SC asked to declare loan association’s election valid

Officers of the Air Materiel Wing Savings and Loan Association Inc. (AMWSLAI) have asked the Supreme Court to uphold the validity of their election last Jan. 18 as members of the board of trustees of the loan association for members of the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces.

In an urgent motion, the AMWSLAI’s eight directors led by retired Air Force Col. Ricardo Nolasco Jr., who was elected as chairman and president, said their election should not be annulled as it was conducted in accordance with the SC ruling last Oct. 9.

In that decision, the SC ordered the reinstatement of Nolasco, Thaddeus Estallilla, Morado Mercado and the group of Luvin Manay, Antonio Mantuano, Jose Elaurza, Johnson Ocfemia, and Anselmo Geronimo as holdover members of the AMWSLAI board.

However, the SC said they should serve in holdover capacity “until the election and proclamation of winners in a valid, lawful and orderly election.”

In the urgent motion, Nolasco, Mercado, Estalilla, and the other elected officers, Ismael Abad, Ricardo Perido, Angel Tapac, Antonio Gumba, and Cesar Toledanes, informed the SC that the election was held in accordance with its earlier decision.

They added that the election was also in line with the provision of the AMWSLAI constitution and by-laws mandating the holding of a regular election not later than the second Friday of February.

Lorenzo said Manay, Mantuano, Elaurza, Ocfemia, and Geronimo were officially notified of the Jan. 18 election but did not participate.

The five, according to Nolasco’s group, “have no cause of action to have the subject election annulled because they did not participate nor were they barred from participating.”

Nolasco’s group argued that any petition questioning the AMWSLAI’s Jan. 18 election should have first been filed with the regional trial court, which they said has original and exclusive jurisdiction to hear and decide intra-corporate controversies, including elections, under the law.

Besides, they added that the period within which to challenge the election’s validity had already lapsed.

The Court of Appeals earlier had stopped the Pasay City RTC from enforcing its order to remove all the 11 members of the AMWSLAI board of trustees led by Nolasco, in a petition filed by Rolando Cacabelos, Odelon Mendoza, and Cedric Reyes who were elected directors in 2006.

In a resolution, the CA barred Manay’s group from performing the functions of AMWSLAI trustees and from stopping Nolasco’s group from exercising their rights and duties as trustees.