By the way, before we start this second part, let me also clarify why I decided to put this series in the "Humor/Satire" section of this online publication. If we do not use a lot of humor in dissecting the anatomy of this Kalayaan fiasco, the topic will break not only our hearts but also our Christian beliefs in forgiveness and resurrection. But our community has to learn from this misfortune, so that our people can never repeat this debacle. We have to charge it to experience, to use an oft-quoted cliché. Revisiting the K-7 story will enable us to complete our decision makers' education on team work and planning.  And at the same time laugh it off, so as to get on with life.

The Fiasco’s Beginning

During the interment in October 2006 of Lee Cummings, a Filipino-American community leader, at the Forest Lawn in Covina, CA, I met the K-7 chairperson. She told me that she was about to incorporate the Kalayaan as the "Kalayaan of Southern California, Inc." (KOSINC). I asked her as to who gave her the mandate. She said that her position gave her the right. Since I was the outgoing Kalayaan 2006 (K-6) chairman, I advised her to call a meeting of all the past Kalayaan chairs (Dr. Carlos P. Manlapaz, Chito Mandap and Lucy Babaran), the Philippine Consulate General (PCG) that actually established the Kalayaan organization and the 2006 Kalayaan volunteers. I reiterated the need to obtain the consent and cooperation of the majority of the Kalayaan past chairs and volunteer corps. Without the group’s consensus, I said that she was about to make more difficult a tough job. I did not realize how prophetic my words were.

The K-7 chair told me later that she would move to hold a trade fair at the Long Beach Convention Center on the weekend closest to June 12th.

^{I advised her not to hold the event on the same date as the Philippine Independence Day (PID) in the City of Carson, which is adjacent to Long Beach. The City of Carson has sponsored a PID since 1977 and it has become a well-attended ethnic festival. It would amount to a socioeconomic suicide to compete with the Carson event.}

^{As the K-6 chair, I actually floated the idea of holding the Grand Ball at the Los Angeles Convention Center and doing a combined travel expo/trade show – if we could obtain support from the City of Los Angeles. But the Los Angeles councilman that I talked to about the idea was not receptive to it. So, our Dream Team shelved the idea. Several K-6 volunteers and I proposed also to do a hybrid of a beauty pageant and a popularity contest but the K-6 volunteers nixed it.}

^{The K-6 volunteer corps was called by Romeo P. Borje as a "Dream Team" in his column in the Weekend Balita newspaper. Mr. Borje, who is the dean of Filipino-American columnists, appreciated my management style of complete decentralization. Micromanagement is not my piece of cake and all my life teamwork is my bottom line. I told people that if the chairperson and members of the different K-6 committees and subcommittees performed as expected, they would look all good. If they looked good, then I would also look good.}

^{Ignoring the K-6 Dream Team}

^{On the other hand, the K-7 chair totally ignored the K-6 Dream Team and she incorporated on her own initiative the KOSCINC. She presented the brand-new California public-benefit corporation to community leaders and the Filipino diplomats in a kick-off ceremony in Cerritos, CA, in November 2006. I was one of the first to object to her moves. She told the gathering that even if nobody would help her, the K-7 events would still be held. To many community leaders, that statement was the height of arrogance. At that meeting, there was much uproar over the KOSCINC and as a compromise, the PCG called a meeting to iron out the issues and rewrite the articles of incorporation and the bylaws. I decided then and there that as a Kalayaan adviser, I would only comment if asked to do so. I said also that unless invited, I would not attend on my own initiative any Kalayaan meeting.}

^{The K-7 chair prepared a memorabilia for the Kalayaan organization to present to Consul General Willy C. Gaa at the farewell reception in San Pedro, CA, on Dec. 1, 2006. The reception was to honor Mr. Gaa, who was already then appointed as the new Philippine ambassador to the United States. Consul Ma. Hellen Barber told her that she could not present it alone, as it was still 2006 and I was still the K-6 chair. Consul Barber arranged for the K-7 chair and this writer to present it together. I thought that she learned a lesson that night of the importance of team work. But did she?}

^{The K-7 chair showed her management style when she organized a Kalayaan Christmas party in December 2006 at the Aristocrat Restaurant in Temple Street in Los Angeles. My K-6 key supporters and I were not invited to it.}

^{I told also myself that I would not write anything critical about the K-7 until the Grand Ball is over. The closest that I did was to write "Hellen of Troika" in this web site. If you have not read it, please just click on this link} http://www.mabuhayradio.com/content/view/33/51/