A Filipino Asian American in 2024; Plus My OJ memory

by Emil Guillermo

I’m in New York doing my show, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad” as part of the New York City Fringe/Under St Marks Theater for three more shows: https://www.frigid.nyc/event/6897:625/

But I’m still working as a journalist, viewing the world from a Filipino Asian American lens as I have for some time.

This week, I was taken by an image that should help you find, or at least confirm, your “Asian Americanness” in 2024.

It’s a photo of Biden, Marcos, and Kishida.

That’s not a law firm but a historic public bonding for all to see especially China.

It’s the historic image of Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida together with President Joe Biden at the first-ever trilateral summit meeting between the three countries at the White House this week.

As a Filipino Asian American who still has family in the Philippines, including Ilocos Norte, the Filipino province of Marcos, when I look at that picture, there is no doubt as to where my allegiances are.

I’m with Joe. There’s no better person in this context. He’s our horse.

At this point, there’s none better.

This is one of those obvious not-so-obvious observations that we take for granted, and that sometimes takes a while to sink in. Or you come upon a photograph from a trilateral summit, and then you realize.

Strip away everything and what we have is an image of people who look like us, Asian.

But our allegiance is with the white man. The president of the United States.

This is what it means to be Asian American.

Politics and history complicate things, of course. At a ceremony in the White House with the Japanese leader this week, even Biden commented on how things have changed.

“Just a few generations ago, our two nations were locked in a devastating conflict,” Biden said referring to World War II. “It would have been easy to say we remain adversaries. Instead, we made a far better choice: We became the closest of friends.”

The same could be said of the history between the US and the Philippines, a major focus of my one-man show.

Just a few lost generations ago, the Philippines was Imperial America’s first colony, and first conquest. There were consequences. We feel it every day.

But now the past is set aside for this historic trilateral summit because Thitu Island is endangered.

Thitu, part of the Spratly Islands, owned by the Philippines, looked upon as devourable by China, is a small island strip less than a mile long, but as any real estate person will tell you, it’s location, location, location.

Thitu is an island in the South China Sea, or the West Philippine Sea as the Filipinos prefer. China’s aggression in the region has been ongoing for nearly a decade.

It threatens peace not just the Philippines but the entire region. I’ve been writing about the Spratly Islands for years as a potential flash point.

And now there’s no question, that China’s bullying presence in the area has the lights flashing red. Despite an international ruling in the Hague rejecting China’s claims over the Spratlys, China continues to big-foot the region.

Enter the United States.

As China persists in its aggression, a reminder is needed for all the world to see.

At the meetings on Thursday, Biden told the leaders of both countries that the U.S. military commitments to Japan and the Philippines are “ironclad”.

What emerged was the stark contrast: An alliance of the U.S. Japan and the Philippines as the paragons of democracy in the region versus the authoritarian communism of China.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to put Thitu and the Spratlys on your radar now.

Taiwan isn’t the only island that could spark a major conflict.

Die-hard Filipino or Japanese Nationalists may reject the symbolism of the U.S. coming in as Big Brother to the rescue.

But as Asian Americans, our hope should be for peace in the region, and support of the two largest democracies in Asia.

It’s a special plus when we have blood still in the lands to which we provide aid.

Coverage gets bumped by OJ
I was really hoping for more coverage of the trilateral summit on television.

In the past, when the Philippines was propped up by the U.S. through the Reagan-Bush years, there were demonstrators every time Marcos’s father came to the US.

Marcos was a dictator supported by U.S. dollars. Marcos Jr. is the president of a democracy. Big difference.

There are still questions about how the family was rehabilitated back into power and how it enriched itself by looting the Philippines itself. But the tiger changed its stripes. And now it needs U.S. military help.

We’re lucky to get a glimpse of Marcos, Biden, and Kishida in the news. Recently, it was eclipsed by the breaking news of the death of O.J. Simpson.

Before there was Trump, we had OJ to polarize our society. In 1995, when I was a radio talk host, OJ could light up the phones.

I won’t go over the case now. But I do remember how OJ was for many of us, our law school. Court was in session on TV, and we found out the difference between a criminal case (where OJ was acquitted), and a civil one (where OJ had no 5th Amendment cloak, had to testify, and was found liable for the murders).

We also learned about that high bar for prosecutors in our system—“beyond a reasonable doubt.”

OJ got karmic justice later when he served nine years for robbery and kidnapping in Nevada.

But my memories of OJ come as a kid growing up in San Francisco. I went to the same junior high school as OJ.

My father was 50 years older than me, so we didn’t communicate. I sought out surrogates. OJ was one of them.

He played football, and so did I (Pop Warner MVP). He was always held up in our school as the role model as a Heisman winner out of USC.

He was a kid from the hood. Transcendent. And he was beyond race. He would say, “I’m not black, I’m not white, I’m OJ.”

I know I wasn’t the only one who saw him as a decent role model. OJ was always the role model until the juice went bad.

I mention OJ in my comic one-man show about my American Filipino life, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad.” Come see it in New York City live or at home via livestream.

Three shows left: April 13th, Sat. 5:20 pm eastern; April 19th, Fri. 8:10 pm eastern; April 21st, Sun. 5:20 pm, eastern at 94 St Marks Place in Manhattan’s East Village as part of the NYC Fringe Festival: https://www.frigid.nyc/event/6897:625/

EMIL GUILLERMO is a journalist and commentator. He wrote columns and editorials for the major papers in Honolulu. In Washington, DC. He hosted NPR’s “All Things Considered.”