Dolores Sibonga

Born Dolores Dasalla Estigoy on 12 August 1931 on Vashon Island, Sibonga grew up in Seattle's Chinatown-International District. Her parents Maria and Victoriano Estigoy, immigrants from Luzon, operated the Estigoy Cafe. She worked there as a child and later said the manongs and other neighborhood figures taught her hope, determination, and respect for everyone.

Encouraged by her mother, who admired Filipino Forum editor Victor Velasco, Sibonga studied journalism at the University of Washington and graduated in 1952. Faculty worried about job prospects for graduates of color, but she found work in broadcast news.

Sibonga worked at KHQ in Spokane and later at KIRO-TV and KOMO-TV in Seattle, producing documentaries and receiving an Emmy nomination. After Velasco's death she and husband Martin purchased the Filipino Forum, publishing from 1977 to 1978 with a civil-rights editorial line that urged united minority action.

After Martin lost his Boeing illustrator job, he urged her into a UW summer pipeline for minority law students. She enrolled in law school, graduated, and in 1973 became the first Filipino American admitted to the Washington State Bar. She began as a defense attorney and public defender before moving into government human-rights work.

Sibonga served as a legislative analyst for the King County Council, worked in the King County office of Human Rights, and became deputy secretary and later the first woman executive of the Washington State Human Rights Commission, deepening her focus on discrimination and equal opportunity.

In 1978 community organizer Ruth Woo persuaded Sibonga to seek appointment to the Seattle City Council seat vacated by Phyllis Lamphere. She was appointed that spring, becoming the first woman of color and first minority woman to serve on the council. She declined to run for the short remainder of that term and instead prepared for a full-term race.

In the 1979 primary Sibonga led with about 40 percent of the vote and defeated Seattle police officer Bob Moffett in the general election, becoming the first minority woman elected to the council. She won landslide and solid reelections in 1983 and 1987 before choosing not to run again in 1992.

Over roughly twelve years she chaired Personnel and Property Management, Parks and Community Resources, Finance, and Labor. She introduced legislation providing $5,000 reparations to five Japanese American city employees fired during World War II, enacted in 1984. She was the lone no vote on tax breaks for a new basketball stadium after the SuperSonics threatened to leave, and she criticized an expensive Disney redesign proposal for Seattle Center.

In 1989 Sibonga ran for mayor of Seattle and lost. A later bid for council presidency also failed. She did not seek reelection in 1992 and was succeeded by Martha Choe, continuing a trail she had helped open for Asian American women in city government.

After leaving the council she returned to law practice, served on the Washington Horse Racing Commission and the Human Rights Commission, and spent about twenty years on the King County Board of Appeals. In 2017 she and Joan Yoshitomi created the Ruth Woo Emerging Leaders Fellowship. She mentored leaders including Velma Veloria, Vivian Luna, Martha Choe, and Joan Yoshitomi.

Encouraged by Ron Chew, she published The Best Adobo in Town: From Cafe to City Council through the International Examiner. In 2023 she received the International Examiner Lifetime Achievement Award. In August 2026 Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson proclaimed 12 August Dolores Sibonga Day, and King County proclaimed 18 August Dolores Sibonga Day; daughter Randi Sibonga accepted the county honor.

Friends reported that Sibonga died early on the morning of 16 September 2026 at age 95. The cause of death was not immediately made public. She was remembered as a generation of firsts who defined leadership as a woman of color and Asian American in Seattle politics, law, and civil rights.