Getting wet in the Yanson feud-2

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

Yesterday I said there were instructions of Mrs. Nelly Duckett, the president of the Sta. Clara Executive Village Residents Association, directed to the security personnel on request (was it written?) of Olivia Yanson.

Mrs. Duckett did not indicate whether Olivia Yanson is a land or apartment owner, and why she acceded to the “request” and whether Olivia is a paying member of the association. Of course, Duckett need not inform the security of the status of Olivia Yanson. The security personnel after all just obey orders unless they are illegal. As Alfred Tennyson wrote in his poem, (Charge of the Light Brigade), “theirs is not to reason why but to do and die.”

The instructions appear irregular because I believe Olivia Yanson does not pay the association dues of the subdivision and Duckett has not received an order from law enforcement agencies or the court to eject the Causings.

Duckett probably believed that Olivia Yanson is the owner, but had she seen the title? Perhaps Duckett had, but is Olivia Yanson an association member and paying the dues? We know the Causings are paying the association dues and therefore the Causings deserve the protection of the association and not for Duckett to succumb to the order of Olivia who does not pay the dues. Are association members the residents or lot owners?

Duckett created a serious precedent for the other residents, especially for the lessees who pay the dues but can get no protection or respect. Perchance we will revisit this point.

The first instruction to the security personnel is to stop two vehicles with “plate number RNP 419 and 062010 with SCEVRA car stickers # 136 and #131” and these vehicles, or more precisely the occupants to be “subject to inspection before entering.” Is not this instruction ridiculous, extraordinary and discriminatory?

It is common practice that vehicles with association stickers are not inspected because the stickers are identifying numbers. The sticker declares the vehicle is owned by a member of the association who had paid his dues on time and deserves respect.

The order, therefore, violates the nature and purpose of the stickers and the right of the member to easy passage. If the sticker is old, it indicates that the car owner and member of the association has not paid his dues and therefore the vehicles may be subjected to identification but not inspection.

The second instruction is for the security personnel to “ask for their (passenger) Identification Cards and purpose of the visit.” Again, the stickers are rendered useless, but to require identification of the occupants and the purpose of their visit violate the privacy of the members and their guests. The Village may be executive but it is not Malacañang.

Does Duckett consider the people inside a vehicle with association stickers as security threats? If she thinks so, she should report the matter to the police and demand police clearance for these persons to enter and not violate the resident’s rights.

Moreover, are all residents of the subdivision required to identify the occupants of their vehicles when they enter their place of residence? Of course not, that would be ridiculous and would cause a revolt. Thus the order of Duckett is discriminatory only for those inside the tagged vehicles.

There are targets in the third and last instructions: the people who work in Nico Causing’s household. Once they left the subdivision for whatever purpose they “are restricted to enter”. The instruction is clearly another bullying by Duckett “on request of Olivia Yanson”.

The last instruction is unclear. It says, “any other person that may bring in again by Emily Yanson thru her alleged lawyer (sic), Atty. Bitoon or Atty. Ortiz are not allowed to enter and stay in the unit.” It’s probably just a matter of syntax but odious nevertheless.

For the Causing household and those who work with them, they are on lockdown. There appears to be a particular martial law in that subdivision. For the rest: stay away or be interrogated.

The Causings will find deliverance from these tyrannical attempts if they leave in April next year, but their case will remain open because their rights were violated. The association’s reputation simply got wet but may yet get burned.