REJOINDER: On Imelda Papin’s aborted visit

REJOINDER: On Imelda Papin’s aborted visit

Open Letter to Gwen de la Cruz, President, FCAN

Dear Ms Gwen,

I am pleased to note that The Philippine Reporter has published your side of story in one full page – the biggest space allotted to a Letter to the Editor that I ever encountered in the history of my journalism career. As a writer, I always appreciate feedbacks whether good or bad.

Ms Gwen, if you had only read your e-mails and chose your words carefully, both of us would have avoided this futile correspondence exercise. First of all, if you read my article thoroughly, I included your side of the issue but your statement was summarized in one sentence only, the same explanation you have expressed in your full page letter. On the other hand, your comments on the inclusion of FCAN’s general meeting advisory in my story suggested that you did not review your message before sending it. Your e-mail sent on May 25, 2011 8:45:11 AM aptly stated “A general membership meeting is scheduled on Sunday, June 26, 2011 from 2-5 pm, Folk Arts Bldg. We are in the process of updating your FCAN Constitution.” How can you say in your Letter to the Editor that you “have called the meeting months before the Imelda issue occurred”?

Regarding the snobbery issue, it is unfortunate that you misunderstood why Imelda’s visit at the Open House was cancelled in spite of my explanation. Our simple visit request was made into a circus of pointless program arrangement. The producer, her group and I decided against it to avoid further embarrassment in light of the not-so-hospitable and rather hostile attitude that you conveyed in your letters. Just imagine being visited by a well-known, well-loved Filipino celebrity – free of charge!!! Nevertheless, as the saying goes in entertainment industry, ‘the show must go on’. The producer preferred to ignore your arrogance and we managed to make alternative arrangements.

We never had the intention of disrupting your program nor did we have the intention of out-staging anybody in the event. I also clearly told you that I was just a facilitator or the messenger so any correspondence between us had to be relayed to the producer. If you read our correspondence thoroughly, it would have spared you with unnecessary anxiety. You may refer to your e-mail on Friday, May 20th, 6:09:18 PM, wherein you were resolute that “she is to come to the open house after 4:30pm not from 1-4pm”.

In reply, I wrote, Fri, May 20, 2011 6:35:49 PM:

Ok – now I understand.
Ill info producer of the plan & shall abide by yr sched.
Thanks
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

I thought we already had an agreement to comply with your terms. You had a schedule to follow – so we agreed.

To make sure that your previous message is understood clearly, you e-mailed a correction the next day, Saturday, before the event, saying “correction to the e-mail below: it should read anytime BEFORE 4 PM IS NOT ACCEPTABLE…If you show up before the allotted time, then you leave me no choice but to ask your group to come back after 4pm”. Thus, it was decided to remove the Open House from our schedule. You then sent another letter containing a litany of excuses to justify your behavior; much more banking on the voluntary efforts of the FCAN members as a shield to cover an unacceptable behavior. At this point, I would like to commend the courage of some of the FCAN officers who called me by phone or come to me personally to apologize on your behalf. They have earned my utmost respect and admiration. I am fully aware that they tried their best to extend the well-noted FCAN hospitality. So please do not drag the entire FCAN into this since you were the only decision maker throughout the negotiation process. In the course of my enquiries, almost everyone was tightlipped and most advisers did not even know that there was an Imelda visit negotiation.

After some careful thoughts, I finally realized that I made a mistake. There was no reason for me to inform you of Imelda’s visit because a press release was published in all Niagara newspapers and flyers were distributed as an open invitation for the public to visit the Open House. It clearly stated that the “program is from 11:00am-5:00pm;doors open at 11am, first show is at 1pm, and the 2nd show is at 3pm.” Good gracious, what will Imelda be doing there at 4:30pm? Don’t you at least, like her to watch your program? However, you seemed to be very excited of Imelda’s visit that you made all the unnecessary arrangements (which we were thankful) and even offered to let us have the stage, inclusion in the program and a free table.

On the other hand, given the celebrity status of Imelda Papin and cognizant of our fellow kababayans’ yearnings to meet her and hear her sing in person, and out of respect for your position as community leader and president of FCAN, the producer and I decided to inform you of her coming. Unfortunately, things did not turn out as we had hoped it would.

In spite of that unpleasant experience, Imelda’s group and I remain thankful to those Pinoys who made considerable efforts in giving Imelda a warm reception. Imelda was able to achieve her purpose and I am glad to have helped in my own little way. The most important thing is this: many Pinoys made Imelda Papin’s visit in Niagara a memorable one.

And – oh – by the way, Imelda never knew about the Open House issue not until she went back home to USA . The producer and I decided not to let her know about it. Just like the rest of your officers, I, for one, felt embarrassed of what you did.

As for my voluntary services for FCAN, I do not need to give you a report of what I have done for the Filipino community in Niagara . I do not need a title attached to my name to showcase my voluntary works. It is unfortunate that my contributions or my participation in any of your activities had been ignored but I can pardon you once again for that. As for your invitation to join FCAN, I shall borrow Teresa Toralba’s words, “thanks but no thanks”. I prefer to give my support to a leader with an open door policy and humble enough to accept mistakes: a leader who knows what proper communication means.

According to Barbara White, president of Beyond Better Development on one of the 5 skills of effective leadership: “Good leaders are tolerant of ambiguity and remain calm, composed and steadfast to the main purpose. Storms, emotions, and crises come and go and a good leader takes these as part of the journey and keeps a cool head.”

Finally, for the benefit of the unity among FCANs I consider this matter closed. Let us now move forward to help build a better FCAN community. Member or not, I will always be there to support FCAN. We had a misunderstanding and I hope we both have learned from this experience.

Sincerely yours,
Marlou Tiro