As a longtime community advocate and publisher, it has always been my dream to see our community become united.

I’m a firm believer that there are more things uniting us rather than dividing us, and these can be maximized for a collaborative effort toward a common goal for the Filipino community.

That’s why in my previous two columns, I’ve called on the community to focus on matters that unite us, particularly the creation of a Filipino centre.

I also appealed for respect, tolerance and civility, as we navigate through differences in our opinions and points of view.

While my earlier columns have generated mostly positive responses, some individuals didn’t internalize the real message and gave untoward comments based on wrong interpretations.

A good example is Mar Alparaque. For someone who is active among the ranks of seniors in our community, Alparaque has shown a juvenile misunderstanding of what I am trying to convey.

To quote Alparaque, my call for unity is actually a move for a “deeper divide in the community”.

Alparaque claims to be “disappointed” about my track, but he doesn’t really provide a clear explanation why calling for unity is a cause for greater division in the community. I don’t know if Alparaque is losing his faculties.

Then we have Bhoy Tam, who is notorious for posting insane remarks on social media.

Instead of helping build unity, Bhoy Tam makes such outlandish claims that we want to “take over the project” of building a Filipino centre.

Bhoy Tam also preaches about doing the “right thing” without mentioning what that is all about.

I guess the right thing for him as well as Alparaque to do is read my columns again before they embarrass themselves with nonsensical comments.

I want to emphasize that I had suggested that the United Filipino Canadian Associations in B.C. (UFCABC), being the broadest alliance in the community, has a role in getting the community together for a serious conversation about the planned Filipino centre.

And as respected community figure Bert Parungao has stated, UFCABC does not intend to build the centre, but rather facilitate unity in the community.

Christian Cunanan, who is the current president of UFCABC, has reiterated to me that UFCABC is “open to dialogue”.

As Christian affirmed, UFCABC will serve as a “mediator” to all parties willing to sit down and find ways to cooperate.

“Any decision to endorse a group or individual in pursuit of our goal of establishing a Filipino cultural centre will need a majority vote from the executive board,” Christian declared.

I agree with Joel Castillo, founding president of UFACBC, that instead of making untoward reactions or misinterpretations of what I have suggested, some of our folks should just zip it up in order to preserve their dignity.

Being a publisher, whose main objective is to elevate our community can be a thankless job.

I recall that during the 2022 municipal election, my Philippine Asian News Today and its sister publication Philippine Showbiz Today went all out to support Maita Santiago in her candidacy for Burnaby city council. And what do I get in return?

The group of Maita’s husband Paolo Clemente now have the nerve to tell the community on social media to “say goodbye to biased, self-serving newspaper”.

Now I want to believe whispers surrounding this group and their intentions.

They are now saying this because they are opening a new paper called Pinoy Dyaryo BC, which they say will focus on facts and “not on personal interests”.

Well I didn’t hear these guys complaining about “biased” news when my papers were helping the campaign of Paolo Clemente’s wife Maita Santiago for Burnaby city council.

Also, there wasn’t a peep from these folks when my newspapers were promoting their Burnaby festival talking about “self serving” newspaper.

What happened to them? (Anong nangyari?) Talk about “self serving”.

We welcome their “NEW” newspaper…there’s always opportunity for everyone!

Maybe they can teach us a lesson on how to go about “unbiased and informative storytelling”.

As you can see, calling for unity and helping our community can be a risky venture.

By Rey Fortaleza