03/16/2008 [ tribune.net.ph ]
Homeowners’ officials are up in arms against the alleged intervention of Parañaque City Mayor Florencio Bernabe in the affairs of the United BF Homeowners Associations Inc. (UBFHAI).
“He is the only mayor we know who is actively preoccupied with seeking the dissolution and destruction of a proud and self-respecting homeowners’ association organized according to law,” Atty. Renato Fernandez, a member of the Election Committee of the UBFHAI, said.
UBFHAI has been in existence for 18 years, acting as only central spokesman for the 10,000 BF homeowners in Parañaque, Las Piñas and Muntinlupa, without encountering any problems from the past mayors until the term of Bernabe.
UBFHAI officials cited the Parañaque City government’s takeover of UBFHAI’s gates in Aguirre, Elizalde and El Grande in 2005, using a blitzkrieg attack of Parañaque SWAT troops, the rezoning of village’s road into commercial and the mayor’s alleged systematical prying away at the structures of UBFHAI.
The row between the subdivision and the mayor had turned to worst when the city mayor allegedly ordered the forceful takeover of the UBFHAI Clubhouse sometime last year over alleged fund misuse filed by a former village official before the Housing Land Use, Regulatory Board (HLURB).
Last year, the management committee (Mancom) of HLURB took over the UBFHAI Clubhouse allegedly with the help of the personnel of the mayor.
The Mancom has been designated by the HLURB to temporarily run the daily operation of the UBFHAI to conduct an audit of the village finances.
“They are still there for everyone to see, big and brazen as life, with the uniform patches of CSU (Civilian Security Unit),” Fernandez said.
He added the enforcement of compliance lies with the sheriff and the courts which have the power to cite for contempt, penalize and impose fines and damages.
Fernandez said the mayor’s office has gone beyond and has been “acting as the judge, jury and executioner, more than the courts.”
Fernandez cited the same thing happened to Multinational Village which effectively destroyed the vestiges of the homeowners’ established self-governance.
“The city government actively supported a rival block of candidates, created widespread dissension in the village and sealed the takeover of the clubhouse with SWAT troops,” he said, adding the LGU has supplanted the homeowners’ self-government with its own indirect control. Ben Gines Jr.
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