3 in 1: Who Is 'Amba,' 'Congen,' 'Consul' of Little Manila?

Volume 1, Issue No. 24

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, January 8, 2020 

~ What would have been a significant workers' support system in Ontario by a Filipino company was nipped in the bud by other Filipinos envious of its lucrative earning potential. As it now appears, an orchestrated campaign to put down the owners and the business itself is being untangled by people who knew. The ultimate comeuppance occurred when the Superior Court trashed the complaints against the businesswoman, thus exposing the evil minds behind the stunt.

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WEAPONIZING TASTE OF MANILA FESTIVAL

Dismissal Triggers Revenge 

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“A deceitful tongue will always be good at twisting the truth.” ― Dennis Adonis

TORONTO - Over the last six years, the sole community event that has grown by leaps and bounds was the Taste of Manila (ToM) street festival in what has now come to be known as Little Manila in the city's North York district. 

Since 2014, the number of attendees has defied traditional expectations, rising exponentially from then to an all-time high in 2019 of 400,000 people by the most conservative of estimates. Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2019-08-23T11:00:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=14&by-date=false(Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nICEcg3G0us).

ToM made a name for itself, easily turning its annual observance into a place to be seen and heard, particularly for politicians courting voter support and for talents aspiring for that moment of fame.

It has also generated a lot of business for the established and struggling ventures, which leads to the question of why ToM seems to be saddled with financial problems from the get-go.

In 2018, Toronto Mayor John Tory rescued it from sure catastrophe organizers had blamed on the huge financial drain on its resources, if such existed at all. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3djfjNVR8Q). 

From ToM's inception to public staging, the undisputed founder is the middle-aged Rolly Mangante, a retired employee at the Philippine Consulate in Toronto. His work had afforded him access to meetings where his main principal - in his case, the Philippine consul general - was involved.

One such gathering was the consultation between Toronto police authorities headed by former Chief Bill Blair (now Member of Parliament), Superintendent Jane Wilcox, Sergeant Philip Mendoza, and the then Consul General Pedro Chan, on the feasibility of holding a Filipino festival in the city. 

How Mangante ended up being there among top officials was inexplicable, after all, he was just a minor functionary at the consulate. He explained in an interview in July 2014 that the idea of a taste of Manila was already being discussed as early as December 2008 but didn't get enough traction. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHSJbnIkH7M) 

From what he said at that time, it appeared that the authorities were lukewarm to the festival. So the proposal laid dormant for years until Mangante took it upon himself to revive it and claimed ownership although the original idea was not his.

Mangante did not exactly create ToM. On the contrary, it was ToM that begot him. Without meaning to boast, I must admit here and now that I contributed significantly to Mangante's emergence as a recognized community leader.

His old job at the consulate gave him some prestige both real and imagined. Punsters mocked him as "ambassador" or "congen" (consul general). Caregivers interviewed for this story said he told them to call him "consul". Either way, Mangante dressed up for a post he never had in actuality. Appearances mattered and he knew it.

My video of the August 2016 ToM where Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the main guest had life-changing impact for Mangante. It established him after Mr. Trudeau, in a rousing speech before a big crowd in Little Manila, called him "Tito Rolly". For the rest of the Liberal MPs in the Greater Toronto Area, he was Tito Rolly. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8EHGFKIKsw).

As a matter of fact, Mangante capitalized on that video to win over sponsors from the Philippines for the August 2017 staging of ToM. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHamEsgMYmI). 

One of ToM's major sponsors that year was A&L Hammer Workforce Management, whose owners - the couple Allan and Lily Hammer aka Liwayway Miranda - were present during the two-day event in Little Manila.

Mangante was already hired as a driver for the Toronto-based firm. He was given a decent salary, a Mercedes Benz sedan for both his personal and professional use, an iPhone, among other perks. Several months later, January 2018 to be exact, Ms. Hammer fired him.

Apparently, all the while Mangante had been snooping into the company's operations. He was suspected of feeding information to a fledgling labor recruitment office of which he was supposedly an investor. As things turned out, he was a proxy for people who have no status in Canada.

Mangante did not take his dismissal kindly. He had to take his revenge.

In April 2018, A&L Hammer Workforce Management hosted a gala ball for guests and supporters to celebrate the opening of its agricultural training centre. Among the guests were Philippine Congressmen Roy Loyola and Maximo Rodriguez Jr. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WONotKxTTWw).

Canadian officials who earlier graced the 2017 ToM and met with the Hammers, among them MPs Marco Mendicino, Michael Levitt, and Ahmed Hussein; Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne; and Toronto Mayor John Tory, were noticeably absent in the affair.

Mangante appeared to have succeeded in dissuading them from attending what was to have been a landmark support system in Canada for Filipino overseas workers. He had wormed his way by guile into their confidence and managed to convince them to boycott the event.

According to people who saw and heard him, Mangante was bragging about his success in denigrating Ms. Hammer, his former employer, and her company, which stood in the way of the recruitment firm Mangante and friends were putting up.

Ms. Hammer said the snub by Canadian officials was connected with Mangante's sacking. "He wanted to get even," she explained.

But this whole episode was just part of a bigger picture which emerged bit by bit later. Out of the blue came wild accusations that Ms. Hammer was engaged in human trafficking and misrepresentation - allegations fanned by people linked to Mangante and his aborted business venture.

On December 11, 2019, all the imputations against Ms. Hammer came to naught. The Superior Court of Ontario threw them away, convinced by the Crown that no evidence exists to prosecute her and a colleague.

Mangante, meanwhile, goes around selling his stolen idea of the Taste of Manila this year. Would his friends who call him "Tito Rolly" still support him after finding out that he's working against the community's interests and promoting his secret agenda? Why is Taste of Manila not earning anything? (Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved).