Alabang golf course closed over quarantine violation

MANILA, Philippines — The Muntinlupa City government ordered the closure of the Alabang Country Club’s golf course on Monday after some members allegedly held a golf tournament on Aug. 29.

Mayor Jaime Fresnedi, through city administrator Allan Cachuela, issued a cease and desist order on Sept. 28 to the country club’s general manager Carla Maramara following an investigation.

In the order, the city government said it found that the golf tournament “violated the community quarantine protocols and guidelines set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.”

In another letter to Maramara, Fresnedi said that Interior Secretary Eduardo Año ordered the suspension of the golf course’s operations.

The mayor added that probable cause was also found to warrant the suspension of the golf course’s business permit.

The club’s other facilities would remain open.

The Alabang Country Club Inc., in an earlier statement signed by its chairman Homer Perez, said that the ACCI conducted its own investigation and found that the event, held on Aug. 28 and 29, was “not technically a golf tournament per club guidelines.”

The event was “only a friendly game to celebrate the birthdays of some (Club 515) members falling from April to August,” according to a Sept. 26 statement posted on the ACCI’s website, referring to a sub-group of the country club.