Pinoy Parliamentarian in New Zealand

First Filipino New Zealand parliamentarian champions Pinoy values in maiden speech

MANILA, Philippines — Known for being competent construction workers, nursing home employees, information technology experts and engineers, Filipinos are now also excelling as lawmakers in New Zealand.


This is how lawyer and diplomat Paulo Garcia opened his historic maiden speech as the first-ever Filipino member of New Zealand Parliament.

The first ‘KiwiNoy’ Member of Parliament Paulo Garcia delivers his historical maiden statement in Wellington, New Zealand in May 2019. In his speech, Garcia highlighted the innate values of being pro-God, pro-life and pro-family.

New Zealand Parliament, screenshot

“Nagmamahal na Panginoon, kami'y buong pusong nagpapasalamat na minarapat mong mabigyan ng pagkakataon ang inyong mga anak na makapaglingkod sa bayang New Zealand,” he began his speech in his native Filipino tongue.

“Hindi lamang sa mga nursing homes at ospital, sa mga dairy farms at construction sites, sa IT, engineering at hospitality. At ngayon pati na rin sa larangan ng pambabatas. Pagkalooban ninyo po kami ng puso, isip at katawan na matatag upang maisatupad namin ang inyong layunin para sa amin sa bansang New Zealand,” said the “KiwiNoy” who delivered his speech in Te Reo Maori, Filipino and English.

Read more at https://www.philstar.com/lifestyle/on-the-radar/2019/06/14/1926414/first-filipino-new-zealand-parliamentarian-champions-pinoy-values-maiden-speech#yVuxTfRoHg88kD0W.99

“We thank our loving God that he has given his children the opportunity to serve New Zealand not just in nursing homes and hospitals, in dairy farms and construction sites, in IT and engineering and hospitality but also now in the New Zealand Parliament.”

An immigrant who served as Philippine Honorary Consul General in 2012 in Auckland, Garcia was elected last May 16, following the resignation of National Party MP Nuk Korako.

“I am Paulo Garcia, I am Catholic, I am a Filipino and a New Zealander, and I am happy, excited, and blessed to be standing here before you. It is a privilege and an honor to work with all of you, and it is a testament to this great nation that migrants can become New Zealanders and represent this nation in our House of Parliament,” Garcia added.

Born in the Philippines and a graduate of the University of the Philippines, Garcia also studied in the University of Auckland and in Academy of American and International Law in Texas. He practiced commercial law for 10 years in Manila, focusing on foreign and multinational companies operating the country, before moving to New Zealand, where he practiced immigration law and investor migration for 14 years.

After working for McLeod & Associates and Corban Revell Lawyers, Garcia then founded his own law firm, Garcia Law, in New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland.

Victory over hardship, discrimination

But Garcia’s road to power was not paved. Like many Filipino migrants, the lawyer admitted in his speech that he also “experienced hatred.”

“I have also I have been slandered and have been ostracized,” he added.

He recalled how hard his life had been as a migrant.

“Fourteen years ago, I was a struggling student at the University of Auckland law, taking papers and the bar exam. Those were tough times. We were a single income household of six,” he shared.
“But now here I stand as a Member of Parliament of this great nation… Many will say that I am living a dream. I disagree. This is not a dream; this is a Kiwi reality.”

Garcia expressed his gratitude for being voted to represent the ethnic Asian and the religious minority.

“That I am here tonight as the first member of the New Zealand Parliament of Filipino descent is a tribute to the National Party's recognition of strength in diversity and the value that ethnic communities bring to New Zealand—a New Zealand that holds itself out as open to all, where people from the world over are able to live without fear in the practice of their faith and values, and in observance of their cultural norms. This makes for a multicultural and ethnically diverse New Zealand. There is not a day that I wake up without giving thanks for being in New Zealand.”

In his speech, the Filipino lawmaker condemned religious intolerance as seen in Christchurch mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, last March, which killed 51 people.

“The evil man who aimed to drive religious intolerance into our midst must not be allowed to succeed. Equally, those who aimed to do the same in Sri Lanka when they attacked and killed hundreds of Catholic worshipers sought too to drive religious intolerance. Equally, they must not be allowed to succeed.”

Respect for life

In his speech, Garcia also highlighted the innate values of being pro-God, pro-life and pro-family.

“Whatever laws we might pass in this Chamber, the pro-life voice must no longer be despised and discounted as offensive. Preachers of tolerance and inclusion must no longer seek to silence and condemn those with opinions that make them uncomfortable but are nevertheless opinions based on another person's own beliefs and values systems. While we need to stay vigilant and investigate people who post offensive material online, we need to be equally concerned about any move in this House to restrict freedom of speech, a move which has all too often been used by those in power to silence those with differing opinions or ideas.”

He reminded Kiwis of the M?ori proverb “He tangata, he tangata, he tangata,” which says, “it is the people, it is the people, it is the people,” referring to “the most important thing in the world.”

“Even though we have evolved to be just and compassionate, we also have the evolved capacity for greed, anger, and hatred. All of us have the seeds of prejudice within us, but it is a question of which seeds we water and grow. There have been people who say my views are intolerant. Why? Because I am pro-life? Because I believe in the sanctity of life?”

Likewise, he quoted great Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, who said that “the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members,” underscoring the importance of protecting the unborn.

“When it comes to human beings, we cannot pick and choose which ones are protected and which ones are not, and we cannot say some vulnerable lives must be protected but others not.”

He honored mothers who chose to give birth and raise their children despite the odds.

“I salute in absolute praise all single mothers. I can honestly say that if either my wife or I had had to raise our daughters alone, we would have struggled severely as well. Despite the due importance we all attach to this task in our hands—that of governing this country—parenting is the most important job we really have. As mothers and fathers and, collectively, as a Parliament and as a nation, we need to support our parents, we need to support our families, and we need to support our children, but I highlight that the men of this country need to do more. We as men need to stand strong in our relationships. We must be reliable providers and protectors. We must show tamariki the way to respect and honor women.”

He acknowledged that he would not have succeeded if not for his family’s love.

“I would not be here without the help of amazing examples of fortitude and courage. My mother, Anna, as she personally took loving care of my father over the 10 years he suffered dementia until his death. My father-in-law, Rene, who personally took loving care of my mother-in-law as she was struck by ALS until her passing… The love of my life, Malu, and my beloved daughters, who inspire me to give myself to others more and more every day, leaving nothing for myself.”

He concluded his speech with “Mabuhay” and with the poem “Identity” his daughter wrote: “A migrant house is built tall on foundations filled with sky, stacked with the hopes of generations into storeyed bastions that testify to us… We were made to hold together… I stand proud in the shade of a roof made for me to raise high by proclaiming I have a Spanish name, an American accent, and an Asian face… And I have been welcomed in Aotearoa.”

Garcia then received a standing ovation from the Members of Parliament at the end of his maiden speech and most of them lined up to shake his hand. The public gallery, filled with Filipinos, KiwiNoys and New Zealanders, celebrated his speech by singing and dancing to the tune of Orange and Lemons' "Pinoy Ako."

Pinoy is a UK mayor

Pinoy nurse elected UK mayor 

Helen Flores
Philippine Star
18 May 2019

MANILA, Philippines — A Filipino nurse has been elected mayor of East Grinstead in West Sussex, United Kingdom.

Danilo Favor will serve as town mayor from 2019 to 2020, according to the website of East Grinstead Town Council. He is the first Filipino to be elected town mayor in the UK.

Danilo Favor will serve as town mayor from 2019 to 2020, according to the website of East Grinstead Town Council. He is the first Filipino to be elected town mayor in the UK.

In 2018, Favor was elected deputy mayor of East Grinstead.

Favor has been the town councilor of Ashplats Ward since 2011 and works as ophthalmic clinical nurse specialist at the Queen Victoria Hospital.

“Entering into British politics was God given opportunity. It was not our plan and beyond my dreams and expectations,” Favor was quoted by ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau as saying.

One of the mayor’s charities is the Queen Victoria Hospital Charitable Funds, which aims “to support the work, patient support and research carried out at the hospital,” the East Grinstead website said.

He would also prioritize the creation of EG First Responders, which aims to respond to emergency medical situations within eight minutes.

Favor would also push for the establishment of EG Street Pastors, who will patrol the streets late at night on weekends and after school hours.

Favor migrated to the UK in 2000 with his wife Maribel, also a nurse.

In 2014, Favor received a Community Service Award from Mid-Sussex District Council for his active involvement in various community organizations.

Prior to entering politics, he received the Presidential Banaag Award for outstanding individuals and organizations overseas that promoted the interests of overseas Filipino communities.

Favor graduated in the Philippines with a degree in nursing and completed his ophthalmology nurse specialist studies at King’s College in London.

US War Loot Returns to Philippines

US returns looted Balangiga church bells to Philippines


BBC News | 15 December 2018

Three bells looted by US troops more than a century ago have been returned to their church in the Philippines.

President Rodrigo Duterte praised his countrymen and the US at a ceremony in Balangiga, where the treasures were taken 117 years ago.

The bronze bells were seized during the Philippine-American War as part of reprisals following a massacre.

In August, the US Embassy announced the return of the so-called Balangiga bells after decades of pressure.

"Nobody, but nobody, can claim a singular credit for the generous act of the Americans," Mr Duterte told a jubilant crowd on Saturday.

"The credit goes to the American people and to the Filipino people, period."

The president had called for their return in a 2017 speech, in which he also suggested building closer ties with China.

President Duterte rang one of the bells at the ceremony on Saturday. AFP/Getty

The bells are viewed as a symbol of Philippine independence against their former colonial masters.

Following the Balangiga massacre of 1901, when Filipino militants ambushed and killed 48 US troops, US General Jacob H Smith ordered the area be turned into a "howling wilderness".

US troops seized the three bronze bells as war trophies during the bloody reprisals. Thousands of Filipinos are thought to have been killed.

Despite calls for their return for decades, US veterans and politicians said the bells were tributes to the killed US troops and refused to consider their repatriation.

One of the bells was with the US 9th Infantry Regiment in Korea and the other two were at a former 11th Infantry Regiment base in Wyoming.

But after continued Filipino pressure and waning opposition in the US, the bells were flown to Manila earlier this week for Saturday's ceremony in Balangiga.

Filipinos waved bell-shaped placards ahead of the repatriation ceremony. EPA

"We are the happiest people on Earth now," 81-year-old Nemesio Duran told AFP news agency. "The whole town is walking in the clouds because the bells are finally with us."

However, for some the return struck a more sombre note.

Constancia Eleba told AFP the bells gave her "mixed emotions" given the history surrounding them.

"It was painful and you cannot take it away from us," she said. "We can never forget that."

Filipinos in US politics

Historically underrepresented, Filipino-American candidates look toward Congress

Despite making up 1 percent of the U.S. population, only one person of Filipino descent is currently a member of Congress.

Agnes Constante
NBC News
05November 2018

Gina Ortiz Jones, candidate for Texas' 23rd Congressional district, on Oct. 20, 2017.Thomas McKinless / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — Congressional candidate Gina Ortiz Jones was deployed in Iraq when her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer. Ortiz Jones’ mother underwent surgery and chemotherapy — treatments she received because she had health care coverage — and has survived.

Health care saved her mother’s life, Ortiz Jones said, and it's something she plans to advocate for in Congress if she is elected to represent Texas’ 23rd Congressional District. She is one of at least five Filipino Americans vying for a seat this election.

“I know how lucky she is to have had access to that,” Ortiz Jones said. “I know exactly what it’s like when your health insurance plan is ‘I hope you don’t get sick.’”

There is currently only one sitting member of Filipino descent, Democrat Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, according to the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). Other candidates running include TJ Cox, Kenneth Mejia and Cristina Osmeña in California, as well as Jennifer Zimmerman in Florida.

Underrepresented

More than 4 million Filipino Americans live in the United States, according to U.S. Census data, more than 1.6 million in California. But despite making up 1 percent of the U.S. population and the community's centuries-long history in the U.S., the group's representation in Congress has been sparse.

Prior to Scott, Congress saw at least one other voting member of Filipino descent in former Republican Rep. Steve Austria from Ohio, according to Krystal Ka'ai, executive director of CAPAC. Former Republican Sen. John Ensign from Nevada also claimed Filipino heritage, though he is not documented by the U.S. Congress’ Office of the Historian as having AAPI ancestry, Ka'ai added.

s a U.S. territory from 1907 to 1946, the Philippines also elected a number of non-voting resident commissioners to Congress.

Pei-te Lien, a professor who specializes in Asian-American politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said she and her colleagues have continuously wondered why the group's political power hasn't followed the growth of its population.

An August 2018 study in the journal “Politics, Groups and Identities” identified that one potential contributor to the lack of Filipino Americans in political office could be that the group tends not to contribute financially or volunteer for political campaigns. Authors of the study also wrote that some survey respondents suggested that the community may prioritize spending money on their families in the United States and overseas as opposed to politics.

Immigrants in general, especially low-income immigrants, can also face a lack of knowledge of how the U.S. government works, financial networks and financial stability – all of which are necessary when running for office, according to Sayu Bhojwani, founder and president of New American Leaders, an organization that works to get immigrants and underrepresented Americans into politics.

But while the community hasn't historically been elected to office or donated to campaigns, it is active in other ways, Lien noted.

The August study found that Filipino Americans primarily participate in politics by voting. According to research firm AAPI Data, 59 percent of Filipinos were registered to vote and 50 percent of them voted in the 2016 election, ranking third among other Asian-American groups.

Apart from voting, Lien said Filipino Americans' strength tends to be in labor-based activism dating back to the '60s, the decade when Filipino labor leaders joined forces with Mexican farmworkers in the Delano Grape Strike to protest poor wages and working conditions.

“I think … this is a group that has been neglected, and this is actually a group that has a lot of potential,” Lien said. “They could do a lot more in terms of visibility in mainstream politics, but you need some role models, you need some cases of success.”

The Candidates

The five Filipino-Americans Congressional candidates running this election all said they were motivated to step into the political sphere to create change and give back to their respective communities. They also believe the range of their experiences, including as immigrants or members of immigrant families, will allow them to better serve their districts.

Cox, a Democrat hoping to win a seat in California's 21st Congressional District, said he drew on experiences including being called racial slurs as a student. “You get called that on a bus when you’re 6 years old, you remember that for the rest of your life,” he said, referring to anti-Asian slurs. “It makes you want to stand up to bullies.”

Democratic congressional candidate TJ Cox speaks at a 2018 mid-term elections rally on Oct. 4, 2018 in Fullerton, California.Mario Tama / Getty Images file

Ortiz Jones, a Democrat, faces Republican incumbent Rep. Will Hurd in a Texas race rated “lean Republican” by the Cook Political Report. She admitted politics is not a career she had considered, but that her combined experiences as a Filipina American and an Air Force veteran, among others, will enable her to bring a fresh perspective to Congress.

“I think some of the challenges that we have in Congress are based on the fact that we don’t have the diversity of life experiences that are in our country,” she said.

Mejia, a Green Party candidate, is seeking to represent California's 34th Congressional District, located in Los Angeles County. He said he was inspired to run because of Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign in 2016.

Cristina OsmenaCourtesy Cristina Osmena for Congress

Osmeña, the great grand-daughter of former Philippine President Sergio Osmeña, is a Republican seeking to represent California's 14th Congressional District located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Zimmerman, a pediatrician in Florida and a Democrat, is running for the 1st Congressional District in the north western part of the state.

History made?

All of this year’s candidates are facing incumbents and received a much smaller number of votes than their opponents in the primaries. The Cook Political Report favors the incumbents in all the races, but the contenders don't appear to be too worried about the numbers.

“I’m actually very energized,” Zimmerman, the Florida candidate, said. “And let me tell you why: In 2016 everyone said that Hillary had it in the bag ... But we have realized now that polls only tell one side of the story. What we don’t know, really, is how someone in the privacy of their polling booth or in their home, they can always change their mind at the last minute.”

Arnel Dino, chair of the Filipino American Democratic Caucus of the California Democratic Party, said he believes the election of any of the five candidates into Congress would spark greater interest in politics in the community and would give members a direct voice in the legislature.

“We’ve had a lot of allies nationally and within different communities, Democrat and Republican. However, having TJ or Gina or any of the other Fil-Am congressional candidates get elected would mean that we have someone who is from our community, understands our experience and can give rise to our voice,” he said.

Lien said that even if the election doesn't work out in the candidates' favor, media coverage of their candidacy will have improved the community's visibility and could help mobilize others to run for office in the future.

“It’s a very exciting time,” she said. “The interest is particularly high, and in particular, communities of color – Filipino Americans included ... many people are already predicting we’re going to see history being made.”