T he Northern California-based national executive officers (NEOs) of the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA) feel that they are not being given importance by the Philippine Consulate General of San Francisco in preparing for the arrival of Philippine President Noynoy Aquino. The Philippine leader is scheduled to be in Northern California next weekend.

In fact, reports say that the NaFFAA NEOs want to take over the Host Committee organized by the Philippine Consulate General to manage the Philippine-presidential visit to Northern California. They refuse to acknowledge that the top diplomat assigned in a particular area is the true representative of the Philippine government and, therefore, automatically gets to call the shots.

The NEOs are up in arms and they want the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs to recall Consul General Marciano Paynor, Jr. He is a career diplomat and a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy. Mr. Paynor, who actually carries the rank of an ambassador, was also the concurrent Head of the Protocol Section of the Office of the President during Mrs. Gloria Arroyo’s tenure. He was also previously the Filipino consul general in Los Angeles, California.

Reports say that some Filipino career diplomats in Manila do not want the Philippine President to be rubbing elbows with the NaFFAA NEOs during his coming visit to the United States. The NaFFAA NEOs have been accused, if not painted, as plain-and-simple crooks. In fact quite a few Filipino-American community leaders are accusing them of pocketing some of the campaign donations that they obtained for then presidential candidate Noynoy Aquino – as discussed in the “Butanding Brouhaha” series in this particular section.

People Are Now Making More Fun of the NaFFAA NEOs

M ore jokes are now proliferating in the Bay Area about the NaFFAA NEOs. One exercise of Filipino humor involves NaFFAA Chief Legal Officer and Counsel Rodel Rodis, who was touted to be the next Philippine ambassador to the United States. Now wags and pundits say that Attorney Rodis may be named the new Filipino envoy to Afghanistan. Reports say that Mr. Rodis will be sent to Kabul without a helmet, bullet-proof vest, armored car and bodyguards.

Another joke says that the other members of the NaFFAA’s "Golden-gate Gang" would be appointed as new Filipino diplomats and assigned to Iraq. The humorists claim that current NaFFAA national chair Gregorio Macabenta would be named the new Filipino ambassador to Iraq with Ben Menor, Lorna Dietz and Perry Diaz becoming new consuls general for Baghdad, Basra and Tikrit, respectively. Like “Ambassador” Rodis, the NaFFAA NEOs will also be fielded in Iraq without helmets, bullet-proof vests, armored cars and bodyguards.

Last night several of the NaFFAA NEOs conducted a teleconference with some of their NaFFAA regional officers, as they were in a quandary on what to react supposedly to Consul General Paynor’s actions.

As of press time, it has been verified that Consul General Paynor has not chosen to emulate NaFFAA Co-founder Ernie “Ganges Khan” Gange and tell the NaFFAA NEOs to go jump off the Bay Bridge. More details on Apo Ernie Gange’s proposal are contained in this article, NaFFAA Cofounder Tells Ruling Clique Members to “Jump Off the Golden Gate Bridge”

(To be continued . . .)