PinoyBuilt — Stories of Filipino America

Negros Occidental • April 2026. Negros 19: Massacre or Legitimate Encounter in Toboso? negros 19 toboso, lyle prijoles filipino american, alyssa alano up diliman, rj ledesma altermidya, bayan usa, lfs sfsu, fil-am activist killed, philippine insurgency 2026, red-tagging, npa clash. Negros Occidental • April 2026 Negros 19: Massacre or Legitimate Encounter in Toboso? A 40-year-old Filipino American from California was among 19 people killed in a 12-hour firefight in Negros Occidental on April 19, 2026. The Armed Forces of the Philippines calls it a lawful encounter. BAYAN USA and rights groups call it a massacre. Here is what is verified, what is contested, and why this one should matter to every Fil-Am household. Northern Negros Occidental, where the 12-hour firefight in Sitio Sinugmawan, Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, left 19 people dead on April 19, 2026. The first shots were fired at 3:58 AM. By ...

San Francisco, California • April 2026. Araw ng Kagitingan: 84 years after Bataan, Filipino American valor, Day of Valor, Bataan Death March, Rescission Act 1946, Filipino WWII veterans, Angels of Bataan, Filipino diaspora history. HISTORY & HERITAGE • APRIL 2026 Kagitingan: 84 Years After Bataan, the Valor Was Never Repaid On April 9, 1942, Filipino and American soldiers surrendered Bataan after 99 days of heroic resistance. The march that followed was an atrocity. The 1946 Rescission Act was a betrayal. On this 84th Araw ng Kagitingan, we remember both. Filipino and American soldiers at Bataan, 1942. Their 99-day stand remains the longest and largest defense of a position in American and Philippine military history. | Photo: Public Domain / U.S. National Archives Growing up in Marikina in the early 1970s, I knew the word kagitingan before I knew its weight. My Lolo Marciano — born in Ligao, Albay, a Bicolano who had lived through the ...

California • March 2026. California's Filipino Power Map: Where 1.7 Million Filipinos Live, Work, and Build Community. filipino americans california, fil-am california, filipinos in california, daly city filipinos, vallejo filipinos, los angeles filipinos, san diego filipinos, bay area filipinos, california filipino population, philippine diaspora california. CALIFORNIA • MARCH 2026 California's Filipino Power Map: Where 1.7 Million Filipinos Live, Work, and Build Community From Historic Filipinotown in LA to the Navy-rooted streets of Vallejo — this is the definitive breakdown of where Filipino America lives, and why California is the center of the diaspora story. If you want to understand Filipino America, you start with California. Roughly 1.7 million Filipinos live in the state — about 38% of the entire U.S. Filipino population . That's not just a statistic. It's a living, breathing network of familie...