RESIDENTS of Banawa-Englis will ask the court tomorrow to dissolve the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued against the holding of the plebiscite creating a new barangay.
After the Regional Trial Court put off last Wednesday the holding of the March 13 exercise due to a complaint filed by a Barangay Labangon councilor, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc indefinitely postponed yesterday the plebiscite for the creation of Barangay Bana-wa-Englis.
In a two-page resolution promulgated yesterday, it ordered Atty. Edwin Cadungog, south district elections officer, to safe-keep all plebiscite documents, forms and paraphernalia and wait for new orders.
Meanwhile, Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south district) yesterday said Banawa Englis residents will file a motion for intervention with the court tomorrow.
He said at least 10 “intervenors” will sign the pleadings today for Banawa and Englis residents to be made part in the proceedings on the application for a writ of preliminary injunction asked by Labangon Barangay Councilor Victor Buendia.
The residents, Cuenco said, will also ask the court to dissolve the 20-day TRO it issued against the plebiscite.
Powerful
“The intervenors will ask the court that they be made parties of the action. The lawyers are preparing the pleadings for Banawa Englis to be made part in the hearings of the case,” Cuenco said.
“We have powerful arguments that we will present during the hearings…. We are confident that in the near future, the plebiscite will really push through,” he added.
Branch 58 Regional Trial Court Judge Gabriel Ingles granted Buendia’s request for a TRO, convinced that he “has established that he will suffer an irreparable injury if the subject plebiscite will be allowed to proceed as scheduled on March 13, 2010.”
In an interview yesterday, Buendia hoped he and Banawa Englis residents could reach a “win-win” solution to their interconnected predicament.
Buendia said he had no other choice but to file a petition to stop the holding of the plebiscite, after their barangay captain allegedly failed to act on his request.
Buendia is a resident of Rosalina Village, which sits on the boundary of Labangon and Guadalupe, whose officials claim that the village is part of their territory.
Vote
The map approved under Republic Act 9905 or “An Act Creating a Barangay to be known as Barangay Banawa-Englis in the City of Cebu,” which President Arroyo approved on Jan. 7, however, showed that Rosalina Village is within the proposed barangay Banawa-Englis.
Rosalina Village’s residents, including Buendia, are registered voters of Labangon and cannot join the plebiscite.
Only registered voters of Guadalupe can participate to vote for or against the creation of the new barangay.
Buendia suspected that Barangay Captain Felix Abella supported the alteration. Buendia said that, as first councilor, he was supposed to run for barangay captain against Abella’s son in the next barangay elections.
In his order, Ingles quoted Section 10, Article 10 of the Constitution, which states that “no…barangay may be created or divided…or its boundary substantially altered except in accordance with the criteria established in the local government code and subject to the approval by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite in the political units directly affected.”
In a separate interview, Cadungog said that in their records, 194 voters under Precinct 1585-A, who are all Rosalina Village residents, were registered under Barangay Labangon.
En banc Resolution 8792 acknowledged that the Rosalina Village residents would be disenfranchised because they are registered voters of Labangon.
Suspend
It resolved “to suspend the holding of the plebiscite to ratify the creation of Barangay Banawa-Englis until furthers orders.”
At the City Hall, Vice Mayor Michael Rama said he preferred that the plebiscite be held before the May 10 elections.
“I want it before the elections because it is only affecting one barangay. If the money is there, why should we delay it? I have been consistent in my stand that it should push through,” he said.
He agreed that the best way to solve the matter is through the courts.
“When it comes to disputes, the local government should stay out of it as participant because all those that will participate are elected and everything they say or do will be subject to suspicion,” Rama said.