The Commission on Elections-registered voting delegates of Kabayan party-list’s Special Party Congress have unanimously ousted their second nominee, Rep. Ron Salo, from its roster of members.
“Upon uncontroverted evidence presented at this Special Party Congress assembled, Rep. Ron Salo, Pedro Parrocho, Joshua Sebastian, and Vic Caguimbal are hereby impeached and expelled from Kabayan Party-list, for serious violations of its Constitution and By-Laws,” read the resolution signed by all voting delegates present at the Special Party Congress.
The Kabayan members said the resolution means Salo no longer represents the party-list in Congress.
The Comelec-registered voting members of Kabayan also nullified Salo’s creation of a “Board of Trustees” and it’s decision to expel Rep. Harry Roque.
According to Kabayan secretary-general Rogel Navarro, Salo’s creation of such a board “was illegal because the party-list’s constitution does not provide for the creation of a ‘board of trustees’ that can make decisions for the party-list.”
Navarro said under Section 1 of Article IV of the Kabayan Party-list Constitution and By-Laws, the party Congress is the “highest policy-making body of the party.”
“We expect Salo to undermine the legitimacy of this special congress but he cannot dispute the fact that we are composed of people who are the original officers, members and signatories of Kabayan Party-list, as registered in Comelec. Kabayan has not held a Party Congress ever. All decisions of the party, including the one expelling the first nominee, was made without any resolution submitted to and approved by the Congress,” Navarro said.
“The Special Party Congress recognizes and affirms the leadership of Rep. H. Harry L. Roque, Jr. over the party as its duly elected Representative to the House of Representatives of the 17th Congress, with special appreciation for being the public face of the party-list, catapulting it to unparalleled heights since its founding in 2009,” the delegates declared in their resolution.