An Open Letter to the Filipino Community in British Columbia
From RJ Aquino, Chair - Filipino BC
NOVEMBER 14, 2025
My dear community,
For many years, Filipino BC has believed that our community deserves more than temporary spaces and improvised solutions. We deserve real institutions — places that honour our heritage, elevate our voices, and serve the needs of nearly 200,000 Filipinos across BC. We deserve the infrastructure worthy of our size, our contributions, and our aspirations.
We have never shied away from supporting good ideas. In fact, we have long encouraged our community to champion any initiative that can stand on its own merits. And we have always imagined a time when multiple Filipino organizations are building spaces where we can gather, create, and feel a true sense of belonging. That future is still within reach.
But we must also be candid with one another: if petitions alone built cultural centres, we would have one already. If letters alone secured our institutions, our children would already be walking through their doors.
To build something worthy of our community, any proposal brought forward in our name must be grounded in transparency, sound planning, and accountability. It must be viable beyond a single election cycle. It must withstand scrutiny — the scrutiny of government, yes, but more importantly, the scrutiny of our own community.
Government support can be part of the solution, but no project should depend entirely on political promises to survive. And whenever public resources or taxpayer dollars are involved, we have a responsibility to ensure that the process is clear, ethical, and above reproach.
That is why I encourage our community — every advocate, every supporter, every partner — to ask the difficult but necessary questions:
Is a project financially sound, or is it built on uncertainty and risk?
Does the organization leading it have the governance and legal structure needed to steward a major community asset?
Can a feasibility study be credible without access to key data or a clearly identified site?
How can a capital campaign be launched without an asset to raise money for?
And how have successful cultural and community centres historically been built — through what partnerships, what accountability, what transparency?
These are not accusations, nor are they obstacles — they are safeguards, meant to uphold the integrity of what we build together. Those who seek to create for our community have a responsibility to address these questions openly and with respect. We do this not only for ourselves, but for the generations who paved the way and those who will inherit what we build.
And in the wake of the tragedy of April 26th, these obligations carry even greater weight. If a development claims to honour our hopes and support our healing, it must be built with transparency, genuine consultation, and the informed consent of the Filipino community.
Filipino BC stands ready — ready to work with any group committed to these principles, ready to collaborate with those who believe, as we do, in integrity, accountability, and community-led leadership.
Today, we have more attention and support from all levels of government than at any time in our history. We cannot take this moment for granted. The events of April 26th revealed both our strength and our vulnerability — and while public support has grown, we must still earn the trust required to secure long-term investments in the Filipino community.
This is a moment to come together around shared goals, shared values and a shared vision.
Because this is not ultimately a question of who leads — but how we lead.
With transparency.
With accountability.
With a commitment to one another and to the future we want to build.
In kapwa,
RJ Aquino
Chair - Filipino BC
