I should have known better. In fact, I should have known it from the start. I suspected it at first, but then . . . dismissed it altogether. “Nah,” I thought, “it couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be.”<\/p>\n
Then he ordered another round of brews, in perfect Tagalog, too. I thought maybe it was only because he was in the US Navy, stationed at Subic Bay. But then . . . there were other signs as well.<\/p>\n
Now, of course, I see through it all: the facade, the sham, the clever deceit. Suddenly, it has all become quite clear. All along, my friend Ed Stephens Jr. was a Filipino in disguise, pretending to be a white American citizen, when, all along, he was nothing more than some suplado balikbayan.<\/p>\n
Aye, nako!<\/p>\n
I knew it instantly, immediately, when first I read the San Francisco Chronicle’s factual report on the CNMI:<\/p>\n
“The two daily newspapers — one of which is owned by Tan — are staffed exclusively by Filipinos on one-year, renewable contracts. Like the garment workers, hotel workers, housekeepers and myriad other foreigners, these imported journalists must practice self-censorship for fear of being deported.”<\/p>\n
Then, of course, I realized: So was I–and my uncle, John S. Del Rosario, too.<\/p>\n
All these years, I was a Filipino contract worker and didn’t even know it. I never renewed my entry permit, and now I guess I will have to be deported. Hello, Mr. Goldberg!<\/p>\n
Now I know why, when I went to the Philippines, they all thought I was a fellow kababayan: because, in fact, it’s true. The San Francisco Chronicle said so, therefore it must–it has–to be true. They wouldn’t publish anything that was false, now would they?<\/p>\n
Hindi puede, pare! No way Jose.<\/p>\n
Yes, now it is all coming back to me–my proud Filipino heritage: Jose Rizal, Fort Bonifacio, General Aquinaldo, Manuel Quezon, President Roxas, Ramon Magsaysay, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and the rest.<\/p>\n
Yes, it’s true: I am a Filipino. I write for the Saipan Tribune. Like Zaldy and Marvic, my kabayans all, I write what I am told, I obey, lest I be deported.<\/p>\n
The two newspapers, the Chronicle says, are staffed exclusively by Filipinos.<\/p>\n
And yet all along, I thought our former reporter Ashley Hudson was an American. I thought Mark Broadhurst and Dan Phillips, both Tribune editors once, were Americans. I thought Dan Hughes, a former Marianas Variety editor, was an American. I thought Laila Younis, who writes for the Variety, was a local citizen.<\/p>\n
Gee, what interesting things we learn about ourselves when we read mainstream American newspapers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I should have known better. In fact, I should have known it from the start. I suspected it at first, but then . . . dismissed it altogether. “Nah,” I thought, “it couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}