Brillantes sued for favoring former client

Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The mayor-elect of Aliaga, Nueva Ecija, has filed graft charges against Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. in the Office of the Ombudsman for his alleged arbitrariness in blocking his proclamation as the duly elected town mayor.

In a six-page complaint dated Oct. 7, Mayor Reynaldo Ordanes accused Brillantes of issuing two injunction orders without consulting his fellow Comelec commissioners in favor of ousted Mayor Elizabeth Vargas.

He claimed Brillantes “took special interest” in the case because he was Vargas’ former election lawyer.

Vargas was ordered by a Cabanatuan City Regional Trial Court (RTC) to vacate her office on May 28 after it declared Ordanes as the real winner in the mayoral race.

“It is the policy of this government, in line with the principle that a public office is a public trust, to repress certain acts of public officers and private persons alike which constitute graft and corrupt practices or which may lead thereto,” the mayor said in his complaint.

“The said twin orders… gave (Vargas) unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference, causing damage and undue injury to herein complainant,” he added.

Ordanes said Brillantes “had shown manifest partiality and evident bad faith in issuing the orders.”

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