PHILIPPINE VILLAGE VOICE - Redefining Community News
Currents & Breaking News
Volume 4, Issue No. 33
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .
The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Friday, September 17, 2010
~ Hardly has the news gone out last night of an appointment by President Obama of a Filipino American community leader than a protest is being registered on Friday, less than 24 hours after the White House made the announcement. The financial woes and suspected wrongdoings at the moribund National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) are now being dragged into the open as Las Vegas, Nevada-based Rozita V. Lee got named member of a presidential advisory commission in Washington, D.C. The White House has set the swearing-in of Lee and 17 others on Tuesday at the US Capitol.
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NAFFAA A 'CORRUPT ORGANIZATION,' SAYS JOURNALIST
Financial Ills in NaFFAA Outshine Appointment of Fil-Am Community Leader
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
TORONTO - A Los Angeles-based Filipino journalist on Friday (Sept. 17, 2010) protested US President Barack Obama's appointment of a Filipino-American community leader to an advisory post less than 24 hours after the White House made the announcement.
Bobby Reyes, editor and publisher of the online MabuhayRadio.com, asked the White House to continue with its vetting process on Rozita V. Lee, the current national vice chair of the moribund National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), who was named a member of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
In Washington, meanwhile, the White House Media Affairs Office disclosed Friday that Ms. Lee and others will be sworn in at the US Capitol on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010.
Reyes said NaFFAA was "a corrupt organization, which could be prosecuted for criminal violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act". (Related story at: http://timecircumstance.blogspot.com/2010/09/is-naffaa-already-dead-or-still-dying.html
It's not clear if Reyes wanted the White House to recall the appointment or rescind it altogether. Ms. Lee was not immediately available for comment and neither were officials of NaFFAA.
"Our main objection to the appointment of Ms. Rozita Lee is based on her membership in the ruling clique that has been running, and that continues to run, the National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA)," Reyes said in a letter to President Obama and coursed through Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
"Ms. Rozita Lee is the NaFFAA’s national vice chairperson since 2006. We have been publishing reports x x x about the NaFFAA being a corrupt organization, which could be prosecuted for criminal violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act," Reyes explained.
NaFFAA trumpets itself as the "Voice of Filipinos and Filipino Americans throughout the United States" though it is no more than an advocacy and lobby group for the varied interests of its national officials. It also claims to have "more than five hundred Filipino-American institutions and umbrella organizations" in 12 regions all over the US.
Reyes said that published articles had accused Ms. Lee "of issuing NaFFAA checks with her sole signature in violation of the NaFFAA bylaws’ requirement of two signatures".
"We will be filing also against the same NaFFAA clique members, including Ms. Rozita Lee, complaints for tax evasion with the Criminal Prosecution Division of the Internal Revenue Service," according to Reyes, and provide the Office of the President with a copy of the complaints by next week.
Reyes said Ms. Lee should have informed the White House that she would be one of the respondents in the complaint that he was set to file with the Department of Justice for what he claims was the NaFFAA officials' violation of the RICO Act.
Ms. Lee was one of 18 individuals appointed to key administration posts. "Our nation will be well-served by the skill and dedication these men and women bring to their new roles. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead,” President Obama said in an earlier statement.
(This Currents & Breaking News may be posted online, broadcast or reprinted upon request by interested parties. Permission by the author and the editor must be obtained before any re-posting online or re-publication in print or re-broadcast. Copyright by Romeo P. Marquez, Editor, Philippine Village Voice, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Volume 4, Issue no. 33, September 17, 2010. Email at: PhilVoiceNews@aol.com or CurrentsBreakingNews@gmail.com).
For other stories, please visit:
1. http://currentsbreakingnews.blogspot.com/
2. http://torontonewsroom.blogspot.com/
3. http://timecircumstance.blogspot.com/
4. http://travelsthemes.blogspot.com/
5. http://gotchajournalist.blogspot.com/ .
For news videos, please visit my channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGotchaJournalist
Emailed to PhilVoiceNews@aol.com:
ReplyDeleteIt's a compelling story. That woman's appointment to Obama's presidential advisory commission must be stopped, or at least, vetted more. Otherwise, all your writings about the "corrupt" leadership of NaFFAA and the exposes that you and Bobby Reyes (of Los Angeles) have diligently written in tandem would be all for naught.
Her winning that appointment would be a sure triumph for the "crooks" of NaFFAA, but defeating that appointment would put the last nail, so to speak, to the coffin of NaFFAA's leading thieves. Que horror, if she wins.
Jesse Jose
Seattle, Washington