By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE rift between the Republican Party leadership and some if its members in Precinct 4 is not yet over.
Republicans in the precinct led by Luis Q. Kapileo are now questioning the legitimacy of the GOP’s board of directors, saying its formation was “in violation of the party’s bylaws.”
Kapileo told Variety yesterday that whatever preparations the GOP leadership is making for the coming election are “illegal.”
Even the submission of the names of candidates to the Commonwealth Election Commission is questionable, he said, because the GOP board of directors “has no authority to do it.”
The GOP, Kapileo added, has no board of directors yet because there was never an election for the board as called for in Article III of the party’s bylaws, which states: “The directors shall be elected at the annual meeting by the members and the term of office of each director shall be until the next meeting of the members and the election and qualifications of his/her successor.”
Therefore, Kapileo said, party chairman Thomas B. Pangelinan and the rest of the GOP officers cannot call themselves the board of directors.
Those elected during the general meeting in December were officers from president to treasurer, Kapileo said.
He added that the bylaws also state that the officers — the president, the first and second vice presidents, the secretary and treasurer — “shall be elected by the board.”
Kapileo said since the party does not yet have a board of directors as required by the bylaws, the positions of Pangelinan and the rest of the GOP officers are in question.
“Which board has elected them to be the officers of the party? Was there an election of the board of directors?”
Kapileo says the “continued violations of the party bylaws are unacceptable,” and there is a need for another meeting that will elect a board of director “to rectify these errors.”