UPDATE (Mon, May 25, 5:35pm): Another person who was in the audience during Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto's speech just gave Coconuts Manila his thoughts on what happened.



Prof. Patricio Abinales was in the audience when Meloto gave his controversial speech. "Actually, it got weird because people did not know how to react to his statement. I was in the audience, I honestly could not figure out why he was talking to us that way."



"Here was a fellow with an impeccable reputation because of the GK projects, talking to us about offering our daughters to white guys for the sake of the country's and the family's progress," he writes to us on Facebook.



"I was not even angry, just really stunned. I tried to explore possible reasons for such pleas. It was also bizarre because he never talked about the Center and its anniversary. I was expecting him to discuss possibilities in which academic centers like the Center for Philippine Studies, the Filipino community here (and Filipinos are now the largest ethnic group in Hawaii) and GK could work together."



We asked Professor Abinales two things: 1) is there any possibility that maybe Meloto was joking. That maybe his jokes were too deep and highfaluting that not a lot got them. And 2) Did you or anybody confront him after his speech?



"I thought initially, [maybe he was joking] but then I realized he really meant it. So you can understand my confusion. Why didn't I confront him? Two reasons, I really had a hard time figuring out a possible good enough reason for him to recommend such a thing, and, second, I am Pinoy, and as Pinoy you do not embarrass a guest to your 'house. But it was more stunned I guess."





The already-viral statement posted by the Center for Philippine Studies (CPS) — which is affiliated with the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) — regarding Gawad Kalinga founder Tony Meloto's controversial speech was pretty shocking, to say the least.



It was posted on Saturday, and quickly went viral. There was no readily available speech transcript or video clip, so we had to ask incredulously: Is this for real?



But a Filipino who was in the audience posted the Coconuts Manila story on Facebook and answered our question: Yes, it’s for real. He was there.



“I was there was a paper presenter for the CPS’s conference on Filipino and Philippine Studies,” narrates Leloy Claudio, one of the founders of Manila Review, when Coconuts Manila reached out. Meloto, he says, was one of the speakers at an event that was part of the CPS 40th Anniversary Fiesta. The venue — the Filcom Center, Waipahu, Hawaii — was full.



Claudio explained that Meloto’s speech was the culminating celebration of the conference, which was part of the 40th anniversary of the Center for Philippine Studies.



“A number of people walked out, actually,” Claudio related. “They walked out when he started remarking about how foreigners should come to the Philippines for the women. That was the nastiest part.”



Claudio added, “Early on, when I noticed he had barely any idea of what the event was about,” he answered.



Another audience member, who is also an executive council member of CPS spoke with Coconuts Manila and echoed Claudio's observations. “From the start, he seemed uninterested with CPS and UH-Manoa. He really didn’t bother to know what the celebration was for. So, I didn’t think he was keen to talk to the CPS. In fact, he left the gathering early for a press conference with the Hawaii-Filipino media. He was more interested in promoting himself.”



Consistent to both Claudio's and the CPS member's stories is the fact that several members of the audience walked out during Meloto’s speech. “Several people told me that they walked out of the event and felt nauseous [during the speech],” said the CPS member.



While Meloto has yet to respond to Coconuts Manila's queries, he somewhat hinted about the incident on Twitter — at least that’s how we understood the following tweet to be:

When bad things are said about you,just do more good. It's love for God,country & the poor that gives me the strength to move on. — Tony Meloto (@tonymeloto) May 24, 2015



Mr. Meloto, our doors are open. We hope you can issue a statement about this incident soon.



This story first appeared on Coconuts Manila.