NOTEBOOK: FCT not ready to forgive and forget

NOTEBOOK: FCT not ready to forgive and forget

The tense atmosphere was unmistakable at the press conference called by the Filipino Centre Toronto (FCT) last Sunday, Feb. 25 at the FCT building on Parliament St. At least during the question and answer period before the food was served when FCT president Linda Javier visibly exerted efforts to socialize with the community media.

Judging from the way FCT has conducted press conferences before, especially at the height of the Longkines audit report controversy, media colleagues were wondering whether this would be more of the same – complete control of who are allowed to attend, some media organizations banned (or “not invited”), only one or two from each publication, preferably the publisher (who deals with advertising), and rigid handling of questions.

Well, mainly yes and partly no. Days before the press conference, I suggested to a board member: why not invite some FCT members outside of the board to attend the press conference? I was given the excuse of the limited food, etc. I was testing whether, after a landslide victory at the elections a few weeks before, the new board (or its leadership) would be inclined to be more conciliatory. I confirmed the attendance of two, myself and a second individual. I was asked whether the second person was from this newspaper. I felt like I was dealing with Homeland Security.

I came late, at about 7:40 p.m., (start was at 7 p.m.) partly because I thought dinner was to be served before the press conference itself and I find dinners inappropriate at such occasions since they may affect journalistic objectivity, and partly because of the heavy snow. As I was taking my seat, board member Dr. Mario Andres was answering a question, saying the ball was on the other side and they could not “continue playing” as in tennis without the other side hitting the ball. He was obviously replying to a question about whether the new board would make any move with regard to the group of Dr. Francisco Portugal of the Save the Center Movement.

I learned later from a group of media colleagues that they wanted to know if the new board would make any steps to extend an offer of reconciliation, which clearly was not in the minds of the leaders of the newly elected board. Dr. Andres said if you had been “maligned” that much, as he said their leaders were, it was difficult to get over it. Another board member said “the healing of wounds would take a while.” And from Javier herself, “Nag-volunteer ka na, dinemanda ka pa. (“You volunteered yourself, and yet you get sued.)”

And then in closing, Javier made an oratorical attempt to excite the audience with a speech on FCT’s vision to bring the “community’s gifts and talents” to the mainstream. I presume this was about the song and dance activities of the FCT like its own Filipino Singing Idol competition and the Pista ng Bayan extravaganza at Nathan Philips Square every year. She mentioned that the healing process would take a while; in the meantime, she wanted FCT to move forward.

After the press con, Javier joined us (Eddie and Marita Lee of Atin Ito, Marlene and Mogi Mogado and Tess Cusipag of Balita and Imelda Abano, a visiting journalist from Manila) at our table and engaged us in banter and storytelling. I asked Marlene to tell Linda Javier how we in our table felt about the need for the FCT to extend the hand of reconciliation to the Portugal group for the sake of the community.

Marlene talked about the need to be magnanimous in victory and the advantage of creating a conciliatory image after the intense and acrimonious conflicts with “the other group”. Eddie Lee and myself agreed with Marlene, who by the way, was elected School Trustee in Markham a few months ago.

But the FCT president was unmoved. She seemed unconvinced of the seriousness of our idea. She said instead that in other places the Filipino community had worse experiences. She mentioned the case in Chicago where there was fatal shooting of Filipinos in a community center due to unresolved conflicts.

And she spent time talking about teaching in high school in the Philippines and about a relative who was tortured in Quezon province during Marcos’s martial law regime. She was particularly excited about how she had many suitors then as a high school teacher. One of them, a senior in high school, became her husband. She said she was very young then and senior students were almost as old as their teachers. She also talked about her necklace made of native materials in the Philippines, which, to her surprise, had five times its value when priced in north America.

If you had heard stories about Linda Javier, especially at the height of the FCT controversy, you wouldn’t believe this was the same person. She was bubbly and a natural story-teller that night. She laughed vociferously at every slight joke and told jokes with gusto. It was obvious, a few on that table were charmed. If Eddie Lee was one of them, I don’t know. At one point, Javier told Lee in jest that it was he who started all this, to which he was too taken aback to give a repartee to. At another point, he asked, in jest too, whether it was allowed for teachers to go out with their students then. And everyone in the group laughed hard.

But let’s go back to the press con. I asked three questions: 1. What’s the policy of FCT on accessibility to media? (The Philippine Reporter had a hard time getting an interview (we didn’t get one) from FCT from the time the Longkines report came out and until now.) 2. What would the FCT board do with the resolutions filed during the annual general meeting a few weeks ago? 3. What’s the real score on the mortgage on the FCT building? Is it $600,000 first mortgage plus unspecified second mortgage (as stated by Linda Javier during the AGM)? Or $1,020,000 as reportedly indicated from a title search made by Dr. Portugal?

Answers by Javier, Wendy Arena and Dr. Nanette de Villa: 1. There was a legal gag order then, that’s why FCT could not talk or give an interview. 2. The FCT board would surely take up the resolutions but Mr. Banack, the court-appointed membership committee chair and election administrator, has not forwarded the resolutions to the board. 3. The 2006 financial statement is not ready yet and the FCT members would be the first to receive the same. Until that is done, financial information has yet to be sorted.

My observations which I was not allowed to speak about or elaborate on for lack of time since people were getting hungry (I was designated the last person to ask questions): 1. When I asked for an interview when the Longkines report was leaked to the community media, there was no legal gag yet.

In fact it was long before a case against FCT was filed in court. Maybe the gag was internally decided among the board members? I remember, they said the audit report was a “draft,” “not approved by the board,” and “was retracted” by Longkines. And yet they would not give a statement to this paper nor give an interview. I was given the run-around, like the fax machine was not working, the board had to meet, and the statement would be faxed later even if it was 1:00 a.m. Dr. Nanette de Villa during the press con chided media people for their responsibility to tell the truth. But how can truth come out when one important source, FCT itself, refuses access to media? Or is selective in its treatment of the media?

2. Even as they have not officially received the resolutions, they know the contents. What’s their sentiment on these contents?

3. A mortgage amount is a very specific number. One doesn’t need a financial statement to determine that. A ball figure would do. What’s the point of hiding it? Will the FCT image suffer if that figure was revealed? Wouldn’t it be a be a better image to project if the board were transparent on this and other issues?

These are only a few of the issues that remain unsettled in the minds of many in the community. And I believe these contributed to the tense atmosphere during the press con.

Yet the spectacle of Linda Javier engaging the media in banter was a pleasant relief, almost comic. I must admit she disarmed us to some extent. But then again, I was not convinced that the FCT leadership is yet ready to forgive and forget and that was the unmistakable message that night. It’s still hurting, obviously.

Before she left our table, Javier even extended her hand to me for a handshake and said, “ O hayan, sinimulan ko na ang healing process.” To which I responded, “O, di puede na kitang ma-interview?” To which she had no reply.