Crispin Valeriano – the Volunteer who Learned Excel
Crispin Valeriano
Crispin Valeriano will celebrate his one year anniversary as a Honolulu Community Action Program (HCAP) volunteer at FilCom next month. Born in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, Philippines, he is married with three grown children who are all professionals. He finished his Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Accounting, at Divine Word College at Laoag City. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the Philippines, his first job was with Sycip, Gorres, Velayo (SGV), a prestigious accounting firm in the Philippines.
In March 1976 he was recruited to work for Philippines National Bank (PNB) where he worked for 28-plus years in different of positions. He rose through the ranks and by the time he retired in June 2004, he was the Assistant Manager and Head of PNB Laoag Business Center, a loan center handling business loan accounts for the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra , Batanes and part of Cagayan. Read more…
Raymundo B. Rausa—Multi-talented Cultural Dance Artist
Raymundo Rausa
Ray, as he is fondly called by his students and colleagues, is one of the pioneer cultural artist-volunteers for FilCom since the non-profit opened its doors in 2002. During those early years, he taught children and youth folk dancing. The students came from the neighboring Waipahu Intermediate and High School. He also trained a group of students from Punahou School, where he currently works as an audio-visual technician, to the intricacies of Filipino folk dancing until the kids graduated and moved on to college. Due to health issues within in immediate family, he had to suspend his volunteer activities. Since early 2013, he has resumed his passion of sharing his love for Philippine dance to a whole new group of recruits representing various age groups. Read more…
Filipino for Kids Summer Program Volunteers
Fil4Kids Program Volunteers
The Fil4Kids summer program at FilCom would not have been possible if not for a group of dedicated young Filipino-Americans who gave up their Saturday mornings to serve as ate and kuya to youngsters who wanted to learn more about Filipino culture. Program Director, Imelda Gasmen had to make a trip to the Philippines during the program’s duration, and these young volunteers, led by Radiant Cordero, took the initiative to plan and implement this year’s summer program. Assisting with program planning was FilCom Program Specialist Marie Ramos, who had served as an ate for several summers while still an undergraduate student at UH Manoa’s Ethnic Studies. Read more…
Jay Menes is a Manila-based artist who is the featured storyteller for the FilCom’s RAMP project on July 28. RAMP- which stands for “reading, arts, music and play”– is a regular feature of the monthly FilCom Sunday. RAMP is geared primarily to encourage reading for families and children.
A multi-talented artist who does hosting, singing, storytelling, directing, facilitating workshops, acting on stage or on screen, Jay is also an entrepreneur by heart and worked for a Malaysian bank in the Philippinesfor seven years before pursuing a career as a freelance performing artist. Read more…
Randy Cortez – Representing Hawaii’s Young Leaders
As the current president of the JCI Hawaii Filipino Chamber of Commerce, Randy was heavily involved with putting together last month’s 21st Filipino Fiesta at Kapiolani Park. He has served as chair for the annual fiesta for the past four years now and has helped ensure a successful event on each occasion.
Randy also assumed the role of chair for a Candidates Forum in October of 2010, where he spearheaded a community event during the Hawaii 2010 State Elections that provided constituents an opportunity to question political candidates on various political issues. In 2011 and 2012, he oversaw yet another community event that recognized ten outstanding Filipinos dedicated to creating better communities in Hawaii. He is also a member of the Order of the Knights of Rizal and was appointed this year’s Pursuivant, or Secretary. Read more…
Edna Y. Alikpala
The Volunteer for all Seasons
Edna has a long history of service in conjunction with the Filipino Community Center, dating from its initial development stages. She was the very first Secretary of the Executive Committee for the planning of the center and held a similar position with the Filipino Chamber of Commerce during the term of Lito Alcantra, who established a committee to plan for the building of a Filipino Community Center. Roland Casamina, who was appointed to chair the project, invited Edna to join the committee as its Secretary, where she served for at least seven years. After the inauguration of the Filcom, Edna took on the task of chairing the “Volunteers Appreciation Night” to honor all the volunteers that helped in “Building the Dream.” She then served as committee chair for the 2002 Mabuhay Festival and assisted in the selection committee for the caterers. Read more…
Alfonso “Al” Avecilla
Preserving the Past to Envision a Better Future
Last March, through the efforts of Alfonso Avecilla, the FIlCom received $3,500 donation from the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) Foundation’s Quality of Life Program. MDRT is the premier association of financial services professionals of which Al is a member. The MDRT Foundation was created in 1959 to provide MDRT members with a means to give back to their communities and improve the quality of life for people in-need throughout the world.
Since 2009 when Al “discovered” the FilCom Center while on vacation in Hawaii, he was very intrigued with the mission and programs of the center. One of the projects that he agreed to chair was the Family Legacy Project, which seeks to upload archival materials collected from pioneer Filipino families who have made significant contributions to Hawaii’s modern history. This project was conceived as part of eFil (http://efilarchives.org), an on-going project of the Filipino American Historical Society of Hawaii (FAHSOH). Read more…
Roland and Edith and their hard working team members even walked house to house requesting support for the Filipino Community Center. They held their first rally in Waialua, where people can submit their donations or pledges to Edith’s brother, Roland Casamina. Roland was then the President spearheading the building of the FilCom Center, along with Vice President Eddie Flores. They held their weekly Thursday night meetings, in which the Community Relations Team would submit donations and pledges that they collected from Filipinos and non-Filipinos alike. The group managed to receive a lot of monetary donations. Read more…
Tess Quemado
Tess has been a volunteer for the FilCom Center before the facility’s ground breaking more than 15 years ago. During those early years, she was part of a group called “Community Relations Team”, a group headed by Roland and Edith Pascua. This group was tasked with collecting pledges and donations for “building the dream”-a Filipino Community Center to be located on a two-acre site in what used to be sugar lands in Waipahu. The group went from house to house, door to door asking kababayans, as well as other ethnic groups for their donations, focusing on communities with large Filipino populations like Waialua, Wahiawa and Waipahu. Read more…
Conrad and Linda Abuel
The FilCom Center has been offering computer training since the completion of its Economic Development Administration (EDA)-funded Tech Room seven years ago. The training session went into hiatus when the hard-wired desk top computers started slowing down. Earlier this year, the FilCom Center replaced the outdated computers with laptops and converted internet access into WIFI thus enabling the resumption of the computer classes anywhere in the facility. The first volunteer to help restart the computer enrichment classes was Conrad Abuel. Read more…Rene Ramiro
Nurturing the Traditional Garden Greens Growing at Filcom.
During the past few months, healthy green, red, and yellow vegetables had sprouted at FilCom. The last few weeks, the plants had matured and needed harvesting and will soon be replaced with other vegetables. Soon malunggay, saluyot, ampalaya, talbos ng kamote, okra, and tomatoes-the basics for pinakbet! – will be ready for harvest and FilCom will be offering tips on how to prepare the traditional staples of the Filipino diet, now recognized as superfoods, super rich in nutrients. Read more…
Manny Lanuevo
Manny Lanuevo is currently the Deputy Director of Honolulu’s Department of Environmental Services, and has served in this capacity since 2009 when then Mayor Mufi Hannemman appointed him to this post. Prior to this position, he was the Facilities Engineer of Hawaii’s Airports Division of the Department of Transportation (DOT). Before immigrating to Hawaii in 1988, he was affiliated with MERALCO as a supervising engineer. He is a licensed professional electrical engineer in both the State of Hawaii and the Philippines. His certifications include LEED AP form the U.S. Green Building Council, EPA 608 from the US Environmental Protection Agency and CLEP from the Association of Energy Engineers. He received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Mapua Institute of Technology, Manila, Philippines in 1971. Read more…
Iris Gil Villacrusis
Artist, Fashion Designer and Cultural Warrior 
Iris Gil is an artist whose discerning eye and talent creates wearable works of art for women. For example, he designed the gown worn by Miss Hawaii Filipina when she won the crown last July in Hilo. More recently, one of the winners at the recently concluded Maria Clara Ball last September 1, wore one of his black and purple creations. His gowns are so versatile since it can be worn as a contemporary sleeveless gown, or with the butterfly sleeves of the terno, or with the bell sleeves and panuelo of the Maria Clara gown-three outfits for the price of one.
Last August 24, Iris spent some time at the FIlCom Center to install the indigenous fabric exhibit at the Tech Room. One part of the room contains the weaving of the north while the other has displays of the fabrics common to the south. Some of the items on display came from his extensive collection of fabrics and costumes from the Philippines. Read more…
Bea Ramos-Razon
Super Nurse
Beatrice “Bea” Ramos-Razon is the driving force behind the free RN NCLEX Review Class Program held at the FilCom since 2001. For more than a dozen years, Bea and her colleagues at Nursing Advocates and Mentors, Inc. have been helping nurses, many of whom trained in the Philippines, prepare to pass registered nurse exams needed to practice their profession in Hawaii.
Bea’s heart, smarts, and solid experience back her passion to help her fellow nurses. She holds RN licenses in Hawaii and Washington and is the first nurse from both states to be inducted in the Academy of Fellows of the National Association of Directors of Nursing administration for Long term Care. Bea also was selected as 2004 Nurse Administrator of the Year by this national association. Read more…
Imelda Gasmen 
On summer weekends, the courtyard of the FilCom Center fills with the sounds of children dancing the tinikling, listening to Filipino folktales, and learning their abakada (abc). They’re attending Filcom’s Filipino for Kids Summer Enrichment Program, founded and organized by Imelda Fines Gasmen, or Ime. Watching her at work, “Ime” can readily stand for Inspiring, Multi-talented, and Energetic.
Ime is an instructor of Filipino and Philippine Literature at the Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literature of the University of Hawaii at Manoa; she is also a certified translator. She hails from Ilocos Sur and graduated valedictorian from Narvacan National Central High School. She is a graduate of the B.S. Development Communication program of the University of the Philippines Lost Banos and M.A. Communications program at UH Manoa.
Her students attest that she makes learning enjoyable; so enjoyable that among others, her former students return many times over and volunteer to help run Filipino Summer for Kids program and other activities. The summer program requires a lot of preparation but Ime enjoys it tremendously and finds that she is also growing more in her knowledge of Philippine culture and life. Her many talents and experiences have enabled her to craft attractive ways of imparting and packaging knowledge. According to Ime, it has been heartwarming to work with young children every summer. Children exude an innocence and purity that are different from her college students. It has been an ultimate reward to have children from past Filipino for Kids session come back as adult volunteers of the current session. Read more…