Comelec junks gov’s House bid

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has nullified the candidacy for House representative of Gov. Luisa Cuaresma for her alleged failure to sign a logbook to prove she went to the Comelec office to personally file her certificate of candidacy (COC).

In a 13-page resolution, the Comelec en banc affirmed the recommendation of its law department which categorized Cuaresma’s COC as “deemed not filed” because she supposedly failed to sign a logbook at the Comelec provincial office here.

The poll body did not give credence to the statement of lawyer Abraham Johnny Asuncion, provincial elections supervisor, who said Cuaresma personally appeared at the Comelec office.

He claimed that the governor turned up after she was informed that the Comelec could not accept the COC delivered by her secretary because the authorization letter she appended to the document had not been notarized, as required by a Comelec resolution.

The Comelec ruling on Cuaresma’s candidacy was contained in a Nov. 6 omnibus resolution, which resolved nine other COC-related cases.

Lawyer Edgardo Balgos, Cuaresma’s spokesperson, contested the Comelec ruling, saying it violated the governor’s rights.

Balgos said the governor was deprived of her right to defend herself.

Balgos blamed Cuaresma’s political rivals for resorting to what he called “desperate moves.” He claimed it was the governor’s rivals who followed up the petition to disqualify the three-term governor from running for a House seat.

“I was the last candidate to file my COC on Oct. 5, and I can say that I did not sign, or was made to sign, the logbook,” said reelectionist Board Member Edgar Llowelyn Daniel, an ally of Cuaresma.

Cuaresma is running under the United Nationalists’ Alliance against incumbent Rep. Carlos Padilla of the Nacionalista Party and two independent candidates.