Mayor of big town is Comelec target
A “blind item” from Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. may cause town mayors to squirm in their seats.
The Comelec is set to file administrative and criminal charges against a “mayor of a big municipality,” who, Brillantes said Thursday, engaged in vote-buying during the May 2013 elections.
In a news conference at the Comelec headquarters in Manila, he vowed to “go after those who overspent or engaged in vote-buying to show that we are a very serious commission.”
“We won’t hesitate to file a case regardless of the person’s party … We don’t care what party that person belongs to,” he said.
The announcement came a week after Brillantes said that a Comelec division had unseated Laguna Gov. Jeorge “ER” Ejercito for excessive spending to win reelection.
The Comelec chief said Ejercito spent more than P20 million in political ads in the TV network ABS-CBN in violation of the campaign finance law that set a P4.5-million ceiling on his campaign expenses.
Ejercito also faces criminal charges for underreporting his campaign expenses, according to Brillantes.
He said Ejercito might be removed from office only after the Comelec ruling became final and executory.
Ejercito, under the campaign finance law, was allowed to spend only P3 for each of the 1,525,522 registered voters in Laguna province, or a “maximum limit of P4.5 million,” the Comelec chair said.
But records showed the governor spent more than P20 million, a violation of the campaign finance law and the Omnibus Election Code.
Administration party
The Comelec process to disqualify another erring elected local official has started, Brillantes said.
“It has started. Within the next few hours or days, a decision will come out. We will charge a mayor with vote-buying,” he told reporters.
The Comelec chief hinted that the mayor was affiliated with the administration political party.
Asked for clues, Brillantes joked that the mayor was “from Sabah, Malaysia.”
“I can’t announce the name… But he is from a malaking munisipyo (a big municipality),” he said.
The Comelec has in its possession evidence pointing to vote-buying, an election offense, Brillantes said.
Barangay elections
“About P800,000 cash, naka-envelope, is in my vault. It was brought here. I don’t know what to do with it,” he said.
At the same time, Brillantes announced that Comelec Commissioner Christian Robert Lim had flown to Zamboanga City to conduct an “ocular inspection of the current situation there and decide whether we should proceed with the Oct. 28 barangay elections” in the city.
Lim, he said, was also tasked with determining “the alternatives if elections are not held in Zamboanga City, which is also the staging area for the ballot boxes and other necessary materials and equipment needed in holding the elections in the provinces of Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi.”
Commissioner Luie Tito Guia reported that the National Printing Office had printed more than 42.6 million of the 54 million official ballots needed in the barangay polls.
“We’re definitely on track,” he said.
Overstaying
For her part, Commissioner Ma. Gracia Cielo Padaca reminded barangay officials they could “no longer serve for more than three consecutive terms.”
Citing records of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, she said 268 barangay captains from the province of Iloilo topped the list of barangay officials who have served three consecutive terms.”
“Leyte is next with 228, followed by Bohol with 183, Batangas with 175, and Pangasinan with 173,” Padaca added.
Originally posted at 4:37 pm | Wednesday, October 2 2013
Related stories:
Cases of vote-buying reported nationwide
Estrada’s proposes quick fix to vote buying
Vote-buying claims surround councilors’ league polls in North Cotabato
