BF group holds sectoral polls

Incumbent and hold over officials of the United BF Homeowners Association Inc. (UBFHAI) Board proceeded with the organization’s sectoral elections yesterday despite questions regarding its authority to conduct the exercise.

Despite an invitation, the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) did not send a representative to observe the process.

Yesterday’s activity was in preparation for the actual election of UBFHAI officials and officers on March 15.

Because of its size, elections in BF Homes Parañaque cannot be held in just one day since the association is actually a mother organization of more than 70 smaller homeowner’s groups called enclaves, which are divided into sectors.

The UBFHAI’s next officers and board of directors will be elected by the winning sector heads.

More than a week before yesterday’s preparatory polls, the UBFHAI board wrote the HLURB a letter informing the agency that it has scheduled the organization’s regular elections from March 1 to March 15.

They said they decided to proceed with their decision to call and conduct regular elections according to the association’s by-laws.

“It is the only way it can be legally done,” they stressed, adding that they are letting representatives of the agency supervise the process in the spirit of transparency.

More than a week before the UBFHAI board’s letter was submitted to the HLURB, the agency’s management committee, which was created to audit the association’s financial records due to alleged irregular transactions by UBFHAI president Celso Reyes, also advised the agency that it will hold elections from March 29 to May 18.

As the duly authorized body tasked to call and conduct UBFHAI elections, the management committee is currently working with the HLURB’s National Capital Region office for the polls.

Former UBFHAI president Rolando Navarro said Reyes can call for elections everyday in defiance of HLURB orders but that will not make the process valid, binding, or legal since it is the management committee that had been granted the authority to call and conduct the UBFHAI polls. – Michael Punongbayan