Gov. Hilario P. Davide III sat in front of a bowl of karioko on Friday at city hall, Juneau Mayor Ken Koelsch at his side.
The head of the province of Cebu in the Philippines, Davide III visited Juneau this week on vacation with his wife, Jobella A. Davide, some friends and aides.
With 3,000 Filipinos in Juneau, mementos of his home country were never far. Some of them are delicious. The karioko, a sweet, sticky ball of coconut meat and rice flower, came from a food cart at Marine Park, across the street.
It wasn’t an official state trip. Davide III spent much of his time sightseeing and meeting locals. But it was a chance to strengthen the long-standing bonds between Juneau and the Philippines.
When Davide III got off the plane at Juneau International Airport, he felt the right at home. A group locals from the Philippines and their children greeted him with a banner reading, “Juneau Welcomes Governor Davide and Mrs. Davide.”
“It’s very, very heartwarming. They make you feel at home,” Davide III said, adding, “When I get back, I’ll tell my colleagues, my coworkers in government, that there’s a group here in Alaska. We need to visit them.”
Davide III visited the Mendenhall Glacier, went whale watching and took a ride up the Mount Roberts Tramway. A reception at the Filipino Community, Inc. Hall in downtown Juneau, took place Saturday.
Filipinos are the largest Asian American subgroup in Alaska. The 2010 census puts the number of people of Filipino origin in Alaska at 19,394, a group that makes up more than half the 37,193 Asian Americans living in Alaska.
A goal for his vacation was to spread the message to that group that the Philippines is thriving. The Philippines was a dictatorship until 1986. Many Filipinos in Juneau have been here most of their lives, and have raised children here. The country is more stable now than some may remember, Davide III said. It’s a good time to visit.
“We simply want to tell them that we miss them, their families miss them, and to tell them to come back, to visit. Because it has improved greatly since the time they left,” Davide III said.
The country of 103 million has been in the headlines in recent years after the election of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose anti-narcotics officers have been accused of human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings. Davide III didn’t brush off questions about the direction of his country, but spoke carefully about Duterte.
“I think we have a very tough president. You have to give him that. He’s very keen on fulfilling his campaign promises, anti corruption, and anti crime. For him, that’s what he saw as the main problem,” Davide III said, adding, “I would just like to be clear though, that we have a president whose interest is for the benefit of the Philippines.”
Koelsch called Juneau’s large Filipino community a “very historic, very important” part of Juneau.
“The people who came up here for canaries and mining, it’s pretty phenomenal,” Koelsch said. He said he learned that he has, “more in common than he would expect,” with Davide III.
Outgoing Sen. Dennis Egan wrote the official invitation letter sent to Davide III.
Rene Abella, an organizer for the visit, is from Cebu, and tagged along with the governor. Abella came to Juneau when he was 24. He’s now 69.
After 15 or 20 years, it became “hard to adjust when I go back there,” Abella said. With a group like Juneau’s close-knit Filipino community around him, he said it’s a lot easier to have a foot in both worlds.
• Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 and kgullufsen@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @KevinGullufsen.
