Comelec recall budget only P5M, says lawyer
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:04:00 09/08/2008
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Commission on Elections has a budget for all recall cases this year of only P5 million, according to information obtained from the poll body by the lawyer of Pampanga Gov. Eddie Panlilio.
Panlilio, a Catholic priest, has been the subject of a recall campaign initiated by the Kapanalig at Kambilan Ning Memalen Pampanga Inc. (Kambilan). The group has cited loss of confidence in Panlilio’s leadership as a ground for removing him from office.
In an e-mail from Los Angeles, California, on Sunday, lawyer Romulo Macalintal said the appropriation had left Kambilan to be “only dreaming.”
“The Comelec cannot just make funds available for a recall because that might constitute technical malversation or be discriminatory or source of abuse of discretion,” he said.
In a phone interview, Pampanga election supervisor Temie Lambino said he would inquire on the budget only after the recall petition was filed and a recall election was allowed.
Rosve Henson, president of the Kambilan, said it was premature for Macalintal to be speaking for the Comelec because the process was still in the signature-gathering stage.
“When the recall petition is given due course, the Comelec will secure the necessary budget to fund the requirements for the recall election,” Henson said.
Henson declined to say how many had actually signed, but said Kambilan had issued identification cards to over 42,000 volunteers on Saturday.
“They would affix their signatures, too, after we have verified if they are on the list of voters,” he said.
Kambilan aims to gather 100,000 signatures, or more than 10 percent of the 977,000 voters who registered in the May 14, 2007, elections in Pampanga. The signatures will be attached to the petition.
Macalintal said the recall election would need at least P50 million. Lambino placed the amount at P23 million to P24 million, while Henson said it could be P20 million.
“There have been no guidelines for the Comelec [on the] allocation of additional funds for a recall and to be choosy which or what area it would allow a recall to push through,” Macalintal said.
He said the P5-million fund would have to be stretched because of other recall cases.
“A recall petition was recently filed against the governor of Sulu. If ever the recall of Panlilio materializes, the recall in Sulu will certainly take precedent over the Pampanga recall,” he said.
“With only P5 million for its recall cases, how could Comelec sustain [these] two recall [elections] in two big provinces?” Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon
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