The Filipino Women’s Association UK marked the 128th anniversary of Philippine independence with an evening of music, culture and giving, and the world premiere of “Lead the Way,” the charity’s first official theme song.
On Saturday 6 June 2026, the Palace Suite of the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington filled with colour, music and the warm hum of a community gathered for a single purpose. The Filipino Women’s Association UK (FWA-UK) held its 38th annual Philippine Independence Day Gala under the theme “The Golden Harvest of Pamana and Kaalaman” (inheritance and knowledge), a fitting frame for a charity that has spent thirty-eight years turning the generosity of one generation into education for the next.
Guiding the evening as Master of Ceremonies was Rowena Romulo, founder of Kasa and Kin, the award-winning London restaurant elevating Filipino cuisine, named Filipino Restaurant of the Year for four consecutive years at the Asian Curry Awards. Before hospitality, Rowena built a thirty-year career in financial services, including as a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase, and she has been named one of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World by the Filipina Women’s Network. A passionate advocate for women in business and Vice Chair of the Philippine British Business Association, she brought warmth, polish and genuine affection for the community to the role of host.
Guests arrived to a sparkling reception before the formal programme opened with the national anthems of both nations, performed by mother-and-daughter duo Lesley and Alexandra Laroche. Lesley gave a powerful rendition of Lupang Hinirang, the Philippine national anthem, and Alexandra sang God Save the King, accompanied by the After Six Band. It was a moment that set the tone for an evening rooted in two homes.
The opening prayer was led by Clarita Richardson, a former Chairman and longstanding member who served for many years as the Association’s PND coordinator, a fitting hand to open an evening themed around inheritance and the passing-on of legacy.
Honouring what we inherit, investing in what we leave behind
In her welcome address, FWA-UK Chairman Glyndell Belmonte gave the evening its meaning. Pamana, she told the room, is everything passed down to us: our culture, our values, the legacy of the women who built the Association. Kaalaman is what we choose to pass forward, through the education given to children who would otherwise go without. Tonight, she said, is where the two meet: we honour what we inherited, and we invest in what we leave behind. That is the golden harvest.
She paid tribute to the founding members and veterans of the Association, the women who carried FWA-UK through nearly four decades, and reflected on her own journey since joining just over three years ago. She admitted she had wondered how an organisation run entirely by volunteers could last thirty-eight years and still be so alive; serving as Chairman, she said, she had seen the answer firsthand in the heart its members pour into the work. One of the oldest Filipino organisations in the country, FWA-UK is not just still going, she told guests, but going stronger every year. Her one ask of the evening was simple: open your hearts, and open your wallets, for the children, because every raffle ticket, every auction bid and every contribution becomes a scholarship, a school year, a future.
The charity was honoured to receive as its Guest of Honour Consul Ira Micheline Valdez-Nicotra, First Secretary and Consul of the Philippine Embassy in London, attending on behalf of His Excellency Ambassador Teodoro Locsin Jr. and Madame Locsin, who sent their warm regards from an official engagement overseas. Her presence underlined the strong ties between the Filipino community in the UK and the homeland it continues to support.
A celebration of culture and craft
Dinner arrived with the soul-stirring strings of violinist RJ Demonteverde, who quickly proved he had no intention of staying politely in the background. Moving from the stage to the floor, he wove between the tables as he played, bringing the performance directly to guests and turning an ambient dinner set into one of the evening’s most charming moments. The room was visibly captivated, and what might have been background music became an experience of its own.
Later, the audience was treated to a vivid performance by the Anahaw Dance Artists, appearing at an FWA-UK Independence Day gala for the first time. Their traditional Filipino dances carried the grace and storytelling of the islands onto a London stage. The evening balanced celebration with purpose throughout: a gala, yes, but one whose every element pointed back to the children whose schooling the Association funds.
The heart of the evening: the premiere of “Lead the Way”
The Chairman had promised the room a surprise she was genuinely excited to share, and it arrived when the lights dimmed and the room fell quiet. On the screens, a legacy video traced the journey of FWA-UK’s scholars, capturing their struggles, their resilience and their dreams across thirty-eight years of the charity’s work. And for the first time anywhere, it played alongside “Lead the Way,” the first official FWA-UK theme song, given its world premiere before the gala audience.
It was a moment the Association had been building towards for months. The song was composed by Jay Montelibano-McLeod, arranged by Ritchie Ramos, and performed by West End vocalist Gia Macuja, with the accompanying video created by Denmark Alejandro in the Philippines. Together they produced something more than a fundraising film. As host Rowena Romulo told the room, it was a mirror showing what happens when compassion meets action.
“Lead the Way” is intended to become a lasting part of the FWA-UK identity, a piece the community can return to long after the evening’s tables are cleared. Its premiere was not simply an item on the programme. It was the emotional high point around which the rest of the night turned.
A mission that changes lives
The premiere gave voice to a cause that grows more urgent each year. As the Chairman reminded guests, at the centre of everything FWA-UK does are the children: scholars in the Philippines for whom a scholarship is not a luxury but a door that would otherwise stay closed. This year the Association set its most ambitious goal yet: to fund full, four-year university educations for disadvantaged young people, including those living with disability, who possess brilliant minds but are held back by poverty. The aim is to carry more scholars into higher education, transforming families and breaking generational cycles of hardship.
Guests gave generously towards that goal through the evening’s charity auction and grand raffle. A live auction, led by esteemed auctioneers Louie Horne BEM and Jennifer Rubino Caguiao MBE, offered original artworks by Filipina artist Bianca Pacifico alongside a holiday package supported by Ali Hajj and SAM Travel and Tours, now in its 53rd year.
A dance performance by Linda Robledo and David Chartoriski and a grand raffle draw carried the room through to the close of the formal programme.
And then, the dance floor
If the premiere was the heart of the evening, the dance floor was its joy let loose. The moment the formal programme closed and the After Six Band struck up, the floor filled within seconds, and it stayed packed. The band played a full ninety-minute set to a crowd that showed no sign of tiring, before DJ Erwin Dizon took over and carried the celebration through to close. It was the kind of finish that tells you everything about the room: a community that had given generously all evening and still had energy left to celebrate together until the very end.
With gratitude
The Association extended heartfelt thanks to its Platinum Sponsors: Rockwell Land, represented by Mika Bautista, who travelled from the Philippines for the evening; GCash Overseas, represented by Margaux Inocando, and Skinfaciality, represented by Nick Fruto. Their generosity, as the Chairman put it, changes lives thousands of miles away. Thanks were given, too, to the many performers, partners, volunteers and Filipino associations across the UK who gave their time and talent.
Behind every seamless moment of the evening stood months of unseen work. At its centre was Crystal Dias, this year’s PND Coordinator, who worked tirelessly from the first planning meeting to the final raffle stub, holding a hundred moving parts in place so that guests experienced only the joy of the night. She was supported by a dedicated PND working group whose care and craft showed in every detail of the evening. An event of this scale does not happen by accident, and the Association owes Crystal and the whole working group its heartfelt thanks.
A special tribute was paid to the late founding patron, Mrs Angeles “Nene” Quimson, whose visionary spark in 1988 built the foundation on which the Association stands, and whose legacy lives on in every scholar it graduates.
Thirty-eight years, and a song to carry forward
FWA-UK was founded in 1988 to promote a positive image of Filipino women in the UK and to foster understanding between the two nations. In the decades since, it has grown into a leading advocate for educational empowerment, supporting scholars in the Philippines and standing alongside the Filipino senior community here in Britain. To date, the Association has supported over one hundred scholars on their path through education.
This year’s gala captured all of that history in a single evening, and gave it a new voice. Thirty-eight years of women choosing, again and again, to show up for one another and for children they may never meet. The golden harvest continues, and now it has a song to lead the way.
