There were multiple missions going on during our trip to the Philippines. Rose Bautista, Hawai‘i County’s immigration specialist, was our contact person as the people on our trip went back and forth. I’d known of her but never met her, and it was nice to meet her in person. She and Paulette Cainglit were constantly working to make sure everything was going smoothly.
Rose arranged for our delegation to meet the folks she connected with at the U.S. Embassy. In my junior high school days, I was a Word War II history buff, and it was very interesting for me to realize that the trial of General Yamashita, the tiger of Malaya, was held in the very room where we were standing.
We met Anthony Mira, who is in charge of the TSA in the Philippines with a task of protecting the U.S. from a specific al Queda plot. We had no idea. He happens to be from Kaua‘i. It made us all feel like we were connected to the world. Then we were briefed by Jesse Robredo, Secretary of the Interior for the Philippines. A very engaging person, he briefed us about how Philippines governance is organized.
We thought that was the end of our second day in Manila but Rose had heard that the USS Blue Ridge, flagship of the U.S. 7th Fleet, had just arrived in port and that possibly some of our group could go on board for the welcoming ceremonies.
Well, Rose would not settle for a few of us attending and asked if we all could attend. And she was successful.
Next thing we knew, we were climbing the gangway past Navy people in formation and at attention, who were welcoming us abroad. It was going to be a bigger deal than we had imagined.
The U.S. 7th Fleet is everywhere in the Pacific. It makes regular port calls in the Philippines, Korea, Australia, Korea, Guam and Thailand, among other places.
At any given time, there are 60-70 ships, 200-300 aircraft and 40,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel assigned to the fleet. Five of the largest armed forces lie in its area of operation. Half of the world’s population lies in the 7th Fleet’s area of responsibilities. Going up to the deck of the USS Blue Ridge, flagship of the 7th Fleet, we could tell it was going to be a big big deal.
Admiral Swift, Commander of the 7th Fleet, made introductory remarks and he mentioned our Hawaiian delegation. He said that he lived in Hawai‘i for a while and so we were ‘ohana.
I was floored that here we were, a small delegation from the Big Island, on the deck of the USS Blue Ridge, flagship of the U.S. 7th Fleet, being mentioned in ceremonies in Manila Bay.
More importantly though, was the friendship that the Filipino people hold for Americans. General MacArthur coming ashore in Leyte was not that long ago in people’s memories. You don’t get the emotion from history books. It hit Councilperson Angel Pilago very hard. We all felt it.
Toward the end of the evening, Nitta Pilago corralled all of us for a photo with Admiral Swift. So there we all were around the admiral, doing our best shaka picture. Shameless.
Dutch Kuyper was very much at ease with the senior staff. Mayor Kenoi found out that he and the Admiral’s wife had both gone to school on the East Coast and so were like classmates. This set the tone for the rest of our trip. Our delegation knew that this was going to be a very special, rewarding, aloha kind of trip.