Wednesday, January 16, 2008 Recount winner still waiting
JUST when he was all set to assume the town’s top post yesterday, incoming Tudela Mayor Demetrio Granada, whom the court declared winner after a recount, still wasn’t able to do so.
Granada was in Danao City to post the P100,000 bond as required by the court before he could sit as mayor of the Camotes town. However, the clerk of court who was supposed to receive the bond was on leave.
Granada said he will just post the bond today.
Granada’s lawyer John Cane said they will also coordinate with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the agency which has jurisdiction over matters like this.
Both DILG 7 Director Peter Noval and legal officer Ruben Almendras said they have to wait for the writ of execution that will direct the DILG to implement the order of the court before they can implement Granada’s installation.
But before the court orders the writ of execution, Granada has to post the bond.
The DILG has not received a copy of the court’s decision on Tudela’s case yet so he won’t issue further statement on the matter, said Almendras.
Granada said he really wants to assume office as soon as possible.
But if Rogelio Baquerfo, the one acting as mayor now, will not vacate the mayor’s office, Granada said he is willing to hold office elsewhere, even in the comfort room of the town hall.
But he said he has prepared an executive order directing department heads and employees to follow his orders and to recognize him as the mayor. Baquerfo won over Granada in the May elections with a margin of only eight votes.
Granada filed an election protest; the Regional Trial Court in Danao City ruled last November that Granada won by 13 votes over Baquerfo. Granada then filed a motion for execution pending appeal.
Last week, Judge Edito Enemecio granted the motion and ordered Granada’s immediate installation as mayor of Tudela.
“If the protestant (Granada) will have to wait for the finality of the election protest, it will not be remote that he may not be able to exercise at all the functions of the office for which he was elected by the people of Tudela, Camotes, Cebu,” Enemecio said in his three-page order.
Enemecio also said that the term for mayor is only three years and eight months have lapsed since the protest was filed “with the protestee (Baquerfo) exercising its functions who turned out to be the loser, not the person elected.”
Baquerfo had said he won’t step down and insisted that Granada needs to get a writ of execution, which can only be issued 20 days after the judge issued the order.
Baquerfo also threatened to have him arrested if he insists on assuming the post without the writ of execution.
Baquerfo’s camp has also requested the court for a temporary restraining order to prevent the execution of the order. (MBG)
