Showing posts with label Philippines Rotary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philippines Rotary. Show all posts

Sunday, October 4, 2020

Evan ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.

Diaries of a former Rotarian.
 Evan ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.

Evan ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.


Hello and good day to all activists around the world fighting  the crooks disguised as philanthropists and good doers, operating within clubs and associations.
Evan ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.

What you're about to discover, is the story of a former Rotarian that had the guts to stand up and shed light on a subtle, clever scam that was taking place within a Rotary Club in the Philippines. Evan ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.
We are year 2005 in the Provence of Bohol Philippines, a bit old and outdated story you might think; but the sophistication of the scheme, if not so unique as it appears, it wasn't an isolated case within the Rotary International. The actors of this scam had a few me
ntors initiated on the practice somewhere in the USA and Australia, then in turn passed their experience to local Rotarians in Cebu and Bohol. 

Evan ILIADIS, a Rotarian member then of the Rotary Club of Tagbilaran  alerted the Rotary Administration on Evanston Illinois to realize that the latest was more concerned about saving the reputation of the club than reply to his accusations. He then decided to bring the case to people's tribunal by first publishing the story on the Club's own website: rotarycluboftagbilaran.org van ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.

E
He published no less than 60 entries detailing the scam, naming and shaming the unscrupulous crooks taking advantage of the desperation of poor people in the rural areas of Bohol, giving them 10 cents of each dollar donated by generous Rotarians, and, most important by the Rotary Foundation (TRF for short) numbering thousands of US Dollars

Then, years later he (Evan) shot down almost all blogs related to the Rotary, without giving to thousands of his readers a reason.  I was one of them, also a contributor organizing mailing campaigns to subscribers around the world. I contacted him several times, all requests went unanswered, maybe he passed away? No! He's with us, well alive. Whatever the reason is, I, Gerald Tevenier decided to revive his blogs. I had not the necessary material, but the site "way back machine" had them. It is absolutely imperative that the world, generation after generation should know

Let's get started.
 

 VILLAGE AIDE PROGRAM(VAP rip-off) as we know it.

van ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.

Evan ILIADIS wrote.
F
irst, allow me to introduce myself. I'm former Rotarian EVAN ILIADIS former member of the ROTARY CLUB OF TAGBILARAN (RCT for short) in the island of Bohol Philippines where I lived for 6 years forced to leave this country for medical reasons. From day one after my induction on March of 2004 I made service to the community a priority, a foul time none paid job serving children elderly and mentally retarded with funds provided by the VILLAGE AIDE PROGRAM (VAP for short) an organization based in Australia owned by Rotarian Derek Pyrah and his former family - former in the sense that he dumped them recently at the age of 62 and moved to the Philippines for the eyes of a 20 years young Filipino girl- funds sent and managed by former Rotarian and PP of the RCT Dave Collins.
On august of 2007 I received the PHF award my club unanimously agreed I deserve, the cost of $1000 paid by the VAP, Thrilled? not at all!. I whish I had receive it from the hands of the president of the RCT in recognition for services rendered within the club and not- unknowingly- contributing to VAP's crooked business.-
van ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.

Back on September 2007, as a member of the ROTARY CLUB OF TAGBILARAN (RCT for short) I filed a request with the club asking the president to investigate the then Rotarians Dave and Baby Collins members of the said club the whereabouts of the following amounts of money:

-5 Matching Grants (MG for short) approved and money wired by the TRF (The Rotary Foundation)  to a MB (Metro Bank)  account the custodians been David Collins and Deoscoro Uy  manager of the local MB branch, past president of the RCT and treasurer. The MG I was referring to are:

- RC Milton-Mowbray Matching Grant 2006  P 800,000.00
- RC Milton-Mowbray Matching Grant 2007P950,000.00
- RC Collingwood Canada  Matching Grant 2007 P790,000.00
- RC Wilshire Blvd Hollywood Matching Grant 2007 P 900,000.00
- RC West Wollongong Matching Grant 2007 P 902,739.95

-Thousands of US dollars received from donations given by clubs and Rotarians around the world that were never registered in the club's accounting report as read in the regular meeting by the treasurer Deo Uy but instead were deposited to an MB account that only Collins and him (Deo) were custodians and knew the ins and outs of the money in violation of RI bylaws that every single dollar must be deposited in a club controlled bank account.

-10 millions pesos -Aprox. US$250,000.00 - received from the VILLAGE AIDE PROGRAM based in Australia as Baby Collins claimed on this banner posted the Club had no prior knowledge of any movement or a bank account under their control with such figures as posted outside her pawn shop downtown Tagbilaran City.



- A detailed cost and bidding documents for all construction projects financed by the RI as required under the terms and conditions of the TRF including Water-less toilets water tanks and more, that instead was done by Dave Collins as a prime contractor employing his own workers in violation of the "conflict of interest" section as also described by the TRF bylaws.

-The RCT formed an investigative committee to handle the complain  but the Collins when ordered to show up on scheduled appointments to explain the accusations did not comply, instead they deserted the club preferring the status of fugitives rather than try to defend the un-defendable, they knew my allegations were concrete solid ,fully backed with their own fingerprints on. At the same time, I notified the TRF about the fraud – the only word that perfectly fits – joining the necessary documentation to backup my allegations to the attention of Meredith Berliew and Collete Martin-Wilde, both Matching Grant supervisors - coordinators and Heather Fosburgh stewardship supervisor all 3 sitting in the RI headquarters in Evanston Illinois.

-At the time of my inquiry not all money was invested in the projects intended, they (Collins and Deo Uy  were asked to provide a foul accounting of the funds received and disclose where the unused money is. Baby Collins replied that they returned to the TRF 4 million pesos. (About 88 thousands US dollars) Not a single proof of it was given to the investigators.
Meanwhile, the TRF ordered Catherine King , a senior Matching Grant supervisor – coordinator for the SE Asia Rotary clubs to investigate my allegations. She cleared the RCT of any wrong doing indicating that the club can reapply for Matching Grants if they wish but when asked to provide information about the whereabouts of the 4 million pesos Collins claim they returned she has never replied.

-From a couple of hundred mails I received I chose two examples of typical comments that reflects quite a few others. Both comments were written by American Rotarians. Does it make any difference?  It sure does. Their pragmatism is very often not well perceived by the rest of the world, especially in the third world because of  lack of sensitivity, understanding of other cultures, unless they spent time there.  “Bill’s” comment below is a typical example. And  “George” wants me to go “right on the money” - so to speak! 

 Here is the first:

“I found your site interesting, especially as a brand new Rotarian. The only thing I’d question, without knowing ANY facts, is how much better would these people have been if the Rotarians had done NOTHING?”
Bill. (Not his real name)

Bill, not many will agree with your approach of doing charity work. If you are cheating with the IRS paying 100 dollars taxes instead of 1000 that your earnings show you owe, should the first be grateful to you that you paid 100 instead of nothing? The issue here is what their motivations were of “helping” the poor, how much money they received and how much they invested. Should we be grateful to them - the persons named above and below- that they are asking for a donation of a dollar to feed a hungry claiming that 97% is making it to the site but instead when you open this bag and count it contains only 20 cents of food? 
 
I have distributed hundreds and know what I’m talking about!..  So, to your opinion (and philosophy) we should applaud them for giving 20 cents instead of the 97% of what they said they were giving?  
 
 

 
He claims here (And in several other documents in my possession) that the administrator's cost is only 2.3%. to pay for his travel expenses and accommodations from Australia to the Philippines 5 times a year, numerous guests from AU, RI officials, board members his ex wife for travel and accommodation expenses all paid by a 2.3% budget from an annual income of $100,00.00 as Derek Pyrah claims here? I’ll leave the answer up to the readers.

-The second mail came from a respected long time Rotarian with a long and honorable record in the org. Let's name him "George" He wrote:

“If it is about money, be specific as to how the money actually flowed, and how it should have flowed. You don't need much more than that”.

Request granted “George”. Even though I have described often of what I’m accusing them let’s do it one more time in simple words, straight to the point. I’am accusing them of the following:

  1. Of defrauding Individuals, Rotarians, Clubs and organizations in Australia and elsewhere in the world  where the VAP leaders Derek Pyrah and Dave Collins mislead donors to contribute by misrepresenting their actions. An example  of this accusation can be seen by clicking here.They instructed donors to deposit money not in a RCT Club controlled bank account but on one they (Collins and treasurer PP Deo Dioscoro) had absolute control, the club having total ignorance of the existence of such account. Remember, Deo Dioscoro is the manager of the MeTRO BANK where the accounts were held. This is just an example. If interested you can read more inside this blog
  2. Of defrauding TRF of thousands of dollars by misrepresenting the use of the MG as follows: Dave Collins did not disclose to the foundation that he was the contractor-builder of all construction projects submitted for financing, instead he claimed that it was a construction company under the name of VALLES CONSTRUCTION in Tagbilaran Bohol that was hired for the job. There isn't such company under this name in the TRADES AND INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT database in Bohol. Here is the document proving my allegation: Click here to see a mail sent to many with the report attached. 


     


    Evan ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.
    Evan ILIADIS - Diaries of a former Rotarian.

I’m asking again George; In virtue of what should  I exclude the fact that all medication purchased  did not reach the destination, free distribution to the poor that is, but instead were diverted to the shelves of his wife’s pharmacy for sale? Baby Collins is best known for her passion of changing her cell-phone weekly making sure she always uses the latest model and her European made wardrobe than her compassion for the poor… No one ever controlled the purchase and even less the destination.

They are claiming: "Oh yes! We have receipts!" What receipts? They are all in the name of her Pharmacy, together of what she buys for her business and for the Rotary. Any one has seen anything? Please, raise your hand…-

-Once I filled a request with my club  for opening an investigation as described above, the President formed an investigative committee to explore the allegations. They agreed with the Collins and PP Dioscoro on a number of meetings for discussion and were ordered to submit to the club the bank accounts “pass books” as they called in the Philippines the saving accounts booklets where all transactions are recorded. (I was wondering why they had not a checking account?). They refused, they disappeared, never attended investigation meetings neither regular meetings. "George, do you know any innocent behaving this way? If my allegations as submitted to the club AND to the RI were driven by malice due to a personal vendetta it would be easy for such powerful people to defeat them right on the start. Instead they felt comfortable under the fugitive’s blanket rather than take the time to explain." 

-The RI and the DG have been informed about the facts long time ago . Their inaction to this matter resulted not only to a "let it go" but encouraged them - the accused- to further accented an already ill and predatory behavior towards the local Rotary community. The RI has read this story here before. Take a look and let me know if this is relevant to the RI or not. 

Evan ILIADIS wrote this.

Rotary should cancel VAP founders' Derek Pytah and Dave Collins membership for unlawful and defamatory actions against another Rotary club. The RCUT. (Rotary Club of Upper Tagbilaran Bohol Philippines).

In Times when the District Governors are instructed by the Rotary to make the creation of new clubs and induction of new members their priority number 1, they were conspiring to derail the chartering of this club by spreading defamatory information about some of the members of the future club. They did it in the most unethical manner and means to discredit them, and they were close to succeed. They offered to sponsor them, in reality they were digging their grave. But thanks to their persistence, fighting, (Link goes to the wayback archive)  support and common sense of the then DG 3860 Evelyn Magno the RCUT survived the coup. Today, 2 years later this club enjoys the full recognition of the people of Bohol and the questionable support of the DG Yumi Espina. Read this, take a look in the photo and be the judge


What was behind this plot? The answer is: Fear, hate and greed. Collins had many reasons to fear the creation of this club composed 100% by Filipinos, relatively of young smen and intellectuals. (As opposed to the RCT where 10 out of 25 members are foreigners.) 

  - Fear of Rotarians who left the Rotary Club of Tagbilaran (after he and Baby worked hard to conspire for their leave, resignation or termination ) was afraid would join the new club and start firing revenge bullets on them. Why they worked for their termination? It was the sentence of every member who asked questions about their activities.  

 -Fear of discovery of the VAP crooked activities on the island. There are experienced engineers among the members of the RCUT. Should their chartering goes through, there will be somehow an interaction between the two only clubs in town. “ Go tell them that a dry toilet as they see it cost 300,000 pesos or 7,000 AU dollars! They will laugh at your face.

-Fear that Derek Pyrah will be forced to a more equitable MG support as he was forced to do with certain clubs in Cebu. “Hey, if you tell your supporters in AU you’re in partnership with district 3860 in the Philippines you better deliver. There are other clubs in the district as well, including the RCUT.  But it was out of the question Collins would collaborate with them. Collins paranoia hit the paroxysm when President Luella Bantol of the RCT not only kept inviting members, she was also visiting the RCUT.

Read the story as it was published at the local press. It tells it all. 


If the they can't find any wrong doing, then, they will have to review their members attitude, policies, morals and interpretation of what misbehavior is all about. Their inaction to this matter-again- was taken for granted by the accused and went out of control by harassing any one on their way. like asking the DG of district 3860 to order the closure of the RCT, If the they can't find any wrong doing, then, they will have to review their members attitude, policies, morals and interpretation of what misbehavior is all about. Their inaction to this matter-again- was taken for granted by the accused and went out of control by harassing any one on their way. like asking the DG of district 3860 to order the closure of the RCT,

When he said NO! they filled Libel charges against the PP Luela Bantol who was President during the events. And get this: Libel laws in the Philippines allow the complainant to file a Criminal or Civil case or both. They chose to file only civil charges asking 500K pesos each of the 3 complainants = about $10K- for damages. A fortune by Philippines cost of living standard. Yes George! right on the money! Do you know any judge in the world that has sentenced a Rotary President of doing her job? Consisting of canceling their membership for non payment of their dues and non attendance to the regular meetings for more than 6 months? Talk about misbehavior.. Harassment! harassment! harassment !... isn't it?


Finally this: This blog goes on now for more than a year, the same, or almost, facts are repeated over and again. Is this serving a purpose anymore? Yes and no. If it's the money aspect George you are more concerned is not an issue anymore, The money is gone, vanished, no one will ever be punished, this blog won't bring it back.After all as I wrote before it was just ....Rotary money... Now it's all about misbehavior. This has caused more harm than the embezzling of the money did.


Time has been kind to Collins. The club did not file any criminal charges against them as it should and they had plenty to go for. Instead, they chose to ignore them, happy to regain control of their club, finally! peace and order prevailed. They were hoping they (Collins) will leave them alone in their difficult task to rebuild club's reputation and expanding membership, they were doing a great job on both areas. Dave Collins, Derek Pyrah,John Van Laar and a few others had a different agenda.


 





City of Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines


Thursday, October 1, 2020

Rotary Club of Tagbilaran. The trial part 1.

Rotary Club of Tagbilaran. The trial part 1. The Price to pay. Our masters' recipe on how to punish a president.

Rotary Club of Tagbilaran. The trial part 1.

The trial part 1.


By Evan Iliadis former Rotarian member of the Rotary Club of Tagbilaran wrote: Rotary Club of Tagbilaran. The trial part 1.

Rotarians and friends, here I am again after a long break sitting back watching on events unfold in Bohol, so unusual and incomprehensible that strikes me as many others aware of the situation, as a masquerade taking place in a court of law in Tagbilaran Bohol Philippines.

Conflicts, misunderstanding rivalry exists within any group of people that gather to achieve a common goal, be a club, a church or a fraternity; usually will end up with the exclusion of one party preserving so the unity of the group, exclusion not always carefully and rightfully planned and executed. The last place you would have expect this to happen is the Rotary International. Is this the first time that happened? We don’t know. Don’t count on Rotary to tell you, neither on active Rotarians. It’s a secret. But this one is not a secret. Just a stupid one you might think? Not at all! It's an intimidation of barbarians, well trained foreigners rotarians against shy, law abide and mistrusting the judicial system Filipino citizens. 

Here is the complaint.





Give me a glass of wine please!

At the center stage of this unusual story are I, Evan Iliadis, former Rotarian member of the Rotary Club of Tagbilaran, Derek Pyrah, chairman of the now defunct VILLAGE AIDE PROGRAM (VAP for short) Dave and Baby Collins managers of the VAP in the Philippines and wannabe bosses of the Rotary club of Tagbilaran. There are some others to be introduced shortly. For those that are new on this blog and want to be familiar with the origin of the conflict they should take a look here 

As I mentioned in the page you just read, I received all kind of mails but I have never mentioned a particular one I was receiving from the beginning by some critics and sympathizers as well. They were accusing me of covering up the Rotary Club of Tagbilaran in my assertion that no one in the club knew about the embezzlement by the Collins and Derek Pyrah of Matching Grants Money and donations. As one put it Evan I don’t know a Rotary Club throughout the world that does not include at least one accountant, a lawyer and a few businessmen familiar with accounting and business practices. Taking a look on the classifications of the members of your club they were all there.” 

Indeed, a very embarrassing remark, nevertheless it comes from some one that has no clue how a typical club functions in the third world particularly the Philippines. This requires a separate topic to explain, it may come in a future update or may be down the road here. But the most embarrassing mail on the subject did not come from a Rotarian but an outsider who followed the events from day one and now follows the court proceedings closely. He does not understand what is taking place, who’s who, wants what and why. Frankly, I have been a bit disturbed by his remarks and questions to me, I feel the need to approach the facts with a touch of honesty as I always did and publicly as I always do. 

Before I reply to this fellow and go over the trial proceedings I owe you un update I promised long ago and for this we need The trial part 1.to revisit the 3860 District conference held in Cebu March 2008 where a jubilating DG Yumi Espina thought that he had accomplished so much during his tenure as governor that he deserved to throw a half Persepolis half Hollywood style party to the district expenses. The Canadian “dream team” he imported for the event was composed by a controversial PDG that came as “the personal envoy of the RI president” another one was the Rotary representative in the UN, two or three others unknown PP and PDG that gained some fame in their home town in Canada for bringing a few used laptops with them –obsolete in Canada dump them to the Philippines - plus of course the local cream of Rotarians and non. 

Abundance of gourmet food and drinks, dancers, parades, men in military uniform forming a sword canopy for the introduction of the big shots, speeches and crocodile tears about the poor and destitute the dream team wowed “to change all that” “Son et lumière” effects and much more. (Let me know if the life of the poor Cebuano has changed ever since)…The event appeared for awhile on the District’s web site with more than 300 photos then disappeared, not even cached pages can be found other than 2 or 3 bad quality clips on YouTube not worth a referral. Oh well… who cares about dream teams any more…

But Derek Pyrah did care and counting on, the dream team that is, for two things: One, put the Rotary club of Tagbilaran (RCT) out of business and let Collins create a new one from scratch, two, had the first fail as being too ambitious and hard to accomplish, pressure the DG Yumi Espina to rehabilitate former Rotarians Dave and Baby Collins and Deo Dioscoro and accommodate them to another club in the district. He worked out a clever plan implemented  as follows: 

He came to the event with his own "dream team" from Australia with PDG Bill Litle and a couple of others bringing with them, in addition to a camera a set of a band drums some rice and cans of sardines and some t-shirts. He opened shop inside the convention exposing the usual dramatic “pitsures” and PP presentations “where people can’t hold their tears “ etc. That’s all? No! he had in his suitcase two Paul Harris Fellow awards bought for Dave and Baby Collins (Remember, he was a Matching Grants trader and as such he had a big discount.) 

The trial part 1.

he was planning to use them as the most powerful weapon thinking that will bring such a confusion when used in the presence of Rotarians coming from about 90 clubs that all my work against the crooks will become obsolete and the RCT will be forced to take a more aggressive attitude against me “let’s kiss each other now and hell to this traitor Evan”

March 14th 2008 they charged the execution for the first step of the conspiracy to John Van-laar Past District Rotary Governor somewhere in Canada. He presented the PHF award bought by Pyrah to David Collins announcing him as a member of the RCT and to Baby Collins as a member of the Rotary club of …Cebu!.. in the presence of many members of the RCT on the DISCON event floor where the ceremony took place. 
 
But the truth is, none of the recipients was a member of the RCT, they deserted it in October of 2007 to avoid answering questions and stripped of their membership in January 2008 as you’ll soon have the opportunity to see the letter of termination. Even worst, how Baby Collins became a member of the Rotary club of Cebu without prior clearance and recommendation of her original club the RCT as required by the Rotary bylaws? They –Collins – say they didn’t know about their termination, didn’t they? Governor Espina didn’t know? If the governor doesn’t know who’s in who’s out in his district who does? Rotarians, trust me, they all knew, but it was in their agenda to pretend not to, in an attempt to ambush the RCT. And it worked. After the award ceremony the“ family photo” was 
The trial part 1.

taken as seen above with the capture published to the VAP web site. I took care immediately to dismantle their plans and lies by updating my web site and tell the world the truth here. But what I have told the world didn’t matter as much as where the RCT should go from here. A big challenge for inexperienced low profile Rotarians living in the third world recipients of Derek Pyrah’s rice and sardines facing a group of predators trained in subtle feathered manipulations and conspiracies in the first world.

Then, the gang put in place part 2 of the conspiracy plan. They brought both "dream teams" to Bohol to "see by themselves how the life on this island has changed thanks to those saviors sent by God to alleviate the misery...." What the poor would have endure without them!

The trial part 1.

 

 Reality is, this wasn't the reason that Pyrah and Collins brought them to Bohol but to demonstrate they were still the bosses deciding over life or death of the RCT sending them a message "submit or die" These high profile Rotarian people will not even say hello to you if you don't kiss their asses and comply with their orders consisting of reinstating the Collins plus - and most important - anathematize in a clear and strong way this traitor Evan ILIADIS who started this war against us. Indeed, they totaly ignored the RCT and even more the other club RCUT. They haven't visited any.

Once the smoke cleared and in the days that followed the attack the gang realized that no harm was done to the RCT as they anticipated. Desperate to capitalize on money and time spent firing bullets on the RCT Collins fired his last misile. Through his lawyer, he served a summon to the DG Yumi Espina asking him to delist the Rotary Club of Tagbilaran based on obscure, unfounded motives. Espina refuged the request, not for sympathy to the Club but for fear to the RI that is struggling to increase the membership and here comes a governor closing a club!... It was now clear to anyone the... evil team's demolition plan did not produce results, therefore going to rest or at least that's what every one thought.

Another glass of wine please!             

 


Posts