Trinidad accused of rigging Pasay group’s polls

Several Pasay City barangay chairpersons said yesterday that Mayor Wenceslao Trinidad allegedly manipulated the Liga ng mga Barangay-Pasay City Chapter elections last Nov. 12.

The complainants, led by Barangay 176 chairman Onofre Cabral, also asked the local court to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent those who won in the chapter elections from assuming office.

“Trinidad supported the group of Charlie Chavez by carrying out a plan of conducting an election without the supervision of the Department of Interior and Local Government-City Director,” Cabral said.

Chavez was re-elected chairman of Barangay 193 during the barangay polls last Oct. 29. He ran and lost as councilor in the May 2007 elections under Trinidad’s party.

In a 20-page complaint filed before the city prosecutor’s office, Cabral said the chapter elections had been conducted in gross violation of the constitution and by-laws of the Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas, making the exercise null and void.

The complainants also pointed out that Chavez and others elected as chapter officials “have no legal personality yet to elect or be elected as officers and board members” before they start their term of office as barangay chairpersons at noon on Nov. 30.

“Since the term of office of the newly elected punong barangays in the Oct. 29 elections did not yet commence and, in fact, they have not assumed their respective offices as of Nov. 12, it follows that they have no legal basis to conduct the organizational elections of the Liga ng mga Barangay,” Cabral said.

The complainants are asking the court to restrain Chavez and his co-defendants from assuming, exercising and discharging the rights, duties and powers of the positions for which they were allegedly illegally elected.