Comelec set to conduct re-canvassing today

A year and seven months after their electoral victory was placed on hold with an election protest, Compostela municipal officials will be in Manila today to witness the re-canvassing of votes by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Compostela Councilor Tessa Cang said they hope that it would be completed quickly.

“If the normal procedure provided for by law will be followed, it will take two hours the most for it to be through,” she said.

Cang joins Vice Mayor-elect Nanette Dangoy and Mayor-elect Joel Quiño to witness the re-canvassing.

The councilor said they weren’t surprised by reports that former town mayor Richie Wagas opposed the re-canvassing.

“He has been opposing it since May 11, 2010. He has been doing everything to serve his purpose. But there is always an end to stupidity,” she said.

The Comelec en banc ordered that the election returns (ERs) be canvassed at 9 a.m. today.

In a press conference last Saturday, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia hopes that the re-canvassing will resolve the power vacuum in Compostela town.

“The town has been orphaned for too long. You really need a chief executive at the helm and of course, more so, a council. You cannot enact a budget. The town didn’t only lose a father figure, they lost a mother, uncles and aunties,” she said.

An attempted takeover by Quiño and his council slate of Compostela town’s municipal hall last year was aborted following negotiations with Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo.

Quiño secured Robredo’s assurance to ask the Comelec to expedite the resolution of their electoral dispute case with Wagas, who filed the protest immediately after their proclamation. /Carmel Loise Matus, Correspondent