Writer Claims FCT 'Doctored' Financial Statements

Volume 3, Issue No. 3

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .

 

 Our latest as of Friday, September 17, 2021 

~ Rather than give in to members' demand to come clean in their financial reporting, the non-profit Filipino Centre Toronto appears poised to spend more money on a lawsuit to stop the flood of critical stories highlighting its resistance to calls for transparency and accountability. A community writer is reporting a bombshell of an article that allegedly shows how FCT doctored its financial statements to hide salaries and income.

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FILIPINO TABLOID WARNED OF LIBEL SUIT

'Malpractices' Claimed at Filipino Centre Toronto

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"A lie is like a snowball, the longer it is rolled, the larger it is". - Martin Luther

TORONTO - Ranking officials of the non-profit Filipino Centre Toronto (FCT) allegedly "doctored" financial statements to the extent "there are unreported salaries, withholding taxes, and under-reported income."

The bombshell claim is contained in an article by community writer Cress Vasquez and published this week in a local tabloid. A digital copy was forwarded to this reporter by the writer himself.

Vasquez's assertions are based mostly on statements by sources and individuals he refused to identify and on documents he said he possessed but would not share.

Per his reporting, FCT and/or its president Mary Ann San Juan have initiated a libel suit against the Filipino tabloid Atin Ito for publishing a series of articles critical of FCT and its officials.

"San Juan is using (lawyer) Mark Donald to threaten the community paper, Atin Ito, with libel for highlighting accounting deficiencies at FCT," Vasquez wrote. 

(Background story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2019/08/eddie-lee-non-journalist-publishing.html).

The barrister apparently issued a "cease and desist order" on the newspaper. 

Reached separately for comment, neither San Juan nor Donald confirm the report as of this writing today, Friday, September 17, 2021. The publisher or editor at Atin Ito could not be reached either. 

Vasquez leads off his article with this statement: "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". 

Asked who he was referring to in the highlighted phrase above, he responded: "the responsible person and the person accountable for the FCT balance sheet-can’t name". (Background video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dWabOiCwhU).

Queried again: "What led you to say they're 'behind' the alleged omissions?" He answered: "the person(s) who provided financial data in the financial statements that omitted the payables, salaries, etc". 

Though FCT is a non-profit and its officials are volunteers and are not supposed to be compensated, some officials are said to be paid $500 each. Vasquez said the practice is evident in canceled checks made out to Efren de Villa, FCT chairman; and Frank Cruzet and Philip Beloso, board members. 

(Additional story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2021/07/fct-co-founder-resigns-but-vows-to.html).

According to Vasquez, Felino Javier, the husband of (now deceased) Rosalinda C. Javier, former FCT president,

"filed several vouchers for retroactive services in December 2016 to take advantage of the FCT’s impending sale (of its building on Parliament St.) on Jan. 31, 2017".

 

FCT in fact paid Felino Javier $122,000 and Rosalinda C. Javier $96,000, among other claimants, soon after the downtown Toronto building was sold for $5.9 million. (Detailed story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/12/fcts-masterpiece-of-gobbledygook.html).

Vasquez claimed that the FCT's top officials have rejected an audit of the organization. Based on his conversation with an unidentified FCT board member, he wrote: "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".  

Vasquez's article appears to put to task federal, provincial and local officials who had guested at an FCT event in August 2018 for their seeming lack of familiarity with the workings of FCT, its officials, and programs that are mostly supported by grants from government and NGOs.

These officials include Ahmed Hussen, Member of Parliament; Mitzie Hunter, Member of Provincial Parliament; John Tory, Mayor of Toronto. Photographed also at the same event were Jean Yip, Salma Zahid, and Gary Anandasangaree, all MPs; and other current and retired Toronto city officials. (Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved).