Judge asked to issue TRO to stop new NPC members from voting

A Manila judge was asked to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent 209 members of the National Press Club from participating in the upcoming May 5 elections.

Judge Artemio Tipon of Regional Trial Court Branch 46 who is hearing the petition filed by Wilma Yamzon of the Manila Bulletin is expected to come up with a resolution before the NPC elections on Sunday.

In her petition, Yamzon accused the incumbent officers of NPC of "maneuvering to rig (the) forthcoming elections in their favor."

Yamzon said she filed the petition in behalf of other NPC members, who have religiously been paying their membership dues, being regular members of the club for quite a long time now.

"Petitioner and her allies have the right to be protected against the illegal maneuvers, which could cause the collapse and demise of the club," Yamzon said. She deplored the move of the NPC-membership committee of cutting short the date of acceptance of new members to March 31, from the usual last week of April.

"Interested parties were not notified or even if they were notified, they were given the notice of a very short period, disabling them (from doing) anything at all," Yamzon’s petition stated.

She explained that the new cut-off date for accepting new members was made because the club committee had already approved the membership of 209 new members was of March 31.

Of the 209 new members, the petition noted that 193 were endorsed by the party or associates of Louie Logarta, NPC incumbent president. Needless to say, they will be captive voters for the NPC membership committee chairman, who is said to be a brother-in law of Logarta.

Yamzon also noted the membership committee agreed to accept partial payments of P10 and P30 for old and new members respectively, instead of insisting on the collection of the full memberships fees.

Under NPC regulations, old members should pay P120 annual dues, while new members should shell out P300. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Rowell Ferrer