Resignations Hit FCT After It Sold Its Building for $5.9-M

Volume 1, Issue No. 8 OPINION/COMMENTARY 

 The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Saturday, November 18, 2017 

~ Monetary claims have surfaced as soon as the Filipino Centre Toronto sold its building for $5.9-million, triggering a mass resignation of officials and members. There have been changes in FCT's leadership which were unannounced for reasons that have not been clarified. A meeting has been called for Nov. 26. Among the items in the agenda is "authorizing the payment of remuneration to certain directors and/or officers x x x and reimbursement of expenses incurred by certain persons . . . "

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Resignations Hit FCT After

It Sold Its Building for $5.9-M

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn't one.” - Margaret Atwood

TORONTO - At least seven top officials and members of the 17-year-old Filipino Centre Toronto have resigned their positions over major disagreements on how to settle monetary claims by a ranking official and some volunteers.

While the mass departure was quietly happening, a potential lawsuit appears to be in the offing by other members who strongly voiced opposition to the cash demands, according to sources familiar with the current situation. (Related video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqlJH4SIYsc).

About $680,000 in payables, "which FCT rather casually labeled ‘IOU’s’, were said to still being fully determined and finalized," the Atin Ito newspaper reported in an unattributed article in its September 2017 issue. The payees were identified only by initials or nicknames, the newspaper said.

The amount appears to have not been "properly reflected in any of the previous years' financial statements, the paper reported. "In fact, the accumulated salary claims of some FCT members and Board members only came to light after the building sale," the paper said. 

The exact number has not been disclosed officially by FCT. However, at the annual general meeting called on Sunday, Nov. 26 at 2 p.m. at Rembrandt Banquet Hall in Scarborough, officials may announce the latest developments.

Actually, the meeting will consider "authorizing the payment of remuneration to certain directors and/or officers x x x and reimbursement of expenses incurred by certain persons . . . " according to a program circulated to members.

The FCT has sold for $5.9 million its building on 597 Parliament St., described as "cockroach and mice infested" when acquired in 2002 for $1.5 million. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlXLIrR8l0U).

Sources within the organization disclosed that the following individuals already left, namely, Rey Tolentino, former chair; Raffy Fabregas, Marilou Parcero, Theresa Sevilla, Luna Vince, Evelyn Pagkalinawan and Fred Gamboa.

The resignees were not immediately available to comment on why they quit the organization. (Full background story at: http://www.balita.ca/2014/11/03/the-400000-settlement-filipino-centre-torontos-costly-exercise-of-power/). 

The FCT has elected a new president, Mary Ann San Juan, who appears poised to not reveal any information about the current situation in FCT, even the new set of officers that she now leads. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErIBTp6WJWc).

When asked in May, she promised "to get back to you with the answers as soon as I can". Three months later, in August, she was again asked to respond to questions emailed to her. In her reply, she said a special meeting of FCT was being called on Sept. 7.

That meeting did not have a quorum, according to Atin Ito, so much so that San Juan declared it a question-and-answer session instead of a special general meeting that it had been billed earlier.

FCT has been quite popular in the community because of its yearly two-day Pistahan sa Toronto that featured local talents, a Santacruzan, and the "parada ng lechon", which was actually turned into snacks of roasted pig given free to the public.