More than seven months after the Lapu Lapu Day tragedy in East Vancouver, a makeshift memorial still stands at the site.
Now, the Filipino community says it is closer than ever in the decades-long push for a Filipino cultural centre.
“Perhaps if we had a home, things might have been a little bit different in this healing process,” Warren Dean Flandez with the Filipino Legacy Society told Global News.
All three levels of government recognize the need for a cultural centre and the private sector is offering a space in a new development.
A development application is before the City of Vancouver to transform the corner at Main Street and East 4th Avenue into a 30-storey hotel. The first six floors would be a 60,000-square-foot Filipino cultural centre, with event space, an art gallery and child care.
“Near the future Broadway Line in the heart of Mount Pleasant,” Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said. “A neighbourhood where Tagalog is already one of the most spoken languages.”
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Sim said no city money is required for the centre and the developer said the hotel revenue would permanently fund the space.
There are more than 30 Filipino groups that oppose the plan, however, saying they want a standalone facility.
“Not attached inside or within a hotel establishment,” Ting Caturla with the Pinoy Festival Alliance Society said. “Because we want our culture to be sacred.”
They also said that consultation on the project was rushed, but the province disagrees.
“Folks in the audience can verify that,” Mable Elmore, the BC NDP MLA for Vancouver-Kensington, said.
“They’ve participated in terms of town halls and meetings in terms of feedback on the motion.”
Meanwhile, a different group is pursuing its own cultural centre, further south on Main Street.
Filipino BC’s project is not connected to the Main Street and East 4th Avenue location.
“We want to support more of these,” Sim added. “It would be great if two, three, four more of these came up.”
Sim will present a motion on Nov. 26 to prioritize the review of the Mount Pleasant plan, with the estimated completion date in 2029.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
