Friday, October 17, 2008 Saavedra, former ally launch campaign to gather signatures
A FORMER barangay captain and political supporter of Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez is the main petitioner for the latter’s recall.
Avelino Labajo, 47, yesterday signed an official petition form that signaled the start of a month-long signature drive for the ouster of Fernandez.
Labajo and businessman Crisologo Saavedra, who initiated the campaign, announced their campaign in a press conference at an uptown restaurant in Cebu City yesterday afternoon.
Labajo served as village chief of Jaclupan, a hilly area, from 1989 to 1992. He is the younger brother of former Jaclupan bara-ngay captain Placido Labajo, who lost in last year’s election.
Labajo said he was Fernandez’s supporter for the latter’s mayoral bid in the 2001 and 2004 elections.
In last year’s polls, Labajo admitted he voted for Fernandez’s political rival Gabriel Leyson, a former Cebu City councilor.
He said he voted for Leyson out of respect and gratitude because their ancestral house in Jaclupan sits on the latter’s property.
Change
But Labajo told reporters he signed the petition not because of his political leanings but because of his conviction to have a change of governance in Talisay City.
Labajo, a businessman, said he was the owner of a truckload of charcoal that the mayor’s adopted son, Joavan, intercepted despite having transportation permits from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Toledo City.
“But this is not my way of getting even with the mayor for his son’s abuses. I came here voluntarily to have a change of leadership in Talisay. I have already lost my confidence in him to run the city,” he said in Bisaya.
Welcome
Sought for comment, Fernandez reiterated that he welcomed the recall petition, adding that he would leave it up to the Talisaynons.
“I have no personal objection. Any person who is interested in that movement is welcome under the climate of democracy,” he said in a mobile phone interview.
But Fernandez said he does not feel that the Talisaynons have lost their faith in him, saying that many, especially the poor, still visit him or seek his help.
The mayor said he could not remember that he had a political or personal conflict with Labajo or Saavedra.
Target
For his part, Saavedra said he spearheaded the Fernandez recall movement without any politician or political group backing him.
“Nobody has given me even a single centavo here. I’m not doing it for money or for glory. I’m doing it for the good of the people of Talisay,” he said.
Saavedra said they are set to gather 30,000 to 40,000 signatures of Talisaynons, much higher than Fernandez’s reelection votes of more than 25,000. Talisay City has a voting population of 94,156.
In filing a recall petition, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) requires at least 15 percent of the total number of voters for a voting population of 75,000 to 300,000, he said.
“We’re supposed to gather only 15,000 signatures. But we’re going to gather more because the crucial part here is the signature verification of the Comelec,” he added.
Once completed, Saavedra said the filing of the recall petition and the submission of signatures to the Comelec will follow next month.
If there are no hitches, he hopes the recall election can be held in December and that a new chief executive will sit in City Hall in January.
“This is part of my advocacy. So instead of filing graft cases, I find recall petition as the cheapest way to remove corrupt government officials,” he added.
The petitioner has to shell out P30,000 as filing fee for every elective official who is the subject of a recall move. (GC)
