It’s 2012 now and the dream to establish a fully functioning Filipino club in Sydney has taken many twists and turns. One can recall the number of community organisations that continue to pursue the elusive goal.
Recently the relatively new community organisation Australian Filipino Business Workers Club or AFBWC announced the opening of its AFBWC office otherwise known as P-Noy Lounge. It is located in a unit of an existing medium-rise property partly occupied by the serviced apartment Waldorf on 24-28 First Street, Blacktown, opposite the Pacific Medical Centre building.
Although AFBWC has narrower constituents of business people and workers, perhaps renting a building or a piece of property to serve as meeting place is the way to go.
History shows that so much effort and resources had been made by individuals and organisations in acquiring a piece of property, rather than in providing an immediate “club house” or meeting place for community gatherings.
The familiar spiel of many who try to rally the community to acquire a club house is “Why do other migrant nationalities have their own club houses, but not the Filipinos.” Experience seems to show acquiring a piece of real estate has distracted the more realistic need for a community facility. The migrant Filipino dream of owning a house seemed to have mirrored into a community desire to collectively own a piece of property.
A classic experience is that of the Philippine Australian Community Foundation (PACF) which oversees the Philippine Australian Cultural Centre or PACC. PACF was formed out of variety of interests including those of the Filipino Catholic Organisations (FILCOS) across Sydney. They contributed immensely into acquiring the former Philippine Multi-Purpose Centre (MPC) on Abraham St., in Rooty Hill.
For a time MPC in Rooty Hill served small gatherings including birthday celebrations, holding Catholic masses, and the far-in-between receptions of visiting Filipino government officials such as former president Fidel Ramos and then Philippine Senate President Manny Villar.
But the 3-bedroom house, the large and awkward metal shed and the dilapidated rusty steel sheets fencing around were never a scene to be proud of. MPC held a yearly beauty pageant event plus other fund raising functions, but it seemed there were no other source of revenues to develop the property.
A few years ago, overseers of MPC decided to sell the site and moved to an even bigger tract of farm land in Schofield, NSW.
On the site is a 3-bedroom brick veneer house which has been renovated at great length and now serves as venue for MPC activities. MPC has been renamed as Philippine Australian Cultural Centre or PACC.
It cannot be denied, MPC or PACC had been a custodian of a property which had vastly appreciated in value many times over, first at Abraham St. in Rooty Hill and now on Grange Road, Schofield. But many ageing members in the Philippine community are still wondering when they can taste or enjoy the fruits of the dreamt of community club house.
Another organisation, the Filipino Plaza was inaugurated about 10 years ago in a big restaurant gathering in Parramatta, complete with club membership type of fund raising scheme and architectural drawing and plan of the proposed club house. The group even sponsored an ambitious Philippine Fiesta at Sports Centre in Homebush to add to the group’s fund raising activities.
The movement to rally the building of the Filipino club house seemed to have died whilst some Filipino Plaza officials and members continue to meet intermittently in social gatherings.
I have gathered that the new organisation Pilipino Club Australia (PCA) also intends to establish a Filipino club house. The organisation has engaged in a number of initiatives including an amateur singing contest ala “Australian Idol”. Recently, it also spearheaded its own relief assistance appeal for the benefit of typhoon Sendong victims in the Philippines.
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