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Broadcast journalist and anchor Howie Severino is one of the most renowned reporters and documentarists in the Philippines. However, growing up abroad, he admitted that he felt like one of the Global Pinoys, especially since he and his siblings grew up in different countries.

In celebration of Filipino-American History Month, in an interview with GMA Pinoy TV, the international channel of GMA Network, Howie detailed his experiences as a Global Pinoy and how they pushed him to come home to the Philippines to discover his roots.

“Where I grew up, I was one of the very few Filipinos. I can remember, in one class in grade school, in the United States, I was one of only two non-whites in the whole class,” Howie said.

He continued, “That was a big part of my own formation as a person because, from a very young age, I knew that as a Filipino, I was different.”

Howie admitted he went through a period where he was ashamed to admit that he was Filipino.

“You want to be like everyone else," he said.

“But as I mature, I realized, no, that's not a liability, that's actually an asset for me because I became very conscious of who I was and I wanted to explore that identity,” Howie said.

MEANWHILE, TAKE A LOOK AT THE FILIPINO CELEBRITIES WHO LEFT THEIR LIFE IN SHOWBIZ TO LIVE ABROAD IN THIS GALLERY:

The experience of feeling different and being one of the few Filipinos around, according to Howie, motivated him to come to the Philippines and discover his identity.

“I knew, in a shallow way, that I was Filipino but I didn't know that in a deeper way,” Howie said.

He added, “So, I came back to the Philippines and became a teacher and realized that journalism was the perfect way of not only getting to know my own country and culture but getting to know myself.”

Watch Howie's full interview here: