IA Reden Cruz (Class D International Arbiter) is slowing down the progress of chess in the Philippines. In the United States, the process of getting a National Arbiter license is very simple. You request to take the National Arbiter license examination. When you pass the exam, you pay the National Arbiter license fee, and you will then be listed in FIDE as a licensed National Arbiter. In the Philippines, you have to attend the same National Arbiter seminar three times, all conducted by IA Reden Cruz, before you are allowed to pay for the National Arbiter license fee to the National Chess Federation of the Philippines. On your first National Arbiter seminar, you get a "Club Arbiter" license. On your second one, you get a "Regional Arbiter" license. Of course, these licenses are not recognized by FIDE and do not allow an arbiter to run a FIDE-rated tournament. FIDE only allows licensed National Arbiters, FIDE Arbiters, and International Arbiters to run FIDE-rated tournaments. In other words, Club Arbiter and Regional Arbiter licenses are not really licenses as they do not allow you to run FIDE-rated tournaments. They are simply make-believe licenses. But the catch is that these make-believe licenses are not free. You have to pay Reden Cruz a seminar fee every time you attend his seminar. If the National Chess Federation of the Philippines is promoting FIDE-rated tournaments, Reden Cruz is surely not helping the program. Surely, he is making a lot of money from the National Arbiter seminars, but many chess clubs in the Philippines are still not able to run FIDE-rated tournaments because many of their arbiters are still at the mercy of him and are not able to get a National Arbiter license even after attending the National Arbiter seminar and passing the National Arbiter examination. Now Reden Cruz is replacing IA IO Casto Abundo (Class A International Arbiter & International Organizer) as the Rating Officer of NCFP. He will surely make it even harder for organizers to run FIDE-rated tournaments just as he has made it extremely hard (almost impossible) to get a National Arbiter license. This is something that every Filipino with a passion for chess should care about. Therefore, to prevent Reden Cruz from further wreaking havoc on the Philippine chess community, he should be removed as the PACC president and not be allowed to hold any board or management positions of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines.