Maria CJ De Villa
Life appears normal at FCT with its community events and its recent 2019 Spring Gala. And that may be exactly the way the FCT Board would like it to be. But simmering behind the scenes for almost 20 months, is the unsettled questions with the $678,000 worth of “payables” that President and CEO Mary Ann San Juan presented way back in the September 7, 2017 at its membership meeting. This is equally disturbing in that these payables showed up only after the $5.9 million sale of its old Parliament St. building in January of 2017.
Consequently and not surprisingly, FCT, as an organization, up to this time, does not have audited and membership-approved Financial Statements as of 2016.
Both year’s (2016 and 2017) financials were presented to the Membership during the October 5th, 2018 AGM by the FCT accountant, Roman Chu. Questions about the $678,000 payables came up when the 2016 Financials was presented as the membership was made aware of these payables in the September 2017 AGM. Questions also erupted when the 2017 Financials was presented by Mr. Chu, as the membership wanted to know if the payables were paid and how is it being presented in the 2017 Financials. With these questions, the Financials statements for 2016 and 2017 were not approved. A motion was passed that the 2016 and 2017 Financials will be subjected to an audit prior to the end of December 2018 and that membership will be called to a Special Meeting to approve the audited financials. To date all these remain outstanding. It seems the questionable payables is standing in the way of completing the proper Financial Statements for membership approval.
The $678,000 “payables” is proving to be a challenge to the FCT Board. Community newspapers have already reported the problem in the last two years. Both media coverage and the memberships demand for answers however have been met with silence from the FCT Board.
In the meantime there had been a noticeable turnaround in its Board membership. To date, the known Board of Directors are the following:
1. Efren De Villa – Chairman
2. Mary Ann San Juan – President & CEO
3 Theresa Lumanlan – Vice President
4. Rosalie Aguilar
5. Philip Beloso
6. Melchor Galeon
- Rose Lamadrid Nagallo
- Juanita Rejdik
- Joy Sarmiento
- Dr. Nenette de Villa
- Wendelina Arena
- Frank Cruzet
- Mercy Maliglig
- Jerome Peralta
- Pepito Aleson Torralba
- Rose Marie Villote
- Leo Mascarinas
- Victor Agaton
The second petition last March 31st by 22 members for a Special Membership Meeting (to clear up the payables once and for all) is still waiting to be acknowledged and responded to by the FCT Board.
In simple terms the payable questions are:
1. What are these “payables” and why did they suddenly appear after the $5.9 million sale of the FCT building?
2. Why are these “payables” retroactive to so many years and their existence not revealed to members from the beginning, nor reflected in any of the past years’ financial statements?
3. Are these “payables” in compliance with FCT Bylaws that stipulate compensation for Board Members, Officers, or Members of FCT are not allowed?
4. What happened to the attempt of the Board to file a motion for membership approval in the last September 7th, 2017 meeting to amend the by-laws to enable compensation for directors of the Board, officers, and members?
5. Do these “payables” remain outstanding since it was presented to the membership on September 7th, 2017 or have they been settled? If so when were they paid and under whose authority? Over two years after the $5.9M sale of the Parliament building is quite a long time for the membership to wait for a resolution. Silence is never the best answer as time will tell the truth and can never erase it.