With the Feasts in Little Manila Comes the "Kotong Gang"

Volume 6, Issue No. 56

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 . . . . . .

 

The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Wednesday, June 25, 2025 

~ A relatively new breed of scam artists may take advantage again of vendors and revelers joining the fun at Toronto's Little Manila, the favourite celebration area for some Filipino community events. Last year, the Taste of Manila (ToM) - hyped by organizers as "a festival for everyone," which was a misnomer as it blocked establishments that refused to pay grease money - had one of its guests then-candidate Isko Moreno who, after winning the mayoralty race, had decried the many instances of "kotong" in the Philippine capital.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

THE FIESTA SEASON IS ON

'Kotong' Gang May Surface Again in Little Manila 

Steel Fence Is Its Tool Against Non-Compliant Vendors 

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Though the bribe be small, yet the fault is great." - Edward Coke

TORONTO - The season of fiestas and merrymaking is again upon the Filipino community and with it, the potential to garner tons of money by double-dealing organizers.

As in the past 11 years, the focus is the unofficially-declared Little Manila - home to an assortment of rogue characters play-acting as community leaders.

The area is not unlike Manila, the Philippine capital, from where it adopted its name, only smaller geographically, thus Little Manila. But its size should not fool anyone, for within its narrow confines exists the very stuff right-thinking Filipinos abhor.

The notoriety of the city 13,229 kilometres away has found cause célèbres here who are just as brazen and greedy as their counterparts in the homeland. 

A recent visitor here, then-candidate-now-mayor of Manila, Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso, has decried in a media scrum there the prevalence of "kotong" - slang for bribery and/or extortion by the authorities.

A picture of him appeared in social media with the inscription "Kotong sa Maynila" which was his way of expressing disgust at the manner hapless citizens are being victimized.

I was a bit enthralled the moment I saw that photo because weeks ago, I criticized officials of Taste of Manila (ToM) festival and Society of Philippine (con?) Artists, Recreation and Community (SPARC) for installing a fence blocking access to five establishments that had refused to pay grease money.

The steel fence visibly epitomized "kotong" and all its ugly connotation. Interestingly, neither ToM and its self-declared founder Rolly Mangante, a former driver at the Philippine Consulate, nor the con artists at SPARC, denied any role in its installation. Their silence could be construed as acquiescence or admission of guilt.

1. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/08/taste-of-manila-fences-off-joints-that.html

2. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/01/mp-yaara-saks-chides-taste-of-manila.html).

"Kotong" was a word I remember spoken by media colleagues during the time, years ago, I covered the Manila police beat as a reporter. It's a mean euphemism for extortion.

Now, in the context of a shakedown by ToM and SPARC that led to the installation of a13-feet high fence in August 2024, resorting to "kotong" finds new meaning in the Filipino community.

(Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/01/theres-good-promise-in-filipino-town.html).

Theft is another one of those illegal practices resorted to by ToM officials whose "creative" impulses mean stealing photos and video footages and manipulating them to promote themselves, their families and friends.

The act of stealing materials from my YouTube channel was defended by former ToM ally, Mon Datol, whose moronic ideas conflicted with existing copyright law as we know it.

(Related videos: 

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ).

The best example of that steal is by the so-called Philippine Event Services Ontario (PESO) of Philip Beloso, Pepito Torralba, Jerome Peralta, Dannasol Luna and her brother of lunatrix video. The PESO acronym is quite suggestive of a scam.

(Related stories: 

1. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/03/official-blames-tom-and-partners-for.html

2. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/03/vendors-ask-taste-of-manila-wheres-our.html

These PESO people have been identified as the culprits by two former ToM partners of Rolly "Kabise" Mangante, namely, Cecille Araneta and Ramon "Mondee" Datol. 

(Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/11/non-profit-org-blamed-for-video-theft.html). (Related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGVqgszwyYA).

Their attention has been called for their wrongdoing many times over but they clammed up as soon as they are confronted. Now, the prospect of "kotong" emerging again is all too real. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).