15 Years of Hard Work Gets Recognized by YouTube

Volume 7, Issue No. 32

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 Monday, December 22, 2025 

~ In the world of multimedia, the Filipino Web Channel is a modest outfit. Small and localized it may be, but it's a cog that helps turn a giant wheel in investigative journalism. This month, its work gets recognized no less by YouTube. "Your channel has been a vibrant part of YouTube's 20-year history," it says in an email reviewing FWC performance in the past 15 years. 

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YOUTUBE'S E-MAIL AS 2025 COMES TO A CLOSE

A Recognition of FWC's

Work Through 15 Years

 

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Praise invariably implies a reference to a higher standard."  – Aristotle  

TORONTO - Two weeks ago, YouTube emailed its "2025 YouTube year in review" by taking note of the length of time the Filipino Web Channel (FWC) has availed of its online video sharing platform.

It was an update on how my flagship news outlet performed from the day of its founding in November 2010 when, for want of a medium to disseminate personal commentaries, I thought about creating my own.

My mode of communications had always been print - daily newspapers, newsweeklies, monthly magazines. But that changed when I moved to Toronto in 2010 and saw a proliferation of all kinds of community journals, none of which, in my professional opinion, hewed close to my idea of a creditable periodical.

Four months prior, I published news accounts on blogspot.com (https://timecircumstance.blogspot.com/), my very first attempt at online news reporting. It wasn't getting much traction. People preferred to watch interactive events, leading me to develop FWC which debuted with an introductory video highlighting my years-long experience as a journalist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT74cbxq6ak

YouTube has taken note of that, thus the email update. And with it came an unexpected accolade - brief, simple, but so meaningful. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8HQgMnTvVY).

After all, FWC is no giant; its news coverage is confined to the Filipino community, its main target area, and on what it can keep an eye on beyond that limit.

In keeping with multiculturalism, Canada's diverse communities find a spot in the FWC video stream for as long as access and finances allow. That's because FWC is purely voluntary, a service to the community.

That same service goes to other outlets under the banner of Romar Media Canada, including Filipino Web Magazine on blogspot.com; on YouTube - Currents & Breaking News (aka The Gotcha Journalist), Filipino Web Entertainment, Eats & Restos, Little Manila News & Views, and Journo Travels. 

"Your channel has been a vibrant part of YouTube's 20-year history," said the online platform in an email thanking us for what we have contributed in the past 15 years of uninterrupted coverage.

For a comparatively small media outlet such as FWC, that message is so encouraging. It validates our work and recognizes our efforts to help inform the community about issues and concerns that's both good and bad in the neighbourhood.

In those 15 years, we're able to distill the Filipino community's troupe of actors which could be grouped into, to borrow the title of Sergio Leone's film "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

I remember the early days. My stories were met with contempt, the hostility coming mostly from an ignorant cabal of leftist sympathizers. The resentment and mockery extended to my person and to my status as a former foreign correspondent. (Related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik0AXXyPXaE).

I learned later that these people fit well into the category of "the bad and the ugly" as they consisted of a so-called playwright who is actually a computer thief, a disbarred lawyer who absconded with somebody else's money and a woman not his wife, a greedy prevaricator who victimized colleagues, fake media persons, dubious community leaders, faux doctor, among many others.

Adversarial to a large extent, but also deferential when situations call for it, is how we conduct our journalism. Despite the brickbats, threats and indignities thrown at us, our adverse approach must be the reason we stay afloat all these years.

"You started your channel on November 15, 2010, which means you've been a creator for at least 5,501 days!," said YouTube, noting the time we ventured into what was then an unknown.

November 2010 was only my eleventh month in Canada, having moved here from California where I lived and worked for 16 years as a community journalist, and before that, as a foreign correspondent for two international news agencies.

Toronto is a lively metropolis, a melting pot of cultures where differences are predominant than similarities among its more than three million population. Its news value extends broadly from Filipinos to a bigger community that makes it North America's fourth largest city.

That element alone poses huge challenges to journalists. For my news outlets under Romar Media Canada, including FWC, a single stream is not an option; one had to diversify in covering events.

Now that YouTube has regarded FWC in positive terms, I, as its main writer and editor, am more than invigorated to continue on with FWC's stated objective: investigative journalism at the community level. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).