The Valley ‘Golf War’: After the Smoke has Cleared

Now, it can be told with lesser obscurity, who’s who and who’s probably talking with more sense, after the smoke has cleared over the Valley ‘golf war’ or brawl between the Dela Paz and Pangandaman groups. It pays to be impassionate and impartial over the issue and to wait for the impurities in the water after they had settled down to the bottom. Consider these news clippings:

The “golf war” isn’t by any measure over, but the initial inquiry indicated it wasn’t a case of arrogance of power, but a display of hubris.

The board of directors of Valley Golf and Country Club over the weekend cracked the whip on businessman Delfin de la Paz, deciding unanimously after an investigation to expel him as a member for “disorderly conduct in instigating the brawl” a day after Christmas on the rolling course in Antipolo City.

De la Paz’s children Bambee, 18, and Bino, 14, as dependents of an expelled member, were prohibited from the course. Bino, 14, is a member of the Philippine junior golf team, while Bambee is a golf scholar at University of Cincinnati in the United States.

And who started it all? The findings of the Board says it all and sundry..

“The board agreed that the statements of the witnesses established that Mr. De la Paz started the aggression by hitting Nasser Pagandaman Jr. with an umbrella,” according to the decision by the nine-member body.

“Mr. De la Paz’s conduct was the proximate cause and the spark of the fighting that ensued wherein Nasser and Mohammed Hussein Pangandaman retaliated against Mr. De la Paz,” it said.

The Pangandamans had sought permission from the golf marshall and informed the Dela Paz family..

The Pangandamans claimed in their statements that the mayor, although he arrived late, had pre-registered and was simply catching up with the group; that permission had been sought from the marshal and that De la Paz had been informed.

Now, who is a little bit more arrogant..

In spite of this, the Pangandamans said the De la Paz flight fired golf balls in their direction on the fairway without shouting “fore,” endangering an 8-year-old child in their group and triggering the brawl on a tee and in the clubhouse.

And with this one (below), it will naturally alert the security escorts of the Pangandamans..

Other members of the De la Paz family—reportedly the wife armed with a knife and a burly person carrying a baseball bat—attempted to join the fray that also involved armed bodyguards of the Pangandamans.

“If not for the timely intervention of the club’s security personnel and officers and other persons, the situation may have resulted in further violence and injuries,” the board said in its ruling.
Pangandaman Senior said the club ruling was “a vindication.”

It was unfortunate that Bambee’s account of the incident in her blog was probably the only source widely used by media writers and bloggers to justify their own ‘indignation’ to the point of maligning the Pangandamans.

Now, if you can’t do justice to this issue, you can help, at least, by ceasing and desisting to throw more fuel into the fire. Or, if you have to write about it, it is etiquette 101, or more appropriately.. a concern of journalism ethical standard, for media writers and bloggers to consider both sides of the story and delve on it from a balanced perspective.