Sibonga became the first Filipina-American lawyer in Washington state, admitted to the bar in 1973.

She spent her childhood in the international District of Seattle, working at the Estigoy Café, her parents’ restaurant and pool hall.

In 1968, years after she’d graduated from the UW with a degree in journalism, Sibonga purchased the Filipino Forum with her husband. Years later, after he was laid off from his job as a Boeing illustrator, she went back to school for a law degree, supporting herself, her husband and their three children on her scholarship.

Sibonga later worked as a public defense attorney, a legislative analyst for King County Council and a 12-year member of the City Council.