Tuesday, March 11, 2008 Tam to sue Noreco 2 election committee chair, members
A CLASS suit is being prepared against members of the District Election Committee of the Negros Oriental 2 Electric Cooperative (Noreco 2) for allegedly resigning on the eve of the voting that led to February 23's failure of elections.
Lawyer Jun de Leon, one of the legal counsels of candidate Henry Tam, disclosed that the class suit would be filed against Ecom chair Edwin Teves and members Junjun Munoz and Karl Brier.
The lawyer said their resignation was done on the eve of the scheduled February 23 election.
Prior to the supposed schedule, candidate Henry Tam was declared disqualified from running for a Board of Director (BOD) seat representing District 1 as he failed to meet the necessary requirements under the cooperative's election guidelines.
Leovigildo Elmaco, chair of the screening committee that disqualified Tam, stressed that the supposed election has only two candidates: Engineer Jordan Salma, incumbent director, and Franco Real, a former Noreco 2 employee. Tam's name was stricken out of the record.
But Negros Oriental Provincial Board Member Saleto Erames, a lawyer by profession, defended the cooperative's move to declare the election failure.
Erames also slammed the decision of Branch 43 Presiding Judge Winston Villegas of the Regional Trial Court in lifting the disqualification charges against Tam on the eve of the supposed election.
PB Member Erames said aside from Tam not meeting the requirements, he also allegedly falsified official documents "to appear that he is very much qualified."
The PB member also said Tam has not exhausted administrative remedies as provided in the election guidelines.
Noreco 2's election guidelines stipulate that protest arising from a disqualification shall be filed with the screening committee not less than seven days before the election.
The screening committee then decides the protest within 48 hours from the time it receives the petition.
"Failure of the applicant to file a protest within the period shall be deemed a waiver of the right to protest," Erames emphasized in the same court hearing.
Noreco 2 general manager Ephraim Taclob also said he trusted his department heads to handle the issue and he agrees with their decision.
On the other hand, he said Tam should not worry because under the election guidelines, the cooperative will schedule another election within 20 days, unless circumstances will prevent it from doing so.
Tam's lawyer, Atty. De Leon, emphasized that the Noreco 2 Board of Directors during that time should have acted on the replacement of the resigned Decom members and appointed another set to proceed with the scheduled election.
De Leon also threatened that if Noreco District 1 fails to do any action, they will be forced to file another legal case against the members of the Board of Directors.
De Leon also explained that under the constitution and by-laws of Noreco, if the election fails to take place, it should be done within the next 20 days.
Salma said he was not disturbed by Tam's threat of a class suit against them.
Noreco 2's District 1 covers the towns of Amlan and Pamplona including Tanjay City. (Edmund B. Sestoso)
