HLURB body to submit audit report on BF group

Members of the management committee now running the affairs of the United BF Homeowners Association Inc. (UBFHAI) will submit its final audit report to the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) on Friday.

Lawyer Aristotle Sarmiento – who heads the body created to temporarily run the affairs of the huge organization pending investigation of graft allegations against association president Celso Reyes and some of his officials – said it is impossible to conduct an election of new UBFHAI officials before the Feb. 21 deadline set by the HLURB.

“We will probably not ask for an extension because the order says non-extendible. We will do what we can as humanly possible,” Sarmiento told The STAR, referring to the HLURB’s Jan. 18 order, which gave the committee 30 more days to finish its audit and call for an election.

BF Homes Parañaque is considered one of the biggest residential subdivisions in the country, with over 10,000 households. Its total land area interconnects and covers the Southern Metro Manila cities of cities of Parañaque, Las Piñas, and Muntinlupa.

The UBFHAI is actually an umbrella organization of more than 70 smaller homeowners’ groups or enclaves that are grouped together by sectors. During elections, sector leaders have to elect among themselves their representatives who will run for president and other elective posts.

Sarmiento said it is impossible to do all this in a short period of time, which is why the actual conduct of elections – which will be supervised by the HLURB’s National Capital Region Field Office – will have to happen after Feb. 21.

He said their audit report, though incomplete, shows enough evidence that there really are missing funds, which need to be investigated further by proper authorities.