‘Recall vs Danao mayor sufficient in form’

DANAO City Vice Mayor Ramon “Nito” Durano III yesterday expressed jubilation over what he calls winning the first round in his campaign to unseat his elder brother, the mayor.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has certified his petition seeking the recall of Mayor Ramon “Boy” Durano Jr. as “sufficient” in form.

Copies of the Aug. 5 Comelec en banc resolution were distributed yesterday at a press conference in Danao City.

“If this were baseball, they are still on the plate, flat on the ground. But we’re already in second base,” said Nito said in Cebuano.

Several steps still have to be done before the Comelec actually conducts an election for the position of mayor.

Signatures of the petition have to be verified. The petition has to be published in local and national newspapers once a week for three straight weeks, and posted in public places. During this period, interested parties can examine and the petition and check the authenticity of signatures in them.

Nito, a former congressman and father of former Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, said dislodging the mayor was the “answer to problems” that Danao City is struggling with, such as illegal drugs and peace and order.

The feuding Durano brothers, whose family has ruled Danao City politics for generations, brought their conflict to an unprecedented challenge before the Comelec last month.

Last July 27, the mayor filed his own recall petition against the vice mayor and members of the City Council citing “loss of confidence” and their alleged encroaching in the powers of the mayor.

Mayor “Boy” complained that the vice mayor signed 111 disbursement vouchers and 91 checks without his consent. He also objected to the council’s passage of a resolution making the vice mayor “co-signatory with the mayor” in any agreement or contract.

The brothers also wrangled over budget outlays and an ordinance giving the vice mayor “exclusive power” to appoint casual, job order and emergency employees and sign travel orders and the disbursement of vouchers.

Mayor Boy has three days to file a motion for reconsideration.

The Comelec in a memorandum for Danao City Election Officer Dominic Ian Marigomen, adopted the recommendation of its deputy executive director for operations for the poll body to certify that the petition to recall Mayor Boy is sufficient.

The commissioners said Marigomen’s findings were in order.

Director Bartolome Sinocruz Jr., deputy executive director for Operations of the Comelec, was ordered to implement the en banc resolution.