Volume 7, Issue No. 19
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 Tuesday, October 14, 2025
~ A little more patience and the community may soon learn how organizers of Taste of Manila (ToM) convinced the City of Toronto to give the festival $34,000 in taxpayers money for its August staging. Authorities have responded to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to unseal documents, but held on for weeks to give the other party time to explain.
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THE $34,000 QUESTION
Would the City Disclose the Financial
Situation of Taste of Manila Festival?
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“Nothing is hidden that will not be made known, nothing is secret that will not come to light.” ―
TORONTO - Six days ago, I received an email from City authorities replying to my Freedom of Information request to unseal documents about the financial status of the Taste of Manila (ToM) festival and its organizers.
At last, I thought, my readers and the Filipino community would get to know how and why ToM managed to secure a City grant amounting to $34,000 for its two-day festivity in mid August at the North York hub of Little Manila.
Nobody in ToM has made a public announcement of the grant. I had to dig in until I found the list of organizations chosen by the City for funding, among them ToM and Mabuhay Philippines Festival.
The silence made me suspicious, all the more because ToM officials and organizers appeared in social media indulging themselves in parties and post-ToM gatherings.
I've been waiting since Sept. 9 when I filed and paid for the FOI request and, 30 days later on Oct. 9, a response came. I was ecstatic, but as I read through the email, I became a bit disappointed.
In so many words, it said I had to wait again at least another three weeks - the length of time the city was giving ToM to answer my questions. (Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/08/toronto-taxpayers-are-funding-taste-of.html).
My thinking was why would the City be more protective of a private entity (a numbered company, i.e. 5012252 Ontario Inc., supposedly owned by Rolly "kabise" Mangante and his family) than of taxpayers whose money went to ToM to partly subsidize its expenses.
"Disclosure of the requested records (from Aug. 1, 2025 to Sept. 9, 2025)," according to the City, "may affect the interests of a third party."
"Therefore, the third party is being given an opportunity to make representations concerning disclosure of the agreement. A decision on whether the records will be disclosed will be made by November 10, 2025," the City said.
I had to do a FOI request because ToM is not exactly a model of transparency even as Mangante, its self-named founder, had declared early on that ToM has nothing to hide. I hope so. But why is it so secretive?
Related videos:
Years of ToM have shown the opposite. Whenever questions are asked, Mangante and his partners, the so-called "artists" in SPARC, sought refuge in silence.
Repeated requests for information, for example, on why it stole copyrighted photographs and videos from The Filipino Web Channel and manipulated and spliced with pictures of his wife Nieves, and business partners like Cecille Araneta, and politicians such as Councillor James Pasternak, were never answered.
Related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ
The most telling among its many questionable acts was the installation in August 2024 of 13-foot-high fence blocking establishments that repudiated ToM's attempts to extract grease money from them.
Related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btf2yoU4AaE&t=7s
There are many things to unravel in ToM and the people behind it. One persistent concern is why Mangante is reportedly intent on unloading his interests in ToM and is actually shopping for a buyer.
An issue that recently cropped up is whether SPARC would continue on and enter into a new contract with Mangante extending its partnership by another three years since the present one ended this year.
As of this writing, it's not clear if the $1.5-million Breach of Contract lawsuit brought by Cecile Araneta's International Entertainment Company (IEC) against Mangante has been resolved.
Mangante's hiring of SPARC before the expiry of his three-year contract with IEC precipitated the suit. (Related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGVqgszwyYA at the 4:11 mark).
In the meantime, I'm left with no choice but to wait for clear answers to my questions. I hope the City would uphold the public's right to know why ToM had to be granted taxpayers' money and wallow in luxurious decadence. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).
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