Minutes of the PhilRES Membership Business Meeting, November 12, 2017, Waterfront Hotel, Cebu City

1. The Business Meeting was part of the program for the Second National Convention of the Philippine Institute of Real Estate Service Practitioners held on November 11-12, 2017, at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City, with the PhilRES Mandaue Chapter as the convention host. The business meeting itself was held towards the end of the convention program proper on November 12.

2. The Business Meeting was called to order by National President Rodolfo G. Valencia (RGV) at 5:30 p.m. In attendance were more than 300 PhilRES members who were all duly registered delegates at the national convention.

3. President RGV delivered his opening remarks to the delegates, during which he briefly recalled significant events and developments in PhilRES from the time he assumed the national presidency in September, 2013. A copy of RGV’s opening remarks is hereby attached and made part of these minutes.

4. After his opening remarks, President RGV stated that PhilRES should prepare for its national elections that would select a new national directorate. For this purpose, he asked that the general membership represented in this assembly by more than 300 delegates in good standing ratify the Amended PhilRES Bylaws so that its provisions could properly and legally guide the conduct of the proposed national elections.

RGV explained that when he assumed the national presidency at the behest of the interim national directorate he realized that part of the problems being experienced by PhilRES with other associations of real service practitioners and with the regulatory agencies, particularly the PRBRES, was due to the lengthy and complicated PhilRES bylaws that were difficult to understand and apply and contained provisions that invited opposition and disharmony with the other real estate service organizations. The PRBRES that had initially approved said bylaws advised PhilRES almost immediately afterwards to make the necessary amendments to the bylaws in order to make these easy to read, understand, and apply by the thousands of members that were being admitted into the PhilRES by virtue of its status as the AIPO.

Thus, RGV said, one of the first things he proposed to do was the amendment of the PhilRES bylaws. He organized a Committee to Amend the Bylaws which worked for close to 10 months, in close consultation with legal advisers and representatives of the other kindred real estate service organizations. The result was the Amended Bylaws that were officially presented to the National Directorate for its approval. These amended bylaws substantially reduced the number of articles and sections in the original bylaws. From the kilometric 39 Articles and 149 Sections, the amended bylaws were reduced to 10 Articles and 58 Sections. These amended bylaws were approved by the National Directorate on September 3, 2014.

Unfortunately, attempts to convene a general assembly to ratify the approved amended bylaws proved difficult. The first national convention in September 2015, with close to 1,000 delegates in attendance, could have been a good opportunity to obtain such ratification. The national directorate, however, desisted from doing so because, by that time, the PRC had initiated certain moves to effect reconciliation and harmony between PhilRES and the other organizations that opposed the status of PhilRES as the AIPO. These PRC initiatives had the potential of altering some of the prevailing policies and practices of PhilRES and, possibly, its bylaws.  Thus, the plan to have the amended bylaws ratified was temporarily put on hold in order to give way to the PRC initiatives.

Regretfully, however, the obdurate opposition of some of the adversaries of the PhilRES proved difficult even for the PRC to temper or overcome after many months of trying to do so. In the end, the PRC initiatives were scuttled and the decision was to leave the real estate service profession indefinitely without an AIPO and just wait for the Supreme Court to decide on the case/s filed before it by the oppositors, with both the PRC, PRBRES, and the PhilRES as respondents, on the matter of whether the AIPO should be an organization of natural persons or of juridical entities or both.

5. President RGV then called on the PhilRES Executive Director to present the amended bylaws in detail to the general assembly for their clear understanding and enlightenment prior to seeking their ratification.

6. A delegate, Mr. Enrico Sevilla, a former president of the PhilRES Quezon City chapter and vice-chairman of the PhilRES national directorate, who had taken part in crafting the original PhilRES bylaws, stood up to oppose the instruction of President RGV. He moved to reject outright and terminate any discussion on the amended bylaws on the ground that the existing bylaws were adequate and did not need to be amended. After some discussion on the floor, Mr. Sevilla was prevailed upon to at least allow the reading of the amended bylaws for the information and enlightenment of the general assembly, particularly since it is not often nor easy to gather an assembly of this size and representation.

7. The executive director, therefore, read the amended bylaws verbatim from start to finish as the general assembly listened intently.

8. When the presentation of the amended bylaws was finished, President RGV proceeded to call for a vote for ratification. The question of quorum was raised by PhilRES director Hilario Escudero. This was promptly responded to by the convention chairman and past president of the PhilRES Mandaue chapter who read out the number of duly registered delegates and PhilRES members in good standing and certified the existence of a quorum.

9. Mr. Sevilla reiterated his original motion to reject outright the ratification of the amended bylaws and terminate any further discussion on the matter. He, however, admitted that should his motion be defeated, it would automatically imply the favorable approval of the ratification of said bylaws

10. President RGV, therefore, called for a division of the house. Only four delegates, including Mr. Sevilla, voted in favor of his motion. The rest of the more than 300 delegates voted against the motion and, thus, in favor of ratification.

11. President RGV declared the amended bylaws duly ratified by an overwhelming majority. There being no other business, the general assembly was adjourned before 8:00 p.m.