The Benguet Provincial Board on Monday, November 8, passed a resolution declaring former Presidential Communications Operations Office assistant secretary Ana Maria Rafael as unwelcome in the province.

The board voted 13 in favor of the persona non grata resolution, with one abstention, after discussing the lawyer’s involvement in the forcible October 18 takeover of the Benguet Electric Cooperative.

National Electrification Administration (NEA) lawyer Omar Mayo and Rafael were present during the provincial board’s November 3 deliberation. The board declared Mayo persona non grata during the session.

They put the voting on hold after Rafael claimed she was not present when armed police and Mayo took over the Beneco compound that fateful dawn.

Rafael admitted though that she was present during the planning of that takeover. The lawyer said she arrived at the Beneco main office around 7 am that day hours after the incident.

The board asked Rafael during the hearing to give way and respect the public clamor for a different manager. “I just want to work…unless and until my appointment is annulled, I need to work as general manager,” she said.

Vice Governor Johnny Waguis said Rafael lied to the provincial board. Contrary to her claim, a video showed she was already at the compound at around 5 am on October 18, Waguis said.

The board also took offense that Rafael and her supporters gathered right after the November 3 session “in what seems to be a victory party.” They viewed this as disrespectful and a disregard to Benguet officials.

“We are anticipating, [that] he (Mayo) might file charges against us,” Waguis said. The NEA lawyer asked for the official minutes of the November 3 session, he added.

The NEA appointed Rafael as Beneco’s general manager despite unresolved issues in the selection process. Employees of the cooperative, member-consumers-owners (MCOs), and different organizations of electric cooperatives protested her designation. The Beneco Board rejected her assignment and instead appointed Melchor Licoben. The general assembly affirmed Licoben’s appointment on October 2.

The October 18 armed takeover followed Rafael’s October 2 letter that asked the NEA to help fully implement the suspension order against seven Beneco directors and Licoben.

She asked aid “to bodily drag the respondents or bring them out from the headquarters should they refuse to comply with the order.” This part of Rafael’s letter was cited by Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda during the Baguio City Council hearing on October 25.

Pushback

In a text message, Jingboy Atonen, one of the volunteer lawyers of Rafael, confirmed that they were planning to file charges against members of the provincial board who voted for the declaration.

The lawyer said that they were eying criminal and administrative indictments under Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, including a damage suit. He said the action of the legislators was “definitely a grave abuse of power.”

He maintained that the entry of NEA in the Beneco building on October 18 was “an enforcement in a peaceful manner” of the suspension order.

“Atty. Rafael only applied for the Beneco [general manager] position. She has not done any acts against (the) Benguet people. She has not uttered any words against (the) Benguet people. Lastly, she was not part of the team that entered Beneco (building) in the early morning of Oct 18,” he said.

“It is our position that the [persona non grata] serves no other purpose except to humiliate, harass, and demean the reputation of atty Rafael,” he added.

The Baguio City council declared Mayo person non grata on October 25. Beneco MCOs likewise designated Mayo and members of the NEA Board of Administrators as unwelcome during the October 2 general assembly. – Rappler.com

Sherwin de Vera is a Luzon-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship.