Pampanga Comelec to transport ballots to Manila on Friday
Lambino told The Star, however, that with or without any Supreme Court ruling on Friday, he will implement the Comelec’s decision favoring the petition of defeated gubernatorial candidate Lilia Pineda for a recount of votes cast in last year’s May elections in this province’s 20 towns.
“For one thing, I think the Supreme Court will act on Panlilio’s petition within 24 hours,” he said, even as he debunked the allegation of Panlilio’s legal counsel Ernesto Francisco Jr. that when he slated last week a meeting today with Panlilio and Pineda on the transport of the ballots, he still had not received an official copy of the decision of the Comelec en banc favoring Pineda.
“That’s not true. I got the official en banc decision last Feb. 14,” he said, adding that today’s meeting he slated between Panlilio and Pineda at 9 a.m. at the provincial police office here was merely to discuss details on the transport of ballots and not, he stressed, to transport the ballots yet.
Lambino also noted that expenses for the transport would be covered by the P4 million Pineda paid the Comelec on Aug. 1 last year, as part of the requirements for a protestant in electoral cases requiring recount of votes.
Last Saturday, Francisco threatened Lambino with contempt charges for the latter’s plan to transmit the ballot boxes to the Comelec warehouse in Manila despite the petition he filed last week before the Supreme Court which he asked to junk the poll body’s en banc verdict and block the transport of the ballot boxes.
Francisco said that Lambino could be charged with contempt because of his alleged insistence to transport the ballots as he was “preempting” the high court, as he noted that Panlilio’s petition for certiorari was slated to be raffled off by the Supreme Court yesterday and tackled today.
- Latest
- Trending
