Comelec exec wants Panlilio to finish term

By George Trillo

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga– Commission on Elections Commissioner Armand Velasco has urged parties in the gubernatorial dispute in this province to allow Gov. Eddie Panlilio to finish his term up to June 30.

Velasco issued a separate opinion on the electoral case even as his colleagues upheld recently an earlier verdict of the Comelec’s Second Division declaring Lilia Pineda as the winner in the 2007 gubernatorial elections and ordering the ouster of Panlilio.

But the camp of incoming governor Lilia Pineda has frozen any move that could implement the poll body’s order to the Department of Interior and Local Government to unseat Panlilio and install Pineda who also won the gubernatorial race on May 10.

“No, we will not push the DILG to implement the order,” Pineda’s lawyer George Garcia said.
Panlilio’s lawyer Ernesto Francisco said the order “is supposed to be executory in view of the issuance of the writ of execution.”

But he noted Velasco “issued a separate opinion wherein he implored the parties to just let Panlilio finish his term to heal Pampanga.”

Velasco said this would also be in deference to the Supreme Court which still has to rule on the petition of Panlilio against the implementation of the ouster order against him.

On May 4, the Comelec issued its verdict on the electoral case filed by Pineda after a recount of gubernatorial votes cast in 2007.

The recount, finished in September last year, gave Pineda an edge of 2,011 votes over Panlilio.

But the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting in Pampanga, which observed the recounting of votes done at the Comelec central office, had noted that 2,496 votes were disregarded because the voters wrote only either “Among” or “Ed.”

In a letter to Comelec chairman Jose Melo, the PPCRV said the votes should have been counted in Panlilio’s favor.

Panlilio, a priest who filed a petition for dispensation from priesthood when he decided to seek reelection, now hopes to be given back powers to exercise his priestly ministry.

He said he was willing to help the Pineda administration, even as he assured his constituents in Pampanga that he would leave his post with the provincial coffers in good standing.