Current Filipino Community Council of Victoria Inc (FCCVI) Chairperson Perla Luetic remains seated as the chairperson of the FCCVI. This is after Jing Sosa, acting as the group’s spokesperson, wrote earlier this month a letter addressed to Scott Stevens of Fair Work Commission suspending Luetic as the FCCVI Chairperson.
Yesterday, 2 November 2015 Sosa and his group changed the locks of the Multi-Purpose Centre property so they can assume their business operations. The attempt failed when Leutic’s camp gathered at the property. A memo to all staff was later on distributed signed by Luetic. Due to “illegal changing of locks and keys” three persons, Orly Victuelles, Clem Conag and Fred Jover are authorised to secure and safeguard the Multi-Purpose Centre. “Necessary precautions are being adhered to, to report in case of any unauthorized and illegal persons to enter the premises, to illegally change the locks and keys and disrupt the operations of the services,” Leutic said in the same memo.
In an interview with The Philippine Times, Luetic said Sosa’s group including a locksmith went back to the Centre at 6am today to change the main door’s key. They might have been surprised, she said, that they found people there who stayed overnight to hold vigil and secure the property. Perla said they have already consulted a lawyer to deter the group from causing disruption of operations and endangering the confidential files in the office.
When asked by The Philippine Times for his statement on the issue, Sosa did not explain, clarify issues or elaborate further but said briefly: “We will provide you with information once the issue is resolved.”
Banned from entering FCCVI premises
In what is regarded as a strong move to protect sensitive FCCVI files and disrupt operations, Luetic has issued yesterday 2 November a notice to all FCCVI staff and security and order enforcer, not to allow the following persons starting 3 November until further notice to enter the Centre: Norma Serrano, Rocky Serrano, Leoncio Sosa, Flora Basilio, Rolly Ferrer, Lorna Ferrer, Brigit Zubiri, Rolly Zubiri, Stuart Innes, Adrian Prophet, Manny Asuncion, Janet Ranada, Mario Ranada, Al Mustapha and Dory Mustapha.
FCCVI election on 15 November
Luetic said the FCCVI and PAFI elections will push through on 15 November 2015. Her message to the community: “I would like to tell the leaders of the organisations to vote for the right people who have the heart to serve the community. They should vote for people who have the best interest of the organisations and the community not their personal interest.”
Sosa leads ‘Special General Meeting’
Last 4 October, a ‘Special General Meeting’ was spearheaded by Sosa’s group. They reported that 18 financial members of FCCVI attended the meeting, reaching an apparent consensus to suspend Luetic for her substandard performance and her lack of respect to the COM as a governing body. The main contention of the group was Luetic’s undue termination of Norma Serrano as the Centre Manager, a decision Sosa said to have carried out without first consulting the COM and the Executive Committee.
The letter of suspension, dated 6 September 2015, mentioned Luetic’s alleged misconduct and neglect of responsibilities. In the same letter, Sosa said she failed to attend several meetings with them to discuss her decision to terminate Serrano.
The suspension letter says,”On 07 August 2015, you terminated the Centre Manager without seeking advice/permission from the COM and some members of the Executive Committee. In response to the letter of complaint of the previous Center Manager, the COM formed a Fact Finding Group to investigate the complaints. You declined the invitation for the said meeting.”
“Suspension” letter causes dissent among members
Lily Gillespie, Executive Director of the Pilipino Australian Foundation Inc (PAFI), has just released a letter the other day addressed to all FCCVI organisations correcting what Sosa and his group are claiming that they are the legitimate FCCVI Committee of Management. “Ms. Perla Luetic, the current FCCVI Chairperson, is still the official elected chairperson of the FCCVI and the Execom Committee, and cannot be removed from the office, unless officially voted out legally by election, contrary to as Jing Sosa’s group are saying, that Perla and the Execom are no longer the legitimate leaders of the FCCVI,” she said.
Gillespie alleged that Sosa and his group have been disrupting the everyday operations of the FCCVI staff and executive committee by marching in the FCCVI Office in Footscray every now and then. “Hopefully all of you will understand the tensions created by Mr. Sosa and his group have on all of us, both the FCCVI and the PAFI, as they are trying to get control of the organization FCCVI and PAFI for their reasons by destroying the present execom committee led by Ms Perla Luetic. We, the FCCVI and the PAFI members of the Board of Management have no intentions of breaking the community, and as much as possible, would like to unite all the Filipinos, especially providing
the elderly, youth, and the needy, by continuously serving with no prejudice, malice and no personal interest,” she said.
Luetic counters accusations
As a response to the letter of suspension, signed on behalf of the FCCVI Committee of Management and the Executive Committee Luetic issued a strong counter-argument that contested the grounds for her suspension. She stated in her 8 October response that meetings and votes of the COM without the presence of the Executive Committee is a “spurious meeting and cannot legally pass upon and carry out any matter affecting the Council.” In her defense, objections to the termination of Serrano as Centre Manager must be aptly coursed through “the industrial relations court, tribunal, or body, such as the Fair Work Commission, and not to the Committee of Management which had already acted through the duly constituted Executive Committee under the duly elected Chairperson.”
Quoting several provisions on the FCCVI Constitution, Luetic noted that the COM cannot “act, carry out, or perform its duties and responsibilities except through the duly elected and constituted Executive Committee’ spearheaded by none other than herself as Chairperson. The legitimacy of the meetings of COM are thus refuted by her claim, and their request for an explanation regarding the termination of Serrano only reflects their ignorance of the COM’s role as a policy-making body which brought forth and ratified the grounds for termination from FCCVI.”
Furthermore, Leutic said that Sosa’s involvement in the issue reflected his naïve misunderstanding of the stated provisions and the manipulation of these provisions in the service of certain individuals. The letter of suspension was dismissed as an attempt of the ‘bogus group’ of selected COM members to “cause and create anarchy, chaos and pandemonium within the otherwise peaceful Filipino-Australian community.”
See related story: FCCVI terminates staff for alleged mismanagement
