The Malaysians are coming!
WE must state immediately that we are not mounting a hate campaign against Malaysia which is our brother in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. As a matter of fact, we should be grateful about their help in the ongoing peace talks in Mindanao, not to mention our cordial ties despite Sabah.But we should be wary about a few Malaysian investors in the Philippines who may not be as good as the rest of their countrymen on the matter of corporate governance. We are referring to some Malaysians imbedded in the board of the Philippine Racing Club, Inc., (PRCI) which owns and manages the famous racing club bordering the cities of Makati and Manila.
These Malaysians were OK until they thought of setting up a firm, supposedly owned by the PRCI, with a plan to attach the 21-hectare racing club on the basis of sheer majority vote. Ordinarily, that would have been all right, except for one glaring fact seen by the lawyer of the minority and Makati Regional Trial Court: The capitalization of the new firm was only 25 million pesos, compared to the price of the land which now valued in their billions.
The argument of the majority members of the board was that they could do anything—and their act would be proper—because they were the majority. What kind of argument is that? It was just good that a lawyer of the minority, Mr. Brigido Dulay, asked for a temporary restraining order to allow for further discussions on the matter.
It is good that the case has been elevated to the Court of Appeals which will look into the jurisprudence of the case. But I think that on the matter of propriety, we ask the question why cannot the old board handle the development of the racing club if that was the original purpose of creating a new company to modernize the racing club.
We cannot blame the minority for suspecting that this move to create a new firm is a subterfuge by the majority to completely dominate the development of the racing club.
Gusto lang mawala ang minority. Already, there are reports going around the business community that the racing club is another example of a project by an unethical group of Asean businessmen to make profit at the expense of the minority.
We hope that is not true, otherwise the public would suspect that some Malaysians are abusing our hospitality which started at the time we dropped our historical claim to Sabah.
DAR employees against transfer
The employees of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) are against the transfer of its central office to Mindanao. Speaking at the Kapihan sa SulÙ last Saturday, Antonio Pascual said that the transfer would cause untold suffering to the employees.
They have asked the President to reconsider her decision to transfer, made during the last sona speech. It seems that the President wants to focus on Mindanao as far as land distribution and providing of inputs was concerned.
But the employees said that such focus could still happen even without transferring the central office. Pascual said that most of the agencies involved in land transfer and support for land beneficiaries are all based in Manila. DAREA intends to go to the Senate and the House for support.
Gordon against two-party system
If Senate President Manny Villar and Sen. Mar Roxas want to revive the two-party system, possible presidential candidate Sen. Richad Gordon believes in creating a coalition of his own.
Sen. Richard Gordon was viable as a presidential candidate about 15 years ago. In a recent interview, he said: “I will try to mold a popular party coalition for national modernization and renewal from the many parties that have emerged over the past decade…”
Popular party coalition? Sounds like a third party!
