JANUARY 2026

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Remarks by Alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth

Chicago, Illinois | January 18, 2026

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Alderwoman Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth:

Good evening, PIWC family. Honorable Consul General Melanie Diano.

It’s really good to be here with you.

Good evening to our elders, our organizers, our culture bearers, and our young people.

And to everyone who has carried this work—sometimes quietly, sometimes joyfully, always with love.

I know many of you are here from all over the Midwest—from different cities, different states, and different communities.

But we are connected by something deeper than geography.

We are connected by memory.

By migration.

By service.

And by the choice to keep our culture alive wherever we land.

I want to start by sharing why being here matters so much to me.

My parents, Lope and Virginia Manaa, were nurses from a mountain province in the Philippines.

Like so many Filipino families in the 1960s, they came to the United States with nursing licenses in one hand and hope in the other.

They worked long shifts.

They sent money home.

They raised their kids in a place that was unfamiliar, sometimes hard, but full of possibility.

They didn’t come here looking for power.

They came here looking for dignity.

And like so many Filipino nurses, caregivers, and essential workers, they helped hold communities together—often without recognition.

So when I stand here today, as the first Filipina to serve on the Chicago City Council, I carry their story with me.

But I also carry yours.

I want you to know this—I want to hear your stories, because they shape how I lead and how I serve.

Filipino history is American history.

And Filipino communities are not guests in this country.

We are builders of it.

That is why the Philippine Independence Week Committee matters so much.

For fifty years, PIWC has done something truly special.

You didn’t just organize events.

You created continuity.

You created a place where Filipinos could gather, reconnect, and remember who we are, no matter how far we were from home.

PIWC began in 1975, at a time when Filipino Americans were still fighting to be seen and taken seriously.

And year after year, you showed up—with celebration, with service, and with care for one another.

You showed us something important: independence isn’t just a date on a calendar.

It’s a practice.

PIWC practiced independence not by standing alone, but by standing together—through bayanihan, shared responsibility, and community care.

That spirit shows up everywhere Filipino families settle.

In hospitals and classrooms.

In churches and community halls.

In kitchens and break rooms.

Culture and civic life move together.

Leadership matters in keeping that going.

I want to thank Dr. Nida Blankas-Hernaez and Lourdes Mon for leading PIWC through its 50th anniversary year.

A milestone like that is not just about celebrating the past—it’s about making sure the future is strong.

I also want to honor Dalisay Villalon, the first woman to ever serve as Overall Chair of PIWC.

A nurse.

A trailblazer.

Someone who opened doors and made space for others to lead. People like me. 

And as PIWC looks ahead, I want to recognize Reynel Espiritu as the incoming Overall Chair for 2026.

I still remember first meeting Reynel and members of the Mabuhay Centennial Lions Club years ago. It was at Foster beach for International Refugee Day. 

They weren’t there to be on stage with Chicago’s Mayor. 

They were there to help.

They showed up early.

They stayed late.

They did the work.

That’s the kind of leadership PIWC has always been about.

And it’s what will carry this organization forward.

Because no one person—and no one organization—can do this work alone.

If PIWC is going to be strong for the next fifty years, we have to widen the circle.

We have to invite more people in.

We have to start earlier—especially with our young people.

Civic engagement grows when it’s shared.

When we mentor.

When we pass the baton.

When we make space for new leaders.

As we head into this season of celebration—through music, food, dance, prayer, and time together—I hope we remember this:

Independence isn’t something we received once.

It’s something we renew together, every year.

Across generations.

Across communities.

Across the Midwest and beyond.

Thank you for fifty years of showing up.

Thank you for carrying independence not just in name, but in practice.

And thank you for reminding us of something simple and powerful:

the best thing a community can do is take care of one another.

Maraming salamat po.

By Mariano A. Santos

Publisher / Editor

MESSAGE of hope and cheerful greetings usually fill the air as we say goodbye, this time, to year 2025.

We wish. But bidding “good riddance!” to this one that’s due to end, is not as final as we want it to be. 

Things happened this past year will haunt us even more in 2026. 

The prophecy of “1984” has taken upon us. The dystopia of George Orwell’s futuristic fiction is now our reality.

War is not war anymore. War is peace.

Consider this. A mighty country USA is committing reprehensible acts of piracy against a Third World Country. That is, after obliterating a number of boats and their riders without due process and outside the rules of engagement that civilized nations have adhered to.

These infractions are endorsed by one who audaciously clamors for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Chief Executive recently addressed the nation and claimed economic prosperity and record employment for the Americans while their lives are actually hit by high cost of everyday necessities and scores of jobless workers.

Thanks, but no thanks, for his minions and enablers who willingly implement his lopsided tariffs, massive layoffs, unjust economic policies that negatively impacted vulnerable families but increased the net worth of his already superrich tribe.

Thousands of Federal employees were indiscriminately let go while the Department of Education other essential government agencies dismantled. These were claimed as achievements even as the havoc they created is now apparent.

USAID, the venerable and longtime arm of U.S. outreach to end widespread diseases, hunger and poverty, was summarily banished, and thousands of needy people had died or now dying because of this unconscionable decision.

Yet, the boast persists that the country remains the leader of the family of nations.

Justice is alarmingly administered in the most corrupt ways. Prosecutors and judges who faithfully follow the constitution are now harassed, prosecuted and maligned. Convicted felons, fraudsters and criminals are being pardoned under suspicious terms.

Freedom of Press has never been more severely attacked and fake news has gained currency leading to widespread conspiracy theories and even criminal activities. Public Broadcasting System and VOA were defunded.

Environmental concerns have taken a hit amid the occurrence of natural disasters brought about by climate change. Actions like abandoning alternative sources of energy while resuming oil drilling and coal mining have taken the upper hand.

The belief that immigrants are instrumental to the progress that America has enjoyed for many years was junked.  Instead in 2025, an adverse and belligerent treatment of foreign workers and innovators that industries have courted and recruited is now policy. 

Laborers that worked on the farms, meat factories, restaurant kitchens, nursing homes, hotels—became easy ICE targets for incarceration and mass deportations. No wonder, businesses cried foul—protesting the assault on immigrants and their businesses.

Yet those in power, saw the condemnable effects as trophies of their chaotic misdoings.

The polls show the numbers of the people’s dissatisfaction. Those in-charge are deaf to the din of complains, proud even of their heartless approach to the challenges of the country.

Given this administration upside down take of what is happening to the country, a clarion call to the civic-minded citizens is on to take the cudgel of righting the wrong. Taken for granted for an extended period of time, it’s high time to fight for democracy.

It is about protecting voting rights, writing to legislators, supporting causes that end injustices and abuses and be quick in exposing falsehood—being involved in this challenging times.

The United States marks its 250th year of its founding in 2026. It was determined by the Founding Fathers early on that “Democracy is the best form of government” that the new nation should embrace and to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin—if we can keep it.

The U.S. survived it for all these years—including the bloody Civil War of 1861-65 when 600,000 Americans perished to keep it united. The last century brought in the Great Depression, two World Wars and the divisive Vietnam War. 

The 21st Century opened with the 911 Attack, followed by the Iraq War, then the long involvement in Afghanistan. U.S. even weathered the COVID plague.  All these came to pass. But Americans should now wake up to the present challenge that creeped up that assaults the very foundation of democracy in this country.

The year 2025 leaves the world gripped with uncertainty and the nation reeling from the havoc wreaked by a reckless president who continues to undermine and destroy the very foundations of our democracy. 

There are forces that are out to undermine the important doctrine of the separation of the state and religion as well as the separation of power—where the executive, legislative and the judiciary—are to govern equally, respecting each other’s area of responsibilities.

Apparently, there are proofs that racism and bigotry are now made into play to gain an advantage to control power on running the country.

The Greatest U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, should still be our noble guide on how we are to proceed as a nation—it should remain—a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Yes, Democracy should live on, so help us, Divine Providence!