MORE NEWS, PAMPANGA

Political absurdity, says lawyer on recall move vs Pampanga Gov Panlilio
By George Trillo

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – “Political absurdity” were the words used by Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal on moves to recall Gov. Eddie Panlilio from his position.

Macalintal said the reported plans to recall the priest-turned-governor “will not prosper” because of the electoral protest filed by defeated gubernatorial candidate Lilia Pineda now pending with the Commission on Elections.

Macalintal was among the four topnotch election lawyers who volunteered their legal services to Panlilio during the May 2007 elections.

Mcalintal said such recall move “will result in political absurdity if a recall is conducted with the pendency of the said protest where Pineda could also emerge as winner.”

“In such a case, what will happen to the recall process or to the one elected in the recall election if the protest is finally decided in favor of Pineda?” he asked.

Panlilio defeated Pineda, who ran under the banner of the Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi), by 1,147 votes. She eventually filed a protest, claiming anomalies in the gubernatorial poll, prompting the Comelec to conduct a recount of votes in some contested areas in the province.

“Clearly, the pendency of the election protest of Pineda is a legal obstacle or legal impediment to any move or plan to institute recall proceedings against Panlilio,” Macalintal said.

Reports said some former supporters of Panlilio are set to launch recall proceedings against the governor, but no one has yet surfaced to confirm this.

Section 69 of the Local Government Code empowers voters to recall any of their elected officials for loss of confidence.

The recall, according to the law, may be initiated by a preparatory recall assembly or by the registered voters of the local government unit to which the elective official subject to such a recall belongs.

For the recall move against Panlilio to succeed, it should have the signatures of 25 percent of some one million voters in Pampanga.

Macalintal said when Panlilio was proclaimed winner and Pineda filed the protest, Panlilio was merely considered the “presumptive winner” or “apparent winner.”

Only the Comelec, by way of a resolution of Pineda’s protest, could make the final determination if Panlilio is indeed the “actual winner,” he added.

“He could only be considered as an actual winner if he still emerges the winner in the election protest on the basis of the same election returns and the ballots themselves as recounted during the revision stage and appreciated by the Comelec or electoral tribunal,” he said.

Macalintal said Pineda’s election protest “still has a long way to go.”

He said he and the governor’s other lawyers have questioned the “sufficiency in form and substance” of Pineda’s protest.

They insisted it was “just copied word for word from other election protests pending with the Comelec, trial court and other electoral tribunals.”

“The issue has to be decided by the Comelec en banc whose decision I could still question before the Supreme Court,” Macalintal said.

Apart from Pineda’s election protest, Panlilio also has differences with Vice Gov. Joseller Guiao, the provincial board and the Pampanga mayors’ league over various issues.

Guiao and almost all local officials supported Pineda in last year’s elections.

But some of Panlilio’s former supporters have become his critics, among them businesswoman Lolita Hizon, who reportedly contributed funds to his campaign.

A local newspaper quoted Hizon as saying, “I will cross the bridge when I get there,” when asked if she would initiate recall proceedings against Panlilio.

Hizon declined to comment on the recall issue but admitted “disenchantment” with Panlilio’s choice of officials at the provincial capitol.

She also expressed dismay over the governor’s alleged threat to charge her son Jomer with a case before the Office of the Ombudsman for quarrying lahar sand from the heavily silted Gugu creek in Bacolor without a permit.

Hizon said her son, being the barangay chairman of Cabetican in Bacolor, was forced to desilt the creek to prevent lahar flows.

Hizon, who was named by the Panlilio administration as the outstanding Kapampangan in the field of entrepreneurship last December, said that while she did not expect anything in return for helping Panlilio during the campaign period, she was taken aback by the threat of a lawsuit against her son.

Hizon said when Panlilio’s safety was threatened during the campaign period, she provided him with refuge in their family compound here in between his political sorties, while her other son spent his personal funds to beef up Panlilio’s security personnel.


Guiao: Budget slash won’t affect scholarship program
By George Trillo

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Vice Gov. Joseller Guiao bared deserving youths from poor families that a P20-million scholarship program for them will still be available despite the slash in the P1.15-billion provincial budget proposed by Gov. Eddie Panlilio for 2008.

“We did not abolish the scholarship program. We just wanted a more detailed scholarship program,” said Guiao, presiding officer of the provincial board, which approved a P935-million provincial budget for this year.

He said the approved budget also disregarded the P10 million earmarked for intelligence operations and another P10 million for “confidential” concerns.

“These items were apparently copied from the Lapids, but we might consider them for approval only if they could be justified,” he added, referring to the administrations of former governor, now Sen. Lito Lapid, and his son, former governor Mark Lapid.

Guiao said Panlilio’s proposed P45-million allocation for lahar sand quarrying operations was lowered to only P22 million.

He urged Panlilio to implement Resolution No. 176, which took effect late last year. Panlilio had vetoed it, but the provincial board overrode his veto.

The legislation scrapped the P150 share of the provincial government from the P300 fee collected from each truck hauling lahar sand from Pampanga, and gave more power to municipal governments in collecting quarrying fees.

Guiao said the Court of Appeals had denied Panlilio’s petition seeking to invalidate the resolution.
“I believe the case was forwarded to the Department of Justice, but I don’t think the department can reverse the CA verdict,” he said.

Guiao said the proposed P45-million budget for Panlilio’s Balas (Biyaya a Luluguran at Sisikapan) lahar sand quarrying operations was “just too much.”

“That’s bigger than the budget of some towns such as Minalin, Sta. Rita, and Sasmuan. There is no need to spend that much for the salaries of some 200 personnel assigned to monitor quarrying operations if only he would implement Resolution No. 176 which has been passed into law,” Guiao said.

This, as Guiao questioned the decrease in the provincial government’s income from quarrying from P26 million in July last year to only P16 million last December.

Historically, Guiao said quarry collections would dip in July because of the rainy season, but would go up by October.

“One would expect that the collections would go up since time would have afforded those in charge of quarrying in the provincial government some ways to fine-tune their operations,” he said.
Panlilio’s office, however, attributed the decrease in collections to the non-working holidays.