Prof. Dean Antonio Domingo

Congratulations, Dean Antonio Domingo, for your award as Outstanding Faculty during the Pamantasan Manoa, 2025!

Dean is the Coordinator and an Instructor in the Ilokano Program at UH Mānoa. Alongside those roles, he serves as an Academic Adviser for the BA in Philippine Language and Culture (Ilokano), Minor, and Certificate and faculty adviser for the Timpuyog Organization, a student run organization. In the community, he is the President for NAKEM (National Alliance for Knowledge, Empowerment and Meaning) Hawai’i and Secretary for HALT (Hawai’i Association of Language Teachers).

He received the “2025 Dr. Ernest “Niki” Librarios, Jr. Outstanding Filipina/o Faculty and Staff Award” during the Pamantasan Conference: Rooted & Rising. The award recognizes individuals who have contributed significantly to the success of Filipinas/os in Education through mentoring, leadership, and support.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Jayson Parba

Dr. Jayson Parba earned his PhD in Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UHM). He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages & Literatures at UHM where he also serves as the Coordinator of the Philippine Language and Culture Program. He is a multilingual educator and scholar whose research interests include critical language pedagogy, heritage language education, language ideologies, multilingualism, and translanguaging. In particular, he is interested in critically examining how language use and language education can challenge or sustain social inequities, status quo discourses, and linguistic and cultural discrimination. He has published in the International Journal of Multilingualism, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Linguistics and Education, TESOL Quarterly, and in edited volumes published by Routledge and Springer, among others. More…

 

 

Dr. Raymund Ll. Liongson

The University of the Philippines Alumni Association of Hawaiʻi bestows the UP-Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievements on Dr. Raymund Llanes Liongson. Dr. Liongson (retired) was a professor of Arts and Humanities at the UH Leeward Community College. He taught Philippine Studies, among many subjects, and has been very active in community organization work and advocacy for the betterment of Filipinos in Hawaiʻi.

UPAAH describes his exemplary vita as follows: 𝑫𝒓. 𝑳𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒏𝒊 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑼𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚—𝒖𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍’𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆. 𝑯𝒆 𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒐𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔,…

 

 

 

 

Dr. Belinda A. Aquino
From: Positively Filipino, They Blazed a Path for Us — Positively Filipino | Online Magazine for Filipinos in the Diaspora

There are those who work quietly among us to better our community, never asking for recognition or remuneration. This is especially true of many of our Filipino American elders whose ideas and views are often overlooked, their lifelong work often going unappreciated.

So, last August 31, Positively Filipino paid tribute to 12 outstanding manongs and manangs who have paved the way for us to have a better life in America, whose shoulders we proudly stand on.

Their stories are testaments to the hardship, discrimination, racism, and inequality they personally witnessed, endured, and overcame in order to give their families a better future. From politicians to academicians, from historians to musicians, from artists to activists, they have blazed a remarkable path for us.

In a world where technology is replacing almost every aspect of human life — where phones have replaced real conversations, where time is so hurried, where kindness is a rarity -– let’s stop for a moment to pay our respect to our elders.  It’s time to hear their stories and embrace the important lessons they can share. It’s time to say a big “Thank you!” Positively Filipino will continue to tell the stories of the manongs and manangs, lest we forget. –The Publisher & Staff.

Read the life stories of Belinda A. Aquino and Ben Cayetano, former Governor of Hawaiʻi, from the article published by Positively Filipino. A video of this event called “Building Communities” by the same host is also aired in Tribute to our Manongs and Manangs.

 

Dr. Patricia E. Halagao

Featured in Hawaii Business Magazine, February 21, 2024 are UH members Dr. Patricia Halagao and daughter Marissa (top middle), and Agnes Malate (bottom middle) for their achievements as Filipinos in Hawaiʻi. Patricia Halagao, an educator for more than a decade, has worked on getting more Filipinos into higher education and more educational opportunities for Filipino students.  As the chair of curriculum studies at UH Mānoa’s College of Education, she has advocated for equality and fairness by increasing the number of Filipinos and other underrepresented groups in college and pursuing careers in higher education. While she was on the state Board of Education, she pushed for the development of policies on multilingualism and for the Seal of Biliteracy, which is now awarded upon graduation to students who demonstrate high proficiency in both of the state’s two official languages (English and Hawaiian), or in either of those two and at least one additional language.

Read their stories at Hawaiʻi’s Filipinos Are Stepping Out From the Shadows.

 

=======================================================================

SPOTLIGHT – STUDENTS

Paul Gabriel L. Cosme

Paul Gabriel L. Cosme is a doctoral student of composition at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. His latest work, “‘Sorry, Goodbye…evermore?’: Beyond Taylor Swift and Mimicry in Moira dela Torre and Philippine Popular Music” is published with Musika Jornal at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.

As a composer, Paul puts in dialogue Asian and Western traditions with artists including the Grammy-winning New Jersey Symphony, taiko master Kenny Endo, kulintang player Ron Querian, and the JACK Quartet.

 

 

 

Jake Atienza

Jake, MA Sociology 2023 at UH Mānoa, submitted his fieldwork report in Cebu where he researched the consequences of mining. His project was part of his thesis and was made possible by the Corky Trinidad Endowment Scholarship. The report is now available in Summary. From his research, he has also published an article in the Victoria University of Wellington’s Comparative Law Journal of the Pacific, 2024. A video recording of his research, presented in a colloquium, is found Here. Jake is a PhD student majoring in Global Studies at the University of California-Irving.

 

 

 

 

 

Louward Allen Zubiri

Louward Allen Zubiri, PhD Linguistics ’24 from UH Mānoa, was awarded the Alfonso Yuchengco Endowment Fund to partially support his dissertation fieldwork in the Philippines during the Summer of 2023. In addition to his completed dissertation manuscript (ProQuest Publication No. 31491135), another output derived from his dissertation research is an article on Assessing Intergenerational Transmission of Bikol, published by Cascadilla Press. In 2024, he also received an Excellence in Research Award from UH for his work on the Bikol language.

 

 

 

Adrian Alarilla

Adrian Alarilla, PhD student, obtained a Corky Trinidad Endowment to pursue his doctoral research.  The project is now completed. In his own words:

The Corky Trinidad Endowment Scholarship was a boon for me and my dissertation. I am fortunate that I received it at the right time (in between COVID-19 waves) and I was able to do my fieldwork with relative freedom.

From his research, Adrian published an article, “Unsettling Islands: Philippine Cinema, Migration and Settler Colonialism,” in the Journal of Philippine Cinema, Vol. 6 (2021).

 

 

 

 

CONGRATULATIONS to Emmanuel Jones Mante and Jensen Villaflor! Both have received scholarship grants from the Corky Trinidad Endowment Scholarship in Spring 2024. The scholarships will enable them to conduct research toward their degree programs.

Emmanuel Jones Mante

Degree: MFA in Theatre Arts
Project Title: Kadaugan sa Mactan: Reenacment – Performing History and the April 27, 1521 Memory of Resistance

 

 

 

 

Jensen Villaflor

Degrees: BA in American Studies, minor in Filipino Language and Culture. Member of Honors Program
Project Title: Kain na Tayo: Food Memory and the Creation of the Filipino Self

Jensen had also received earlier a scholarship grant from the Philippine Consulate General-Senator Loren Leegarda donation.