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REP. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City south district yesterday said the Cebu Regional Trial Court had no jurisdiction over the case filed by a barangay councilor in Labangon who asked the court to stop the Commission on Elections from conducting the plebiscite scheduled for tomorrow in barangay Guadalupe.
Cuenco, the proponent of the Guadalupe split, said only the Supreme Court has jurisdiction over the case.
He said the respondent, the Comelec, had the same standing with the Court of Appeals so it should be the high court that should have jurisdiction over the case.
Thus, Cuenco said, the issuance of a 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) by RTC Judge Gabriel Ingles, was wrong.
Cuenco said he hired two lawyers to coordinate with the Comelec in the filing of a motion to lift the TRO.
He said the complainant,barangay Labangon councilor Victor Buendia was guilty of lapses because of his late objection to the plebiscite.
Cuenco said that the city council, then under the term of former Mayor Alvin Garci, had conducted a public hearing about 10 years ago on the metes and bounds of the new barangay but nobody showed up to question them.
Cuenco said the metes and bounds were also published in newspapers.
?He is guilty of lapses to claim violation of his rights. When the time came for him to object, he did not object,? ?Cuenco said.
Cuenco said the claim of Buendia that he would be stripped of his position as barangay Labangon councilor once the new barangay is created is very speculative.
He said the new barangay has not been created because the plebiscite is still to be conducted and nobody knows the result.
Besides, he said, the corporate existence of the new barangay will only begin once the new set of barangay officials are elected.
If the residents of Rosalina village complain that they can not participate in the plebiscite, that is not enough ground to stop the plebiscite, he said.
Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama, one of the authors of the ordinance seeking a plebiscite to split Guadalupe back in 1994, said he believed the plebiscite would push through despite the delay.
?When there is a delay (in the plebiscite), there will also be a delay in the settlement of the issue,? Rama said.
But Rama declined to comment on the case filed by Buendia.
?That has been an issue a long time ago and there is a need to face it and confront it so that once and for all, the constituents can settle the issue and we provided that venue by putting up an ordinance at that time,? Rama told reporters.
Rama and Cuenco were residents of Guadalupe at the time when the ordinance was created.
But Rama declined to say if he was for or against the split.
?I will just write my answer in the ballot during the plebiscite.? Rama added.
