Taste of Manila 2019: the BEST SO FAR *** a SPECIAL FESTIVAL EDITION ***
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
AUGUST 2019 TORONTO, CANADA www.filipinosmakingwaves.com By Riley Mendoza The yelling, singing, dancing multitude is a good indicator of how immensely successful the 2019 edition of Taste of Manila was. The street festival beggars description. The sea of humanity that descended in Toronto's Little Manila became an ocean in no time. That's how it was during the weekend of August 17-18 when the 2019 fest, North America's largest Filipino event, took place. PHOTO: The huge festival crowd wows Randy Santiago Taste of Manila 2019: THE BEST SO FAR *** A SPECIAL FESTIVAL EDITION *** If there's one metric for the impact legacy of serving the Filipino com- an individual gets to have munity for 43 years. A fraternity Filipino Lawyer Eyes in his community, it brother to many notable people would be Eddie Lee in the Philippine government, and his work through he literally walked the corridors Canada Senate Seat his newspaper Atin of power but never taking ad- Ito. The 84-year-old vantage of it. Till the end, he MARIA ELEANOR RODRIGUEZ' PASSION IS TO HELP passed away quietly stuck to the job he never on Sunday, August dreamed of, newspapering, so 18, 2019, he could advocate for his By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ leaving a people. Editor, The Filipino Web Channel SEE PAGE 4 “To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.” ― Kahlil Gibran TORONTO - A devotion to law and province in what's referred to as a passion to help is spurring a Phil- the "sober second thought" cham- ippine-born lawyer and an advo- ber of Parliament. cate for women and racial equity to wish for a seat in the 105-member Three current senators are sched- Senate of Canada. uled to retire in the next three years, namely, Nicole Eaton on Jan- Ms. Maria Eleanor Rodriguez, a uary 21, 2020, or five months from Eduardo Lee barrister and solicitor based in the now; Jim Munson on July 14, 2021; PUBLISHER OF ATIN ITO NEWSPAPER City of Niagara Falls, Ontario, is and Thanh Hai Ngo on January 3, eyeing an appointment to occupy 2022. November 17 1934 - August 18, 2019 one of 24 slots that represent the (Continued on page4 ) Page 2 Filipinos Making V AUGUST 2019 WA ES FLAVOURFUL Taste of Manila 2019 The best concoction of food, people, entertainment and excitement AUGUST 2019 Filipinos Making WA V ES Page 3 CANADA ~ PHILIPPINE NEWS WAVES LITTLE MANILA'S OCEAN OF HUMANITY 2019 Taste of Manila Beggars Description By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ Editor, The Filipino Web Channel “We reveal to ourselves and others what is important to us by the way we celebrate.” ― Noël Piper A personal message from Mayor John Tory (delivered by Councillor James Pasternak) Dear attendees of Taste of Manila: I cannot believe that my recovery from major leg surgery has kept me from one of my favourite events, Taste of Ma- nila, and one of my favourite communities, our beloved Filipino community. But alas, I am not doing too many crowd scenes until things are better healed, but I did want to wish everyone a hugely successful weekend and tell you how sorry I am I cannot be there. TORONTO - The best availa- streak of rainwater would that lined the fenced road ble words would suffice to not stop and cancel out the and walked around waiting In case anyone thinks this is just a way of avoiding the eat- describe this year's Taste of festival. I was wrong.1 for a sign of when the cele- ing of a Balut, I am reaffirming my promise and we will do Manila festival - epic, gigan- bration would commence. it at some suitable community event in the future. tic, monumental, mon- The rains are always a good strous, elephantine. omen, says Deputy Consul Meanwhile, the hundreds of Mabuhay! General Bernadette Fernan- booths - restos, karinderias Who needs numbers when dez who took shelter at the Philippine style, hole-in-the those adjectives apply to office of iRemit with her -wall stores, and satellite the massive turnout of peo- team from the Philippine offices - along Bathurst St. With great affection, ple on the first and second Consulate. Even as it's still prepared to receive their days of the street fest on its early, the storefront was first customers for the day. traditional grounds in the full. People were filling up The usual parade of partici- John Tory Bathurst-Wilson area in forms to remit money to pants scheduled earlier had Mayor of Toronto North York? their loved ones while oth- been canceled because of ers simply stayed put to the rains, so the main pro- The appointed time on Sat- avoid getting wet. gramming would begin (A HEARTFELT GET WELL WISHES TO OUR DEAREST urday, August 17, 2019, soon. MAYOR JOHN TORY FROM TASTE OF MANILA AND THE was 9 a.m. when the pro- Thirty or forty minutes past FILIPINO COMMUNITY) gram was scheduled to the hour, the sky cleared as By mid-day and towards start. I made sure that I will if giving a naughty smile to the afternoon, the asphalt- be there, and certainly, I the revelers down below paved Bathurst St. was in- was, five minutes prior. But waiting, hoping and praying distinguishable. Waves up- then nature intervened, that nature's drenching on waves were descending pouring out tears of happi- would cease. The rains did from everywhere. The ness I suppose, in the form end at that very moment. north-south road artery of thunderstorms. Then Bathurst Street where was now a sea of humanity. the main stage at Wilson One could hardly walk The intermittent rains Avenue stood, began to fill. without bumping into an- doused the area, giving the other person. That's how length and breadth of Little The unease that I felt earli- tight it was. Manila a fresh, moistening er had vanished. Individu- splash to counterbalance als, then groups of people, I've seen how Taste of Ma- the summer heat. I was then humankind were com- nila morphed from a com- 2017 TOM file photo by Earl Francis Dacara worried a bit that the ing out of establishments munity-inspired reach out in 2014 with just about 60,000 attendees which, A prudent analysis based incidentally, defied projec- on what I've witnessed dur- tions that had placed an ing my yearly news cover- estimate of no bigger than age, I would say the im- 5,000, to a colossal 350,000 mense crowd would be well people in 2018 when Taste beyond the 350,000 official of Manila almost did not estimates of last year. A happen due to budgetary conservative number constraints. would be 400,000. With a five-year incremen- The indicators of the swell tal record starting in Au- are very much in the open - gust 2014, 2015, 2016, the busloads of people com- 2017, and 2018, exceeding ing from all directions, the reasonable expectations, lengthening of the festival Taste of Manila festival is in the riding of these gentlemen from the 3 levels of government. this year's Taste of Manila area, the number of buses L-R MPP Roman Baber, MP Michael Levitt and Councillor James Pasternak. beggars description. 2 (Continued on page6 ) Page 4 Filipinos Making WAV ES AUGUST 2019 CANADA ~ PHILIPPINE NEWS WAVES EDDIE LEE, PUBLISHER OF ATIN ITO NEWSPAPER: Resolute in Serving the Filipino Community By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ Editor, The Filipino Web Channel “Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated.” – Alphonse de Lamartine fined his limits as a person, The article touched off a TORONTO - Even as he was as a businessman, and as a raw nerve in the overly- an active role player in the newspaperman - this last sensitive press club - then local newspaper industry, one not as a reporter writ- and now habited by dead- Eddie Lee never pretended ing the news but as the per- beats - for it was something nor called himself a journal- son who made sure the pa- nobody dared to articulate ist out of respect for those per kept going in good or in print. Once published, it who truly are. foul weather. sparked an uproar, then a squabble, then a big nation- He had firmly refused to do And that modesty applied al controversy impacting so, but because of his devo- as well to Atin Ito, the tab- one of the Philippines' big- tion to community journal- loid he had nurtured since gest resources - the caregiv- ism up to his dying day on 1976, the year a group of ers. Sunday, August 18, 2019, he friends, including journalist His was public service ble anyway for one heavily might as well had been one Ruben Cusipag (July 12, The good thing about that through a platform called involved in community af- champion of what true jour- 1938 - July 9, 2013) came controversy was that it re- Atin Ito, the Tagalog phrase fairs as he had been. nalism was. together and began a jour- sulted in meaningful chang- that literally translates to ney to create awareness in es in the systemic pro- "this is ours" - quite a bold From what I could appreci- He had abided by an under- the Filipino community. cessing and hiring of care- affirmation in those times ate now, or nearly a decade stated principle of not givers - a big boost to the of Filipino identity in multi- later after I moved here showing off some influence The name of the paper he caregiving community.