by Loui Galicia, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau
Posted at 06/22/2011 2:31 PM | Updated as of 06/22/2011 2:31 PM
HOLLAND-Not to be outdone and dwarfed by the Dutch Pinoy’s grand celebration of the 113th Independence Day, the Philippine Embassy in The Hague held two events of its own.
On Independence Day itself, the Embassy held a Filipiniana breakfast for its staff and for members of the Filipino community.
The festivity commenced with a Holy Mass officiated by Archbishop Arguelles, followed by a flag-raising ceremony and reciting of the Panatang Makabayan.
The breakfast fare of fried rice, longganisa, tocino, tapa, fried eggs and salted eggs with tomatoes certainly took the Dutch Pinoy guests back to the Philippines as they got a taste of home.
Topping the authentic Filipino breakfast was the Philippine flag cake.
And for a more stately event, the Embassy held a diplomatic reception which was attended by more than 80 members of the Diplomatic Corps, led by the U.S. Ambassador to The Netherlands.
“This is the second Independence Day that I am able to celebrate with the Filipinos and I very much admire that they have made it into such a creative and exuberant way,” Ambassador Fay Hartog-Levin told ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau.
The regal gathering also featured the mother and son tandem of Mabel and Kim Regasa who provided the entertainment, show-casing to the foreigners the inherent talent of Filipinos in singing.
Dubbed as the mini-Michael Jackson of Holland, Dutch-Pinoy Kim rose to fame as a finalist in last year’s Holland’s Got Talent.
Special guest for the event was Dutch singer Marcel Duprix who wrote the song “Here I Am”, which he says became a hit in the Visayas.
“A friend of mine…asked me to write a song to help support a children's village. So I wrote the song and when I was back in Holland, three months later he sent me a video clip. He was in a taxi, the song was on the radio in the Philippines and they played it eight times a day so he said Marcel you have to go back to the Philippines and perform your song because people love your song,” Duprix said.
Duprix said he aims to help the needy children in the Philippines through music so that all the proceeds from the sale of the “Here I Am” single will go directly to the children’s village of Padre Burgos in Leyte.
The embassy has definitely shot two birds with one stone, that of commemorating and celebrating with the kababayans and foreigners the most important day of being a Filipino and also helping a Dutch citizen promote a charity project in the Philippines
SOURCE: WWW.ABS-CBNNEWS.COM
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/06/22/11/ph-embassy-holland-holds-dual-araw-ng-kalayaan-celebrations
No comments:
Post a Comment