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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Recount winner to assume post
CEBU CITY -- The Regional Trial Court in Danao City has granted Demetrio Granada’s motion for execution pending appeal and ordered his immediate installation as mayor of Tudela town more than two months after he was declared winner over Rogelio Baquerfo in a recount.
In a three-page order dated Jan. 9, Judge Edito Enemecio also denied the motion for inhibition Baquerfo filed against him.
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But Baquerfo said he won’t step down and insisted that Granada still has to get a writ of execution, which can only be issued 20 days after the judge has issued the order.
“If they want to force the issue I will have them imprisoned for violating the law,” Baquerfo said in Cebuano.
He also said they will immediately request the court for a temporary restraining order to prevent the execution of the order.
Granada told Sun. Star Cebu he will go to Danao City today to pay the P100,000 bond required by the court before assuming his post, adding that he wants to ensure that his taking over of the post will be legal.
He said he sought the opinion of former governor and now Second District Rep. Pablo Garcia, who told him that the order can already be implemented.
“They should not defy the order of the court,” Granada said.
Troops
Supporters of both camps gathered in front of the municipal hall although Baquerfo said there was no tension.
But Greman “Jojo” Solante, president of the Association of Barangay Councils in Tudela and ex-officio member of the Municipal Council, told dySS that Vice Mayor Clint Maratas cancelled the session because of the situation.
Some department heads and employees also left the town hall after the flag ceremony when Baquerfo announced he won’t vacate the post.
The Cebu Provincial Police Office has already sent two police teams, one from the Special Reaction Unit and another from the Provincial Mobile Group to Tudela to maintain the peace there.
In the May 11 elections, Baquerfo was declared winner with only a margin of eight votes.
Granada then filed an election protest. After a recount, Judge Enemecio ruled in November that Granada won by 13 votes.
Granada then filed a motion for execution pending appeal while Baquerfo filed a motion for voluntary inhibition to prevent the judge from hearing the motion that Granada filed.
The motion for voluntary inhibition was denied while the court found that “it has sound reasons for the execution of the judgment pending appeal.”
Ruling
“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 order.
He also explained that the term for mayor is only three years and it has been eight months since the protest was filed “with the protestee (Baquerfo) exercising its functions who turned out to be the loser, not the person elected.”
The order took cognizance of the grounds Granada used in filing the motion for execution pending appeal: public interest involved or will of the electorate, shortness of the remaining portion of the term of the contested office and the length of time that the election contest has been pending.
This is not the first time that Baquerfo and Granada fought in court to get the top post of the town.
In 2004, Granada won over Baquerfo as mayor of Tudela.
Baquerfo filed an election protest but this wasn’t resolved until the May elections.
Baquerfo used this as a ground in seeking the inhibition of Judge Enemecio, who pointed out that while the election protest was filed in 2004 yet, he (Enemecio) was appointed presiding judge of Branch 25 only in 2007.
And since the election was set for May 11, rendering a decision on the protest would become moot as Baquerfo’s term would have ended by then, the judge added. (MBG)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Baguio. (January 15, 2008 issue)
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