remove language in federal actions or documents that would contribute to xenophobia and racism against the Asian American and Pacific Islander population and for the Department of Justice to expand its collection of data and public reporting regarding hate incidents against community members.

“Now, it’s time for Congress to codify and expand upon these actions — because every person in our nation deserves to live their lives with safety, dignity, and respect,” he said in a statement.

Members of the AAPI community who have experienced hate during the pandemic are encouraged to report the incident at: https://stopaapihate.org/reportincident/. In addition to English, individuals can report in one of 11 languages, including Tagalog.

March 26 to mark #StopAsianHate Virtual Day...

PAGE 1 against it,” Meng said in a virtual press conference on Monday, March 22.

March 26 was chosen as it marks when the U.S. passed its first naturalization law, the Naturalization Act of 1790, prohibiting non-white individuals from becoming citizens.

“Over 200 years later, Asians in the U.S. are still suffering from the effects of the racism our country was founded upon.

Asian elders are being physically assaulted in the streets. Asian American children are afraid to go back to school. We are still grieving the murders of 6 Asian women in a racially-motivated killing spree in Atlanta last week,” organizers wrote in an online toolkit available at www. asianamericandayofaction.com.

Organizers are also emphasizing that the hate against Asian Americans fueled by the pandemic is “not new.”

“While COVID-19 has brought a wave of violence towards our communities, anti-Asian racism is deeply rooted in American history,” they said.

Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition that tracks anti-Asian American discrimination, reported on Tuesday, March 16 that from March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021, it has received 3,795 firsthand incidents of racism and discrimination from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Of that number, 503 incidents took place in the first two months

of 2021 alone.

Chinese are the largest ethnic group (42.2%) that say they’ve experienced hate, followed by Koreans (14.8%), Vietnamese (8.5%) and Filipinos (7.9%), Stop AAPI Hate found.

Women are 2.3 times more likely to report the incidents than men. Youths (those up to 17 years old) accounted for 12.6% of incidents, while 6.2% were experienced by individuals 60 years and older.

Verbal harassment (68.1%) and shunning (20.5%), which entails the “deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans,” are the top two types of discrimination reported.

There is also a list of actions individuals can take by supporting community-based social

justice organizations and initiatives, such as Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, Stop AAPI Hate, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, AAPI Force and AAPI Women lead or attending a bystander intervention training session.

Organizers caution participants to listen to local groups and the hardest-hit communities first.

“Continue to amplify the harms that Asian Americans are facing, but don’t override or silence their voices by pushing an agenda that doesn’t align with what the community needs.

Let’s build a chorus of solidarity and ensure the Asian American community receives the support it needs to fight anti-Asian racism,” according to the toolkit.

Supporters can also sign onto a letter calling on the Biden administration to provide emergency relief to AAPI communities.

During a meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday, March 19, Atlanta-based AAPI elected officials and community leaders presented a letter, signed by over 180 national AAPI organizations, calling for emergency safety and relief by committing $300 million — $100 million toward community-based solutions to address the most vulnerable members of hate and bias, including women and the elderly, and $200 million for long-term safety and recovery.

Biden urged Congress to

u PAGE 5

House passes two immigration bills, sets pathway to...

PAGE 1 Act, one of the bills passed on Thursday that was previously approved by the House in 2019.

The American Dream and Promise Act passed 228-197 with all Democrats and nine Republicans voting in favor of the bill.

The second bill that the House passed — called the Farm Workforce Modernization Act — would allow farmworkers and their immediate families to earn legal status through their employment; it would also revamp the H-2A agricultural guest worker program and set a pathway for eventual naturalization.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act cleared the chamber with a significantly bipartisan 247-174 vote.

“This is a very special day for us,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of the vote. “We are making a very big difference in how we respect the beautiful diversity of America, how we respect the fact that immigration is the constant reinvigoration of America.”

Like the American Dream and Promise Act, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act had been approved by the House in previous years but was voted upon again now that Democrats hold majorities in both chambers of Congress.

“Millions in this country live in fear, holding their breaths every day, that they could be deported to faraway lands that are not their homes,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday after the vote. “Because America is their home. For Dreamers, it has been their home since their earliest days. And today, this House is going to take action – as we did last Congress – to help them breathe easier.”

Both these bills are tangential to the larger immigration vision set forth by President Joe Biden on his first day in office when he and his administration promised to review and revamp the stringent immigration policies and practices of the previous administration.

It is important to note that both these bills are separate pieces of legislation from the Biden White House’s more ambitious legislation, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, a far more broad proposal designed to modernize the American immigration system top to bottom, as previously reported in the Asian Journal. (But the Biden administration expressed support for both these bills this week.)

But the chances of the Senate approving both pieces of legislation are less likely. Democrats need at least 60 Republican senators to support the bills, but it gives an incentive to Democrats about ending the filibuster, which would allow legislation to pass with a lower vote threshold.

But Republicans have recently criticized the Biden administration for the influx of migrants crossing the southern border, including a spike in unaccompanied minors. According to interviews with these migrants, many believe that the Biden administration will be more welcoming than the previous administration.

“It’s more than a crisis. This is a human heartbreak,” House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said at a news briefing this week. “The sad part about all this, it didn’t have to happen.

This crisis is created by the presidential policies of this new administration. There’s no other way to claim it than a Biden border crisis.” (by Klarize Medenilla/AJPress)

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Dateline Philippines

Dacera mom, Makati cops face charges

by Ghio

Ong Philstar.com

MANILA — Five men accused of raping and killing flight attendant Christine Dacera on Wednesday, March 24 filed charges against Dacera’s mother, Makati police officers and several others.

Lawyer Mike Santiago – representing Rommel Galido, John Pascual dela Serna III, Gregorio de Guzman, Clark Rapinan and Valentine Rosales – filed two sets of complaints with the Makati prosecutor.

He reiterated that his clients made “all legal steps to defend themselves and restore their honor and dignity in the community.”

Santiago asked the fiscal to charge Dacera’s mother Sharon, Dacera’s cousin Katherine Anne Facelo and Sharon’s friend and doctor Marichi Ramos Fong with perjury, libel, cyber libel, slander, malicious prosecution, incriminating innocent persons and intriguing against honor.

Dacera family spokesman and lawyer Roger “Brick” Reyes, Makati police acting chief Col. Harold Depositar, city police investigation unit chief Capt.

Danilo Oamil and Dacera case investigators Cpl. Louie Lopez and S/Sgt. Jun Alimurong were also charged with the same offenses.

In another set of complaints, Galido and Dela Serna charged Sharon, Fong, Facelo, Depositar, Oamil, Lopez and Alimurong with unlawful arrest, illegal detention, unjust vexation and grave coercion.

According to their 13-page complaint-affidavit, the five men

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Medicare Story #7

Ang Kagandahan ng Pagdagdag ng Eastern at Western Medicine sa Inyong Health Care

Ito ang ikapito sa serye ng Medicare Tips hatid ng Clever Care Health Plan, isang nangungunang tagapagbigay ng East meets West Medicare services na sensitibo sa kultura ng kanilang mga miyembro.

Para sa mas mahabang buhay, dapat pagisipan ng ating seniors ang pagdagdag ng Western at Eastern medical practices sa kanilang plano. Pag-uusapan sa artikulong ito ang pagkakaiba ng dalawa at ang kagandahan kapag sila ay pinagsama.

Mike Santiago asked the fiscal to charge Dacera’s mother Sharon, Dacera’s cousin Katherine Anne Facelo and Sharon Dacera’s friend and doctor Marichi Ramos Fong with perjury, libel, cyber libel, slander, malicious prosecution, incriminating innocent persons and intriguing against honor.

Philstar.com photo by Boy Santos

accused Sharon of “shaming, embarrassing and ridiculing” them by asserting that they gave illegal drugs to her daughter Christine and raped her before she died on New Year’s Day. She kept declaring this to the public and in her statement filed before the city police even if the medico-legal report declared that she died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm, the men said.

Sharon repeatedly claimed foul play in her daughter’s death even if pieces of evidence her camp filed before the fiscal – including footage from the City Garden Grand Hotel where Christine and the five men, among others, held a New Year’s Eve party – showed otherwise, according to the complaint.

The men also accused Facelo and Ramos-Fong of conspiring

with Sharon by inferring that Christine struggled before she died as shown in the bruises and abrasions even in her genitals, hence the likelihood of foul play and rape.

Galido, Dela Serna, De Guzman, Rapinan and Rosales alleged that Makati police officials and Reyes maliciously pushed filing charges of rape with homicide against 11 respondents, including them, despite earlier findings that showed Dacera died a natural death.

Galido and Dela Serna also cried foul over the actions of Sharon, Facelo, Fong, Depositar, Oamil, Lopez and Alimurong to charge them with rape with homicide, to keep them under police custody from Jan. 1 to 6, and for releasing their cell phones only on Feb. 3.

March 26 to mark #StopAsianHate...

PAGE 4 “swiftly” pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, legislation introduced by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) that addresses the rise of hate crimes and violence targeted against the AAPI community by assigning a point person at the Department of Justice to expedite the review of COVID-19-related hate crimes.

The bill would also provide support for state and local

SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL • MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021

law enforcement agencies to respond to these hate crimes, and coordinating with local and federal partners to mitigate racially discriminatory language used to describe the pandemic.

In his first week in office, the president signed an executive order on Jan. 26, which included directives to remove language in federal actions or documents that would contribute to xenophobia and racism

against the Asian American and Pacific Islander population and for the Department of Justice to expand its collection of data and public reporting regarding hate incidents against community members.

“Now, it’s time for Congress to codify and expand upon these actions — because every person in our nation deserves to live their lives with safety, dignity, and respect,” Biden said in a statement.

Isang malaking pagkakaiba ay ang approach. Ayon sa National Cancer Institute, ang Western medicine ay “isang sistema kung saan ang mga doktor at iba pang health care professionals (tulad ng nurses, pharmacists, at therapists), ay nagbibigaylunas sa mga sakit gamit ang droga, radiation, o pag-oopera.” Tinatawag din ito na “conventional medicine.” Ang tanging pakay ng Western medicine ay kilalanin at gamutin ang partikular na mga kondisyon para gumaling ang pasyente. Naka-focus ang Western medicine sa paggamot ng sakit ayon sa sintomas ng pasyente.

Sa kabilang banda ay ang Eastern medicine. Tinatawag din ito na tradisyonal Chinese medicine, at naka-focus sa parehong sintomas at individualized diagnosis ng Qi (o chi) ng pasyente. Ito ang pinakamatandang sistema ng medisina na gamit ng maraming doktor sa buong mundo. Sa Eastern medicine, hanap ng doktor ang disharmony, at ang pagkawala ng balanse ng emosyonal at pisikal. Naka-base ang kanilang pagsusuri ayon sa isang holistic approach, para gumaling ang chi. Kasama sa paggamot ng Eastern Medicine ang acupuncture, herbal supplements, nutrition, at dietary therapy, tui na (body work) at tai-chi.

ACUPUNCTURE Ang acupuncture ay ang healing practice na kung saan ang maninipis na karayom ay nilalagay sa iba’t-ibang parte ng katawan.

Sinasabi na nagsimula ang praktis na ito sa China mga 3,000 taon na ang nakakalipas.

Pananakit ng katawan ang unang dahilan para magpa-acupunture, pero ginagamit din ito para mabigyan-lunas ang iba pang kondisyon.

NUTRITION Magkaiba din ang mga pagkain sa Eastern at Western culture. Sa Western culture, ang focus ay ang nutrients, bitamina, minerals, calories, at puwede kang ilagay ng Western doctor sa isang diyeta para iwasan ang mga pagkaing hindi maganda para sa kalusugan.

Sa Eastern nutritional medicine, titingnan ng doktor ang positive o negative chi at kung balanse ba ang yin at yang ng pasyente.

Naka-base ang pagkain na puwede o hindi puwedeng kainin ayon sa level ng inyong yin at yang.

TUI NA Isa pang karaniwang practice sa Eastern medicine ay ang tui na. Kasama dito ang paggamit ng masahe at acupressure.

Sinasabing nakakatulong ang tui na sa daloy ng chi sa buong katawan. Ayon sa mga prinsipyo ng traditional Chinese medicine, nagsisimula ang mga sakit kapag ang daloy ng chi ay may bara. Kapag inalis ito, binabalik ng tui na ang balanse ng chi sa katawan.

TAI-CHI Ang tai-chi ay isang internal na Chinese martial art para sa defense training, health benefits, at meditation. Maraming natututo ng tai chi para sa pisikal at mental na kalusugan. Kasama pa ang pustura, balanse, flexibility, at lakas. Nakakatulong din ang tai chi para sa mood, sa sakit, para sa mas malakas na immune system, at kalusugan ng puso.

SUMMARY Sa dami ng benepisyo at positibong resulta mula sa Eastern medicine, maganda para sa seniors na maghanap ng insurance provider na may kasamang Eastern at Western medicine. Isang mahusay na opsyon ang Clever Care Health Plan. Hatid nito ay isang makabagong approach sa health care na may malasakit sa diversity at preventive health. Kasama sa supplemental coverage ng plano ang centuries-old Eastern treatments na nagpapanatili ng kalusugan, mga paraan para bigyan-lunas ang chronic conditions at sakit sa katawan, kasama ng latest advancements at treatments ng Western medicine. Kasama din sa plano ang unlimited acupuncture, 12 visits para sa ibang Eastern wellness services, tulad ng tui na at cupping, at allowance para sa herbal supplements. Dagdag pa ito sa ibang allowances para sa dental, vision, hearing, at over-the-counter supplies para sa inyong kalusugan.

Upang makasiguro ang Clever Care Health Plan na malusog ang kanilang mga miyembro, gusto nilang maintindihan ng lahat ang kanilang mga plano. Kung kaya’t kung mayroon kayong tanong tungkol sa treatment, billing o coverage, tumawag na sa Tagalog Medicare advisors ng Clever Care Health Plan sa (833) 365-1888 (TTY: 771). clevercarehealthplan.com

Ang Clever Care of Golden State ay isang HMO plan na may Medicare contract. Ang enrollment ay naka-depende sa contract renewal.

H7607_21_CM0388D_TAG_M Accepted 3092021 A10056-D-TAG (0221)

6

MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021 • SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL

http://www.asianjournal.com • (818) 502-0651 • (619) 474-0588

Opinion

Agency for disease control and prevention

Features Philstar.com photo

IF the coronavirus pandemic has seared anything into the public mind, it is the fact that our public health system and health infrastructure are sorely lacking: 1) an agency to formulate, design and coordinate public policy to address a national health emergency or pandemic and 2) a central agency for disease control and prevention; similar to what most modern states have.

As things stand today, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases is too ad hoc, provisional and unprofessional to serve as our principal policy-making tool for managing a health crisis such as a pandemic.

There is more policing than policy design and evaluation in its operations.

The Department of Health, as the regular department for health services in the executive branch, has a huge health bureaucracy to run and control. We should not expect it to double up as an agency to handle disease control and prevention.

It is imperative, we think, for the Congress to turn its attention now to passing a modern public health law that will address these concerns and create an institutional answer in time for the next health emergency.

We have today a score of health laws in the statute book, but none of these laws fill the need for both an effective agency for serious public health policy making and an agency to handle disease control and prevention comprehensively.

Congress spent time, resources and personnel to establish Malasakit Centers across the archipelago, yet the centers seem to have no role to

play in fighting the pandemic.

The real headaches we are encountering now are chiefly bureaucratic and lack of professionalism and expertise.

It’s long been recognized that there is a huge difference between medicine and public health. Each has its own concern and area of specialization.

In very general terms, the field of public health focuses on health care as it deals with whole populations, more applied research and disease prevention.

The field of medicine, in turn, is more localized and concerned with individual treatment, diagnosis and care.

Public health professionals work to improve the quality of life for communities and populations.

Rather than treating individuals and groups with direct medical care, they conduct research and disseminate information to the public in order to extend life expectancy, combat infant mortality and reduce the incidence of communicable diseases. Medical health professionals are also often administrators and advocates for policies that will further those points. Some of the common job titles for people in this field include epidemiologist, health or medical center director, biostatisti-

Editorial

provide that level of care.

We need a good public health law that can point the nation to a public health system and infrastructure that can provide good public health policy making and effective and timely services to combat and eradicate disease A dedicated agency for disease control and prevention will be a good start and an excellent investment. It will make plenty of difference and make our country a better place to live in. (ManilaTimes.net)

Gun violence in the US: An epidemic politicians beholden to the NRA and gun-addicted Americans might not want to ever go away

The Fil-Am Perspective Gel Santos-Relos INSANITY, an old age says, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

“Pag gusto, may paraan. Pag ayaw, may dahilan” (If you want something done, you will always find a way. But if you refuse to do what needs to be done, you will always find an excuse), is a Tagalog saying that sums up where we are in this national crisis.

These sayings come to mind as again I write about gun violence in the United States for the nth time, following another mass shooting in the United States that killed 10 people in Boulder, Colorado on March 22, just six days after the senseless killing of eight, six of who were Asians, in Atlanta, Georgia on March 16.

Have we become desensitized to gun violence in the United States? Guns continue to kill 38,000 people in the United States every year, or about 100 every single day, the Giffords Law Center

reported.

The Giffords Law Center further stated these painful facts that reveal how insane our country’s approach has been to gun violence: • America has the weakest gun laws and the most guns — 393 million — of any comparable nation.

• The U.S. accounts for just 4% of the world’s population but 35% of global firearm suicides.

Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed in a gun homicide than people in other high-income countries.

• Nearly every American will know at least one victim of gun violence in their lifetime.

• Over 1 million Americans have been shot in the past decade, and gun violence rates are rising across the country • In 2017, gun deaths reached their highest level in at least 40 years, with 39,773 deaths that year alone.

• Suicides, homicides, police shootings—gun violence takes many forms, often dictated by

who and where you are.

• Gun access triples suicide risk. The majority of suicides - 51 percent - involve a gun.

• Gun homicide has a disproportionate impact on underserved communities of color in American cities.

• Roughly half of all gun homicides take place in just 127 cities comprising less than a quarter of the total U.S. population.

• Black men make up 52% of all gun homicide victims in the U.S., despite comprising less than 7% of the population.

• Unarmed Black civilians are five times more likely to be shot and killed by police than unarmed white civilians.

• Domestic violence victims are five times more likely to be killed when their abuser has access to a gun. Nearly 1 million women alive today report being shot or shot at by an intimate partner.

• Women in the United States are 21 times more likely to be killed with a gun than women in other high-income countries.

• 3 million children are direct-

ly exposed to gun violence each year, resulting in death, injury, and lasting trauma.

And yet, tragedy after tragedy, the lawmakers of this nation do NOTHING to really address this crisis, other than offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims and their bereaved family.

This inaction comes even as facts and data show just how active mass shootings have escalated in recent years involving the use of assault rifles and high-powered magazines by civilians, weapons intended to be used in war zones only.

The powerful and moneyed gun lobbyist, the National Rifle Association (NRA), would always have the last laugh after each tragedy and litany of “thoughts and prayers” because nothing would happen to change gun laws significantly to make a difference.

The NRA has infused a lot of campaign contributions to former President Donald Trump, and mostly to Republicans in the past years. The NRA used to be

much more bipartisan, but now it’s mostly just a wing of the Republican Party, as most of its supporters identify with it, according to a report by CNN. The New York Times reported that just the last five years, there have been at least 29 shootings with four or more fatalities, based on the data compiled by the Violence Project. Among them: March 16, 2020: A gas station in Springfield, Missouri Aug. 31, 2019: Drive-by shootings in Midland and Odessa, Texas Aug. 4, 2019: An entertainment district in Dayton, Ohio Aug. 3, 2019: A Walmart in El Paso, Texas July 28, 2019: A festival in Gilroy, California May 31, 2019: An office in Virginia Beach, Virginia Nov. 7, 2018: A bar in Thousand Oaks, California Oct. 27, 2018: A synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania June 28, 2018: A newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland May 18, 2018: A high school in

Santa Fe, Texas Feb. 14, 2018: A high school in Parkland, Florida Nov. 5, 2017: A church in Sutherland Springs, Texas Oct. 1, 2017: A concert in Las Vegas Jan. 6, 2017: An airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida July 7, 2016: Downtown Dallas, Texas June 12, 2016: The Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida Many more were allowed to happen before that.

The Times chronicled: “the San Bernardino, Calif., and Charleston, S.C., in 2015; Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., in 2012; Virginia Tech in 2007, among them.”

“Each new attack is a reminder of all of the others that came before it, as the nation has been unable to curb an epidemic of gun violence that far outpaces other countries. These are just some of the horrors that have traumatized the nation,” the Times reported.

Following a shooting that left

u PAGE 7

A challenge and an opportunity against hate, misogyny & gun violence

Commentary

Enrique

cian and health communications specialist.

Medical professionals also want to improve life quality and combat disease, but they focus on the individual and treatment. Seeing patients in order to treat a specific ailment or repair a breach of the human body because of an accident are the hallmarks of this profession.

A big difference between the two is that a medical public health professional cannot treat patients — in essence, he cannot “practice medicine.” Only doctors can prescribe medicine and

de la Cruz

THE fatal shootings in Atlanta, Georgia of six women of Asian descent at businesses known to employ Asian workers are frightful and terrifying. It marks an escalation in the level of violence associated with the spike in anti-Asian aggressions during this pandemic. How can a minority group that was touted as a “model minority” turn into the object of hatred and violence?

American ambivalence toward Asian Americans is not new. But which side becomes salient is often the result of historical events.

Filipinos and Japanese Americans were once the faces of the enemy during the Philippine American War and World War II, respectively.

At the turn of the last century, Filipinos resisted the United States’ efforts to impose colonial rule over the Philippines, since Filipinos had just declared independence from Spain in a revolutionary uprising. Their resistance led to the Philippine-American War, which we lost. At the start of Philippine-U.S. relations, Fili-

pinos were the enemy, and we were depicted as snakes, dogs and filthy savages in American media of the period.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans, despite being native-born Americans, were imprisoned in concentration camps together with their immigrant parents, for looking like the enemy.

Chinese were vilified too, soon after they completed work building the railroads that connected the West Coast with most of America; they flocked into major cities where their presence felt threatening. This led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

During the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and 1970s, Asian Americans were transformed from being the enemy into America’s darlings, its “model minority.” Asian American successes in education and business were held up as a convenient foil against African American demands for racial justice and equality. The idea homogenized differences and challenges among the different Asian American communities, while serving as a racial wedge between Asian Americans and African Americans. As late as 2017, this well-worn trope was

invoked by New York Magazine’s Andrew Sullivan to minimize African American demands for racial justice and equality.

From America’s darlings half a century ago, we, Asian Americans, have wrongly become the face of the coronavirus, an ordinarily invisible microbe responsible for over half a million American deaths. This pandemic has brought a dramatic spike in hate crimes and racially motivated aggressions against Asian Americans. The latest report by Stop AAPI Hate, a group that collects reports on hate aggressions against Asian Americans nationwide, states that between March 2020 and February 2021, it received reports of 3,795 incidents, though the actual number could be higher since many more go unreported.

Now we have this dramatic and unnerving escalation in the level of violence that targets women, indicating racialized misogyny where racism and sexism are intertwined with gun violence. Women are common targets of gender discrimination and sexual harassment.

The recent accusations against New York’s Governor Cuomo are only the latest examples, and speak to the per-

sistence of this problem despite efforts to address it in recent years.

In addition, women of color are doubly oppressed through their race and gender. This has proved to be a very lethal mix for the six murdered Asian American women who worked at health spas in Atlanta, where the spike in anti-Asian attitudes intersects with three seemingly intractable problems in American society: racism, misogyny, and gun violence.

The intertwining of these three social problems creates a challenge and an opportunity in our fight against anti-Asian aggression.

Our struggle against anti-Asian aggression is fundamentally a struggle against racism and white privilege in America. It is a fight where we have a common cause with Black Americans and other communities of color. We have common cause with women — and men — in the struggle against sexism, not just in our communities, but everywhere. The #MeToo movement has underscored its pervasiveness. We have common cause, too, with many, many communities in opposing gun violence. These are groups

that have come together in response to the Columbine, Sandy Hook and Stoneman Douglas school massacres, to mention a few. Within our Filipino American community, we have a decades-long campaign by the Ileto family against gun violence in response to the shooting death of their brother, Joseph Ileto, a postal worker murdered by a white supremacist, while delivering mail.

The escalation of aggressions against Asian Americans into the level of gun violence presents a triple opportunity for Asian Americans. Our struggle against anti-Asian aggression is an opportunity to strengthen alliances and working relations with #BlackLivesMatter and similar groups. We as a community must intentionally engage in the struggle against sexism since our communities carry baggage from the patriarchal societies we immigrated from. Likewise, we can join the Ileto family to build alliances with groups against gun violence, and in favor of gun control.

The tragedy in the wake of the Atlanta murders of Asian American women is an opportunity for Asian Americans to meaningfully add our voices to the fight

against sexism and misogyny, racism and white supremacy, and in the struggle to end gun violence through gun control legislation.

I am quite aware as I write this that many of our U.S. children — mine included — are actively engaged in these three struggles. But our communities, are still predominantly foreign-born.

My call is to those among us who are foreign-born: Be much more actively supportive of those who are actively engaged. Racism, sexism and gun violence will not go away if we only see ourselves as victims. We need to see ourselves as warriors, actively engaged in eliminating these evils towards a more peaceful, just, and equitable society where one is judged — to borrow a phrase from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — not by their skin color, gender or national origin, but by the content of their character. *** The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.

••• Enrique de la Cruz is Professor Emeritus of Asian American Studies at Cal State University, Northridge.

The views expressed by our Op-Ed contributors are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the predilection of the editorial board and staff of Asian Journal.

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SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL • MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021

Filipino Americans mobilize...

PAGE 3 t areas with high Asian American populations like ‘California or New York’ or ‘cannot empathize because it has not [happened] to me or my family’ just to quote some people that I have heard in my spaces,” she added, noting that the AAPI community in Atlanta is “a beautiful conglomeration of all of these groups that people tend to forget [are] here and have been here.”

In the wake of the Atlanta shooting, vigils and demonstrations honoring the eight victims took place across the country.

The rally in Atlanta on Saturday, March 20 brought together hundreds to the Georgia state Capitol to demand action and social and political change, particularly in the state.

Garnace was one of the many residents of all races who attended the vigil and rally which gave her “absolute chills.” But she was most astounded by the volume of Asian women who attended and what that represented.

“It is like we have been validated, seen and heard, for the first time,” Garnace remarked. “A lot of Asian women came out to the rally because they did not want to be seen as weak and fearful; having so many women come out to fight the intersection of race and misogyny was empowering. Also seeing the different groups of people that were not Asian there with us in support — I honestly teared up.”

The shooting also put a spotlight on how anti-Asian attitudes foment in ways that may not be as clear as discrimination toward other minority groups. Individuals from all Asian backgrounds

shared how seemingly innocent things — like name-calling — fuel the fire of broader anti-Asian sentiments.

Garnace noted that seeing so many Asian American women in particular ignited the nuances of racist misogyny and “the fetishization of Asian women by nonAsian men.”

Filipino American Augelyn “Augee” Francisco — the indigenous Filipino owner of Kabisera Kape in New York City — shared with the Asian Journal how complex anti-Asian racism is and how a lack of education and cultural empathy can induce trauma that doesn’t really ever go away.

“Growing up, I had the same struggle, being Igorot,” Francisco shared. “My mother and the rest of us were targeted and bullied. That was my struggle when I was young and up to this day, I experience being called Chink, Ni-Hao, Virus, and looked down upon because of my slanted eyes and skin color.”

Francisco shared that recent events have reignited those memories, saying that, “I should not feel like that is ok. Because that is not ok. But I’ve lived with it for years in my life. This fight is for me and all my Asian sisters and brothers [a]nd for the future generation, there will be no more fight for equality and no more pain.”

Francisco was inspired to attend a vigil in New York City last weekend honoring the victims and rallying for the end of anti-Asian violence. Though many members of the Asian American community are pushing back against the stereotype of the docile Asian, Francisco sees gentle-

7

ness as a strength and resistance tool for the AAPI community.

“We, Asians, are trained to be polite and obedient. We don’t believe in using violence, but we know how to use our forces: our strength is our unity, our respect, and our loving care,” Francisco said. “Those are the tools I’m planning to share and show as my participation. To awaken our sisters and brothers to halt the silence, to care and show love to our elders who get targeted, to our sisters who get murdered. Our respect to them doesn’t end at just paying respects at their wakes, but to pay respect to make sure that no more similar incidents will happen on our watch.”

Families of seven of the victims have organized GoFundMe pages, sharing the stories of their loved ones and raising funds for funeral and memorial expenses. A fundraiser was also started for Marcus Lyon, a survivor to help with counseling and other resources.

Georgia’s AAPI community is also urging supporters to donate to organizations on the ground, namely Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Asian American Advocacy Fund, and Asian Mental Health Collective, to name a few.

Members of the AAPI community who have experienced hate during the pandemic are encouraged to report the incident at: https://stopaapihate.org/ reportincident/. In addition to English, individuals can report in one of 11 languages, including Tagalog.

Gun violence in the US: An epidemic...

PAGE 6 t 10 people dead in Boulder, Colorado, Robyn Thomas, Giffords Law Center’s executive director, testified on Tuesday, March 23 in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee to demand action on a gun safety agenda.

As the Giffords Law Center reported, “Some of the proposals she highlighted include universal background checks, prohibiting gun possession by those convicted of domestic violence crimes, waiting periods, and enacting extreme risk protection orders.”

“Our gun violence crisis is a uniquely American problem,” said Robyn Thomas said in her open-

ing statement. “It’s a problem that plagues our country in countless different ways and exacts a devastating toll on our communities. But it’s a problem with solutions. While one single law will never stop all gun violence, we know strong gun laws save lives.”

The Giffords Law Center pointed out that earlier this March, “the House passed H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, with bipartisan support. Neither H.R. 8 nor its Senate companion legislation, S. 529, the Background Checks Expansion Act, has yet been considered in the Senate. The Senate hearing was an important step in moving forward with mean-

ingful gun safety reforms.”

WHAT ARE THEY WAITING FOR? ***

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Asian Journal, its management, editorial board and staff.

***

Gel Santos Relos has been in news, talk, public service and educational broadcasting since 1989 with ABS-CBN and is now serving the Filipino audience using different platforms, including digital broadcasting, and print, and is working on a new public service program for the community.

You may contact her through email at gelrelos@ icloud.com, or send her a message via Facebook at Facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos.

ANNOUNCEMENT

LEGAL NOTICE Advertisement for Bids

SD#0029

Notice is hereby given that the San Diego Unified School District, acting by and through its governing board, will receive “ELECTRONIC-ONLY” bids for the furnishing of all labor, materials, transportation, equipment, and services to: FURNISH AND INSTALL NEW ROOF ON BUILDINGS 1-5 AND CDC AT FLETCHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL A mandatory site visit is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2021, in front of the main office of Fletcher Elementary School, 7666 Bobolink Way, San Diego, CA 92123. ALL CONTRACTORS MUST PREREGISTER WITH THE DISTRICT PRIOR TO ATTENDING THE SITE WALK. Please send only one representative per Company. Contact jalmond@sandi.net for the link to preregister. (PLEASE SEE BID FOR DETAILS No. CZ21-0772-23).

COVID-19 SITE WALK SAFETY PRECAUTIONS WILL BE ENFORCED Please refer to Planwell (www.crispimg.com, click on PlanWell, Public Planroom, search SDUSD and project bid number CZ21-0772-23) or The Daily Transcript Publication for the complete Advertisement for Bids which includes Site Walk Safety Precautions AND preregistration information.

All bids must be received electronically at or before 1:00 p.m. on APRIL 16, 2021. Firms interested in submitting a bid package must go to https://www.planetbids.com/portal/portal.cfm?CompanyID=43764 then search under “Bid Opportunities” for “Invitation number” CZ21-0772-23 New Roof on Buildings 1-5 and CDC at Fletcher ES. For new vendors, please register under “New Vendor Registration”.

The project estimate is between $2.1 million and $2.3 million. This is a PSA project and requires prequalification. The District requires that Bidders possess any of the following classification(s) of California State Contractors License(s), valid and in good standing, at the time of bid opening and contract award: C-39 or other appropriate license, subject to District approval.

SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Andrea O’Hara, M.A. Strategic Sourcing and Contracts Officer Strategic Sourcing and Contracts Department

CZ21-0772-23

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT NO. 2021-9004795

Helen Nails & Hair Salon located at 1020 Highland Avenue, National City, CA 91950.

Registrant: Harry Hoang Nguyen, 1037 Angelus Avenue, San Diego, CA 92114.

This business is conducted

by Married Couple.

REGISTRANT HAS NOT BEGUN TO TRANSACT BUSINESS UNDER THE ABOVED NAME. Signature Harry Hoang Nguyen.

Statement filed with Recorder/County Clerk of San Diego County on 03/13/2021.

AJ 707 03/26, 04/02, 04/09, 04/16/2021.

AJSD 707

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT NO. 2021-9003800

Paradise Shack Rentals located at 445 Ella Lane, San Diego, CA 92114.

Registrant: Jaron Rotor Fackler, 1097 East J St., Chula Vista, CA 91910.

This business is conducted

by Individual.

REGISTRANT HAS NOT BEGUN TO TRANSACT BUSINESS UNDER THE ABOVED NAME. Signature Jaron Rotor Fackler.

Statement filed with Recorder/County Clerk of San Diego County on 03/06/2021.

AJ 703 03/26, 04/02, 04/09, and 04/16/2021.

AJSD 703

EMPLOYMENT

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT NO. 2021-9004235

Randolph Photography located at 4451 Central Ave., San Diego, CA 92116.

Registrant: Victoria Srunn Ing, 4451 Central Ave., San Diego, CA 92116.

This business is conducted

by Individual.

RREGISTRANT HAS NOT BEGUN TO TRANSACT BUSINESS UNDER THE ABOVED NAME. Signature Victoria Srunn Ing. Statement filed with Recorder/County Clerk of San Diego County on 03/10/2021.

AJ 706 03/26, 04/02, 04/09, 04/16/2021.

AJSD 706

8

MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021 • SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL

http://www.asianjournal.com • (818) 502-0651 • (619) 474-0588

ANNOUNCEMENT

ANNOUNCEMENT SD#0027

Advertisement for Bids

Advertisement for Bids

SD#0028

Notice is hereby given that the San Diego Unified School District, acting by and through its governing board, will receive “ELECTRONIC-ONLY” bids for the furnishing of all labor, materials, transportation, equipment, and services for:

Notice is hereby given that the San Diego Unified School District, acting by and through its governing board, will receive “ELECTRONIC-ONLY” bids for the furnishing of all labor, materials, transportation, equipment, and services for:

REROOF AT KIMBROUGH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL A mandatory site visit is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2021, in front of the main office of Kimbrough Elementary School 321 Hoitt Street, San Diego, CA 92102. ALL CONTRACTORS MUST PREREGISTER WITH THE DISTRICT PRIOR TO ATTENDING THE SITE WALK. Please send only one representative per Company. Contact jimperial@sandi.net for the link to preregister. (PLEASE SEE BID FOR DETAILS No. CP21-0763-52).

COVID-19 SITE WALK SAFETY PRECAUTIONS WILL BE ENFORCED Please refer to Planwell (www.crispimg.com, click on PlanWell, Public Planroom, search SDUSD and project bid number CP21-0763-52 or The Daily Transcript Publication for the complete Advertisement for Bids which includes Site Walk Safety Precautions AND preregistration information.

All bids must be received electronically at or before 1:00 p.m. on April 15, 2021. Firms interested in submitting a bid package must go to https://www.planetbids.com/portal/portal.cfm?CompanyID=43764 then search under “Bid Opportunities” for “Invitation number” CP21-0763-52 Kimbrough Elementary School Reroof. For new vendors, please register under “New Vendor Registration”.

The project estimate is between $140,000 and $160,000. This is not a PSA project and does not require prequalification. The District requires that Bidders possess any of the following classification(s) of California State Contractors License(s), valid and in good standing, at the time of bid opening and contract award: C-39 or other appropriate license, subject to District approval.

REROOF AT CHALLENGER MIDDLE SCHOOL A mandatory site visit is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 2021, in front of the main office of Challenger Middle School, 10810 Parkdale Avenue, San Diego, CA 92126. ALL CONTRACTORS MUST PREREGISTER WITH THE DISTRICT PRIOR TO ATTENDING THE SITE WALK. Please send only one representative per Company. Contact jimperial@sandi.net for the link to preregister. (PLEASE SEE BID FOR DETAILS No. CP21-0764-52).

COVID-19 SITE WALK SAFETY PRECAUTIONS WILL BE ENFORCED Please refer to Planwell (www.crispimg.com, click on PlanWell, Public Planroom, search SDUSD and project bid number CP21-0764-52 or The Daily Transcript Publication for the complete Advertisement for Bids which includes Site Walk Safety Precautions AND preregistration information.

All bids must be received electronically at or before 1:00 p.m. on APRIL 16, 2021. Firms interested in submitting a bid package must go to https://www.planetbids.com/portal/portal.cfm?CompanyID=43764 then search under “Bid Opportunities” for “Invitation number” CP21-0764-52 Challenger Middle School Reroof. For new vendors, please register under “New Vendor Registration”.

The project estimate is between $175,000 and $190,000. This is not a PSA project and does not require prequalification. The District requires that Bidders possess any of the following classification(s) of California State Contractors License(s), valid and in good standing, at the time of bid opening and contract award: C-39 or other appropriate license, subject to District approval.

SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Andrea O’Hara, M.A. Strategic Sourcing and Contracts Officer Strategic Sourcing and Contracts Department

SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT Andrea O’Hara, M.A. Strategic Sourcing and Contracts Officer Strategic Sourcing and Contracts Department CP21-0763-52

LEGAL NOTICE CASE NUMBER: 37-2021-00007358-CU-PT-CTL TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner Daniel Young Bahn filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Daniel Young Bahn to Daniel Young Ho Bahn.

THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: 04/06/2021 Time: 8:30 AM Dept. C-61 Superior Court of California, County of San Diego 330 WEST BROADWAY DEPT. C-61 San Diego, CA 92101 A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation printed in this county. Asian Journal: FEB. 22, 2021 NO HEARING WILL OCCUR ON ABOVE DATE: SEE ATTACHMENT Lorna Alksne Judge of the Superior Court AJ 697 03/05, 03/12, 03/19, and 03/26/2021 ATTACHMENT TO ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE – Name Change (NC120) Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, which poses a substantial risk to the health and welfare of court personnel and the public, rendering presence in, or access to, the court’s facilities unsafe, and pursuant to the emergency orders of the Chief Justice of the State of California and General Orders of the Presiding Department of the San Diego Superior Court, the following Order is made: NO HEARING WILL OCCUR ON THE DATE SPECIFIED IN THE ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE. The Court will review the documents filed as of the date specified on the Order to Show Cause for Change of Name (JC Form #NC-120)..

If all requirements for a name change have been met as of the date specified, and no timely written objection has been received (required at least two court days before the date specified), the Petition for Change of Name (JC Form #NC100) will be granted without a hearing.

One certified copy of the Order Granting Petition will be mailed to the petitioner.

If all the requirements have not been met as of the date specified, the Court will mail the petitioner a written order with further directions.

If timely objection is filed, the Court will set a hearing date and contact the parties by mail with further directions.

A RESPONDENT OBJECTING TO THE NAME CHANGE, MUST FILE A WRITTEN OBJECTION AT LEAST TWO COURT DAYS (excluding weekends and holidays) BEFORE THE DATE SPECIFIED. Do not come to court on the specified date. The court will notify the parties by mail of a future hearing date.

Any Petition for the name change of a minor, that is signed by only one parent, must have this Attachment served along with the Petition and Order to Show Cause, on the other, non-signing parent, and proof of service must be filed with the Court.

AJSD 697

CP21-0764-52

LEGAL NOTICE CASE NUMBER: 37-2021-00009845-CU-PT-CTL

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner ISLAM SAMIR MAMMADBAYOV filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: ISLAM SAMIR MAMMADBAYOV to IZZY ROCK BRYANT. THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: 04/20/2021 Tine: 8:30 AM Dept. C-61 Superior Court of California, County of San Diego 330 WEST BROADWAY DEPT. C-61 San Diego, CA 92101 A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation printed in this county. Asian Journal: MAR. 08, 2021 NO HEARING WILL OCCUR ON ABOVE DATE: SEE ATTACHMENT Lorna Alksne Judge of the Superior Court AJ 701 03/19, 03/26, 04/02, and 04/09/2021.

ATTACHMENT TO ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE – Name Change (NC-120) Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, which poses a substantial risk to the health and welfare of court personnel and the public, rendering presence in, or access to, the court’s facilities unsafe, and pursuant to the emergency orders of the Chief Justice of the State of California and General Orders of the Presiding Department of the San Diego Superior Court, the following Order is made: NO HEARING WILL OCCUR ON THE DATE SPECIFIED IN THE ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE. The Court will review the documents filed as of the date specified on the Order to Show Cause for Change of Name (JC Form #NC-120)..

If all requirements for a name change have been met as of the date specified, and no timely written objection has been received (required at least two court days before the date specified), the Petition for Change of Name (JC Form #NC-100) will be granted without a hearing. One certified copy of the Order Granting Petition will be mailed to the petitioner.

If all the requirements have not been met as of the date specified, the Court will mail the petitioner a written order with further directions.

If timely objection is filed, the Court will set a hearing date and contact the parties by mail with further directions.

A RESPONDENT OBJECTING TO THE NAME CHANGE, MUST FILE A WRITTEN OBJECTION AT LEAST TWO COURT DAYS (excluding weekends and holidays) BEFORE THE DATE SPECIFIED. Do not come to court on the specified date. The court will notify the parties by mail of a future hearing date.

Any Petition for the name change of a minor, that is signed by only one parent, must have this Attachment served along with the Petition and Order to Show Cause, on the other, non-signing parent, and proof of service must be filed with the Court.

AJSD 701

CASE NUMBER: 37-2021-00011546-CU-PT-CTL

CASE NUMBER: 37-2021-00011543-CU-PT-CTL

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner Mark Edgar Dansereau filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Mark Edgar Dansereau to Mark Dancero.

THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: 04/28/2021 Tine: 8:30 AM Dept. C-61 Superior Court of California, County of San Diego 330 WEST BROADWAY DEPT. C-61 San Diego, CA 92101 A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation printed in this county. Asian Journal: MAR. 16, 2021 NO HEARING WILL OCCUR ON ABOVE DATE: SEE ATTACHMENT Lorna Alksne Judge of the Superior Court AJ 704 03/26, 04/02, 04/09, and 04/16/2021 ATTACHMENT TO ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE – Name Change (NC-120) Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, which poses a substantial risk to the health and welfare of court personnel and the public, rendering presence in, or access to, the court’s facilities unsafe, and pursuant to the emergency orders of the Chief Justice of the State of California and General Orders of the Presiding Department of the San Diego Superior Court, the following Order is made: NO HEARING WILL OCCUR ON THE DATE SPECIFIED IN THE ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE. The Court will review the documents filed as of the date specified on the Order to Show Cause for Change of Name (JC Form #NC-120)..

If all requirements for a name change have been met as of the date specified, and no timely written objection has been received (required at least two court days before the date specified), the Petition for Change of Name (JC Form #NC-100) will be granted without a hearing. One certified copy of the Order Granting Petition will be mailed to the petitioner.

If all the requirements have not been met as of the date specified, the Court will mail the petitioner a written order with further directions.

If timely objection is filed, the Court will set a hearing date and contact the parties by mail with further directions.

A RESPONDENT OBJECTING TO THE NAME CHANGE, MUST FILE A WRITTEN OBJECTION AT LEAST TWO COURT DAYS (excluding weekends and holidays) BEFORE THE DATE SPECIFIED. Do not come to court on the specified date. The court will notify the parties by mail of a future hearing date.

Any Petition for the name change of a minor, that is signed by only one parent, must have this Attachment served along with the Petition and Order to Show Cause, on the other, non-signing parent, and proof of service must be filed with the Court.

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner Olivia Anne Dansereau filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: a.

Olivia Anne Dansereau to Olivia Anne Dancero AND b. Jacqueline Elizabeth Dansereau to Jacqueline Elizabeth Dancero.

THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: 04/28/2021 Tine: 8:30 AM Dept. C-61 Superior Court of California, County of San Diego 330 WEST BROADWAY DEPT. C-61 San Diego, CA 92101 A copy of this Order to Show Cause shall be published at least once each week for four successive weeks prior to the date set for hearing on the petition in the following newspaper of general circulation printed in this county. Asian Journal: MAR. 16, 2021 NO HEARING WILL OCCUR ON ABOVE DATE: SEE ATTACHMENT Lorna Alksne Judge of the Superior Court AJ 705 03/26, 04/02, 04/09, and 04/16/2021.

ATTACHMENT TO ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE – Name Change (NC-120) Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, which poses a substantial risk to the health and welfare of court personnel and the public, rendering presence in, or access to, the court’s facilities unsafe, and pursuant to the emergency orders of the Chief Justice of the State of California and General Orders of the Presiding Department of the San Diego Superior Court, the following Order is made: NO HEARING WILL OCCUR ON THE DATE SPECIFIED IN THE ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE. The Court will review the documents filed as of the date specified on the Order to Show Cause for Change of Name (JC Form #NC-120)..

If all requirements for a name change have been met as of the date specified, and no timely written objection has been received (required at least two court days before the date specified), the Petition for Change of Name (JC Form #NC-100) will be granted without a hearing. One certified copy of the Order Granting Petition will be mailed to the petitioner.

If all the requirements have not been met as of the date specified, the Court will mail the petitioner a written order with further directions.

If timely objection is filed, the Court will set a hearing date and contact the parties by mail with further directions.

A RESPONDENT OBJECTING TO THE NAME CHANGE, MUST FILE A WRITTEN OBJECTION AT LEAST TWO COURT DAYS (excluding weekends and holidays) BEFORE THE DATE SPECIFIED. Do not come to court on the specified date. The court will notify the parties by mail of a future hearing date.

Any Petition for the name change of a minor, that is signed by only one parent, must have this Attachment served along with the Petition and Order to Show Cause, on the other, non-signing parent, and proof of service must be filed with the Court.

AJSD 704

AJSD 705

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT NO. 2021-9003367

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT NO. 2021-9003984

SAN DIEGO HAPPY BINS located at 127 JEFFERSON AVENUE, CHULA VISTA, SAN DIEGO, CA 91910.

Registrant: SD BINS LLC, 127 JEFFERSON AVENUE, CHULA VISTA, SAN DIEGO, CA 91910.

This business is conducted by LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY. REGISTRANT HAS NOT BEGUN TO TRANSACT BUSINESS UNDER THE ABOVED NAME. Signature: JESUS PEREZ. Statement filed with Recorder/County Clerk of San Diego County on 03/04/21.

AJ 698 03/12, 03/19, 03/26, 04/02/21.

PAT IMPORT located at 8610 LAKE JODY DRIVE, SAN DIEGO, CA 92119.

Registrant: PATCHAREE ARUNANGKOON, 8610 LAKE JODY DRIVE, SAN DIEGO, CA 92119.

This business is conducted

by INDIVIDUAL. REGISTRANT HAS NOT BEGUN TO TRANSACT BUSINESS UNDER THE ABOVED NAME. Signature PATCHAREE ARUNANGKOON. Statement filed with Recorder/County Clerk of San Diego County on 03/08/2021.

AJ 699 03/19, 03/26, 04/02, 04/09/2021.

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT NO. 2021-9004333

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT NO. 2021-9004762

AJSD 698

a. La Pensione Hotel at India and Date b. La Pensione Hotel located at 606 W. Date St., San Diego, CA 92101.

Registrant: LP III Dodge Corp., 606 W. Date St., San Diego, CA 92101.

This business is conducted

by CORPORATION. REGISTRANT HAS BEGUN TO TRANSACT BUSINESS UNDER THE ABOVED NAME AS OF 02/01/1996.

Signature LP III Dodge Corp.

Statement filed with Recorder/County Clerk of San Diego County on 03/11/2021.

AJ 700 03/19, 03/26, 04/02, 04/09/2021

AJSD 700

AJSD 699

GOSEN PRODUCE located at 1605 EAST 4TH STREET, NATIONAL CITY, CA 91950.

Registrant: ADRIANA MURPHY, 1400 RIDGEBACK RD #C, CHULA VISTA, CA 91910.

This business is conducted

by INDIVIDUAL. REGISTRANT HAS NOT BEGUN TO TRANSACT BUSINESS UNDER THE ABOVED NAME. ADRIANA Signature MURPHY. Statement filed with Recorder/County Clerk of San Diego County on 03/13/2021.

AJ 702 03/26, 04/02, 04/09, 04/16/2021.

AJSD 702

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SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL • MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021

JOURNAL

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M A R C H 26 , 2 0 2 1

Hear me roar: A brief history of the groundbreaking Filipina Looking back at revolutionary Filipinas who broke — and continue to break — barriers in national independence, social work, medicine and arts and entertainment

T

by Klarize

Medenilla / AJPress

O understand the world, one must understand women; it is simply impossible to know world history without the history of women — in a biological sense and in a cultural sense.

The Philippines is a country built on the strength of resilient women. On a macro level, women in the Philippines — before, during and after colonial occupations —have always held positions in power. On a micro level, women are the central figure of the household, as mothers, wives, lolas (grandmas) and titas (aunts) are respected members of any extended family.

That being said, to honor Women’s History Month is to honor the Filipinas — of the motherland and of the diaspora — who helped cultivate the strong and resilient identity of the Groundbreaking Filipina, the woman who pushes boundaries and subverts patriarchal systems of power in the name of equality and fairness.

Early national heroines For nearly four centuries, the Philippines was a colonial instrument during the golden ages of world imperialism. The influence of European — and then, American — occupation remains in the country today, but with the help of early Filipina revolutionaries, the fight for a truly unique Filipina identity continues today.

Gabriela Silang (1731-1763) was a military leader who spearheaded the Ilocano campaign for independence from Spain. Born in Ilocos Sur to a Spanish Ilocano father and a Tinguian mother, Gabriela Silang was separated from her parents as a young girl and was raised by a priest.

Known as the “Joan of Arc of Ilocandia,” Gabriela Silang became integral to her second husband’s, Diego Silang, effort to overthrow Spanish control in Ilocos and appoint native Filipino leaders. After his assassination by the Spanish in 1763, Gabriela assumed her husband’s position as commander of rebel troops and mobilized local fighting forces to lodge successful guerrilla attacks against Spanish soldiers.

During the fight to liberate Vigan, the fearless Filipina leader led more than 2,000 soldiers against a formidable Spanish force of more than 6,000 men, but outnumbered natives were captured and eventually, the Spanish military executed her in September 1763.

Despite her demise, Gabriela Silang is regarded as a national symbol in the fight for independence and is known as “the first Filipina to lead an uprising

Encarnacion Alzona

Diane Paragas

Geena Rocero

Dr. Fe del Mundo

Teresa Magbanua

against a foreign power.”

More than a century after the exploits of Gabriela Silang, a school teacher from Manila named Teresa Magbanua (1868-1947) parlayed her skills in horseback riding and marksmanship (which she learned while married to a wealthy businessman) to join the Katipunan’s women’s chapter in Panay.

She was influenced after her brothers joined an uprising against the Spanish military and convinced her uncle, General Perfecto Poblador, to led her lead trips in the Visayas during the revolution, the first and only woman to do so. During this time, she led a group of bolo soldiers during the Battle of Barrio Yoting and the Battle of Sapong Hills, two victories that led to the liberation of Iloilo City.

After that first success, Magbanua collaborated with guerrilla forces in fighting against Americans at the turn of the century and later, against Japanese forces during WWII, making her one of the few who fought for Philippine independence against all three of the country’s main instigators: Spain, the U.S. and Japan.

Pioneers in the modern era As the Philippines was slowly moving towards becoming a totally sovereign nation, innovation and cultural expansion grew among the Filipino people. A standard for what it means to be a pioneer had been set, and Filipinas of the Modern Era helped catapult the global Filipino community onto the world stage.

Encarnacion Alzona (18952001) was a pioneering Filipino historian, educator and suffragist who was the first Filipina to earn a Ph.D. As white American women won the right to vote in 1920, Alzona was among the few who spoke out in favor of the right to vote for Filipino women.

Born in Laguna, Philippines, Alzona’s father was a trial court judge and a distant relative of the renowned national hero Jose Rizal. Both Alzona’s parents encouraged the young girl to pursue academic excellence, an in-

Vicki Manalo Draves

Illustration of Gabriela Silang by Bayani Art

fluence that helped Alzona earn undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of the Philippines in Manila (UPM).

She pursued further studies in the U.S., earning a master’s degree from Harvard University in 1920 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1923.

When she moved back to the Philippines at the end of the 1920s, Alzona dedicated herself to the suffragist movement and penned several books on the topic; many credit her 1934 tome “The Filipino Woman: Her Social, Economic and Political Status (1565-1933)” as an integral piece in granting Filipino women the right to vote in the Philippines in 1937.

In 1985, she was granted the rank and title of National Scientist of the Philippines and her extensive bibliography continues to be a staple in the Philippine history genre.

Another Harvard graduate, Dr. Fe Del Mundo (1911-2011), another boundary-breaker in higher education, was an extremely influential pediatrician who founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines.

As reported in the Asian Journal, Del Mundo was inspired to become a doctor after one of her sisters died of appendicitis in her youth. After a stellar undergraduate stint at the UPM, then President Manuel Quezon recognized her achievements and offered her a full scholarship to any U.S. college of her choice for further studies. She chose Harvard University, and became the first woman ever to study at Harvard Medical School.

After years of frustration of working for a government hospital, Del Mundo sold her home and possessions to establish the Philippines’ first pediatric hospital, The Children’s Medical Center in Quezon City, in 1957 — the first medical facility of its kind in the entirety of Asia.

Del Mundo continued working through her 90s, making hospital rounds and seeing patients even when her own health began to deteriorate.

“I’m glad that I have been very much involved in the care of children, and that I have been

u PAGE 10

Nilda Rimonte

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MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021 • SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL

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‘I finally became comfortable in my own skin’: Black Fil-Am rapper Saweetie featured on the cover of Cosmopolitan

By Ritchel

Mendiola AJPress

Fanny band members included Fil-Am sisters June and Jean Millington

Hear me roar: A brief history...

PAGE 9 relevant to them. They are the most outstanding feature in my life,” Del Mundo said in 2007.

Another pioneer of the crucial mid-century was Victoria “Vicki” Manalo Draves, a Filipina American competitive diver who became the first Asian American to ever win Olympic gold medals.

Draves was born in San Francisco to a Filipino father and an English mother and became interested in diving at the age of 16. As she became more competitive, she changed her name to Vickie Taylor to avoid racial discrimination for her Filipino background.

In 1948, at the age of 23, Draves won five U.S. diving championships, which allowed her to join the U.S. team at the London Olympics, where she won a gold medal in the 10-meter platform and springboard, becoming the first woman to win both titles.

She was also the first Asian American to ever win a gold medal. Staying true to her roots, she dedicated her post-diving life to advocate for Filipino American issues, supporting the Filipino Education Center in San Francisco in the 1960s when the second wave of Filipino immigrants came and settled in the Bay Area.

As Filipinos were adjusting to their newfound sovereignty after centuries of colonialism and occupation, the community and the diaspora boomed, clearing the way for Filipinas to make their mark in society and pop culture.

As more and more Asians began migrating to the U.S., the need for social services that specifically cater to the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community became acutely apparent.

In the late 1970s, Filipina American domestic violence survivor Nilda Rimonte saw the need for a resource that supports AAPI victims of domestic abuse and understood that AAPIs (especially immigrants) are among the least likely groups to seek help.

Knowing that community trust is crucial for AAPIs to seek help from violent home life, Rimonte established the Center for the Pacific Asian Family in Los Angeles, the first anti-domestic abuse organization dedicated to serving AAPI survivors and victims.

“We got high statistics but people didn’t want to talk about it. The issue of concealment and detail is huge. People told me not use the word ‘rape’ [for the center’s rape hotline] because women wouldn’t use it. I refused because I thought this was colluding with the community in hiding the issue. I thought it was time to bring it out, and it paid off,” Rimonte told the Los Angeles Times in 1981.

The multi-lingual and multi-cultural center — which still operates today — provides emergency and transitional shelter as well as counseling and case management.

Though Filipino American musicians today are mainly associated with hip-hop culture and Broadway, a little-known band from the early to mid1970s called Fanny set an important standard for women in music.

Filipina American sisters June and Jean Millington — who were born to a Filipina socialite and a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander — moved from the Philippines to Sacramento, California, where they formed two all-female bands in high school with June on the guitar and Jean on the bass.

The sisters — and their former bandmates Alice de Buhr, Nickey Barclay and Brie Brandt — moved to Los Angeles and rebranded as Fanny after being discovered by producer Richard Perry during a gig at The Troubadour Club in West Hollywood in 1969.

Altogether, the band released three albums, but because of the male-dominated nature of rock music at the time, the band largely went under the radar, despite being the first all-female group to achieve a Billboard Top 40 single (they released two during their short duration).

But those within the music industry lauded Fanny for its fresh sound, even garnering high profile fans like the legend David Bowie, who told Rolling Stone in 1999 that “[they] were extraordinary: they wrote everything, they played like m*therfuckers. They were just colossal and wonderful, and nobody’s ever mentioned them.”

Though the group ended up splitting by 1975, Fanny’s impact was monumental for women in rock. Throughout their career, the Millington sisters were adamant in rejecting record executive’s suggestions to emphasize sex appeal like other female acts of the time, preferring to acquire a reputation based on their talent and sound.

The now and beyond As the Filipino diaspora continues to grow, so do the possibilities for the Groundbreaking Filipina.

The arts and entertainment are the lifeblood of the Filipino community with acute attention placed on Filipino representation in Western media.

But there are many groundbreaking Filipinas in the arts today who are redefining the boundaries of what it means to be a storyteller.

As the conversation on gender continues to evolve, Filipino figures within the LGBTQ+ community are part of the force leading the way to cultural inclusion.

Model Geena Rocero, born in Manila, started her career as a beauty pageant contestant at the age of 15. After moving to the U.S. in the aughts, Rocero was discovered by a fashion photographer in New York City, a chance encounter that led to a fruitful career in fashion editorials.

As a transgender woman, Rocero rose up as an advocate for trans rights; she and fellow trans model Tracey Norman became the first two openly transgender models to appear on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar in 2016. But Rocero’s big breakout came in 2019 when she was chosen as the Playboy Playmate of the Month for August 2019, becoming the first openly transgender AAPI model

Isabel Sandoval

BLACK and Filipina American hip-hop darling Saweetie is reclaiming her power after years of “dimming” her light.

In her latest Cosmopolitan cover interview, the “Icy Girl” rapper shared that she finally became comfortable in her own skin last year after her ascent to viral stardom in the summer of 2017.

“Last year was the year that I finally became comfortable in my own skin. I kind of figured out what my purpose was,” Saweetie told Cosmo. “I think it’s important to show little Black and brown girls that they can be successful in whatever they want to do. If I can do it, you can do it too.”

This development came after the infamous HOT97 interview in February 2018 where one of the radio hosts insulted Saweetie, calling her freestyle “basic” and implying she “had little to offer but her beauty,” as Cosmo writer Rawiya Kameir noted.

“It was a really dark point in my life. I went from being so loved so quickly because of ‘Icy Grl’ to, on my first promo run, well, you saw the interview.

The script flipped really quick, like night and day. I was like, Wait…I had PTSD from that,” Saweetie admitted.

However, the rapper said she was “grateful” for the setbacks she experienced, as they helped her grow into the artist she is now.

“I’m really grateful for my start. Because the mistakes, the struggle, the grind — it allows me to appreciate the rewards that come now because I know what it feels like to sleep in motels, to drive and do promo, to be stressed out,” said Saweetie.

She shared that she perfected her stage presence by learning how to control her breath

Saweetie

and pull off complex choreo and rap without missing a beat.

She also took vocal lessons.

“Some of us have it naturally.

And some of us don’t—like me,” Saweetie told Cosmo. “And that’s okay because I know that as long as I work hard, I’ll become one of the best.”

Saweetie, whose real name is Diamonté Quiava Valentin Harper, was born to an African American father and Filipina-Chinese mother.

In 2017, she went viral after posting a video on Instagram.

The freestyle video later became “Icy Grl,” prompting a label bidding war that ended with Saweetie signing a deal with Warner Records.

Since her fame, she has released chart-topping hits including 2020’s “Tap In” and “Back to the Streets” as well

Photo from Instagram/@saweetie

as “Best Friend” with Doja Cat this year.

She also launched a nonprofit, The Icy Baby Foundation, with her grandmother to support single mothers, low-income communities, education efforts, and people living with autism.

“Money beats court cases, money buys medicine, money fixes potholes, money puts food on the counter, and money keeps the heat and electricity going,” said Saweetie.

“So if I can spread the wealth, that’s what I want to do,” she added.

Saweetie’s first studio album, “Pretty Bitch Music,” is set to debut this spring.

“It’s my way of taking back all those years where I feel I had to dim my light,” she told Cosmo.

COVID-19 Rx: In or out Eva Noblezada

to pose for the lauded publication.

“As the first trans Asian Pacific Islander Playmate, I feel that I’m making it possible for someone to reach for their biggest dreams just like the people who came before me,” Rocero said in 2019.

“I also hope that for anyone who’s been deemed ‘other’ to know that what makes you different, is your power, especially the unapologetic expression of your sexuality, gender and the value of your unique perspective.”

In the era of diversity and inclusion in Hollywood, the primary concern among cinema aficionados — who fear for the disintegration of the art form — is the preservation of authentic and sophisticated story-telling. Streaming services and content pushers like Netflix and Marvel are regularly criticized for mass-producing narratively sub-par content that may be diverse, racially and culturally, but lack creativity and imagination: which, to many, will eventually render the art of cinema nearly obsolete.

But filmmakers like Diane Paragas (writer, director and producer of “Yellow Rose”) and Isabel Sandoval (director, writer, producer and star of “Lingua Franca”) are bridging the gap between mainstream representation trends and auteur filmmaking.

As written about in the Asian Journal, “Yellow Rose” (available on Amazon Prime) tells the coming of age tale of a young undocumented Filipina in Texas named Rose who longs to be a country music star and struggles to find herself after immigration officers detain her mother. The film’s style is reminiscent of the raw, elegantly dusty pictures of John Ford and the ethereal and devastatingly poetic films of Terrence Malick.

“I kind of wanted to do a country song as a film, something that is something authentic, simple and straight with a lot of emotion,” Paragas told the Asian Journal in a 2019 interview. “That’s what I was going for in terms of the tone of the film: a simple, true authentic story that feels real and grounded in something poetic.”

The film stars Tony-nominated Filipina American actress and singer Eva Noblezada (“Miss Saigon,” “Hadestown”) in her feature film debut, but the resolute spirit with which she brought to the role powered the film. Carrying a narrative isn’t new to Noblezada, another Groundbreaking Filipina, who brought an effortlessly youthful energy as the leading character of Eurydice in the popular Broadway musical “Hadestown.”

In 2020, Sandoval made waves in the prestige independent film circuit with her third film “Lingua Franca,” a dramatic love story about a Filipina living in New York City who struggles to make money for her mother in the Philippines and to pay for an American man to marry her for a green card.

The intimate lens with which Sandoval — who is trans — tells her story rejects popular filmmaking styles that opt for grandiosity and exclamations, preferring “complexity” in her “quiet, patient [and] subtle” narrative approach.

“We have to establish what is distinct and unique about our voice and our worth because it’s so easy to get pigeonholed or to be put in a box especially for someone like me,” Sandoval told the Asian Journal last year. “There will always be several expectations about you and the community you belong to and it’s easy for Hollywood to just be like, ‘You’re an immigrant so you should be telling immigrant stories or you’re trans so you should be making films about the trans experience,’ and kind of impose on me the kinds of stories that I should be telling and [am] only capable of telling.”

Health@Heart Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS SINCE the first case of COVID-19 was officially reported by the local authority in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019, followed by the WHO declaration of this pandemic, medical centers around the world struggled to search for effective treatments, including vitamin-mineral supplements. No herbals have been found effective against this SARS-CoV2 virus.

The following March 17, 2021 report by Ryan Basen and Amanda D’Ambrosio of MedPage shows which treatments are in and which ones are out: Treatments currently in use Remdesivir Remdesivir, an antiviral, is currently the only FDA-approved therapy for COVID-19. It prevents SARS-CoV-2 from replicating by binding to RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, a key enzyme the virus needs to propagate. Authorization (EUA) has been revised to also allow for treatment of hospitalized pediatric patients under 12 who weigh at least 7.7 lbs.

NIH guidelines recommend the use of remdesivir in hospitalized patients who require supplemental oxygen, either on its own, or in combination with dexamethasone. For those requiring high-flow or noninvasive ventilation, NIH recommends remdesivir only in combination with dexamethasone. Its scope was limited in December due to “lack of data showing benefit at this advanced stage of the disease.”

Dexamethasone Dexamethasone, a corticosteroid with potent anti-inflammatory effects, is ecommended for use in many categories of patients hospitalized with COVID-19, but not for those with mild-to-moderate disease who aren’t in the hospital.

While it recommends against dexamethasone for those hospitalized but not on supplemental oxygen, NIH recommends it for those who need supplemental oxygen, high-flow or noninvasive ventilation, and mechanical ventilation or ECMO. The use of dexamethasone in those who required mechanical ventilation cut the risk of death by about 35% compared with usual care. Overall mortality also was lower in all hospitalized patients who received the drug.

Tocilizumab On March 5, the NIH updated its guidance regarding the anti-interleukin-6 (IL-6) monoclonal antibody tocilizumab for COVID-19. It now recommends using tocilizumab in combination with dexamethasone in certain hospitalized COVID patients exhibiting rapid respiratory decompensation. That includes those who have been admitted to the ICU within the previous 24 hours who require invasive mechanical ventilation, noninvasive mechanical ventilation or high-flow nasal cannula oxygen, or – outside the ICU – patients with rapidly increasing oxygen needs who require noninvasive ventilation or high-flow oxygen and have significantly increased markers of inflammation.

The agency says tocilizumab should be avoided for “significantly” immunocompromised patients. There’s no evidence for using other IL-6 inhibitors in COVID-19.

Anticoagulation The US-NIH recommends that all adults (including pregnant patients) hospitalized for COVID-19 who aren’t pregnant should receive prophylactic anticoagulation to prevent venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Convalescent Plasma Convalescent plasma has an FDA emergency use authorization to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Only high-titer plasma is now authorized. However, NIH guidelines state there are insufficient data to recommend for or against the use of convalescent plasma in the treatment of COVID-19.

Monoclonal Antibodies (one of the treatments President Trump had): Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab, bamlanivimab/etesevimab combo and Regeneron’s casirivimab/ imdevimab Despite the FDA authorizations, NIH doesn’t recommend the therapies in its COVID-19 treatment guidelines. “There are currently insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of bamlanivimab or the casirivimab plus imdevimab combination for the treatment of outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19,” according to an NIH statement.

One barrier to practical application is that they require intravenous infusion – most easily delivered in hospitals yet hospitalized patients aren’t eligible for them.

Failed or debated therapies Hydroxychloroquine Both the WHO and the NIH recommend against the use of hydroxychloroquine – with or without azithromycin – for the treatment of COVID-19 in both

hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients. This was a spectacular failure in efficacy of this hyped-up anti-malarial drug.

Findings from the RECOVERY trial showed that use of hydroxychloroquine did not reduce mortality among COVID-19 patients after 28 days, and in fact trended towards risk of death.

Additionally, patients who received the antimalarial drug had a longer median hospital stay than those who received standard of care.

Another clinical trial based in Brazil found that hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin did not improve outcomes for hospitalized patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 after 15 days.

Ivermectin In January, the NIH changed its recommendation from “against” use of ivermectin in COVID-19 to noting that there are “insufficient data” to recommend for or against the therapy.

The antiparasitic drug has shown some potential to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in cell cultures. However, according to the NIH, achieving the plasma concentrations necessary to achieve the antiviral efficacy detected in vitro would require doses up to 100-fold higher than those approved for use in humans.

Vitamin C NIH states that there are insufficient data to recommend for or against the use of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in COVID-19.

A randomized controlled trial of vitamin C and zinc showed no impact of either supplement on the course of symptoms in patients with mild illness.

Vitamin D NIH states that there are insufficient data to recommend for or against the use of vitamin D in COVID-19.

In February, a large randomized Brazilian trial published in JAMA found no difference in length of hospital stay for those with moderate to severe COVID-19 given high-dose vitamin D or placebo.

Zinc NIH states there are insufficient data to recommend for or against the use of zinc in COVID-19. It also recommends against zinc supplementation above the recommended dietary allowance for the prevention of COVID-19, except in a clinical trial.

Protease Inhibitors The NIH recommends against using lopinavir/ritonavir and other HIV protease inhibitors to treat COVID-19 in hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients

u PAGE 11

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Community

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City of San Diego proposes water and sewer rate increases to pay for rising costs of providing services Anticipated 2% rate hike from county water authority; wastewater fee would rise for first time in a decade

SAN DIEGO – For the first time in 10 years, the City of San Diego is looking to increase wastewater rates, by 5%, starting in January 2022. In addition, the City’s Public Utilities Department (PUD), which provides water and sewer services to customers, is proposing to pass through regional water cost increases to its cusThe 2021 Karangalan Scholarship intends to honor academic achievements of SUHSD’s Filipino-American seniors by giving at least one tomers. outstanding student from each of the 13 high schools a scholarship to assist in their post-secondary journeys.

The rate increases for sewer

Image capture from GoFundMe page services will help the City continue to upgrade core infrastructure by replacing aging pipes and sewer mains; and fund future investments like Pure Water, a landmark water recycling project that will avoid wastewater treatTHE Sweetwater Unified High School Dis- American teachers, counselors, and admin- ment cost increases and reduce trict (SUHSD) is seeking assistance from the istrators. Currently, the Sweetwater Unified discharges to the ocean.

“The proposed rate increases community for donations to its 2021 Karan- High School District has just reestablished the Filipino American Advisory Board to advocate come at a critical time for the galan Scholarship.

The Karangalan Scholarship was established for students, their parents, teachers and ad- City of San Diego with Pure Water’s promise on the horizon and in the Spring of 2000, with a goal of honor- ministrators.

If you are a member of FILAMEDA, CTFLC, the need to fix our aging pipes ing the academic achievements of the district’s Filipino-American seniors by giving at least The Filipino School, COPAO, HOP, FANHS SD and mains so we can continue one scholar from each of the 13 high schools or FCC, please approach your membership/ to provide reliable wastewater in the Sweetwater Union High School District organization and donate to the SUHSD Karan- collection and treatment,” said a scholarship to assist them in their post-sec- galan Scholarship Fund. Donations and contri- Shauna Lorance, Director of PUD. “We know many San Dieondary journeys. Through the years, a total of butions from individuals are also welcomed.

A Gofundme page has been organized for the gans are struggling financially $87,700 has been raised via donations from the SUHSD Karangalan Scholarship 2021 by Lysa- due to the pandemic, so we tried community.

Additionally, 303 high school graduate beth Luansing-Garcia, with a goal of $5,000. To to minimize the impact as much awardees have been recognized for their ac- view and donate, go to https://www.gofundme. as possible with this plan, knowademic success and leadership abilities. Five com/f/suhsd-karangalan-scholarship?mem- ing that our rising costs are forcKarangalan Scholarship recipients now work ber=9150390&utm_campaign=p_cp+share- ing us to propose increases in s h e e t & u t m _ m e d i u m = c o p y _ l i n k _ a l l & u t m _ order to deliver the high-quality in the district. services San Diegans expect.”

For academic year 2019-2020, there were source=customer.

PUD is one of the nation’s largFor inquiries about the 2021 Karangalan 39,904 students in the Sweetwater School District, of which 8.5% identified as Filipino Scholarship, send an email to Chula Vista Mid- est water and sewer utilities servAmerican. Within the SUHSD, Castle Park and dle School Principal Lora Bumatay at Lora.Bu- ing over 2.2 million customers in the region. The department Olympian High School have the most Filipino matay@sweetwaterschools.org. maintains over 3,400 miles of water pipelines and 3,000 miles of sewer mains, also operating 82 pump stations to keep wastewater flowing out of every comtop-line results from the COLCO- is not a substitute for your physician, munity.

PAGE 10 because clinical trials have not RONA trial announced in Janu- who knows your condition well and who The City of San Diego curshown clinical benefit in COVID ary showed improved outcomes is your best ally when it comes to your rently imports as much as 90% patients. for patients with mild illness health. of its water, the bulk of which is Colchicine from COVID-19. *** purchased from the San Diego Neither the NIH nor WHO *** Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, a County Water Authority (CWA) have any guidelines concernThe main objective of this column Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus based in which serves 24 cities and waing this oral anti-inflammatory is to educate and inspire people live a Northwest Indiana and Las Vegas, ter districts throughout the redrug often used to treat gout. healthier lifestyle to prevent illnesses Nevada, is an international medical gion. While the costs of purchasThe colchicine arm of the RE- and disabilities and achieve a happier lecturer/author, a Health Advocate, ing water from CWA have risen COVERY trial was recently halt- and more productive life. Any diagnosis, and Chairman of the Filipino United over the past several years, the ed because an independent data recommendation or treatment in our Network-USA, a 501(c)3 humanitarian City is now proposing to pass monitoring committee found the article are general medical information foundation in the United States. on a rate adjustment for the first drug wasn’t helping hospitalized and not intended to be applicable or Websites: philipSchua.com and FUN8888. time in two years of approxipatients with COVID. However, appropriate for anyone. This column com; Email: scalpelpen@gmail.com. mately 2% starting in 2022. Wa-

SUHSD Seeks Donations for Karangalan Scholarship 2021

COVID-19 Rx: In or out...

ter and sewer rates in San Diego are comprised of base fees and usage charges for various customer classes.

Last year, the City conducted a cost-of-service study on wastewater (sewer) rates to evaluate future revenue requirements for operating and capital costs.

The study found that if the City’s sewer rates remain unchanged, there will not be enough revenue to provide necessary wastewater and recycled water services between fiscal years 2022 and 2025. As a result, PUD is proposing a four-year consecutive rate increase starting with 5% in 2022, up to 4% in fiscal years 2023 and 2024, and up to 3% in fiscal years 2025 and 2026.

“This study is just the start of what will be an open and honest conversation with San Diegans about the importance of these new water and sewer rates as we continue our growth as one of the nation’s largest cities,” Lorance said. “The good news is that the Pure Water program is projected to provide long-term savings for sewer services because we will no longer need to pay for costly upgrades to our existing treat-

ment plant. That’s a big win for our customers.”

There are a number of water conservation options that can reduce customers’ water usage and therefore decrease utility bills, such as checking for leaks, decreasing irrigation and taking advantage of rebates. Less water use can also lead to lower wastewater charges. More information is available from the City at wastenowater.org.

San Diego residents facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic may qualify for funding through the Housing Stability Assistance Program to cover the costs of rent, utilities and internet service. To apply, visit covidassistance.sdhc.org. In addition, the City offers the Help to Others (H2O SD) program, a bill payment assistance option for qualified low- and fixed-income water utility customers.

Proposed water and wastewater rate increases are being presented to the City Council’s Budget and Government Efficiency Committee on April 7. A full City Council vote is anticipated in mid-September.

(City of San Diego Release)

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MARCH 26 - APRIL 1, 2021 • SAN DIEGO ASIAN JOURNAL

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