Comelec: No time for Bulacan recall poll

CITY OF MALOLOS—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it could not proceed with the recall election sought by Bulacan residents against their governor, Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado.

In an April 22 omnibus resolution, the Comelec ruled that it had no time to prepare for the recall elections on or before May 8.

Recall elections must be staged a year from the date of the official’s assumption to office or a year immediately preceding a regular local election.

“Therefore, with reference to the May 9, 2016, elections, any election recall has to be conducted on or before May 8, 2015, to be valid,” said the resolution issued by acting Comelec Chair Christian Robert Lim and Commissioners Al Parreño, Luie Tito Guia and Arthur Lim.

Comelec also cited a report by the Bulacan election office that many of the recall petition’s signatures were not authentic.

Lead recall petitioner Perlita Mendoza submitted the petition in May 2014, containing 319,707 signatures and thumbmarks. But only 67,959 sets of signatures and thumbmarks (27.3 percent) were declared valid after a verification undertaken by the province’s election officers this month.

“Clearly, the required minimum number of petitioners for purposes of conducting the recall election has not been met as the total number of valid signatures… fell short of the [required] 10 percent threshold,” said the 16-page resolution.

This meant that the recall petitioners needed 183,069 valid signatures, which correspond to 10 percent of the province’s 1,830,698 voters. Mendoza contested the verification report, but the Comelec junked her motion.

“It must be pointed out that apart from Mendoza’s general allegation that the election officers erroneously invalidated some signatures on the ground of forgery, she failed to specifically allege, much less prove, the errors committed by the election officers in ruling on the objections… Mendoza miserably failed to discharge said burden,” the Comelec said.

Only some 250,000 of the petition’s 319,707 signatures were examined by the 24 Bulacan election officers.

They concluded that 181,201 signatures (72.7 percent) were invalid, or were falsified, when these were compared with the signatures and thumbmarks in the Election Day Computerized Voters List, as well as the voters’ registration forms.

Alvarado, who presided over the Central Luzon Regional Development Council meeting on Friday, said the Comelec resolution allows him to concentrate on his task.

The ruling has not addressed the predicament of election officers, who were subjects of indirect contempt charges filed by Alvarado’s camp when they proceeded with the verification despite a temporary restraining order issued by a local court. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon