By Ron Cantiveros
The Typhoon Haiyan donations collected by the Philippine-Canadian Centre of Manitoba (PCCM) have finally been sent to the Philippines.
On January 15, Winnipeg media reported that PCCM was sitting on Typhoon Haiyan funds of over $72,000 for more than two months. Eleven days later, in a January 26 news release, PCCM Vice-President, Lou Fernandez finally confirmed that the money and hard goods were on their way to the Philippines. Donation funds were directed to the Philippine Red Cross and the 53 extra-large Balikbayan boxes were being shipped to assist in the Operation Tulong relief effort. The news release did not include supporting documentation on the bank transfer to the Philippine Red Cross.
The original campaign highlighted that the funds would be going to the SM Foundation. Why the sudden change to the Philippine Red Cross? If the money was directed to the Philippine Red Cross, why wasn’t donating locally to the Canadian Red Cross an option?
Donor fallout from the two-month delay included a major donation withdrawal of $8,000 by Centum Above All Financial Services. The financial services company held their fundraising social at PCCM on November 22. The withdrawal of funds immediately raised concerns on donation fund accountability.
An information request on February 4, with the Philippine Red Cross in Manila verified a PCCM donation. A follow-up news release from PCCM only became available on February 5 and itemized Typhoon Haiyan allocations. The Philippine Red Cross received a bank transfer of C$60,696.53 and shipping charges for the 53 Balikbayan boxes amounted to C$3,710.00. If the bank transfer receipt was available on January 25, why was it not part of the original news release on January 26? Why were key documents offered to select media outlets two days prior to the February 5 media release?
The sentiment shared by many donors was that PCCM needed to work harder at reporting back in a timely manner. In a larger scope, all Canadians that donated have the expectation that their respective charities report back including our government on the matching funds.
The next order of business is engaging PCCM board of directors on unresolved matters from the January 11th Annual General Meeting. Visit the Filipino Journal Facebook Page for continuing PCCM coverage and community-wide events.
The full PCCM news release from Sunday, January 26, and Wednesday, February 5 are available on the Filipino Journal website.
