Sorrow and fury among Vancouver’s Filipinos after attack on festival

Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu festival, meant to be a celebration of Filipino pride, ended in a wail of sirens and screams on Saturday.

Eleven people – the youngest just five – died and many more were hospitalised after a man drove an SUV through the crowd.

“A lot of us are still numb. A lot of us are still angry, confused, sad, devastated – and some of us don’t know how to feel, what to feel,” says R. J. Aquino, chairman of Filipino B.C., the organisation which put on the festival.

He spoke at a vigil attended by hundreds of people from across the Lower Mainland on Sunday night.

“Honestly, I’m kind of all of the above right now,” he adds.

Those who had been at the festival site all day were left with an intense feeling of shock, sorrow and fury in the aftermath of the attack.

Roger Peralta and Bjorn Villarreal, friends who both arrived in Canada in 2016, spent the evening listening to the music and eating the food of their homeland.

“Suddenly I hear this unimaginable noise,” Bjorn recalls.

“It was a loud bang,” Roger says.

Both men describe seeing bodies bouncing off an SUV just meters away from them.

“I did not run away,” Bjorn continues. “I actually followed the vehicle, because I felt like I could stop him.

“It was horrendous. A lot of people [were] just lying on the street and crying and begging for help.”

Almost a day later, Roger is still in shock and unable to sleep as the scene replays in his mind. He says he is finding himself having to stop and cry.

But he also spoke of a strong Filipino spirit which he says will lift the community.

“We have in our culture Bayanihan,” he explains, which translates as a spirit of unity and cooperation among Filipinos.

“When you meet another Filipino, even if you don’t know them, you greet them, you feel like they’re family, even if you’re not.”

The Premier of British Columbia, David Eby, has also paid tribute to the Filipino community in Canada, saying he didn’t “think there’s a British Columbian who hasn’t been touched in some way by the Filipino community”.

“You can’t go to a place that delivers care in our province and not meet a member of that community,” he said.

“Our long-term care homes, our hospitals, childcare, schools. This is a community that gives and gives.”

Bjorn, who works at a hospital as a magnetic resonance imaging technologist, agrees.

“We are very caring people,” he says.

Both he and Roger were furious the SUV got into the crowd in the first place. They said they felt let down by Canada.

Premier Eby said he feels that rage too.

“But I want to turn the rage that I feel into ensuring that we stand with the Filipino community,” he said as he stood in front of a police cruiser blocking access to the crime scene.

“This event does not define us and the Filipino community or that celebration.”