cisco formally and stated a committee under the office of the mayor to become the preeminent cultural and economic [inaudible] between san francisco and manila, developing a system that promote closer ties between the cities. this year, the san francisco manila sister city committee represents -- celebrates its 50 year, marking five decades of service to our people. the san francisco bay area filipino american community salutes this milestone, a legacy of goodwill and true filipino american pride. >> representing the san francisco manila sister city committee, are defective chairman -- our de facto chairman. [applause]

>> if i may, i'd like to call up some very key members of the committee. i cannot call all 100-plus people up here, but some very key members. first filipino elected in san francisco, who has been with the sister city committee from day one, and partners in making sure that the cultural links have to do with education. nancy and dan harrington, please join us here. they have sent 13 million books to impoverished children over the years. we thank you all for this honor. we have enjoyed tremendously the ability to link with the philippines. we have generated thousands of jobs, both in the philippines and in san francisco.

we have donated thousands of dollars to various events, such as the cleanup of the river, the symphony of the philippine cultural center, and the list goes on and on. we would not have been able to do that without being partners with the philippine consulate general. [applause] and in the five trade and cultural missions led in 1994 and 1998, 2005, 2006, 2010, one of the key posts for our entire committee and all of the various leaders, the people that head of the business circles, the political circles has always been the filipino channel, and we thank you.

the most wonderful addition, the fresh blood that is going to come in and lead the sister city committee from this point on, as represented by the very beautiful and multi talented. [applause] thank you all. >> before we have them leave the stage, i want to take this opportunity. linda and dennis have given so much heart and soul to the manila sister city. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, we love you so much. we are broken hearted that you have stepped down, but we know that your leadership will not go away because this is where your heart is. on behalf of all of us, we will miss you terribly. but as they say, you do not retire, you rewire. that means you will be connecting back to so many of us and continuing your fabulous

work, and we cannot thank you enough for so many years. for any of you who have not had the opportunity to go on a delegation, it is the most organized, amazing experience you will ever have, and behind every strong man, there's an amazing woman in linda, so thank you for everything that you do. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, once again, let's give a warm round of applause to all our honorees tonight. [applause] making a difference in the community is about bold courage and hopeful optimism. >> that is right. more and more, the filipino american community continues to build a pipeline with emerging leaders of the next generation, making sure that all that energy, wisdom, and vigorous spirit is passed on. tonight, we would like to thank

all of our partners in the community. thank you so much to all of our wonderful restaurants tonight. [applause] and we have the fabulous mango ice cream from heavenly ice cream. >> wow. thank you. >> we would also like to thank the rest of our partners, our designers, our fashion show choreographers -- don't you love them? my best new discovery. bradford, you are doing this again next year, wherever you are. a big thanks to all of our 16 models, and our appreciation

always to the philippine consulate of san francisco and consul general. >> so, i think we want to introduce our performer for tonight. >> wonderful. i cannot wait. >> please join us in welcoming you to celebrity sensation and recording artist, ms. michelle martinez. >> he can stay. good evening, everybody. how are you guys doing tonight? good? it is an honor to be here tonight. i just want to sing a couple of songs for you tonight. there we go.

♪ honey, honey i can see the stars all the way from here see the glow of the windowpane i can see the sun whenever you are near every time you touch me, i just melt away everybody asks me why i am is smiling but i know nothing is perfect [inaudible] baby, it is you you are the ones i love you are the one i need you are the only one i see , on, baby, it is you come on,

baby you put my love on top , on, baby talk, talk, talk -- top, top, top honey, honey i can feel the wind your lips taste like a night of champagne as i kiss you again and again and again and again everybody asks me why i am is smiling out from year to year but i know nothing is perfect but it's worth it after fighting through my fears

and finally you put me first baby it is you you are the one i love you are the one i need you are the only one of ic , on, baby -- come on, baby you put my love on top come on, baby you put my love on top you put my love on top come on, baby baby, it is you you are the one i love you are the one i need you are the only one i see come on, baby, it's you you are the one who gives your

all your the one i can always call when i need you make everything stop baby, you are the one that i love you are the one that i need only one ic come on, baby, it is you you are the one that gives you all the one i can always call finally, you put my love on top ♪ [applause] thank you. thank you guys so much for having me tonight. i have an album out, and i am on youtube. and my channel. i am on the internet. please check me out on my website. i have some albums and posters out there for sale as well. this next song i wanted to do -- can i have my water? this next song, i just wanted to bring it back to my roots, being

a filipino. i am not very good in my tagalog, but i wanted to sing this song for you guys tonight. thank you. excuse me if i'd love any words. here we go. -- excuse me if i flub any words. here we go. this one is dedicated to you guys. ♪

[singing in tagalog]

♪ thank you guys so much. had a great evening. thank you. >> one more time. great job. thank you so much. amazing. amazing. ok, before anything else, we want to thank our sponsors. pixel creations. thank you so much for being part of tonight's event. we just want to tell everyone to please just continue joining -- enjoying the food. i just want to say it was an honor and pleasure hosting tonight's event with you. thank you for having me. >> likewise, and until next time -- [speaking in foreign language] [applause]

>> hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us this evening. my name is sandra. i'm part of the arab heritage month committee. we would like to welcome you to our annual arab heritage month celebration. on behalf of the mayor's office and the city of san francisco. >> hi, everyone.

thank you for joining. we were technically supposed to start at 5:30, but we are a few minutes early. that's pretty good. we're usually late. thank you for coming. this is the third year we have initiated the cemenevent. this is a very interesting year to be an arab, i would say. many things are happening throughout the arab world. as you may have noticed, there's been a slight change in the flag. we have a new libyan flag. [laughter] [applause] we have four arab countries in the entire arab world where people are finally speaking up. for many of us in the san francisco bay community, we've

known far too long what's been going on in the arab world. the reason there is a thriving arab-american community in the area is because many of us had to leave our homeland due to political persecution or the fact there's no respect for our dignity. in the san francisco bay area, we came together from all over the arab world to live. thank you, again, for coming. i hope you have enjoyed the program to a lot of people have worked very hard. i want to make a few announcements. we could not have done any of this without our sponsors. before we start, a big thank you to the presenting sponsor, the law firm. a round of applause for them. thank you. [applause] also, burgermeister franchise.

[applause] and we have ike's place and [inaudible] [applause] we could not have done it without their support. they were very generous. i urge all of you to please support these businesses. without them, we would not have put on this event. >> and now i have the pleasure of introducing the musical ensembles. it is a bay area based ensemble that reaches out to all diverse groups in the bay area. we had the pleasure of having their perform at our first annual celebration of arab heritage month and now we have the pleasure of them performing

again. please give them a round of applause. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] [applause]

[applause] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪