Teresita Ang See

Teresita Ang See (Chinese: 洪玉華^[1]; pinyin: Hong Yuhua^[2]) is Filipino civic leader and activist who focuses on issues affecting the Chinese Filipino community.

Teresita Ang See or Hong Yuhua was born in Manila, Philippines, on December 25, 1949.^[2] She had a father who is a Chinese immigrant from Fukien (now Fujian) and a Filipino-citizen mother. She had eleven siblings.^[3] His father Jose Ang moved to Manila as eight year old child to work in a restaurant in Divisoria while her mother Carmen Davenport Barraca is a college-educated Filipino-American mestiza. Teresita's parents married during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.^[2] She would spend her early years in Malabon.^[3]

Teresita's father would die at age 44, when the eldest child was still 16 years old and the wife is still pregnant with the eleventh child. Her mother would work as a cigarette factory worker and as a seamstress while all eleven children would also contribute to the family livelihood.^[3]

The Ang See family would move to Binondo in Manila, which led to Teresita's enrollment to the Chiang Kai-shek College. She is already a working student at the time.^[3]

For her tertiary education she attended the University of the Philippines amidst the First Quarter Storm. Under old Philippine nationality law, Ang See was a Chinese citizen by virtue of her father's citizenship preventing her to openly participate in protests due to risked to getting deported to China. She has no close relatives in China. It was only when she reached 18 years old when she elected to be a Filipino citizen which is possible through her maternal parentage.^[3]

She would pursue graduate studies at the UP Asian Center.^[3]

After her graduate studies, Ang See joined the Federation Of Filipino Chinese Chambers Of Commerce & Industry (FFCCCI) as a research assistant.^[3]

She would then join the Pagkakaisa sa Pag-unlad.^[3] Pagkakaisa was founded in 1971, a group which advocated for jus soli citizenship of ethnic Chinese and their integration in mainstream Philippine society. Pagkakaisa was dissolved in 1976 during Martial law era under president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos after it was tagged as a Communist front.^[4]

Revival efforts of the organization started after the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in 1983 which would eventually be known as the Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran.^[4] She and her husband Chin Ben See would translate material critical to the Marcos administration sourced from the "mosquito press" which they would clandestinely distribute.^[5] This was done to encourage dissent against the Marcos administration among the Chinese Filipino community which has a reputation to be apolitical.^[4]

Ang See supported Corazon Aquino in the 1986 Philippine snap presidential election against the incumbent Marcos.^[3] Kaisa would be formally re-established in August 1987.^[4]

In the early 1990s, kidnapping was a significant issue among the Chinese Filipino community.^[4] Kaisa founded the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order (MPRO) in January 1993, an effort against kidnap for ransom crime in the country.^[6] They mobilize a funeral attended by at least one hundred thousand for the teenage victim Charlene Sy.^[3] The Citizens Action Against Crime was also organized.^[4]

Ang criticized the line of questioning around the Senate inquiry on Alice Guo's citizenship and involvement in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) which she described as a "zarzuela". She pointed out that Guo's language proficiency or the lack of thereof is not an indicator of her citizenship.^[7] She also noted Sinophobia against Chinese Filipinos resulting from the buzz.^[8]

Ang See was married Chinben See, an ethnic Chinese scholar and anthropologist who is a co-founder of Kaisa. Their marriage lasted from 1975 to 1986 when Chinben died of liver cancer.^[3]