CEBU - The Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board has ruled that it was illegal for officials of the Villa Del Rio II Homeowners Association Inc. in Talamban to disenfranchise its members because of their failure to submit photocopies of their Certificate of Lot titles to the association.
In a decision approved by HLURB director Antonio Decatoria on August 23, arbiter Gonzalo Tumulak ordered the officers of the association to “nullify immediately all its circulars, resolutions and similar issuances which declared herein complainants as members of the association in bad standing and penalized them by way of disenfranchisement.”
HLURB also ordered the respondents to immediately restore the complainants’ full membership in the association and to pay them a total of P10,000 for attorney’s fees.
September last year, then association president Doris Dabinett issued a circular, which required the homeowners to submit a copy of their certificate of lot title to enable the association to update its membership.
However, 140 of the 220 homeowners failed to do the same, thus, were subsequently disenfranchised because of their “bad standing.”
Lucy Browell, Esterlina Sandness, Wienna Spencer, Brenda Muring, Madeleine and Florita Escalante then filed the complaint with HLURB against the association officials of VDR II headed by Arturo Villaroman, the chairman of the Board.
The group also asked HLURB to nullify the election and conduct another election to allow majority of homeowners to vote for a new set of officers, however, HLURB said their argument lacked merit.
HLURB also advised the complainants to file a separate case on their complaint against the move of the association to impose a corkage fee for mineral water and LPG.
The complainants had questioned why the association had put up a water refilling station using the group’s money allegedly even without consultation. — Ramil V. Ayuman/JMO (The Freeman)