Supporters of a move to oust the current governor and vice governor of Samar expressed confidence they have the numbers to remove the sister-brother tandem in a recall process that’s drawing closer to the holding of new elections in one of the country’s poorest provinces.
“This is a number’s game and we have the numbers,” said Board Member Charlie Conejos, one of the main supporters of the recall petition against Samar Gov. Sharee Ann Tan and her brother Vice Gov. Stephen James Tan.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is currently verifying hundreds of signatures affixed to the recall petition. Proponents of the recall move need the signatures of at least 10 percent of Samar’s 450,000 voters.
Governor Tan accused recall proponents of resorting to fraud to oust her and her brother. She said many of the signatures appeared to be forged claiming that in the town of Basey alone, at least 341 signatures were questionable.
341 signatures
Virginia Besas, Basey municipal election officer, said the 341 signatures that the Tans questioned were part of 1,551 signatures of voters in the town that her office had verified since Nov. 10. At least 4,000 signatures were affixed to the recall petition in the town alone.
“We have noted their (Tans’) complaint,” said Besas.
Conejos said voters whose signatures were being questioned by the Tans would be asked to attest to the authenticity of their signatures.
Aurelio Bardaje, main petitioner against Governor Tan, said recall proponents would not resort to fraud to oust the Tan siblings. “These were all real, signed by the people who were aware about the petition,” said Bardaje.
Governor Tan said some of the persons who signed the petition were dead “and yet their signatures appeared in the petition.”
She said if these signatures were removed from the petition, she was certain her detractors won’t be able to meet the required number of signatures to oust her and her brother.
Mother rules
Recall proponents are seeking the ouster of the Tan siblings mainly because they allegedly aren’t the ones calling the shots in Samar but their mother, ex-governor and now Rep. Milagros Tan, who had been suspended for 90 days during her term as governor for a graft case involving the impoverished province’s calamity funds.
The Tan siblings had denied the accusation.
More than 73,000 signatures have been gathered by proponents of the recall move against the Tan siblings.
The recall petition was filed on Dec. 7, 2010, by Bardaje (main petitioner against Governor Tan) and Elvisa Lopez (main petitioner against the vice governor) at the provincial Comelec office based in Catbalogan City.
After the verification of the signatures is complete, Comelec officials said the next step that the recall would take is to be certified by ranking election officers as sufficient in terms of the number of signatures needed.