Fil-Am in Obama's advisory commission

Rozita Villanueva-Lee is one of few Filipino Americans who are in one of US President Barack Obama’s advisory groups. Rozita, who was here recently, is a commissioner on President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islanders. The commission, Rozita told a group of media women here, “connects Asians with the US government. We let the President know our issues. This we do in our monthly meetings with him in Washington D.C.”

The commission members represent the interests of the Filipino, Chinese, Hawaiian, Samoan and Indian communities in the US. While the communities’ concerns are brought up, such as more health and educational benefits, the commission looks at what it can do to help individuals, like how to apply for jobs, understand the International Revenue Service, and illegal immigration, among others.

There’s another Filipino on the 17-member commission — Victor Vargas. Speaking for herself, Rozita said she was informed that she was chosen from 5,000 names that had been submitted to Obama for commission membership. “I was told about this on a Wednesday. The next day I flew to Washington for our first meeting.”

Naturally, Rozita has a special concern for Filipinos, who, she said, are “bright and are good writers.” Her experience with Filipinos and other Asians have been featured in her television and radio productions, making audiences see the challenges, qualities and special problems of Asian-American families. She said many of the Filipinos are “bright, and are good writers.”

Rozita’s name was not alien to Obama. She had worked for his campaign, had faith in his capabilities and call for change – but, prior to that, she said with a smile, she first worked for Hilary Clinton. “I love Hilary, she’s wonderful, she is bright, she knows issues, she can communicate effectively.” 

Rozita’s father, Eugenio Villanueva, left his hometown, San Manuel in Pangasinan in 1929 to work in a sugarcane field in Hawaii. His wife Leoncia and three children joined him three years later. The couple would have four more children, one of them, Rozita, who was born in the Pioneer Mill sugar plantation in Maui.

From the first grade to college she was elected to positions to influence better standards and policies. She attended the University of Hawaii, but finished her bachelor of arts and master’s degrees in communication studies at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Her biodata describes her as “an effective, trusted leader of high integrity in her Filipino community as well as other Asian and Pacific Islander communities not only in Hawaii and Nevada (where she currently resides), but throughout the country. And she has received honors from all of them.”

Her involvements include producing Spectrum, a weekly TV program over PBS Television Channel 10 KLVX-TV that featured the diverse ethnic groups of Las Vegas. She owned a Polynesian entertainment company which produced Tahitian, Hawaiian, Fijian, Maori and Samoan dances for hotels, corporations, conventions and schools. She was assistant state director for VOICES for Working Families, which hired and trained Pacific Americans and Hispanics to register and vote, contacting more than 20,000 voters via phone and visits.

She served in different capacities on economic development companies, labor alliances and women’s groups, and as adviser of state and local political figures.

Among Rozita’s numerous appointments and awards are the Philippine Ambassador Commendation Award for her work on behalf of Filipino World War II veterans, the 2008 Twenty Outstanding Filipinos Abroad-World Award, and the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award by OCA, an Asian Pacific American organization. She was named one of 100 most influential Filipina Women in the US by the Filipina Women’s Network.

Rozita was in Manila under the sponsorship of Filipino businessman Boy Salcedo, to visit the Feed the Hungry Inc. program in the Philippines in Siargao in Mindanao, and at the Mariano Marcos State University in San Fernando, La Union. Feed the Hungry, whose main offices are in Washington D.C., was created in 1993. Its program in the Philippines, managed by Manuel and Fely Dumo, has built 89 school classrooms in cooperation with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas.

The petite and charming lady who is in her 70’s, said she was seven years old when World War II broke out. Her uncle Julio had been on the Bataan March; years later, he told his niece that Filipino soldiers would not get the recognition they deserve from the US government. True enough, the Filipinos who fought side by side with American soldiers have received only one half of the benefits given the Americans. Rozita had worked along with Filipino volunteers to convince the US government to give Filipino veterans pensions and other benefits.

When asked how the Philippines is perceived by Americans, Rozita turned serious. “They associate the Philippines with corruption,” she said. When she first came to Manila in 1971, she was not impressed by what she saw, and a few weeks ago, she was not impressed either, especially by the “traffic and realities — because of greed, graft, and corruption.”

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I can remember becoming a member of Rotary International has been many a young man’s ultimate dream. The organization has been held up for its community service projects, and its requirements of goodness, competence and credibility of its members.

Lately, however, there is a kink in the armor of the organization, and this is the reported unsavory extra-marital relationships carried out by some of the top honchos of the organization with women.

One of the stories making the rounds is that of a governor who registered himself as attending an international convention with his wife, but actually spending his evenings with a paramour in another hotel.

Some of the governors are said to support scholars through college, but end up having them as girlfriends. One past president brought his dance instructor to a club function. Another brought a gf to a meeting, but when his wife learned about this via a mysterious phone call, she rushed to the meeting, had a showdown with the gf who rushed out crying, and leaving the whole meeting with wagging tongues.

There is this brazen president-elect who has retained as his personal secretary, a woman whose record is not unblemished, to say the least. His boss is said to be bailing her out of legal predicaments.

My source for this uncomplimentary picture of a well-respected — and so it seems — organization, says it’s high time that a lifestyle check and character scrutiny be made of all aspirants for the organization’s presidential position. “One rotten fruit can spoil a basket of fruits,” my source says.

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