Not surprising if Comelec is out to get me : Panlilio

By George Trillo

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — After the Commission on Elections declared that Bulacan Governor Joselito “Jon-jon” Mendoza and Isabela Governor Grace Padaca lost in the May, 2007 elections, Pampanga Governor Eddie “Among Ed” Panlilio said he thinks he would be the next provincial executive to be unseated by the poll body.

Panlilio said it would not be surprising if he would also experience the same fate as that of Mendoza and Padaca because they all belong to the same party, the Liberal Party (LP).
“We are all members of the Liberal Party and it seems that we are slugging it out with candidates from the administration party Lakas-Kampi-CMD,” Panlilio said.

Panlilio and Padaca are vocal critics of the Arroyo administration while it was remembered that Mendoza and the priest-turned-governor were the “whistle-blowers” of the alleged “brown envelope scandal” in Malacañang in 2007.

Panlilio said, however, that he still hopes that “the true voice of the people of Pampanga would prevail.”

“I still believe in the integrity of the 2007 elections,” Panlilio said.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer of the Comelec Second Division, who handles the recount case against Panlilio, said the poll body would cite the camp of Panlilio in contempt if they would continue to relay to people and media “malicious and misleading opinions” about the poll body.

“We would like to request the camp of Governor Panlilio to stop telling people and the media that we are biased. Nobody can direct us and we only want the truth to prevail,” Ferrer said.

The supporters of Panlilio staged a protest rally in front of the Comelec office in this capital city recently to denounce “Comelec swift action on the recount case.”

The group said that ousting Panlilio is “all part of a grand scheme that can be related to the bid of President Arroyo in the second district.”

In their statement sent to reporters, Kapampangan Kontra Recount (KKK), a group that supports Panlilio, said that they believe “that the recount scheme is to quash the entire democratic gains of the people in Pampanga. This is an effort to ensure the continuing existence of the elitist patronage politics in the province. The coalition further believes that GMA (President Arroyo) is at the helm of this scheme, whose administration is riddled with corruption and violations of human rights.”

The group said that Panlilio did not have the capacity to cheat in the May, 2007 elections.
Earlier, the camp of former Senior Board Member Lilia Pineda, who lost to Panlilio by merely 1,147 votes, said that “it does not necessary mean that if he (Panlilio) is a priest, he cannot cheat.”

Pineda filed an election protest against Panlilio for massive cheating during the May, 2007 elections.