Comelec disqualifies Laguna governor for law violations

The race for the gubernatorial post in Laguna province is over.

The Commission on Elections has disqualified Laguna Gov. Teresita "Ninging" Lazaro after she was found to have used government funds in promoting her candidacy for governor.

In a four-page resolution promulgated Friday, the Comelec directed its Region IV director and the provincial election supervisor to strike out Lazaro’s name from the certified list of candidates.

The poll body, likewise, ordered the local board of election inspectors not to count the votes cast for Lazaro on Monday’s elections and to consider them as stray votes.

Lazaro’s disqualification has left her rival, Bert Lina, as the lone candidate for governor.

The ruling of the Comelec’s second division led by Commissioner Ralph Lantion said Lazaro violated Sec. 80 of the Omnibus Election Code banning campaign activities outside of the authorized period when she disbursed last Feb. 7 about P4.5 million in public funds to purchase and donate various items like trophies, sports equipment, tables, and chairs to promote her candidacy.

The poll body also found that Lazaro violated Section 261 of the Code when she caused the bidding last March 28, 2001 of 79 public works projects totaling millions.

"An incredible bidding in one day of 79 projects is a clear circumvention of the Code," the Comelec said.

Lazaro’s case stemmed from a petition filed by Pangkat Laguna, a local political party, which accused the governor of violating election laws and making a mockery of public spending rules shortly after she assumed the top post in January when President Arroyo asked her predecessor Jose Lina Jr. to take a Cabinet post.

The petitioner said Lazaro went on a massive first-quarter multi-million spending spree that not only wiped out local budget savings and consumed the entire local public works fund for 2001 but also exceeded by P66 million the total amount allotted for the whole year and P91.9 million more than the income realized by the province.

Earlier, the Sandiganbayan, slapped her with a three-moth suspension in 1994, for violating the anti-graft and corrupt practices act when she caused the conversion, allegedly for personal gain, of agricultural land into a residential area.

In the Comelec case, evidence showed she certified last Feb. 7 that items worth P4.5 million – consisting of monobloc tables and chairs, basketballs, volleyballs, trophies, chessboards, dartboards, t-shirts, among others — were "exceptionally urgent or absolutely indispensable to prevent imminent and real danger to, or loss of, life or property."

Lazaro also ordered the bidding of P62.187 million worth of infrastructure projects and P32.5 million worth of special educational fund projects last March 28 despite a Comelec resolution stating that bidding of public works contracts must be held before March 28.

The petition added Lazaro donated government money of P258,600 in cash and P362,065 worth of various items in several barangays during the period from Feb. 13 to March 5, in violation of a Comelec prohibition on donations or gifts from Feb. 13 to May 14, 2001.