Was the Number of ToM Attendees Exaggerated? Why?

Volume 5, Issue No. 12

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of Romar Media Canada, 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, September 27, 2023 

~ The Taste of Manila festival came and went, and presumably fattened the purse of its organizers. An excited official says "vendors made money" and urged a repeat of the event. But the big question remains unanswered: how true is the claim that half-a-million people went to the celebratory feast? At the height of his popularity, the prime minister of Canada managed to attract only 350,000 people in 2016? How different is this year's?

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ARE THE "ARTISTS" IN S.P.A.R.C. SCAM ARTISTS?

No Financial Report Despite Claims ToM Made Money 

Which One Is True: 'Almost' or 'Over' 500K People?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Exaggeration is a blood relation to falsehood and nearly as blamable". - Hosea Ballou 

TORONTO - Reading through screenshots of Facebook postings by officials behind the just ended Taste of Manila (ToM) festival has given me the opening to critique wild claims being bandied about post-ToM.

When these officials could not agree on the number of people who attended the event last month, one could almost be sure they're guessing, or at the extreme, lying.

There's some sort of Trumpism there, and I mean the propensity to exaggerate, over-value, overstate, and embroider things to pander to their base and to unknowing sponsors.

Their use of adverbs such as almost and over contradicts each other, which is quite an acknowledgement of my earlier article that raised the issue of crowd counting. (Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/08/taste-of-manila-fest-takes-giant-leap.html).

One may argue that ToM is already done this year, so what's the point of bringing it up? Well, if we don't challenge the unproven claim, organizers would continue to inflate numbers to pull in unsuspecting sponsors. That means more money for them. Is this not a con game?

Was the number more or less 500,000 as declared, or anywhere from 50,000 to the historic high of 400,000 as speculated, or 5,000 or 500 people in attendance? 

On its own, zero (0) denotes nothing, neither magnitude nor quantity. But when added to other numbers, for example, 50,000 plus zero, the comma and the period move, the equation expands, and in this case, to half a million or 500,000.

As notable as ToM is, it would take a superstar, a megastar, a big shot, a hotshot, an icon, or whatever one may call it, to swarm ToM to new heights of popularity and muster half-a-million people. 

The fact that the main organizer SPARC (Society of Philippine Artists, Recreation and Community) and its dispossessed partner IEC (International Entertainment Company) are newbies, and therefore, have no reliable track record of success in the field adds more doubt to their published assertions.

Despite their shrieking fans, the imported talents from Manila were not big crowd-drawers themselves. Neither the politicians - virtual unknowns in the community - who took the lead in a short parade.

I for one find it hard to believe the people who were there reached the half-a-million mark as claimed. There's just no information on when that number was tallied. Was it on the first day, on the second day? Or the day's estimates were aggregated, and at what point?

With his good looks that sent lonely matrons to orgasmic fits and his prominence as a politician in 2016, Justin Trudeau attracted a crowd of only 350,000 (the official estimate), and he's the prime minister of Canada. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCnr3L5Dpcg).

On its last in-person staging in 2019 prior to the coronavirus pandemic, ToM had drew in upwards of 350,000 to an estimated 400,000 people. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1cIFfkpnQI).

Sani Baluyot of SPARC says: "I just heard that we are hearing almost half-a-million attendees just for today". Watch at the 0:25 mark: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=168992976180607

His partner in SPARC, the hyperbolic Marites Tolits alias Rose Ami aka Rosemarie Ami-Seaborn, writes: "Over 500K celebrated with us at the Taste of Manila 2023 - Organized by SPARC on the streets of Bathurst St. and Wilson Ave... We were happy with the results overall as there were no untoward incidents that happened, vendors made money and most of all everybody had fun! Ulitin natin to!"

The prospect for huge remuneration is what drives ToM organizers to stage the festival rather than serving the community or elevating the Filipino diaspora to mainstream respectability. 

Just imagine what 500,000 people could contribute to ToM organizers' coffers, plus the monies from sponsors, and one would have a fairly good idea why they have to inflate. It's calculated to get more sponsors next year or whenever there'll be another.

Incidentally, we can assume that ToM the cash cow has now delivered the goods, is the community poised to get anything in return? (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).

A Black Propagandist in Our Midst

Volume 5 Issue No. 11

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of Romar Media Canada, 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, September 11, 2023

 

~ To balance out the stories about the Filipino community appearing in The Philippine Reporter that may have been made part of the collection being archived in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, the following article finds meaning in the current situation. Without my knowledge and consent, Balita publisher/editor Tess Cusipag posted the article on Facebook on October 26, 2013. Here goes:

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The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Saturday, October 26, 2013 

~ An eighty-six-year-old grandmother was visiting from Manila to tell her horrific experience at the hands of Japanese soldiers during the Second World War. At the small reception and program set for her in Toronto, she tried to shed some light on what thousands of women in several countries in Asia had undergone as sex slaves. The forum was somehow obscured by the presence of a suspected communist of a left-leaning tabloid who seized the opportunity to spread venom. Little did she know that the person she had tried to enlist as a sympathetic ear would be the one to reject and condemn her attempt. 

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MILA A. GARCIA

Rumormonger Par Excellence or Piddling Reporter?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) and Reporters Without Borders

“People would say bad things about you, because it is the only way their insignificant self can feel better than you.” ― Dennis E. Adonis

TORONTO - The invitation to cover Lola Fidencia David, one of the few remaining survivors of Japanese sexual slavery during World War II, came from Toronto Association for Learning and the Preserving of History of WWII in Asia (ALPHA).

The request, including a press release dated Oct. 16, outlined her three-day speaking itinerary. At the bottom of the email was the complimentary closing "warm regards" and signed by a person named Tara Johnson, education officer, and cc'd to another official identified as Sarah Bleiwas who, I learned later, is the group's project coordinator.

Personally, I use phrases depending on the degree of familiarity or friendship or formality with the recipients. Most times I close with "thanks and best regards". In other situations, I just say "regards" or "all the best". But for those I've known and have been friends with for a long time, I prefer "warm regards".

The friendly warmth embodied in the letter, however, hardly materialized on the evening of the culmination of Lola Fidencia's speaking tour at the Barbara Frum branch of the Toronto Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Billed as a "community conversation", the Filipinos who attended were no more than the fingers of one hand. (Video at: http://youtu.be/cdW--R8L5Ro).

In the diverse crowd were suspected communists Hermie Garcia and Mila Garcia, both of Philippine Reporter, the left-leaning tabloid that looks like a hybrid leftist propaganda sheet and community billboard. They sat apart from each other, she on the second row and he on the fifth. (Video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4vVh6sZsPc).

Mila Garcia was literally hanging by the coattails of Lola Fidencia, breaching her private bubble, in the minutes before the program started, which made it impossible for me at least to shoot a picture without her in the frame.

The few times she strayed from the 86-year-old, Mila Garcia was engaged in animated conversations, or whispering to the ears of what I believe to be officials of Toronto ALPHA. Shortly after, the dagger looks began to come my way. One lady glued her eyeballs on me as I walked around waiting for a chance to take photos.

I tried to catch Lola Fidencia as she moved from the small reception area to the elevator where a bespectacled Chinese-looking guy took her by the arm and had some talk. I took a shot of the two, but the guy, already hostile to me, approached with a warning that that moment was "private". If I didn't stop, he said, I would be unwelcome to cover the event.

The threat came as a shock. A note pasted near the elevator door informed attendees that the event would be photographed and video-recorded. Indeed, three other people were doing the recording.

The man was one of the speakers, it turned out, identified in the program as Joseph Wong, a family physician and apparently a founder of Toronto ALPHA. At this point, I could not reconcile his antagonism towards me and his group's friendly invitation for a media coverage of this forum.

"The media are welcome at the events listed in the media release x x x It would be great if you could help us get this out to the public as it is very likely the last time a survivor from WWII in Asia will be able to present to such a wide audience," the invitation reads.

Were the dagger looks and Wong's enmity a result of Mila Garcia's "whispering campaign"?

As I scanned the faces of those in the reception, my intuition told me that I was being turned into a conversation piece - or shall I say the subject of rumour-mongering? - during that evening. I later conveyed that feeling to Sarah Bleiwas after she thanked me for the video coverage.

"At some point, it's true that I felt unwelcome," I told Sarah. "Maybe it's just my hunch, but the presence there of Mila Garcia of the already defunct CASJ made me feel that way."

I informed Sarah: "Mila and her husband Hermie Garcia x x x are the subjects of my many write-ups and exposés in my website and in Balita where I write. One of the stories I uncovered to prove that they were not beyond reproach was their attempt to run away from their debt. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered them to pay $20,000." (Full story at: http://www.balita.ca/.../harbinger-of-death-of-press.../).

Further I told Sarah: "I was actually going to ask one of your people to tell Mila Garcia to stay away from Lola Fidencia knowing that Mila loves photo ops and would always, yes always, want to be in the picture. Besides, I could not ask Lola Fidencia for some information."

Having expressed that honest sentiment, Sarah wrote back and apologized profusely for "jumping to assumptions" and for the hostilities I felt and encountered.

But it was her own admission that really astounded me. "You are correct that we were informed about you by one person," Sarah said without identifying who the person was. I keep wondering what was said to engender such animosity.

Sarah was candid enough to admit that " . . . we believed what we were told without exploring and understanding for ourselves" and again apologized for it.

Outside of Lola Fidencia and Cristina Lope Rosello, the author and clinical psychologist who was translating for her, the Filipinos who were there were the Garcias and their sympathizer. I was the fourth one, which number makes for very little room to wiggle out. (Video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAVsCjSm1q0).

The turn of events did not escape notice of Ms. Rosello. In an email to a mutual friend two days later, she recounted:

"When I arrived at the Barbara Frum Library, I saw Mila Garcia whispering to Dr. Joseph Wong. It turned out that she was talking against Romy Marquez. For me, this spoiled the evening because no pictures of the event were allowed. At one point, Dr. Wong snapped at Romy Marquez. My heart went out for this Filipino".

My hunch was correct. This was an active participant in the program, an eyewitness, to whom Mila Garcia was unloading her garbage. She was spreading venom to people I don't know and who don't know me as well.

I didn't solicit Ms. Rosello comments; she asked our mutual friend to relay the contents of her email to me.

In that, she wrote: "I know that Mila Garcia is ingratiating herself to Dr. Wong so before I left, I categorically explained everything to Sarah . . . that Romy Marquez in my view is innocent, just the victim of the usual leftist black propaganda. Unfortunately, I had no chance to talk to Mr. Marquez".

Ms. Rosello added: "I also told both Dr. Wong and Sarah not to listen to any negative propaganda against you (meaning our mutual friend). I know this will be forthcoming . . . just observing how Garcia makes their mood. She was with her husband and someone from Migrante. I am really so fed up with these people . . . "

The sad part is that Wong and his crew were immediately judgmental. Except Sarah. And to think, Toronto ALPHA is preaching human rights! (Copyright 2013, 2023).

A Reflection of Life and Times That Escaped Notice

Volume 5, Issue No. 10

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of Romar Media Canada, 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 Saturday, September 9, 2023 

~ "I hate it when people pretend to be very clean, purposely knock me in the head, no remorse, no apologies, not even an excuse me and attempt to destroy our good name and collaborate with detractors without any provocation on our part, just because they feel it like it," that's from Teresita "Tess" Cusipag, publisher/editor of Balita writing on Facebook on June 24, 2013. She continued: "My speech during the PPCO election was not to campaign but to warn them not to provoke me because at that time, I knew already that there was a collaboration going on against me, Romy Marquez and my newspaper". 

At that time 10 years and three months ago, I was reporting for that paper, wrote a column titled Prerogative, and held the decorative and largely-empty position of associate editor. Not having a Facebook account, I was unaware of Cusipag's posting until only this week when a friend forwarded a copy after reading my latest article (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/09/did-rare-book-library-make-mistake-in.html) about a couple and the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Well, it's been a decade since it was published and it's still very much relevant to the community.

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PHILIPPINE PRESS CLUB ONTARIO IN THE CROSSHAIRS

The Moral High Ground - A Look Back

A Reflection of Life TPR Did Not Report On. Why?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Let him without sin, be the first to throw a stone." - John 8:7

TORONTO - The local press association is not exactly a monastery where vestal virgins live in seclusion, preaching and leading a life of sacrifice and denial. It is figuratively a shelter of men and women who either work in media or have links with them in some capacity.

Humans, not robots, inhabit Philippine Press Club Ontario (PPCO). They interact with other humans and the interaction comes in many ways - physical, verbal, spiritual, mental, etcetera - that only affirms man's superiority over animals.

In their lifetimes, humans make blunders. It's in the nature of the species that humans inevitably commit mistakes. But there are some who miscalculate. Others slip unknowingly, some habitually and still others hideously.

The degree of culpability varies from one person to another. There's no one individual who can be said to be blameless or free of any fault. As Lewis Thomas says: "We are built to make mistakes, coded for error"

PPCO is one organization unlike any other of similar intentions.

There are members who fall into what may be called "square peg in a round hole" - the unknowledgeable kind who dwell in the club to promote themselves and their businesses. Others are there strictly for professional reasons while some use it for their personal and private agendas and as a way of validating their activities which may or may not be above board.

If PPCO is a house, it is built of glasses. Knowing that now, "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," as the saying goes. But the stones keep coming from there, mostly from rats lurking underground that mutate into humans.

In February 2012, Tess Cusipag, my editor and publisher at Balita, submitted my name for membership in PPCO much against my wishes. I wasn't interested, being a member myself of four regional and worldwide journalist organizations. 

Stories related to Tess Cusipag and Balita: 

1. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/12/defending-truth-has-its-downside.html).

2. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2021/01/balita-tabloid-settles-costs-of.html

3. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/12/scavenging-dumpsters-is-not-way-to-look.html

4. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/01/good-lawyering-won-libel-cases.html

5. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/01/libel-suit-readied-vs-balita-and-its.html

6. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/01/balita-tabloid-braces-for-legal-skirmish.html

7.https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/02/balita-tabloid-editor-in-new-libel-suit.html

8. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/02/libel-suit-unsettles-tabloid-publisher.html

9. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/03/balita-fights-back-asks-court-to-throw.html

10. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-lies-and-fantastic-tales-of-eino.html

The Missouri-based Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), for example, helps hone skills in investigative journalism that are very helpful in uncovering criminal activities in the community. So my membership there is fruitful in terms of sharpening knowledge.

Reporters Without Borders, on the other hand, fights censorship, monitors attacks on freedom of information and supports persecuted journalists from its headquarters in France. Membership affords some protection, specially in situations where harassment could turn into physical attacks, as could be my case here in Toronto.

Not to belittle PPCO, but it's simply out of synch and out of league. Last year when my application for membership was filed, it had 53 members and four applicants. This year when a succession of presidents took over - from Ricky Caluen to Rubi Talavera to the incumbent Hermie Garcia - the number of members had dwindled to 47, seventeen of whom elected Garcia president.

Clearly he lacks popular support, likely because he and his wife's (Mila Garcia) leftist sympathies are well-known in the community. I have not known this couple from many years of active practice and never crossed them until lately.

While they were engaged in provincial journalism and the communist underground, I was already making headway as a foreign correspondent, first with the Asahi Shimbun in Japan, and later on at Hamburg-based Deutsche Presse-Agentur in Germany.

Their ideologies have mellowed somewhat I believe, following the collapse of communism, although there are countries still holding out, notably China, Cuba, North Korea, among others. The Garcias' Philippine Reporter follows the political left but espouses capitalism just as well, a conundrum dictated by needs and convenience.

The couple is still very much involved in underground activities here in Toronto but in a different way like fighting off perceived enemies that could lessen their self-importance in the community. Their past experience with covert activities in central Philippines provides them with knowledge on how to subvert the status quo as it affects them. (Related story: https://www.balita.ca/mila-a-garcia-rumormonger-par-excellence-or-piddling-reporter/).

In the midst of the discussion last year on amending the PPCO constitution, Hermie Garcia, according to PPCO insiders, circulated a 2005 news video about me which alleged that I was deported from the United States because of another unfounded allegation that accused me of bigamy.

None of it is true, of course. To this day, no proof exists that would affirm the accusations simply because there's none in the first place. My attackers would not listen to this, however. The news channel and the reporter had refused to air my side knowing my rebuttals would impact their credibility.

Failing in that, I had to publish my answers to every single assertion in that story in my own newspaper, the Philippine Village Voice, in San Diego, California. That and the story that triggered it are neatly bound in a book I self-published in 2005.

A journalist worth his salt would necessarily have to satisfy certain standards in reporting. But Hermie Garcia, covetous of the PPCO presidency, didn't bother. The video would surely affect my chances of running for PPCO president, assuming that my application has been approved and I already qualified to run.

The idea of fielding my candidacy was nothing serious. It was a test.

Tess Cusipag and some friends had thought about floating the idea just to see how members would react. PPCO was not moving anywhere; its activities were confined to picnics and socials that had no relevance to journalism. Moreover, a left-leaning faction seemed to be calling the shots there to the utter helplessness of other members.

Talk went around mostly in social media and by word of mouth. Every time my test candidacy was told and retold, the story acquired new meaning. For our part, we were watching how the events were unfolding.

At one point, Rose Tijam, then PPCO president and presently vice president, had informed Tess that my application had already been approved and that it was just a matter of making an announcement that I have become a member. It didn't happen. Along the way, a decision had been reversed.

Knowledgeable PPCO sources tell me how Hermie Garcia orchestrated PPCO to deny my membership, ostensibly based on the issue of morality. The news video that he had earlier circulated had now become the basis for rejecting my application.

That means he, and the others too, believed the video's allegations without even asking me whether or not it was accurate and truthful.

For more than a year, I labored to find out why PPCO refused me. Not that I was interested; mine was to know the process and the reasons for reaching that decision.

The mainstream press organizations of which I am a card-carrying member for years never have made any attempts to question a member or an applicant for membership if he is of good moral character. Doing so would flush out the hypocrites.

I don't claim the moral high ground. And neither should Hermie Garcia and wife Mila Garcia. Nor should many PPCO members who lead a life of sin.

In June 1996, for example, after evading being served with a claim for loan repayments, the Ontario Court of Justice ordered the Garcias to pay creditors more than $20,000 for debts they owed.

Should this case reflect on their moral character? If it does - and it is my opinion that it does - officials and member should kick them out of PPCO on the same ground that they refused my membership.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. (June 2013). (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).