In what must have been the most attended membership meeting at Manila Polo Club, the members voted last August 27 against the “de-linking” of associate memberships. It was an overwhelming victory—1,077 against, 45 for, or 93.37% of the votes cast—in what became a contentious issue the past weeks involving what is arguably the most prestigious and historic membership club in the country.
“Many observed how they had rarely seen any membership meetings in the past as well attended as this year!” a club member told TheDiarist.ph.
“In both town hall meetings and through the final vote over what had become a contentious issue, the members made their voices heard, loud and clear!
In the end, it was great to see the MPC community come together to protect the club. This recent experience will hopefully encourage the community to get more involved and work together more closely moving forward,” the member added.
That was the more diplomatic and civil reaction, on one hand. And on the other, TheDiarist.ph got wind of a more guttural and sock-it-to-them reaction from another member: “It’s a battle between the greedy and the sharp proprietary members who remain sharp at their age. Hindi kami papatalo sa mga batang may ulterior motive,” said another member, obviously in his senior years and thus had the right to sound ageist.
What was this de-linking about? Many members weren’t even aware of it until it made noise in the media, notably in Bilyonaryo.
In the late ‘90s, MPC issued associate memberships to children of proprietary-share members for roughly Php300,000, attached to the principal member and bearing the right to use club facilities. It was done by MPC ostensibly to raise funds. The associate membership rights go when the proprietary share is sold. This recent controversy arose when the MPC board proposed to de-link the associate share from the principal share, thereby giving its holder (or the family), in effect, the continuous right to keep using the club facilities even in the event that the proprietary share is sold. MPC proprietary share is now worth at least Php60million. The “antis” contended that this would result in a “dilutive effect” on the value of shares. “It’s also unfair to us current proprietary members because we paid good money for ours,” went a Viber comment in the group chat.
The background and explanation in the group chat before the Aug. 27, 2024 vote:
“1) The reason why the Polo share price is now ₱60M in the papers, but buyers have bought at 80M pesos is because of its scarcity, which also allows us to be selective in admitting members. The effect of this proposal, if approved, is that the market will be potentially flooded with 297 proprietary shares which CAN be sold because there is no need to hold on to them once the Associate Member share (AM) is de-linked. This will cause the share price to tank.
“2) Why give 297 people the privilege of monetizing their main shares at ₱60M while allowing their heirs, who paid only ₱300k to continue enjoying use of the club, while the rest of us who paid a lot more than ₱300k can’t monetize the ₱60M value without giving up the use of club facilities?
“This proposal selectively benefits 10% of the members, while the 90% have to hold on to their shares.
“3). The AMs were issued cheaply because it was argued the Club needed to raise money at that time and the AM shares had a limited life. They were never issued again because it was generally agreed that the AM program was a mistake. But it was tolerated because the AMs were going to expire at some point.
“Now they are proposing to EXTEND THE LIFE of these shares at an egregiously disadvantageous price to the other members, not just in the lifetime of the AM, but of their spouse!”
After all that’s been said and done, it is now, as they say, all’s well that ends well. Or, all’s well that (money) counts well.
