DATE: Monday, August 11, 1997               TAG: 9708110074

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   70 lines

FILIPINO FESTIVAL BRIDGES TWO WORLDS GATHERING HELPS FAMILIES BLEND THEIR HERITAGE WITH EVERYDAY AMERICAN LIFE

Take a community celebration, add some political back-scratching, toss in dozens of cousins (blood and otherwise), add some chicken wings, lumpia and pancit and what do you have?

Salu-salo, sama-sama sa.

``It means you get together, you have some fun,'' explained a smiling Nony E. Abrajano, past chairman of the Filipino American Community Action Group of Hampton Roads.

And fun it was for about 300 mostly Filipino Americans who gathered at Red Wing Park on Sunday afternoon to celebrate the first anniversary of the Filipino Chronicle, to meet Raul Ch. Rabe, the Philippine Ambassador to the United States, and to honor Sen. Mark L. Earley (R-Chesapeake), a candidate for attorney general.

In a brief ceremony, Earley received an award for his support to the 40,000-member Hampton Roads Filipino community. His ties to the group go back to the early 1970s, when he spent two years as a graduate student at the University of the Philippines.

So popular is Earley with Filipino voters that Rabe joked about his political future.

``If you were willing to run for senator in the Philippines, you would have many campaign managers right here. All you have to do is change your citizenship,'' the ambassador said.

A few minutes later, Earley turned serious as he explained his ties to the island nation.

``I felt like I learned a tremendous amount about freedom and commitment to family from them,'' Earley said. ``It was while I was there that I really developed the conviction that I had to work in my own country to keep the dream of democracy alive.''

For many within the Filipino community, Sunday's event was a way of keeping their own dream alive. It was also a way to ensure that their children keep one foot planted firmly in each of two worlds: the one from which the parents came and the one in which they live.

``My son is a student at Kempsville Middle School,'' said Dr. Imelda Tobias, Medical Director of the Portsmouth Community Health Center. ``He is trying to learn more of his Filipino heritage. We come to things like this because I want him to advance with his Filipino participation.''

Pura O. Molina, editor of the Chronicle and major sponsor of the event, hopes that her newspaper, with articles in English, Spanish and Pilipino, will help strengthen the heritage while bridging the gap between the two cultures. ``I think the paper will be an effective vehicle for that,'' she said.

Pura also sees the newspaper and events like the picnic as ways to unite the sometimes fragmented Filipino community in the Hampton Roads area. ``It's like a crusade with me. We want cohesiveness, some cohesion,'' she said.''

While the community may be fragmented in some ways, it's united in others. With the speeches completed, the line at the table loaded with foods prepared in the traditional manner stretched long. Behind the table, some of the 20 members of the committee that worked on the affair stood ready to attack a universal enemy.

``These are Filipino national birds,'' joked Emelda Santorum, ``and it's my job to keep them away from the food.'' In her right hand she held a home-made fly swatter fashioned from a wooden dowel and strips cut from bread wrappers.

In front of her, American house flies abandoned the trays of lumpia and darted for safe cover. MEMO: Filipinos support state Sen. Mark Earley/A1. ILLUSTRATION: D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

Nora Atienza helps her daughter, Maricris, get ready to perform in

a traditional dance during the Filipino community celebration Sunday

at Red Wing Park in Virginia Beach.

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