Filipino Time

"Sister and I at Fil AM 20th Gala Night"

“Don’t be on Filipino time!!” Sound familiar? Well, for me, my family, and my filipino cultural, that’s “our” motto. Ever since I came out of my Mother’s divine scar I was born into the normality of always being 1 hour to 2 hours late to every event. Speaking of events, this past weekend I attended the Filipino American 20th annual Gala Night as well as the 9th Annual Historical Heritage Gala. A fundraiser for the Filipino Historical Museum, as well as the Gawad Kalinga Project. For those of you who are not aware of the Gawad Kalinga Project, don’t beat yourself up, I had no clue what it was before the event either. The Gawad Kalinga Project is a housing project for the “poorest of the poor” in the Philippines. Not only was this event a Gala it was also a Filipino Youth Achievers Award Night where they gave awards to outstanding filipino students in the Southern California Region. The Youth Achievers Award Night is what actually brought my family out to this event. My youngest sister, not the charming one beside me in the photo above, received this award. 

Now that you are fully acquainted with the layout of the where’s, what’s, and why’s of the event, let me confess to you the behind the scenes of what I experienced. What is a filipino event without sticking with the motto? It would have never been a true filipino experience if it started on time. The Event was scheduled to start at 6 and serve dinner at 7. With that being said, the doors didn’t open until 8 o’clock and dinner wasn’t served until 9. Keep in mind, I’m a man with a metabolism that moves at the rate of a helicopter’s propellers. That being said I am constantly hungry and 2 hours late for dinner was just unexceptable for me, but I should be used to that already! For those of you that are not familiar with the saying, “do not come to the party filipino time” it simply means that the party usually starts 2 hours after the event time. Being that this was a formal occasion with some political dignitaries as guest, one would expect that it would have started on time. On the contrary, we as filipinos stay true to our filipino motto.