The Current - How spirit of bayanihan is helping B.C. Filipinos after tragedy

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

Four days after 11 people were killed at the Lapu Lapu festival in Vancouver, there’s been an outpouring of support and caregiving among the Filipino community. We hear how this tight-knit community is coming together in the spirit of co-operation known as bayanihan, and visit a kitchen where local businesses are preparing food for victims and their families.

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This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. Just let me know what hospitals and where to go and how many meals they need and I can get somebody to go over there many meals they need and I can get somebody to go over there and we can make the food. At a massive industrial kitchen in East Vancouver the chef and caterer TJ Convy is busy. He's fielding calls, planning and cooking. It has been four days since 11 people were killed and dozens injured at the Filipino Lapu Lapu Street Festival.

TJ and other local business owners have organized to prepare and deliver warm food to victims and their families and to emergency response centers. And they've already delivered more than 200 meals. So right now we're going to make some fried rice, eggs, and some longanisas on the way also. So this is, so we have three deliveries today, actually five now. So one home, and then we have three deliveries to BGH, and then more later on. Watch out behind you, hot. Sometimes Filipinos have this thing where they're strong and they don't want to ask

for help. That is the spirit of Lapu Lapu actually. Lapu Lapu is about perseverance, about resilience. We are strong but sometimes what I want to get the message out there is that yes you're strong but also this is our way to be able to give back to you because we want to be able to help for our community. We're just going to let that cook down slowly. That smells good. We're just going to let that cook down slowly. That smells good. Food is everything to Filipinos.

Our greeting is after, kamusta, after how are you, is always kumaing kanaba. Have you eaten already? So to me it's about healing. This is how we heal. Being able to give, being able to provide makes us feel that we are able to take care of our loved ones. Yeah, it's been surreal, right? Like, we usually don't get this much attention. We sometimes to a fault are that model immigrant citizens, right? Like we don't boast about things, we just do what it is that we need to do and it's it's it's been

surreal getting all these attention being at that vigil seeing all of the politicians and all the community leaders go together where I'm I was in like looking around saying why is everybody here and and and it was amazing to see that outpour of support but But I mean, I think it is time for us to boast about our community, right? We are that strong community that everybody can rely on. We can all come together as a community, which I think sometimes is the silver lining when tragedy happens, right? Pete That's chef and caterer TJ Convy.

He's part of a support effort for those affected by Saturday's tragic incident. RJ Aquino is chair of Filipino BC. It's the group that organized the Lapa Lapa Street Festival. RJ, good morning. Good morning. It has been an awful few days. How are you doing? Getting better, not sleeping much and actually listening to just that previous segment got

me feeling a little emotional, but it's uplifting to hear how everyone's banding together to push through. What does that tell you? When the community sees this sort of response from within the community, but also beyond. I mean, TJ talked about, you know, the spirit of resilience, but we also know that there is a real sense of within the community, the pull to bring people together and to work together. What does that tell you?

I mean, it's not surprising. I mean, we've never experienced a tragedy of this scale, but it doesn't surprise me how the community really bands together in times of difficulty. The amount of support and love from everywhere, from within and outside of the community has been quite frankly at times overwhelming. And I want to share that we see and hear it all,

and it does give us strength and energy to keep doing the work that we're doing right now, which is to help as much as possible those that have been impacted by this. Within the community itself, where does that come from, that idea that people need to help each other out? It's just ingrained in our culture. It's the spirit of Bayanihan. It's just where we see ourselves in each other. We see the need to lift up one another, especially in times like this.

Sometimes I feel like it's hard to explain because it's just so ingrained in that whenever you see Filipino emerge in the public conversation and you think about, okay, what's the situation like? Are they in need and how can I help? That's kind of the immediate reaction that a lot of Filipinos that I know have right away. You must have seen that from not just across the country, but around the world. I mean, I have friends, Filipino friends all over the place

who all are talking about this and all wonder what they can do to help. The sense, that sense of Bioniehan must be, the web would be wide in a moment like this. Yeah, I honestly, I have hundreds of unread messages across kind of texts and social media and I see them come through and I kind of see the subject line and I haven't gone through them and sometimes just kind of, there's words of encouragement, words of support and in a way I'm not directly impacted. I wasn't hurt and you know, I haven't lost anyone in my family,

but everyone feels the same pain. Everyone feels the same loss. And it's overwhelming to see the messages of support. And we just, yeah, we're working towards making sure that everyone has a path towards healing and that we emerge out of this stronger. We found you the morning after the incident sitting alone on a curb back at the site of the festival. And I know that you've been in touch

with families who have been affected by this. What are you saying to them? What can you offer them? Same thing that, you know, we've been telling everyone who we want to help is we're going to start by just being present. We're going to start by just making sure that you know we're available and we can work it out together to figure out what you need and how we can, again, make sure to focus on the healing and to get through this.

What kind of support does the community need at the most right now? Again, so many people are, and as you said, it can be overwhelming at points, but so many people are trying to help and want to help. What does the community need right now, do you think? Right now, the community need right now, do you think? Right now the community is grieving.

Filipino BC, I'm so proud of my team because we've been working day and night to try to provide support to community members who have been, not just been directly impacted, but are feeling all of the feelings. They are having a hard time figuring out how to process these feelings or lack of feelings or just understanding what they're feeling. Last night I was, we had a, I guess, just volunteer, we did a check-in with our volunteers.

The city of Vancouver was generous enough to provide a space for us to connect mental health professionals with our volunteers. And we really want to make sure that everyone has a space to express themselves. The community isn't as well versed in navigating issues around mental health as we should be. So we're connecting with, again, mental health professionals and other institutions that can provide that in a safe and formal space. So we're starting with that and really through that this entire process ensuring that people are not just healthy mentally but physically like I guess I'm reacting to what I heard

last night that people aren't eating, people aren't necessarily aware that they're not taking care of themselves. So, you know, making sure that their network extends beyond to, basically their network extends now to include us so that we can provide, you know, meals, us, so that we can provide meals, someone to talk to, or someone to just go for a walk with. I'm going to let you go, but how are you taking care of yourself? I think it's just the same thing that I tell everybody, is that if you're still trying to figure things out, if you're still trying to process what you're feeling and what you want to do,

the first thing that I found is most helpful is to find somebody to help and make sure that they don't feel alone. And that way, I don't feel alone. It's been a really hard week. And I really do appreciate you taking the time in the midst of all of it to talk to us. I wish you the very best, and obviously so many people from this country but right

around the world are thinking about your community as well. RJ, thank you. Thank you so much, Matt. RJ Aquino, his chair of Filipino BC.