Pain and fury among the Filipinos de Vancouver after the attack at the Festival

The Lapu Festival of Vancouver, intended to be a celebration of the Filipino pride, ended in a groan of sirens and screams On Saturday.

Eleven people, the youngest only five, died and many more were hospitalized after a man led a SUV through the crowd.

“Many of us are still numb. Many of us are still angry, confused, sad, devastated, and some of us do not know how to feel, what to feel,” says RJ Aquino, president of Filipino BC, the organization that was put in the festival.

He spoke in a vigil attended by hundreds of people from all over the low continent on Sunday night.

“Honestly, I am some of the above,” he adds.

Those who had been at the festival site all day were left with an intense feeling of shock, sadness and fury after the attack.

Roger Peralta and Bjorn Villarreal, friends who arrived in Canada in 2016, spent the night listening to the music and eating the food of their homeland.

“Suddenly I listen to this unimaginable noise,” Bjorn recalls.

“It was a strong explosion,” says Roger.

Both men describe seeing bodies bouncing in a SUV only meters from them.

“I didn’t run away,” Bjorn continues. “I really followed the vehicle, because I felt I could stop it.

“It was horrible. Many people (they were) lying on the street and crying and asking for help.”

Almost a day later, Roger is still in a state of shock and can’t sleep while the scene is repeated in his mind. He says he is having to stop and cry.

But he also spoke of a strong Philippine spirit that, according to him, will raise the community.

“We have in our Bayanihan culture,” he explains, which translates as a spirit of unity and cooperation among the Filipino.

“When you meet another Filipino, even if you don’t know them, you greet them, you feel that they are familiar, even if you are not.”

The Prime Minister of British Columbia, David Eby, has also paid tribute to the Philippine community in Canada, saying that he did not “think there is a British Colombian who has not been touched in some way by the Philippine community.”

“You can’t go to a place to provide attention in our province and not know a member of that community,” he said.

“Our long -term care homes, our hospitals, child care, schools. This is a community that gives and gives.”

Bjorn, who works in a hospital as a magnetic resonance image technologist, agrees.

“We are very affectionate people,” he says.

Both he and Roger were furious, the SUV got into the crowd first. They said they felt disappointed by Canada.

Prime Minister Eby said that anger also feels.

“But I want to turn the anger I feel to make sure to be with the Philippine community,” he said while standing in front of a police cruise that blocks access to the crime scene.

“This event does not define us the Filipina community or that celebration.”