Updated April 23, 2023, 12:00 A.M.
2nd update: April 30, 2023, 7:20 AM
(As this is being posted, a hastily called Press Conference was called for today, April 23, 2023 at 11:30 A.M. to update the community.)
Vancouver, B.C.
Analysis
First of a series
$250,000 kick-starts planning and development
Teodoro Alcuitas
PhilippineCanadianNews.Com
The elusive dream to have a cultural centre for the Filipino community in Vancouver may soon be a reality with the recent announcement of a $250,000 funding for planning and development by the provincial government.
“Our multicultural society is B.C.’s strength and the contributions of the Filipino community in B.C. are an important part of our province’s history, culture and success,” said Lana Popham, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. “Having a Filipino cultural centre where the community can connect and share their heritage has been a dream of the Filipino community in B.C. for a long time, and it’s exciting to support the work towards making this vision a reality.”
Mabuhay House will work with PortaLiving, a Vancouver-based real estate developer whose CEO is Macario ‘Tibo” Reyes, a Filipino-Canadian.
Reyes will team up with Mabuhay House and lend his company’s expertise to help develop and bring the project to completion.
The Road to Mabuhay House
A seemingly innocuous item in the Georgia Straight by Carlito Pablo in February 2019 hinted at a planned community centre.
“There is immense interest to see the development of such a facility, ” according to Gwen Pawlikowski, a partner with the New Westminster-based communications company, who did a survey. Who paid for the survey was not disclosed. Pablo now works for MLA Mable Elmore as Constituency Assistant.
For more information about the Mabuhay House Society, visit: https://mabuhayhouse.squarespace.com/
In a statement to CBC News, Popham said she has been working with Elmore and that the next steps for the centre will include community engagement.
“It’s too early to say what that model will look like, but we are also looking to engage other government partners at the federal and municipal level to support this important project,” reads the statement. “This important work requires solid business planning, which will take some time.”
Filipinos have a long history in the province dating back to the 1880s when Benson Flores was recorded to have settled in Snug Cove, Bowen Island in 1861 – the first Filipino in Canada.
http://jlopezmb.blogspot.com/search?q=Benson
https://www.canadianfilipino.net/community/first-filipino-canadians-the-search-begins-part-1-of-4
According to historical records, there were less than a dozen Filipinos in Vancouver at the time. From that humble beginning, Filipinos now number more than 150,000 in the province and close to a million in Canada.
The saga of a Community Centre – a blessing or a curse?
For decades, the community has struggled to have a community centre in Vancouver and some of them have come and gone except for Victoria’s Philippine Bayanihan Community Centre which is now on its 50th year of operation in the province’s capital city.
The first to launch a centre was the Philippine Women Centre of B.C. (PWC) in 1990, albeit it had begun organizing in 1986. The centre grew to become The Kalayaan Centre at 451 Powell St. in Vancouver’s downtown eastside, with five grassroots organization under its roof. Started by six women using their own funds, the centre became the hub and go-to venue for Filipinos in Vancouver until its demise in the early 2000s. The building was ordered demolished by the City of Vancouver in 2014 for alleged structural defects. The centre is still embroiled in an on-going legal struggle against the owners of the adjacent Ming Sun Benevolent Society building who sued PWC for alleged liability for damage to its structure. The case is scheduled to be heard in September 2024.
In 1992, a community centre was launched by the now-defunct Philippine Community Centre Society (PCCS), a project wracked with controversies with two factions vying to build it. Despite raising close to $200,000 and a reported land deal involving over $2 million, the plan never materialized. To date nobody knows what happened to the proceeds.
http://www.asianpacificpost.com/article/2796-“secret”-land-deal-splits-bc-filipinos.html
Then, in 1996, another project came into being – the Filipino Canadian Support Services Society (FCSSS) which eventually morphed into the present Multicultural Helping House Society (MHHS). The organization was also bedeviled with controversies involving alleged nepotism and eventually saw the Avendanos resigning. MHHS still operates to this day at 4802 Fraser St. In Vancouver.
http://helpinghouse.org/history
Meanwhile, survivors of the split at the Kalayaan Centre regrouped and was able to buy a property just a stone’s throw from MHHS on the corner of Fraser and E 32nd St. Bahay Migrante was officially opened in 2014 and still operates up to this day.
Background: The link between Bahay Migrante and the Kalayaan Centre
Looming in the background is the ambitious NPC3
Amidst all these buzz in the community, there is the so-called NPC3 or the National Pilipino Community Centre. Led by academic and UBC professor Dr. Leonora Angeles, it has been organizing and lobbying to establish a national centre.
“In the Spring of 2020 Sammie Jo Rumbaua (now c0-director of Mabuhay House) and a team of Graduate Students consulted the Vancouver Filipino community as part of Dr. Nora Angeles’ UBC School of Community and Regional Planning course, Planning 522 – Qualitative Analysis. We at NPC3 heard tremendous support from the community towards nurturing a stronger pressence in Vancouver. The following document is the full report delivered by the graduate students who made this extensive consultation possible. Special thanks to all involved in delivering such a worthwhile oppourtunity to hear from Filipino Vancouverites and come together before the pandemic.”
Click to access NPC3.Final.Report+%282%29.pdf
Filipino translation:
Sinusuportahan ng Province ang public engagement para sa Filipino cultural centre
VICTORIA – Ang Mabuhay House Society ay makakatanggap ng $250,000 para sa pagpaplano at public engagement para sa pagtatayo ng isang provincial cultural centre upang ipagdiwang ang komunidad ng mga Pilipino sa B.C.
“Ang lakas ng B.C. ay ang ating multikultural na lipunan at ang mga kontribusyon ng komunidad ng mga Pilipino sa B.C. ay isang mahalagang bahagi ng kasaysayan, kultura at tagumpay ng ating province,” sabi ni Lana Popham, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. “Matagal nang pangarap ng Filipino community sa B.C. ang magkaroon ng isang Filipino cultural centre kung saan maaaring makipag-ugnayan at ibahagi ng komunidad ang kanilang pamana o heritage. Nasasabik akong suportahan ang mga pagsisikap upang gawing realidad ang hangarin na ito.”
Ang Mabuhay House Society ay isang not-for-profit organization na itinatag upang pamunuan ang pagpaplano at engagement sa komunidad para sa isang probinsiyal na Filipino cultural centre.
“Ang ating pamahalaan ay dedikado sa pagpapahalaga ng diversity, pagkamakatarungan at ingklusyon,” sabi ni Mable Elmore, Parliamentary Secretary for Anti-Racism Initiatives. “Matagal nang inaasam na magkaroon ng pisikal na espasyo para sama-samang makapagtipon ang Filipino community at maipagdiwang ang kultura at heritage. Ito ay isang mahalagang hakbang para sa pagtatayo ng isang espasyo para sa komunidad na nagbibigay ng tahanan para sa Filipino community.”
Inaasahang magsisimula ang public engagement kasama ang Filipino community ngayong summer.
“Public engagement ang mahalagang unang hakbang para makapagtayo ng isang cultural centre na nagpapakita ng mga kontribusyon ng Filipino community sa B.C.,” sabi ni James Infante, co- chair at board member ng Mabuhay House Society. “Masigla ang boses ng ating lipunan para sa mahalagang proyektong ito at ipinapakita ng pagpopondo ang komitment ng pamahalaan ng B.C. upang maisakatuparan ang pagtatayo ng mahalagang centre na ito.”
Nakikipagtulungan ang Province bilang partner kasama ang mga indibidwal na may lived experience sa buong British Columbia upang mapahusay at gawing mas makatarungan ang mga pampublikong lugar. Noong 2022, ipinakilala ng pamahalaan, nang may partnership kasama ang mga Indigenous Peoples at racialized na komunidad, ang Anti-Racism Data Act upang ligtas na makapagkolekta ng datos batay sa lahi at matukoy kung saan nakakapagdulot ng mga balakid ang sistemikong rasismo.