Volume 7, Issue No. 2
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Friday, July 18, 2025
~ The proliferation of mindless festivals that rely on crackpots to entice public support - in fact, one just ended and another one is coming up soon - does not speak for the well-being of the Filipino community. There are other less touted but more substantive attributes with redeeming values. In reviewing the past six years of this online Filipino Web Magazine, sentimental stories of love, family, community, the homeland, and our adopted home, occupy a significant part of our readers' attention.
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ON FWM'S SEVENTH YEAR
Brighter Side of News Reporting
There's a Deep Appreciation for Positive Stories
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - Marcel Proust
TORONTO - Lest our Filipino community might be mistaken as sheltering all kinds of impostors, crooks, and wolves in sheep's clothing, a brighter side exists that actually elevates us.
In a previous article, I purposely avoided lumping several most-read stories I wrote and published on this online Filipino Web Magazine (FWM) with articles involving personages of dubious if not criminal motives.
Those are real downers who deserve their own category inasmuch as they perpetuate the notion that Filipinos, with some notable exceptions, are prone to commit fraud on their own people. To a large extent, that perception is true.
Some of the exceptions to this prevailing sentiment are validated, not by me, but by readers who silently applaud the effort to highlight their works . . . indeed, works that show Filipinos are endowed with knowledge, talent and skill matching those in the mainstream community.
My story about the Philippine Artists Group (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/06/pags-art-exhibit-celebration-of.html) illustrates this sentiment as it garnered an all-time high in number of readers at FWM.
The seven news videos I created for my YouTube channel (here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kpW15YmWFg&t=599s) complemented the story. However, the number of views is a little lower than those who read the article.
Then there's my commentary on a feature article by artist and journalist Michelle Chermaine Ramos of her co-artist, Mogi Mogado, who she calls "Markham's self-taught Michelangelo" for his sculpture of Jose Rizal, among others. To many readers, that was an awe-inspiring moment unseen in these parts. (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/01/portrait-of-artist-in-eyes-of-another.html).
We all love to be loved. And what better way to express that sentiment than in essays revealing our inner feelings. My feature (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/02/valentines-day-feature-love-takes-flight.html) charmed readers to make it on top of the list.
And so does another article I wrote for Valentine's Day (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/02/notes-on-valentines-day-love-lasts-lust.html) which strengthens my belief that we're slaves to what our hearts say.
Filipinos are generally affectionate and family-oriented people. They're sentimentalists, which explain why they're tethered to the homeland however long they've stayed out and lived in adopted lands.
My personal tribute to a mother who I endearingly call my "Inang" (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/05/tribute-to-gloria-mendoza-my-inang-in.html) has warmed the heart of hundreds of readers enough to be high on the list.
The remarkable gift to the community by the late Ambassador Leslie B. Gatan (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/06/thanks-to-ambassador-gatan-he-gave-us.html) firmly established, though unofficially, the Filipino presence in Toronto through the commercial and residential hub called Little Manila.
The recent greed-driven festivals in that small enclave do not do justice to what the diplomat had envisioned for the Filipino community. It's a pity there's nothing edifying in that stolen idea of Taste of Manila.
Music runs in the blood of Filipinos, that's why it's a necessary component of any celebration. Accountant and music lover Cielo Ramos has proven it twice already in a gathering of Filipino artists (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/11/toronto-pianist-sparks-renewed-interest.html).
My videos of her playing Filipino love songs on the piano has amassed an almost cult-like following. Here are some:
The essence of how Filipinos celebrate an authentic fiesta has been captured by FUN Philippines (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/07/fun-philippines-authentic-fiesta-for.html) and has gathered positive responses, especially from homesick folks.
Our belief in the justice system is buoyed up in a decision by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice clearing businesswoman Liwayway Miranda of any wrongdoing alleged by her detractors (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/12/liwayway-miranda-aka-lily-hammer-gets.html).
And finally, the very first column I wrote for FWM after I struggled to find my footing again as a community journalist enjoyed enormous readership, indicating a favourable response to my commentaries. (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/07/writing-column-quarter-of-century-on.html).
To all my readers, viewers and supporters of my b/vlogs, thank you for keeping faith in what I do to serve the community. Maraming salamat po! (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).
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