Court issues TRO to stop campaign for recall in Bulacan

CITY OF MALOLOS—A Bulacan court on Friday stopped the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from proceeding with the verification of 300,000 signatures in a recall petition filed against Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado.

Judge Guillermo Agloro of the Bulacan Regional Trial Court Branch 83 issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) that stopped the province’s election supervisor, Jerbee Anthony Cortez, from conducting the verification scheduled on March 9.

Alvarado sought the TRO, arguing that the office of the provincial election supervisor failed to publish the recall petition and the names of the petitioners in a national newspaper and a regional newspaper for three consecutive weeks, as prescribed by the Comelec.

Instead, the recall documents were published in two newspapers at the behest of the petitioners themselves, led by Pearly Mendoza, who served as provincial administrator during the term of former Bulacan Gov. and now Rep. Joselito Mendoza.

The recall action, which was set in motion in May 2014, said the petitioners had lost their confidence in Alvarado.

Cortez was assigned recently to the Bulacan office, replacing lawyer Elmo Duque who was temporarily put on detail at the Comelec Central Luzon office.

Now on his second term as governor, Alvarado ran unopposed in the 2013 elections, garnering more than 800,000 votes.