Two Filipinos were among the 25 immigrants from different provinces in Canada who were selected this year for the 13th annual Canadian Immigrant Awards.
Filipino Canadians Edsel Mutia and Ida Beltran Lucila received the awards.
An award-winning ICU charge nurse at North York General Hospital in Toronto, Mutia is a part of the critical care response team at the Scarborough General Hospital.
Lucila is an artistic director for the Chameleon Dance Edmonton and the Edmonton Festival Ballet and executive director of the Philippine Arts Council-Alberta.
About the award Mutia said, “we are here to represent the Philippines.”
Lucila said the experience was thrilling and at the same time ” very humbling because you didn’t get there on your own. It’s with the help of the community.”
The duo were chosen from among hundreds of nominees and the list was cut to 75 finalists and the top 25 were chosen after more than 70,000 votes were cast online.
Lucila, a former principal dancer of Ballet Philippines, said she and her husband, dancer Jojo Lucila, moved to Canada in 2005 for better future for their children.
“When we moved to Canada, I sort of lost my footing and I was doing jobs here and there just to earn a livelihood,” Lucila said.
Mutia used to work as a nurse in Saudi Arabia before moving to Canada with his wife in 2006.
