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Saturday, February 07, 2004
Comelec: Morales can seek reelection
By Dante M. Fabian and Rhay G. Navales
MABALACAT -- “I can still run for mayor.”
Thus said Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales in a press conference held at the Municipal Hall here Friday morning.
Morales cited the resolution and recommendation issued on Thursday by the Provincial Election Office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the City of San Fernando dismissing the petitions lodged against his candidacy for “lack of merit.”
Lawyer Renato Bautista Jr., Normandick De Guzman and Venancio Rivera, public school teacher Marissa Castro and a certain Eliazer Cuenco Sr. all filed separate petitions for the disqualification of Morales in the May elections.
The petitioners claimed that the certificate of candidacy (COC) of Morales should be canceled because the latter had fully served three consecutive terms as an elected mayor in 1995, 1998 and 2001 and for material misrepresentation.
In a six-page resolution/recommendation, Provincial Election Supervisor lawyer Temie Perez Lambino noted that Morales had served as de facto officer in 1998-2001 because his proclamation was null and void by virtue of a court decision declaring his archrival, Anthony D. Dee, as the elected mayor of this town.
In April 2, 2001, then Judge Omar Viola of the Regional Trial Court Branch 57 of Angeles City declared Dee as the winner of the 1998 elections. Dee obtained 29,602 votes against Morales’ 27,018.
Lambino stated that Viola’s decision “became final and executory on Aug. 6, 2001 upon the dismissal of respondent’s appeal with the Honorable Commission on Elections (Comelec) for being moot and academic.”
“This office firmly believes that the null and void proclamation of the respondent (Morales) as mayor of Mabalacat, Pampanga in the May 1998 elections cannot be considered as his second term of office. The decision of the court adjudging him not the winner in the 1998 elections interrupted the three-consecutive-term limitation for an official to run for the same elective office,” Lambino said.
He added, “Needless to say that respondent is still eligible to run as Mayor of Mabalacat, Pampanga in this May 2004 National and Local Elections for he was not elected as mayor in the 1998 elections.”
Lambino stressed that “when Morales was elected in the 2001 elections, such will be considered again as his first term.”
According to him, Morales is now also qualified to run in the 2007 elections.
“Granted that Morales was elected as mayor in the 1998 polls, his term was also interrupted by his suspension for six months in an administrative case filed by the Ombudsman entitled National Bureau of Investigation and Fact-Finding and Intelligence Bureau vs Manuel “Lito” Lapid, et al docketed as OMB-ADM-0-99-0003 for Grave Misconduct, Dishonesty, and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service,” it was also stated.
Morales, Lambino said, was exonerated on the charges against him.
The resolution also stated that Morales’ suspension amounted to an involuntary severance from office which must be considered an interruption of continuity of service and, thus, the respondent did not fully serve even as caretaker executive or presumptive Mayor of Mabalacat, for the whole 1998-2001 term.”
“Nowhere in the certificate of candidacy of the respondent can be found the material misrepresentation he allegedly committed,” it was also said.
Lambino even downplayed the accusation of the petitioners that Morales was trying to establish a political dynasty.
“The Supreme Court has it that to prevent the establishment of political dynasties is not the only policy embodied in the constitutional provision in question. The other policy is that of enhancing the freedom of choice of the people,” Lambino said.
Meanwhile, Morales welcomed the resolution/recommendation of the Comelec saying he was “finally vindicated.”
Morales exhorted his political opponents to “respect the rule of law.”
“This is a government of laws, not of men,” he said.
Morales, the official candidate of the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), is again contesting the mayoral post against telephone magnate Dee, former Mabalacat Vice Mayor Reynaldo Candelaria, lawyer Ed Lopez, and newsman Armand De Guzman.
(February 7, 2004 issue)
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