 Welcome to another episode of Think Tech Hawaii, Movershakers and Reformers, Politics in Hawaii series. I'm your host, Carl Kampanya. Today, I'm very excited to have a good friend of mine, Mr. Cesar Brinella, joining me. Cesar is a broadcaster. He is a personality, a radio personality for the Filipino community. Specifically, he does a radio show in the mornings as well as I think there's one or two in the afternoon he does. On KPRP, 6.50 a.m., Pinoy Power Radio. We're here today to talk about Filipino issues here in Hawaii and in the Philippines, some of the impacts that are going on right now with immigration in a couple of different areas. So thank you for joining and welcome to the show, Cesar. Thank you very much, Brother Carl, for inviting me. This is indeed a great privilege and opportunity for me to be a part of your great program. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Cesar Givonilia. I'm a radio broadcaster and a journalist because I'm part of the film career and a part of KPRP 6.50 Power Radio as a broadcaster. And of course, the program director of this radio station through the leadership of our founder, producer and CEO, Madam Amy Ortega Anderson, who has that guts and determination to keep a pace with the rhythm of time to promote the solidarity and unity amongst us Filipinos here in the island, so that we can promote and to foster much camaraderie. And maybe because of that, our success as a radio station here in the island, in the heart of Manolulu, a way back 2006 up to now, 2017, we are alive. It's 11 years, 11 years. It's not only a success of your radio station, in fact, the principles that you just defined as far as supporting one another and fostering the culture and fostering the people. And we were talking a few minutes ago about raising the people up, having that unity and making everyone better. I think that's been a huge part of the Filipino success here in Hawaii. It started many, many, many years ago. We know the cicadas. We've had conversations about the cicadas in the past as well. So tell me, okay, so I didn't know that you were also a film courier. Yeah, I'm a columnist and of course, the staff of film courier. And that was the beginning of my journey to being a media practitioner here in the island of Hawaii, Brother Carl. I was accepted by then, Madam Amy Ortega Anderson as a broadcaster of then KPHI. And then we moved to another radio station, which is at present at the KPRP 65th Avenue Power Radio. But in the year 2010, also I applied for film courier and because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I was accepted by them and giving me the privilege and opportunity to write some articles pertaining to politics, to the present situation here in the island of Hawaii. And of course, the great leadership of former President Barack Obama at the time. He was the president of the United States of America. And of course, my country, the Philippines, no matter what they say about my country, I love my country. And I'm a Filipino by heart. Yes, and that is spectacular. In fact, I've been told, and I would like your input on this, I've been told that I have a Filipino heart. I wanted to know if that means that I'm more colorful or if it beats faster. What does it mean? It's okay, brother. It's okay. I think what it means is I care about people. Yeah. So that's what it is. I hope so, brother. I have what I've experienced in the last several years of being able to be involved with and participate with a number of various different Filipino organizations and Filipinos really through Hawaii is how much care that you each take in who you are and in each other. And that's something that I think is a great model for people to look at and recognize. And it fits very well with Hawaii and the sense of aloha as well. I think that's wonderful. So thank you again. And thank you again. What I'll say is a couple of years ago, 2015 was when I first got to meet Cesar. And I was also with Fidesz. Yes, Mr. Fidesz and Mr. Harvick. That's right. They were kind enough to invite me on to their radio show in the morning. And we spent a couple of months going through and talking about good issues and good politics. And issues throughout Hawaii. And it was one of my first experiences actually from this side of the conversation and talking with Cesar. I got to learn a lot there. So that's some of our history there. So I wanted to thank you for that. I want to thank Emmy Anderson Nortega for that as well and to Rose Aquino. She was a part of that as well. Rose is maybe for the next episode. She will be invited. Absolutely. I'm very much welcome. I would love to have her on as well. So I'm going to work that out definitely. Because I want to learn a lot more about some cultural aspects as well through her. So now let's talk about some politics. Let's get into fun here. So in the United States and in the Philippines, we have new presidents. Yes, of course. We have Donald Trump. And we have... What's the Duterte? President Rodrigo Duterte. Rodrigo Duterte. Okay. They seem to be similar. Would you say that they're similar? And that they both sort of have that strong man appeal? Yeah, I think there is certain similarities. Brother Carl, knowing very well that the newly elected president of the United States of America, President Donald Trump, is a man on the job for the government of the United States of America. And for sure, he is a successful businessman. And this is the first time that... If I'm not mistaken, he entered politics and he ripped victoriously that title being the president of the United States of America. And of course, for every title, there is a corresponding responsibilities in it. I think that's the most important part. Not the title, it's the responsibility. The responsibilities. What are you doing and how are you taking care of your people? Yeah. So now, one of the things that's coming up, and I think it impacts the Philippines, it impacts obviously the United States, and it impacts Hawaii, is the immigration piece. What Donald Trump is doing at the moment, what President Trump is trying to do at the moment with his immigration initiatives and his Muslim bans and so forth, that stuff is impacting people. So I wanted to hear from you. As far as the Filipino community is concerned, abroad as well as in Hawaii, what are some of the concerns that the Filipino community has with regards to immigration and some of these religious bans? Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, brother Mark, knowing very well that we have also a new president in the Philippines, who was selected overwhelmingly by millions of Filipino people in the person of President Rodrigo Duterte. And by his leadership, he is always on the go for these war and drugs, war and illegal gambling, and of course I would like to make peace with the communist party of the Philippines, especially its military wing, the New People's Army, so that we can have that unity and peaceful coexistence with different groups in the Philippines. But of all of these great programs of the Duterte administration, sometimes peace is elusive for this great purpose alone. So he's trying to clean up some of what's going on there. So he's trying to take care of, he's got a war on drugs. War and drugs, I would like to save those drug addicts and of course to make life anew for drug posers. And one of the things that I would like to give a clear perspective for these war and drugs is to keep the Philippines free from all illegal drugs so that the youth, especially those who are rising up brilliantly in the horizon of greatness, must secure from their own destiny that they will make the Philippines great again in the future. Would you say that Duterte is more of a populist? You said he was overwhelming, so therefore he was very popular. Would you say that his positions are very populist positions? As far as the people of the Philippines want there to be this war on drugs? Do they want there to be the cleaning up that he's doing? And was this a big part of his campaign? Yes, Brother Mark. And with that opinion, with that statement alone, we can say that President Donald Trump allegedly supporting also this advocacy of the great president of the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte to get rid of all those who are trying to wreak havoc and the peace and order of my beloved country, the pearl of the Orient seas. So in this respect, Brother Carl, we have to support and give a chance to this new leadership to shine and to prove that the Duterte administration can make the Philippines progressive and be the solution of all the countries in the world. I remember there was a big struggle as far as that campaign was concerned as well. There were the old Marcos people as well. Has that been able to be healed? Would you say the Philippines is coming together or is there still a separation? I think in this respect, Brother Carl, those who are pro-Marcos and of course we have the pro-Kinos, sometimes those are the two names that make the Philippines sometimes in this swaying point. So if we are to give opinions to that, we have unity but of course we have to follow the rule of law. And when former senator Ferdinand Bong Bong Marcos Jr. was defeated by then Madame Vice-President Lenny Robredo, there are some observations maybe allegedly that there was something unusual during the elections. So former senator Marcos filed his electoral protest to the presidential electoral tribunal to prove everything that there is something fishy. So something fishy, there's conflict. So okay, so it sounds actually very familiar with me. He's going out here. So unfortunately we're already at our break. So we'll take a quick break. Thank you for joining us. Think Tech Hawaii Movers, Shakers and Reformers, Politics in Hawaii. Thanks again to my guest, Cesar Benelli. We'll see you in one minute. Thank you. Hi, this is Jane Sugimura. I'm the co-host for Kondo Insider. And we're on Think Tech Hawaii every Thursday at 3 o'clock. And we're here to talk about condominium living and issues that affect condominium residents and owners. And I hope you'll join us every week on Thursday. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Bill Sharp, your host for Asian Review, a weekly show right here on Think Tech Hawaii that's devoted to substantive analytical discussion about contemporary events in Asia. By Asia we mean anything from Hawaii, west to Pakistan, and from the Russian Far East South to Australia and New Zealand. Hello, my name is Crystal. Let me tell you, my talk show, I'm all about health. It's healthy to talk about sex. It's healthy to talk about things that people don't talk about. It's healthy to discuss things that you think are unhealthy because you need to talk about it. So I welcome you to watch Quok Talk and engage in some provocative discussions on things that do relate to healthy issues and have a well-balanced attitude in life. Join me. Welcome back to Think Tech Hawaii Movers, Shakers and Reformers, Politics and Hawaii Series. I'm your host, Carl Campania. Welcome again, one more time. Yes, for today, Mr. Cesar Bonilla, who is broadcaster with KPRP, 6.50 a.m. P1 Power Radio. In addition, Brother Carl, I'm also an Ilocano and Tagalog court interpreter of the Hawaii Judiciary. There you go, also very important. Man of many hats and many responsibilities. All very important. All right, let's dig more into immigration and how that's impacting. So what I would like to hear from you is from the local Hawaii Filipino community, is there concern about the immigration policies or does the Filipino community support the idea based on rule of law? Is there concern, first of all, is there concern about deportations of family? If you would explain. What would you say as far as the Filipino community and are there concerns about any family members being deported? One of our values, Carl, is that we have these so-called close family ties. And everyone of us have been achieving the fact that we all love our fellow Filipinos, especially our relatives, and it has a great impact on the family. If ever, one of our relatives has been deported. And if ever, your entry to the United States of America is clear and, of course, legal without any doubt at all, there is no way for the government to give you that hip-hop so that you can live in the United States of America. That's one of the things that has happened. There have been people, primarily from Mexico, but there have been people that have been detained. We know that we've got a number of different things that are being looked at, but people who look a certain way, people who look maybe like you, where they're going to come up and they're going to ask you, can you show me your ID? Can you prove to me that you are legally here? And if you are not able, if you happen to forget your wallet that day, you're going to get detained and your family is going to have to go through that impact. So that's the thing that I think concerns people. I don't think anyone, and I'll say this, I don't think anyone thinks that being here illegally is good. I don't think anybody is saying that we are just accepting of that. But we also recognize there are challenges, and not everybody has the money, and not everybody has the access to get here to the United States. So that's one of the issues and concerns. So for me, for my family, I would be concerned that someone would get picked up and potentially detained just because they didn't have some papers with them. So that's where I was hoping to hear, and I think it's great as far as the Filipino, from what you said, if I can rephrase it, the Filipino community supports legalized immigration and you want to make sure that you don't have a problem with the fact that if you're here illegally, then you should be deported. So would you agree with that? Yes, I agree with that very well. And of course, we have to follow the rule of law and the so-called due process in dealing with those legal problems. And I could suggest that the Philippine consulate draw in Dr. Gina Hamuralin. She's wonderful, by the way. Yes, the brilliant and energetic consul general of the Philippine consulate of the Philippines here in Hawaii should come to the score of those Filipinos. And there must be a proper dissemination of information through media, different media outlets so that they could know also their rights and their limitations for dealing with those problems about immigration. And we have so many immigration lawyers that maybe they can contribute a lot for this purpose alone. So in this case, the media plays a vital part for this kind of problem and the Philippine press club of Hawaii, Brother Carl, which I was elected secretary and Mr. Recogniz is the president and Madam Amy is one of the board of directors can help us a lot for sharing and giving advices regarding this kind of policy if ever of the newly-installed administration. Absolutely, no. Let me also say congratulations to consul general Gina Hamuralin for recently becoming the dean of the consul general. So congratulations to her. She's wonderful. I have had the good fortune of being with her in the past to have good conversations with her. I think she's extraordinary. I invite her to the show. In fact, I'll be reaching out to her. I would love to hear some thoughts from her as well. Okay, all right. So let's talk about other issues. Now, here in Hawaii, there is a large Filipino community. In fact, some say it's the largest singular, even larger than the native Hawaiians, as much as 33% of our population is Filipino. What are some of the other local concerns or issues that Filipinos are facing or trying to overcome? For me, I respect all the Filipinos here in the island of Hawaii, especially the Sakadas, who opened the door for all of us Filipinos to come and live in the paradise of milk and honey. That's the state of Hawaii. And of course, I'm very much thankful and I will give my respect to all the different races in the state of Hawaii, because they are my brothers and sisters. We are all brothers and sisters in the Alohae state. So the Filipino community should be more participative and be more cooperative. More specifically engaged? Yes, more community engaged. Well, I know that there's a huge community engagement within the Filipino community. I have had the very good fortune of being able to participate in a number of events with a number of organizations, Sonic Olenius as well. Sonic Olenius USA is a project called our president, President Jan H. De Los Santos, went to the Philippines to initiate the so-called medical and dental mission for all those indigenous families in our very own town, San Nicolas, which is a very progressive town. I'm not trying to give myself a boast for this matter, but it was evidence that there is already great advantages compared to other municipalities and cities in the north. There's been a lot of collaboration, first of all, between the various Filipino groups that exist, and there's a lot of crossover in some areas such as Mr. Alex Bergara, I know that he's been involved as well, and involved in trade missions as well as medical missions. Yes, and another leader, the president of Ilocosurian under the leadership of Mr. Danny Villaruz, also initiated this medical and medical mission, I think every year in Vigan City, Ilocosur. And of course, there is a great influx of tourists from different parts of the globe, Brother Carl, especially in our very own town, San Nicolas. They can see it as a good haven for businessmen or those who are trying to have their business prospered in the north. So San Nicolas is one of the great, the most highly recommended setting for this business endeavor. Brother Carl, yeah. We've had a number of local politicians who are from the Philippines. We've got the former governor, Ben Caetano. Yes. We have current representative, Romy Cachola. And I know that representative, Aquino. Yes. Many others. Consulman Jogi Manahan. Manahan, exactly. And so therefore there's a strong civic engagement in representation. Senator Willis Barrow. Senator Willis Barrow. Exactly. Brilliant Senator. Exactly. So there's quite a lot, and that's a wonderful thing. Would you say that there's more work to be done as far as that is concerned from the Filipino community? That we can do more. We can engage more. We can be more engaged with... Too many things to think about. Could you say that there's more opportunity? That there's more opportunity to be engaged with Filipino community within our local community? Yes, Brother Carl, because the Filipinos have the capacity to lead. Yes. And the Filipinos composed of, if I'm not mistaken, less than 300,000 people are living in the Alohae State of Hawaii. And if they have a unity and solidarity, they can produce more Filipino leaders, even in the different chambers of the State of Hawaii. So what I am thinking about is that there must be love, humility, and recognition of the world of AIDS and everyone of us so that we can push through with this great agenda of having many Filipinos trying to serve the Filipino and other communities here in the island of Hawaii. Yes. I think that's a great sentiment. So unfortunately, we are also at the end of the show. So let me do a little round here. So again, let me say thank you to Siza for joining us today. Let me say thank you to all of the wonderful Filipino leaders that I have been able to meet over the years. Too many to list, but I would like to make sure that I've included some. Yes, Representative Aquino. Yes, Representative Cotola. I've had some good conversations with former Governor Cayetano as well, with Senator Willis Barrow, and it grows and grows from there. What I would like to leave the show with today is my great appreciation for the sense of aloha that the Filipino community has and that the leadership that they can show from that perspective, I think it's something that we could look at and try to model because, yes, they support each other, but they support their communities and they recognize their communities are more than just them. So they think about things from a perspective of how do we raise each other up? How do we continue to improve ourselves as communities and as neighbors? And I think that that's something we could look at and model. So for that, I will say thank you once again for joining us and thank you to Cesar. Thank you to Emmy Anderson. Thank you to Rose. Thank you to everyone. And we look forward to future conversations about Filipino issues here in Hawaii. So thank you for joining us. Aloha. Aloha.