‘Transparency and Accountability’: Lapu-Lapu Day victims, community strongly denounce Filipino BC event

By Nash Villena, Philippine Canadian Inquirer
Apr 20, 2026

(Photo courtesy: Mable Elmore/Facebook)

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — What was intended as a day of supposed “reflection and healing” has instead laid bare a Filipino community fractured by grief and unanswered questions.

A year after a vehicle-ramming incident that killed 11 people at the 2025 Lapu-Lapu Day festival, this year’s event, rebranded as the “Day of Togetherness”, opened Sunday at the Italian Cultural Centre under heavy security and a cloud of protest from the local community.

The event, organized by Filipino BC, was met with a vocal picket line of survivors and victims’ families, with several protesters clad in black and holding photos of their departed loved ones.

Lined up along the area’s security fences, they collectively denounce the event as “premature” and “disrespectful” to the grieving majority.

(Photo courtesy: Mable Elmore/Facebook)

Some victims said that reading the “Lapu-Lapu” name adds insult to injury among the victims and their families, who still haven’t recovered from the tragedy.

MLA for Vancouver-Kensington Mable Elmore joined the protesters at their picket line and said that she chose to skip the official event to “honor the request from victims and survivors,” with whom she has been in close contact.

She stressed that those who opposed the Filipino BC’s Sunday event are protesting to deliver a powerful message of “transparency and accountability” to the group.

(Photo courtesy: Filipino BC/Instagram)

A day before the event, the scheduled live music was abruptly canceled following a Saturday night announcement from Filipino BC, citing several performers who pulled out from the activity altogether due to growing community tension and the “online conduct” surrounding the event.

Beyond the timing, the protest was also fueled by ongoing allegations regarding the organization’s mismanagement of $1 million in tragedy-related funds.

While Filipino BC Chair RJ Aquino maintains in several media interviews that the organization has worked through partners like United Way to ensure victims’ broad access to healing, families on the picket line expressed frustration over the group’s lack of direct transparency, not only to them but to the public at large.

Citing the Filipino spirit of “bayanihan,” organizers of this year’s event emphasized that the activity had been completely revamped to focus on collective care, intending to reclaim the cultural celebration from the shadow of last year’s violence.

With concrete vehicle barriers and a heavy police presence surrounding the Italian Cultural Centre, the Sunday event unequivocally served nothing but as a stark reminder of the long road to recovery ahead of the Filipino community in Vancouver.