Meralco stockholder meeting

Since I am already retired or rather resigned from work, for the first time, I decided to attend the Meralco stockholder meeting this year. First I called up meralco to inquire if my stock share however small will enable me to attend or vote. After getting positive response from my inquiries, I was more determined to see how my little investment was all about. Good thing, Emil was free to accompany me. So this morning,  I woke up earlier than my usual schedule to be at meralco theater for the annual meeting.
First of all, I was surprised at the number of people. There were hundreds and hundreds of individual stockholders present. When we got there, the theater was already fully packed. Many guys as well as ladies were already sitting on the stairs and walkway. I could spot some seats not yet taken though, but every time I asked. " Is this seat taken?" Somebody would answer me. "Opo". (I was however able to get hold of a vacant seat and one for emil too which were really reserved for friends by some of their colleagues.)
I was also surprised at the age group of most of the attendees. They were either old retirees or young professionals. There were more young professionals to be sure. I supposed they were mostly company people who got rewarded with stock options. I was able to talk to one of my seatmates and asked him.
"Do you attend stockholder meeting every year?"
" Sometimes, not every year?"
" Is it worthwhile?"
"Yes naman, specially last year."
"Why? what about last year?"
"Kasi it was more controversial"
I tried to engage him into more conversations but soon the group left the bench and other people got seated. One beside me slept all throughout the annual reports. hehehe. I  almost felt sleepy myself too, what with the air conditioning in the theater and the hush hush of the audience at hand.
I was somehow disappointed for I was anticipating to be able to elect the board members. I tried to look at their pictures and learned about their profiles. There were outgoing board members like Cesar Virata and Jose Cojuangco (absent) etc. Manuel Pangilinan was definitely one of the prominent incoming person. As I soon learned, there were eleven seats  and there were also exactly eleven persons for those prestigious seats. So there! No election was actually needed. The meeting was adjourned around 10:30 AM. Well...well, all's well that ends well.
On the way home, I presented my claimed stub for meal and token. There were plenty of people and several long queues. The guy behind me, seeing my impatience told me that it's ok. I don't have to worry about the line. They got plenty of stuffs over at the counter. He had a yellow ticket for meal and drink. So, I got to take home a package of jollibee meal and a bag of goodies, including a meralco white rain jacket . I think I am going to attend more meetings in the future, if not for the election, well for the goodies that I will bring home.hahaha!