Kabayan Party-list’s woes far from over

Voting delegates of the Kabayan Party-list has ousted Rep. Ron Salo as its nominee to the House of Representatives, a move that is expected to block an earlier decision of its board of trustees to unseat Rep. Harry Roque.

In a letter sent to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Roque disclosed that the partylist organization conducted a Special Party Congress on February 11, with 32 of the 42 delegates accredited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in attendance.

The delegates, Roque said, unanimously decided to impeach Salo and expel him and three other members of the board of trustees from the organization.

Also expelled were Pedro Parrocho, Joshua Sebastian, and Vic Caguimbal who were among those who voted to kick out Roque from the organization in a decision reached last month.

Acting on the board of trustees’ decision, Salo filed a case for quo warranto before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal against Roque to officially seek his removal from the Lower House.

Salo also urged Alvarez not to acknowledge Roque as the duly nominated representative of Kabayan Party-list in the Lower House.

However, Kabayan Party-list delegates rejected the board’s decision by removing Salo and its three other members.

“We are pleased to inform you that voting delegates at the Special Party Congress held at the University Hotel, University of the Philippines-Diliman, have unanimously impeached and expelled the party’s second nominee, Rep. Ron Salo, from its roster of members, over egregious and numerous violations of Kabayan Partylist’s constitution and by-laws,” Roque said in a letter to Alvarez.

Among other charges, Salo and his co-members in the board of trustees have been found guilty of illegally setting up the said body and usurping the powers of the governing council.

The delegates also unanimously found Salo and his group guilty of failing to call a party Congress in an alleged bid to maintain control of the organization.

The party-list organization also unanimously agreed that the offending group had made an “illegal, invalid and unprocedural expulsion” of Roque.

In a statement, Kabayan Secretary General Rogel Navarro said:

“Kabayan’s constitution and by-laws, as submitted to Comelec, does not provide for the creation of a ‘board of trustees’ that can make decisions for the party list. What Salo solely created was illegal and against the party-list’s charter,”

“In fact, many of the officers and members who attended Saturday’s Special Party Congress were surprised to know that such a board was created without their knowledge,” he added.