Mga Ginoo sings June 12/Adios, Madrid Fusion?

Here’s a good way  to celebrate Independence Day – listening to three top lawyers who call themselves GINOO (meaning gentleman) sing love songs to raise  funds to help feed the undernourished Grade 1 and 2 pupils of Marawi City. 

The three gentlemen are Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo, corporate lawyer and former Press Secretary Mike Toledo, and former Sen. Joey Lina. They will be showing off their singing prowess and personal charm at a dinner-concert billed “Bagyo Ng Musika” on June 12,  at 7 p.m. at the Fiesta Pavilion of The Manila Hotel.

 The three are not stopping at feeding Marawi’s school graders, as they are  cooperating with Gawad Kalinga’s “Kusina sa Kalinga” anti-hunger program, and assisting  in the Philippine government’s anti-hunger program in other parts of the country.

As former Senator Lina puts it, “Poverty and the consequent hunger and malnutrition of three out of ten Filipino children, is drawing a very bleak picture  of the next generation of Filipinos. According to health experts, chronic undernutrition leads to stunted growth, which is irreversible and is associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced school performance, as well as,  poor work capacity and productivity.”

 While listening to the three  troubadours, you can enjoy dinner prepared by the hotel’s chefs. Attorney Lina will present his repertoire of Broadway showstoppers and dramatic standards, the snazzy lawyer Toledo will do some jazz pieces, and Attorney Panelo, who will be wearing a  suit, not ripped jeans,  may play the piano as he sings his own compositions.

The Rhythm Ensemble of the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Maestro Rodel Colmenar, will provide the musical accompaniment. West End stage performer Jenine Desiderio, who played Ms. Saigon (after Leah Salonga and Monique Wilson), will be the show’s special guest, singing her solo numbers and joining the three attorneys in a medley of duets.

Famous Freddie Santos is the program director. Beth Tagle of Salute Promotions is project manager.

For show and ticket inquiries and reservations, call Bagyo ng Musika secretariat, Salute Promotions, c/o Beth Tagle at 0917 5088858, and the Manila Hotel Banquet  Events Team at tel. +63 2 527 0011 extension 1275 to 1276. 

By the way, President Duterte might attend the event.

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Should Madrid Fusion be let go? Adios, Madrid Fusion?

Yes, we should let it go,  says the Network of Independent Travel and Allied Services (NITAS) President Robert Lim Joseph. The task is simple,  he tells this columnist. “Let it go or let it stay, but the Department of Tourism seems to be having a tough time deciding whether or not to push through with this year’s Madrid Fusion, Manila. The annual gastronomy event was inspired by Madrid Fusion of Spain. It would be simple, except for the fact that for a yearly budget of at least P120 million and some irregularities surrounding the original contract signed back in 2015, during the term of the previous DOT administration. That’s a total of at least P600 million for five years.”

“Now,” Robert Lim Joseph urges,  “It’s time to look at the contract signed by the event organizers.”

But wonder of wonders, “The contract itself is nowhere to be found, it would seem,“ says Robert. 

“When we had a meeting with the Tourism Promotions Board, I asked if the terms of the contract between Madrid Fusión is being complied with,” former DOT Secretary Mina Gabor wrote in an email to Joseph, a copy of which was provided to the media. Gabor said that the terms of the contract were “not complied with.”

Back to Joseph, he notes that  for the past three years, there has not been an audit made of the first two MFMs. The third one, which happened last year, is currently being audited. “It’s a little tough to swallow, particularly since the budget for one MFM event is at P120 million, with one year costing as much as P150 million. What makes it even more surprising is that the MFM doesn’t seem to promote tourism at all, which doesn’t make sense since it’s a project under the government’s tourism arm. Sure, the idea is to promote culture, but whose culture? Whose culinary samplings are we putting forward here?”

One Manila-based Spanish chef Juan Montel, who interacted with the guest chefs from Spain during a couple of MFMs, said that the event “sells Madrid, or Spain, here in the Philippines and in Asia.”

The guest chefs, who come here without payment, “do not get exposed to the Filipino cuisine, they do not get to share experiences, techniques, and [the] products of Filipino gastronomy,” chef Montel added. “They are rushed from one event to the next, put on display for guests and the press to see, all the while tired of flying to Manila without even enough time to take a break and breathe. Plus, the fact that they don’t get paid leaves one wondering where the bulk of the P120 million budget goes. It would’ve been easy to figure out had there been an audit of the first two events, except there was none. Or at least they organizers from the DOT then couldn’t produce any. For the past years that the MFM had been done, there is yet to be a clear output that affects Philippine tourism directly, or that extends to the promotion of Philippine agriculture.”

Joseph says  DOT  is “not at all against the idea of hosting a food fair that melds culinary cultures in a fine and classy manner as Madrid Fusión does. The concern is, however, that it has to promote Filipino cuisine as well and become a true fusion of gastronomical delights — a cultural exchange, so to speak, of culinary histories and tastes that uplifts and promotes Filipino gastronomy. This is what the DOT is pushing, that the contract for MFM be reviewed to make sure that a true fusion happens. 

 “No direction as to what we want to achieve like to have a halo-halo outlet in major tropical resorts or adobo corners in major cities or food festivals in hotels and restaurants abroad,” Gabor said. “The programs are not focused; there are so many topics.”

Furthermore, Gabor added, there seems to be “no holistic approach to the development and marketing of Filipino food before, during, and after [a] major event.”

Gabor said,  “It becomes problematic especially with a budget as huge as P120 million, and hotelier Philippe Bartolomi, creator of Chefs on Parade, said that ‘Madrid Fusión did not achieve [a] popular reach’ compared to the Chefs on Parade (COP) which in 2011 and 2013 was able to do so much more than the MFM with only a P10 million budget. [The MFM] was a very elitist event that left out many chefs and culinary students.’” 

This year’s MFM has already been postponed to September, from an original April schedule. That is, if the event would still push through, at all. It could, according to Joseph, but only if Madrid Fusión organizers are willing to re-negotiate the terms of the contract. “If we will have it (this year), we want a negotiation,” Joseph said.

Now, the ball is in new Tourism secretary, Berna Romulo-Puyat’s field. Will she let Madrid Fusion stay, or not?

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Email: [email protected].