Museo del Galeon and the Ternocon

LAST June 10, Manila's fashion and social crowd flocked to the Bay area to attend this season's "Ternocon" at the yet-to-open Museo del Galeon at the SM Mall of Asia. The ternos were more than beautiful and I'll get to them later. Seeing the Museo del Galeon's ellipsoidal dome for the first time in person took my breath away. I had been waiting for this museum for over seven years.

Back in 2017, the late senator Edgardo Angara invited me to speak at a small reception at the home of the Mexican ambassador to help raise funds and awareness about the Museo del Galeon, a project he was championing. Senator Angara was one of the first high-level personalities I met when I managed an urban planning program in Guimaras, my first job after graduating from the University of Toronto. I was introduced to him by my godmother. As an educator, he had a deep appreciation for my background in urban and environmental planning and art history. He respected me for my role as a project manager at the age of 25 for a Canada-funded program in the Philippines and Mexico. Before I moved back to the Philippines, I used to manage a Canada-Mexico program on environmental management in Aguascalientes.