Ousted Imus mayor plans rallies on poll ruling

SAN PEDRO, Laguna—Supporters of the mayor of Imus, Cavite, who had been ordered removed from office by a local court, are planning to mount rallies to press the Commission on Elections (Comelec)to enforce a recent decision declaring the unseated mayor winner in the 2010 elections and reinstating him.

Supporters of Homer Saquilayan, Imus mayor who had been ordered unseated by a local court, are pressing Comelec to enforce an Aug. 15 decision of its first division finding Saquilayan winner of the 2010 elections.

The Comelec division, chaired by Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, declared Saquilayan winner by 8,429 votes over Emmanuel Maliksi following a review of digital images of ballots cast in the automated elections of May 2010.

The Aug. 15 decision nullified the November 2011 decision by the Imus Regional Trial Court in favor of Maliksi’s election protest and which led to his installation as mayor in December 2011.

Maliksi’s camp had filed an appeal against the Aug. 15 decision at the Comelec en banc.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, Saquilayan said the Aug. 15 decision of the Comelec division did not come with a writ of execution.

“Usually, it just takes five days at most for Comelec to enforce the resolution,” said Saquilayan, a member of the Nacionalista Party.

“I don’t know why, but it seems someone in Malacañang is preventing [my reinstatement],” Saquilayan said.

Maliksi, son of  former Cavite governor and now Imus Rep. Erineo “Ayong” Maliksi, is a member of the ruling Liberal Party.