Our Troll Neighbors Marites, Tolits, and Mon

Volume 4, Issue No. 28

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 Tuesday, November 29, 2022 

~ One would be incredulous to learn a host of names generated by the social media troll who goes by the handle "Marites". Supposedly, she now has a brother called "Tolits". Give it to Filipinos' wacky creativity that such new genres of kumare have evolved, for example, Marisol - mareng tagasulsol; Maris - mareng anung tsismis; Maribeth - mare sino ang kabet; Marife - mare feram pera, and many more.  

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TROLLS FIND LITTLE MANILA A NEST

Filipinos Have 'Marites' and 'Tolits' 

Derivatives of Maria Fill Social Media

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Always remember . . . Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots". -  Ziad K. Abdelnour 

TORONTO - All these years I knew that Marites is a feminine name, a contraction of Maria and Teresita, just like Marilou from Maria and Lourdes. I had many friends who answer to the call Marites, and they are mostly upright.

In many places here in Canada and the Philippines, Marites has taken different connotations. It's jargonized, for one, to describe a gossipy woman in the act of rumor-mongering or of passing tall tales. 

Social media posts, notably on Facebook, have one definition of Marites, which is modified in Tagalog to result in the phrase "mare ano'ng latest?" 

"Mare" is a noun shortened from the word "kumare," meaning godmother or friend. So the whole phrase "mare ano'ng latest?" translates to "Hi friend, what's the latest (as in news or neighborhood chatter)?"

Bless my ignorance but certainly, I did not know that there is such a transformation before. At least now, I'm getting updated and brought to speed by tech-savvy and digitally literate friends of the Millennials and Generation Z.

I was trying to fact-check a recent posting on social media by a certain Marites and asked friends if they knew or heard about this Marites saying this and that nonsense. Where the heck is she getting inaccurate and fake information? Word of mouth from her own mouth?

Well, I was utterly dumbfounded the moment I got answers to my queries. 

Marites is an eponym, a diminutive of the corruption of two proper nouns. Though this Marites is basically a troll, there is a real person behind that troll. Says the dictionary: "A troll is a person who posts inflammatory or otherwise unwanted material on an electronic forum, especially anonymously". 

The friendly response really piqued me from then on. I know a number of Marites, real and fake. I know the trolls, both men and women, young and old. And most of them find Little Manila, the residential and commercial hub many Filipinos frequent seven days a week, a comfortable breeding ground.

"Marites" has generated at least 21 jargon. The root word Maria has been replaced by the noun "mare" and is spelled that way and affixed to a secondary name.

I saw a list on Facebook by former network executive Edson C. Guido which evoked a burst of good laughter on this cold and cloudy day. 

He spelled them out in Tagalog as: Marisol - mareng tagasulsol; Maris - mareng anung tsismis; Marieta - mare ito pa; Maricar - mare kararating lang; Maricon - mare confirmed; Marina - mare ano na; Mariposa - mare ipost mo na; Marison - mare sundan ko chika mo; Marife - mare feram pera; Maricris - mare crisis ngayon;

Maricel - mare pa cancel; Maribeth - mare sino ang kabet; Marivic - mare pavictim; Marian - mare ayan na; Maribel - mare bili mo ko nyan; Marilou - mare luto na ba; Mariana - mare tama na; Marichu - mare echusera; Marinela - mare anong sabi nila; Marikit - mare pag inggit pikit; and Maripaz - mare pasa mo na chika.

Well, the menfolk will not be left behind in this social media whirl.  One trending jargon is "tolits" (described as 'tol, ito ang latest or bro, this is the latest) which an unknown poster says is the brother of Marites.

Marites apparently also has a male counterpart. "Hindi lamang mga babae ang Marites. May mga lalaking tsismoso rin. Ang tawag sa lalaking Marites ay Mon," another poster says in Tagalog. Roughly, it says there are also men who gossip and they are called Mon.

In real life here in the Greater Toronto Area, Tolits and Marites are well-known to their friends and co-conspirators of fake news. The most notorious, according to those in the know, is this chubby woman who doubles as an events organizer.

Her pastime is devoted to promoting the little-known business she's doing for the past many years. She's also reputed to be a Marisol, Maris, Marichu, and Marikit all rolled into one.

I'm not into this kind of idle talk and I hesitate to propagate it. But it's impacting local journalism and the people who do not have the knowledge and skill to verify information posted on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

It's no different from the yellow journalism practiced by so-called supermarket tabloids that we knew. There's almost no accountability for the authors masking as any of the trolls. 

Be forewarned. The person right beside you could be "Marites" or "Tolits" or '"Mon". (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).

Same Old Same Old at Taste of Manila

Because of its relevance to the current brouhaha about the Taste of Manila (ToM) festival, I believe it's wise to reprint the article I wrote and published on June 23, 2015. Though more than seven years have elapsed, the story is still material to any discussion of ToM and its self-declared founder. The circumstances today - that's after six ToM fests, two virtual presentations, and one revival - are very much a repeat of the past. Nothing much has changed, it's the same old same old mantra. 

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Volume 4, Issue No. 27

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 Thursday, November 24, 2022 

(This is actually a reprint of an article published on June 23, 2015) 

~ Taste of Manila reels off again in August (2015), its second in as many years, apparently undisturbed by public demands for it to show transparency in the conduct of its financial affairs. The flow of money is practically assured from sponsors and individual and corporate participants as organizers led by Toronto's faux "congen" prepares for a bigger turnout than it was last year. Meanwhile, would the nascent Taste of Manila and its mother organization, the alleged non-profit Philippine Cultural Community Centre, go the same route as the other associations so secretive about their finances?

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TASTE OF MANILA GOES DISTASTEFUL

One Street Festival, Three Financial Reports

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, Filipino Web Channel

The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool. - Stephen King

TORONTO - When Rolly Mangante was hawking the idea of a street festival that has now metamorphosed into Taste of Manila (ToM), nobody paid much attention. The skepticism had much to do with him and his work as a contractual driver with the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto.

There was an absolute lack of information about his background except that he's mockingly referred to as "the other congen" (the contraction of consul general). The same was true with the nascent ToM, and truer still with people around him who turned out to be his ToM teammates. Absent such essential data, his claimed brainchild ToM - which was not really his in the first place - was viewed as another questionable money-making scheme.

(New video featuring ToM officials is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZeQk-wySXY).

Mangante was quite open at the beginning, promising to be transparent every step of the way, understandably so because he was rallying public and corporate support for ToM, a highly successful event for obscure first-timers such as his group. The huge turnout attested to its phenomenal popularity.

As a community journalist, I had made a commitment to help. So before, during, and after ToM's actual staging in August last year (2014), I created, gratis et amore, a total of 12 news videos and wrote lengthy articles for my blog, online news outlets outside Canada, and for Balita, Toronto's largest Filipino newspaper where I'm an associate editor.

Not to toot my own horn but my coverage is unsurpassed by mainstream and community journalism standards. The news patches by Filipino newspapers were mainly to return the favor that ToM had accorded them, i.e., by advertising in their periodicals at a time when ToM was showing some success.

I never sought any favors for my stories that prove beneficial to individuals and companies or institutions; it's an outstanding personal and professional principle that guides me since choosing to be a journalist many years back, and ToM is no exception. (Video is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcZa99xeGW0).

I love to maintain my independence, untethered and unrestricted by personal favors and friendships so as to become an effective and impartial observer. While Mangante and some people in his group may be considered acquaintances, they're not real friends, for friends are people one trusts and relies on in extraordinary situations. 

The simple act of opening up to share grief or happiness strengthens whatever bonds exist between two people and Mangante just doesn't come up to that fundamental criterion. Now that success is in his grasp because of ToM, he forgets his commitment to stay true to his words.

He can see this from a different prism but my basic journalism rule is still very much adversarial. Until I am proved wrong, I hang on to the belief that the best way to skin a cat is to skin it from head to foot mercilessly and without emotions.

My decades of journalism, including long stints as a foreign correspondent, would be for naught if this new breed of events organizers behind ToM - sorry I take back my earlier reference to them as community leaders; they are not - would be let loose without being accountable to the people from whom they stand to reap bundles and bundles of money.

I've asked more than once to look into ToM's true financial status and Mangante and his group didn't bother to respond, if only as a matter of courtesy. Still, I continue to believe in what Mangante had told me in a 2014 interview that he would be upfront and transparent.

One instance that is negating his public avowal is the email exchange between his colleagues Bong Capitin and Philip Beloso. 

"It's not proper de quorum(sic)/attitude to disclosed (sic) confidential matter to people who are not part of our organization," Capitin wrote to "all concerns", stressing that "it's a common sense in any business owner that they don't want other people to know sensitive issue about their business".

To which Beloso responded in English and Tagalog: "Tama (correct) . . . everything should stay confidential within us. Kahit kay Mrs. wag nating sabihin" (even with our wives we should not tell).

One issue going around is that Beloso, who is in charge of event planning and entertainment, had sold tickets in cash and accepted sponsors' payments in cash. "There is no way to track if the money (they) received were deposited or not," a source in the organization said.

That's so revealing, so that in a press conference last month (that's May 19, 2015), ToM officials, consistent with that stance, spoke with a forked tongue.

ToM's secretary/treasurer Joseph Franco appears to be that way too. Early on he explained to the group that ToM is "not a business to say that we are 'nalugi or kumita' " (meaning ToM is not a business endeavour to say it lost or it earned).

"Isa lang masasabi ko. Pogi lahat tayo and don't mind these sour-graping comments," Franco added. (Loosely translated, he said: "One thing I can say. We're all handsome . . . ").

ToM's resigned auditor Eugene Deocareza calls Franco a "big liar". That was after Franco announced that charges have been filed against Deocareza by another ToM official, Bong Capitin, over unresolved business issues. As of this writing, the charges appear to be a reiteration of earlier threats to stop Deocareza from talking.

Toronto accountant Paul Sollano suspects ToM officials are deliberately stalling on making a public statement about its financial performance in last year's ToM. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFKOcHhHKe4).

"I'd say they're doing the manipulation in an amateurish manner,"  he says when reached for comment. Sollano is the same knowledgeable person who described ToM's financial statement as "Mickey Mouse" Report for its "unacceptable and inaccurate" content. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFKOcHhHKe4).

Lately he found three different versions of the financial reports. Sollano explains: 

"The figures for both revenue and expenses were overstated resulting in a higher loss.  It was $25,550 before, now it is $27,830 or a discrepancy of $2,280.

"There was no mention of the asset and liability.  As a result, the readers of the financial report have no clue how the deficit of $27,830 was financed. According to the previous report only $5,700 was advanced by the officers leaving a shortfall of $22,130 (27,830 less 5,700). The obvious question one would ask was there a promise to pay the supplier/s owed by TofM?

"This time they were more specific in terms of the breakdown of the revenue - from sponsors ($28,500)  and vendors ($42,500).  But they did not provide the details of the expenses incurred such as rent, purchases of food and supplies, wages, insurance, professional fees, etc"

When I wrote an unflattering commentary about Mangante and ToM, the attack stories on me from San Diego, California (circa 2005, that's 10 years ago!) resurfaced again obviously to smear my reputation and neutralize me. That only goes to show how sick and slick these people are.

I'm not giving up. It'll take more than that to stop me from writing relentlessly about Mangante, his ToM buddies and the equally evolving PCCC (Philippine Cultural Community Centre), the seemingly innocuous organization primed to be ToM's community projects outlet. (Copyright 2015 and 2022. All Rights Reserved).

What's Behind Fast Turnover of NFPs at ToM?

Volume 4, Issue No. 26

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, November 21, 2022 

~ Only the name has given a semblance of stability to the street festival. Everything else changes almost every passing year. Lately, a new not-for-profit (NFP) has appeared from nowhere, edging out another NFP that had barely warmed itself in the saddle. In the nine years - six in-person prior to the pandemic, two virtual, and one in-person again - since Taste of Manila became a full-fledged community event, its handlers came and went nearly without anyone noticing. There's PCCC, PLACA, PESO, IEC, and SPARC. What next? How about something like this . . . Samahan at Ugnayan ng mga Pinoy sa Ontario-Toronto or SUPOT? 

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WHAT'S WRONG WITH TASTE OF MANILA?

For Every ToM A New NFP Org

Why Are Organizers So Fickle-Minded?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have". - Socrates

TORONTO - No matter how hard I tried to forget this breach committed under our noses by a bunch of video poachers, the sight of them gloating haunts me no end.

The footage stolen from my coverage continues to play on social media, and as long as it's there, the insult repeats itself one-, two-, three-dozen times at least, and then multiplied over as the number of people viewing it climbs.

The hijacked film clips mostly from the 2018 Taste of Manila (ToM) festival had been capitalized on, profitably, I suppose, to promote virtual presentations in 2020 and 2021 by people who are now at war with each other over the root of all evil - money. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3djfjNVR8Q.).

At least 25 commercial establishments and individuals had signed up as paying sponsors but the revenues collected from them were never disclosed. 

There were new and established Filipino talents, 15 of them recognizable from published photographs, who performed remotely, too. Were they compensated or given honorariums? (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/06/).

A former driver of the Philippine Consulate who now oozes with conceit in being addressed as chairman, president, CEO, amba, congen, consul, ad infinitum - Rolly Mangante alias "kabise" - is at the top of the steal with a retinue of willing enablers.

The group's in-house "documentary" titled "The History of Taste of Manila" supposedly by someone named "Grace" refers to him as "a known staff member of the Philippine Consulate Office in Toronto". (Full background story at: http://www.balita.ca/taste-of-manila-goes-distasteful-one-street-festival-and-three-financial-reports/).

Lest people mistook him again as a low-level diplomat, the answer is no! 

In truth, he was just a local hire and did not possess any form of authority. But people did not know; he appeared to be influential and looked the part by facilitating consular paperwork with the help of unknowing friends.

The alleged "documentary" fails for the exact reason documentaries are for, which is to present an objective, factual narration of events happening in an area like, for example, Little Manila, unofficially designated as such because it was the birthplace of ToM. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcZa99xeGW0).

The way it chronicled the existence and passage of the historical ToM and presented a burnished image of Mangante is a complete distortion of reality. I hope he's not cast as a god of Little Manila deserving a monument in the middle of the Bathurst-Wilson junction.

Evidently, the partially-identified writer relied not on facts but on fantastic claims by Mangante himself. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-glory-that-was-taste-of-manila.html).

ToM festival began to exist in 2014 through six years, with the coronavirus pandemic dealing it a death blow after its last staging in August 2019. A hybrid surfaced in 2020 and 2021 called "The Taste of Manila - Virtual Festival Presentation" obviously as a hedge against people forgetting ToM still existed.

For this venture, Mangante created a "Taste of Manila Inc." (ToMI) which he calls a "corporation". He has his family as "directors" including his wife Nieves, identified by an enamored publicist as "first lady" of ToM; and daughters Jacqueline and Roloves. By the way, when did he incorporate?

For every season of ToM, a new not-for-profit (NFP) organization would pop up. It is as if every NFP dies at the end of every event and a new one rises from its ashes.

In the 2020 and 2021 "virtuals", the NFP, or the "super saya" team, was the Philippine Events Services Ontario (PESO) headed by its president, Philip Beloso, the everywhere guy; Pepito Torralba (not related to Mon Torralba, the famous songwriter of Hotdog band fame, and wife Teresa), vice president; and a certain Jerome Peralta. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXqjO8AWUJ4).

Its production crew, according to Mangante, is composed of Cecille Araneta, chief of staff; Danasol Luna, marketing; a person identified only as Grace, administrative; Jim Torres, security; and chief adviser Mon Datol. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/international-journalist-in-taste-of.html)

For the planned ToM 2023, another not-for-profit, SPARC or Society of Philippine Artists, Recreation and Community led by Danilo "Sani" Baluyot, executive director, and realtor Rose Ami, has been contracted by Mangante. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ap92btLM8).

Knowledgeable sources claimed SPARC's appointment is generating controversy among players, notably Mangante's former partners Cecille Araneta and Mon Datol of the International Entertainment Company (IEC), the "tuloy ang saya" team, which managed this year's ToM.

Apparently, IEC resents SPARC, and blames Mangante for the fiasco and the alleged financial losses it incurred. That's the ostensible reason for the current blame game that could spiral into an expensive legal tangle.

So, what comes next after SPARC? Maybe a new NFP org again, something like a Samahan at Ugnayan ng mga Pinoy sa Ontario-Toronto (SUPOT). Who would give it a try? (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).

Questions Arise on Fate of ToM Festival in 2023

Volume 4, Issue No. 25

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, November 17, 2022 

~ The fledgling not-for-profit has barely begun its work, but the path it has taken toward putting up a street festival next year is already littered with difficulties, both legal and personal. The biggest, and potentially costly, seems to be a looming court battle. And then a renowned volunteer - friends to everyone in community organizations - has resigned, apparently after being misled. An officer of the org is denying an alleged deception on his part.  

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THE FUTURE TASTE OF MANILA HANGS IN THE BALANCE

Is SPARC Being Deceitful?

Toronto's Popular "Volunteer ng Bayan" Quits

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends". - Marcus Tullius Cicero

TORONTO - The low-profile, unassuming community volunteer merely wanted to help, and as to be expected of her, she would have signed up for one of the biggest Filipino street festivals in the Greater Toronto Area.

Her sterling reputation as "volunteer ng bayan" is known to all, which is quite a tribute to the apolitical nature of volunteer work she chooses to strengthen the bonds between and among organizations.

In a recent instance, she was faced with a dilemma. The organizers of two competing events are both her friends. Concerned about showing any favoritism and the negative optics it would generate, she decided to just stay out and watched their events unfold.

To her astonishment past the happenings, she found her name listed among "the people behind" a fledgling organization, the glitzy-named Society of Philippine Artists, Recreation and Community (SPARC) headed by relatively-unknown newbies in community organizing.

Porteria Barker, nicknamed Terry, has denied she's one of those people. That clarification directly contravenes the claim of Danilo "Sani" Baluyot, SPARC's executive director, who had announced she and four other individuals as behind SPARC, a not-for-profit org that surfaced only in September.

"Why would my inclusion in this project be of any use to them?" she asks in an email reacting to an earlier story. "I can certainly tell you that I am not behind SPARC," Terry adds. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/11/new-taste-of-manila-in-jeopardy.html).

The denial could indicate how haphazard SPARC came into being. Background information about "the people behind" the organization has not been made available as promised by Baluyot a month ago.

Terry explains her decision, thus: "All I wanted was to help out in the community any way I can. You can ask anyone in the community. I don't like trouble and I have never been a part of any organization".

Perhaps the "trouble" Terry had intuitively foreseen would happen is the brewing scandal between the combined SPARC and Taste of Manila Inc. (ToMI), on the one hand, and the International Entertainment Company (IEC) which undertook the Taste of Manila (ToM) festival in August this year, on the other.

ToMI is the recently-emerged family enterprise by the purported ToM founder, the feckless Rolly Mangante alias "kabise" and his wife Nieves and daughter Jacqueline. ToMI had not been known to exist prior to the 2022 ToM.

The IEC's Cecille Araneta who was once buddy-buddy with Mangante is reportedly undertaking a legal battle with 1) ToMI as a corporate entity, 2) the Mangantes as officers and directors of ToMI, and 3) the entire SPARC headed by Baluyot and some officers, including the largely-unknown role players like Pepito Torralba (no relation to the famous and respected Mon Torralba of Hotdog fame and wife Teresa), realtor Rose Ami, and Dannasol Luna, the pretend "reporter" friends categorized as "pinabili ng suka, pagbalik journalist na".

So it stands to reason why Terry is so vocal about her non-involvement with either ToM or SPARC. Her participation with one or the other would drag her into the fray.

After reading my article about SPARC, Terry promptly sent an email explaining her situation. "Please be advised that I have handed my resignation to SPARC as of October 20, 2022. I am no longer affiliated with the group," she writes.

That was just four days after Mangante and Baluyot bared their arrangement during a soft launch at the Republika resto grill in Little Manila on October 16. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ap92btLM8).

Further queried why she did that, she said she decided to leave the moment she learned that SPARC was involved with ToM.

"When I found out, I spoke to my hubby about it and he told me that I should quit and not join such a group as it will take too much of my time," she says.

She wondered how her name came up in the list provided by Baluyot, explaining "I have never been involved in any talks about ToM, so I don't know how and when SPARC got involved".

"To be honest, I have been a volunteer in the community for a long time. I was dubbed as volunteer ng bayan," she emphasizes. 

"I am friends with and well-liked by almost everyone in the community, which is why I don't want to be tied down to any group. I want to freely volunteer at all the events and not have to deal with politics," she adds.

Asked if she felt being deceived and used by SPARC as a prop to drum up support for its proposed ToM in August 2023, Terry replies: "You could, I guess, say that . . . but I'm merely a volunteer ng bayan".

Confronted with the question, Baluyot took exception to claims of deceiving Terry as part of SPARC. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-nauseating-hypocrisy-of-tom.html).

Here's his reply, verbatim: "I categorically deny that allegation. Porteria (Terry) and I have been a long time friend and co worker with my past projects and I will never deceived her or anyone to join my group".

Baluyot also said that Terry, in his words, "requested to resign from SPARC due to change of workload with her official employment and informed me that her little extra free time will be allocated to her family". 

SPARC has signed an agreement with Mangante to manage the ToM festival in 2023. In effect, Mangante has dumped IEC, the not-for-profit org he had earlier contracted to handle ToM in August. IEC has yet to recover its losses from that festival.

But even as problems mount, SPARC, according to Baluyot, "is on target for August 2023 TOM". Well, let's wait and see. (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).

New Taste of Manila in Jeopardy?

Volume 4, 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 Monday, November 14, 2022 

~ Neither the gloom of the approaching winter nor the recurring coronavirus pandemic worsened by the flu that's unsettling the occasional happy hunting ground that is Toronto's Little Manila. That social and commercial hub takes the appearance of a battleground when organizations compete for public patronage of their festivals. Now, the people behind one of the fests are potentially facing another battle, bigger and more costly, in a court of law.  

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SHORTLIVED JUBILATION LEADS TO . . .

Gloom and Panic in Little Manila

An Expensive Legal Skirmish Is About to Break Out

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Pride comes before the fall".  - Proverbs 

TORONTO - A nasty shitstorm is blowing in the direction of a group now working on a plan to mount a grand street festival next year in this city's ceremonial Little Manila neighborhood.

The momentum is building up, according to knowledgeable sources, to the point that the joyful mien of the recent past is being replaced by gloom, panic, and a sense of foreboding on the part of the usual suspects.

Several weeks ago, the cabal of fortune-seekers and social climbers gifted themselves with a triumphal celebration at a local resto to announce the entry of a month-old not-for-profit organization contracted to handle the Taste of Manila (ToM) fest in August 2023.

ToM's self-declared founder, the scheming Rolly Mangante, alias "kabise", had trumpeted his new arrangement with a rookie called SPARC (Society of Philippine Artists, Recreation and Community) during a "soft launch". (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ap92btLM8).

Apparently "soft launch" meant inviting a select group of friendly media who are expected to parrot Mangante and SPARC's suspicious motives and perspective in staging the event.

However "soft" he categorized the takeoff, some organizers see it as a humiliating public rebuke of SPARC's predecessor, the IEC (International Entertainment Company), also a not-for-profit org owned and managed by an entertainment producer, Cecille Araneta, and a podcaster named Ramon "Mondee" Datol, a former publisher of a defunct tabloid. (Related video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ).

IEC's goody-goody show of fondness with Mangante had been brief, and their uncivil parting appears headed to an expensive legal skirmish the likes of which have not been seen among community organizations.

Why Mangante chose SPARC over IEC to manage ToM is a question he has not answered. But my sources said his change of heart was dictated by a negligible sum of money.  (Related video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ&t=9s).

That decision could cost a lot for him and his group and could turn ToM into a historical footnote in the annals of Toronto's Filipino community. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcs34cnA2bs).

It's sad to think of ToM that way after all its past successes in rallying the local and mainstream communities to take interest in Filipino culture, food, and entertainment starting in August 2014 and ending in 2019. 

The six-year run could have provided important lessons in humility, especially for people like Mangante, a former driver at the Philippine consulate, who had achieved some fame because of ToM.

But as ToM grew bigger, so was his head swell. He became arrogant. His behavior took a bossy turn while he relished being called by his team "chairman," "president," and "founder". 

He didn't seem bothered by wisecracks about him being "amba" for ambassador, "congen" for consul general, and "consul" which, undoubtedly, has nourished his self-conceit. (Related story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/01/3-in-1-who-is-amba-congen-consul-of.html).

Nevertheless, Mangante acted and dressed the part. With a festival improperly credited to his name, he called the shots, dismissing those who threatened him and welcoming newcomers willing to be subservient to his wishes.

This appears to be the situation with SPARC. Composed of old and new faces, SPARC seemingly possesses a determination to bring ToM to new heights of success. Its holdover members are its links to past achievements.

The newbies, on the other hand, are the bright-eyed recruits with a knack for superlatives and fanciful rituals, thus its name Society of Philippine Artists, Recreation and Community (SPARC). 

It adopted the slogan, which is a bit of an exaggeration, thus "mas pinalakas, mas pinasaya, mas pinalaking Taste of Manila 2023". Roughly translated, the slogan says much stronger, happier, much bigger Taste of Manila 2023.

SPARC's purport is key to understanding both Mangante and his new group, including the newly-emerged family venture called ToM Inc. whose directors are Mangante's wife Nieves, and daughter Jacqueline.

I wonder who the "artists" in SPARC are. Danilo "Sani" Baluyot, SPARC's executive director, listed five individuals, including himself, as the people behind SPARC, namely: Danilo Baluyot, Rosemarie Ami, Porteria Barker, Lita Mendigoria, and Janelle Bascon. Not mentioned is the "pinabili ng suka, pagbalik journalist na" sexpot.

The point is who among them are artists in the true meaning of the word? What category of artistry are they in? I might have been out of touch but I can certainly tell the real from the pretenders.

SPARC's shebang is a look into the near future. For a newborn not-for-profit, the recent "soft launch" is quite a headstart. What's the prospect of it going forward? (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).