Former San Francisco gang member makes good, now uplifts Filipino community

Former San Francisco drug dealer makes good, now uplifts Filipino community

Rudy Corpuz Jr., who is now executive director of United Playaz, started selling drugs and making money, decisions that did nothing to help uplift this largely Filipino community.

SAN FRANCISCO - In a largely Filipino section of San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood that abuts The Tenderloin, the issue of drugs, crime, and homelessness is no secret.

It’s the kind of thing that can leave an impression on a young mind, and it did for one young man in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"So growing up in a neighborhood, there's a lot of different challenges, right?" said Rudy Corpuz Jr. "You got to grow fast in the South of Market, right?" 

Corpuz, who is now executive director of United Playaz, started selling drugs and making money, decisions that did nothing to help uplift this largely Filipino community.

It ended up landing him in the system where he rotated in and out of jail for several years, until one day, under the threat of returning to jail, he was put into a program at San Francisco City College for formerly incarcerated.

And when he completed it, he saw a sign.

"I saw this billboard and on the billboard, it says Gang Prevention Council. And I'm looking at that and I'm like.... I'm Filipino and I gang bang. I qualify for that," Corpuz said.

It was a move that led this Filipino American down a path from running the streets of this SOMA neighborhood to repairing the damage to which he helped contribute.

"I got a phenomenal team of people who grew up in the neighborhood, people who were gangbanging, people who were selling dope," Corpuz told KTVU outside of the United Playaz headquarters in San Francisco.

Corpuz launched United Playaz, a violence prevention and youth development organization.

Over the last many years, the non-profit has been operating out of the building at 1038 Howard Street, where it helped children in this neighborhood avoid the pitfalls he did growing up here.

"I know what it feels like to get shot. I know what it feels like to shoot somebody," Corpuz said, adding that he is passionate about keeping children out of trouble. "So, you [have to] go there to understand it. Because look, I already went through that road map for you, and this is a dead-end road."

Corpuz is doing this work with the help of people like Ronald Magdalane, who grew up in this very neighborhood, before getting caught up in the lifestyle, ended up in prison for 38 years in a gang-related murder, and now volunteers with United Playaz.

"And for me, it was an opportunity to give back to the community and try to just give it back all my heart," Magdalane said. 

Now, United Playaz is elevating its game in this community with a brand-new building one down from its current headquarters.

One year after groundbreaking took place in May 2024, in an event attended by leaders including Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the facility which is being billed by Corpuz as their Literacy, Restorative Justice Center, is set to open its doors.

Looking forward to the upgrade is United Playaz volunteer Patrick Carr, who served 30 years in prison for second-degree murder.

"What keeps me doing this working is my lifestyle, my living amends, is to do living amends, giving back to my community," said Carr, who will continue to volunteer at the new facility. "Because I was basically a kid when I went to jail and kind of life ends."

When you talk to Corpuz, you can hear the passion and urgency in his voice to give back to not just the Filipino families and children in this community, but to anyone who comes to his organization for help.

Corpuz said he will do this work for as long as he can. 

"Until the wheels fall off," said Corpuz. "I’ve talked about banging.... I still bang. But I bang for change. I make sure that before I live we have all the essential things that we need to for our people in the community."

The grand opening for United Playaz’s new Literacy Restorative Justice building is set to take place in mid-June.