This is not about Agatha Christie’s mystery novel where a group of people were lured into an island to enjoy a late summer holiday. I chose this title because of the parallelism with what is now happening in the Philippine Community Council of New South Wales. One by one, an island guest is found dead and the number of people in the island start dwindling just as the number of affiliates in PCC-NSW are fast disappearing.
To the best of my recollection, when I first became aware of the so-called ‘peak body’ of Filipino organisations in New South Wales, they had close to 100 affiliates.
Then, some ‘brilliant’ officers and directors decided to weed out undesirables, as quite a few were deemed as bogus associations. Several clubs sprouted like mushrooms, obviously for political reasons and for people wanting to be elected as officer or member of the PCC board. Understandably, many did not meet the requirements such as being registered with the Department of Fair Trading, conducting at least one general meeting once a year and having the minimum number of members. Some affiliate associations did not even exist and still many were just duplicates of clubs belonging to the same regional areas.
Thus gave birth to a splinter group which now threatens to equal or even exceed the number of affiliates of PCC-NSW.
There was also a time when only 88 affiliates were registered during an Annual General Meeting (AGM) but when the votes were tallied, the total number of voters came out as 98. The not-so-popular member of Blacktown Council who acted as election chairman declined to make an explanation how it happened.
During the PCC AGM that was held at the Mt. Druitt Hub on Sunday, March 13, there were only 33 affiliates who registered out of last year’s 52. Others did not attend or discontinued their membership. Confidential reports have it that many members decided to cancel out because of one certain individual who continues to ‘lord it over’ the organisation. This undesirable wants to be in control all the time. One method he uses is to always emcee all AGMs. He makes decisions on important matters not in accordance with the PCC constitution but to suit what he wants.
During last month’s AGM, Alric Bulseco placed a gag on media, telling Ms. Benjie de Ubago, a regular columnist of Philippine Sentinel and Bayanihan News that non-affiliates were not allowed to ask questions.
He ran unopposed and was re-elected as Vice President for External Affairs, a position he has held for many years. It seems that it was part of a political strategy to assure his re-election to the same post over and over again. He did not want to let go of his VP post because PCC has been his life and playground over the years. But because of the many ‘evils’ he has committed in PCC, there is no doubt he will eventually self-destruct.
(Read previous month’s editorial “The evil that men do . . .”)
Hats off to Bobby Lastica who withdrew his candidacy as Vice President-Internal. He said he “wanted to give other people the chance to serve.” The position went to crooner Lillian de los Reyes who, instead of delivering a “thank you” speech, sang. We can expect more singing sessions during PCC board meetings. But sadly, more affiliates will leave PCC or not bother to renew their membership until Bulseco self-destructs. And then there would be none left and that will be no mystery. — Dino Crescini