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SC ruling on Albur this week
By:
KIT BAGAIPO
UGDORACION |
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The
Supreme Court is set to rule on the motion for certiorari
and prohibition this week filed by Albur Mayor Jose
Ugdoracion to block the implementation of a Comelec
en banc ruling which disqualified him as a candidate
in the May 14 election.
Ugdoracion
has two days left before the Comelec decision can be
implemented through the issuance of a writ of execution
by the poll body.
Hearings
on the mayor's motion started last week after he was
given 15 days starting October 15 to secure the certiorari.
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The
beleaguered mayor said his lawyers had assured that the Comelec
will defer implementing its decision until the Supreme Court
has ruled on the pending motions.
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Ugdoracion's
candidacy was nullified by the Comelec due to lack of
one-year residency.
The
petition was filed by mayoralty candidate Ephraim Tungol,
son of former mayor Efren Tungol.
Tungol
also filed a motion at the Comelec for the issuance
of a writ of execution which directs the Department
of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to execute the
en banc ruling which ordered Ugdoracion's certificate
of candidacy "cancelled and denied due course".
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In
his motion for execution at the Comelec en banc, Tungol stated
that "the effect of a cancellation of the certificate
of candidacy of a candidate would be that the votes counted
for such candidate should be declared stray votes."
Tungol
argued in his petition that the case is "not for disqualification
of a candidate or an
elected official" but the petition "attacks the
very core of the candidacy of the respondent [and] there should
be a retroactive application of the [en banc] resolution…"
The
petition likewise asked the Comelec to reconvene the municipal
board of canvassers of Albur in the May 2007 elections to
declare the votes garnered by Ugdoracion as stray votes.
Afterwhich,
the board of canvassers has to proclaim Tungol as the duly
elected mayor of Albur, "being the winner by plurality,
having garnered the highest number of valid votes cast for
the position…"
WHO
WILL SUCCEED?
On
the event that Ugdoracion will be removed from his mayoralty
post, two legal opinions surfaced as to who will be his successor.
Vice
Mayor Cirilo Jalad, who is the second highest elected official
can assume as mayor of Albur.
However,
the Tungol camp issued a statement that because of the circumstances
behind the matter, Ephraim Tungol, who got the second most
number of votes in the mayoralty race last May 14 holds the
jurisdiction to assume the vacated post.
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