For the failure of the petitioner to submit the necessary documents, the Commission on Election-Manila has denied the petition to recall Ronda Mayor Esteban Sia.
In a copy of the order that was obtained by The FREEMAN, the Comelec certified that the recall petition filed by opposition councilor Jonnah John Ungab against Sia was insufficient.
The commission handed down the promulgated minute Resolution No. 08-0789 last July 22 but the copies were furnished to the concerned parties only last week.
The decision was based on the recommendation of Deputy Executive Director for Operations Pio Jose Joson who said that the attached certificate of assumption into office of Mayor Sia did not indicate the date of his assumption into office.
With this, the Comelec concluded that the said certification is defective for recall election purposes.
“Bisan gi-unsa ko nila pagdaog-daog gikan pag-question sa akong residency ug perjury wala sila milampos. Karon na pud, gi-deny sa Comelec ilang petition,” Sia said as he urged the opposition to wait until the 2010 elections.
But after he received the decision, Ungab immediately filed a motion for reconsideration last August 15, saying the defect was only technical and does not an effect on his petition.
Ungab pointed out that at the time the petition was filed, the local officer from the Department of Interior and Local Government of Ronda Veronica Fontanoza refused to indicate the date of assumption of office.
Fontanoza reportedly defended that she was not yet the DILG local officer when Sia and other local elective officials during the 2007 elections assumed office.
Ungab admitted that when he filed the petition, he attached the certification of the local DILG officer “without the indicated date of assumption into office.”
Last August 12, the local DILG officer issued a certification that Mayor Sia and the other local elective officials assumed office last July 1, 2007 as what is shown in the records in her office.
Ungab, however, hoped that his motion for reconsideration will be granted by the Comelec after he secured the certification.
The recall petition against Sia, which was reportedly supported by 4,261 residents on the basis of loss of trust and confidence, alleged that during Sia’s term the peace and order situation of the town had worsened, the town’s finances was mismanaged, the delivery of basic services was wholly discriminated, among others.
Under Republic Act 9244 or an act eliminating the preparatory recall assembly as a mode of constituting the recall of an elective official states that “a recall petition only required the signature of 25 percent of the population of a local government unit (LGU) with a population of less than 20,000.”
The municipality of Ronda has a population of 17,000 and an annual income of P20 million.
Majority of the town council’s members are from the opposition headed by Vice Mayor Mariano Blanco III with only two members of the council belonging to the administration.
Last 2007 elections, Sia won against then vice mayor Victoria Blanco, the mother of Vice Mayor Blanco, who had also earlier served as town mayor.
Shortly after the elections, Blanco filed a perjury complaint against Sia but the Regional State Prosecutor dismissed it for lack of probable cause. — Garry B. Lao/WAB