Comelec decides guv is official Lakas candidate
By JUNE S. BLANCO
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has ruled: Gov. Erico Aumentado is now the administration Lakas-Kampi CMD party official candidate for congressman for the 2nd District of Bohol.
This after the commission chaired by Jose A.R. Melo, in its regular en banc meeting on January 26, resolved the memoranda of its Law Department and the various pleadings in connection with the certificates of nomination issued by the party in favor of and accepted by Aumentado and Trinidad Mayor Judith del Rosario-Cajes for member of the House of Representatives representing Bohol’s 2nd District.
Aumentado’s third consecutive term as governor ends this year, hence his bid for the seat that similarly graduating incumbent Rep. Roberto Cajes will be vacating.
Touted to be the party’s vice gubernatorial bet, the solon who participated in the “unity mass†and went with the group to file their certificates of candidacy on December 1 at the provincial Comelec office in Tagbilaran City however, did not file his.
Instead, he filed his COC for mayor of Trinidad and fielded his wife for the Lower House seat. The lady Cajes supported her COC with a CONA that at the same time revoked Aumentado’s, but whose serial number was ahead of the governor’s.
Since Aumentado’s CONA was signed by party president Eduardo Ermita and secretary general Gabriel Claudio at that time, he reasoned that the signatories to Cajes’ CONA should have been the same as his.
Instead, hers bore the signatures of current Secretary General Francis Xavier Manglapus and Deputy Secretary General Raymundo Roquero.
Again, Aumentado pointed out that Cajes’ CONA was “dubious.†Aside from its serial number being ahead of his, party policy provides that only the officials that issued the CONA have the power to revoke it.
This led President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to instruct Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to look into the brouhaha especially after Rep. Edgar Chatto of the 1st District who is eyeing the gubernatorial seat had went on air on a local radio station to “explain†that Aumentado’s CONA was revoked because he “committed acts inimical to the party.â€
But in a dialog with Yap at Aumentado’s residence on the same day, mayors and officials across Bohol belied Chatto’s allegations and vouched for Aumentado’s loyalty to the party.
As a result, Secretary Prospero Pichay, chair of the party’s Arbitration Committee executed an affidavit wherein after a careful deliberation and consideration of the facts, circumstances and party rules, the committee found merit in Aumentado’s request, and as such, hold and sustain that the validity and effectivity of his CONA with serial no. 22565 was uninterrupted from the time of its issuance up to the present.
At the same time, the committee recommended the revocation of the CONA of Mayor Cajes with SN 22522 retroactive to the time it was issued.
He said the clear intent of the party decision in the aforecited action taken was to revert to the original decision of fielding Aumentado as their only candidate for the second district of Bohol.
Lakas-Kampi-CMD also sent the Bohol office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) a letter dated December 4 but received at the Office of the Governor on Decenber 9 that turned the table on Cajes – the party had reinstated Aumentado’s CONA and revoked hers. New party president Miguel Rene Dominguez and secretary general Francis Xavier Manglapus signed the letter.
The Cajeses brought their arguments to the Comelec Law Department that, after evaluating documents submitted, had recommended that Aumentado and Mrs. Cajes be declared independent candidates.
The Cajeses petitioned to the Comelec that Aumentado’s reinstated CONA was filed after the deadline and sought that the mayor be declared the official candidate and Aumentado as independent.
The governor, through lawyer Salvador Diputado, filed a petition ad cautelam seeking to recognize the uninterrupted validity of his CONA and to declare him as the only official party candidate for the position.
Pichay filed an appeal for the early resolution of the petition ad cautelam, citing “cogent and compelling reasons†like the “dubious circumstances†under which she was able to get a CONA, the reversion of the same when the party reinstated Aumentado as official candidate, and the judicial assumption that as the reinstatement be treated as a substitution it being filed within the reglamentary period – before the December 14 deadline, and requested that the Comelec uphold the party decision favoring Aumentado.
After due deliberation, the Commission en banc resolved to declare Aumentado as the official party candidate for the contested position, declared Mayor Cajes as independent, and directed the Provincial Election Supervisor to effect the necessary changes in the certified list of candidates in the district.
Aside from Melo, signatories to the resolution are Commissioners Rene Sarmiento, Nicodemo Ferrer, Lucenito Tagle, Armando Velasco and Elias Yusoph. Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal was on official business.
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