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Assailed Imus Mayor appealed to Comelec, denied

from NAMFREL Election Monitor Vol.2, No.25

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Former Imus, Cavite mayor Homer Saquilayan’s appeal for a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was denied. Saquilayan filed for a TRO after his appeal was rejected twice by the Imus Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch 22. The Comelec First Division headed by Commissioner Rene Sarmiento denied the petition. Judge Cesar Mangrobang of the RTC came with a decision granting losing candidate Emmanuel Maliksi’s appeal for a manual review of the results. After the ballots were reviewed, Mangrobang issued a resolution reversing the result of the election and proclaimed Maliksi as the winner. The votes for Saquilayan were nullified on grounds that they were found to be “stray votes.” In the May 2010 elections, Saquilayan won over Maliksi by 8,499 votes. After the manual review, Maliksi edged Saquilayan by 665 votes. The incumbent mayor’s camp and party-mate, Cavite Third District Representative Jesus Crispin Remulla dubbed Mangrobang as “biased” for not acknowledging that the ballots that were contested, including the ballot boxes, were tampered before the review started. Saquilayan’s hopes to remain as mayor now grew dim as Comelec junked his petition for a TRO. Maliksi was reported to have assumed his position as the mayor of Imus, after Saquilayan was given until December 27, 2011 to relinquish the post for Maliksi. It was reported that the ousted mayor has conceded, but is not giving up the post just yet, and will even take the case to the Supreme Court for appeal. There were also reports that the Imus police heightened the security in line with the development of this protest case. Saquilayan’s supporters held a vigil on December 27, 2011, and the police officers since then have been on the look to avoid any untoward incident. The supporters eventually left the municipal hall peacefully. .

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