In Howie Severino’s I-Witness anniversary episode, which airs Monday night, March 31, on GMA 7, he goes to New York, the world’s richest city, and encounters an underworld with thousands of homeless people. Their nomadic population is made up of the poorest of the poor, stark evidence that not everyone in America has achieved the American dream.

Nearly all races are represented among these street people . . . except one, if one believes the many Filipinos in New York who proudly tell Howie that there are no homeless Pinoys in the Big Apple.

Howie discovers that this is not true. There ARE homeless Pinoys in New York.

He meets Teddy, a Philippine-born US Army veteran who sleeps in a box on a cold sidewalk in Chinatown and collects cans during the day. He surprises passersby by suddenly breaking out into operatic song. He seeks Howie’s help in locating a place in the Philippines close to his heart. They not only locate it but see the neighborhood where Teddy grew up. But the search for his long-lost American father will take a little longer.

Howie also spends a few days with Lex Cachapero, a well-known painter in Manila who got stranded in New York and now struggles to sell his paintings on the street in the dead of winter. He too is homeless and sleeps not in a box but in a place that Howie least expects.

Despite their extraordinary situations, the two gentlemen exude qualities peculiar to Filipinos everywhere, including exuberant attitudes in the face of extreme odds. Even on New York’s cold streets, their hope springs eternal.

Cinematographer: Egay Navarro

Source: Sidetrip with Howie Severino