OCTOBER 2017 | The Canberra Reporter | 3
FINANCE
COVER STORY
You find a discard, he sees a piece of art
TECHNO-ARTIST WOULDN’ T SETTLE FOR ONE OCCUPATION
Ambassador Minda Calaguian-Cruz and Randell Tiongson.
Embassy integrates financial literacy in orientation seminars
THE Philippine Embassy and the Philippine Overseas Labor Office( POLO) in Canberra have started to integrate financial literacy seminars in its Post Arrival Orientation Seminars( PAOS) to be conducted in key areas all over Australia for Filipino workers and the broader Filipino community. The objective is to empower Filipino-Australians to achieve their goals for themselves and their families. There are almost 300,000 Filipino-Australians across Australia. They comprise a community of formidable force whose members not only support each other but can also make a significant contribution to nation-building in the Philippines. Individuals or organisations who may be interested in attending or organising a financial literacy seminar are encouraged to reach out to the Philippine Embassy to work together. Filipino finance coach and author Randell Tiongson was in Canberra recently to hold a‘ No Nonsense Personal Finance Seminar’ with the Philippine Embassy for more than 50 Filipino-Australians. The seminar was part of Mr Randell’ s advocacy to help Filipinos abroad achieve financial freedom. He defined financial freedom as“ being able to afford and do what you want, when you want it.” This went beyond our daily material needs but to the heart of what our life goals really are, Tiongson said.“ To answer this, I encourage you to ask the question:“ What are the things that are truly important to me?” he said.“ Having been posted to places with large Filipino communities, I have seen through my experience that Filipinos abroad are primarily concerned with the well-being and welfare of their families and their primary objective is to secure the future of their loved ones.” For some, no matter how much money they make, it never seems to be enough to fulfil theirs or their family’ s needs. Tingson said that the first thing Filipino-Australians need to do was to“ change our mindset in handling money.” •
IT’ S NOT easy to describe Rolando Sulit, also known as Joe‘ D Mango to many of his fans back in the Philippines.
Sulit, a resident of Gungahlin in the ACT for years now, may sometimes regard himself as simply an“ architect”. He has gained a reputation as a stylishly modern interior designer.
But he was also a smooth-talking former radio host and counsellor of‘ Love Notes’, a program broadcast on one of Manila’ s major radio stations, DZMM, before he emigrated to Australia.“ Who can forget Love Notes, the popular radio show that made the love advice genre on the FM band a necessary item on any station’ s programming set?” wrote a journalist.
“ Who can forget the DJ who read those letters, whose wisdom people sought to solve their troubles, whose voice is so comforting and reassuring, anyone felt better after listening to him?”
Then, Sulit turned columnist and author when Love Notes morphed into a newspaper column, and into a best-selling book. But this multi-talented man who took up computer science at the prestigious AMA University in the Philippines brought to Australia many other qualifications including expertise in electronics and robotics.
Sulit is credited with designing, developing and“ creating” Mimo, a talking and walking robot which continues to dazzle visitors at the Mind Museum in Taguig, Rizal, in the Philippines.
ROLANDO SULIT, also known as Joe D’ Mango, at his newly established cafe, Sunday In Canberra, with some of his‘ treasures from trash’ on display.
“ I have been fascinated by robots since I was a kid, and I have been building them for almost 13 years now,” he said at ther time.
Each robot he made was designed according to a particular function and developed from scratch. Indeed, among other things Sulit is not only an innovator but also a conservation freak, one who thrives on turning, as the saying goes,“ trash into treasure”. He’ d just as soon pick up a discarded old portable film camera to clean and place on a pedestal as an ornament.
He’ d find an old rusting giant cart wheel and make it the backdrop of a clock to sit proudly on the main wall of his newly established Sunday In Canberra coffee boutique shop in Gungahlin’ s shopping centre. Yes, Sulit not only works for himself as an independent business owner of Accent One Designs but also of a fancy hub for coffee connoisseurs and customers who like to sip the good stuff in style. Above all, he is a family man, one who has also studied at the School of World Missions and continues mission work in Australia with his wife.
Remarking on one of his favourite books, Rolando Sulit was quoted as saying:
“ This book clearly redefines our paradigm of the ideal man. It spreads itself across all areas of our lives and is subtly rich in biblical references and life changing facts. It’ s a no-nonsense, thought-provoking and eye-opening guide to manhood. It makes you look at your life from a different perspective and gives you a meaningful spiritual insight on how to act not just like a man, but like a real man of Christ." •
HISTORY
Filipino descendants in WA remembered
THE Philippine Embassy in Australia together with author Deborah Wall opened the exhibit, Re-imagining Australia: Voices of Indigenous Australians of Filipino Descent in Broome, WA, on September 4, 2017 as part of the Shinju Matusuri Festival( Festival of the Pearl).
The exhibit is based on the book of the same title by Dr Wall with Dr Christine Choo. Re-imagining Australia tells the stories of the Manilamen – the first Filipinos who arrived in Australia to take part in Australia’ s thriving pearling industry starting in the 1860s – as told by their descendants.
Broome was one of the first places where the Manilamen settled and where some of their descendants still live today.
The first Filipinos in Australia had immense and lasting contributions to Broome’ s economic and social development.
Until today, the contributions of the first Filipinos and their descendants to the Catholic Church in Broome, for example, are well known and recognised.
To support Catholic missionaries, they helped build churches, donated their wealth and supported the daily activities of the Church. Among the descendants met by the embassy officials was Kevin Puertollano, whose great grandfather Thomas Puertollano arrived in Australia in 1898 and made an exemplary social and economic contribution to the local community and the Catholic Church.
Puertollano and his family would embark on a journey to the birthplace of Thomas in Marinduque, in the Philippines to reconnect with his Filipino roots. The book, Re-imagining Australia: Voices of Indigenous Australians of Filipino Descent, documents many more stories through
EMBASSY’ S Nicole de Castro, author Deborah Wall and Manilamen descendants Cauline Masuda and Kevin Puertollano.
oral history and demonstrates the intimate connection between the Philippines and Australia.
Broome has also become a second home to a number of Filipinos from several waves of migration following the Manilamen. The Philippine Embassy had the opportunity to witness the Filipino community’ s Masskara performance in the float parade of the
Shinju Matsuri festival. Shinju Matsuri Festival is a celebration of many cultures including that of the Philippines, which shaped Broome during the peak of the prosperous pearl industry. All eyes were on the Filipino community’ s intricately designed Masskara float which won the festival’ s top prize. •
OBITUARY
Historian Renato Perdon, 73
FILIPINO Australian historian, book author and journalist Renato Perdon, 73, died in his sleep aboard a Qantas flight to Manila approximately an hour or so before touch down at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila on Wednesday evening on September 6, 2017. Perdon was on a planned homecoming to spend his retirement in Caramoan township of Camarines Sur in the Bicol region of the Philippines. Abiding by his wish, his remains were cremated two days later at Manila Memorial Homes in Sucat, Paranaque. Renato, single, is survived by 15 nephews and grandchildren and by some nephews and nieces in the tradition of extended Filipino clan from the township of Nabua, also in Camarines Sur. •