(First of Two Parts)
‘WE will go back to the glory days of the CNE”,declared Norma Carpio, who unknown to many Filipino-Canadians holds the distinction of being the founder of what has become as the biggest and well-attended Filipino summer event that is the Mabuhay
Festival and Trade show.
By glory days, Carpio recalls that 18 days in August to September of 1998 when the Philippines won the right to be the “featured country “ for Canada’s biggest summer event which is the Canadian National Exhibition .
Because the Philippines was commemorating its Centennial year
(100 years of Independence), the selection was a sweet achievement to the growing Filipino-Canadian community and a chance to showcase its heritage, culture and arts to a wide array of multi-cultural audience.
From that unprecedented success, the Mabuhay Philippines evolved and gave birth to the Mabuhay Festival and Trade show held every summer and to this day remains a magnet among the Filipino community here in Toronto.
From that proud moment in 1998 and a desire to preserve the gains and “legacy “ of those days, Norma Carpio has decided to lead anew this year’s Mabuhay festival which she herself guided to
inception in 1991.
In a marathon 8-hour interview Carpio hinted that this year’s event, to be held on July 28 at its chosen “home” the Metro Convention Center will restore the festival’s Filipino content and character.
At the same time, the seemingly creeping commercialism of previous events has led to some observations that it is falling prey to the whims of big-time networks from Manila.
Carpio and an ABS-CBN representative have promised to address this by focusing this year on the development local homegrown talents from the community.
To make good at her word, Carpio has commissioned well known musician, arranger, composer and Hot Dog band member Mon Torralba on her team to lead in this endeavor either as musical director, consultant or coordinator . He and Norma Carpio worked together in the 1998 CNE Mabuhay festivities.
Carpio had also declared that television or movie personalities will be limited to a few to apparently avoid accusations in the past that the Festival had degenerated into a big whole vaudeville and variety show that ignored the true objective of the event: which is to celebrate yearly the Philippine Independence.
Matter of fact, when it was established, the umbrella organization of the Mabuhay has been the Philippine Independence Day Council or commonly known as PIDC whose officers and boards of directors are elected every two years.
With Norma Carpio once again at the helm of the PIDC as president, she has installed effective changes to make the organization more transparent and credible.
For instance in 2006 to 2010, the original Miss Philippines Beauty pageant, which forms part of the festival was expanded to include a search for Mrs.Philippines and Miss Little Philippines.
These beauty contests, it was learned, generated big revenues
simply because contestants were asked to pay entry fees plus
solicitations of advertising for the souvenir programs and other materials. Candidates who have amassed or solicited big amounts
more often than not stood a greater chance of winning.
At the PIDC, there are also pockets of powers called committee chairmanships but this year, Carpio has decided to end all of this and instead decided to centralize decision making taking a direct hand.
It was because of these chairmanships, specially the beauty pageants Committee that criticisms began to be leveled at the PIDC.
One officer who resigned took away with her documents and forms
related to the beauty contests and PIDC officials led by past president Minda Neri were at a lost why those papers were taken away when it was PIDC property.
TO BE CONTINUED (Next Issue: A COPY CAT FESTIVAL: IS IT BENEFICIAL TO THE COMMUNITY?)
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