Hagedorn says poll chief biased vs him, LP

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—Former City Mayor Edward Hagedorn on Monday denounced Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. for showing “personal bias” against him and the Liberal Party (LP) in refusing to facilitate the holding of a recall election in the Palawan capital.

Hagedorn was reacting to Brillantes’ response to a clarification made by the Department of Budget and Management  (DBM) that the poll body has sufficient funds for recall elections.

The recall initiative, aimed at incumbent Mayor Lucilo Bayron, came to a deadlock after the petitioners submitted the required signatures for verification and were informed that the Comelec had issued a resolution suspending all recall petitions, citing lack of funds.

Brillantes, according to Hagedorn, was quoted as saying that the DBM supports the recall move in the city only because Hagedorn is a member of the LP.

The Comelec chair said the recall initiative could move only if the DBM gave a supplemental budget.

“Not one candidate has officially declared his intention to run (for mayor) nor has an election date been set. Why is Chairman Brillantes directing a personal attack against any political group and myself?” Hagedorn said on the phone on Monday.

The recall petitioners, led by supporters of Hagedorn, cited “misgovernance,” rising criminality, a decline in tourist arrivals and “breach of trust” as bases for the petition.

Bayron ran as an independent in the May 2013 elections and won against Hagedorn’s wife, Ellen, ending Hagedorn’s two decades of rule.

Bayron, who served as Hagedorn’s vice mayor for most of Hagedorn’s 20-year reign, had said that upon assuming the post of mayor, he would maintain the city’s branding “as an environment-centered local government unit.”

Earlier, Alroben Goh, former city information officer and one of the main petitioners, said the Comelec resolution suspending action on all recall initiatives because of lack of funds was “without basis.”

Goh cited a letter from Budget Undersecretary Luz Cantor to Palawan Third District Rep. Douglas Hagedorn saying that contrary to the Comelec claim, the Comelec has at least P3.6 billion in funds for recall elections.

The Comelec has ruled the recall initiative in the city to be “sufficient in form.” It estimated the recall election cost to be at least P13 million.

At least 40,000 people signed the recall petition but Bayron said some of the signatures had been falsified.