Jon Jon Rivero: The ‘balikbayan’ who returned to serve

Jon Jon Rivero traveled to the Philippines to fulfill a promise to a loved one. But the trip he thought to be just about him experiencing the country for the first time and reconnecting with his Filipino roots turned out to have a greater purpose.

Jon Jon, a 38-year-old Filipino-Canadian occupational therapist and certified trauma specialist, is the son of a Filipina teacher who hails from San Pedro, Laguna and a Filipino doctor from Meycauayan, Bulacan.

It was in Edmonton, Canada where his parents met and fell in love. They eventually moved to Regina, Saskatchewan where Jon Jon and his older brother were born. Jon Jon grew up being passionate about a lot of things including Taekwondo, hip hop, break dancing, beatboxing, and singing, among others. His 43-year-old brother, Joel, who is a bioengineer, was the one who introduced him to a lot of musical stuff that he is into.

There is no question that these two brothers got their artistic side from their parents, who helped found the Maharlika Dance Troupe of Regina along with three other Filipino families to bring back some Philippine folk dances like the Pandanggo sa Ilaw, Maglalatik, and Tinikling. At such a young age, Jon Jon and his brother were very exposed to these traditional dances despite being raised in a foreign land.  It was actually his father’s hope to bring all of them back to the Philippines one day until an unexpected event happened.

Jon Jon was only two-years-old when his dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor which made his plan for a family trip to the Philippines hard to happen.

“He woke up from the surgery not remembering how to live basically, impairing his personality, his motor skills, his memory, his whole body but it was my Mom’s faith and determination to help my Dad, through his family and through activities, to regain his sense of self,” Jon Jon shared with Philippine Canadian Inquirer (PCI).

Through five to ten-minute activities, Jon Jon said his dad was able to walk, dance, sing, and even cook again with supervision. Throughout the day, his caregivers and wife would always bring Jon Jon and his brother to his bedside and play music for him, while tapping his feet, moving his body in bed, and flashing a smile at his sons. This reminded his dad that despite living with a brain tumor and no longer being able to practice as a doctor, he is still a loving father to his sons. When Jon Jon reached the age of 19, his dad passed away. Jon Jon had made three promises to his dad: first, he will take care of his mom and brother, second, he will use his talents to help people in need, and lastly, to have that trip to the Philippines that his father had always wanted to do.

Keeping promises

Following his father’s passing, Jon Jon decided to continue his study at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine and was later on hired professionally by an organization as an occupational therapist, along with other speech therapists and psychologists, to help children with autism. This was when Jon Jon started to fulfill his promises. His proposal to teach the children Taekwondo and hip hop got approved by the organization, making him the only occupational therapist doing that in the inner city of Edmonton.

Four years later, he finally had the opportunity to travel as a hip hop and performing artist to the Philippines with the Filipino-Canadian Saranay Association. Prior to the trip, the group prepared for a year, practicing Filipino traditional dances, playing Rondalla, singing some Original Pinoy Music (OPM) and covering Black Eyed Peas songs, break dancing, and beatboxing to have a variety of entertainment to share with kids in the Philippines.

Jon Jon did not have specific expectations for this trip aside from learning from and being accepted by his kababayans.

“Part of my experience in Canada was like I’m different from everybody. At the time growing up in Regina, there weren’t as many Filipinos as there are now. Now there [are] Filipinos everywhere which is amazing. I love it. Growing up, I was definitely feeling the same but I had to fit in because physically, I looked different from everyone else. So my expectation was I hope the people in the Philippines will accept me,” he said.

The first time he landed in his parents’ home country in 2006, Jon Jon already fell in love with the Filipino people. They had him at their “Mabuhay! Welcome!” matching with a smiling face at the airport.

“They’re so nice. When you go to the Philippines, it’s such a big journey. It’s a wonderful adventure and then they say ‘Hi, welcome.’ I just want to go and hug them,” he recalled with excitement.

Landing in Manila, the group went straight to La Union where they began conducting workshops, traveled to Vigan for a little tour in the northern rural community, and then to Baguio to do some performances. Jon Jon’s first trip to the Philippines was basically him visiting school-to-school and community-to-community where he was able to connect with at least 5,000 children.

During that journey that lasted for a month, Jon Jon had indeed a lot of fun sharing his talent as he performed on stage with the Filipino-Canadian Saranay Association, but what really made this experience a life-changing one was his encounter with street children. From the school, Jon Jon said he was heading to their tour bus when suddenly a bunch of kids — some with no shoes, no bottoms, and missing limbs — came up to him. The first question he had for these kids was to ask about their family and to his surprise, a lot of them told him that either their parents have died or they are being raised by their older siblings. He said the reason why they approached him was that they wanted him to share some hip hop dance which Jon Jon gladly did.

For a few minutes, he taught them some basic steps but the children ended up doing an upgraded version of the moves.

“They were way better than me already! They ended up teaching me. They’re teaching me how to head spin on the concrete,” he said, not knowing that the kids were watching him from afar while he performed on the stage.

“They said, ‘Kuya, you taught me’ and then I said, ‘What do you mean I taught you?’ They said, ‘I saw you on that stage,’” he continued.

Their interaction for a few minutes became an hour as the two sides started to exchange the culture they grew up with. The children taught Jon Jon some Tagalog words and then they would laugh at the way he spoke it. His amazing exchange with those little ones got him thinking that this could be what his dad was trying to help him understand: their humble beginnings.

“I just saw myself in these kids and I thought I got to do something. Maybe this is the promise my Dad wanted me to make,” Jon Jon said.

Jon Jon had an opportunity to talk at the mayor’s house at La Union where he expressed how grateful he was to visit the Philippines and reconnect with his roots, and how it was a dream come true for him just to be in the country. He had no specific plans yet at that time but one thing he was sure of was that he would come back to spend time with kids and, perhaps, offer workshops. This was when the Balikbayan Project came to the surface.

The Balikbayan Project

After his visit to his parents’ home country, Jon Jon came back to Canada and connected with one of his best friends, Rob Boothe, who is also his partner in performing. He shared with Rob his trip to the Philippines as well as his plan to launch the Balikbayan Project, which comes from the Tagalog word “balikbayan” or the term used by Filipinos used to describe someone who is returning to their homeland.

He initially did not know what exactly he was going to do to help the street children. Rob then suggested to Jon Jon his contact at the University of Alberta (U of A) who is already connected with a group in Tacloban City that supports and houses street children called Streetlight Philippines. Jon Jon communicated with the U of A group who was already going to volunteer with Streetlight and they met Erlend Johannesen, the organization’s founder from Norway, via Skype.

In 2007, Jon Jon went again to the Philippines to solidify his partnership with Streetlight Philippines and develop a program that will focus on teaching kids hip hop and other performing arts. After Tacloban, Jon Jon, along with his friend Mike Refugia who came with him to the Philippines in 2006, went back to the same school they worked with before in La Union and began the Balikbayan Project.

At the end of that trip, Jon Jon said people eventually learned that he is also an occupational therapist. He recalled that there were around 30 or 40 families who lined up at the hotel he was at, hoping that he could help their child with autism. Lending a hand to these families through different strategies and conducting more workshops, he realized that it would be a good idea to use his professional work as part of his life-long project.

“That’s when I said maybe the Balikbayan Project is bigger than only hip hop. The concept is whatever you have to give, share it and they will share in return. We never asked for money. It’s more of just, ‘pray for us or send us good wishes or if you have a skill to offer us then that’s great,’” he emphasized.

Traveling back to the Philippines every two years for the Balikbayan Project with his wife, Paula Audrey Rivero, and other teammates, Jon Jon created a lot of good memories like the comforting experience of walking barefoot in the mountains of Banaue, or on a sandy beach and seeing the sun, palm trees, and the beauty of the Filipino people.

“They treat others better than they treat themselves or they treat others the way they wanted to be treated,” he said.

But while there are happy memories, there were also some painful memories for him.

A month before Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) struck the country in 2013, Jon Jon and the team stayed in Tacloban City. They left after implementing their initiatives with Streetlight Philippines which were focused on trauma-informed care, and even co-authored a book titled, “My Name is Trauma,” with his wife who is a registered social worker and certified trauma specialist. Their book aims to inform children about trauma in an imaginative way using an illustration of a tiger that wakes up when it is being triggered.

They also did a press conference where they invited many social workers and psychologists and conducted a workshop on how to deal with trauma. In addition, they always included the “Pagpasabot” program as part of the Balikbayan Project where people in Tacloban get to express themselves, and organize a talent show and parade. During the day, they would teach performing arts to the kids, and then in the evening, they do workshops with the staff, teachers, and other therapists in the city to train them using trauma-informed care and different strategies to help children with special needs.

“Every year was packed full of things like lots of different things and 2013 was no different,” Jon Jon said, adding that they were not only working with Streetlight Philippines but with many other organizations in Tacloban City.

Jon Jon filmed his trips to the Philippines and everything they do in the Balikbayan Project just for the purpose of showing it to people in Canada, especially to his mom, but this simple recording turned out to be something else.

‘Balikbayan: From Victims to Survivors’

Through the video clips he took, Jon Jon was able to release a documentary titled, “Balikbayan: From Victims to Survivors,” which recently premiered at the 2020 Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF). Making this documentary was not actually part of his plan, however, the heartbreaking tragedy changed his mind.

Jon Jon connected with Erlend two months after the typhoon to ask about their situation and if they should raise money for them, but Erlend told Jon Jon it was the Balikbayan team that they needed and not only the financial support. They needed Jon Jon’s team to come back to the Philippines and do a workshop for them to help them heal.

He reached out to his friends in the film industry, Bernie Hernando and Rob Hillstead, for the documentary and then headed to Tacloban City. The kids were sent to Davao while the hard-hit city was being rebuilt, but upon Jon Jon’s arrival, they were already back in Tacloban and were temporarily living in tents. This was the time when the Balikbayan team decided to implement their “My Name is Trauma” workshop with kids.

“It’s one thing as a professional to deliver workshops for people I don’t know because it’s okay, I can remove myself mentally and emotionally because it’s just me meeting strangers for the first time and if they share something really hurtful, I can do my best to be able to help them,” Jon Jon said.

“But when it’s the people I’ve known since they were like five or eight — I basically grew up with these kids over the years and they’re sharing mga trauma that they experienced, of course with the typhoon but you can’t ignore the other trauma that comes up from their own families. That was probably one of the hardest things,” he added.

Apart from seeing the devastation of Typhoon Yolanda with his Streetlight family, Jon Jon was also saddened by the passing of one of the organization’s scholars who died along with her parents during Typhoon Yolanda. Despite everything that happened, they chose to continue radiating positive energy to one another, with high hopes that they would be able to get through such a difficult challenge.

Jon Jon aims to highlight this in the documentary which took 13 years to be released: he wanted the world to see how strong Filipinos can be even during tough times. He explained that the word balikbayan, which he included in the documentary title, has become important to him because even though he was not a “true balikbayan” in the sense that he was not born and raised in the Philippines, he considered himself as a “new type of balikbayan” who is experiencing the Philippines each time.

“The reason why I put it in the film is because it’s about us returning, returning here year after year but we’re not there to party all the time. I’m not there just to enjoy the Philippines and go [on] vacation. I’m there to fulfill a promise to my Dad,” he stressed.

The word From Victims to Survivors comes from the trauma-informed care to help a victim of trauma to think of themselves as survivors rather than primarily as victims.

“The irony of my film and what we learned is that some of them would never [have] thought of themselves as victims in the first place. They are survivors forever. In the film, you’ll see my transformation of being humbled and learning that,” Jon Jon said.

With the documentary, Jon Jon hopes that people, particularly Filipino-Canadians who have never been to the Philippines, to have gratitude for what they have and be more aware of the sacrifices their families make just to give them the life they have right now. Noting that the concept of balikbayan does not have to be only in the Philippines but universally, Jon Jon also hopes that anyone from any culture who could watch the documentary will think of their roots, how they will be able to learn more about it, and how they will be able to serve their people.

Even after the documentary’s release, the life-long Balikbayan Project will continue to serve as a means to help children in need, but in the meantime, the team has to stay put due to travel restrictions and safety protocols amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.