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A Philippine resource centre at last
Vice Consul Tony Reyes with community leader Marivic Manalo and Miss Read Philippines Kiara Webb during Bathurst celebration of Philippine Independence, 2008. // Photo file: The Filipino Australian
In a recent interview with radio reporter Michelle Baltazar, Vice Consul Tony Reyes of the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney told the Radio Sandigan program that a Filipiniana Resource Centre will open to the public in 2010.
The resource centre will comprise an extensive book collection on Philippine culture and arts, including the works of the Philippines’ national hero Dr Jose Rizal.
”There will be a media room, where Filipino films may be shown on a regular basis,” Consul Reyes said. ”The centre will also provide a meeting room for Filipino community organisations in Sydney to use.”
The resource centre hopes to attract students, many of whom study at universities and schools in and around the area.
Although many book collections have been available in the NSW state and local government libraries, Filipino-Australian community leaders have been calling for a fully dedicated library on Filipiniana.
In a serious effort to establish one in 1988, a group moved to form a Filipiniana Library and Centre in Sydney’s inner-west. Lack of funding and accommodation proved next to impossible for the project to materialise.
Again early this year, the Filipino Press Group of Sydney kicked off a campaign to establish a Rizal Library in a corner of a small room at a restaurant in Rooty Hill in Sydney’s west. The project has been hampered by inaccessibility of the library to the public, especially during weekdays when people would normally want to use it.
Some members of the community welcome this new Filipiniana Resource Centre.
”But we have to see how accessible it will be to the public,” one source said. ”One must remember that many people who may need to use the library, especially working people, will want to come to the library after-hours.”
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