FUN Philippines Festival July 23-24

Volume 3, Issue No. 48

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 Thursday, April 28, 2022 

~ For the first time in more than two years, Filipinos and other revelers from across Canada, the United States, and the Philippines will have an in-person, face-to-face interaction with one another in light to moderate summer heat during the "FUN Philippines Toronto Street Festival" on July 23-24 in the city's Little Manila neighborhood. FUN here might as well be the acronym for Filipinos Unwind Nicely for its promise of a "positive, happy, vibrant, colorful" event.

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JULY 23-24 IN TORONTO'S LITTLE MANILA

Filipinos Unwind Nicely in Summer Fest

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Enjoy life! Celebrate life! Sit back and relax to the finest moments of your life.” – Unknown

TORONTO - With a view to promoting the Philippines and not just one part of it, a community-based organization is launching what it calls "FUN Philippines Toronto Street Festival" at the very epicenter of Filipino communal and commercial activities at the junction of Wilson Ave. and Bathurst St. in this city's North York district. 

The festivities of culture, entertainment, fellowship, and food along a one-kilometer stretch of Bathurst St. in the Little Manila neighborhood take place on the weekend of July 23-24, according to published announcements by the Philippine Legacy and Cultural Alliance (PLACA).

While the venue sounds familiar, FUN Philippines' similarity with Taste of Manila (ToM) festivals ends there. ToM is already defunct - dead in the water, as one might say - since two years ago and is being desperately revived by three purported not-for-profit organizations whose only track record was stealing film footage of past ToM events from the Filipino Web Channel. 

(Background video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ. Full stories at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/lies-incompetence-teem-in-proposed-2022.html and https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/who-exactly-is-going-to-run-2022-taste.html).

Chaired by Lino Eroma, PLACA is the non-profit organization responsible for the unprecedented success of the 2019 ToM. Prior to that, it had undertaken two community events - the flag-raising ceremony at Bathurst-Wilson Parkette and the Filipino Heritage Month in Scarborough. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la7FFScjnEQ). From February through March 2022, PLACA also had a weekly virtual presentation - the Filipinos Making Waves Festival (facebook@placatvtoronto).

"Colourful and vibrant parades will make their way on Saturday and Sunday showcasing Philippine regional festivals that even the visitors can participate in," PLACA said in announcing FUN Philippines this week.

That FUN is spelled in capital letters makes the emphasis evident. To me, it means either one, or all three, of these: Filipinos Unwind Nicely, Filipinos Unwind Noisily, and Filipinos Unwind Now. 

Whatever one chooses, the prospect of full enjoyment is there . . . in a smorgasbord of Filipino cuisine and native delicacies either in dine-in restos and food booths; live music, street dancing, and face-to-face conversations with friends and kindred folks over summer favorites like halo-halo, sago-gulaman, pineapple, coconut, boba, among others.

FUN (or Fun, yes, pun intended), is expected to be a happy outburst of pent-up energy from over two years of isolation, lockdowns, quarantine, and physical distancing prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. - rpm

Here is PLACA's press statement posted on Facebook:

FUN Philippines derives inspiration from Philippine tourism campaigns as it seeks to address the need for inclusivity and true representation to mainstream Canada and internationally through its event name.

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. But the country's vibrant culture spreads in more than 7,000 islands, with each region offering its unique set of culture through distinct dialects, cuisine, values and activities.

Colorful and vibrant parades showcasing Philippine regional festivals will make its way on both days. Lively street activities, cultural installations and live entertainment will complete the festive atmosphere.

Through a continued partnership with the largest Philippine media company globally, TFC or The Filipino Channel will bring celebrities and performers from the Philippines. Well-loved local performers from Canada will also entertain the festival visitors through a concert and street party.

FUN Philippines hopes to encourage reconnection between and among families and friends after the pandemic, while also supporting participating local businesses recover and thrive.

FUN is positive, happy, vibrant, colorful - everything that the event is and aims to be. (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).

Lies, Incompetence Teem in Proposed 2022 Taste of Manila

Volume 3, Issue No. 47

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 Monday, April 25, 2022 

~ Sheltering in the comfort of alleged not-for-profit organizations. proponents of a 2022 Taste of Manila festival continue to fail the smell test of transparency. The veneer they have built around themselves is dubious and only highlights the length to which they're willing to go to hide crucial information about themselves and the purported NFPs that would manage the event if ever it materialized in summer.

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PROMOTERS TEEM WITH IGNORANCE, INCOMPETENCE

Proposed 2022 ToM Is a Lie in Progress

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” 

― Martin Luther King Jr.

TORONTO - There's enough public display of ignorance and incompetence to say the people proposing to mount a Taste of Manila (ToM) this summer are ill-fitted to handle such a monstrous job.

One embarrassing gaffe after another trails them while they promote themselves as the new agents of a street festival whose very concept was stolen from high officials by a driver sitting in at a conference and who later on declared it was his own. (Video at: (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ). ).

In a nutshell, that was how ToM came into being. Rolly Mangante, the self-promoted ToM founder, worked as a chauffeur at the Philippine Consulate. Even as he held no significant position there, he had the chutzpah to claim he established ToM in 2014.

That was the first big lie.

Six yearly stagings later, a new breed of role players has burst from the rabbit holes of Little Manila, the busy neighborhood of Filipino stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and favorite hang-out of unlicensed vendors hawking backyard produce and kakanins. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/01/little-manila-is-where-rogues-rumours.html).

In one of the vintage buildings that had undergone countless refurbishings dwell the offices of three ghostly not-for-profit organizations that include a small room disguised as a social media station and radio outlet for a quartet of talking heads, namely, Cecille Araneta, Ramon Datol aka Mondee, Rolly Mangante, and Danna Luna aka Lovely.

Each has already made a name even before ToM could launch.

The chubby, all-smiling Araneta, allegedly the president of International Entertainment Company (IEC), has attracted some discomfiture for ignorantly declaring that the jeepney is "the national car" of the Philippines. 

She's loose if not untouched with bits of history. What she said sounded funny but is actually wrong, thus eliciting a quip from commentator Frank Luna: ". . . and the tricycle is the national taxi". (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdTnX700_a8). Ha ha ha.

The short and stocky Ramon Datol who really is not "that tall" in the order of things landed himself in a faux Guinness Book of Stupidities for unilaterally issuing a "ruling" on copyrights extricating his group after they were caught red-handed stealing video content from my YouTube channel.

Foaming at the side of his mouth, he stated as if knowledgeable in the law: "The Taste of Manila who owns the Taste of Manila owns any videos that have been shown . . . YouTube, Facebook, and any other application." (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU).

Datol had other fantasies. He saw himself as chief executive of the town of Richmond Hill, a part of the Greater Toronto Area which became a city in 2019, so he ran for mayor in the 2006 municipal election. He smiled broadly, extending from ear to ear when friends and supporters called him "mayor" Mondee.

The tease that turned honorific lasted for the duration of the election period. His aspiration crashed when the final votes came in. Out of four candidates, he landed fourth place with a paltry 962 votes compared to the thousands his opponents received.

But it wasn't this attempt for public office that is so well-remembered, neither its political significance nor the votes he garnered. What stayed in the public consciousness is the amount of moolah he raised for his candidacy.

The buzz - told and retold by people who did not want to be identified - is that soon after the polls, he rewarded himself with a vacation in some European destinations allegedly using the money acquired from election donors.

Rolly Mangante who loves being mistaken for consul general for overdressing the real consul general, and equally likes to be called "amba" for ambassador, had struggled to find the correct English word to express himself.

In one meeting, he decried the prospect of advancing money for payment of fees. Forking out money, he said, meant "abonizing" the amount from their own pockets and getting reimbursed later. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/01/3-in-1-who-is-amba-congen-consul-of.html).

For all her "pa-beauty" posturings, very few, if at all, knew Danna Luna aka Lovely was an "international reporter" for a Miami, Florida-based photographers association. Wow, that's impressive . . . if true.

I spent a significant part of my journalism career as a foreign correspondent for two worldwide news agencies but I swear I never heard of her. Maybe she has been covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and lately, in Ukraine. Be careful Danna. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/international-journalist-in-taste-of.html).

With their varying backgrounds and a tendency to mask things up, it is difficult to understand, let alone put trust in these people bent on remaking themselves through the convenience of a ToM festival. For one, the not-for-profit organizations and purported companies they represent are practically non-existent. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/who-exactly-is-going-to-run-2022-taste.html).

The proposal by the quartet, and I mean Araneta, Datol, Mangante, and Luna, to hold a ToM festival in summer is the second big lie, actually a lie in progress. 

It's fraught with danger if I might say, to the city which (heaven forbid!) might partially fund it, to sponsors and vendors who could end up scammed, and to the community at large being led to believe they're supporting a Filipino venture for their welfare but is actually intended to potentially enrich the organizers.

The experience of past ToMs is a cautionary tale. An undetermined amount of cash went missing. Some organizers had flown the coop. Vendors sought refunds. Handlers came and went without notice. In the end, ToM had gone bankrupt.

The last thing I want to do is to ascribe ill motives to the group of Araneta, Datol, Mangante, and Luna. But there are outstanding questions and issues needing resolution. Who is funding them? Do they deserve assistance from the city?

If what Araneta said is true that ToM, as she stated "is not for me because I have money already", then what about the others who don't have money?

The implication of that statement is truly worrisome. Did she unwittingly spill the real motive for proposing to stage ToM? Is that not like saying that since one doesn't have money, so therefore ToM is for that person? Do they view ToM as a cash cow to be milked?

Araneta has not been forthright about her so-called non-profit International Entertainment Company (IEC). And neither are Mangante and company's alleged International Taste of Manila (ITM) under PESO or Philippine Community Events and Services Ontario, and "Taste of Manila 2021 Virtual Event Presentation" which are also claimed as not-for-profit organizations.

Luna, the alleged "international reporter" who supposedly owns a media house called "iLUV.tv" is just as shady as the company she purports to represent in ToM. Her website - www.lunatronix.ca - is forever unreachable.

If indeed they are NFPs, why is there a dearth of information about them and their officers? No track record exists that they have done some public events for the community.

From hours of research in available government records, all I can say is the absence of information like registration of NFPs, the list of officers, date of founding, etc. suggests the NFPs are obscure agencies banking on the say-so of the constantly-talking quartet. 

What really is their end game? Money, and more money? (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).

Absurdities in the Planned 2022 Taste of Manila

Volume 3, Issue No. 46

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 Friday, April 22, 2022 

~ Mondee is not exactly the kind of talking head who could be trusted with his words. He speaks with a forked tongue not infrequently but almost every time he opens his piehole, which means from the moment he starts foaming at the mouth. He talks needlessly, senselessly. tirelessly. Mondee is one of the comic characters - the others are, in the order of absurdity, a Cecille Araneta, a Rolly Mangante, and a Danna Luna, to name a few - lusting to have a Taste of Manila festival in summer. 

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'BRAINS' BEHIND PROPOSED TASTE OF MANILA

The Goofy, Sillyspeak of a Brainless Podcaster

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt". - Abraham Lincoln

TORONTO - For a time, I thought that this guy endearingly called by caregivers as "Mondee" was a full-blooded journalist. I was of the belief that since he was peddling himself as a sportswriter in the Philippines before moving to Toronto, he must be good.

I knew several sportswriters in the homeland, having worked with them, not in the sports desk in particular, but in the paper's sprawling editorial department where each wing such as business, entertainment, society, etc. was delineated by a bank of tables and typewriters. I reported for the news section.

Sportswriters are a creative lot, their language precise and colorful. They made up for what cameras are today in describing action, for example, in boxing and basketball, in vivid detail. Newspaper readers would be able to visualize what's happening in the ring or in the basketball court as exactly as it is happening.

One of the best sportswriters of the time was Teddy Benigno, who graduated from sportswriting to Manila bureau chief of Agence France Presse to press secretary of President Corazon Aquino. I also remember Abraham "Abe" Dingle, Bert Cuevas, and Gus Villanueva - all of whom I had interacted in various capacities at The Manila Chronicle, The Times Journal, and as a foreign correspondent with Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

They reported their stories in a blink, beating deadlines after deadlines, without missing a beat in composing articles based on notes and a good memory. There are many more. And because of them, I had high respect for this breed of newspapermen. So when somebody says he's a sportswriter, my admiration grows fonder.

I recall now my first meeting here with a dear departed friend, Tenny Soriano, who introduced me to what looked like a short and stocky fellow named Mon Datol or Ramon Datol aka Mondee. He's not tall despite the way he paints himself as "The Tall Order", which of course rhymes with his last name.

Datol is "that tall" among the lonely caregivers he had convinced to be potential beauty queens for his money-making venture "Anghel ng Tahanan". Did he exploit them financially and sexually? One time, however, he told me after a meeting at the Philippine Consulate on Eglinton that he was in a hurry to meet up with a date, who turned up to be one of the candidates for "Anghel".

I had the first impression that Mondee, as he repeatedly asserted, was a sportswriter. I did not doubt it then. As time went by, however, he was debunking his own declaration. Lacking depth and substance, his articles and commentaries - in Taglish (the combination of Tagalog and English) - are the best proof that he was more into rumor-mongering than journalism.

If Mondee was truly a sportswriter, he must be at the very bottom of the editorial hierarchy, a cub needing guidance in the basic fundamentals of news writing, and grammar. His rag sheet, the Philippine Courier, which apparently does not exist anymore, reflects his sorry situation.

His side activities are suspect. For example, why is he preoccupied with beauty contests of the worst kind, that which I believe exploit unsuspecting women, mostly caregivers, the very people we ought to protect from predators? Why does he write and talk nonsense in his imbecilic podcast when he was supposed to be a journalist? Was it money, sex, or both? C'mon Mondee, be forthright. 

His tabloid had two slogans, one, "we deliver the truth" and two, "the truth will set you free", the latter lifted from the Bible, John 8:32, but not attributed. Mondee seems to have a habit of picking up (including women?) from someone without giving credit to the source.

That's what happened to my videos. He and his cohorts (somebody suggests calling them "gang of thieves") pirated important excerpts from my videos, manipulated the images, and strung them together like it was their original work. I got wind of the steal recently and I strongly condemn what they did.

"A free press is what The Philippine Courier is all about," says its website. I now believe this declaration is being interpreted by Mondee and his gang as a command to take anything that fancies them for free and without charge. Well, my videos are not just there for the taking, particularly by a group with questionable motives.

What truth are they going to deliver? Well, I propose that they straighten themselves out. Who are the unidentified people behind the three purported not-for-profit groups lusting to have Taste of Manila under their wings? Who is Ramon Datol, Cecille Araneta, Rolly Mangante, Danna Luna, and others in real life? Are they the "gang of thieves"?

Mondee tried to justify the steal with this statement during a press conference on Sunday, April 10, 2022, and I quote: "The Taste of Manila who owns the Taste of Manila owns any videos that have been shown . . . YouTube, Facebook, and any other application." 

If such affirmation were made by a judge in a court of law, it would be a landmark decision that would overturn long-held precedents and case law in countries that have copyright laws.

Mondee explains further, and I quote: "You won't have your videos if there is no Taste of Manila. You did not ask Taste of Manila founder and the president to have videos on that". (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU).

Suddenly the person who stole the idea of Taste of Manila and claimed it's his has been empowered by Mondee, or shall I say Judge Mondee. In reality, Mondee sometimes sits down as a judge in beauty contests that exploit our women. What a prick! (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).

'International Journalist' in Taste of Manila? Holy Moly!

Volume 3, Issue No. 45

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, April 20, 2022 

~ Should we exalt or should we be wary? Someone among the proponents of a new Taste of Manila festival is surprisingly an "international journalist", i.e. if we go by what a press card says. There's also the honcho of a purported not-for-profit to handle ToM who appears to be the principal of a non-existing (?) printing service that advertised itself in a ToM talk show. What else is there that the Filipino community doesn't know?

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IS THERE MORE WE DON'T KNOW?

Not-So-Secret Secrets of ToM Officials

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses". - George Bernard Shaw

TORONTO - The deeper I dig into the backgrounds of known personages involved in the proposed 2022 Taste of Manila (ToM) festival, the more I get startled by what I uncover. However slowly I lift the lid, what comes out reeks.

Forgive me for not knowing soon, but one eye-opener I found hiding in plain sight is Danna Luna aka Lovely Danna aka Lovely Luna who, according to a video, is the "marketing/logistic director" and "host" of Taste of Manila.

Lean, fashionable, always coiffed, and tall (because of stiletto), she's the one with a model's look, very much unlike the other women in ToM who, maybe due to physical inactivity, are plump and matronly.

Based on what she has posted on Facebook, Danna appears to be an "international journalist". I put that in quotation marks because I really haven't seen or read anything that would affirm that. 

Well, for starters, she could live up to that name by helping ToM untangle itself from the mess it has created in stealing film footage from my videos. Stealing is both illegal and unethical, isn't it?

She had a "Press Reporter Card" as of end 2021 issued by the "International Association of Press Photographers" (IAPP), apparently based in Miami, Florida, which, according to its account, "is an independent association of journalists which is not only internationally active, but also ranks among the largest associations in the industry".

Holy moly! How lucky the Filipino community should be! In Little Manila where she's based, people haven't realized that they have an "international journalist" in their midst. 

All these years, I didn't know she was a media colleague. Ano'ng balita Danna? as one associate would greet another. Instead of a hi, close friends say What's up, Dude? How is it going, Dude?

I learn from its website that IAPP charges US$96 for standard international membership and US$114 for professional international membership. How membership in each category is vetted, and by whom, is not clear; there's no information on that. 

The fee, however, is twice as much compared to the Toronto-based National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, the Reporters Without Borders, and the Investigative Reporters & Editors where I previously held membership.

My own experience with press clubs was much different. Aside from an editor's recommendation, one has to present a body of work (news clippings, photos, videos) documenting the journalism practice, the areas of coverage, expertise in a given field, specialization if any, and editorial positions held.

Those requirements would help establish the authenticity of one's claim as a journalist. The process makes sure no fake journalist gets an identification card that one can use to access areas and events usually denied to any regular guy.

Owning a camera or holding it in a community event does not make one a photojournalist. I mention this only because I am reminded of a former ToM official, a passport photographer, who had boasted of his membership in the local press club and weaponized it to threaten people. 

He was so emboldened to the point that he lured young women to his studio. Later, the police arrested and charged him with one count of sexual assault of a 28-year-old woman.

Anyway, technical advances in electronics gave birth to "citizen journalists". A fine example is that of a young woman who recorded on her phone the arrest and murder by police of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2020.

This past weekend, I got tired reading this book, a collection of the finest stories in The New Yorker titled The 40s, The History of a Decade so I switched to watching a video on YouTube of a 2020 "Tinig ng Bayan" talk show of Rolly Mangante, the alleged founder of Taste of Manila (ToM) festival, and Cecille Araneta, the so-called head of the claimed not-for-profit International Entertainment Company (IEC).

The duo plus podcaster Ramon Datol and Danna Luna are the principals that call the shots in the coming ToM, if ever it will materialize in summer. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU).

I honestly wasted more than hour watching and listening to Mangante and Araneta chatted about what the "bayan" wanted to know, but I need to see what that program was all about. I said to myself that if this was the kind of programming being dispensed to the community, then we're all fucked! Is Datol not enough?

Well, I had to endure the nonsense to get an idea of what a ToM talk show is. During the commercial break, I noticed that one of the advertisers is a company called "iexcel media" or "iexcel printing services" or "iexcel media printing services". 

What really caught my attention is the name inscribed in the ad, which is "Cecille Araneta" with a phone number and an address at 3770 Bathurst St., the same area where three purported not-for-profit entities are quartered, namely, International Taste of Manila (ITM) under PESO or Philippine Community Events and Services Ontario, the International Entertainment Company (IEC), and "Taste of Manila 2021 Virtual Event Presentation". 

After exhausting my time looking, I finally came to believe that this, again, is a dummy agency. It's no different from the other enterprise Araneta supposedly heads, the International Entertainment Company (IEC).

Oh, by the way, did you know that the Philippines has already a "national car". It's the jeepney, according to Araneta. Whew! How can her brain fail her? (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).

Who Exactly Is Going to Run 2022 Taste of Manila?

 Volume 3, Issue No. 44

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 Monday, April 18, 2022 

~ Two, or possibly three, purported not-for-profit organizations have popped out recently to handle a new Taste of Manila festival being planned for summer in Toronto's unofficial Little Manila business district. There's hardly any information about them and their alleged officials that would help determine their financial standing, experience, competence, and reliability as events organizers. Are they fly-by-night operators? Is the ToM they're proposing genuine, or is that an elaborate con game to victimize sponsors, vendors, and the community? 

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PLANNED TASTE OF MANILA 2022

Fly-By-Night Orgs Behind Street Festival?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Secrets have a way of making themselves felt, even before you know there's a secret.” ― Jean Ferris

TORONTO - The conduct of the so-called press conference by a new group proposing to resuscitate the Taste of Manila (ToM) festival this summer has set off alarm bells and a handful of key questions involving the organizers, the invited guests, and the local media.

The most revealing that came out of that scrum was the answer to points I raised about funding, no less from Toronto City Councillor James Pasternak who represents the area that had been home to the street fest from 2014 through 2019. 

He clarified his part in what's now evolving as a serious breach to the integrity and trustworthiness of both the so-called not-for-profit (NFP) organizations and the people behind them who appear set on staging this year's ToM.

The NFPs have stolen film footage of past ToM events, manipulated the original contents, and uploaded patched-up videos on their social media platforms without acknowledging the source nor giving credit to the owner and first creator, which is The Filipino Web Channel.

"I don't know the situation about the videos so I can't comment on it," Pasternak explained at the press conference called by ToM organizers and supporters at Top Silog restaurant on Sunday, April 10, 2022. 

He seemed, or pretended, to be unaware that his picture has been spliced into one of the pilfered footage showing Member of Parliament Marco Mendicino and Mayor John Tory which was then uploaded on YouTube as ToM's virtual presentation.

Similarly, images of Cecille Araneta, reportedly the head of an NFP called International Entertainment Company, and Nieves Mangante, wife of Rolly Mangante, alleged founder of ToM, have been inserted in another footage that made up the whole stolen video. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ).

With his brief explanation, Pasternak, a three-termer city official who is seeking a fourth term in the October election, was obviously distancing himself from the controversy. 

I don't know if he was simply pleading innocence. He may or may not have been informed that his picture was being used to legitimize a steal from which, I suppose, the NFPs earned a decent sum from sponsors. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_Rx_lgI8f8).

However, my suspicion is bolstered by the sight of Pasternak being buddy-buddy with the organizers, the kind of interaction I had not seen in the six years of my ToM coverage. Add to that the patronizing comments of fawning podcaster Ramon Datol who glowingly introduced him to the crowd with a reminder that Pasternak was running for reelection in the upcoming polls.

I believe Pasternak is well-intentioned in helping reduce the city's costs for ToM organizers. To be fair, he did the same in previous years. But knowing this new group with questionable credentials has no existing track record to mount such a huge community event, he could have been more prudent in dealing with them.

At the press gaggle last week, I keep wondering why, first, none among the NFPs had an identifying tag that would have indicated names, positions, and the organization. Presumably, everyone was comfortable if not closely familiar with each other. 

I know some by their faces but whatever their roles are in holding ToM are totally alien to me. The presence and participation of a suspicious community character who had been accused of attempting to rape a media colleague really bothered me a lot. Why do they harbor this sex-starved fellow?

A second question that's quite disturbing is the absence of legitimate media - the publishers, editors, and their staff - who usually show up at such events. Compare to the 2014 launching attended by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford (video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_NaPxZg8XE), last week's announcement looked like a gathering of a bunch of cheering nincompoops.

Did the local media deliberately boycott the event because of what they knew about the people now fronting as the administrators who want to salvage ToM from its moribund situation? Did they believe their presence would amount to an implicit endorsement of the group?

Third, a two-page piece of paper handed to attendees contained scant information about International Entertainment Company (IEC), the purported NFP headed by Cecille Araneta, and the Taste of Manila (ToM) as a corporate entity.

I suspect - and this is my own considered opinion - that IEC is a fly-by-night operative. I could be wrong, and I'm ready to be corrected. But the hours I spent searching official Ontario and Toronto websites yielded nothing to expunge that perception.

IEC's only internet presence is on YouTube showing that it popped out of nowhere on April 5, 2022, with a total of twenty-nine (29) views of its nine videos of individuals. That's hardly "international" in any language. It has two subscribers, who could be the owner and the spouse.

An interesting portrayal of IEC is the four-minute-and-14-second text-only, no visuals, video titled "end credits" that was uploaded also on April 5, 2022. If this date is IEC's birthday, how could it suddenly be the major player in ToM? And if the city is going to waive some fees, it should first investigate.

The "end credits" state that, and I quote verbatim, "Taste of Manila 2021 Virtual Event Presentation is a non-profit organization that uses local talent to entertain the viewers using covers in celebrating Filipino Festival that was interrupted by the recent pandemic. In lieu of Street Festivities, the organization turned to Virtual Event Presentation to thank and honour survivors, heroes, and everyone affected by the recent adversity".

It's badly written - and disrespectful of the basic rules of grammar - but I do get the point. In other words, two, possibly three, identical organizations exist - one, Araneta's IEC, and two, the "Taste of Manila 2021 Virtual Event Presentation". There's nothing on official websites to show this last organization is listed as an NFP.

Apparently, there's a third which also appeared in the "end credits", namely, the "International Taste of Manila Inc." where the names Cecille Araneta, Ramon Datol, Eduard Que, Ian Santillan, and Jim Torres are identified. Again, the purported company is nowhere to be found.

Rolly Mangante, the retired driver of the Philippine Consulate and self-proclaimed founder of Taste of Manila, is identified as the "founding president and CEO Taste of Manila Festival." It seems it's all bluster.

There's a clear attempt to confuse here possibly to escape accountability in case of a mess up. That strengthens my view on why Araneta refused to answer my question about paying for the stolen footage and passed on the responsibility to Ramon Datol whose answer was just as evasive if not moronic. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU). (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).