Thursday, October 09, 2008 Plan to oust him hardly moves; Talisay mayor insists he has been doing his job
POLITICAL allies of Mayor Socrates Fernandez are taking a safe stance on the impending ouster move against the beleaguered Talisay City mayor.
For one, Councilor Osmundo Manreal Jr., also Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) president, refused to make a categorical reply when asked if he was in favor of a recall petition against Fernandez.
Manreal merely said he would just leave it up to Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st district), whom they look up to as their political mentor and patron.
Gullas, Talisay’s first city mayor, told dyRF Radio Fuerza in an interview to give him time on the recall petition against Fernandez.
Gullas said that any concerned citizen has the right to file a recall petition as it is provided for under the law.
For her part, Vice Mayor Lani Abarquez, an opposition candidate in the May 2007 polls, also begged off from issuing a comment on Fernandez’s ouster move.
Awkward
Abarquez said she does not want to put herself in an awkward position.
Businessman Crisologo Saavedra, who has filed several cases against allegedly anomalous government transactions before the Ombudsman, recently announced that he is working on the filing of a recall petition against Fernandez before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for loss of confidence.
The gathering of signatures, a Comelec requirement, will be done this month, he added.
Talisay City Prosecutor Marshall Rubia, a former Comelec legal officer, said the petition needs at least 20 percent of the registered voters’ population who actually voted in the last elections.
Rubia said the petitioner must be a resident of Talisay, which Saavedra is not.
Fernandez, who is on his second term, appeared unperturbed by Saavedra’s announcement, saying that anybody can file a petition in a democracy.
But Fernandez insisted that he has not been remiss in his duty as Talisay’s chief executive especially on his livelihood, education and housing programs for the poor.
“As of now maybe there are only a disgruntled few. But the number may increase should they embrace his (Saavedra’s) efforts,” added Fernandez, who hogged the limelight following a series of incidents involving his 26-year-old adopted son, Joavan.
Ally
Initially, Saavedra found an ally in Oscar Abellana, father of Osbert, one of two vulcanizing shop laborers who were reportedly beaten up by Joavan and his five cohorts last Aug. 11.
Joavan was arrested Monday night by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), following the filing of serious illegal detention charges against him over the incident.
Joavan is now detained at the Talisay City Rehabilitation and Detention Center in Maghaway.
Meanwhile, Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Ronald Roderos said that instead of getting insulted by the NBI’s arrest of Joavan, the police are grateful for the agency in helping them serve Joavan’s arrest warrant.
“I thank the NBI for helping the police so that there will be no doubts,” Roderos told reporters yesterday.
He said the situation in Talisay is unique because the chief of police of the city is appointed by the mayor and the subject of the warrant is the son of the mayor.
Neither the Cebu Provincial Police Office nor the Talisay City Police Station received a copy of the warrant.
Probably, Roderos said, the issuing judge tapped the NBI in serving the warrant because of the “unique situation” and the previous experience last August where the raid on Joavan’s house yielded negative results. (GC/JTG)
