Knights of Rizal Canada
Editorial
IS QUIAMBAO BEHIND IT ALL?
It would seem on the surface that everything in the Order is under control. As a matter of fact we are being led to believe that despite the delay in the revision process of the By-Laws, at least we are moving in the right direction. This is deceptive because the irony is that it does seem that much of the affairs of the Order is under control - the control of one man. And that man is definitely not Sir Jose D. Lina Jr. for he himself, we believe, is under (the) control.
True, the public fight amongst the three factions ended peacefully - but not without a winner. When the cohorts of Sirs David and Gempesaw declined the position of Supreme Commander right after their election to the United Factions' Supreme Council (UFSC), the representative of Sir Esguerra took the helm. Sir Lina seemed at the time the perfect personality to lead the organization back on the road to respectability. Until the appointments debacle. It opened a can of worms and revealed an agenda one would not have otherwise suspected.
The ugly reality is that while the hierarchal lines of Palmon-David and Torres-Gempesaw have been effectively cut off, the line of Quiambao-Esguerra has flourished with offsprings in Lina-Collantes (and New Appointees) and they are in complete control of the International Headquarters and its foreign extensions. In Canada for example, Quiambao's henchman Collantes is gung ho in initiating new Knights and creating new chapters all over the place and calling the shots while claiming he is just number two and subservient to Sir Emiliano Silverio who is the UFSC's Regional Commander. People often ask, "who are they fooling?" The elderly and almost reluctant Sir Silverio is clearly an innocent accessory to the obvious machinations of parties now known.
Years ago Sir Quiambao created the position of Special Assistant to the Supreme Commander. It was created to accommodate Collantes who from the beginning acted and actually claimed to be the alter ego of his boss in Manila, whoever the incumbent happened to be at the time. Now that Collantes is a Deputy Regional Commander of the UFSC, the controversial Special Assistant position has been scrapped. But not before the sacking of Regional Commanders who were identified with Sir Gempesaw and Sir David. Commanders like Sir Roger Alama of the U.S., Sir Klaus Hartung of Europe and Sir Lapulapu Cana of Canada.
So, what is going on? The answer is simple. We think Quiambao is calling the shots. The letter "to all Knights" from Sir Lina dated August 13, 2005 was not a letter of Sir Lina at all. It was a letter containing an article "A Clear and Present Mandate" which was clearly written for Lina to quote and distribute. We suspect it originated from Quiambao and his group. The abrupt and unceremonious re-organization by Sir Lina of Regional Commanders was also not Lina's own making. It was part of Quiambao's ploy to entrench his people in anticipation of the 2006 election of a new Board of Directors/Supreme Council. Part of this ploy is to make way for Collantes to garner a seat in the Supreme Council, a new post being engineered in the so-called Amended By-Laws.
As if that were not sufficient evidence, when the Scarborough Knights issued their Manifesto of 9/11, no less than Quiambao himself called Sir Jose Faminial (adviser/founder of the Scarborough Chapter) in order to threaten and harass the members into retraction and submission. That pressure is still being applied relentlessly today. This too, is part of the ugly reality. The ugly reality that the cancerous Philippine-style politics is alive and well - within the Order of the Knights of Rizal. It must come to an end. Somehow and soon.
Copyright 2005 Knights of Rizal Scarborough, Ontario, Canada
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