Lolita T. Oandasan From PAM to the Founding of MAFTI

by Levy Abad

In the 1970 Philippine Association of Manitoba’s (PAM) souvenir program, one will find the name Lolita Tumanguil Oandasan. Lolita was the Manitoba Filipino Teachers Association’s (MAFTI) founder and its president for the first seven years (1976-1982). She was on the board of representatives during the presidency of Dr. Rey Pagtakhan, PAM’s founding president.

Lolita, together with her husband, Cesar Oandasan, arrived in Winnipeg on September 20, 1965, from Quezon City, where she worked as a teacher. They first settled in Langley, BC, for several months before moving to Winnipeg, where Lolita got a teaching position at Prince Edward and Polson Schools. She retired after 31 years of teaching in the River East School Division. Lolita also earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Winnipeg and her Bachelor of Education and Master of Education degrees from the University of Manitoba (See Early teaching experiences of Filipino teachers in Winnipeg, Part Two, Philippine Canadian News (PCN), August 19, 2022).

Lolita Oandasan and MAFTI’s achievements

While researching at the Manitoba Archives, I learned that Lolita was re-elected as MAFTI’s president in the 1978 election held at the International Centre (65 Redwood Avenue). According to a November 1978 article published in Silangan magazine, MAFTI was a PAM-affiliated organization, proving PAM’s pioneering role in influencing and organizing the community towards empowerment and integration (p. 19). In the same article, it was mentioned that Linda Cantiveros was elected as Vice President, Jenny Hernaez as Secretary, Socorro Juan as Treasurer, and Tony Quintero and Gemma Dalayoan as Press Relations Officers. Chris Aglugub, in an article titled “Filipinos in Manitoba,” described the role of PAM in “initiating and encouraging the formation of specialized organizations to address specific areas of concern” (Philippine Echo, Jan. 1986, p. 11).

As the founding president of MAFTI, Lolita led the organization in pushing for policy changes in the field of education, in light of the steady increase in immigration from the 70s to 80s. MAFTI, under her leadership, advanced the promotion of the Filipino language and culture, offering Pilipino language classes with cultural music and dance as core subjects, develop a curriculum for grades one to six, teach Filipino as a core subject at the secondary level in some of the high schools, develop the Pilipino Curriculum from K to junior high school, which was used in the teaching of Pilipino both as core subject and at the after class school programs, and lastly, develop a number of bilingual Pilipino story books for the children’s use (Early teaching experiences of Filipino teachers in Winnipeg, Part Two, Philippine Canadian News (PCN), Aug. 19, 2022). All these early achievements of MAFTI can be considered as a concretization of PAM’s achievement to empower and integrate the community.

Racism, engagement, reform

As part of PAM and MAFTI, Lolita immersed herself in the community and in the education milieu of the 70s. In the process, she learned that “some of the schools were diagnosing newly arrived Filipino children as slow learners or even more labelling them as mentally retarded.” In response to the rising cases of discrimination, MAFTI, under Lolita’s leadership, started lobbying for changes such as “hiring of Filipino teachers.” Fortunately, “school board trustees listened and began hiring a para-professional educator to support Filipino students, and also serve as a resource to teachers at John M. King elementary school.” Eventually, MAFTI’s efforts led to the hiring of a Filipino teacher aide at Victoria Albert School, who eventually became a classroom teacher” (Early teaching experiences of Filipino teachers in Winnipeg, Part Two, Philippine Canadian News (PCN), Aug. 19, 2022).

Lolita’s legacy

With the hardships she experienced and the determination not only to improve the life of her family but also her Filipino co-educators, Lolita Oandasan’s contribution to the empowerment of the Filipino teachers in the 70s must not be forgotten. Together with the first set of MAFTI’s leadership, Lolita paved the way for reforms in the educational system, relative to the influx of Filipino migrants in Winnipeg from the late 60s to the 80s. MAFTI’s history of activism should serve as an inspiration to continue to advocate for improving the plight of Filipino teachers, not only in Manitoba but throughout Canada. As a student of our community’s early struggles, I salute Lolita and her MAFTI co-founders for laying the foundation of service to the community.