Portrait of today’s transnational families

THE ROQUE FAMILY and friends: scattered worldwide but still together in family sentiments. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

When Frank and Rosie Roque celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Manila recently, children from three different countries in the world came back to reaffirm traditional Filipino family bonds.

The Roque anniversary picture chronicles a scene no longer unusual among Filipino families today:

Seated from left, former University of the Philippines law dean Froilan Bacungan joins the proud golden couple (seated second and third from left) together with Singapore-based son Carlos and his wife Ana (who also repeated their marriage vows in Church ceremonies). Standing behind them are daughters Stella, a finance analyst formerly based in the United States; Luz, a business analyst based in Sydney; Alicia, a brand manager based in New Zealand; and sons Edgar and Manuel, who are into computer programming and hardware sales, also very much globalized trades.

The elder Roques, former school teachers, had stayed in the country and struggled to put their children through college. Today, they share tales of travels to Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Singapore and many other countries as part of their “transnational family” visits.