by Cress Vasquez
When Toronto Mayor John Tory spoke at the inauguration of the Filipino Centre Toronto’s (FCT) new office in Scarborough, August 2019, little did he suspect that he was in the company of individuals behind the omission of large liabilities, payables, and taxable salaries in FCT’s financial statements, and the hiring of lawyers for reasons unknown.
This report leaves with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to pursue unreported salaries, withholding taxes, and under-reported income. A good start would be the FCT board member responsible for implementing effective financial management practices that prevent misuse of funds and reduce accounting mistakes among others.
A not-for-profit organization like FCT provides a lot of benefits in promoting trust, goodwill, and social interaction that improve the lives of the community. And by default, it has an obligation to be transparent in its dealings, particularly in the management of funds.
With FCT, its main proof of transparency is the balance sheet, which can allay fears of financial mismanagement and wrongful acts by management. However, its sudden wealth from the sale of its building in downtown Toronto for $5.9 million on Jan. 31, 2017 has invited special attention.
Since 2017 several FCT members and former board members have been clamoring for an audit to better understand how $678,000 were owing from the proceeds of the real estate deal, and why vouchers and signed, blank post-dated checks were not previously known by the FCT Board then.
The processing of liabilities and large vouchers or payables became intriguing when FCT publicly acknowledged disbursing $678,000 largely to three persons, including retroactive salaries, yet the information was omitted in FCT’s financial statements.
At the inauguration of FCT’s new office, Tory, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, and MPP Mitzie Hunter were sharing the stage with Board Chairman Efren de Villa who told his audience with a straight face, that FCT has defied expectations and was ”openly …committed to”.. and “transparent” and we welcome anybody to inspect our financial records.
If what Mr. “Transparent” said was not sham, what is it?
Corazon de Villa (whose father was a cousin of the late Dr. Guillermo de Villa) was FCT treasurer between 2012 and 2015. She said that during her term, salaries were paid by signed vouchers for amounts that depended on the availability of funds from government grants and income from fundraising drives.
But when the accountant, a certain Roman Chiu, entered salary disbursements, he put it under Repair/Maintenance since there is no line item for Salary. This process hit two birds with one stone: no withholding taxes and no income taxes to report.
When De Villa quit as treasurer in 2015, then FCT President Linda Javier (now deceased) took over De Villa’s role as treasurer in addition to the role of FCT President and CEO and property manager.
During this period, according to a reliable source, Linda Javier’s husband, Felino Javier, FCT Maintenance Manager, filed several vouchers for retroactive services in December 2016 to take advantage of the FCT’s impending sale on Jan. 31, 2017.
The bulk of the $678,000 were for amounts owed to Linda Javier ($96,000) as Property Manager, Felino Javier ($122,000) as Maintenance Manager, although a cancelled check showed he was actually paid $131, 457.04), Dr. Victoria Santiago-Liu ($300,000) for FCT loan repayments, and CRA ($124,000).
To obtain a fair and balanced report, this writer sent a questionnaire to Dr. Nenette de Villa, a long-serving FCT board member and widow of the late Dr. Guillermo (Jun) de Villa, FCT co-founder and driving force behind FCT’s creation.
Incidentally Dr. De Villa is the sponsor of FCT’s Dr. Guillermo de Villa Golf Tournament and mother of Toronto’s Public Health Officer, Dr. Eileen de Villa.
Here are the questions addressed to Dr. De Villa:
- Why is FCT’s board of directors silent on the omission of large amount of liabilities and payables in financial statements?
Dr. De Villa’s silence could mean she approved the widely known omission of large liabilities and payables in FCT’s financial statements, since it is impossible for her not to know the financial data as she happened to be a board member at FCT’s inception.
In contrast Dr. Vicky Santiago-Liu said she resigned from the FCT board because of the “nonchalance” of some board members at meetings, and FCT’s long delayed decision for an audit was her “last straw.”
- What do you think of the FCT members who had been clamoring for an independent audit, is it because they wish to control FCT funds, or are they just trying to sabotage the achievements of FCT?
Dr. De Villa is silent here but she voted with Dr. Santiago-Liu for the financial audit of FCT.
- Since you are the major sponsor of the Dr. Guillermo De Villa Golf Tournament to honor and perpetuate the memory of your late husband, do you think that undocumented or improperly documented releases of funds at FCT and its restrictive style of public relations promote you and your family’s good name?
Dr. De Villa’s silence could drag her husband’s legacy down the drain even though she has always been championing his cause.
- If you think that criticisms against FCT are unfair, please elaborate.
Dr. De Villa’s mind is blank on this question.
Related events began to unfold on Dec. 17, 2016, when then FCT President Linda Javier (now deceased) asked Luna Vince, Board Member and Internal Auditor to do the following :”…was asked to issue postdated cheques to pay her salaries and her husband’s salaries including Vicki’s – to January 31, 2017. I did not issue the cheques.”
She refused to issue the post-dated checks because as internal auditor “I did not have the authority to do so.” And instead suggested to Javier to have Theresa Lumanlan, VP/CFO, issue the checks.
Vince subsequently reported the conversation with Javier to then FCT Board Chairman Rey Tolentino.
Tolentino took action by issuing a memo on Mar. 19, 2017 addressed to FCT board members, stressing the need of an audit, and warning them: “What could happen if we simply do it the way we have been doing in the past, or the way we have been led to believe when it comes to these payables?”
Tolentino asked: “Why is an audit of our large payables necessary?” And added: “The Board is subject to questions of irregularity, impropriety or negligence if it cannot explain and justify the approval and processing of these large disbursements to the membership.”
Javier reacted to Tolentino’s memo by dishing harsh words at him.
Before and after the sale of the FCT building several board members resigned including Tolentino, Dr. Mario Andres, Raffy Fabregas, Vince, Teresa Sevilla, Bernie Carreon, and Dr. Santiago-Liu.
Before Linda Javier died in September 2018, she reportedly handpicked San Juan, the long-serving FCT Secretary, as her successor.
San Juan previously balked against an audit because of the ”cost,” yet recently hired or consulted three lawyers in addition to FCT’s legal counsel, Ramon Andal.
A reliable source said that San Juan has gone lawyer-shopping for legal advice from Mark Donald, Robert Hayhoe, and Matthew Czerwinski.
By the way, San Juan is using Mark Donald to threaten a local community paper (not this publication) with libel for highlighting accounting deficiencies at FCT. Before she forgets, San Juan may check with her lawyers if FCT’s liability insurance would cover her and the board in a libel case.
As a background, FCT has lost a couple of court cases. It lost to the illegal termination of membership of the late Dr. Francisco Portugal in 2005 of which FCT paid for the legal fees since it was covered by liability insurance.
Back in 2016, Linda Javier, Felino Javier, Dr. Santiago-Liu, and Dr. De Villa lost a defamation case against the same Dr. Portugal. The court ordered them to pay from personal funds Dr. Portugal for damages and all legal fees as liability insurance did not cover them.
Dr. Santiago-Liu told this writer that Linda Javier asked her for a personal loan in 2006 to cover her and Felino’s legal bills. When FCT sold its building in 2017, Javier repaid her with a check which she discovered much later came from “an FCT account, not a personal account.”
In other words, the Javiers got a free lunch at the expense of Dr. Santiago-Liu, who did not elaborate on the exact amount as the loan took place more than a decade ago.
An inside source said that FCT officers who were strongly against the audit were San Juan, FCT Chairman Efren de Villa (no relation to other De Villas in this article), VP/CFO Lumanlan, Board Member Philip Beloso, and Board Member Frank Cruzet.
Three cancelled checks for $500 each were paid in 2017 to Efren (Mr. Transparent) de Villa, Cruzet, and Beloso for gas or transportation allowance. Nobody knows if they continue to receive allowances from San Juan.
Are allowances granted only to a chosen few? Who knows?
The controversy over deficient financial statements and mysterious payables could have been cut short had San Juan readily agreed to an audit following the death of her predecessor, Linda Javier, who died in September 2018.
Her reluctance to correct financial statements that threw FCT into darkness lends credence to the narrative that Javier handpicked San Juan to be the next FCT President. Nobody knows if Javier did it to perpetuate her legacy, or cover up her shortcomings.
The money spent on lawyers and the energy expended on possible anomalies and intimidating concerned citizens ought to be redirected toward building a platform for young, trustworthy, and qualified Filipinos willing to enter Canada’s political arena.
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