NaFFAA Now “Homeless” in DC, As Its Top Officials Resign as Organization Teeters on Insolvency |
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Sections - NaFFAAgate | |||
Thursday, 29 April 2010 10:50 | |||
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NaFFAA Stripped of Its Home in DC; Top Officials Resign as Organization Teeters By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors ( and Asian-American Journalists Association (AAJA) T ORONTO, Canada - Just less than a year after a distress call was aired to officials of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) by its chairman Greg Macabenta, the supposedly US-wide organization is now staggering to death, abandoned by its senior officials and stripped of its home, according to one of its founders. The lone holdout seems to be only Macabenta himself, propped up by a skeleton crew who sometimes makes NaFFAA's presence felt via social media, mainly the internet. Even NaFFAA's official website is on the throes of extinction, being perpetually under a state of "being updated". As it now appears, NaFFAA is ready to tumble. "Our problem in NaFFAA is very serious," says Ernesto "Apo" Gange, NaFFAA co-founder and the founding chair of International Network of Filipinos Overseas Inc. in "We lost our NaFFAA National Headquarters in Apo Gange said NaFFAA's national executive officers he identified as Lourdes "Ludy" Corrales, national treasurer; Atty. Reuben Seguritan, legal counsel; Armando "Doy" Heredia, executive director and chief operating officer; and Leslie Talusan, secretary to the executive director; have already resigned their posts. "NaFFAA runs on fumes," Ernie Gange stresses, quoting Macabenta's exact words. "We run out of gas," but "we will survive," he adds. Mr. Gange has been scouting for what he calls "new players" to breathe life into the 13-year-old organization which he co-founded in 1997 with the now retired Alex Esclamado to unify Filipinos in "Life must go on, and together we will rebuild NaFFAA," he says in an email to this reporter. It wasn't immediately clear when NaFFAA was kicked out of NaFFAA's present destitute state was a far cry from its early years when newspaper publisher Alex Esclamado and businesswoman Loida Nicolas-Lewis headed it in succession. At that time, NaFFAA seemed to enjoy wide support within and outside the Filipino community. It fell into disrepute soon after journalist Bobby Reyes of Reyes had sought office as a NaFFAA regional chair but was voted out in an election he claimed was rigged by NaFFAA officials who did not want him there. The incident has become known as "Ballygate" after the name of the hotel in
Editor’s Notes: To read about the Ballygate, the Menorgate and the NaFFAAgate, please click on this link, Huge sums of monies – estimated at between $450,000 to $1-million – are alleged to have been "stolen" from the organization through elaborate schemes by unnamed insiders. A proposal to create a fact-finding committee to investigate had been promptly nipped in the bud. PHILIPPINE VILLAGE VOICE - Redefining Community News Volume 4, Issue No. 4 / News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody / P reviously, NaFFAA was also linked to a celebrated case in According to Gange, NaFFAA's national conference normally held in September has been moved to October this year. Sources said there's very little interest in the conference, especially at a time when NaFFAA is reeling under. "We have to pass the hat," Gange says, to pay some people who worked at NaFFAA. He said former NaFFAA chair Loida Nicolas-Lewis had volunteered to pay $20,000 out of $40,000 debt NaFFAA owed its executive director, and paid another employee for half (what the) NaFFAA owed. "We passed the hat and paid for the balance," he explained. "Atty. Reuben Seguritan resigned, out of frustration, because, when he was asked for his opinion with what to do with the unexplained missing funds, estimated to about $400K, before the attorney from NaFFAA has stonewalled on a number of questions posed by this reporter since last year. "Regardless of what happened in the past, we owe it to ourselves to rebuild NaFFAA. We must nurture NaFFAA for the next generation of Filipinos, a vehicle to use, as their voice in
This Currents & Breaking News is posted online compliments of Romeo P. Marquez, editor, Philippine Village Voice,
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Last Updated on Thursday, 29 April 2010 11:00 |
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Excellent story.... Go for it, pare.
NaFFAA needs to be cleaned of its thieves and scalawags. You and LOLO Bobby Reyes did an awesome job exposing the practice of "kleptocracy" among its top leadership. I agree: the money unaccounted YET must first be accounted for before a clean slate can begin. Otherwise, its credibility can never be salvaged at all.
And yes, it also needs new leadership ... and perhaps, even a new name. Because, it now appears to many Fil-Ams that the acronym, NaFFAA, connotates "NaKAWAN-AH."
Jesse