The camp of former Vice Mayor Francis Zamora announced on Tuesday it already made official its appeal to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to hasten the release of its resolution on the pending motion for reconsideration (MR) of Mayor Guia Gomez on the recall of polls in San Juan City.
In an interview, Zamora said their legal counsel already filed four urgent motions to resolve the MR of Gomez that was filed on January 18.
“That is already four in total…that is being filed every week by the lawyers of the petitioners. All they have to do is approve or deny the MR,” Zamora said during a demonstration on Tuesday, which he held together with his supporters in front of the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila. “But, up to now, it has been more than one month, and they haven’t taken action. That is why we are here.”
Zamora ran against Gomez during the 2016 mayoral elections in San Juan City and lost by just over 1,000 votes.
Last December the camp of Zamora sought a recall election against Gomez, which was supported by at least 30,000 residents of San Juan City.
In January the Comelec en banc issued a notice of sufficiency on the recall petition with a vote of 4-0 in favor of Zamora.
However, the poll body could not proceed with the recall election after Gomez filed her MR.
Zamora lamented the still-pending decision of the Comelec en banc on the MR of Zamora, which, he said, prevents many residents of San Juan from picking the mayor they want.
Under the Local Government Code, recall elections cannot be held a year before a regular election.
In Zamora’s cases, the Comelec will only have until May 11, 2018—a year before the 2019 midterm elections—to hold its recall election in San Juan.
“We urge Comelec to become sensitive to the plight of the 30,000 San Juaneños who signed the [recall] petition…. They put their lives at risk in signing it. Some of them are now being harassed,” Zamora said.
Zamora was referring to five of his supporters, whom he alleged are now facing charges in the Ombudsman for them to withdraw their signatures in the recall petition.
Image credits: Alysa Salen
