Background:

Hawaii is the southernmost state of the United States, and would be the westernmost, if not for Alaska. It is one of the only two states (Alaska being the other) that are outside the contiguous United States and that do not share a border with another state. Hawaii is the only state that: 1) lies completely in the tropics; 2) is without territory on the mainland of any continent; 3) is completely surrounded by water; and 4) continues to grow in area because of active extrusive lava flows. Except for Easter Island, Hawaii is the furthest from any other body of land in the world.

The Hawaiian archipelago comprises 19 islands and atolls extending across a distance of 1,500 miles (2,400 km.) Of these, eight high islands are considered the "main islands" and are located at the southeastern end of the archipelago. These islands are, in order from the northwest to the southeast: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Maui and Hawaii. The latter is by far the largest, and is very often called the "Big Island" or "Big Isle".

Honolulu

LOCATION

2,397 mi. west-southwest of San Francisco

Total: 28,311 sq. km.
Land: 16,637 sq. km.
Water: 41.2% of total area

Atypical for a tropical area, and is regarded as more subtropical than the latitude would suggest, because of the moderating effect of the surrounding ocean. Temperatures and humidity tend to be less extreme, with summer high temperatures seldom reaching above the upper 80s (Fahrenheit) and winter temperatures (at low elevation) seldom dipping below the mid-60s. Snow, although no t usually associated with the tropics, falls at high elevations on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in some winter months. Mount Waialeale, on the island of Kauai, is notable for rainfall, having the second highest average annual rainfall on earth: about 460 inches (38ft. 4 in., or 11.7 m.)

1,275,194 (2005)

English and Hawai’ian

Governor:    Linda Lingle
Lieut. Governor:    James "Duke" Aiona, Jr.
Senators:    Daniel K. Akaka
Daniel K. Inouye

Cane sugar, pineapple, flowers and plant nursery products are the chief products. Hawaii also grows coffee beans, bananas and macadamia nuts.

Governor Linda Lingle took office on December 2, 2002, committed to bringing about a "New Beginning" for the people of Hawai’i by making state government more open, transparent and responsive. She makes good on that promise every day.

During her Administration’s first 42 months, Governor Lingle has worked to expand and diversify the economy while returning fiscal discipline to government. Hawai’i’s vibrant economy is the strongest it has been in more that a decade and continues to grow faster than the national average.

When Governor Lingle and her Lt. Governor James R. "Duke" Aiona, Jr. came into office, the state was spending $215 million more than it was collecting. The state’s year-end balance increased from $117 million in Fiscal Year 2003 to $650 million in Fiscal Year 2006, a more than 400% increase. This strong financial position was achieved while preserving $1/5 million in the Hurricane Relief Fund which the previous administration had planned to spend to balance the budget. Today the state enjoys a healthy budget surplus.

One of the biggest challenges facing Hawaii is a longstanding dependence on costly imported oil. To promote the use of clean, reliable, cost-effective and renewable power sources, Governor Lingle signed a series of "Energy for Tomorrow" bills this year that further her Administration’s bold and comprehensive strategy for achieving energy self-sufficiency. Along with encouraging conservation and protecting consumers against rising prices, the state now supports development of alternative energy, such as wind, solar, wave and hydrogen, along with ethanol and other biofuels produced through farming. The Administration’s efforts are helping Hawaii move toward achieving the goal of having 20 percent of all energy in the state come from renewable sources by the year 2020.

Her Administration worked closely with the White House Council of Environmental Quality in designating the Northwestern Hawaiian Island as a National Monument, thus affording the highest possible protection from the federal government. Encompassing about 140,000 square miles, this National Monument is the largest marine sanctuary in the world.

The Lingle-Aiona Administration is also striving to significantly increase the supply of affordable housing, provide more financial assistance to low-income renters and better maintain the state’s public housing projects. Governor Lingle is working to develop immediate and long-term solutions to Hawaii’s homeless problem. The administration opened the Next Step emergency shelter in Kaka’ ako, where 200 adults and 90 children receive help in finding permanent housing, medical care and other social services. In June, Governor Lingle took the first bold step in addressing the growing homeless problem on the Leeward coast by convening a community meeting with over too people in Wai’anae. Using lessons learned from the Next Step emergency shelter, she is working on using a similar approach to have emergency shelters in place in Wai’ anae by the end of this year.

Another major initiative for Governor Lingle is keeping Hawaii on the move by expanding and better maintaining the state’s transportation infrastructure. This includes upgrading state highways and commercial harbors, and launching a $2.3 billion modernization program to create about a world-class airport system.

Improving the public education system is another top priority for Governor Lingle by putting more teachers into classrooms, directing more funding to the schools and calling for more accountability from the centralized education bureaucracy. She also wants to provide additional support for charter schools and public libraries, while increasing autonomy and funding for the University of Hawaii system.

Protecting the public is one of the Administration’s prime responsibilities. To that end, the Lingle-Alona Administration is bolstering disaster preparedness efforts, addressing drug abuse and underage drinking issues, through prevention, treatment and law enforcement, improving correctional facilities and services, and enacting more effective laws for fighting crime – including the escalating problem of identify theft.

Governor Lingle also wants to assist all the people of Hawaii in leading long and healthy lives. Her administration is expanding access to quality medical services, providing help for long-term care, and enhancing services for the mentally ill and disabled. She also emphasizes prevention by encouraging residents to avoid smoking, eat a proper diet and exercise on a regular basis.

Since Governor Lingle came into office, her Administration has fulfilled promises to Native Hawaiians. This includes building not just houses, but community for the benefit of Native Hawaiians. Under her leadership, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has awarded more residential leases and provided more families with opportunities for home ownership than in the entire decade of the 1990s.

Governor Lingle has also strengthened Hawaii’s educational, business and cultural ties with other nations, especially our Asia-Pacific neighbors. She has traveled to Japan, Israel, China and South Korea, and to the Philippines to form partnerships in education, trade business and nursing. She is also honorary chair of the Hawaii Filipino Centennial Celebration.

Governor Lingle has hosted three Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Conference in Honolulu, and founded the annual International Women’s Leadership Conference. And in November 2005, she was awarded the Diversity Best Practices Award for Leadership in Government – the first such award for a state’s chief executive.

Governor Lingle is the sixth elected Governor of Hawaii. She is also the first mayor, first woman, first Republican and first person of Jewish ancestry to lead the Aloha State in over 40 years.

She first served the people of Hawaii in 1980 as a member of the Maui County Council, and went to complete five two-year terms, three representing the island of Moloka’i. In 1990 she was elected Mayor of Maui County and served two terms. Under her leadership, job growth was faster in Maui County than anywhere else in the state.

Governor Lingle is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. When she was 12, her family moved to Southern California, where she attended public schools. She relocated to Hawaii in 1975 after graduating cum laude with a journalism degree from California State University, Northridge. In 1976, she founded and began serving as publisher of the Moloka’i Free Press.

Dec. 20, 1906 The first group of 15 sakadas (contract laborers) recruited by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association to work on the sugar plantations arrive in Honolulu aboard the SS Doric and were assigned to the Olaa plantation on the Big Island. (Eleven of the Filipinos were single and four were married. The oldest was fifty-six and the youngest fourteen. One carried his fighting rooster in one arm. All were recruited from Manila but originated from the coastal town of Candon, Ilocos Sur.)

1915 The Philippine Government (under U.S. colonial rule) expresses concern about labor outflow and recruitment abuses. HSPA works out a system of individual contracts.

1919 Filipino labor leader Pablo Manlapit organizes the Filipino Labor Union to demand higher wages and better working conditions for sakadas.

1920 Manlapit and Japanese labor leaders form the Higher Wages Movement but HSPA rejects the demands. Filipino and Japanese workers strike separately and about 12,100 workers are evicted.

1924 Manlapit calls a strike on Oahu and the other islands, ending violently. Sixteen Filipino workers and four policemen are killed on Sept. 9 in the Hanapepe Massacre on Kauai.1932: Pablo Manlapit returns to Hawaii and revitalizes the Filipino Labor Federation with Antonio Fagel and Epifanio Taok. Labor organizing focuses on Maui. The union is renamed Vibora Luviminda. Manlapit is deported permanently from Hawaii.

1934 The Tydings-McDuffie (Philippine Independence) Act declares Filipinos aliens and limits their entry to Hawaii and U.S. to an annual quota of 50 persons. It is increased to 100 after Philippine Independence in 1946.1941: The United States enters World War II . Filipino-Americans form the 1st and 2nd Filipino Regiments of the U.S. Army.

1944 The International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union under Jack Hall's leadership becomes a strong political force by organizing ethnic workers, including Filipinos.

1946 LWU calls strike that paralyzes the island economy. HSPA imports the last group of 6,000 Ilokano sakadas.

1947 Philippine Consulate is established in Honolulu.

1951 Filipino workers on Lanai led by ILWU business agent Pedro de la Cruz call a strike lasting 201 days. Major work benefits are won.

1954 Attorney Peter Aduja becomes the first Filipino to be elected a representative in the Hawaii Territorial Legislature.

1959 Hawaii becomes the 50th state.

1962 Alfred Laureta is appointed director of the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the first Filipino-American to hold a state Cabinet position in Hawaii. Laureta was later appointed as the first Filipino to become U.S. district judge in Saipan. Benjamin Menor is elected to the state Senate, the first Filipino immigrant to be elected to a seat in the Senate.

1965 Immigration Law is liberalized allowing family reunification and professionals to enter Hawaii. It results in the third wave of Filipino immigrants to Hawaii increasing the number of Filipinos to nearly 11 percent of the total state population.

1972 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines, which lasted 14 years and divided the Hawaii Filipino community.

2002 The Hawaii Legislature passes Act 159 creating a Filipino Centennial Celebration Commission in recognition of the positive contributions of the Filipino community in Hawaii.

Sprawling over two acres by the old Oahu Sugar Mill on suburban Waipahu, the three-story Filipino Community Center covers 50,000 square feet of commercial spaces, a grand ballroom of Waikiki standards for community activities and social events and a courtyard decked with blooming roses, palms, umbrellas and rustic fountain. Adjacent to the Dona Consuelo Courtyard are the state-of-the-art technology center, hi-tech conference rooms with teleconference capabilities, the Wall of Donors and an art gallery. The villa tile roof building of Spanish architecture conjures up images of colonial Intramuros, the old Manila. The Spanish design blends well with the sugar mill plantation smoke stack. Arguably, it could be called the "queen" of Waipahu's 21st century renaissance. It is but fitting, after all it is the biggest Filipino Community Center outside of the Philippines and is architecturally designed to repeat the Filipino's penchant for Spanish inspired buildings. And although it is in every aspect Filipino, it is also multi-cultural in that the renters, guests and four caterers belong to different ethnic origins. It is a building built on Filipino pride and bayanihan spirit and yet still retains enough spirit of aloha to everyone who wants to work, rent, learn and enjoy the daily activities without regard to ethnicity.

The FilCom Center was formally inaugurated in June, 2002, almost a century after the first 15 Filipino farmers sailed for Hawaii on board the SS Doric in 1906, which legitimized the Filipino migration to the western hemisphere. Other United States Congress resolutions that fueled the Filipino Diaspora were the War Brides Act of 1945, the ratification of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which enticed many Filipino professionals to come to the United States and the emigration en masse of the WWII Filipino veterans to Hawaii, to take advantage of U.S. Naturalization and Immigration Act 1990 which granted them U.S. citizenship. By the turn of the century, there were 200,000 Americans of Filipino ancestry in Hawaii making up more than 15% of the state's population, enough to gain a powerful identity in the community through culture, entertainment, education, business and politics. The need for a place to showcase its culture and dignity became apparent. This became the symbol of the Filipinos' achievements, the elegant structure that now stands on the corner of Mokuola and Waipahu Streets.

Its Beginnings

The Filipino Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii in1991 initiated the FilCom Center during the tenure of Lito Alcantra as president. In 1993, the Filipino Community Center, Inc. assumed a legal personality with the mission to develop, own and operate a community center that provides social, economic and education services and to promote and perpetuate Filipino culture and customs in the State of Hawai'i. Roland Casamina and Eddie Flores were its first president and vice president, respectively. Hard working community volunteers composed its Executive Committee.

Patrons

A tax-exempt, non-profit organization as defined under section 501(c) 3 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the FilCom Center was built through the generous donations of foundations, trusts, private corporations and government entities. AMFAC donated the land. Heading its list of donors are the Harry & Jeannette Weinberg, the City and County of Honolulu, the Department of Commerce, the State of Hawaii, the VA Housing and Urban Development, the Consuelo Zobel Alger Foundation and a great number of business establishments. Credit however, goes to the community for working so hard in soliciting pledges from almost everyone. They raised a total of $9,000,000 as immortalized in the Wall of Donors at the center's east wing. However, the $3.5 million construction loan remains outstanding. This calls for another massive effort by the community to "complete the dream".

Activities

On its third year of operation, the FilCom Center offers more activities for the community. Its computer classes have branched out to advanced computer courses like Digital Presentation and Internet classes after 72 of its first batch of students graduated in Basic Computer Operations, Word Processing and Excel Spreadsheets. Classes in Filipino folk dancing, ballroom dancing, taekwando and escrima have gained popularity like the academic classes on citizenship, social, medical and human services programs. For the elderly (62 years old and above), Filcom offers it unique Smarts Seniors Program where they can attend free computer applications classes, physical activities and learn about elderly lifestyle and health issues through a grant from the City and County of Honolulu. Most notably, FilCom has tripled its revenues from ballroom and conference room rentals For 2006, cultural performances produced by FilCom include La Tertulla sa Intramuros in February and Sakada Sights and Sounds in April. La Tertulia recreates the afternoon parties of old Intramuros, which were filled with poetry (tula) love songs (Kundiman) and Spanish influence dances (Maria Clara). As FilCom's tribute to the Filipino Farmers' Centennial, Sakada Sights and Sounds features private collections of photographs and popular multi ethnic songs of the plantation era. These performances are partly funded by the State Foundation of Culture and Arts.

A Tribute

As a humble tribute to the Filipino farmers who came ahead of almost everyone in these islands, the FilCom Center holds a Farmers’ Market at its back lot on Mondays and Fridays from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM where only local harvests are sold. This is a simple gesture of living up to the legacy of Dr. Jose Rizal, the foremost Filipino patriot who once reminded his compatriots to "Look back to find the path that one should trod." He stands bigger than life at the front lawn of the FilCom center.