New Org to Manage Taste of Manila in 2023

Volume 4, Issue No. 19

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, October 19, 2022 

~ The silence is broken by a trickle of information that the foremost Filipino street festival in Canada has contracted a new group to manage its event next year. That's the pleasant way of saying it. Absent any statement from officials, we can only speculate the obverse side of what's happening - and that is the Taste of Manila has tossed out the "Tuloy ang Saya" tandem of Ramon Datol aka Mondee and Cecille Araneta who both headed the purported not-for-profit International Entertainment Company that managed the recently-concluded ToM 2022. 

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EXIT I.E.C., IN COMES SPARC

ToM Tosses Out Mondee, Araneta?

A Group Called SPARC to Run Taste of Manila 2023

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy

TORONTO - "The early bird catches the worm" is a proverb that means "someone will have an advantage if they do something immediately, or before other people do it". Another dictionary meaning is "the person who arrives first is the one who is successful".

Well, the figurative "early bird" is the Taste of Manila (ToM), the street festival resurrected from the pandemic by a team of slick cheats and staged in August 2022. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/new-org-eyes-holding-taste-of-manila.html).

Still a good 10 months away, a new organization fancifully named Society of Philippine Artists, Recreation and Community (SPARC) is itching to advance ToM's age by leaping the chronological calendar a full year from its birth in August 2014. 

From that point to next year on August 2023, Taste of Manila - the trade name, not the street festival - would be nine (9) years old. The fest itself was even younger, five years old, when it breathed last due to the pandemic.

But even before the coronavirus struck, ToM already teetered on the edge of downfall in 2018 had it not been rescued by Toronto authorities headed by Mayor John Tory who apparently waived fees ToM organizers could not afford to pay. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8o2o8D4Xpk&t=184s).

The ToM event practically died after its last staging in 2019 through the pandemic years, thus my reference to it as the historical ToM or ToM 2014-2019. It came back this year, thus the post-pandemic Taste of Manila 2022 (ppToM 2022).

The in-between ToMs (years 2020 and 2021) were virtual, their substantive content stolen by a gang of thieves from my YouTube channel. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/08/). (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ&t=3s).

By my reckoning the real TOM fest was only five years old, its lifespan was from August 2014 to August 2019. ToM's first year is 2014, but to be a year older, the count begins in 2015, which is what I did.

SPARC, on the other hand, says it would be ten (10) years by then, the reason it is celebrating what it calls a decade of "Filipino culture, food, music & community". "Isang dekada na!" it says in Tagalog.

Danilo "Sani" Baluyot, SPARC's executive director, explained that their counting follows what he calls "the 1-10 premise of counting instead of 0-9 sequence". In that context, the first time ToM was staged in 2014 is considered a "Year 1" so that by 2023, it's already "Year 10".

SPARC's entry naturally leads to questions about what happened to the "Tuloy ang Saya" tandem of Ramon Datol aka Mondee and Cecille Araneta of the jeepney-is-the-national-car-of-the-Philippines fame who organized the ppToM 2022 under the purported not-for-profit International Entertainment Company or IEC. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdTnX700_a8).

"We are not privy to ToM's decision to 'junk' IEC," says Baluyot. "ToM Inc. offered us a contract for ToM 2023," he stressed. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/06/whats-in-name-is-araneta-araneta.html).

The contract signed by Rolly Mangante, the self-proclaimed founder of ToM, calls for SPARC "to organize and execute the 10th season of Taste of Manila to be held in the 3rd week of August 2023," according to Baluyot.

So why are IEC, Datol, and Araneta suddenly out of the picture? There are holdovers, however, such as Pepito Torralba and Dannasol Luna, the pseudo reporter who, Baluyot says, "is not part of SPARC" and remains with ToM Inc. (Related story at:  https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/06/toronto-tabloid-quietly-hits-back-at.html).

A published report by publicist Tony San Juan, a retired teacher, said ToM Inc. is headed by Mangante as president and CEO, and his wife Nieves, and daughter Jacqueline, as directors.

From this account of ToM's soft launch this week at Republika restaurant in Little Manila, it seems clear that Mangante got rid of troublesome partners and turned ToM into a Mangante family venture.

ToM's turnaround is the fifth in its existence. SPARC is the latest to manage it in 2023 after a series of failures despite massive public attendance to its events.

The first organizer is the alleged not-for-profit Philippine Community Cultural Centre (PCCC), followed by the Philippine Legacy and Cultural Alliance (PLACA), then by Philippine Community Events & Services of Ontario (PESO), and finally, the International Entertainment Company (IEC)

Unsurprisingly, Mangante has not responded to questions as of this writing. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/06/little-manila-no-country-for-stupids.html).

ToM executives include Pepito Torralba, chief coordinator; Ricardo Dumlao, contingency officer; and Lovely Danna Luna, communications director. Serving as consultants are Joseph Redoblado, Lorelei Redoblado, and Tony A. San Juan. (Additional story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/06/little-manila-is-where-spurious-finds.html). (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).