JAY BALNIG, the famous former news director of Aksyon Radyo, is back home in Iloilo City after years of working in New York City. But it’s not really vacation for this dynamic young man. He’s here as media liaison officer of the New York-based Philippine Independence Day Council Inc. (PIDCI), an umbrella organization of 200-plus Filipino-American associations based on the East Coast.
The Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI) – with Antero Martinez as this year’s president – is principally dedicated to promoting history, cultural heritage and traditions of the Filipino people through the annual celebration of Philippine Independence Day, beginning in 1990.
Jay’s mission in behalf of PIDCI is to coordinate with Mayor Jose Espinosa III and beauteous tourism officer Junel Ann Divinagracia about the participation of the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation Inc. (IDFI) in the forthcoming 118th day-long Philippine Independence Day celebration, kicking off with a parade from Madison Avenue to 38th and St., 37th St., climaxing with a cultural show on Madison Avenue on June 3, 2018 (a Sunday). Filipino chefs, restaurateurs and product manufacturers are now being enlisted to participate in the Filipino Food Festival and Mini-Expo on that “wrong date,” which is intentional to enable Ilonggo participants to come back to Iloilo before the true June 12 holiday.
As in the past few years starting in 2011, the local government of Iloilo City will send street performers chosen from this year’s winning Dinagyang Festival tribe, Tribu Panayanon of Iloilo City National High School. Since the current year is the 50th anniversary of Dinagyang, we expect the local government and the IDFI to maximize the number of participating tribesmen in the New York event that is expected to draw at least 100,000 street spectators, including Filipinos from other US states.
Jay and a few other Filipino journalists and broadcasters – namely Alex Vidal, Mike Estaniel, Joel Tormon, Alvin Dennis Arabang, Josie Moralidad Ziman, Jonavin Villalva, and Regine Algecera – have had the pleasure of attending previous Philippine Independence celebrations in New York.
Meanwhile, another Filipino journalist and friend who is based in Chicago, Illinois – Joseph Gara Lariosa – e-mailed to us his latest report on the amazing growth of Filipino immigrants in the United States. Writing for the on-line Journal GlobaLinks, he wrote:
“The United States is home to by far the largest number of Filipinos abroad, according to Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a Washington, D.C.-based independent, non-partisan, non-profit think-tank dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide.
“MPI claims that there are now 4.1 million Filipinos in the US. The next top destinations of Filipinos include Saudi Arabia (584,000), the United Arab Emirates (539,000), Canada (528,000), Japan (239,000), and Australia (233,000).
“Today, most Filipinos in the United States who obtain lawful permanent residence status (those with green card) do so through family reunification channels, either as immediate relatives of US citizens or through other family-sponsored channels.
“Many also get green cards through employment preferences. Filipinos are more likely than other immigrants to have strong English skills, more likely to be naturalized US citizens than other immigrant groups, have higher incomes and lower poverty rates, and are less likely to be uninsured.”
Incidentally, one of the most fortunate Filipinos in New York City today is immigration lawyer Nick Caraquel, whose life story is a journey from rags to riches – a long way from his tender age of nine when he peddled banana-cue at a bus terminal in Davao City.
His dream-come-true story has been published in other newspapers, but I will write an updated one after I will have met him in person. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
