Consul General Neil Ferrer receives from Colorado-based Fil-Am sculptor Elaine Antonio Bordeaux, a bronze bas-relief of Filipino World War II hero Magdalena Leones. The bas-relief, which was first featured during Bordeaux’s art exhibit at the Philippine Center in San Francisco in July 2024, will be included in the art collection of the Philippine Consulate General in San Francisco’s Sentro Rizal Museum.
Leones’s heroic acts as a bearer of intelligence information and vital equipment earned her the Silver Star Medal, becoming the first and only Asian to receive one of the highest decorations for valor in combat by the US Armed Forces. She was a longtime Bay Area resident before her death in Richmond in 2016; she was later interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in the Philippines.