The 2022-23 officials and directors of the Philippine Community Council of New South Wales (PCC NSW) were sworn to office on March 3, 2022 at 6pm at the Bulwagang Rizal in the Philippine Consulate General Sydney office.
The oath-taking was conducted in the Philippine National language, Filipino by Consul Emmanuel Guzman, Acting Sydney Consulate’s Head of Post. The Consulate is observing social distancing protocols so that only twenty-five people were able to attend the event.
The elected officers and members of the Board of Directors are:
President - Cesar Bartolome
VP External - Redempta Robinson
VP Internal - Grace Liston
Secretary - Darrell Swadling*
Treasurer- Jess Arranz
PRO - Espie Pogson
Auditor - Sheila Collantes
Directors -
Lee Meekan
Maureen Santiago*
Penny Perfecto
Mercy Jones
Dave Tan
Precy Santos
Emily Rudd
Immediate Past President - Alric Bulseco
Public Officer - Serna Ladia
(*Not in attendance due to flooding and other reasons.)
The inaugural speech was delivered by the President, Cesar Bartolome. A copy of Cesar Bartolome’s inaugural speech is shown at the end of this article. The guest inspirational speaker was Carol Israel, Councillor of Blacktown City Council. The Vice- President External, Demi Robinson, gave the closing remarks.
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Cesar Bartolome’s Speech
“Greetings! (Consul Manny K. Guzman, Consul Melanie Diano, Consular Staff, Cr Carol Israel, Cr Rey Manoto my fellow members of the Board, community leaders, spouses, friends, good evening!)
The Philippine Community Council of New South Wales held its elections last 20th of February 2022 after almost a yearlong postponement because of the lockdowns and other health restrictions brought about by the pandemic. It was an on-and-off scheduling of the elections, and the length of the campaign became so gruelling. I think this is the longest campaign period in the history of PCC and I am thankful that it was finally over. The 48-hour period to file a protest if any is over. I wish to congratulate everyone who played a part in this exercise for making it clean and peaceful.
Each one of the 15-member Board of Directors represented their respective associations. But now that we were already elected, I would say that the 15-man Board now represents the 57 affiliated associations under its wings. It is now our duty to preserve the image and to always protect the interest of PCC NSW.
But before anything else, let me congratulate my colleagues in the PCCNSW Board of 2020…for weathering the storm that persistently tried to break us apart. To our immediate past President Alric Bulseco for his steadfast leadership that bound us together to deliver our mission. Also, to all our affiliated organizations…thank you for sticking it out with us and believing that together we can do better for our community.
Having been nominated to this position by the Order of the Knights of Rizal where I led the ANZO Region for 5 years, I cannot help but share with you the thoughts of our national hero on associations like ours. The following paragraphs were excerpts from his letter to the Asociacion La Solidaridad a Patriotic Society of Filipinos in Barcelona during the late 1880’s. And here are his words:
In (young) associations, the spirit of tolerance ought to prevail when it concerns trifles that do not affect the essential part of a thing; in the discussions, the conciliatory tendency ought to dominate before the tendency to oppose. No one should resent defeat. When any opinion is rejected, its author, instead of despairing and withdrawing, should on the contrary wait for another occasion in which justice may be done to him. The individual should give way to the welfare of the society.
A great deal of integrity and much goodwill. No member should expect rewards or honours for what he does. He who does his duty in the expectation of rewards, is usually disappointed, because almost no one believes himself to be sufficiently rewarded. And so that there may not be discontent or ill-rewarded members, it is advisable for each one to do his duty just for its own sake and at best expect to be later treated unjustly, because in anomalous countries, injustice is the prize for those who fulfill their duties.
From here, we can deduce that Filipinos in foreign lands during Rizal’s time (he was 27 when he gave this advice) were no different from what we are now. I hope that while performing our individual duties and responsibilities, we always look back and heed Rizal’s advice.
So what lies ahead, what outcome can the affiliates and the wider community expect from us for the one year period of management mandate they gave us? Whether we like it or not, the Filipino Community is looking forward to two main events that we deliver yearly. The Philippine National Day Ball scheduled on the 12th of June 2022 and the 2-day Philippine Christmas Festival during the 2nd week of November held usually at the Tumbalong Park in Darling Harbour. So much so that they are the first orders of the day.
In between however, I will have to deliver what I have committed to the affiliates during the campaign that of defining the problems we are having amongst us and device ways to resolve them.
I have talked about at the first instance the opening of the lines of communications among the leaders of the different organizations affiliated or not with PCCNSW under a common purpose of unity and uplifting the image of the Filipino Community. Whether consciously or not, we tend to paint a bad picture of what we are as a people looking from the outside as the wider Australian Community sees us. I have called for an upgrade and a rejuvenation of the Council after having aged for 31 years. Perhaps it’s about time to re-brand and re-awaken the interest of the current affiliates and those who have left or slept.
I have also promoted during the campaign the thrust to go back to the basics. That of aligning things that we do to the very reasons why we are here. In the process we hope to encourage our affiliates to collaborate with us on projects that become viable when planned and delivered by a group of affiliates via the Council. What I mean is completing projects together and not competing against each other.
I also mentioned about the existing Constitution and By-Laws where proposed amendments were deferred twice over, and worst was finally voted out last Sunday. This is one cause of conflict amongst us because of the confusion brought about by different interpretations of its provisions. I have committed to do something about this and I will need the support of this Board to make this happen.
While delivering all these, we shall adopt the inherent virtues of respect and honesty in everything that we do.
So let us do it!
Let us ACT! Let us Address these Challenges Together!
Maraming salamat at Mabuhay!”