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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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Washington, D.C. --- The Philippine Embassy here held on Aug. 31 a send-off reception for a talented 24-year-old Filipino-American woman crowned as “Miss District of Columbia 2004.”
Therese Lorraine Diza Lizardo, who will represent D.C. in the “Miss America Pageant” next week, met with government officials and dignataries, including Albert del Rosario, the Philippine ambassador to the U.S.
Also, the reception was attended by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president of the George Washington University, Lizardo’s alma mater where she has been admitted for a course in Doctor of Medicine.
Three former “Miss District of Coumbia” were present during the event. They were Lisa Ferris (2003), Rashida Jolley (2001), and Sonya Gavankar (1997), who acted as the mistress of ceremonies.
Lizardo, as Miss District of Columbia, has received a $100,000 grant from the Peter Strauss Foundation, Inc. to promote her “Values First” platform while traveling through the 52 states, including the Virgin Islands, as an ambassador of goodwill for Washington, D.C.
“A strong set of values that fosters ambition and integrity is what differentiates a good student from a great student,” Lizardo said. “Teachers play an important role in the development of any child because they can infuse these values everyday in the classroom.”
Lizardo said that through her efforts, she could motivate teachers across the nation.
With this platform, Lizardo has prepared herself for the “Miss America” contest to be held in Atlantic City, starting on Sept. 12, culminating in a parade at the Atlantic City Boardwalk on Sept. 17, and the final “Miss America Pageant” and Coronation on Sept. 18, which will be televised live on ABC Channel from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
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Health Fair volunteerism, free health screening, free physical therapy screening and dental screening, in cooperation with Raritan Bay Medical Center, Colgate-Palmolive & American Heart Assn. and Filipino Medical Physician by the Filipino-American Community of Old Bridge headed by President Zaldy Castillo & Chairman Zaida de Leon.
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Jersey City, NEW JERSEY, September 9, 2004 --- The Filipino-American Community of Old Bridge, Inc. will be holding a health fair on Sept. 18, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at St. Ambrose Church, in Throckmorton Lane, Old Bridge, NJ.
The fair will offer health, physical and dental screenings, as well as education and information to public. All services are free of charge.
Specifically, health tests to be given include: body fat analysis, lung capaciy testing, blood type, blood sugar testing, blood pressure, breast cancer screening, adult and pediatric general screening and chiropractic.
Physical therapy tests include posture, muscle strength testing and hand grip testing.
There will also be free gift with dental screening for children ages 1-12 years while supplies last.
Doctors and nurses will also give CPR demonstration, cancer education, diabetic education, nutrition and meal planning, education on women’s medical conditions, pre-natal counselling, fitness and wellness programs.
For more information, call (732) 360-4927 or (732) 607-0094.
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NEW JERSEY --- If you are in your 50’s and 60’s, you may remember reading about the exploits of bands of Filipino men and women who spent a part of their youth in the villages of an Asian country that few people, certainly most of today’s Filipino youth, know about.
The country is Laos, tucked between China and Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) in the north, Thailand in the west, Vietnam in the east and Kampuchea (known as Cambodia) in the south. From 1957, more than 900 Filipinos worked in Laos as doctors , nurses, engineers, agriculturists, accountants, and technicians of all sorts -- from radio operators and aircraft maintenance, to secretaries and teachers. That period happened to be the Cold War years of Communism vs. Capitalism. But in that part of the world then, the war was hot.
The Vietnamese Communists together with their Lao allies were waging a guerilla war against the “neutralist” Laotian government and its American patron. The former wanted to keep the country as its conduit (through the Ho Chi Minh trails) of arms and men to South Vietnam. The U.S. tried to keep them out with immense bombing campaigns of the Laoatian countryside. Many of the Filipinos served as contract workers with the American Laos-based agencies. Although non-combatants, they found themselves on the side of the American effort by virtue of their employment with the U.S. Embassy, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the CIA air transport airline Air America. Others served as instructors with the Lao government armed forces. A large number of the Filipinos were health care personnel and community development workers with Operation Brotherhood, more commonly called OB by the Lao.
More than three-fourths of a newly book “Filipinos in Laos” describe the work of these OB volunteers. The balance of the 231-page volume is devoted to the non-OB Filipinos. Mostly assigned to remote, rural regions of the country, staffing hospitals and clinics, their stories tell of perseverance, dedication and service.
Long before the term OFW -- Overseas Filipino Workers -- became fashionable today as Filipino heroes, our compatriots in this small, poor country of three million Lao, were already heroes in the eyes of their Laoatian hosts. More than a dozen Filipnos died there doing many good things. Yet no record in book form of their service has been written. As one result, their work never gained the cold war glamour of the American Peace Corps. or the Green Berets. It remains a great unknown even among Filipinos.
This book is authored by a Jesuit Filipino historian and an OB volunteer who served in Laos for six years. Together, they have contributed a history of what Filipinos can do and have done for their fellow Asians at a time when they needed such help the most.
Copies of the book can be ordered from Books By Bookends, 232 East Ridgewood Avenue, NJ. Contact (201) 670-1440 or (201) 445-0726, or e-mail Dave at dave@booksbybookends.com. Price is $20 plus shipping and handling. -- Emelyn Tapaoan contributed to this story.
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