Poll execs split on TRO stopping recall verification

CITY OF MALOLOS – Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials in Bulacan province have been divided by the agency’s decision to proceed with the verification of more than 319,000 signatures of petitioners who sought the recall of Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado.

The process was supposed to have been undertaken simultaneously by election officials in the cities of Malolos, San Jose del Monte and Meycauayan and 21 towns beginning on Wednesday.

In Baliwag town, for example, Gina Llave, the municipal election officer, convened her team to scrutinize the names, addresses and signatures on the recall petition to determine whether they were registered voters who took part in the 2013 midterm elections.

But the Hagonoy election office did not proceed, citing a March 6 temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by Judge Guillermo Agloro of the Bulacan regional trial court (RTC).

On Thursday, the Malolos City election office suspended the verification. Lawyer Julio Nicanor Guinto, Malolos election officer, said he stopped the verification upon instruction from the Comelec Bulacan Office.

“Hence, any furtherance of the verification process under the authority of the [provincial election supervisor] is, I firmly believe, covered by the TRO issued by the court,” Guinto said.

Llave said the Baliwag election office complied with a directive to proceed from the Comelec’s Manila office. She said local poll officials are required to enforce an earlier Comelec en banc ruling that the RTC had no jurisdiction over the recall petition.

The Paombong town poll official failed to start the verification on Wednesday but this was due to a manpower problem, and not the dispute. It proceeded on Thursday.

Lawyer Temie Lambino, Comelec Central Luzon director, said the election officers who proceeded with the verification faced indirect contempt charges filed by Alvarado for defying the TRO. He said the Comelec legal office will take charge of the charges filed against them.

Lambino took over the post of acting Bulacan election supervisor, Jerby Anthony Cortez. “I removed him for loss of confidence [because] he failed to deliver in this recall proceedings. My mandate here now is to finish the verification until April 1. No one would like to take this post that’s why I was made to take over on a concurrent basis,” Lambino said.

He also directed all election offices to proceed with the verification, which will last for 15 days and will end on April 1.

The Wednesday verification proceedings here were witnessed by representatives of Alvarado and the petitioner, Perlita Mendoza, who was provincial administrator during the term of former governor and now Rep. Rep. Joselito Mendoza. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon