Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Solima confident on case he filed against Faelnar
LAWYER Salvador Solima is unfazed by the P200,000 demand for damages filed by Eugenio Faelnar, saying he is confident that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will rule in his favor in the disqualification complaint he filed against the Guadalupe, Cebu City barangay captain.
He said the law was categorical and did not specify any qualification in the provision that a barangay official who already served three consecutive terms is barred from seeking another term.
The Comelec provincial office is set to hear the two sides tomorrow at 2 p.m.
“I expect Comelec to resolve my petition anytime this week. It (Comelec) is supposed to resolve it (petition) before the election,” Solima said.
Last Friday, Solima filed a complaint for the cancellation of COC (certificate of candidacy) against Faelnar despite a Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) 7 opinion that he can still run for reelection.
Ruling
Solima quoted a DILG ruling which states that elected barangay officials are barred from seeking reelection if they have already served three terms.
He is asking for the cancellation of Faelnar’s COC for allegedly violating the three-term limit.
DILG 7 Director Pedro Noval Jr., in a letter dated Oct. 15 addressed to Faelnar’s lawyer, has said that Faelnar “could still run for another term as punong barangay.”
Faelnar is also Cebu City Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president.
He first ran and won as barangay captain in 1994 and was reelected in 1997 and 2002.
But his service as barangay captain was interrupted in 1997 when he was not able to immediately sit after winning in the elections because of an electioneering case he faced then.
He only assumed office in February 1998, after the case filed by then barangay councilor Anthony Luy was dismissed.
In a separate interview, Faelnar said he already prepared documents showing that he did not immediately sit as Guadalupe barangay captain after winning in the 1997 elections.
He was proclaimed only after the case was dismissed nine months later.
Faelnar said that then first councilor Alex Semilla acted as barangay captain in his stead.
“It is up to him if he feels he has a case against me. I am ready for him,” he said in Cebuano.
Semilla, Solima, and first councilor Ben Baculi are contesting Faelnar’s post. (RHM)
