Late-governor Mayaen’s daughter proclaimed winner in Mt. Province
Members of the Mountain Province Board of Canvassers proclaim Kathy Jyll Mayaen (center) as the province’s new governor. Mayaen is the daughter of Gov. Leonard Mayaen (inset), who died of a heart attack on March 31. LEONARD G. MAYAEN FACEBOOK PAGE
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — The board of canvassers (BOC) of Mountain Province proclaimed the daughter of the late governor Leonard Mayaen as the province’s new chief executive on Tuesday night despite questions on her substitution for her father.
Lawyer Kathy Jyll Mayaen filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) last week seeking to replace her father, who ran as an independent and unopposed candidate until he passed away from a heart attack on March 31.
Mayaen’s name remains on the ballot, gathering more than 51,000 votes on May 9.
Lawyers were divided as to whether Kathy Jyll’s COC was proper because a Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolution stated that independent candidates were not entitled to substitutes. Only political parties are allowed to select substitutes for deceased candidates, or candidates who withdraw in the middle of the election period, the rules say.
No governor would have been elected on May 9 under these circumstances, so special elections would have to be organized after the polls, said Comelec chair Andres Bautista in an April 23 news conference here.
Minutes of a Comelec en banc special session last week show that it had turned down Kathy Jyll’s COC, although no resolution had been made public at press time.
But after voting 2-1, the Mountain Province BOC proclaimed her in front of a festive crowd at the capitol grounds.
Lawyer Elenita Tabangin-Capuyan, Mountain Province election supervisor, said in a text message that she had proposed to await instructions from Comelec but was outvoted by the BOC vice chairperson and its third member.
Before Bautista’s pronouncement, Capuyan had said the passing of the late Mayaen was unusual and could have been an exemption to the substitution rule.
