3 top City Hall men to resign for elections

CEBU, Philippines - Three ranking officials of the Cebu City Government would be forced to resign from their respective positions once they file their certificates of candidacies this week as city councilors under Team Rama.

Mayor Michael Rama said Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem, chairman of the City Traffic Operations Management (CITOM), is included in his lineup for councilors in the north district.

Aside from Jakosalem, Ronald “Raddy” Diola, who was designated by the mayor as nutrition officer of the city, and Andrew “Andy” Borres, head of the Barangay Affairs Unit under the Office of the Mayor, would be also running as councilors for the city’s south district.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc issued a new guideline for the 2013 elections, which states that “any person holding a public appointive office or position, including active members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and other officers and employees in government-owned or controlled corporations, shall be considered ipso facto or automatic resigned from his office and must vacate the same at the start of the day of the filing of his Certificate of Candidacy.”

However, those holding elective posts like the mayor and councilors shall not be considered resigned upon the filing of their Certificate of Candidacy whether for the same or any other elective office or position.

Rama still did not say who will replace the posts that will be vacated by the three city officials who will be filing their certificates of candidacies within this week.

The Certificate of Candidacy shall be filed on any day from October 1, 2012 to October 5, 2012, during office hours (8:00 AM to 5:00 PM).

If at 4:45 p.m. of October 5, 2012, there are still persons intending to file Certificates of Candidacy present inside the Comelec office, the receiving officer shall prepare a complete list containing the names of said persons, consecutively numbered, and the time of listing.

The persons listed shall be called by announcing each name in the order in which they are listed, but when they are not around when their names are called they shall not be allowed to file their Certificate of Candidacy. (FREEMAN)