New board takes over North Greenhills

The new officers and board directors of the North Greenhills Association yesterday took over the office, clubhouse and other responsibilities of the NGA administration in the North Greenhills subdivision in San Juan, Metro Manila.

The Home Insurance and Guaranty Corp. (HIGC), the official entity under the Office of the President that franchises and adjudicates

homeowners' associations, formalized this move by issuing a 72-hour temporary restraining order (TRO) against a group of North Greenhills Association (NGA) residents for misrepresenting themselves as the association's Board of Directors.

The order stemmed from a petition for injunction filed by the duly-elected Board of Directors and its officers, namely: Atty. Eliseo Villamor, president; Dr. Preciosa S. Soliven, executive vice-president; Rosemarie-Zamora, vice president for external affairs; Ricardo de Guzman, corporate secretary; Mercedes Alvarado, assistant secretary; Dr. Aurora Perez, treasurer; Jose Tiu, assistan treasurer; and Trinidad Sia, Antonio Umali, Consuelo Kaimo, Jerome Floro, Lita Luna and Teresa Oben, directors.

The order, signed by HIGC Hearing Officer Roberto Abrajano, directed the other group to cease and desist from performing the duties and functions of NGA Ddrectors. Named respondents in the Order were Manuel Acosta, Francisco Antonio, John Bautista, Cesar Campos, Milagros Chenliong, Jose Duran, Demetrio Flores Jr., Alfredo Lagman Jr., Edilberto Lingad, Antonio Oppen, Arsenio Santos and Perry Uy.

HIGC also ordered them to "vacate the office, clubhouse, and other premises owned by NGA and to desist from retaining management and control of the association's funds and other assets."

Abrajano said the HIGC found the "complaint to be sufficient in form and substance."

This body, empowered by law to hear and decide on intra-corporate disputes among members of homeowners' groups, had set a hearing this afternoon to determine if it can extend the TRO until a hearing on the petition for injunction can be conducted.

Records showed that Villamor's group were elected NGA directors during a special election on Feb. 6. Of the 319 qualified voters, a total of 229 or 71.79 percent cast their votes. Dr. Soliven, a columnist of the Philippine STAR and president of the O.B. Montessori College, is the wife of STAR publisher and chairman Max Soliven.

"They could not accept that we won. Although the attendance during the Feb. 6 election represented the majority, they would not want to recognize the results of the election," Dr. Soliven noted.

The respondents were, instead, insisting that the elections held on Jan. 8 -- during which they won -- was the one valid.

Lawyer Ronald Olivar Solis, the petitioners' legal counsel, maintained that the Jan. 8 election was not legally binding under Section 24 of the Corporate Code.

"It violated the Code. Section 24 states that for a member of a non-stock, non-profit organization to be a member of the Board, he must be voted upon by the majority of those qualified to vote," he added.

Solis declared that an election attended by less than a majority is no election at all and therefore is null and void. Such a so-called event does not confer any rights at all on alleged "candidates."