Winds of change blowing at Wack Wack

MANILA, Philippines - The winds of change are blowing at the sometimes controversial Wack Wack Golf & Country Club in Mandaluyong City.

At elections for the 80-year-old club’s board of directors four days before President Benigno Aquino III took his oath, Aquino supporter Philip Juico took the top spot, dislodging former Commission on Elections chief Benjamin Abalos.

Juico served as secretary of agrarian reform under the late President Corazon Aquino and chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission under President Fidel Ramos. Juico writes a column in the Sports section of The STAR.

Abalos was former mayor of Mandaluyong and is a known ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel or Mike. He owns the hamburger concession at the club’s driving range called Ben’s Burjer. 

Four others from Juico’s slate were also elected directors, giving them the majority and control of club administration. Taking the third to sixth slots were La Paz Holdings’ Federico Campos, Manly Plastics’ Virgilio Co, Philip Tuazon, son of Ambassador to the Holy See Mercy Tuazon, and stockbroker Eddie Gobing.

Completing the nine-man board were Abalos supporters Tan She Ling of Ever Engraving, car dealer Pablo Soon and businessman Tommy Tan.They are yet to meet to elect the officers of the club, but Juico, having gained the most number of votes, is expected to become president.

Abalos, who is still called “Chairman” around the club, was president when the NBN (national broadband network)-ZTE scandal broke out and he was implicated in anomalies ranging from brokering the overpriced deal to offering then National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) head Romulo Neri a P200-million bribe – the infamous “May 200 ka dito, sec” – during a golf game in the club’s East Course.

Amid the controversy, Abalos gave up the presidency, and Luis Tan took over.

Abalos and Neri were both recently charged before the Sandiganbayan for violating anti-graft laws and ordered arrested, but both have posted bail.

It was supposedly at the club’s dining area where Abalos and Mike Arroyo met with Joey de Venecia III about the NBN-ZTE deal, at which meeting Arroyo reportedly told De Venecia, who was also bidding for the NBN contract, to “back off.”

The parallelism with the changing political colors on the national scene was not lost on club members and observers. One member noted that the normally ebullient Abalos was quite subdued and seen eating by himself after the votes were tabulated.

But Abalos may yet have the last laugh. On June 28, the day after the club elections, the City of Mandaluyong, whose mayor is Benhur Abalos, son of the disgraced Abalos, slapped the club with a P33-million assessment in connection with the recently completed renovation of the famed championship East Course.