Filipino plaza in Vancouver to get a facelift

Each year since 2015, the group UFCABC has raised the Philippine flag for their June 12 Independence Day celebration at the Filipino plaza in Vancouver.

The city of Vancouver and the province of British Columbia had proclaimed June as Filipino Heritage Month.

The Filipino plaza has been part of the landscape along Vanness Avenue in Vancouver since the World Expo 1986.

Filipino-Canadian architect Bert Morelos made the original design of the plaza which includes a wooden arch at its entrance.

He said they were invited by the government to participate in BC's transit parkway program and they only had a few months to finish the project in time for Expo 86.

"In three months, we were able to raise $30,000 in funding," Morelos recalled. "For people to get involved, we sold the bricks with their names imprinted. If you look at the bricks there, their names are engraved there. This is part of our history and heritage now."

The names of the founding members of the Filipino Plaza Committee of 1985 are also engraved in a marker by the Filipino plaza arch.

In the middle of the wooden arch is the colorful Sarimanok or the legendary bird of the Maranao indigenous group in the Southern Philippines.

Longtime community leader Annie Miles knew how the community rallied to build the Filipino plaza back in the day.

This is why when she took over the helm of the UFCABC in 2022, she made it their project to revitalize the area.

"It's falling apart," Miles said of the plaza. "The bright color is already withered. It was strongly built. It didn't collapse. But I feel sorry for it because I knew the history."

The UFCABC has partnered with the Rotary Club of Vancouver Mountain View. They presented their plan to Translink, the company that runs and operates public transit in Metro Vancouver.

"We are in discussion with UFCABC to talk about how, in the long term, we improve and maintain and keep this partnership going with the Filipino-Canadian community," said Translink's Chris Chan.

Morelos said the raised bank encircling the open park was originally intended for an amphitheater. But this is no longer in his new design.

Fil-Canadian builder Amado Mercado explained that leveling the bank will open up the space for new features.

Translink will earmark funds for the proposed improvements on the Filipino plaza.