The Bayanihan Foundation wishes to acknowledge the generosity of multiple donors, including Vicky Geaga, Robin Alexander, and Willard Dix, who sent thousands of books to the university library. Special thanks go to Lizabel Lozano, a long-time volunteer and supporter of the Bayanihan Foundation, who was instrumental in connecting the foundation with the university library. Lizabel’s family are also long-term residents of Pililla, Rizal.
Many thanks are also due to the numerous volunteers who packed the books, ensuring they arrived safely at the University of Rizal’s Pililla Campus. Most of all, we extend special appreciation to university librarian, Anna Capistrano-Martinez, for carefully receiving the books and for promoting the crucial goals of literacy, lifelong learning, and quality education. These book donations are also made in honor of the late Evelyn Castillo, the foundation’s long-time liaison, who initiated the initial contact and made this successful book donation possible.
University of Rizal Pililla Ana Capistrano-Martinez acknowledged that some of the books were also donated to the local community center in Pililla, Rizal extending the gift of reading and learning beyond the local university (see video below):
Dale Asis, President of the Bayanihan Foundation Worldwide, shares this personal essay on his challenges in giving. Many excerpts are from The Portable Carl Jung and the YouTube video below.
Dale Asis, President of the Bayanihan Foundation Worldwide 2025
The Idea Behind the Bayanihan Foundation
In 2009, I had the idea for the Bayanihan Foundation. I garnered the innate goodness of Filipinos in the US and abroad to help Filipinos at home but had no formal channel to direct their giving and intention to help. From this germ of an idea, the Bayanihan Foundation emerged.
In 2025, the spirit of Bayanihan (community giving) continues. So far, the Bayanihan Foundation has raised over $400,000 through individual donors. It has operated with few overhead costs: 97% of all donations go directly to long-term sustainable programs. In addition, I have given considerable support to my extended relatives during the COVID-19 pandemic years.
Plans for 2025 and beyond
For 2025 and beyond, the foundation plans to support the long-term legacy projects it has invested in for the last 10 years:
Supporting educational and community projects in Giporlos, Samar, in honor of the late Evelyn Castillo, the foundation’s long-time Philippine Liaison
Supporting educational projects in Iligan City, Mindanao, and elsewhere in the Philippines in honor of Dr. Vicente Saavedra and Mrs. Luz Saavedra, the foundation’s long-time supporters
Supporting youth development and environmental sustainability projects in Cebu City, Cebu
Supporting abandoned and neglected children at risk in General Santos City, Mindanao, and helping them build a future for themselves
The Bayanihan Foundation also plans to support local Filipino community organizations in the US that promote its vision of long-term sustainability and growth for Filipinos in the US and at home.
Personal Challenges I Recently Faced in Giving
The Bayanihan Foundation has had its share of challenges over the years. Many of the foundation’s bulwark supporters and donors have recently passed away, including Dr. Vicente and Mrs. Luz Saavedra, who have supported the foundation over the years. The Bayanihan Foundation’s Liaison, Evelyn Castillo, passed away; she had guided the foundation’s sustainable growth for the last 15 years. In 2024, my mother, Shirley Pintado, also passed away; she inspired me with her generosity and nurturing of community and family over the years. The loss of these giants that have guided the foundation has been earth-shattering. I felt the ground beneath me shook. I felt alone even though many people have supported and donated to the Bayanihan Foundation.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and the foundation’s many giving programs in the Philippines had to be suspended. So, I turned my giving to helping extended relatives in the Philippines ascend from poverty. However, over the three years of helping them, I felt increasingly ignored, and, at many times, they took the help I had given them for granted. I was helping an extended relative go to college, and they only contacted me if they needed some money. They didn’t even share a single photo of them on campus. I felt like their personal ATM. What happened?
I reflected deeply on my altruism and kindness. I asked these two key questions:
Can helping others be seen as a sign of weakness and losing respect for others?
Does giving to others have the negative effect of minimizing, exploiting, or belittling the giver?
I found that I was not respected. My altruism and kindness became a source of suffering rather than a fountain of joy. I was seen as weak and an opportunity to be taken advantage of.
Reflecting on the Wisdom of Carl Jung and His Thoughts on the Psychology of Giving
I recently stumbled upon the works of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. Jung’s words of wisdom were revealing to me. He says boundless kindness is seen as a weakness; humans are wired to test these boundaries. During the pandemic, I helped another extended relative get on their feet. I helped them pass their US Citizenship exam so they could have better job opportunities and take advantage of the social benefits that US citizenship affords. I helped them with the bureaucratic labyrinth and integrated them into US society.
However, they progressively stopped working throughout the three years of the pandemic. In 2024, they stopped working, and I was left holding the bag and sending money back home to his relatives to keep them afloat. In 2025, I decided to stop sending the money since I felt they were taking advantage of my generosity. I learned from Jung and his psychological studies that this phenomenon is called the “benevolence exploitation effect.” The shadow of generosity is the risk of becoming invisible. I was being taken for granted, and I existed only as a function of giving, nothing more. Did my kindness and generosity through my giving create this phenomenon? I felt sad and betrayed. My generosity had devolved into something that hurt me.
I have often signaled to my extended family that I was ending my financial support. But when the time came, they were shocked that I did it. They were even mad. Jung says, “If people want to see the good, they will see it. If they want to see the bad, they will see it.” My altruism was seen as an inexhaustible resource, always available and possibly never-ending. I should have set my boundaries early on. I learned that giving without boundaries leads to a vicious cycle. I should have learned to say no more.
There are people out there who are not ready to receive altruism. I have seen this repeatedly with my philanthropy through the Bayanihan Foundation. They think I have an ulterior motive. They kept asking me if I was running for local office or doing all this giving to help a political candidate. They see this selfless giving as weak. Some people view kindness with suspicion, as if it always expects something in return. However, my kindness acts as a mirror and a reminder that there is another way other than quid pro quo. My altruism or my giving through the Bayanihan Foundation challenges this transactional worldview.
I have also been confronted with the idea that my generosity is naive or even seen as a threat. When Dr. Vicente and Mrs. Luz Saavedra, long-time supporters of the Bayanihan Foundation, helped me serve thousands of meals to Filipino Muslims during Eid-Al Fitr without asking for anything, many local officials and leaders felt threatened by our generosity. It challenged their worldview of calculation and self-interest. So, they disparaged our help in serving meals and providing sacks of rice to people experiencing poverty to keep their cynical worldview intact. Jung refers to the shadow as the hidden part of one’s psyche, the view that we refuse to accept about ourselves. My generosity challenges their shadow. This acceptance of altruism forms distrust and hostility. People scoff at altruism because they are not ready to accept it. They are not ready to see beyond the worldview of a dog-eat-dog world.
Jung says, “Kindness is not a weakness but a conscious choice.”
People will continue to resist the idea that there is an alternative to the capitalistic, transactional nature and that I give because I want something in return. Many people adhere to the patterns of power and opportunism. However, my kindness forces hostility because it confronts their deep worldview of quid pro quo.
Giving With Measure is the Best Lesson
These significant and painful challenges made me pause and think – should I stop giving? Should I stop helping others? Should I succumb to the notion that I give because I want something in return? I resolve to keep giving and helping others because that’s who I am. It gives me joy to help others. However, my most significant reflection is that giving also has a cost. My needs must balance this, or I risk being taken for granted.
I should learn to set boundaries and clear expectations for my giving. I should have defined my limits and communicated them. Carl Jung says, “No one can have a clear conscience without knowing their shadow.” The shadow Jung refers to is the set of repressed impulses humans have.
If I want my kindness to be appreciated rather than exploited, I must learn to manage my giving wisely. My generosity should have boundaries, or my goodness will be the source of suffering. I learned this psychological lesson from Carl Jung in balancing light and shadow. I should always establish measures and boundaries. Generosity is valuable only when it is given with awareness. Giving with measure prevents my giving from being invisible to the receiver’s eyes.
In this holiday season, Bayanihan – the spirit of community giving is alive and well. Despite the Covid19 pandemic and the restrictions to travel to the Philippines, the Bayanihan Foundation found ways to continue the spirit of community giving. You can donate and support that community spirit of giving. Donate any amount and 95% of your donation will go directly to programs that will support livelihood programs, education, and emergency relief to help flood victims in the Philippines.
You will support emergency relief to families affected by super typhoons in the Philippines
Flood villages in Vinzos, Camarines Norte, PHilippines where the foundation plans to support emergency relief
You Will Help Distribution of Masks to Prevent Spread of Covid19 in Cebu and in Giporlos
Bayanihan Foundation supports “Kinabuhi Mo, Kinabuhi Ko” (Your Life, My Life) local campaign to distribute masks locally in Cebu, Philippines
You can donate and help support local distribution of much needed masks in Cebu and in Giporlos, Samar. These masks will help stop the spread of Covid19 and keep low-income families in these islands safe.
You can Support Sustainable, Livelihood Programs in General Santos City
Donate any amount you can and your support will help build livelihood programs in General Santos City with the Marcellin Foundation. The Bayanihan Foundation plans to support the livelihood programs there to support out of school youth in General Santos City.
Donations to support Marcellin Foundation’s livelihood programs in General Santos, Philippines
Your Donations Will Help Education and Long-Term Sustainability
Your generous donation will also support building libraries in University of Rizal Pililla and in several high school and elementary schools throughout the islands. The Bayanihan Foundation plans to build libraries in Tuguegarao, Cagayan; in Giporlos, Samar; and in Linamon, Lanao Del Norte; Your donation will go a long way in all three regions of the Philippines – Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Willard Dix (far right) donating books to Linamon High School
Robni Alexander donated 10,000 books to University of Rizal Pililla in honor of her late father
You can donate books or you can donate cash to help us send these books to build much needed libraries and promote education in the Philippine islands.
Support Social Justice and Advocacy for Filipino Amerasians
Bayanihan Foundation photo of Filipino Amerasians
Your donation will also support advocacy for Filipino Amerasians, the long-lost forgotten children of the United States, left behind when the US closure of military bases there. The Bayanihan Foundation supports social justice issues like advocating for Filipino Amerasians.
Bayanihan Spirit is Alive and Well
Despite the Covid19 pandemic, the Bayanihan Foundation continues to plug away and help their Filipino kababayan. The Bayanihan Spirit is alive and well. It lives in you in your continued support. Donate any amount now and you can make a difference. Maraming salamat po!
I have over 20 cousins, relatives and extended family who are nurses or healthcare workers in a critical healthcare setting during this Covid19 pandemic. My family is not an outlier. Many Filipino families like mine face the same outsize proportion of exposure to the pandemic. The Covid19 pandemic laid bare many deep fissures in health care inequality. Filipino nurses have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in the US. And that’s because they make up an outsize portion of the nursing workforce in the US. About one-third of all foreign-born nurses in the US are Filipino (Vox, June 2020).
The Covid19 pandemic laid bare the ongoing healthcare deficiency in the Philippines and the coronavirus exacerbated the ongoing severe nursing shortage in the islands. The Philippines has a current shortage of 20,000 nurses. To stem the hemorrhaging, the Philippine government enacted a temporary ban of Filipino health care workers migrating to the US or abroad as a stopgap measure (Manila Bulletin, September 2020). Is it enough to stem the tide? I don’t think so.
The Covid19 pandemic also laid bare that the long-term migration and recruitment of nurses from the Philippines to the US might not be sustainable. The trend of nurses migrating to the US and other countries has been going on for over 50 years (Vox, June 2020). You can trace it further back when the Philippines was a colony of the US. In the early 20th century, the Americans instituted “benevolent assimilation” and established Americanized hospital training system in the Philippines during their colonial rule. This set up laid the foundation of ongoing recruitment and pipeline of nurses migrating from the Philippines to the US (Choy, Empire of Care, 2003). The constant push and pull of migration of Filipino nurses to the US further exploded when the US enacted the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) of 1965.
The Covid19 pandemic will someday be over and everything will return to the way it was. So should the status quo of constant migration of Filipino nurses to the US continue? How about the the racial discrimination of Filipino nurses in the US; the ‘glass ceiling’ of having only lower paying nursing positions of bedside care available to Filipino nurses; the ‘English only’ discriminatory rules; and the lower pay compared to native born nurses?
Both the US and Philippine governments have benefited from exporting nursing labor. The Philippines cannot just stop and turn off the spigot of nursing migration. It needs the remittances these workers send back home. Remittances accounts for more than 10% of the country’s GDP. The Philippines is also the largest exporter of nurses in the world, sending over 20,000 nurses to the US and worldwide every year and the critical care they provide to the US healthcare system is badly needed (Vox, June 2020).
To make a long story short – it’s complicated. At the same time I don’t think the status quo should remain. There must be a better solution to this healthcare inequality both in the US and the Philippines. If this is not solved, the outsize toll on Filipino healthcare workers will continue. My cousins who are nurses and health care workers and generations more of nurses coming through the pipeline will continue to bear the brunt of this health care inequality.
It’s official. Philippine English accent is a legitimate variety of the English language, according to Dr. Danica Salazar, world English editor for the Oxford English Dictionary, the principal historical dictionary of the English language.
“The Philippine English is not slang. It is not wrong. It is not carabao English, or any other derogatory word that’s been used over the years,” Dr. Salazar said during a Zoom call with the Philippine Embassy Spain celebrating “buwan ng wika” (Language Month) last August 2020.
Dr. Salazar said that just like British, American, Australian, and Singaporean variants, Philippine English plays an important role in the historical development of the language, which the Oxford English Dictionary seeks to document.
“Philippine English, just like American English or British English, or Indian English or Singapore English, are all part of the same story,” she added. “We all have a role to play in this. Philippine English has as much of a place in the history in the lexicon of the English language as all these other varieties,” Dr. Salazar said (Philippine English is Legitimate, ABS-CBN News August 2020).
PHILIPPINE ENGLISH ACCENT Is Acceptable Like British English
Salazar also pointed out how Filipinos have their own unique way of speaking in English, and that this is something that should be embraced and not be ashamed of. She noted how some people try to sound American or British, under the impression that this is the “right” way to communicate using the English language.
“I’ve been living in the UK for seven years now, and nobody’s ever told me, ‘I don’t understand you.’ And I speak with a totally Philippine English accent,” Dr. Salazar said.
“The accent and the words that we use, these are a reflection of our identity, of our culture,” she explained. “And adapting languages to suit a communicative means is something that everyone does. Americans adapted British English, Australians did the same, people in New Zealand do the same. So why can’t we do the same?”
I’ve grew up thinking that Philippine English accent is not acceptable and that we always have to sound ‘American’, or even better sound ‘British’. Years ago, some of my younger relatives were trying to correct the accent of my mother who was clearly speaking with a totally Philippine English accent. Not anymore! Philippine English accent is legit. Speakers of the Philippine English accent, rejoice. “Hindi na ito ikanakakahiya” (we should not be ashamed) of this accent. This hiya (shame) of speaking with an accent is part our long-term colonial mentality; if we can only sound like our colonial masters.
Philippine English – “Hindi na ito ikanakakahiya” (we should be ashamed) of this accent
Dr. Salazar went on to share that the Philippine accent is “one of the most understandable accents in the world. This is one of the reasons why our call center industry in the Philippines is so successful,” she said.
“We don’t need to sound American to speak English correctly,” she stressed, adding, “We don’t have to waste our time in the classroom trying to twist our students’ tongues in shapes that they can’t make.”
The 2020 Census magazine ad in Tagalog promoting Filipinos in the US to complete their US Census Form (photo courtesy of 2020 US Census)
The Bayanihan Foundation encourages all Filipinos in the US to fill out their 2020 US Census form, regardless of their US Citizenship status. Conducted every 10 years, the census is used to decide the number of seats awarded to states in the House of Representatives, how representative boundaries are drawn, and how more than $675 billion a year in federal funds is distributed. It’s also used in determining which states and counties are required to provide voter language assistance according to the Voting Rights Act. Asian Americans are least likely to fill out the census form — and most concerned their answers will be used against them — according to a survey released in January 2019 by the Census Bureau.
Some people in the community, especially those who are undocumented, are concerned about the confidentiality of the census results after the Trump Administration tried to add a citizenship question to the census form. The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the move, but that hasn’t assuaged the fears (Medill Reports, March 2020). Concerns remain regarding the citizenship question, despite a Supreme Court decision in June that ruled otherwise.
Top Five Highlights of Filipinos Living in the US, 2018 US Census Community Survey
US Census reveals so much information about Filipino Americans in the US. Be counted, In 2018, here’s five top highlights of Filipinos living in the US (Migration Policy Institute, July 2020):
Filipino immigrants represent the fourth-largest, foreign born group in the US following from Mexico, India, and China. In 2018, just over 2 million Filipinos lived in the United States, accounting for 4.5 percent of the country’s 44.7 million immigrants.
Filipinos in the US continue to be concentrated in California. In the 2014-18 period, immigrants from the Philippines were highly concentrated in California (43 percent), followed distantly by Hawaii (6 percent). The next four most populous states—Texas, Illinois, New York, and Nevada—were home to 18 percent of the Filipino population collectively. The top four counties by Filipino concentration were Los Angeles and San Diego counties in California, Honolulu County in Hawaii, and Clark County in Nevada. Together these counties accounted for 25 percent of Filipinos in the United States.
Top Metropolitan Areas of Residence for Filipinos in the United States, 2014-18 (courtesy of Migration Policy Institute)
Filipinos in the US are slightly older than other immigrant groups, many arriving before 2000. In 2018, Filipinos were older than the overall foreign- and U.S.-born populations. The Filipino median age was 51 years, compared to 45 years for all immigrants and 36 years for the native born. This is largely due to the disproportionately high number of Filipino seniors: 24 percent of Filipinos were 65 or older, versus 16 percent of both the overall foreign- and native-born populations.
Significant portion of the Filipino population in the US continue to be undocumented. Although the vast majority of Filipino immigrants in the United States are legally present, approximately 313,000 were unauthorized in the 2012-16 period, according to Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates, comprising approximately 3 percent of the 11.3 million unauthorized population. MPI also estimated that significant portion of the population did not participate in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program when it was introduced in 2012.
‘Padala’ remains king. In 2019, Filipinos living abroad sent more than $35 billion in remittances to the Philippines via formal channels, according to the World Bank’s estimate. Remittances more than doubled in the past decade and represented about 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019.
‘Padala’ Annual Remittance Flows to the Philippines, 1990 to 2019 (courtesy of Migration Policy Institute)
Both the United States and the Philippines are hit hard by Covid-19. As of July 2020, the US have a staggering 3.2 million cases and over 137,000 deaths (New York Times, July 2020). Many of those afflicted are in the South and West, including California where almost half of all Filipino Americans live. The Philippines is also reeling from Covid-19 as the pandemic shut down the country and literally slammed the breaks in the economy. This caused untold pain for millions of Filipinos, with hunger and begging on the rise (National Public Radio NPR, July 2020). The ones who are most afflicted are the poor; they were disadvantaged even before Covid-19 hit. Now they’re situations are worse, including the abandoned children and orphans at Marcellin Foundation in General Santos City, Philippines.
Dale Asis (far right) and Evelyn Castillo (second to the right) joins a class of orphans and abandoned children with the Marcellin Foundation in General Santos City, Philippines (January 2019)
Supporting orphans in General Santos City, Mindanao
In 2019, the Bayanihan Foundation started supporting abandoned children and orphans in General Santos City, Mindanao. The city is located in the southern tip of Mindanao island with over 500,000 residents. International boxer and politician Manny Pacquiao hails from the city of GenSan, as many locals call their city. The Bayanihan Foundation partners with the Marcellin Foundation with Brother Crispin Betita, FMS with the Marist Brothers Catholic congregation.
(left to right): Evelyn Castillo, Bayanihan Foundation Liaison; Brother Crispin Betita, FMS; and Dale Asis at Marcellin Foundation (January 2019)
The Marcellin Foundation is part of a growing international community of Catholic Religious Institute of Brothers (FMS). In 1817, St. Marcellin Champagnat, a priest (Marist Father, SM) from France, founded the Marist Brothers, with the goal of educating young people, especially those that are most neglected. Brother Crispin established the Marcellin Foundation following that same vision of providing quality education to youth who are most vulnerable and disadvantaged.
However, Covid19 has hit hard the Marcellin Foundation as the orphanage funding sources have started to dry up. Bayanihan Foundation wants to step in and help as much it can and support much needed food, rice, and supplies for the orphan boys under Fr. Crispin’s care.
(left to right): Brother Crispin Betita, FMS and one of the boys staying at the Marcellin Foundation share a light-hearted moment. The orphanage is geared towards Filipino Muslim and indigenous orphans and abandoned children in General Santos City, Philippines.
The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation and the ones that are the most afflicted are the poor and disadvantaged including the orphan children at Marcellin Foundation. They’re situation is worse. Would you be able to help? Any amount is welcome and will provide much needed food and supplies to these orphans. 100% of your donation will go directly to help these vulnerable children.
charitable donations to help orphan children affected by Covid-19
Help the most vulnerable orphans and abandoned children in General Santos, Philippines
Dale Asis’ Personal Essay on race, racism, and Anti-Blackness Among Filipinos and Filipino Americans
“Naku, huwag kang pumunta doon. Maraming itim, nakakatakot.” (Don’t go there. Lots of blacks live there. It’s dangerous.)
“Ay ganda naman niya. Mukhang mestiza!” (Oh, she looks beautiful. She’s a mestiza.)
“Ay ayoko magpaitim. Ayokong pumangit” (I don’t want to get dark. I don’t like to be ugly.)
“Ay Intsik iyan. Nangungurat lang iyan.” (He’s Chinese. He’s just gonna take advantage you.)
I always hear many comments during family conversations. At first, I didn’t really give it much thought. But on a deeper level, these comments tell the real story of race and racism within the Asian American culture.
A mural of George Floyd painted on a remnant of the Berlin Wall.Photograph by Omer Messinger / Sipa / AP (Al Jazeera, 2020)
On May 29, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis, MN, after white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street (New York Times, May 2020). In the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, Asian American activists and social justice organizations have made renewed calls for solidarity and allyship with Black communities. This is also an opportune time to reflect on the deeper notions of race and anti-Blackness among Filipinos and Filipino Americans (The Power of Colorism, Bayanihan Foundation, 2018).
These notions of skin color are rooted on our deep notions of anti-Blackness. They’re connected to what we believe of what is beautiful or ugly; of what is good or bad; or what is a safe or dangerous. These hierarchy of skin color and colorism runs deep in Filipino culture (History of colorism, June 2018). It is ingrained after hundreds of years of colonialism. Why do you think most Philippine stars are ‘mestizas’ and considered to be beautiful? How about the aisles of whitening creams in many stores?
Caste System Based on Skin Color implemented by the Spanish Empire during colonial times (Quora, 2018)
How about the notion that Filipinos and other Asian Americans are the epitome of “good immigrants” and the “model minority”? Many of us have internalized this mentality, operating under the false assumption that being a “good” immigrant could help us assimilate into whiteness and align ourselves with white people (Model Minority Myth, National Public Radio, April 2017). This is a false narrative.
The perception of universal success among Asian-Americans is being wielded to downplay racism’s role in the persistent struggles of other minority groups, especially black Americans (Chelsea Beck/NPR, 2017)
Since the end of World War II, many white people have used Asian-Americans and their perceived collective success as a racial wedge. The effect? Minimizing the role racism plays in the persistent struggles of other racial/ethnic minority groups — especially black Americans.
Most of my family thinks that we as Filipinos work harder than black Americans and that we embody better the American values of individualism and self-reliance. We internalized this “racial resentment,” a moral feeling that blacks violated these traditional American values of self reliance. We absolve ourselves from dealing with the complexities of racism (Donald Kinder and David Sears, ‘Model Minority’ Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks, NPR, April 2017).
It will take a lot of work to untangle and eradicate this, acknowledging that we as Asian Americans face our own racism throughout history — including during the current COVID-19 crisis — but have also sometimes instigated anti-Black racism, as many activists and social justice organizations have pointed out in recent weeks of demonstrations (How Asian Americans Are Reckoning With Anti-Blackness In Their Families, HuffPost, June 2020). So let’s start this difficult conversation in our dinner tables and perhaps someday we would own our notions of anti-Blackness and start the process of healing and taking down systemic barriers of racism in our lives.
US Embassy in the Philippines (Yahoo stock photo 2019)
On the last Monday of May, the US celebrates Memorial Day in honor of the people that served the US military. This Memorial Day, I would like to honor the many men and women that passed through the former US military bases in Subic and Clark, Philippines, the largest American bases overseas during the height of the Vietnam War.
Map of Clark and Subic bases, former US military bases in the Philippines
On this Memorial Day, I also would like to honor the thousands of Filipino Amerasians left behind. When the Philippines kicked out the US military in 1992, US servicemen left behind at least 50,000 Filipino Amerasian children. But none has been recognized as Americans, despite US paternity (Al Jazeera: April 2014). In contrast, Amerasians from other countries including Vietnam, Thailand and Japan were recognized and offered US citizenship. As many Americans celebrate Memorial Day and the start of the summer season, I also would like to remember the Filipino Amerasians, America’s forgotten children.
Mark Gilbore (standing on the right) gives Dale Asis (on the left) a tour of Angeles City’s red light district with the infamous bar girls standing outside the bars (2011)
I still clearly remember my first night in Clark as Filipino Amerasian, Mark Gilbore showed me around Clark’s red light district, “Fields Ave” with its infamous girlie bars and nightclubs. Since then, a lot of things have changed at the same time a lot of things stayed the same. Filipino Amerasians are still mired in poverty and continue to be forgotten by both Philippine and US societies. Many Amerasians are often employed in low wage jobs and are struggling to make ends meet. It seems like people are just ready to sweep them under the rug.
William Ward, a successful Filipino Amerasian. He is a US military veteran, and a PhD candidate at the University of Baltimore in Maryland (May 2020)
Then in May 2020, William Ward came knocking at my door. He said he wanted to help the plight of Filipino Amerasians. I was shocked as if an angel fell from the sky. Being an Amerasian himself, he might be the best thing that could happen to revive this issue. William is currently studying at the University of Baltimore School of Public & International Affairs and is completing his PhD studies. He is currently doing an extensive pilot study on the exclusion of Filipino Amerasians from the 1982 Amerasian Immigration and 1987 Amerasian Homecoming Acts.
“This will be the foundation for my dissertation studying Filipino Amerasians and their plight of being forgotten by US and Philippine histories,” William said. William also holds a law degree from Western Michigan University.
“My father was in the US Air Force and he was stationed at Clark Air Base. My mother is from Tarlac, Philippines. I looked like the other Amerasians around me. I am Amerasian but the only difference was that my father was present in my life and theirs abandoned them. After all these years, the plight of growing up as a Filipino Amerasians has always been an important part of my childhood memories growing up in Tarlac,” William said recalling fondly his childhood growing up in the Philippines.
William Ward will provide the personal story and experience of the plight of the Filipino Amerasian. Besides his compelling, personal narrative, William also plans to study why US policies and laws have abandoned Filipino Amerasians.
“I still have those images in my head–of little boys and girls who should be considered as American as me. But right now, they’re being treated as outcasts. I still remember the taunts and epithets when I was growing up in Clark. They have left a long and painful impression,” William said.
“It is exciting to work with the Bayanihan Foundation and with Dale Asis, whose passion and dedication for Filipino Amerasians is inspiring for scholars like me. It is my personal calling to bring attention to the plight of Filipino Amerasians.”
On this Memorial Day, let’s honor US military veterans like William Ward. He served during the Iraq War and was deployed during the surge in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2007-2009 in Mosul. Let us remember all the US military that served proudly. But let us also remember the Filipino Amerasians left behind. I am hopeful that William might be able to cast a light in this dark shadow in the US and Filipino histories of Filipino Amerasians, America’s Forgotten Children.
On May 2020, I helped my cousin send money to his family in the Philippines. He sent $100, a lifeline to his family who are also in quarantine. Migrant workers globally send hundreds of billions of dollars home every year. The economic paralysis with the coronavirus pandemic threatens that.
“If the economy gets any more difficult,” another cousin commented, “Baka wala na silang makain (well, we don’t know how we’re going to eat).”
The pandemic — and government measures to combat it — are snapping financial lifelines around the world. As millions of workers in the United States and elsewhere see their hours cut or lose their jobs entirely, many are no longer able to send money to relatives and friends back home who depend on these remittances to survive.
Migrants and others sent some $689 billion in global remittances in 2018, according to the World Bank, helping to reduce poverty in developing countries, boosting household spending on education and health care, and helping to keep social and political discontent at bay.
The story of my cousin and his family is not unique. Millions of Filipinos are working all over the globe. They continually send money back home, a critical lifeline for many. However, with the Covid19 pandemic and economic lock downs all over the world, that lifeline is under threat.
Maria Cristina Y Baolos, domestic worker in Hong Kong, shared her heartbreaking story of losing her job during the pandemic and being homeless. Her family back in the Philippines depends on her remittances. CNN, May 2020
Maria Cristina Y Baolos got fired from her job as a domestic worker in Hong Kong a few weeks ago and she was left homeless. CNN News reported that the 46-year-old Filipina says she was paid out in cash for her notice period, then given an hour to pack her things and leave. After hours of being stranded on the side of the road with all her belongings, eventually a friend helped her find a temporary boarding house.
“I’m sitting on the floor, all my luggage there,” Baolos said. “The life of a helper, it’s not easy.” Many of the 390,000 domestic workers in Hong Kong are women, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, who are working abroad to send money back to their families. The Philippines consulate in Hong Kong says around 350 domestic workers from that country have lost their jobs due to Covid-19.
Before she was laid off, Baolos was sending a third of her income home to support her four sons, a husband who can’t work due to the lockdown, and a mother who needs expensive medical treatment. The story of Maria Cristina is not unique. There are probably countless stories like hers that are not told, of families struggling to make ends meet during the Covid19 pandemic.
“The human scale of this phenomenon is very, very large,” Dilip Ratha of the World Bank said. “They won’t be able to buy food; they cannot sustain their families’ livelihoods.” Covid19 has disrupted many lives, including those that are already hanging in the balance before the pandemic hit.
On October 2025, Dale Asis visited the University of Rizal Pililla in Pililla, Rizal and saw the thousands of books donated to the university library over the past few years during the Covid-19 pandemic. 
University librarian Ana Capistrano-Martinez put together the donated books into a wonderful collection that the university students could enjoy and use for years to come. 
(pictured left to right: University of Rizal librarian Ana Capistrano-Martinez and Dale Asis)
