By Louie Trocio
Adelaide, South Australia – More than 120 South Australian Filipinos joined in and participated at a gathering at Thorndon Park Reserve, Campbelltown last Sunday, 24th of April 2022 as a show of support for the May 9 candidacy of VP Leni Robredo and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan for president and vice-president, respectively.
The rally, dubbed Paint Adelaide Pink Sunday, was spearheaded by a group called South Australian FilOz Engaged for LENI and KIKO (SAFE for LENI-KIKO). It was also in coordination with five other major cities all over Australia launching the same event on that day which include Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne Sydney, and Perth under 1Sambayan as spearheading organisation nationwide.
Five speakers discussed different topics which were considered matters of policy for the Filipinos to understand the importance of Leni-Kiko leadership in the next 6 years of governance. The first speaker, Arnold Callado, spoke about martial law and its bearings on the current Philippine national situation. It was followed by Atty Alice Gastl who talked about the political platforms of the Leni-Kiko tandem which are the core message of their campaigns.
Mario Trinidad, a former religious priest, discussed the roles of citizens to be part of the election process and our response to the call of the Philippine church to get involved in order to fight against historical revisionism, fake news and the distortion of the truth. The other lady speaker, Marie Anne San Gabriel, answered the most popular question of “Bakit si Leni-Kiko” (Why Leni and Kiko) as the best alternative amongst all of the presidentiable and vice-presidentiable bets.
The program was concluded by Louie Trocio who emphasized that the rally was just the start of many gatherings in the future supporting projects of Leni Robredo such as the Angat-Buhay program. The rich and bountiful land of Australia is an advantage for us, Filipino Australians, to help uplift the lives of our kababayans back home. The organisation, as he stressed, can also adopt a community in the Philippines that can be the beneficiary of an engagement for long partnership and support in the years to come.
The participants were surprised by Queenie Mae Koutsoumaris with her beautiful rendition of the song, Rosas, in one of the intermission numbers. Also, two local bands were present, the Allan’s Project Band which played the group singing, “Di Nyo Ba Naririnig”, a Filipino translation of the song, Do You Hear The People Sing, from 2012 epic musical, Les Miserables, while Dumen Band performed the famous Leni-Kiko campaign jingle, Liwanag sa Dilim.
As an established Filipino tradition, a gathering won’t be complete without known Filipino delicacies served on the table. Participants brought with them twisted doughnuts, pandesal, siopao and puto all in pink colours, among others. -LCT
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