VM Sayson confident of Comelec’s nod

VICE Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson is confident that he can get a favorable decision from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in his petition to declare Julius Sayson as a nuisance candidate.

Julius is also running for mayoralty seat in the coming 2013 polls against Jude, his relative.

Julius and his legal counsel failed to show up at the preliminary hearing held at the First Division of the Comelec First Division Session Hall (En Banc) Monday, despite the receipt of a notice of hearing and a directive for them to file an answer within five days from receipt of the notice to the petition filed by Jude to declare his namesake as a nuisance candidate.

Jude is under the Nationalist Peoples Coalition (NPC)-Grupo Progreso.

Jude said with the absence of Julius at the preliminary hearing, he has withdrawn himself from the race, adding if Julius was not serious with his withdrawal, he would have appeared at the hearing.

He said this political scheme is a very dangerous action coming from political detractors.

“I believe that I can get the declaration from Comelec in order to exclude Julius Sayson from the ballots. Hopefully, his name is no longer included in the final printing of the ballots. The people have a clear choice of candidates for mayor,” he said.

If the Comelec declares Julius as a nuisance candidate, Jude will be competing with Magbinuligay Kita sa Kauswagan (MKK) mayoralty candidate Monico O. Puentevella.

He said he has a strong case against Julius and there is yet an ample time before December 21, 2012.

Being a scion of his parents as former Vice Mayors of Bacolod, he said, “Our own politics from my parents stands on clean politics. We are guided by our passion to serve our fellow Bacolodnons. We have sacrificed a bit of our resources because of a belief in public service,” he said.

Julius was not there during the hearing, nor was there a counsel to represent him, Jude’s legal councilor lawyer Crystal Vega said.

Present at the preliminary hearing on Monday were Vega, lawyers Sonny Petierre, Dindo Ramos, and Caesar Distrito, and Councilor Al Victor Espino.

Vega manifested before the Comelec Secretary Josefina dela Cruz that Bacolod Comelec was able to acquire jurisdiction of the respondent (Julius), adding lawyer Mavil Majarucon-Sia, the election officer of Bacolod City, can attest that they have served the summons and notices to Julius.

“We also received a withdrawal statement from the respondent but nevertheless we stand by our prayer for him to be declared as nuisance candidate and we still opt to submit our position papers within ten days from yesterday,” Vega said.

Since Julius did not appear and file his answer, the vice-mayor’s camp just submitted documentary evidence and compared those with the original documents, Vega added.

The evidence will be included as their annexes to the position paper that they will be submitting to the Commission, she said.

“We will just be waiting for a prompt decision from the Comelec. Julius Sayson has already waived his right to be heard, so the judgment will be rendered based on the position paper and all the documents attached to it,” she said.

Petierre said the affidavits of the father of Julius, his uncles, and aunties were subscribed to and sworn before him.

The affidavits stated that Julius does not own a house and only resides at his father's house, does not have property and has not filed his income tax return (ITR), since 2007 up to 2010 elections including barangay election, he has not ran nor sought an elective position.

Distrito, one of the collaborating counsels of Jude said: “We are here to give support to our candidate for Mayor Vice Mayor Sayson because it clearly shows that there was no reason for this Julius Sayson to run. He was just being motivated by some persons to run in order to ruin the candidacy of Vice Mayor Sayson.”

Ramos said: “Being a resident of Baragay Granada, I have not seen Julius in the area. Supposedly, if he is serious in running, he should have befriended the people there or convinced others of his candidacy.”

Espino, who was present at the preliminary hearing, said the candidacy of Julius Sayson is malicious and crooked scheme of politicking. (Carla N. Canet)