Knights of Rizal Members Horrified Over Fund Misuse

Members and foreign chapters of the prestigious Knights of Rizal, an organization meant to showcase the teachings of national hero Jose Rizal, have been horrified over the misuse of funds in the organization that is seen to run into millions.

The board of KoR's action on the withdrawal of the case for qualified theft against Fernandez is now raising howls of protest from the members who want to get to the bottom of the issues surrounding the case.:

The financial shenanigans that were uncovered during an audit by KoR Supreme Auditor, Danilo C. Peralta, revealed the discovery of an initial P1.5 million in deposits made to the personal account of a KoR officer.

That officer, Maureen Fernandez, was found in the audit report to have misappropriated the funds of the Knights of Rizal.

She was later sued for qualified theft, but subsequent actions by the board of trustees have raised questions from many of the members, especially those from foreign chapters.

According to Nasser Sharief, the board of KoR's action on the withdrawal of the case for qualified theft against Fernandez is now raising howls of protest from the members who want to get to the bottom of the issues surrounding the case.

During the case hearings, Fernandez had already sought the application of her separation pay for the funds that were deemed misappropriated, a key point in the controversy that has now embroiled many foreign members of the KoR.

Aside from the misappropriation of funds, the audit by Peralta showed the "rerouting" of funds for the Knights of Rizal to personal accounts of officers, as well as the use of organization money for purposes other than what they were intended for.

For instance, the earnings of the organization from its properties were not duly accounted for, with findings that even the real estate taxes were not paid. These issues are expected to embroil the present officials of the KoR, according to members.

The report by Peralta provided disconcerting issues for the Knights of Rizal, according to Sharief, secretary-general of the Southeast Asian Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who had earlier reported on the disturbing number of chapters in Angono, Rizal that were created.

Members of the Knights of Rizal are asking why the case for qualified theft was dismissed as they asked: “Are there officials in cahoots with the actions of Fernandez?”

For starters, the members of the KoR are asking how the funds were misappropriated to such a point that Fernandez was even allowed to have the membership fees deposited to her account.

Aside from this, there were members who said that they were told to send funds to GCash accounts, one of the questionable organization activities that are now being scrutinized by disgruntled members.

The audit showed an incredulously small amount remaining in the KoR’s bank account. Also, the members were confounded by the amount of unpaid bills when the organization was supposed to report surplus funds.

Another aspect of the financial shenanigans involves the amount of membership fees that have been collected and the earnings from the KoR souvenir items that members buy.

In the Peralta audit report, it was learned that “The balance of the Metrobank Administration Bank Account, operating fund of the KoR as of April 30, 2022, as per the bank statement showed a depleted balance of PhP13,026.00 (unadjusted audit per books is Php42,918.00) excluding Trust Funds and Receivables with cheques outstanding not yet released amounting to PhP582k due to insufficient funds, many outstanding payables to include unpaid almost Php 2.2M real property taxes.”

Peralta also found that there were no Annual Income Tax Returns and Audited Financial Statements for the years 2019 to 2021 available and on file with KoR Headquarters.

The Supreme Auditor’s Report also disclosed that the building's monthly rentals are sufficient to fund the administrative and operating expenses of the KoR. However, these cannot be accounted for.

In the past years, many substantial lifetime membership fees, donations, member and chapter fees and dues, net knighting event receipts, merchandise, and other income or receipts of KoR projects were realized.

However, these were apparently missing, as per the audit report.

The KoR members are now clamoring and asking where they are and why the balance of the organization’s bank Administrative account had been depleted to just Php 13,026.00.

Members believe that it will be a bad precedent for the KoR and not good for the members and the public to tolerate and not pursue the case, which involves gross dishonesty and breach of trust, which are against Rizalian teachings, values, and virtues.

The members are also questioning the basis for the Resolution of the new officials of Knights of Rizal to withdraw the Maureen Qualified Theft Case as it is inimical to the best interests of the KoR on the following grounds:

• The resolution was not approved by the Council of Elders (COE) which, jointly with the Supreme Council (SC), decided the filing of the cases against Maureen and another officer.

• It was not discussed and did not have the consent of the victim chapters of the Maureen qualified theft of funds, which are the KoR Eastern Visayas Region (EVR), Nueva Vizcaya Region (NVR), and Binondo Chapter (BC).

Another issue is the non-consultation of former trustee and Supreme Auditor Danilo Peralta, who diligently went through the books and discovered the financial shenanigans that led to the filing and the decision of the prosecutor that there is a case for qualified theft against Fernandez that can stand in court.