OVER 200 Filipino-Canadians and their friends and families came to Cebu for a sightseeing tour around the country. They went around in six plush motorcoaches.

The highlight of their visit was a sumptuous Chinese dinner at the White Gold House hosted by Ambassador Francisco Benedicto, erstwhile envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Ottawa.

In the group were the current Philippine Ambassador to Canada Petronila Garcia and her predecessor, Lesley Gatan. They presented a book to Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama who was in a singing mood—when isn’t he?

As usual, Mayor Mike sang “The Way You Look Tonight.” He could have sung something in Cebuano like “Matud Nila” or “Usahay” but he had asked his audience what they wanted and they requested for a Tagalog song. He obliged with “Kahit Isang Saglit.”

The evening held more musical numbers, coordinated by Mila Espina. She had tapped the University of San Jose Recoletos Adelante dancers, the ensemble from Benedicto College and the theatrical academy of Amparito Lhuillier Educational Foundation scholars.
Consular Corps holds election
The Cebu chapter of the Consular Corps of the Philippines held an election meeting at the Casino Español de Cebu presided by its chair Emily Benedicto Chioson, honorary consul of Israel. Here are the election results:

Chair Carmel Luzuriaga Durano, honorary consul of Poland; vice chair Jose Sala, honorary consul of Sweden; secretary Anton Perdices, honorary consul of Spain; and director Eduardo Gonzalez, honorary consul of Mexico.

Augusto Go, outgoing honorary consul general of Korea, took the opportunity of introducing the new consul general in Cebu Lee Ki-seog who heads the recently opened career consulate of Korea.

Consul Lee expressed his country’s gratitude to Augusto Go for his dedicated service to Korea during the past years. There are now more than 30,000 Korean nationals residing in Cebu.

Among those present were Zhang Weigou, consul general of China, and honorary consuls Philip Go of the Czech Republic, Sabino Dapat of Denmark, Sammy Chioson of Portugal, Armi Lopez Garcia of Russia, Tamsin Booth of United Kingdom, and John Domingo who is on his last year as consular agent of the United States.

Speaking of departures, the Consul of Japan in Cebu and Ms Shoji Otake are hosting a farewell reception on March 24 at 6:30 p.m., at Marco Polo Plaza Hotel. It will be an occasion to introduce their successor, Consul Shigeyuki Hirakawa.
Art exhibit
An important art exhibit at the 856 G Gallery in A.S. Fortuna was the one-man show of Filipino-American artist Wayne Lacson Forte. He was present with his wife Valerie, dear friend from Bacolod Lynn Gamboa, and the gallery owners, Annie Chen and Jing Ramos, plus the gallery’s manager Pia Mercado.

Wayne was born in Manila but at the age of 3 went to California with his Filipina mother and American father. His artistic ability developed from his early childhood. He earned his undergraduate and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of California at Irvine.

After his mother passed away, he realized he no longer had a connection with the Philippines. Since then he has been in constant move, living and painting in his California studio and spending a quarter of the year in Bacolod, rediscovering his Filipino identity.

His works have been in solo and group exhibits in California, New York, Brazil and Hong Kong as well as the Philippines.

A solo exhibit of his works titled “Filipino Themes” was held at Negros Museum in Bacolod City last year, and “Seeing the Kingdom” at Calgary Gallery in Capistrano Beach, California.

Wayne’s works are now in various private collections, including the Vatican Museum Collection of Contemporary Art.

His recent exhibit in Cebu featured botanical still life done in the interlude between some of his larger figurative works, also included in the Cebu show. They reflect Wayne’s artistic curiosities and responses to the Philippines’ rich culture and environment.

After Wayne’s solo show, 856 G Gallery offered an exposition of a Modernist Print Collection, on view until March 27. It includes works by the Philippines’ foremost print artist Manuel Rodriguez who hails from Cebu. To quote him:

“The appeal of the black and white print is intellectual, while that of the colored print is emotional.