BIZ BUZZ: To delink or not to delink: Polo Club debate heats up

It wasn’t the choir that they wanted to preach to.

Tempers flared at Manila Polo Club on Monday afternoon as the board of trustees faced a crowd of more than 300 people to discuss the controversial proposal to delink proprietary shares from associate members, or heirs holding memberships attached to proprietary shares.

Another much-criticized proposal is to allow widows and widowers of associate members to apply as “courtesy” members.

It was the first of two town hall meetings (the next one is today) set ahead of the club’s Aug. 27 annual membership meeting, when the matters will be put to a vote alongside the election of the new board of trustees.

READ: BIZ BUZZ: Share tweaking plan stirs Polo Club members

The current board clarified that the proposal to associate members to delink their membership for P2 million—a move that many fear will devalue proprietary shares—is not a fund-raising scheme but just to get the members to vote once and for all on a matter that had already been approved by the membership in 2019.

Nonetheless, the board said prospective proceeds would improve the experience of all members even as they noted that the club is now in a good financial position and would still be able to implement projects in the pipeline even without implementing the delinking plan, an attendee told Biz Buzz.

But one member pointed out during the meeting that the same amount of money could be raised by just selling six new club shares.

Another argued that the delinking would discriminate against proprietary shareholders, as the P2-million proposed fee is even cheaper than the cost of transferring proprietary shares to members’ children.

Although, as another member pointed out, associate memberships cannot be passed on to the heirs.

Some also brought up the issue of trustees with “conflict of interest”—or those with both proprietary and associate memberships. Such trustees were urged to inhibit from the voting on Aug. 27.

Two trustees were identified to have such conflict of interest, one of whom already declared he would indeed inhibit. The other is noted to be the long-time proponent of the delinking plan. There was a suggestion to return the proxies solicited by pro-delinking trustees.

It also appeared that not too many members knew that the delinking plan had been ratified back in 2019.

“An overwhelming no” is how attendees described the overall sentiment on Monday. The more that the board defended the plan, the louder the dissenters became.

At that point, however, all were reminded that the reckoning is on Aug. 27, when the proposals will be put to a vote, and perhaps finally bring the debate to a close. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla

More protection for the whistleblowers

Whistleblowers, who are often put in danger for holding wrongdoers into account, may soon be louder in the corporate world.

This as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Anti-Money Laundering Division partnered with the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to strengthen whistleblower protection policies and fight corruption within companies.

The two agencies recently conducted a technical workshop to help develop a comprehensive protection policy for whistleblowers.

READ: Asian businesses embrace whistleblowing culture

“Whistleblower protection mechanisms play a crucial role in our ongoing battle against corruption and in addressing illegal and unauthorized activities that violate the laws, rules, and regulations overseen by the SEC,” SEC enforcement and investor protection department director Filbert Catalino Flores III said.

The SEC and UNODC, which previously collaborated to improve the disclosure of beneficial ownership data among companies, highlighted the integration of international standards and best practices in whistleblower protection to the local framework.

This can enhance reporting mechanisms and safeguard whistleblower information, they said.

Of course, this is also part of the SEC’s efforts to pluck the country out of the Financial Action Task Force gray list.

Let’s hope that we’ll get to see the results soon. Could this also result in more reports of corruption within companies? Abangan! —Meg J. Adonis