Our regular advertisers tell us that they continue to support our directory because it is helpful to their business and it gives them a positive public image. Just being listed on the pages of Dahong Pilipino gives their business credibility, name recognition and easy public access. They also find our rates very reasonable, considering that they only pay once for a full year exposure. Our listing of Filipino associations, businesses and resources are used by many people and groups who find it an effective networking tool for almost any activity that requires community support.

If Dahong Pilipino has become an institution in the local Filipino community, we owe it to the support of our advertisers and people who use this directory. The number of new advertisers for this year's edition is almost unprecedented and we are delighted to know that more and more businesses, professionals and trades people find in this directory an effective medium in reaching the ever-growing Filipino market, and our community as a whole.

This year, upon the retirement of my father, Leo B. Cunanan from the Federal Government as member of the Immigration and Refugee Board, he is back to Dahong Pilipino as editor-in-chief. He wrote most of the stories for the featured personalities in our Filipino Who's Who in British Columbia section. When he founded this directory in 1991, my father worked on a vision of providing the community with a directory of Filipino businesses, professionals, service providers, associations and a network of resources, especially to new immigrants. He also aimed to show with pride that the Filipino community has a wealth of talents, qualified professionals, business skills and capital that makes our people a significant factor in the social, cultural and economic life of this province. Now that he is back and doing the work he loves most, we could foresee a better and reinvigorated Dahong Pilipino in the years ahead. Our community, now estimated at 100,000, will continue to be served by Dahong Pilipino with sincerity and dedication as we have done in the past 12 years.

Our contributing editor, the prolific Mel Tobias continues to write interesting articles for our readers. For this edition he keeps us up to date on Philippine books and literature in his article "Lusting for Philippine Books."

Once again, we thank our many friends and supporters who have encouraged us to carry on and who have kept faith with us all those years.

Maraming Salamat po.

Leo Orpilla Cunanan, Jr.
Publisher