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).
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