Once, but not anymore. Mimosa Golf at the height of its glory in the days of Jose Antonio Gonzales.
CLARK FREEPORT – “Illegal, inimical and prejudicial not only to the interest of the general membership but of the Mimosa Leisure Estate itself.”
Thus said lawyer Leonor L. Infante, president of the Members of the Mimosa Golf and Country Club Association, Inc. (MMGCCAI), of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and the High Society Leisure and Development Corp. which allows Korean tourists, “even non-golfers, to enter and enjoy the privileges of a regular member” of the Mimosa golf course.
This, even as she threatened to take “more drastic actions” if the CDC continued to ignore their concerns “despite a number of communications and pleadings” addressed to CDC President-CEO Felipe Antonio Remollo.
Infante said despite the failure of High Society Leisure to comply with basic terms and conditions, CDC signed the MOA on July 29, 2011 and ordered its immediate implementation.
Foremost among these “infirmities,” Infante said, was the non-payment of High Society Leisure of the guaranteed deposit of P18 million payabale upon the signing of the MOA.
The violation would have voided the MOA, Infante opined, but instead the CDC even gave High Society Leisure an extension of 30 days and granted its operations in the Mimosa golf courses during that period.
“Ginigisa tayo sa sarili nating mantika (we are being fried in our own lard),” said Infante.
At the end of the extended period, High Society Leisure “merely paid” P3 million guaranteed deposit – much less than the P18 million stipulated in the MOA – but was accepted by the CDC.
Trampled rights
Infante said the MOA “trampled” the rights and privileges of the MMGCCAI, as it opened the Mimosa courses to “hordes of Korean tourists” and even gave them priority over the members.
Totally disregarded, Infante said, was the “exclusive use strictly” by regular members of the Lakeview-Acacia courses.
“The general manager of Mimosa Leisure Estate himself, Atty. Restituto Capulong gave his direct order to the pro-shop staff that priority to High Society tourists be given for the use of the Lakeview-Acacia courses,” Infante said.
“We are not against the increase of tourists here, Koreans or whatever nationalities. What we are after is the protection of the rights of the members and the preservation of the course itself,” she added.
Dick Clark, MMGCCAI vice president internal affairs, lamented the “depths to which the once world-class, five-star course has deteriorated.”
Embarrassment
“In the early days of Mimosa, it gave us much pride to play the course, even greater pride to bring in players. Why, Tiger Woods even played here,” Clark remembered. “Today, it is utter embarrassment to bring in players.”
“Since CDC took over from (Antonio) Gonzales, it has been continuously downhill,” he added.
Clark said that with some 600 players a day – half of the ideal number for course maintenance – Mimosa is “pounded” and deprived of any chance of being rehabilitated.
“The course is so bad that it is almost impossible to play on certain days,” Clark rued.
He complained of cigarette butts “everywhere,” of non-working carts – “out of the 90, 50 are unserviceable” and the daily general disorder at the course – “come at five in the morning and experience its likeness to the Pampang Market.”
“No management, no leadership, the staff are allowed to run the course by themselves, in pursuit of their own interests,” Clark said. “In the process, the rights of the members are totally disregarded.”
Milking cow
“They milk (Mimosa) of as much profit (as they can) but none of it comes back to the course,” Clark claimed.
The reported P110 million profit of Mimosa last year is allegedly “roughly but half of the real money produced from it.”
Allegedly, the MOA has allowed High Society Leisure to pay Mimosa only half of the regular fees for each player it brings in. It charges the player however “more than the regular rates,” in the process getting more profits than Mimosa.
It is likewise claimed that with the scrapping of the guaranteed stay at the Mimosa Villas in the MOA, as much as P60 million in rentals and P20 million in food and beverages were incurred.
Membership woes
“It is the firm stand of MMGCCAI that CDC as the designated caretaker of the Mimosa Leisure Estate, cannot implement new policies or change policies which have been imposed from the beginning specially so that they were the policies imposed by CDC itself,” a printed statement of the association said.
A recent policy of the CDC ordered that “corporate assignees must be limited to the board of directors of the corporate member.”
“What about a corporate member who owns several corporate memberships?” the statement asked. “It was CDC that sold several corporate memberships to one corporate member.
How can the parent corporate member now comply with the new policy that the assignees of these corporate members need be the board of directors of the parent corporate member?”
Golf council
MMGCCAI believed that “huge income can be derived from the operation of the golf courses through some other means.”
This as it demanded the “rescission of the illegal MOA” with High Society Leisure and recommended the revival of the Mimosa Golf Council composed of a CDC representative, the Mimosa general manager and operations manager, the CDC accounting/finance officer, and a representative of the MMGCCAI, which is duly recognized by the CDC as representing the members.
Problems, Infante said, can be easily threshed out in the council.
“We hope Remollo listens or we will be constrained to take more drastic actions,” she said.
