Philanthropist Sulu Governor Sakur Tan.ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 23, 2009) – The Commission on Elections on Friday denied a news report that it gave a go signal for the conduct of recall petitions to six of 28 cases now pending with the poll body due to the lack of funding.
Comelec officials said they were surprised over the news report published Friday that alleged the poll body approved the recall petitions.
Mat Din, the spokesman of Comelec chairman Jose Melo, said he was surprised by the report, saying, it was misleading.
“I was surprised by the report that the Comelec has approved the recall petitions of six cases. The report is misleading. Right now, the Comelec en banc resolution suspending all the recall petitions stays,” Din told the Mindanao Examiner.
Din was referring to an en banc resolution dated November 13, which ordered the suspension of the recall petitions.
“Whereas, the request of the Commission for the release of additional funds for recall elections was not favorably considered due to funding constraints; Now, therefore, the Commission resolved, as it hereby resolves, to suspend action on all petitions filed and pending before the Commission until funds are made available for the purpose,” the en banc resolution said.
Din expressed pessimism that the recall petitions may not push through at all unless Congress approves its request for more funding. “The only way we can pursue these recall petitions is for Congress to give us funding, but I doubt it because there is no more time and we may not be able to get the needed appropriation,” he said.
The report said the Comelec approved the recall petitions only for Pampanga Gov. Eddie T. Panlilio, Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan, Mayor Isidro L. Hemedes Jr., of Cabuyao, Laguna; Mayor Rexito P. Bantayan, Mauban, Quezon; Mayor Gervasio A. Basbas, of Matag-Ob, Leyte; and Vice Mayor Rossman Carry E. Uera, of Pantabangan in Nueva Ecija province.
It was unknown why only the six politicians out of 28 also facing recall petitions were singled out in the report.
In the same report published Friday, Melo allegedly wrote a letter to Rep. Junie E. Evangelista Cua, chairman of the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives, asking Congress to appropriate at least P93 million needed for the holding of the six recall elections.
Melo said the Comelec cannot hold the recall elections because the amount appropriated in the 2008 national budget for the conduct of that elections is only P5 million.
The Local Government Code prohibits the holding of recall elections one year immediately preceding regular elections. The Philippines is to hold presidential and national elections in May 2010.
James Jimenez, Comelec spokesman, said all recall elections remain suspended for lack of money. “As of now, all recall petitions are suspended. I don’t know anything about orders approving the recall petitions and as far as we are concerned there is no move to pursue any of the cases,” Jimenez said in a separate interview.
In Sulu, Sonny Abing, Tan’s spokesman, said the recall petition against the governor is without basis. “Governor Tan is a hardworking man; he is well-loved by his constituents,” he said by phone from his office at the Provincial Capitol.
The recall petition against Tan started after he and other provincial lawmakers rejected last year proposals by some politicians, who are now in their last term, to divide Sulu into two provinces so they can again run in 2010 elections.
The Comelec said 62,631 voters from Sulu's 19 towns had signed the recall papers on August 29, but lawyer Vidzfar Julie, the deputy regional chief, claimed they rejected thousands of spurious signatures from the petition.
And these were on top of more than 10,000 others, who denied they signed the recall petition, three of them poll officials, including a broadcaster of the state-run Radyo ng bayan in Sulu.
Tan won by a landslide with more than 60,000 votes against the incumbent governor Benjamin Loong and former rebel leader Nur Misuari. After his election, Tan immediately ordered police and military authorities to put a stop to the smuggling of contraband and illegal weapons into the province, many of which fall into the hands of rebels and armed goons of politicians.
He also introduced drastic reforms to fight corruption and ordered the Commission on Audit to regularly examine records or financial accounts of government projects to check their accuracy.
Muslim and Christian religious organizations and various civil society groups, including the business groups and chambers in Sulu have thrown their support behind Tan, a known philanthropist in Mindanao. They also signed petitions and manifestos supporting Tan's administration. (Mindanao Examiner)
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