Local Filipinos embrace direct flight from Seattle to Manila

A trip to the Philippines for Filipinos in Federal Way can be many things — a chance to reminisce over childhood memories with family, an opportunity to savor the taste of fresh fish caught right out of the ocean and fresh vegetables grown by family members, and sometimes to honor the grief that can accompany the joy of straddling life between the two countries.

As of Oct. 2, that journey is also going to be much shorter and simpler with the launch of new direct flights from Seattle to Manila from via Philippine Airlines (PAL).

This marks an exciting moment for those wishing to travel between the two destinations, especially for the large Filipino community in the Pacific Northwest.

The inaugural flight landed around 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2 and was greeted on the tarmac at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) by a water turret salute from the Port of Seattle Fire Department, media and influencers to document the moment, and a performance by University of Washington’s Filipino American Student Association group Sayaw.

PAL’s President and Chief Operating Officer Captain Stanley K. Ng and Port of Seattle Commissioner Sam Cho spoke.

“This flight has been a long time in the making. The Puget Sound holds one of the largest communities of Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the United States. We’re proud of the impact and contributions the Filipino and Filipino American communities have had on our region, and this fight will further strengthen our ties and make it easier to visit friends and loved ones back home,” Cho said.

Flights will be three times a week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Before the change, traveling to Manila from Seattle involved transferring in locations like Japan and Korea, adding extra strain and challenge to an already long trip.

Ciara Medina lives in Federal Way and told the Mirror she hasn’t visited her family in Manila since 2016, in part because of the challenge of the long trip. After the birth of her son, she made it through two trips with him at ages 1 and 3.

“It was chaotic trying to transfer in LAX (Los Angeles) with baggage, a stroller and a kid,” she said.

With the direct flight option, she already has a trip planned for March and is looking forward to seeing her family. For her, the things she is looking forward to most is the chance to see her family and to show her now 11-year-old son the country.

The Filipino community has a long history in the Seattle area. According to an article on HistoryLink by Cynthia Mejia-Giudici, “the first known Filipino in the Seattle area worked at the Port Blakely Lumber Mill on Bainbridge Island in Washington Territory around 1883. His name was Manila, as in the largest city in the Philippines.”

In South King County, this history is preserved through community organizations like the Filipino-American Community of Puget Sound, which began in 1937 as “The Filipino Brotherhood” in Auburn. In the 1940s, two similar clubs in Kent and Tacoma joined with the Auburn organization to form a larger group, and the group has continued to develop since then.

October is also Filipino American History Month, which commemorates the earliest documented evidence of Filipino presence in the continental United States when Filipino sailors arrived at Morro Bay, California, on Oct. 18, 1587.

Taste of home

Federal Way has its own taste of home for the community in the restaurant the Heritage, which opened in March 2023 at 1500 S. 336th St. The restaurant is owned by Kaye Tabalbag and her husband Robert Guieb, who took over the former Manila Sari Sari store in the same location. Tabalbag worked there and together they bought it from the owner.

Visit the colorful and welcoming restaurant and you might also get a chance to meet Annabelle Tabalbag Corrales, Kaye Tabalbag’s mother.

For both Kaye and Annabelle, the direct flight is not only an added convenience, but offers a chance to connect with family better.

“My parents used to visit, but the layovers are too hard, they’re senior citizens,” Annabelle said. When visiting the Philippines, they head to Ilocos Sur, a trip that was an additional 12-hour drive from Manila. That distance is shortening too as a new expressway will reduce the time down to 6-8 hours, or an easy 45 minutes if traveling there by plane.

Speaking of home, Annabelle described the freshness of the food that her family grows and gathers from the sea.

“We never have to buy rice because we grow it,” Annabelle said.

Any place can bring challenges and their family has experienced both the joys and the sorrows of each location — and of the distance in between. Annabelle shared that her husband recently died, and her son also passed away only 3 years ago at age 15.

Her son had wanted to go to school in the Philippines and to live with his grandparents. When COVID hit, he was unable to access the nebulizer treatment for his asthma that is harder to come by in the Philippines, she said. While the family did everything they could to try to get him the medicine, their flights were repeatedly canceled and he passed away.

In Federal Way, they also have plenty of family and Annabelle described holiday gatherings with “a hundred family members” in town. Although they are happy to be here, it’s not always easy and there is some fear from the violence and crime in the city, Kaye shared.

Their family is just one of the 180,000 Filipino Americans in Washington and the 25,000 in Seattle, according to Neil Frank R. Ferrer, Consul General of the Philippines in San Francisco, in a speech at the Oct. 2 event.

“This development opens up more possibilities, not only for travelers, but also for businesses and economic exchanges between our two cities. With the direct flight, we hope to boost economic opportunities for both cities. From January to August of this year, arrival from the United States to the villages has hit more than 600,000 and we are positive that with the Manila-Seattle flight, it will open more economic and cultural opportunities to both cities and our countries,” the Consul General said.

The Heritage restaurant in Federal Way serves hot food and familiar Filipino snacks. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror.

Kaye Tabalbag and Annabelle Tabalbag Cortes at the Heritage. Kaye and her husband Robert Guieb own the restaurant and her mother Annabelle helps out. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror