r3roble

Peace roams throughout the subdivision; there were few misunderstandings but harmony kept us together. For the last 3 years (since Aug 2010) that I and my family lived within the walls of my house, it was quite, bright and pleasant. Officers come and go without much ado, and documentations are handled well including turn-overs. There was once instance that I could remember wherein one officer has a problem with association funds. The solution until now may have been stumbled into the mist but the officer admitted what he has done and accepted his mistake. A rare conduct now-a-days but don’t get me wrong for the admiration because for me it’s not a good example either.

I have not been active from the start. I let my loving wife represent us in the association meetings and activities. She was active and at one point became a secretary. I supported her effort and help in some ways I can until we decided that she should resign because the one rule that we agreed for her to accept the position has been broken. The rule was: Family first. If responsibilities with the association clashed with responsibilities at home, no second thought as to what will come first but the family. We are in a culture that we value family a lot and I intend to keep it that way.

I cannot clearly remember when exactly the friction sparked but in my observation, it started with the resignation of our president early this year which placed the vice on top. Personally, I don’t know him. I’m not in any position to judge a person without knowing him/her and I also don’t have the tendency to know every person I met. I always kept a few and trustworthy circle of friends and that circle expand so little over the year. The intent to be an active member grew stronger for most of us who knew we can be of help due our corporate experiences. At one point associations are under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and since my experience has involved me with SEC, I have quite a picture of the corporate world. With the approval of Republic Act 9904: Magna Carta for Homeowners Association last Jan 7, 2010, associations are now under the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB). I don’t know what event started first, whether the resignation of the president or the turn-over of Pro-homes Development Inc. (PDI) to our association the monthly dues and water facilities funds but these events are the right ingredients that when mixed, just by shaking even without stirring, boils up to a few degrees that our members monthly meeting (now-a-days) must have a presence of a police officer and/or few “tanods”.

I felt ashamed with this meeting set-up as we are neighbors, we are in one community and we should be united. You might ask, what’s with “the placing of the vice as the president” and “the turn-over from PDI” got to do with all of this? Those actions are in the right course. In my opinion, I would say that’s because it involves a large amount of money and the one entrusted doesn’t know how to do things if it involves money that many people owns.

So it’s all about the money then. As an accountant for quite some time, I would say “Yes” it’s all about the money. Nobody will question you if you spend your money on anything you want but if you spend somebody’s money the problem arises. Members own the funds of the association and we as members have the right to know the what, where, when, why and how it was spend. Most of the questions were answered but the most important of all was not and continues to evade. Let me site an example:

What – Office construction project
Where – At the back of the multi-purpose hall
When – Immediately
Why – Because the association needs to have an office
How – Prepare construction stuffs, budget, board resolution, bidding and etc. After all documentary requirements are satisfied, construction starts then ends with turn-over/delivery of the project and the full payment.

Most of the people will stop with the Why and will neglect the How. The “How” is the most important question of all since this is the question where lots of answers are needed and therefore the most tiresome one. As a valid association under HLURB, we have By-laws to guide us. But in their case, it was deliberately not followed and justified that the act was right. Most people again would enforce that the important thing is the What, Where, When and Why were all satisfied and for them it’s enough. If that is your stand then I’m not in line with you my friend. The means does not justify the end. The office was constructed spending 267% of what has been agreed even without consulting the members thru a special meeting, without a board resolution, without bidding and other documentary requirements. More projects were realized with the same set-up and he just wants all the members to take it all in like little children. Projects like improvement of the entrance, streets and honorariums (even though honorariums are only for officers who are not a member of the board).

I begin to wonder why and I could not fathom it because I don’t know the person and do not bother knowing him. Then I heard two of his officers mentioned what he was like. They praised him except for him being impulsive and “gastador” (extravagant). With these two words, a light bulb shines. Impulsive and extravagant is the right combination to create chaos in the area where finance is concentrated.

Since these problems blows up near the annual meeting which is also the time for election, nobody did made a formal complaint and just wait for the election to take place. The manner of election is again contrary to our By-laws which should only elect 7 BOD. There were also some requirements and qualifications that were not met for the election to pushed thru. Some of the examples are: masterlist of voters has not been verified if they are all qualified to vote, many of the members who ran failed to pay three months or more of their monthly dues and members who are lessee failed to submit lease contracts proving that they are a long term lessee to be able to become a valid member. We elected the complete set and to our surprise he won with flying colors. What happens is really a mirror of the kind of election our country has. I’m not saying this because I also ran certain position and lost but because it’s really what is happening. That it’s a popularity contest, it’s not what you know but whom you know and intelligent voters are just a minority in this country. I would also like to mention that I’m so ashamed of myself for being a privy to the election which is irregular as it contradicts our By-laws.

Only the election takes place on that day even if the schedule is supposed to be also our annual meeting per our By-laws. We waited for them to inform us when the annual meeting will be scheduled but in vain. Finally it was tentatively scheduled last August 31 but did not pushed thru. There was no explanation why. But the set-up (“how” question) continues and since the majority of the board doesn't have a voice of their own, board resolutions are sprouting to favor his additional projects and still neglect to present it to the members. He has the tendency to wash his hands and blame the occurrences to the Board. You will always hear him quoting “That’s approved by the Board” when in fact we all know that he command majority of the Board.

The schedule of the annual meeting is simply slipping and going down the drain as one month already passed. However I was surprised to see that few members has the initiative to route a petition requesting the President to call for a meeting. They even took the liberty of going to HLURB to submit a copy of the petition. Wow, here I am keeping all of these to myself and there are some people who cannot contain it anymore and exercise their right. That’s a very honorable thing to do. Maybe because it took time to route and get signatures required they only submitted the petition to the President a day before the scheduled meeting. The petition was immediately denied by the Board as our By-laws require five (5) days’ notice to inform the members of the said meeting and further mentioned that the annual meeting will be scheduled 2 weeks later. It took them a week to gather 115 signatures; I personally think it’s enough information dissemination for those interested members to attend the meeting.

Even with the letter denying the request, members including myself went to the meeting area. We waited for an hour and a half for the Board and the Officers to show up, but to no avail except for the minority board and in behalf of those who did not show up, she reiterated what was in the letter. We stayed for a little while agreeing the best course of action. After which, we all went home and hope for the best.