By Percy Roxas

OLONGAPO CITY –Holding her tears and in disbelief, Erika Veronica Saguit, 34, suddenly came face-to-face, not only with a man she never met personally in her entire life but with the reality she thought would never happen.

On March 30 this year, Saguit’s life changed forever when her American father, Edward Pennycook, 55, gave her a tight embrace as they got reunited in this city after a long period of yearning.

“Dad?” she blurts, almost inaudibly, as she stands in awe and basks in the joy upon seeing the man she has been searching for as long as she can remember.

The reunion became a reality after the father and daughter consistently communicated with each other online after both learned that their DNAs matched. Saguit is one of the lucky ones so far who have successfully found their long-lost American serviceman fathers.

After the DNA test she returned to Amerasian Children Looking for Their GI Fathers (ACLTGF), yielded a positive match, someone from her father’s family gave her a call, eventually prompting her father to fly to the Philippines for them to get reunited.

ACLTGF coordinates with Amerasians in the Philippines to give DNA kits. “I felt mixed emotions when we met,” Erika recounts during a recent interview with the Freeport Insider.

She adds: “But he looked happy to meet me too. We spent nine days getting to know each other, as he said he didn’t even know he had fathered a child in the Philippines.”

During that short time, Saguit’s father reminisced about his life as a young sailor in this city, enjoying “liberty” at the 168 Bar where he met her mother.

Lost contact “He said he tried to keep in touch with my mother after their first encounter but lost contact when he was assigned at Diego Garcia (another American military facility in the Indian Ocean),” Saguit shares.

Before returning home to America on April 7, Saguit’s father promised to do everything to make sure that she would be able to join him in the States.

Saguit’s story—and that of thousands of other Pinoy Amerasians who are still searching for their fathers and fighting for their birthrights—have so far been relegated by many to an unimportant footnote in the mainstream consciousness.

But their stories are in fact larger than the “rest and recreation” legacy left behind by the Americans when they withdrew from the Philippines in 1992.

“I was among the lucky ones indeed, and I’m grateful,” Saguit remarks, adding that: “Other Amerasians are not so lucky—they are either rejected outright by their fathers or their father’s relatives, or worse, they did not live long enough to see these days when people like us are getting wider support for our common cause.”

Saguit’s cause binds her with other members of the Federation of Filipino Amerasian (FFA), such as Anthony Zulu Hodge, who also found his father through the DNA tester kits distributed by the FFA Olongapo, of which he is treasurer.

Unlike Saguit, though, he has yet to meet his father in person.

Both Saguit and Hodge are among the 1,000-plus Filipino Amerasians in Olongapo who are members of the FFA.

The group counts about 2,500 members, although their number is believed to be bigger than that.

Key movers Today, Saguit and Hodge are among the key movers in FFA Olongapo, which aims to help fellow Amerasians in their search for their fathers, initially by giving them DNA test kits to help them get matching DNAs.

The DNA kits, distributed free of charge to Amerasians, are sponsored by American agencies such as Fathers Founded and Amerasian Children Looking for Their American GI Fathers.

FFA volunteers distribute these free DNA kits from these agencies and follow up on the results.

So far, he said, they have achieved 50 successful DNA test results.

Another successful tester was Nikki Kraus, 37, who vividly remembers receiving a call from a step-sibling after confirmation of the DNA result. “I was dumbfounded when I met him.

I really cried a lot!” exclaims Kraus. She adds: “Imagine finally meeting the person you have been looking for all your life. I have been dying to know him for more than 30 years and nobody could give me answers until the FFA came! I never expected this to happen anymore.”

Strauss says she is thankful for the federation for helping her find her dad, vowing to support the efforts of the FFA in helping other Amerasians find their fathers too.

Hodge is elated to see fellow Filipino-Amerasians beginning to get the recognition and support due them.

There are now a number of humanitarian agencies like Father Founded and Amerasian Children Looking for their American GI Fathers helping us and taking our cause to the proper forum,” he shares. According to Hodge, the distribution of DNA kits is only part of their advocacy.

“Assisting fellow Amerasians find their fathers used to be like finding a needle in a haystack. Today, efforts to help Amerasians have come a long way. But we aren’t there yet,” he explains.

Hodge also confides that there are still many things to do, like helping those who lobby for the bill being processed in the U.S. Congress to give Amerasians their birthright.

Inclusion “We must make sure Filipino Amerasians are included in the law that allows us our birthright,” he asserts.

For Marisa Navidad, 53, another successful paternal DNA tester, the early success stories of finding their fathers do not mean the end of the journey.

“In fact, it is only the beginning,” Navidad notes, adding that she is helping FFA as a way of paying it forward.

According to her, finding the DNA match is just one problem getting solved.

“And it’s more than just for economic reasons.

I look forward to the day when all Filipino-Amerasians will be allowed the chance, the opportunity, that they deserve, with a law leaving no Amerasian behind,” Navidad stresses.

Meanwhile, Hodge added that FFA is calling out the Philippine government to consider including a provision in the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement or EDCA for the protection of future Amerasians that may result from an agreement between the two countries. FREEPORT INSIDER