Filipino Heritage Month kicks off with flag raising ceremony in Vancouver

As Filipino Heritage Month is set to begin, Vancouver’s Filipino community gathered for a flag raising ceremony Saturday.

A parade at the event was lined with signs listing the names of those killed in the Lapu-Lapu Day festival attack last month.

Clifford Belgica, program director for the United Filipino Canadian Association of BC, says things have been difficult since the attack, with many vendors feeling they weren’t ready to take part in this year’s event.

“It’s definitely challenging waking up, organizing this event, and just, everything goes through your mind,” he said.

“What else do we need to do to make sure that the community is safe doing this? Are we? You question yourself, is the community ready and everything?”

This year’s event also features enhanced security, with police officers seen marching in the parade.

“You can see this used to be a very small event. Now it’s like security. We’re lucky that we have the police. We’re lucky that we have transit police,” he said.

“There’s a lot of things, but we have to make sure that everyone is safe. There’s still a lot of apprehension for people coming in. We just need to make everyone feel like you know, we need to start taking care of ourselves, our community.”

On April 26, an SUV plowed through the street festival, killing 11 people and leaving the Filipino community in shock. Suspect Kai-Ji Adam Lo now faces eight counts of second-degree murder after the incident.

Saturday’s event took place at Filipino Plaza, a park that was given to the local Filipino community in advance of Expo 86.