Sayno: Interim board intrudes on functions of regular board
The appointment of the interim board of the Metro Iloilo Water District by the Local Water Utilities Administration is baseless, unlawful and illegal, said Atty. Hans Sayno, legal counsel and corporate secretary of the former board.
“The interim board only intrudes on the functions of the regular board,” he said, after filing a temporary restraining order before the Regional Trial Court to question the basis of LWUA and the interim board in occupying the public office and the functions of the regular board.
The LWUA had earlier declared null and void the appointments of directors Bernadette Castellano Adrian Moncada, Celso Javelosa, Sergio Gonzalez and Danilo Encarnacion.
The interim board, which took over November 15, is composed of Emmanuel Malicdem, chairman; Hermilo Balucan, vice chairman; and Enrique Gita, Atty. Romeo Gerochi and Jessica Salas, as members.
Sayno was replaced by Atty. Rodolfo Legaspi.
He said the court must decide earlier who would be recognized as legal board so that the interim board can stop acting as the policy-making body.
“If the decision of the court will favor us, the interim board may be declared invalid so all the policies they made would also be considered worthless,” he said.
Sayno said LWUA is neither a quasi-judicial nor a disciplinary body to declare their appointments null and void.
“They do not respect the basic due process,” he said.
Sayno said they are covered by Civil Service rules and only the Civil Service Commission can remove them from their posts when found guilty of the accusation.
If a motion for reconsideration is filed, the accused can still do his/her function unless there is a further decision from the court, he added.
MIWD general manager Le Jayme Jalbuena had earlier said the LWUA did not take over the operations of MIWD when it appointed an interim board.
“It was not a LWUA take-over but only a filling of vacancies while waiting for the appointment of the new directors by the rightful appointing authority,” he said.
The LWUA has declared the Iloilo governor – no longer the Iloilo City mayor – as the rightful appointing authority of the MIWD board, as records show that Iloilo City was not able to garner more than 75 percent of the total service connection in the district area of coverage.*
