It’s a throwback to 2006 when a Korean firm did win the bidding for Mimosa and how the members reacted. From my column Free Zone in the long-defunct Pampanga News, June 15-21, 2006:
KIMOSA. The playful pun says it all.
The invasion of the Mimosa Golf and Country Club by hordes upon hordes of Korean tourists – from south of the 38th Parallel we all presume – that began with the first flights of Aseana Airlines to Clark is finally over.
About to begin is the occupation of the Mimosa Golf and Country Club by citizens of the Land of the Morning Calm, NTM Jin Hung having won the bidding for Senor Don Jose Antonio Gonzales’ bank-pawned, CDC sequestered crown jewels.
Ay caramba! Isn’t there an appeal of the Castilian to recoup his estate now pending before the Supreme Court? What if he wins?
No, he won’t win?
Madre de Dios! The CDC Board of Directors has a gift of prophecy, manifest in their awarding Mimosa to NTM Jin Hung. That Antonio Ng and company did not even bother to wait it out shows that they are most certain that there is no sliver of a chance for the Don to reacquire his once enchanted fiefdom.
Sinverguenza! The paisano parian Antonio spiting the heredero Senor Don Antonio! Que pasa? Es verdad, malo esta nuevo orden del mundo.
Indeed, a new world order obtains at Mimosa, again Kimosa, to be more apt. The lamentations of the Mimosa members suffering discrimination – more economic than racial – in their very own turf can make a case for violations of human rights.
A golfer who looks like Mabalacat Vice Mayor Crisostomo Garbo complains of being deprived the services of his favorite caddy girl.
Why? She has reserved herself for Korean golfers. How come? A sober Ninoy Aquino makes a bogey to a smiling Benjamin Franklin on any day at the green. Yes, Garbito, Koreans tip in dollars not in won. As if you did not now.
Ah, this you know, as well as that other guy who is a spitting image of Bernie Cruz.
The common request at the caddy shack by Korean golfers: “I want my caddy last night.” As I have yet to hear of night games in any of the three courses at Mimosa, I can only assume that that referred to a night-before short putt in a nineteenth hole. That is the caddy’s own, dummy.
Under CDC supervision, Mimosa has been ruled by Koreans. Rudely, claimed one local golfer whom I mistook for Tony Mamac.
With NTM Jin Hung in full possession, greater discrimination at, if not a total shut out from the course is no baseless apprehension among the locals.
Thus, the Indios Bravos to the rescue of Filipino pride and honor. Senator Lito Lapid, Angeles Mayor Tarzan Lazatin and Mabalacat Mayor Boking Morales spearheading calls for a probe of allegations of rigging in the Mimosa deal.
The alleged disqualification on mere technicality – fifteen minutes late – of the other bidder, Avenue Asia, an American firm reportedly, smacked of pre-bid preference for the Korean bidder and prejudice against all others? The three officials believed so.
I don’t know how efficacious is Lapid’s proposal of a consortium of local businessmengolfers to lease – not buy, for sheer lack of capital – Mimosa from CDC. I don’t know how the local golfers will take this.
What I do know, hearing it from a great number of them, is that Mimosa has to be taken out of the hands of CDC to save it from further ruination.
“For five years, we have been advocating for the privatization of Mimosa. This is to restore the course to its former glory as one of the best in the Asia-Pacific region, where even the likes of Tiger Woods came to play,” Mamac, the president of Mimosa members, stressed.
He lamented the mismanagement of the course by CDC after it took over from Gonzales owing to the latter’s financial woes with his creditor banks and Pagcor.
“Mimosa served as CDC’s milking cow. The sad thing is CDC did not take it to pasture, so to speak, failing miserably to maintain, much more upgrade it,” Mamac added.
Like other members, he believed that privatization will increase the value of Mimosa shares which at the time of Gonzales rose to as high as P1.5 million per share. Today, according to Mamac, it is down to a low of P200,000.
What if only the Koreans have the
financial means to bail out Mimosa? Pride takes the backseat then, Mamac said.
“So long as our rights as members are upheld.” So there.
Still, the Senator wants his probe. While at it, may we suggest that His Honor expands his investigation to what we see as the creeping Koreanization of Angeles City.
While we have always welcomed foreign investors, there is something different with the Koreans. This is no racial prejudice. But a great many locals have observed that there is little benefit from the Korean invasion here.
Koreans patronize their own. They shop in Korean grocery stores, dine in Korean restaurants, wine in Korean nightclubs, stay in Korean hotels, relax in Korean spas, buy Korean cars. Very soon, they could be importing Korean GROs too. It won’t take long and we shall have a Korean mafia here too.
Ang maghahari-hari dito, kahit na sa krimen pa, dapat Pilipino. Ain’t we proud of ourselves?
Can’t help but feel some sense of déjà vu in the current bid to privatize Mimosa anew.
Can’t help but see the prescience of this column in the current of events at the Korean community in Clark and the city.
