Filipino Web Magazine

Wednesday, 25 February 2026

Dr. Eileen de Villa: COVID Czar and Community Lifesaver

Volume 7, Issue No. 41

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . .

Our latest as of Wednesday, February 25, 2026

~ Not much is said about the contribution of one outstanding Filipino doctor - Dr. Eileen de Villa - in containing the spread of coronavirus in Toronto, Canada's largest city, from the time of its discovery in late 2019 to May 2023 when the World Health Organization declared an end to international concern. A lawsuit against the province, the city and health authorities prompts this essay based on personal experience as a Toronto resident and journalist. Even as skeptics were spreading disinformation about vaccines, most of us, at the very least, should be grateful for this physician's concern for our health and safety. It's no exaggeration to say that because of her, many Torontonians survived the pandemic. At that time, she was the City's COVID Czar and continues to be the community's lifesaver.

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DR. EILEEN DE VILLA

A Physician's Concern Saved

the Community from COVID

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” ― John F. Kennedy

TORONTO - An ongoing trial of a business owner who defied COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 has one of four respondents Dr. Eileen de Villa in her capacity as Toronto's Medical Officer of Health.

Daughter of two prominent Filipino physicians, she's well known in the Filipino community like her parents for their active involvement in community affairs. Her mom is cardiologist Dr. Maria Antonina "Nenette" de Villa, and her late dad, Dr. Guillermo "Jun" de Villa, was an obstetrician/gynecologist.

In May 2024, a year after conquering COVID-19, Dr. Eileen announced she would resign her position effective Dec. 31, 2024, to devote time to her family. In an interview with this reporter the following month, she responded to critics of her decision to control the spread of COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gicm7LdB8xI).

"The kinds of things . . . undertaken were always done with the best interests of the people of Toronto, thinking about their health and what would improve it and protect it the most," she explained then.

The litigation initiated by Adam Skelly, owner of Adamson barbecue in Etobicoke, revolves around constitutional issues that the province of Ontario, the City of Toronto, the City's Board of Health, and Dr. de Villa allegedly violated. It continues this week at the Superior Court of Ontario on University Ave.

Setting aside the politics, the legalities and the pros and cons of the lawsuit, I'd say that the health protocols Dr. de Villa had instituted and managed in the city helped a lot of people, myself included, in overcoming COVID-19.

Until now, questions were raised against the effectiveness of the vaccines and whether they were necessary in the face of rising number of cases and deaths attributed to COVID-19.

Despite some skepticism, vaccination "remains the most effective intervention for preventing severe outcomes of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death," according to Public Health Ontario.

Because I believe in science, I had no qualms getting vaccinated with either Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. In fact, I was one of the early residents who had to queue for hours to get my first vaccine in 2019.

Millions of Canadians have survived the COVID-19 pandemic due to availability of newly-developed vaccines and the unrelenting recommendation by health authorities to be immunized against the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) coronavirus.

As of April 2024, with a population of 38.39 million, Canada registered 4,946,090 cases of COVID-19 out of which 59,034 died, and 4,881,312 recovered. City-wide statistics for Toronto were not available as of this writing.

Compared that with the US (population: 334.8 million) where opposition to vaccines was robust, there were 111.82 million cases, 1.219 million deaths, and 109,814,428 recovered.

As a Toronto resident, I followed strictly the health bulletins coming out of Toronto Public Health Office, the largest public health agency in Canada which Dr. de Villa headed from 2017 to 2024 and had 2,486 employees operating under a $344,596,400 budget.

To me her edict was an expression of love, care, and concern for a family bigger than hers. Never for a moment did I doubt her sincerity in making sure everyone stayed healthy.

Knowing she's a medical professional and not a politician, a mother, and a Filipino was very comforting. That much trust and confidence I had, still have, for her, which I feel were enough to get one by, especially in moments of crises like the pandemic. That last description tells a lot because every Filipino equates to family values that put a premium on love and care.

I can't thank Dr. de Villa enough for her compelling advisories. And that gratitude is shared by family and friends who benefitted from her guidance and stayed healthy throughout the pandemic and beyond.

The lawsuit currently in litigation has prompted me to revisit Dr. de Villa's activities, primarily as the City's Medical Officer of Health, and as a member of the Filipino community. (Related video: Toronto Officials Urge Residents to Get Vaccinated). She's very much supportive of the arts. (Related video: Six-Day Art Show by Filipino Artists at Toronto City Hall).

Six-Day Art Show by Filipino Artists at Toronto City Hall

Her dad was instrumental in organizing the non-profit Filipino Centre Toronto (FCT) in 2000 and became its first chairman. Her mom is very much involved too. Yet their role in FCT has not been accorded the respect it deserves. It escapes me why there's not even a bio sketch of Dr. Guillermo "Jun" de Villa, Dr. Eileen's father, in the FCT website.

Instead, we see a bunch of what may be called "Johnny-come-latelyis" or what the dictionary says are "what you'd call someone who shows up late and then acts as if they're expert on whatever situation is at hand." Just to be clear, I don't mean to disrespect the three individuals FCT pays tribute to. And also, I don't mean this to be a brief against its current officials either.

However, it's a pity how FCT has devolved in recent years once it got millions of dollars from the sale of its old building. To get an idea why that is, just watch the videos below and read the articles listed here.

Saturday, 21 February 2026

1986 People Power Revolt: Defining Moment in Philippine History

Volume 7, Issue No. 40

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

Our latest as of Saturday, February 21, 2026

~ A news event 40 years ago this month had afforded journalists the chance to witness and be part of what had turned out to be a historical epic. That moment presented itself on February 22-25, 1986 in the Philippines' capital region. I watched and recorded that extraordinary occurrence as a foreign correspondent for an international news agency. Notwithstanding the dangers to life and limb typical in armed struggles, the event must be covered and reported like what hundreds of local and foreign journalists did on those fateful days.

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FEBRUARY 22-25, 1986 IN MANILA

The Breakaway That Turned

Into People Power Revolution

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” ― Thomas Paine

TORONTO - On the afternoon of February 22, a Saturday, 40 years ago, staff of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile informed local and foreign journalists that he was holding a press conference later in the day at his office at the Department of Defense headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

The briefing had been highly anticipated. And when it was announced, people knew something big was afoot. The situation then was at its boiling point.

At that time, the Philippines had two opposing claimants to the presidency, namely, Ferdinand E. Marcos, the incumbent at Malacanang Palace, and his challenger, Corazon C. Aquino, the housewife and widow of former senator Benigno Aquino who was assassinated at the airport in August 1983.

Enrile held the levers of power over the military. As such the unfolding scene had thrust him to the unenviable role of arbiter of an election dispute between two powerful forces. That reality soon became clear at his early evening press conference on Feb. 22, 1986.

I was there, and so were the hundreds of journalists from foreign countries who descended on Manila to cover what had been predicted as the coming fall of an ailing dictator, Marcos, who was president for nearly 20 years.

With General Fidel V. Ramos, chief of the Philippine Constabulary, at his side at the heavily-fortified camp, Enrile declared he was withdrawing support for Marcos. He emphasized he and Ramos now recognized Mrs. Aquino as the duly elected president in the Feb. 7 snap election Marcos himself had called.

It was a dramatic breakaway, a perilous one at that. Some sectors of the military still looked up to Marcos as their commander-in-chief. General Fabian Ver, the armed forces chief of staff, swore loyalty to him.

The Enrile-Ramos withdrawal from Marcos would soon turned into a popular uprising. At that very moment, the revolution had begun. What started as an expression of support for Mrs. Aquino by a segment of the military soon developed into a "people power" revolution unprecedented in modern Philippine history.

The Philippines has had revolts in the past against Spanish, American and Japanese colonizers, but this one in February 1986 had been monumental in the fact that Filipinos themselves rose up against one of their own.

Hundreds of journalists reported the story from within the camp, anticipating an attack by forces loyal to Marcos under the command of General Fabian Ver, his chief of staff.

Even as we were fearful of what might happen, a visiting colleague from dpa (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) in Hamburg and I, and many other journalists, stayed there to cover, hopeful it would not result in a bloodbath between two factions of the military.

In our mind, either one of these two realities could happen. One, the massacre of civilians if the military loyal to Marcos tried to crush it; and two, the abdication of Marcos to pave the way for a peaceful transfer of power.

As it were, hundreds of journalists, local and foreign, could potentially be caught in the crossfire. However, that tension-filled day passed without incident.

February 22 was just the beginning. The wick was lit with the Enrile-Ramos breakaway. And that further evolved into a full-scale revolution once the archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin, summoned his Catholic flock to protect the rebels in Camp Aguinaldo.

And so in the days following up to February 25, Marcos fled to Hawaii and the housewife Corazon "Cory" Aquino was sworn into office as the eleventh president of the Philippines. (Video at: A New Day Dawns in the Philippines in February 1986).

A New Day Dawns in the Philippines in February 1986

The "People Power Revolution" on February 22-25, 1986 - that watershed moment in Philippine history - is the only revolution I witnessed and experienced as a foreign correspondent working for the international news agency dpa (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) based in Hamburg, Germany.

Prior to that, I covered for the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun the major events preceding it, namely, the declaration of martial law on September 21, 1972, and the assassination of Benigno Aquino on August 21, 1983 at the Manila International Airport.

It's been 40 years and the euphoria of that golden moment seems to have been gone. (Related video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8-B9rGHoXw)

During a visit to the Philippines in February 2018, I attended a photo exhibit by photojournalist Sonny Camarillo chronicling the People Power Revolution. I had the chance to do a brief interview with him. (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIi0EMVWRt8 and interview at the 15:23 mark). (Copyright 2026. All Rights Reserved).

Saturday, 14 February 2026

Loving the Songs and Poems on Valentine's Day

Volume 7, Issue No. 39

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

Our latest as of Saturday, February 14, 2026

~ Today is not even a holiday. Nonetheless, there's no reason not to celebrate and reflect on those moments whenever Valentine's Day, February 14, comes, and in our situation, in the closing days of winter. The love songs, poems, and stories are a good shield to ward off the chill and subzero temperatures.

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MEMORIES OF TIMES PAST

Loving the Songs, Poems,

Stories on Valentine's Day

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“I love thee with a love that shall not die. Till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old.” ― William Shakespeare

TORONTO - Love songs, love poems, love stories - everyone must have experienced any of those, or everything, growing up and growing old, which means through the passage of time.

At a young age, the first love songs I heard flowed from an analog radio the size of a shoe box. Not of my choosing, but because my mother had her list of programs to listen to while doing the house chores.

I learned to like Only You by the Platters, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing and Three Coins in the Fountain by the Four Aces, Can't Help Falling in Love with You, Love Me Tender and Are You Lonesome Tonight by Elvis Presley, Till by Shirley Bassey, Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, Two for the Road by Henry Mancini, and many others.

At that early age, I developed a strong liking for ballads. Among us in the family, what we fondly call our "national anthem" is Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, my mother's favorite.

In college, poetry absorbed me from that moment I attended a poetry reading. The auditorium was half-packed with freshmen and sophomores sharing an interest in literature.

Shortly before the reading started, one of the organizers lit a solitary candle and turned off the light. Then the music filled the room after which a classmate emerged from the dark and began reading by candle light.

I didn't know it then, but the background music that played was Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, famously the score in the movie Somewhere in Time. (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQEpknjUeZg)

The emotion that went with the poem and the music, plus the romantic ambience in that auditorium, never left me to this day. I fell in love with poetry. And my affection grew for classical music.

The love stories of that period still smoulder even with age. Years later as a working student, I remember Rico Puno's insert of these Tagalog lines "alaala/nang tayo'y mag-sweetheart pa/namamasyal pa sa Luneta/nang walang pera" in his version of Barbra Streisand's The Way We Were. (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Um7cqW5olc)

That was quite a hit at that time. I can personally relate to it, I mean the Tagalog insertions, because it portrayed exactly the situation I was in with three of my closest friends as we celebrated a birthday at the Luneta.

Wandering around the whole day with so little money to spend was surely disappointing. But with close friends sharing a blissful day was enough to make up for what we lacked. And it wasn't even Valentine's Day, which was to come two months later.

As time passed, the Original Pilipino Music, the outgrowth of Manila Sound, came into being with such love songs as Ikaw, Pers Lab, Kapantay ay Langit, Ikaw Lang ang Mamahalin, Ngayon at Kailan Man, Bato sa Buhangin, and Gaano Kita Kamahal, among many others. (Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chl-3w0dQ20).