Pampanga to have Pineda as governor by December?

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga– A lawyer of Gov. Eddie Panlilio said the Commission on Elections is “bent on proceeding” with the recount of the 2007 gubernatorial votes in this province and finish its task within three to four weeks.

At the rate the poll body is pursuing the recount, lawyer Ernesto Francisco said Pampanga “might have” former provincial board member Lilia Pineda as its governor by Christmas.

Francisco told newsmen the Comelec is keen on proceeding with the recount, “thus, our motions are being denied or disposed of right away.”

“The concerted effort to unseat Gov. Panlilio might just work and Pam¬panga might just have Lilia Pineda as its governor in time for Christmas,” he said.

This, as pastors representing various Christian denominations across Pampanga announced the other day that they would hold fasting and continuing prayers for a stop to the vote recount.

The pastors, organizing themselves into the Pampanga Christian Ministers’ Council, told a a press conference here last week they believed in the “integrity” of the 2007 gubernatorial race where Panlilio won by 1,147 votes over Pineda, the gubernatorial bet of the administration Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino.

“This recount ushers in a bleak scenario for future elections in the country,“ the PCMC said in a statement.

The pastors hail from the towns of Apalit, Guagua, Candaba, Macabebe, Masantol, Porac, Floridablanca, Sto. Tomas, Minalin and Mexico and this city.

The group, including one from the Jesus Is Lord Movement, gave testimonies on the credible conduct of the 2007 gubernatorial polls.

While legal actions to stop the recount already exhausted, Francisco said, “The holding of rallies will help if only to highlight the fact that this recount is the result of a sham protest.”

JIL pastor Albert Musngi said Panlilio’s camp could not have committed anomalies in the 2007 polls as the governor was not even entitled to watchers in voting precincts because he ran as an independent candidate.

Pastor Joy Pongco, “mission keeper” of the PCMC, said the council has raised at least P51,000 for Panlilio’s revisors and watchers in the ongoing vote recount.

Panlilio earlier said he could not afford the cost of hiring recount revisors and watchers even as Pineda, as early as 2007, had deposited with the Comelec some P4.4 million for the recount expenses.

Pineda, in a telephone interview, said she has left to her lawyer all matters concerning the recount.

“Let’s just wait for the outcome, if at all there will be before the elections next year,” she said.

Pastor Gel del Rosario said that should Panlilio lose in the recount, “the Filipino people will not allow that we (Kapampangans) be toyed with,” as he recalled how Filipinos expressed their sentiments for former President Corazon Aquino when she died last Aug. 5.

Del Rosario, however, said the PCMC is not necessarily fighting for Panlilio, but for “righteousness.”

Francisco, meanwhile, bewailed reports that the Comelec is considering Pineda’s alias “Nanay Baby” in the vote recount. Pineda said votes bearing her alias were not counted in her favor in the 2007 polls.

But Francisco said this would be “perjurious” since Pineda’s electoral complaint also cited “misreading and misappreciation of ballots, insertion of fake or unofficial ballots, fraud and other election anomalies, dagdag-bawas and vote buying.” -- DC