Hearing on Pampanga gubernatorial row starts

By George Trillo

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – The Commission on Elections Second Division conducted initial hearing of the recount petition for the gubernatorial post in this province Oct. 15.

The hearing was originally set for Oct. 8 but was moved to Oct. 8 at the Comelec office in Manila because two other commissioners of the division, Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusoph, could not attend the initial hearing.

“According to Comelec rules, at least two of the three commissioners comprising a division have to be present in the hearings involving electoral contest adjudication,” Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer of the Comelec’s Second Division said.

Tagle was in Indonesia while Yusoph was said to be attending an important meeting with newly appointed Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal during the originaldate.

The hearing was intended to be a venue for protestant former Board Member Lilia Pineda to present evidence and prove her allegations against incumbent Governor Eddie Panlilio.

The lawyers of both parties, Jorge Garcia (counsel for Pineda) and Sixto Brillantes and Ernesto Francisco Jr. (counsels for Panlilio) had all agreed to the postponement of the hearing. Ferrer agreed to give a one-week extension to the Pineda camp for the “pre-marking of their documentary evidence.”

It was recalled that Pineda lost to Panlilio by a slim margin of 1,147 votes in the May 2007 gubernatorial elections.

Pineda filed an election protest against Panlilio on May 25, 2007 on allegations of misappreciation and misreading of ballots, and fraud and irregularities, such as massive cheating, vote-buying and harassment of teachers and poll watchers of the rival camp.
The Comelec will likely come out with a decision in the electoral case against Panlilio by November.

In the hearing, Comelec Commissioner Nicodemus Ferrer said the legal counsels of Panlilio vowed to submit soonest evidence to prove the governor’s victory in the 2007 polls.

After the filing of the evidence, Ferrer said, the Comelec will give Pineda, five days to submit her response.

Pineda, a close ally of the Arroyo administration, earlier sought a recount of the votes in the gubernatorial race, alleging that she was the winner.

The Supreme Court upheld the recount, which 21 revision committees recently completed.
Ferrer said the Comelec has set the next hearing next week.

“Optimistically, we can come out with the decision before the end of November but conservatively not later than the end of December,” he said.