NOTEBOOK: Javier’s reply: Missing the point or evading the point?

NOTEBOOK: Javier’s reply: Missing the point or evading the point?

IN AN ARTICLE published in another community newspaper, Filipino Centre Toronto president Rosalinda Javier made an effort to reply to “accusations” made by three newspapers including The Philippine Reporter.

I do not speak for the other two papers but as far as the issues raised in our two recent FCT stories and the views expressed in this column last issue, Ms. Javier is missing the point. Or is she evading the point?

Our stories focused on the findings and recommendations of FCT’s auditor and on some members’ demand for a general meeting.

Ms. Javier in her reply lumped the name of our newspaper with two others and unleashed her diatribe against what she calls “insults and innuendos” and “sensationalism.” And she proceeded to enumerate, in great detail, her and her husband’s sacrifices and the achievements of FCT.

Ms. Javier pitifully misses the point.Granting for the sake of argument that she is right in all her claims of accomplishments, that does not exempt her from answering all the audit issues raised by FCT’s own auditor.

Granting that she and her husband have done a great job at renovating the FCT building with substantial cost savings (though the auditor is not ready to accept this), that does not exempt them from giving a reasonable answer to the auditor’s questions, like why there are only photocopies of invoices amounting to thousands of dollars?

Or why she renewed the listing agreement with a real estate firm and paid a comission without the involvement of the FCT licensing committee’s chair and members? Or why a person was paid gasoline allowance in Toronto when that person was out on a group bus tour outside of Toronto? Or why there was an instance of a charge for gasoline allowance for 33 days in a month?

FCT auditor Julito Longkines said that his objective in making the audit report was “to provide internal controls and procedures for FCT to follow and to protects its assets.”

Well said and well intentioned, coming from an accounting professional. And this paper did publicize some of the contents of his report, confident that the issues he raised concerned public interest since part of the FCT finances he scrutinized came from private donations and public fundraising events.
And what do we get as reply from Ms. Javier? Protestations that she’s a victim of slander, innuendos, insults, and a smear campaign, and a long detailed list of accomplishments.

There’s even this claim that she and her husband’s contributions are worth more, far too much more, than what the FCT could afford to pay. Again, granting without accepting this is true, it doesn’t put them above certain accounting and financial procedures, like avoiding using pre-signed cheques and producing original invoices instead of photocopies.

The crux of the matter of this discussion is this: Is she just missing the point? Or is she evading the point?

If it’s the case of the former, why didn’t she address Longkines’s audit issues? Why did she promise to send the FCT board’s reply to The Philippine Reporter but did not fulfill that promise? Why did she choose to reply in another newspaper and not to ours that published the audit findings? (We did print the replies of four FCT board members.) Why, despite repeated attempts by our reporter to get her side of the story, she continues to be unavailable for weeks? Isn’t this a behavior of one who has mastered the art of evasion?

Or maybe even more than that. She had claimed Longkines has retracted, which the latter categorically denied. This is the other art of labeling a statement for what it is not. The supposed retraction was not even written by Longkines who was so indignant he held a press conference to deny it and protest being a victim of a “cut and paste” operation.

What we cannot also accept is Ms. Javier’s imputing malicious intent on our paper. It may serve to remind her selective memory that this paper has devoted countless column inches for FCT’s press releases and photos since its founding in 2002. And we maintained our handling of the story at a professional and respectable level. But she chose to stoop low and throw mud at us. What a pitiful, tragic sight.

What the FCT needs at this time to redeem itself is full transparency, not outcries of a smear campaign nor brandishing of accomplishments. The community deserves more than desperate attempts at obfuscation.