Saturday, May 05, 2007 DA employee risks complaint
A GOVERNMENT employee openly campaigned yesterday for Reps. Antonio Yapha and Clavel Asas-Martinez, who are seeking the gubernatorial and vice-gubernatorial seats.
In his speech before the Consultative Meeting of Rural-Based Organizations, Teddy Luzano, chief of the Institutional Development Services of the Department of Agriculture (DA), urged the participants to vote for Yapha and Martinez on May 14.
“This administration has ignored us, instead of taking care of us considering who she got so many votes from us,” said Luzano.
Luzano also lambasted Garcia’s efforts to get back the land being occupied by the DA regional office in Cebu City.
Bulldozer
“She sent a bulldozer to our office. Di mo malooy namo? (Don’t you feel sorry for us?) Don’t worry about electioneering, wa’ay napriso ana (no one has ever gone to prison for that). Everybody is politicking,” Luzano added.
Comelec 7 Regional Attorney an Provincial Election Supervisor Lionel Castillano for his part said if somebody will file a complaint against Luzano, he may be charged with violating the Election Code.
It states, in part, that officers and employees in the civil service cannot intervene in any political activity except to note or preserve public order.
Perpetual disqualification from public office, suspension of the right of suffrage and one to six years’ imprisonment are the penalty imposed to someone who is proven guilty of such election offense, according to Castillano.
Luzano, however, clarified that he is on leave.
Yapha and Martinez, who spoke before the participants, promised to prioritize agriculture if they are elected, saying they have strong attachments to farming.
Boxes in
Before he ran for governor in 2004, former congressman Celestino Martinez Jr., Clavel’s husband and currently a mayoral candidate in Bogo, had served as an undersecretary at the DA.
Martinez, in her speech, criticized Garcia for giving an “incomplete accounting” of the CICC expenses.
Martinez said that the computation of Garcia lacked supporting documents such as contacts.
Also yesterday, Castillano revealed that the needed 300 ballot boxes have arrived.
The Comelec is waiting for the arrival of the election returns, official ballots, indelible ink and self-locking seals. (KNT)
