Dubai: Filipino organisations have come out in support of the Philippine Ambassador to the UAE, Grace Princesa, following a Manila-based newspaper report about a group accusing her of misusing community funds.
Officers of the Bayanihan Council, the umbrella organisation of Filipino groups in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, have branded the claims which also allege mistreatment of Filipinos from the previously unknown group Alliance of Concerned Overseas Filipino Workers in Abu Dhabi (ACO-OFW) as “baseless”.
“This accusation is baseless and unfounded.
“In the two years that I handled the council, Ambassador Princesa did not have access to even a single dirham of the council’s funds,” Val Junio, former chairman and now adviser of the Bayanihan Council, told Gulf News.
A local newspaper in Manila on Thursday reported that ACO-OFW had expressed “its frustrations and discontent over Princesa’s alleged misconduct and poor treatment” of Filipino workers and their dependents in the UAE.
The complaint letter was reportedly addressed to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario.
The newspaper reported that the leaders of the group requested anonymity “for fear of reprisal” and claimed that the “ambassador misused community funds intended for charitable projects” and the council had become a “puppet” of the ambassador.
Bayanihan Council’s chairman Ernesto Refugio said he has not heard of any official confirmation of the existence of an organisation called ACO-OFW in his 20 years in the UAE.
Junio, who has been in the UAE for the past 16 years, agreed with Refugio.
Currently, 43 organisations are accredited by the Philippine embassy and are members of the Bayanihan Council.
In Dubai. Matilyn Bagunu, head of the Filipino Community - Dubai and the Northern Emirates, said no such group is affiliated to them.
Junio and Refugio said ACO-OFW might be disgruntled individuals who formed a group solely for this purpose.
Refugio added that financial reports and updates are presented to the council every month to maintain transparency.
He and his council members are open to public scrutiny anytime, he said.
“All decisions are made on a majority vote by the executive committee members of the council. So we are acting on our own,” Refugio said. “Whoever this group of individuals are and if they have complaints against us, I urge them to meet and have a dialogue with us.”
When asked for comment, the ambassador said she has not received official word on this matter from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila and has only read the report online.
“I do not know this group but I will communicate with authorities concerned to get to the bottom of this.”
Princesa said she is confident all her programmes for the community, including the international launch of the financial literacy programme Pinoy WISE Movement on November 23, will not be derailed by the accusation.
