Filipinos

First, Jollibee and Goldilocks -- both popular restaurants in the Philippines -- opened their doors in 2005. The next year came Seafood City, a supermarket that features an almost endless supply of seafood and other Filipino specialties. Today there are seven shops and restaurants clustered together at Eagle Rock Plaza, a mall that caters to thousands of local Filipinos.

In a smoke-stained San Francisco hotel room, Felix Starro is making fake blood. Starro is the third in a line of hucksterish Filipino faith healers. Hunched over a plastic jug in the bathroom, he brews corn syrup, water and red dye for a grim ritual known as the Holy Blessed Extraction of Negativites. As he stirs, he remembers how "long ago, Papa Felix made it the same way; because my hands were small my job was to squirt the liquid into the tiny bags and knot them up. We'd stay up all night, diligent and silent, as though our work was truly blessed and holy.

In response to your article "Filipinos--A Search for Community," Part I, May 24: I take issue with this headline if you meant that the Filipinos have not yet found their community. We have a dynamic community that will be a major player in the socioeconomic and political future of this country. This community collectively clamored for my judicial appointment. When you discussed the absence of a Filipino town, you did not mention that we are not a nation of shopkeepers. Since we have a special kinship with our fellow Asians we patronize their businesses.

Manny Pacquiao on Thursday selected his next opponent — that is, if he fails to reach a deal for a super-bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum said. Arum declined to unveil the name of the non-Mayweather opponent, but said that fighter will be announced next week if negotiations with Mayweather aren't productive. Mayweather has called out Pacquiao to fight him May 5 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, going as far as personally calling the Filipino superstar to discuss a proposed 50-50 purse split.

After a decades-long struggle, Filipino veterans of World War II finally may be granted U.S. military benefits thanks to, of all things, the economic stimulus legislation. A $198-million provision of the proposed Senate stimulus bill would authorize one-time payments of $15,000 to Filipino veterans who are U.S. citizens -- many of whom live in California -- and $9,000 for noncitizens, including those in the Philippines.

Religious devotees were nailed to crosses, and flagellants marched through streets beating their backs bloody in Good Friday rituals marking the crucifixion of Christ. The Roman Catholic Church, which claims the allegiance of 85% of the 62 million Filipinos, frowns on crucifixions and flagellations. But the rituals remain popular in this area about 30 miles north of Manila. About a dozen zealots endured crucifixions in several communities.

The Navy will stop recruiting Filipino nationals at the end of the year, officials said Wednesday, ending a unique program under which tens of thousands of Filipinos have served in the Navy since the end of the Spanish-American War, when the Philippines became a U.S. colony. Navy spokeswoman Lt. Deborah Carson said the recruitment of Filipino sailors was formalized in 1947, when the United States and the Philippines signed an agreement on military bases.

Dozens of people lugged heavy crosses through dusty streets and whipped their backs into a bloody pulp today in a reenactment of the torture Christians believe Jesus suffered before his Crucifixion. The annual rituals, highly criticized by the nation's Roman Catholic leaders, will climax Good Friday as some devotees are nailed to crosses on the day Christians mark the Crucifixion of Jesus.

Al Jazeera television broadcast a videotape Wednesday of armed men holding a Filipino hostage and threatening to kill him if the Philippines did not withdraw its small force from Iraq within three days. The group claimed to have already killed an Iraqi security guard who was accompanying the Filipino, the satellite channel's newscaster said. The statement gave no details of the two men's abduction. In the video, three armed and masked men stood behind the seated hostage.

Restituto de Dios is a sickly Filipino American World War II veteran who lives in a corner of a rented room in Panorama City. In this decaying house, de Dios and seven other former guerrillas who fought for the United States say they wait for a Memorial Day that will be something more than a reminder of injustice. The veterans say President Franklin D.

To Ingrid Cruz and Rolando Pascual, the offer was enticing. They could move to the United States from the Philippines, help fill a shortage of teachers in post-Katrina Louisiana and increase their wages many times over. But things didn't go as expected, the teachers said in a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles. Cruz and Pascual contend they were among hundreds of Filipinos who took teaching jobs in the U.S. since 2007, only to be forced to pay exorbitant fees to a Los Angeles firm that helped get them their jobs.

Filipino immigrant Rudolph Ryan Hizon had been in the United States for only three months in 2008 when he decided to join the Army. The 19-year-old, who was living in the Glassell Park area of Los Angeles , dreamed of becoming a pilot. Hizon had just started classes at Glendale Community College, where an Army recruiter sparked his interest. "First I didn't want to let him sign up, because I wasn't ready for that," said his father, Rodolfo Hizon Jr. But two weeks later, he agreed.

Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, heroes in their boxing-rabid home countries and world champions who have staged two prior classics in the ring, took a significant step toward their trilogy Tuesday. Mexico's Marquez has verbally agreed to all the key points of a contract that guarantees $5 million and secures a catch-weight limit of 144 pounds for an expected pay-per-view welterweight title bout against Filipino superstar Pacquiao to be fought Nov. 12 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank told The Times.

Nonito Donaire of the Philippines lacks the two world title bantamweight belts belonging to his Feb. 19 opponent, Fernando Montiel of Mexico, but he does have the awareness to recognize what the 118-pound bout at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas means. "The little guys have been deprived of getting big fights on HBO," Donaire (25-1, 17 KOs) said Tuesday at a news conference at the downtown Biltmore Hotel. "This is our shot. " The Filipino is riding the momentum of three 2010 stoppages, including a superb Dec. 4 fourth-round knockout of former world champion Wladimir Sidorenko at Anaheim's Honda Center.

Juan Manuel Marquez and two other boxers vying to become Manny Pacquiao's next opponent submitted term sheets to the Filipino star's promoter, it was learned Thursday, while the yearlong pursuit of a much-anticipated Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. super-fight remained bitterly out of reach. Marquez's promoter, Richard Schaefer, said he has turned over to Top Rank the financial terms and weight limit under which the lightweight title holder would agree to a third fight with Pacquiao.

Manny Pacquiao realized a few weeks ago his attempt to make the 150-pound catchweight limit for his Saturday night junior-middleweight title fight against Antonio Margarito would be detrimental to his brilliant speed. On Friday, the champion boxer who enjoys gambling publicly revealed the boldness of his belief as if he was announcing, "All in!" at the poker table. Pacquiao weighed in at a surprisingly low 144.6 pounds, and there's a good chance Magarito, who weighed in at 150 pounds, will step into the Cowboys Stadium ring at 160. "I'm not worried," Pacquiao said, walking off the stage at Cowboys Stadium.

In what police called a hate crime, four members of a Ventura white supremacist gang were arrested on suspicion of beating a Filipino man and punching and robbing a white co-worker early Wednesday, authorities said. James Smiley, 24; Michael Keaser, 23, and Joshua Brunkhurst, 18, all of Ventura, and Christopher Wallace, 18, of Oxnard were jailed on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, robbery and committing a hate crime.

A Filipino veteran hospitalized after a two-week hunger strike to protest the failure of the U.S. government to honor benefits promises made during World War II vowed Sunday to continue his protest, but perhaps in another form. Angel de la Cruz, 72, was being treated for dehydration and exhaustion at Good Samaritan Hospital after being taken there from the protest site at MacArthur Park on Saturday night.

Manny Pacquiao's promoter had just finished railing at those who continue to doubt the honesty of boxer Antonio Margarito, some 18 months after California revoked Margarito's license for nearly taking gloves loaded with plaster inserts into a January 2009 bout at Staples Center against Shane Mosley. "Antonio Margarito did not know those illegal hand wraps were there, and there's not one shred of proof he did," promoter Bob Arum said Tuesday at an event in a packed Beverly Hills Hotel ballroom to promote Margarito's fight against Pacquiao on Nov. 13 in Texas.

Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye moved one step closer Wednesday to becoming the first minority California chief justice, winning unanimous confirmation by a state commission. The three-member Commission on Judicial Appointments heard nearly two hours of testimony before approving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's nominee to head the state's $3.5-billion court system and the California Supreme Court. A total of 12 witnesses, including a representative of a bar evaluations committee, testified in her favor, and a community activist and an attorney spoke out against her. Members of the California Supreme Court sat in one front row during the hearing, and Cantil-Sakauye sat in another with her husband, a Sacramento police lieutenant, their two daughters, her mother and her in-laws.