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Lucena City Election Protest

from NAMFREL Election Monitor Vol.2, No.10

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One of the election protest cases brought to the Comelec was for the mayoral race in Lucena City, Quezon. Constituents were reported to have been appealing for the poll body to decide on the legality of the administration of former mayor Ramon Talaga’s wife, Mayor Barbara Talaga. After she was proclaimed winner of the May 2010 polls, her rival candidate Philip Castillo and Vice Mayor Roderick Alcala claimed that the proclamation of Mayor Talaga was invalid due to irregularities.
 
Former mayor Ramon Talaga was the original candidate who ran for mayor but Comelec disqualified him for already having served three terms. Barbara, or “Ruby” to her constituents, then took the place of her husband and ran. Reports say that what the former mayor filed was not a withdrawal of his candidacy, but an ex-parte manifestation and motion for reconsideration as a response to a Comelec resolution granting Philip Castillo’s petition to cancel Ramon’s candidacy.

Experts said the withdrawal of Ramon Talaga’s motion for reconsideration was not tantamount to the withdrawal of his candidacy. Hence, Mayor Barbara should not have been considered as her husband’s replacement but rather another candidate. The opposition further cited that the Comelec ruling granting mayor Talaga’s candidacy as official, replacing that of her husband, and her certificate of candidacy were acted upon and approved by the poll body on May 13, 2010 or three days after the election. Barbara was proclaimed in 2010 after Ramon Talaga got the highest number of votes.

Alcala on the other hand filed a petition to annul the proclamation of Barbara, and cited that it is he that should be proclaimed mayor since he obtained the second highest number of votes, per rules of succession under the Local Government Code of 1991. Last February, Comelec junked the petitions filed by Castillo and Alcala assailing Talaga’s proclamation. The decision however had the dissenting opinion of Commissioner Lucenito Tagle. Alcala was reported to be Tagle’s nephew.

After both Alcala and Castillo filed a motion for reconsideration, Tagle drafted a resolution favoring Alcala’s petition, instead of inhibiting himself due to consanguinity issue. The draft which is expected to become a resolution anytime soon, will contest that mayor Talaga’s proclamation as city mayor is illegitimate. This will, as a result, allow Alcala to be proclaimed as the city mayor.
(Sources: PDI, PhilStar)

 
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