Audit aftermath: Disgruntled FCT members want election

Audit aftermath: Disgruntled FCT members want election

TORONTO – Filipino Centre-Toronto (FCT) Chairperson Dr. Victoria Santiago has decided to grant a petition from some members to hold a general membership meeting, an FCT source told The Philippine Reporter.

By granting such petition, the FCT board may have prevented the Provincial Court from intervening on the matter.

In a letter dated Sept. 21, 2005, former FCT directors Camilla Jones and Dr. Francisco Portugal told Santiago that should the FCT chair deny the request for a membership meeting, they will seek the intervention of a Provincial Court judge.

The letter was the second of two subsequent requests signed by at least 10 FCT members calling for a general membership meeting and elections. Santiago denied the first request citing FCT board resolution 0004, passed in September last year, postponing the general elections to October 2006.

According to Industry Canada, however, the resolution will have no merit “without the approval of the general membership and an amendment of the Constitution and By-Laws” of the FCT, Jones said in the letter.

FCT’s constitution mandates the holding of an annual membership meeting every first Wednesday of October.

Disgruntled members are calling for a re-organization of the FCT board citing loss of confidence with the current leadership, aggravated by recent audit findings questioning certain transactions and disburse-ments involving FCT president Lynda Javier and her husband, Felino.

These members hope to use the upcoming membership meeting as an opportunity to call for an election and ask FCT officials to make the latest audit findings available to the general membership.

“A lot of the directors resigned because they just could not handle the lack of transparency of the (FCT) management,” Jones said during a press conference held recently.

FCT audit committee chair Julito Longkines told this reporter that the audit findings, as well as the FCT president’s response to it, were discussed at the recent FCT board meeting. However, he declined to disclose the extent of the discussion.

Longkines also stressed that the “draft” audit findings was submitted “as an internal memo meant for the FCT board of directors only.”

“It is not an official board document as the contents need to be discussed, resolved and finally approved,” Longkines said in a statement issued to the community.

The audit chair claimed the document is the draft of the 2003 audit report. However, the audit findings obtained by this reporter was dated July 27, 2005 and, according to Longkines, was submitted to the FCT board on August 17, 2005.

The report also cited certain cheques and transactions made in 2004 and 2005.

One such transaction was FCT’s listing agreement with Remax Condos Plus Corp. represented by Ding Fajardo, which was dated Nov. 2, 2004 and expired March 31, 2005. The agreement covered certain units in the FCT building, excluding units 208/216, according to Longkines’s report.

However, despite unit 216 not being part of the listing agreement with Remax Condos, Fajardo was still paid commission when the unit was rented out to Dr. Malik, “even if Mr. Fajardo did not bring in Dr. Malik as a prospective tenant,” the audit findings said.

Then FCT leasing committee chair Linda Taiabjee (who recently resigned her post) earlier advised Javier not to renew the agreement with Fajardo, saying he has not performed to expectations and that the organization could save money from real estate commissions, said the report.

“Ms Taiabjee insisted that Mr. Fajardo should not be paid as FCT was not obligated to pay the commission due to expired agreement. However, president Javier informed Ms. Taiabjee…that she renewed the agreement with Remax when (Taiabjee) was in the Philippines.”

Javier, however, was unable to produce a copy of the renewed Remax agreement despite Taiabjee’s prodding for “several times”, until July 2005, when Javier finally presented a copy of the renewed agreement to the board.

This was Longkines’s comment on the renewed Remax agreement:

“It was noted that the renewed agreement was dated February 14, 2005 – two days after the President’s Gala – and it included Unit 216, which was not in the original agreement.”

“How could the agreement be renewed on February 14, 2005, before the expiration date of the original agreement, which is March 31, 2005? Also, how could Unit 216 be included in the renewed agreement when it was not part of the original agreement?”

“How could president Javier have the time to negotiate for the renewal when we were so busy preparing for the President’s Gala on February 12, 2005, and without the involvement of the licensing committee: Linda Taiabjee (committee chair), Vicky Santiago, Belle Tumbokon and Mercy Maliglig as members?”
According to an FCT source, the general membership meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, November 2nd, at the Rizal Hall of the FCT facility at 597 Parliament St.