Golf Rules

All generalizations are bad, including this one.

What with all the Chinoy-bashing provoked by Stanley Ho and his Chinese-Filipino allies (one reputedly a member of Erap's midnight barkada) that caveat about generalizations ought to be kept in mind lest some of us Pinoys get the notion that all Chinese are a baleful presence in this country and in the world.

Only idiots would think that, of course. Why, if Adam and Eve were Chinese, we'd still be living in Paradise: they would have eaten the snake and sold the apple.

As for organized gambling, I'm not against it, although I'm not a betting man myself. Banning it has merely corrupted the police and enriched the politicians. Since gambling can't be stopped, we had better regulate and tax it - the way we do in the case of alcoholic drinks and tobacco - and thus raise much-needed revenue for hospitals and schools. (People who hate paying taxes do not seem to mind when the government takes a big chunk out of their gambling peso, perhaps seeing it as a small price for permission to indulge themselves.)

Having said that, I'm nevertheless all for the investigation into alleged trickery in the trading of Best World Resources stock. If indeed fast operators broke the SEC's rules, however, let's prove their guilt in a court of law, not in our stupid dailies. Moreover, let's not shed a tear for those who lost a tidy sum riding the BW roller coaster: they gambled and lost. Simple as that.

Stock market players know prices are boosted up or dragged down by people's hopes and fears. Hence, they try to anticipate these mood-swings in order to profit by them. But speculators don't really mind how or why a stock's market value seesaws up or down, often without much relation to its true worth; they are keen about one thing and one thing only: to buy low and sell high. Who cares if the price is merely being buoyed up by baseless expectations? Not the speculator (which is just another word for "gambler"). All he cares about is timing his moves so he can unload his shares before they begin their downward slide. The gambler, in fact, gets his kicks - his psychic thrills - by assuming great risks in hopes of making a killing.

Now let me tell you about my Chinese-Filipino buddy, one I've been playing golf with for 35 years, who got his "thrilla in Manila" betting on BW shares. This guy surely knows the difference between investing and speculating (it's rather like a love affair vs a quickie). When Southwoods was being constructed, he dissuaded me from paying a million pesos for its stock on the grounds that nearby Sta. Elena made a better buy at roughly the same price, pointing out that the people behind the latter had superior funding and would not have to dilute the stock's value by selling too many proprietary shares to finance the project. My pal was right: in the ups and downs of the golf-share market, Sta. Elena stock has consistently out-performed Southwoods.

But with Best World Resources, eyes wide open, this same Chinoy friend hopped aboard for the wild ride...and crashed in flames. His timing was off. He bought in - just before the stock began its murderous dive. Got his kicks all right. And now he's kicking himself. (Reminds me of my maternal grandpa Fidel Reyes of Vigan, who got too greedy for even more profit during the 1930s mining boom and held on too long to his mining shares; but I'll spare you the sad details.)

Nothing reveals a man's true character faster than a game of golf. For that reason, I know Chairman Jun Yasay of the Securities and Exchange Commission to be a straight arrow. Once, Yasay's approach to the island-green at Southwoods first hit the green then fell in the water hazard on the left side. It was the kind of puzzling situation where most golfers might make a wrong drop in good faith; a fellow player wanted to know if this was the case. Before publishing my answer, though, I faxed Yasay a copy, for any corrections (a practice I follow when the query does not come from the player involved) half-expecting to hear him say, "Please omit my name," as some golfers do when confronted with an adverse ruling. But Yasay did nothing of the sort. Neither would he suggest any changes, saying that he couldn't have put it better himself.

Trust Jun Yasay to be fair in the BW case: he is an honest man, unafraid of the truth.

Q. [from Arsenic Laurel, Manila Golf Club] How do you decide whether a ball at rest on a steep slope was moved by the player's practice swing or by gravity and the wind?

A. Questions of fact are often harder to decide than questions of law. In such cases, the Committee would also interview other players, their caddies, even spectators, and then rule according to its best lights. Your lolo, Justice Jose P. Laurel of the Supreme Court, acquitted Ferdinand Marcos of murder because he doubted a purported eyewitness's truthfulness although Louie Cruz's lolo, Judge Roman Cruz, Sr. of the Court of First Instance, had earlier adjudged Marcos guilty. But such is frail human justice: to be dispensed as best we can.

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