 Aloha and welcome, everyone, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day to remember, to reflect, and to act. I'm Mark Schwab, the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. Today, my guest is Sergio Alcubilla. Sergio is a Hawaii attorney who, as a young boy, came across the sea to America. He would later come across the sea to Hawaii. He is now a candidate for Hawaii's first congressional seat, seeking to go across the sea to Washington. I've asked Sergio to discuss his journey, where from, where to, and why. Aloha and welcome, Sergio. It's good to see you. How are you? Hi, Mark. Thank you so much for having me on this show, and it's such a pleasure to be here on this Martin Luther King Day. Thank you so much for having me on today. You're welcome, and I want to get right into it. I want to start acting. First questions, where did you come from? When did you get to Hawaii, and why did that all come about? Oh, all right, Mark. Man, as you mentioned, I do come from across the sea. I was born in the Philippines. I immigrated to the United States when I was seven years old. My father was in the military. My mom was a nurse. When I was six years old, I speak about this often, but my father was gunned down by a communist hit squad, a block or two away from our home. My mom was here in the US at the time working as a nurse. And I was in the Philippines with my dad. Just that experience of just losing my dad at that age and my mom having to come back and burying my dad, and just that experience is something that still hits home to me no matter how many times I talk about her, no matter how many times I share about it with people. But after my dad's death, my mom decided to take me with her back to the United States. She left the rest of my siblings behind in the Philippines. And she took me with her to Newark, New Jersey. That's where she was working as a nurse. And that was really my first experience in the United States. My mom was three months pregnant at the time. And for her, just working multiple jobs, working multiple shifts at the hospital, and it was difficult for her to take care of me. So she ended up sending me to live with my aunt until she saved enough money and she could bring the rest of my siblings over from the Philippines and reunite our family. So as a single parent with six kids, I mean, I could see how hard she worked. I could see just really her determination to make sure that we had a better future here together as a family in the United States. And for that, I'm very grateful to my mom and I'm very honored for all the work that she's done. So I always give honor to my mom first. I mean, that's what took me all the way here to the United States. Go ahead, Mark. And how did you get to Hawaii? So, you know, Hawaii's my home now. This is where both my children are born and this is where we intend to raise both of my children. My wife is originally from Japan. So when we first met, we discussed where did we wanna, where would we wanna settle down and raise a family? And the first thing that came out of her mouth was Hawaii. I just, you know, just the cultures and having the Filipino culture and Japanese culture here so probably in the different communities here was just something that we wanted to raise our children in. So I was fortunate enough to be accepted to the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii. And I've been in Hawaii for the last 12 years now and it's been the longest that I've ever had, you know, a chance to live in one place. And for me, it's really a place that I call home. Okay, now you came from the Philippines, but you're running for Congress. I mean, are you a US citizen? How did that happen? Oh, yes. Great question, Mark. So my mom became a US citizen when I was in middle school. You know, and I remember her taking the oath, the oath of allegiance to be a United citizen and we celebrated at a restaurant afterwards. But for some reason, she didn't apply for a certificate of citizenship. And it wasn't until I was 18, you know, I had some, I had a four year ROTC scholarship, had some nominations to the service academies and it became an issue when people asked me, can you prove US citizenship? And I didn't have anything to prove. At that time, I was told that I would have to reapply again for citizenship now that I was 18. Just in hindsight, of course, if I had spoken to an attorney, I could have resolved the issue rather quickly. But it took me another four years going through the whole immigration system and reapplying again for citizenship, only to get my citizenship when the certificate says it was backdated all the way to the time my mom became a US citizen. But, you know, just that experience, I don't take it for granted now. And, you know, I take my responsibility as a US citizen very seriously. You've had a lot of, I guess, stressful experiences in your life, starting as a young boy. And I wanna ask you, you're running for Congress. Is that personal background of benefit or is it a detriment for your run to Congress? Why? Mark, I definitely believe it's a benefit. I mean, just having these lived experiences of knowing firsthand what our working families are going through, what immigrant families are going through, what working class families are going through, I believe that experience, you know, coupled with my work experience, it provides greater insight. You know, these are the type of voices and insights that we can use in Congress now. You know, I feel like there's not too many people in Congress that can say they have the same experience that I have, the same struggles that I have that I wouldn't know. And this experience is what would make me become a better legislator. Yeah, it's really life experience. You've had a lot of that now, but you went into law as a career initially, you went to law school, why did you do that and what have you been doing as a lawyer? Yeah, so it wasn't really until my first year in the community college that I had an English professor. You know, saw my love for reading, saw my love for learning. And just say, why don't you consider becoming an attorney? You know, and just coupled with my experience through the whole immigration system, for me it made a lot of sense. So I've had the privilege of, since my second year of law school, I was working at the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii as an AmeriCorps member. And I was tasked with the responsibility of working with our judiciary and with our bar to establish court self-help centers, the Honolulu District Court self-help center. And my second year or my third year of law school, I was hired to be part of the management team as the director of external relations. So my focus was really on overseeing the programs and projects that tackled the issue of access to justice from disaster relief clinics to establishing courts self-help center statewide to just providing a way for people to be able to get legal help. That's really been where my focus was at Legal Aid and just this past year with the pandemic, with my children being at home, I ended up stepping down from that management position and taking a position as an intake staff attorney, whereas really kind of the first line of help that people got in dealing with landlord tenant issues and dealing with unemployment insurance issues during the pandemic. And which is, there's one of those experiences when you're the first person that they call for help that still sticks to me today. It sounds like your life experiences kind of directed your professional career also so far. Well, that brings us to why are you running for Congress? I mean, you do have a lot of legal background and work and helping local people, but why are you running for Congress? And again, Mark, as I mentioned, is just really my life and work experience. It provides this greater insight. Congress, for me, I mean, it's at the national level, but my experience here locally and pushing for things like raising the minimum wage and pushing for things to help unemployed workers, a lot of those frustrations that I experienced here in trying to get our local elected officials to pass some of these things, I realized that some of these solutions we can also push for at the federal level. I don't come from money, I don't come from life or privilege or power, but really that frustration where your everyday working people on the street can't get a meeting with their legislators because they don't have those same connections. I think for me that frustration is really just what inspired me or just to look more into running for office. I initially wanted to run for the open Lieutenant Governor position and I wanted to use that platform as an advocacy platform for some of these issues. But the more that I spoke with people and from people in the community asking me to consider running for Congress instead, I looked at it, gave it a lot of thought and just seeing our current incumbent now and even though we both have legal backgrounds, we just completely come from different worldviews and I just believe I can do a better job or represent our constituents better. Well, I wanna go into that now. You mentioned a local versus national and so I wanna know what experience can you bring to the national office? What can you bring to that one? And then you talk about the differences between you and Ed Case. My second question is, what are those differences between the two of you? He's the current first congressional district representative and I'd like you to focus on those two questions. Yeah, thanks Mike. You know, I just saw this statistic the other day that said 70% of the Democrats elected in Congress in 2016 never held elected office before. I think it's kind of just interesting that I think there's this clamor for real people running for office, not career politicians, you know, not our professional politicians, but you know, whether you're a teacher, you're a doctor, you know, you're an attorney, someone that's been from the community and is coming from the community to represent us in Congress. So for me, I feel like that provides a unique voice, you know, at the national level. You know, that we need more of those type of voices in Congress. You know, we need more of those type of voices in the halls of power where decisions are being made. Go on, go on. I know it's just gonna say, you know, the difference between me and Representative Ed Case, you know, I don't know representative Case personally, but you know, just we represent just different sides. You know, I represent more of the public interest community side and you know, that's just, that's really where my heart is. And that's the type of voice that I wanted to bring to office. Okay, all right. So next question. You mentioned this a little bit. What, you know, what would you do better than Ed Case? I mean, it's providing a better understanding of how legislation, how rules and laws in Congress, they impact your average Hawaii resident, you know, from our children to our seniors. I mean, I know these things firsthand from my work and I know it from my family history. I mean, just listening to the needs of the district. I feel like, you know, there's real-world implications for instance on Build Back Better. There's real-world implications that can help so many families here in Hawaii. If that, you know, if the Build Back Better bill would pass in its full form. You know, Representative Case made the argument in 2018 that he has a political experience and that's why he deserves to be back in Congress. But, you know, for me, it just shows that it's not just political experience, but it's really having a heart to serve people and it's really understanding what people are going through. And I think those are the guiding principles for me that I'm gonna use in Washington. So I hear what you're saying is that your life experience versus political experience is what you feel gives you a better insight, better advantage and the ability to see people on the street. Whereas that's what is not currently there. Is that, am I seeing that correctly? Yes, Mark, you know, I serve, I spent a term at our local legislature at our state capitol here a semester in law school and I just saw kind of the games that people, political games that people are playing. You know, and for me, it's pretty upsetting to see that because it's, we're dealing with people's lives. We're dealing with real issues that impacts people across the state. And to me, it's really not a game. You know, and I take that kind of seriously, I take that really seriously. You know, just in our last fundraising report, we raised money from over 500 donors with over 70% of our donations coming from local residents. And I know that's not something, and for me, that's important. That shows that my campaign is just, it's really focused on serving the community and it's really focused on the people. Okay, well, you know, you talk about life experience and experience in government or politics. How can you, looking at the current situation, how can you win the election against such a well-known incumbent who knows the political system so well? Yeah, and that's a great question, Mark. You know, in 2018, again, as mentioned, Representative Case came in the last minute and beat out five or six other candidates just based on name recognition alone. But I feel like now, you know, times have changed. I feel like it's not so much just name recognition. You know, when I go out and speak with voters and I go out and speak to people in the community, there's just this sense of frustration, you know, that people have with politics in general and with politicians in general. And, you know, I understand Representative Case may definitely outraise me in terms of money, but at the end of the day, it's gonna be people that vote. You know, and it's just sharing, with people sharing their networks that are family and friends and saying, hey, we have a better choice for Congressional District 1 this time. You're trying to get your message out. And one of the things I've heard you say is that you want to give voice to working families. Well, all right, here's your chance. What policies and actions will that voice articulate and manifest if you get into office? Yeah. You know, it's really prioritizing the needs of working families first over corporate interests. I mean, those are in my guiding principles, but things that, you know, as a parent with two young kids, things that we struggled with, you know, from affording, you know, childcare from finding preschools. I mean, those are things that would impact so many families here in Hawaii right away. You know, Medicare for All, paid parental leave, those are things that we're fighting for in this Build Back Better agenda. And unfortunately, the Build Back Better agenda or the bill, it may likely die, but those are things that we need here in Hawaii that can help so many families here that are struggling with, you know, affordability. You know, families that are struggling with the cost of, the cost of housing where it's already a million, the median price of a home is a million dollars. I mean, these are things that can help so many people here in Hawaii. And those are things that, when I say I want to give voice to working families, those are things that I'm going to focus on. What can we do to make life easier for these families so that they don't have to pack up and leave for the continent? Well, I mean, what can you do? And what will your priorities be if you win? Yeah, I mean, the core elements of Build Back Better are scrapped, which it looks like it may very well be. I'm going to pick up those core elements. I mean, pay parental leave, universal childcare, universal preschool, those are things that we really need here. Those are the priorities that I'm going to start with in Congress. I'm going to pick those up and continue to fight and advocate for those issues. One of the first, I mean, I get asked, sometimes people ask, what's the first thing you're going to do when you get to Congress? And I think of my staff, I think you need to provide a living wage for people, especially here in Hawaii when we struggled with trying to raise our minimum wage last year from $10 and $10 an hour to at least $12 and we couldn't even get that done. I mean, those are things that I'm going to prioritize. So if we can at least raise the federal level to 15, hopefully that'll be a big help for local families here. But those are my priorities and those are my guiding principles. Okay, well, I want to shift a little bit and say, you know, you talk about working families. Okay, well, I mean, all right, what are you going to tell to all Hawaii citizens, not just the working families, but why should they support you? Why should the other people that may not be quote, working families vote for you? I mean, for one, from our seniors that are worried that social security is going to be cut from our children that are struggling in our public school system or that need universal pre-K. I mean, just the whole gamut of our community just really needs help and it really needs to be spoken up for. And second, just the issue in our environment, I mean, the issue with Build Back with, I'm sorry, the issue with Redhill. I mean, that's something that impacts us here in congressional district one in terms of our drinking water. So, you know, when I say just for working families really with our congressional delegation, it's really for all the people all across the state. So, okay, so I'm hearing what you're saying then is that you feel for working families, you identify with them, you want to help them, but what you're going to do will help everybody. Is that, am I reading that right? Yes, I mean, this congressional scene and we represent just a large group of the population and yes, even my focus is on working families but the impact impacts all of us here in Hawaii. Okay, well, all right, let me take that one step further. How about businesses, Hawaii businesses? What can you do to benefit Hawaii businesses? You know, I just want to share this quick experience when, you know, my mom is an immigrant, as an immigrant family, you know, she tried different small businesses who kind of run through the gamut. One time she had a care home where I had to work in after school and help take care of some of the residents there. But, you know, I understand really for the small businesses kind of the struggles that they go through. But one of the things that pops in my mind right away is just this issue with healthcare, with healthcare costs. All right, I mean, those are costs sometimes that are borne, you know, they're borne by the businesses that they have to pay for to provide healthcare for their workers. But if we had universal healthcare, we had Medicare for all, I mean, this cost can be something that can, you know, that businesses wouldn't have to be responsible for. I think that's one way that we can make businesses make life easier for businesses here on the islands. Okay, and now you mentioned the Build Back Better plan that looks like it's stuck in the Senate. And are you, I mean, do you have any hope for it? And what's your opinion of the filibuster? Yeah. Yeah, you know, and this was, I think it goes back to the strategy of why the Build Back Better agenda should have been coupled together with the infrastructure bill. Because I think this is what many have predicted that it would probably likely die in the Senate if it wasn't coupled. But there's really core elements in there that we really need here in Hawaii. You know, it doesn't look great, but I'm gonna continue to advocate for those core issues if the Senate doesn't end up passing it. And going back to your question with the filibuster, I mean, the filibuster is one of those relics of the past that I feel like it's that people have, or in our current centers that have weaponized where a small group of the minorities really controlling or dictating things for the majority. And I think it needs to go and I think it's way past its time. Well, okay, let's take a little talk a little bit more of the, you know, there is the problems between Democrats and Republicans and that may be part of the filibuster issue. Is there any way for both parties to come together or get along with each other? Is there a way to break down those political barriers? Do you have any thoughts about that? Yeah, you know, I'm a optimist. I'm really an optimist. You know, as an immigrant to this country, I have a lot of hope for this country. You know, I see this country really as that, you know, as that call to action, this social experiment to be that city upon a hill. You know, and I still have a lot of hope in this country and I hope this is something that we can get through whether you're Democrat or Republicans. You know, on this Martin Luther King day of service, I think of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that it took really both sides, both parties to come together to move this country forward. And my hope is still that, that, you know, besides beyond, you know, whatever political party you come from, that you really see the vision of what this country can be and what it represents to the rest of the world and that we can come together to move this country forward. So I still do keep hoping that, Mark, but you know, every day I, you know, I wonder when something such as common sense, things like the voting rights hackers, you know, it's being filibustered, filibustered. So I do worry that, you know, our democracy is in peril. Well, okay, let me ask you a question. We actually got a viewer question. How do you see the state of our democracy based on January 6th and the rise of Trump Republicans and voting rights, et cetera? What is your view of the democracy of our country? Are we in trouble? Yeah, you know, voting rights, I mean, just the right to vote, I feel like it's at the very core of our democracy. And when I look back to January 6th a year ago, one of the things that made this country special was our peaceful transition of power, right? That, you know, whether you were part of the losing party or you were, or whether or not you were the president, you know, that didn't win, that for the good of the country, you could move this country forward by transferring power in a peaceful way. You know, I think of other countries, I especially think of my home country or my birth country of the Philippines and just think of the issues, what happens when that's no longer in place. So I believe, yes, it is a peril to our democracy that voting rights is being attacked. That states are looking to make it harder for people to vote. Here in Hawaii, I know sometimes we have an issue with making sure that we get more people to vote and sometimes I feel like we do take it for granted, but there's other states that are struggling with this and we can't continue to take our right to vote for granted. What do we do? No, one, let's pass the Voting Rights Act. You know, those are things that that's something that I'm gonna work for in Congress is let's start with that. Just making sure that these voter suppression laws that are being passed all across this country, that they don't have a chance anymore. Let's make the day to vote a national holiday. There's a lot of things that we can do to make sure that voting rights are being protected, to make sure that, you know, everyday citizens can really voice their concerns in Congress by being able to vote. Okay, we have a few minutes left. I'm gonna ask you some quick questions. What role does religion play in your life? And I noticed that you did have a relationship with the Unification Church at one time. Explain that, please. Thanks, Margaret. Gosh, it's so fast. You know, right now, I'm a man of faith, not so much religion, but faith. You know, I believe in the spiritual aspect of our humanity, you know, prayer helps me at the beginning of my day and it helps me at the end of my day. But in terms of politics, in terms of religion's role in our politics, I believe our framers made it clear in the separation of church and state. And I believe firmly in that. Well, I wanted to ask you about, you know, it's gonna come up. What is the Unification Church? Are you involved in that? Yeah, I consider myself a Christian Catholic. I've always considered myself that I was born Catholic and, you know, I still go to Mass. But, you know, the issue, so I attended the Unification Theological Seminary. And really what it was, what drew me to it was just this concept of interfaith work, especially after 9-11. I was a senior in college when 9-11 happened. And, you know, the thought that crossed my mind is what can we do to prevent something like this from happening again? And what drew me really to the Unification, I called it the Unification Movement, was mostly it's projects and programs that promoted community service as a path to peace and really looking at interfaith work. But, you know, that's, for me, that's really what drew me to it, but I consider myself, and I still do, a Christian Catholic. Okay, now, this kind of follows up on those points you made, what words to live by do you wake up with every day? And what can you share with us about your core values? Yeah, Mark, it's really just an attitude of gratitude, you know, to wake up every day and just be thankful, that you have another day to do something, just to end the day to be thankful, you know, that you had experiences with your family, with your loved ones, you had experiences with your community. You know, sometimes it's hard, especially during this time of the pandemic, but those are things that, just the sense of gratitude. I'm grateful that, you know, as a seven-year-old kid that came to this country, raised by a single mother with six kids, not knowing how to speak English, that I can stand here now and talk to you, Mark, about running for Congress. So, my heart is full of gratitude. And just second, it's a heart of service. It's a heart to give back. You know, I've been very blessed by family and friends that helped us along the way to get me to where I am today. And I simply want to give back and pay it forward. You know, as we speak, it's the day of service from only 13 days. Oh, okay. And you mentioned the pandemic going through it. How do we get back to normal? We have a minute left. How do we get back to normal during and after the pandemic? What's your advice? Mark, it's going to be hard. You know, as someone that lost a loved one during the pandemic, I know the impact that it's had on so many people, such as the frustration with my kids being at school and me having to stay home and help them with online school. I know it's going to be hard, but what we can do now is get vaccinated. Wear your mask. You know, if those are the steps that will help bring us closer to normalcy, let's do it. Let's not make it an issue. Let's not make it a political issue. Let's just do it so we can get back to normal. Oh, and that's a general advice for the good of everybody is what I hear you say. That's Mark. Sergio Alcubilla, thank you very much for being my guest today. I enjoyed our discussion. I know it went fast, but we got a lot across. So thank you. Thank you, Sergio. Good to talk. Yeah, thank you so much. That was probably the fastest 30 minutes in my life. So thank you so much. All right, aloha, everybody. Take care. All across the sea.