THE City of Baguio has established sisterhood ties with several cities across the globe and to name some, we have Cusco of Perú, Hangzhou of China, Hanyu, Saitama and Wakkanai, Hokkaido of Japan, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Vallejo, California of the United States, Kislovodsk, Stavropol Krai of Russia, Taebaek of South Korea and Vaughan, Ontario of Canada.
I was back to Honolulu with newsman Dave Leprozo in 2013 to be part of the Filipino American History Month activities where we mounted an exhibit dubbed “Ilocandia,” a photo and film exhibition sponsored by the city and county of Honolulu.
A reception dinner welcomed us at the Philippine Consulate with Consul General Julius Torres, City Council member Joey Manahan and members of the Filipino-American community in Hawaii. Manahan, who I also met in 2006, is one of nine members of the Honolulu City Council and represents Oahu County’s District 7.
Last year, I received a note from Dinah Villanueva of the Baguio-Vallejo Sister City Commission asking me to meet Dr. Kay Flavell of the New Pacific Studio when she visits Baguio. It was Kay Flavell's first visit to the Philippines and upon knowing her interests, I toured her to art hubs and we also visited solar painter Jordan Mang-osan in his Roofless Art Studio in La Trinidad. The climb to Jordan's art den despite its more than 70 steep steps was well worth the travel said Dr. Flavell and we spent about an hour with Jordan who also served steaming upland coffee with rice cake.
The city of Baguio is a member of the Philippine International Sisterhood and Twinning Association (Phista) and it has programs toward strengthening sisterhood ties between Baguio with local and foreign cities. City Mayor Mauricio Domogan is currently the chairman of Phista with the head of the City Counil Committee on Tourism and Special Events as co-chair.
The recent visit of US Ambassador and Mrs. Sung Kim in Baguio was preempted by a meeting of the US Exchange Alumni in Northern Luzon which I attended as a member. The event was part of the 70th anniversary of US government-sponsored exchanges in the Philippines where members had a reunion and networking reception for the Alumni Reconnects program.
In his remarks, US Embassy in the Philippines Acting Public Affairs Officer Matt Keener highlighted the contributions that people-to-people exchanges have made to the robust bilateral relationship between the United States and the Philippines. He also encouraged the alumni to work together and use the skills and network they gained in their exchange program to better serve their communities.
For her part as International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumna, Edna Tabanda recounted her International Visitors Leadership Program experience and how it contributed to her work as former La Trinidad Mayor and Vice Governor of Benguet.
I became US State Alumni member because my artist-residency in Hawaii was part of East-West Center’s support to the Centennial Anniversary of Filipino Migration in Hawaii while Edna Tabanda and news anchor Dhobie de Guzman of ABS-CBN TV Patrol Northern Luzon are both attendees of IVLP.
Baguio Midland Courier editor-in-chief Harley Palangchao, who was with me during the mini-press briefing with Ambassador Kim, is a participant of the Foreign Press Center Reporting Tour attended by foreign journalist in the United States.
As I write this, the Fulbright US-Asean Visiting Scholar Program announced that they are now accepting applications for AY 2019-2020.
Elevating its enduring commitment to the Asia-Pacific region by deepening more people-to-people engagements, the United States continues to offer scholarship programs to university faculty, foreign ministry or other government officials, professional staff of the private sector, think tanks, and other NGOs in the Asean Member States.
Selected Fulbright US–Asean Visiting Scholars will travel to the United States for three to four (3-4) months, where they will carry out full-funded scholarly and professional research on priority issues to the US-Asean relationship and Asean. To date, 60 scholars from all 10 Asean Member States have been awarded scholarships to pursue studies focused on a wide range of subjects. The Fulbright US–Asean Visiting Scholar awards will provide a monthly stipend for grantees, between US $2,710 and $3,145/month, depending on the US city and a direct-flight, round-trip economy-class air ticket and settling-in allowances.
To qualify, applicants should be university faculty, foreign ministry and government officials, or professionals in the private sector, think tanks and other NGOs whose work focuses on US-Asean issues. Applicants must be a Filipino citizen and have significant record of scholarly or professional accomplishment.
The International Visitor Leadership Program or IVLP is administered by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs with cooperative agreements with National Program Agencies (NPAs), a group of private, not-for-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.
Nearly 5,000 International Visitors are said to come to the US on IVLP and an estimate of 200,000 International Visitors have engaged with Americans through said program including more than 500 current or former Chiefs of State or Heads of Government. There is no application for IVLP however, participants are nominated and selected annually by US embassy staff around the world.