PinoyBuilt — Stories of Filipino America

Wanting to Reconnect with your Culture? This Innovative Filipino Martial Arts Program Can Fill the Void. Written by Joseph Bautista: Did you grow up as a second or third generation Filipino-American in the United States? If so, have you experienced being embarrassed for not knowing how to speak Filipino or not being familiar with Filipino culture or history? You are not alone. In the San Francisco Bay Area , a new program is coming to Daly City to help you overcome that.  Eskabo Daan Filipino Martial Arts  has developed a program to help fellow Filipino-Americans learn about Filipino culture and have fun while doing so. Classes will teach participants how to translate: Weapons fighting to empty hand fighting English to Tagalog Tagalog to Baybayin The program is designed to expose all participants to self-defense techniques, fitness, history, culture, language, writing and more through Filipino Martial Arts . Filipino Martial Arts, more popularly known...

The Knife Life If you carry a knife for self defense, your choice of knife is extremely important. But if you don't know how to use that knife, it will be of little use to you. Martial Blade Concepts, or MBC, is a self defense system that teaches effective and legally defensible use of the knife. What is Martial Blade Concepts exactly? In this video I sit down with founder and head instructor Michael Janich to discuss what Martial Blade Concepts is, and why you should learn it.

Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two men and wounded another, was found not guilty of intentional homicide and four other felony charges in a deeply divisive case that fed a national debate over vigilantism, gun rights and the definition of self-defense. https://t.co/5MDh8OyguO pic.twitter.com/8kz9duMhyQ — The New York Times (@nytimes) November 19, 2021 The jury weighing Kyle Rittenhouse’s fate acquitted Rittenhouse on all counts after deliberating for nearly three and a half days. . @TheReidOut Blog: The jury’s decision in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial was a dangerous endorsement of a violent vision. https://t.co/1dnswp4Nll — MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 19, 2021 Judge Schroeder blocked lawyers using "victim" in front of the jury to describe the people Kyle Rittenhouse killed or wounded. He approved describing them as "looters" and "rioters" and said a defense lawyer could "demonize them if he wants," according to @chicagotribune . pic.twitt...

Vallejo, CA • March 2026. Beware the Ides of March: Caesar, Brutus, Bonifacio, and the Filipino Betrayal That Still Haunts Us. andres bonifacio, emilio aguinaldo, tejeros convention, philippine revolution, julius caesar, katipunan, filipino history, ides of march, fil-am, betrayal. Philippine History • March 2026 Beware the Ides of March: Caesar, Brutus, and the Filipino Betrayal That Still Haunts Us "Et tu, Brute?" On the day the world remembers history's most famous betrayal, we examine the Filipino parallel that cuts even deeper — the execution of Andres Bonifacio at the hands of the revolution he built. The fractured alliance — Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo, the Philippine Revolution's Caesar and Brutus. (AI-generated illustration) March 15. The Ides of March. In the ancient Roman calendar, the Ides simply marked the full moon — the midpoint of the month, a ...

Vallejo, CA • March 2026. PinoyBuilt Morning Brief — March 30, 2026: No Kings III Protests, DHS Shutdown TSA Crisis, Iran War, March Madness Final Four, Quanzhou Reset, Balikatan 2026 Japanese Troops, ICE Crackdown Filipinos, OFW Repatriation, Sara Duterte Impeachment, Oil Crisis Remittances. fil-am, filipino, pinoy, ofw, immigration, balikatan, south china sea, duterte impeachment, ice crackdown, oil crisis, remittances, philippines china, no kings, dhs shutdown, iran war, march madness. DAILY BRIEFING • MARCH 30, 2026 Morning Brief — March 30, 2026: The Quanzhou Reset, Japanese Troops Return, and a Diaspora Caught Between Two Crises Eight million Americans marched Saturday. TSA agents aren't getting paid. The war in Iran just hit a U.S. base. And from the South China Sea to the streets of Daly City, the Filipino world woke up navigating oil shock diplomacy, an 81-year military milestone, and an immigration crackdown that is reaching deeper into Fil-Am life by t...

A Filipino immigrant in Canada was recently threatened in a racist tirade on a metro Vancouver bus. Rowena Papasin tells us more about the incident and what local transit police are doing about it.  If this happened to me in California, and I kicked the guy, or took out my karambit, would it be considered self-defense?

I can't say "I'm surprised." This is America; what do you expect. My question is, "Did this happen in Alabama or Los Angeles?" That's why I keep telling my girls to practice judo so they don't forget what they've already learned.  If they throw someone on the pavement with Ippon Seoi Nage and the guy cracks his skull, it's all in self-defense and it's the other guy's damn fault!  Don't forget the sidekicks, knees and elbows.  Gotta teach these hillbillies some Asian culture. Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee says she was pepper-sprayed in racist attack https://t.co/SQhjkG84tV — ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) November 12, 2021 Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee is recalling a racist attack she experienced recently while she was out with some friends. The 18-year-old gymnast told PopSugar that she was waiting for an Uber with her girlfriends, who are all of Asian descent, when they were approached by a group speeding by in a car yelli...

Guro Doug Marcaida demonstrates the uses of the karambit blade. The karambit is an exotic curved blade used in both Indonesian and Filipino martial arts. With "Asian Hate" just increasing (thanks Donald Trump), I highly recommend each person in the family having a karambit on hand for self defense. I had misplaced the karambit I bought from Walmart years ago. It had cost me $30 in 2017. I bought the Snake Eye black karambit off Amazon when I was in Los Angeles a few months ago since I was driving around at night all over LA. It only cost $14.99 and arrived the next day via Amazon Prime. With my recommendation, my nephew who attends UC Berkeley got the same Snake Eye karambit, but a blue one . It's totally legal, as Doug Marcaida mentions in the video below. Years ago, I was flagged by a security guard because the karambit was on my belt, hung by the belt clip. Today, I usually carry it in my pocket or backpack. But when I get out of the car at night, whether home or awa...