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BARANGAY Labangon official is mulling filing a separate complaint in court against the holding of the plebiscite in neighboring barangay Guadalupe.
Barangay Labangon Councilor Victor Buendia, who had asked the court to stop the Commission on Elections from conducting the plebiscite, yesterday submitted a resolution to the barangay council proposing that the entire barangay file a separate complaint on the planned plebiscite which would exclude Labangon residents.
Buendia said five barangay Labangon councilors supported his resolution. Three were against.
He said the council?s decision had yet to be approved by barangay Labangon captain Felix Abella.
Buendia?s lawyer Julius Ceasar Entice countered the claims of Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City?s south district that the Regional Trial Court had no jurisdiction over the Guadalupe case since the respondent, the Comelec, has the same standing with the Court of Appeals so it should be the Suprme Court that should have acted on the case.
Entice said Cuenco should follow the ?hierarchy of courts? which states that cases filed should start from lower courts up to the Supremre Court.
?We filed our petition in concurrence of jurisdiction which would allow us to lodge it anywhere. The Supreme Court only reviews the decision of lower courts,? Entice said.
RTC Judge Gabriel Ingles of branch 58 granted a 20-day Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) last Wednesday on the plebiscite which seeks to get the sentiments of barangay Guadalupe residents on the proposal to divide the city?s biggest barangay into two separate barangays.
Buendia opposes the holding of a plebiscite since he stands to lose his post if his place of residence becomes part of the new barangay Banawa-Englis to be carved out of barangay Guadalupe.
Buendia, a resident of Rosalina Village, has been registered voter of barangay Labangon since 1993. He said he could not participate in the plebiscite since he is not a resident of barangay Guadalupe.
Cuenco said Rosalina Village neither belonged to Guadalupe nor Labangon based on a public document.
He said the exact area where Rosalina Village stands has not been determined as stated in the documents from the Bureau of Lands Management (BLM).
?The documents from the BLM do not state what barangay Rosalina Village belongs,? Cuenco said.
The BLM is an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) responsible for administering, surveying, managing, and disposing alienable and disposable lands and other government lands not placed under the jurisdiction of other government agencies.
On Jan. 7, 2010, President Macapagal-Arroyo signed into law Republic Act 9905 known as ?The Act creating a barangay to be known as barangay Banawa - Englis in the City of Cebu.?
On Feb. 17, the Comelec issued Resolution No. 8774 which contains the guidelines of the plebiscite./reporter ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL
