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Lucena
City Election Protest
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from
NAMFREL Election Monitor Vol.2, No.10
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One of the election protest cases brought
to the Comelec was for the mayoral race in Lucena City, Quezon.
Constituents were reported to have been appealing for the poll body
to decide on the legality of the administration of former mayor
Ramon Talaga’s wife, Mayor Barbara Talaga. After she was proclaimed
winner of the May 2010 polls, her rival candidate Philip Castillo
and Vice Mayor Roderick Alcala claimed that the proclamation of
Mayor Talaga was invalid due to irregularities.
Former mayor Ramon Talaga was the original candidate who ran for
mayor but Comelec disqualified him for already having served three
terms. Barbara, or “Ruby” to her constituents, then took the place
of her husband and ran. Reports say that what the former mayor filed
was not a withdrawal of his candidacy, but an ex-parte manifestation
and motion for reconsideration as a response to a Comelec resolution
granting Philip Castillo’s petition to cancel Ramon’s candidacy.
Experts said the withdrawal of Ramon Talaga’s motion for
reconsideration was not tantamount to the withdrawal of his
candidacy. Hence, Mayor Barbara should not have been considered as
her husband’s replacement but rather another candidate. The
opposition further cited that the Comelec ruling granting mayor
Talaga’s candidacy as official, replacing that of her husband, and
her certificate of candidacy were acted upon and approved by the
poll body on May 13, 2010 or three days after the election. Barbara
was proclaimed in 2010 after Ramon Talaga got the highest number of
votes.
Alcala on the other hand filed a petition to annul the proclamation
of Barbara, and cited that it is he that should be proclaimed mayor
since he obtained the second highest number of votes, per rules of
succession under the Local Government Code of 1991. Last February,
Comelec junked the petitions filed by Castillo and Alcala assailing
Talaga’s proclamation. The decision however had the dissenting
opinion of Commissioner Lucenito Tagle. Alcala was reported to be
Tagle’s nephew.
After both Alcala and Castillo filed a motion for reconsideration,
Tagle drafted a resolution favoring Alcala’s petition, instead of
inhibiting himself due to consanguinity issue. The draft which is
expected to become a resolution anytime soon, will contest that
mayor Talaga’s proclamation as city mayor is illegitimate. This
will, as a result, allow Alcala to be proclaimed as the city mayor.
(Sources: PDI, PhilStar) |
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