Music & Memories Concert Refreshes the Past

Volume 7, 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 as of Thursday, November 27, 2025 

~ The reference to a "second coming" is far from religious. For lack of a better phrase, it's used here as it aptly describes this first-ever reunion the songwriter and musician Mon Torralba (aka Pers Lab) had initiated in Toronto with co-marquee artists of the iconic Hotdog band, namely, Ella del Rosario, Jess Garcia, and Lorrie Ilustre. The gathering took fans and music lovers back in time, rekindling sweet and bitter memories about life, romance, escapades, and juvenile misadventures in the homeland. 

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MANILA SOUND IN TORONTO 

The Second Coming of 

Mon Torralba and Hotdog Band

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“The sweetness of reunion is the joy of heaven.” ― Richard Paul Evans

TORONTO - The moonstruck lovers of Filipino music stepped back in time this last weekend reminiscing the sweet and bitter memories of an era long gone but still lives in our hearts.

But for the unpleasantness some had experienced, time has mellowed them, and this reunion of sorts of one of the best, if not THE best, bands in the Philippines has brought forth jubilation and tears of joy, even momentarily.

Sentimentality hung in the air, no doubt triggered by both the music and songs the people had performed, a confirmation that Mon Torralba, Ella del Rosario, Jess Garcia, and Lorrie Ilustre - the music darlings of generations - are still very much in the running as they were five decades ago.

The quartet is what remains of the iconic Hotdog band whose spunky music dominated the airwaves during the politically turbulent state the Philippines was going though in the seventies.  

The language of Manila streets found its way to the Hotdog lexicon, providing an alternative to musical mainstream expressed in captivating harana and kundiman, the old-fashioned genre of the time.

Mon Torralba's Pers Lab is the perfect example of this. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6b8B2MvhTg). The secret to its wide acceptance is its resemblance to the way people talk. The lyrics might sound colloquial but that's how unpretentious folks speak in their daily lives.

Feel this: "Ano bang gayuma ang gamit mo at masyado akong patay sa'yo?" Then there's the seductive O, Lumapit Ka vocalized by Ella del Rosario whose alluring voice entices people to listen. See how her song teases . . .  "Kung gusto mo akong halikan/Bat kita sasawayin?/Alam na alam mo namang/Ito'y gusto ko rin . . . " (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnHoYDXU5PE)

The Hotdog band not only changed the music template, it kindled a cultural shift and a lifestyle which put the Philippines on the world map as a country invested in the arts. 

The four - Torralba, Del Rosario, Garcia and Ilustre - and others who had passed away, are the originators of Manila Sound, which refashioned Philippine music history into Original Pilipino Music (OPM) as we know today. They are the transformative figures of another age.

Mon Torralba's Music & Memories concert traveled back in time and succeeded in reliving that moment with the enthusiastic assists of del Rosario, Garcia, and Ilustre, and corroboration with a new generation of artists such as Rhett de la Cruz, Alyssa Grace, Maria Panaligan, Pabs Quiogue, Chyrell Ronquillo, Rodney Ronquillo, and Bevs Saraza.

That it was star-studded was enough to pack the Toronto Pavilion on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. That it was the Hotdog band performing live moved people to see its surviving members again, more than 50 years after the fact.

Shirley Beralde, a registered nurse, came with her colleagues and felt nostalgic with Hotdog music. "It's gratifying to see and hear them, especially because they rekindle memories, knowing they were part of growing up," she says.

Related videos: 

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4lDxw1nIvM

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RojfYiaBvmU

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTSpugc5hKI

Gene Elamparo was at the concert to celebrate the years she was in high school in the seventies in Manila. "The Hotdog memories are really mine. Pers Lab was my favourite. Lots of memories for that song. High school - that's the best years of my life," she volunteers.

Why Pers Lab? "Secret," she says laughing. "I just want to remember the happy and not-so-happy memories of the past." Indeed, to her the music worked like a balm.

Music & Memories had been a sentimental journey, a happy and beautiful occasion for many, and a treasured recollection of what life was in the homeland. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).

$100-Million Fund Fuels Row Between Ethnic Press and Gov't

Volume 7, 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 Friday, November 14, 2025 

~ The federal government has apparently left out Canada's mostly print-based ethnic media from accessing the $100-million contribution by Google to the implementation of the recently-passed Online News Act, sparking hostility and condemnation from local press officials. In another development, meanwhile, the conjugal editors at a Filipino tabloid appear to have been delisted from a media list, setting off speculation they were being rebuked for their lies and deception that had victimized two of their writers. 

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ONLINE NEWS ACT 

Gov't Excludes Ethnic Press

From $100-Million Funding

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“The only thing that hurts about a rebuke is the truth.” ― Karl Marlantes

TORONTO - The National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) is up in arms over its claim that it had been excluded from new funding by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

The not-for-profit organization consisting of over 300 members (based on listing on its website) across the country said the non-inclusion amounted to a repudiation of its status and a denial of "equality rights" enjoyed by mainstream and indigenous publications.

It's considering pleading its case "before the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the UNHCR (sic) to ensure the respect of the provisions of the Canadian Charter of rights." (By UNHCR, did it mean United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or it meant United Nations Commission on Human Rights now replaced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights?)

The evolving dispute centers on $100 million Google Search is allocating as its annual contribution to various news businesses in line with Canada's Online News Act passed by Parliament in June 2023.

According to the government, the act "aims to ensure that dominant platforms compensate news businesses when their content is made available on their services."

It explains that the act "creates a bargaining framework to ensure that platforms compensate news businesses fairly. It encourages platforms to reach voluntary commercial agreements with a range of news businesses."

The NEPMCC maintains that Canadian Heritage "completely excludes ethnic publications from the distribution of the amount of 100 million dollars."

Canadian Heritage "is deliberately discriminating against Canadian print outlets operating in and for clientele publishing in a third language (non-English or French)," NEPMCC said in a resolution dated November 10, 2025.

" . . . such action is not only offensive to all the ethnic communities of Canada, it also denies them the rights to equal and equitable funding access and benefits of government cultural and linguistic programs now skewed disproportionately to mainstream Anglophone and Francophone publications," the resolution stated.

An electronic copy of the resolution, leaked to this reporter this week and not available on the NEPMCC website, was signed by Dr. Mohammad Tajdolati, chair of the Special General Meeting; Neel Nanda, secretary general; and Thomas S. Saras, president and CEO. The three officials were not immediately available for comment.

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Meanwhile, in a separate but related development, the names of Hermie Garcia and Mila A. Garcia, co-editors of the moribund The Philippine Reporter (TPR), and their friends that included Veronica Cusi, Lui Queano, and Rick Esguerra, were significantly missing in the October 2025 list of members in the NEPMCC website.

It's not clear if the names were purposely delisted since only the Garcias are connected to what a ranking NEPMCC official called "technically criminal" activities as recipient of LJI funds. 

(Full story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/09/nepmcc-official-condemns-lies-by-tpr.html)

A former TPR staff writer, Michelle Chermaine Ramos, exposed their deception in managing LJI grant money and lying about it for months, telling her and another writer in Edmonton, Alberta that their salaries - paid by Canadian Heritage in advance in one lump sum - were being withheld by a "grant guy" at Canadian Heritage. It turned out to be fictitious.

(Full story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/06/lies-deceptions-by-philippine-reporter.html).

* * * * *

Most members of NEPMCC - self-described as "Canada's other voices" - are print periodicals serving an estimated three million Canadians who speak neither English nor French, the two official languages.

The NEPMCC said it will initiate measures so that Canadian Heritage "will abandon this policies of discrimination against the ethnic Canadian Communities and their publications and media."

The organization contends Canadian Heritage "is now enforcing policies discriminatory against the ethnic communities and their publications."

Except for an auto generated response, the federal agency has not addressed questions raised by this reporter as of this writing.

NEPMCC president Thomas Saras has also been tasked to work with Canadian Heritage to insure it "will respect the rights, the dignity and integrity of the individual members and of the organization, as they are struggling to inform their communities in their mother tongs (sic), about the Canadian political system, democracy and the Canadian culture."

The $100 million Google contribution is the latest to be made available to electronic news outlets. This could mean that only a few, if ever there is, could qualify among NEPMCC members as most of its members are print-based.

The government considered the fact that most Canadians get their news online, thus the Online News Act. It noted that "in 2022, online advertising revenues in Canada were $14 billion, with two platforms receiving roughly 80 percent of these revenues."

Presently, the NEPMCC is receiving money grants through the Canada Periodical Fund and the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI). In fact, for the period 2021-2025, it received $4.2 million from Canadian Heritage. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).

2025 Canada Budget Eyes Benefits for Filipino Canadians

Volume 7, 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 Wednesday, November 5, 2025 

~ The Liberal leadership in Ottawa is doing a sales pitch for its 2025 Federal Budget, saying Filipino Canadians are among those who stand to benefit. Easing of licensing requirements, tax credit of up to $1,100 for personal support workers, construction of new homes, and a pathway to permanent residency for over 30,000 workers are promised in the proposed measure now in the House of Commons.

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NOW IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 

Some Benefits for Filipino Canadians

Are Planned in the 2025 Federal Budget

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

TORONTO - The 2025 Federal Budget is giving recognition to the essential role Filipino Canadians play in health care, construction, and caregiving, a press statement from the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa announced on Wednesday. 

Of the $51 billion budget tabled this week in the House of Commons, $97 million is earmarked for foreign credential recognition.

This "will help internationally trained nurses, personal support workers, engineers, and trades workers get their licenses faster and work in their professions sooner," the statement said.

For Filipino families, the budget will deliver direct relief. "A new Personal Support Workers Tax Credit will mean up to $1,100 more per year for eligible PSWs," according to the statement.

A new Filipino Canadian community centre in Metro Vancouver is planned to be built. "The government is also increasing financing to accelerate the construction of multi-unit homes such as apartments and townhomes, which will help reduce housing pressures, especially for multigenerational Filipino families," the statement said.

On immigration, the government hopes to stabilize the number of newcomers while increasing opportunities for those filling labour shortages. The statement said that up to 33,000 work permit holders already contributing to Canada will have a pathway to permanent residency.

The measures that may benefit the Filipino Canadian community include, according to the press statement:

1. The government is taking action on everyday affordability by reviewing bank fees, including Interac e-Transfers and ATM charges. And by enabling automatic tax filing for simple cases, low-income Canadians including newcomers and seniors will no longer miss out on important benefits like the Canada Child Benefit and the GST credit.

2. To ensure young people and workers thrive, Budget 2025 is investing in training for skilled trades and renewing the Canada Strong Pass to provide free or discounted access to national parks, museums, and VIA Rail travel. These measures help families explore Canada, participate in culture, and enjoy more affordable experiences together.

 

3. This budget strengthens safety and security for all Canadians. A new National Anti-Fraud Strategy will better protect seniors, newcomers, and vulnerable community members from increasingly sophisticated scams, while major investments in defence and cybersecurity ensure Canada remains safe and resilient in a rapidly changing world.

4. Budget 2025 invests in the workers and families who are building Canada every day, including Filipino Canadians. Together, we are building a confident, secure, and prosperous Canada for future generations. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).