MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has denied the motion for reconsideration filed by San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez to stop the recall polls in the city.
In a decision dated April 17, the Comelec en banc voted 2-1-1, dismissing Gomez’s appeal.
The poll body will start the verification process for the 30,000 individuals who signed the petition for recall filed by the camp of former vice mayor Francis Zamora in September last year.
Zamora lauded the Comelec’s decision.
He urged his supporters to be vigilant and participate in the verification of signatures of the petitioners.
Zamora said the family of former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada has been controlling the political landscape of the city for more than three decades and “now is the right time to end it.”
Gomez, for her part, welcomed the Comelec’s decision, saying it is high time to determine whether the signatures of the petitioners are valid.
“I’ve been waiting for the recall elections to move on to find out once and for all if the 30,000 signatures are not fake,” said Gomez.
She said her lawyers would act as observers and file objections during verification of the signatures.
There are 65,000 voters in San Juan. Only 15,000 signatures are needed for the recall elections.
Gomez won over Zamora by 1,000 votes in the 2016 mayoral race.
Comelec lawyer Gregorio Bonifacio scheduled the verification of signatures and thumb marks of the petitioners from April 25 to May 1, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the San Juan Elementary School in Barangay Balong Bato.
Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito, Gomez’s son by Estrada, hit acting Comelec chairman Al Pareño for his apparent undue interest in the recall case against his mother.
Ejercito said Pareño “personally supervised the writing of the Comelec decision.”
He said the recall petition requires an en banc decision of the poll body, but Pareño insisted on coming up with a ruling. – With Paolo Romero