The Executive Officers of the Australian Council for Multicultural Entrepreneur, Inc (ACME Inc) invited Philippine Honorary Consul of Victoria, Felix Pintado to a casual meet-and-greet lunch on 7 November 2014 at the Bayview on the Park.
During the three hour free-wheeling discussion, the soft-spoken but amiable and friendly new Honorary Consul of the Republic of the Philippines to Victoria, spoke of his childhood memories in the Sugar plantations of Negros, where he was born and spent his childhood, as well as his primary and secondary studies in La Salle Greenhills, Manila, where incumbent Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, was in the same year as he was.
Consul Pintado also expressed his desire to catch up on his “Tagalog” as well as Visayan dialect skills and to get to know the various Filipino-Australian community organisations in Victoria. Although, he laments the lack of consolidated database of these organisations. ACME Chairperson Fred Jover volunteered the ACME website for a list of various small businesses owned/operated by Filipinos in Melbourne.
A need for aged-care facility
It was also discussed the urgent need of the Filipino community which has the highest proportion of elderly family members compared to other multicultural communities in Victoria. There should be an aged-care facility dedicated to Filipino elderlies, The discussion eventually focused on the needs of an aged-care facility dedicated to Filipino elderlies as research shows that persons born overseas where culture and first language is not English, will eventually revert mentally and linguistically to their birth culture and language.
Present at the meeting were ACME executives: Fred Jover, ACME Chairperson and President, Executive Board; Noel Tolentino, Vice-Chairperson; Melba-Cabato-Waugh, Treasurer and Vice President-Revenue and Finance; Felicity Swinney, Auditor and Vice-President Marketing and Event Promotion; Nena Parinas, AVP-Accounts and Taxation and Jasmine “Pin” Rutaquio, AVP- Business Studies, Planning and Evaluation.
Also, present at the meeting was Atty Imelda McLean of Sabelberg Morcos Lawyers.
Ret. PNP Colonel Rogelio Camacho, Group Commander of Katipunan-Australia, was also in attendance.
For further information on ACME, please visit http://www.acmei.org/ , Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acmeinc2012 or call Fred Jover +61 403944479 or +613 87629929