DALY CITY, San Francisco — Giving Filipinos a strong representation in the culturally diverse United States is one of the advocacies of Juslyn Manalo, the Filipino-American mayor of Daly City.

Manalo underscored this when the pioneering batch of Filipino journalists of the Friends, Partners, Allies Program recently paid her a courtesy visit at her office in Daly City in the San Francisco Bay area which is heavily populated by Filipinos.

Born and raised in San Francisco by Filipino parents, who hailed from Batangas and Laguna, she said she takes great pride in her Filipino roots.

“I grew up in Daly City, a very diverse community. I serve all of my community but I am so proud of my Filipino heritage,” she shared with reporters, clad in a white and blue Filipiniana.

“With 34 percent of the Daly population being a kababayan, I think it is important to have a representation,” she added.

Daly City boasts the highest concentration of Filipinos in the United States, with an estimated one in four residents being Filipino.

Of the city’s 100,007 constituents of diverse nationalities, over 34,002 are of Filipino descent.

Despite their dominant number, Manalo is the first Filipino to hold the city’s leadership, a development she described as “long overdue.”

“I am the first Filipina so (it’s) long overdue. When I was in high school we already had a large population of Filipinos here and I always wondered why there wasn’t a female mayor,” she said.

Filipinos’ strong voice

“I didn’t know honestly. When I thought about it, I just thought, you know, you’re young and you just... I didn’t think it would come to fruition, that I would be (elected),” she added.

As the leader, Manalo hopes to motivate the next generation of Filipino-Americans by demonstrating to them that they, too, can support their community and fellow Filipinos.

“We know that we need to create a pipeline so that the younger generation can see this as a pathway because when I was younger, I didn’t see it,” she said.

Aside from this, Manalo said that she is focused on addressing the most pressing issues affecting her constituents, particularly racial discrimination.

Bias in the US, particularly against those of Asian descent, rose during the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, which she said remained a disturbing issue in the Bay Area.

According to data from the California Department of Justice, the highest number of anti-Asian hate incidences were reported in March and April 2020 as California declared a state of emergency to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

It noted that hate crimes increased by 107 percent in 2020, from 43 in 2019 to 89 in 2020.

Just a month ago, a Chinese man was attacked in the downtown area of Hawkins Street in Vallejo, also a city in San Francisco’s Bay Area.

Manalo said she is also finding ways to address the economic stability of her constituents who are still reeling from the effects of Covid-19.

“We’re looking for ways to support our immigrant communities, in rental assistance,” Manalo said as she said some of city-owned land “will go to the development of affordable housing.”

California is one of the constituent states of the US that has the most relaxed immigration policies, earning its status as a sanctuary state.

State and local officers are forbidden from holding illegal immigrants until they can be transferred into federal custody.

Federal agencies are also prohibited from commandeering local authorities to work with immigration agencies and perform the work of immigration agents.

QC, sister city

Manalo also discussed her intentions to enhance Daly City’s collaboration with Quezon City, which have been sister cities since 1994.

Daly City and Quezon City signed a sister-city agreement on 8 August 1994. Last year, the two cities renewed their agreement as they reaffirmed their “commitment to foster cultural, economic, and educational exchanges.”

At the moment, she revealed that the two cities are in talks to find areas of cooperation including the possible sharing of firefighter apparatus.

“We’re looking at ways to support Quezon (City) with some of our firefighting apparatus that we can actually give over since they will be kind of getting the new firefighter apparatus and they were very open to that saying there has been a lot of fires,” she said.

She noted that Quezon City is also interested in learning about Daly City’s wastewater management model.

Manalo unveiled plans to revive the Quezon City Friendship City Festival.

“While I was growing up in Daly City, there was a Quezon City Friendship City Festival. It was huge. The elder generation held that huge festival, so maybe one day we’re gonna have that resurgence happen and bring back that festival,” she said.

In a bid to raise awareness of the community to the rich history and culture of the Philippines, Manalo has renamed some streets in Daly into Makibaka, Silang, Bayani and Mabuhay.

Manalo visited the Philippines last year to meet her counterpart, Mayor Joy Belmonte. However, fate, as she puts it, did not allow it to happen due to the latter’s prior commitment.

Alternatively, she met Vice Mayor Gian Sotto, who gave her a personal tour of the Presidential Car Museum located inside the Quezon Memorial Circle.

“I had a amazing conversation with her and I know that she’s also very progressive in her programming and (we know) there’s a lot, so in any way that we can also exchange we’re looking at that,” she said.

“We’re looking to that collaboration and hopefully one day we’ll visit the mayor,” she added.