The new board of trustees of the Air Materiel Wing Savings and Loan Association Inc. (AMWSLAI) has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss for lack of merit a suit seeking to annul their election last Jan. 18.
In a 10-page motion, the AMWSLAI officials urged the tribunal to resolve the issue in their favor, not only to restore stability in the management of the association’s P14-billion fund, but also to protect the interest of its members.
Retired Air Force Col. Ricardo Nolasco, who was elected chairman and president of the AMWSLAI board, also urged the SC to set oral arguments and finally settle the leadership dispute in the loan association.
The AMWSLAI officials issued the call as they urged the SC to junk the motion filed by the group of retired Col. Luvin Manay seeking to annul the election of AMWSLAI’s new board of trustees.
In seeking the dismissal of the motion, Nolasco’s group said Manay’s arguments “are so blatantly flawed that to act favorably thereon would be to set a bad precedent and risk eroding the faith and trust in the judicial system.”
Nolasco claimed that Manay’s motion was defective because the SC, in previous cases, had ruled that “a temporary restraining order, being an interlocutory order, is not a proper subject of appeal.”
He claimed that Manay ignored the hierarchy of courts in going to the SC without first submitting the case before the regional trial court which has original and exclusive jurisdiction over intra-corporate cases.
Nolasco argued that the association’s Jan. 18 election, where he and seven other directors were elected to the board of trustees, was conducted in accordance with the SC ruling last Oct. 9.
In the decision, the SC ordered the reinstatement of Nolasco, Thaddeus Estalilla, and Morado Mercado and the group of Luvin Manay, Antonio Mantuano, Jose Elaurza, Johnson Ocfemia, and Anselmo Geronimo as holdover members of the AMWSLAI board.
However, the SC said that those ordered reinstated to the board as holdover members “shall occupy the same only until the election and proclamation of winners in a valid, lawful and orderly election.”
Lorenzo, who is representing Nolasco, Mercado and Estalilla and the five other winners in the Jan. 18 election – Ismael Abad, Ricardo Perido, Angel Tapac, Antonio Gumba, and Cesar Toledanes – informed the SC that the election was held in line with its order as well as the provision of the constitution and by-laws of AMWSLAI requiring the conduct of regular election not later than the second Friday of February.
Lorenzo said Manay, Mantuano, Elaurza, Ocfemia, and Geronimo were officially notified of the Jan. 18 election but they did not participate, thus forfeiting their right to question its validity.
Nolasco said any question on the legality of the election should first be brought before the lower court, which has original and exclusive jurisdiction to hear and decide intra-corporate controversies.
“Thus, the motion to annul the Jan. 18 election filed by Manay and his group should be denied outright by the SC for lack of jurisdiction or dismissed immediately for lack of merit,” Nolasco said.
The Court of Appeals earlier had issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the Pasay City RTC from enforcing its order that would unseat all the 11 members of the AMWSLAI board of trustees in a petition filed by Rolando Cacabelos, Odelon Mendoza, and Cedric Reyes, who were elected directors in late 2006.
The CA’s TRO covered the Dec. 10, 2007 order of Judge Jesus Mupas directing the group of Manay, Mantuano, Elaurza, Ocfemia and Geronimo to take over the operations of AMWSLAI in place of the 11-member board led by Nolasco.