We must “continue wrapping our arms” the Philippine community, since it deals with the load of the Lapu-Lapu day tragedy that killed 11 people, the British Columbia legislator Elmore was killed on Monday.
Elmore received an ovation standing on his first day in the legislature since the alleged attack on April 26, when a SUV crossed a multitude of attendees to the festival in the leadership of Vancouver-Kensington that she represents.
She told her colleagues that the people who suffer have summoned courage and that they are turning sadness and despair into love and meaning.
“The unimaginable tragedy that hit after the Lapu-Lapu festival reminds us about our shared humanity. It reminds us that our humanity is too fragile and how life is just a moment that can disappear the next,” he said.
“But there is hope, because the tragedy also shows that our humanity is resistant, we will heal, we will get up and leave stronger.”
The BC NDP MLA Elmore and the president of Filipino BC, RJ Aquino, were visibly excited, since they held a press conference on Sunday, the day after a mortal mortal at the Filipino Festival of Lapu-Lapu Day in Vancouver. “Our approach now is to provide support to those who were affected,” said Elmore.
Elmore, who became the first MLA of the BC Filipino heritage in 2009, said she is proud of leadership and the response of the Philippine community, which has created an emergency work group.
“I want to recognize the large amount of support from the entire British columbia, Canada and worldwide for this tragedy. It means everything to support families, the victims and the community, and all impacted them.”
She said the community is working with partners throughout the province to provide attention to those in need.
“My request is that all of us continue to wrapping our arms around the community, all the victims, all who stay with a heavy burden, will continue together, and a reminder that in the darkest times, the light of solidarity shines bright.”
The Mala’s Elmore shares in what he is thinking of the provincial day of memory and mourning as an official and as a member of the Filipina de Vancouver community.
Elmore was at the festival last month and was on the scene after the suspect was arrested by the spectators. The videos on social networks show their foot next to the defendant when an angry crowd shouts him abuse.
In an interview after his speech in the legislature, Elmore was reluctant to talk about the details of that moment in the middle of an ongoing police investigation.
“It is just a devastating incident: the loss of lives, injury, anguish in the community, is simply unimaginable,” he said.
“Not only for people who lost their lives. I have been visiting families in the hospital, and the impact and trauma just throughout the community in southern Vancouver are simply immeasurable.”
The suspect in the case, Adam Kai-Ji Lo, 30, faces eight second-degree murder positions, and the police have said more.
He appeared by video in the Provincial Court of Vancouver on Friday, when a judge ordered a mental health evaluation to ensure that he was suitable for the trial.
The next appearance in the Court has been established for May 30.
A monument to those killed and wounded grows daily near the accident site, with bouquets of flowers, plants in pots, crowns, candles, stuffed animals and prayer notes and I remember that they accumulate along the fence that surrounds a nearby high school and its sports fields.
Sharon Dusangh grew up in the area, and on Monday he returned to put flowers along the fence of John Oliver Secondary, his old high school.
She said she felt “sadness, anguish, devastation” when he learned of the tragedy.
“You never thought something like that would happen, never.”
He visited the commemorative site with Laura Uppal, who also grew in the area.
“We no longer live in the neighborhood, but his brother does it, my mother yes, and I like it, I want to cry, because this is our land,” Uppal said.
“I didn’t think it would ever happen to our neighborhood.”
Dusangh, who now lives in Chicago, said he felt “much pride” seeing the effusion of pain and support of the community in the monument.
Judi Fung was also among the constant current of visitors to the site on Monday. She said she had been thinking about the alleged attack and her victims all week, and a gift of flowers to forget a friend had led her to drive around the city to present her respect in person.
“I was simply going to plant them, and then, a couple of days later, I realized me, forgetting those who don’t. They shouldn’t be forgotten,” he said about those killed.
Fung had tears in his eyes and said he felt a wave of emotion when he placed the plant next to a lifted flower bed to honor the victims. He had a vision, he said, of the delicate blue flowers that grew down the entire street where the tragedy “Horrenda” occurred.
“Seeing people and the effusion of pain and compassion, it made me think … we are here together.”
