Panlilio prefers going back to priesthood

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga , Philippines  – Gov. Eddie Panlilio said yesterday that going back to priesthood is his “preference” after his gubernatorial term ends next year. He has not yet closed doors on proposals for him to run for senator under the Liberal Party (LP).

Panlilio made this clarification after his critics circulated that he had announced a categorical return to priesthood.

Reelection, however, no longer seems an option for Panlilio after this city’s Mayor Oscar Rodriguez announced recently his plans to run for governor. Panlilio earlier said he would instead support Rodriguez’s gubernatorial bid.

Local newspapers headlined recently Rodriguez’s gubernatorial plans, saying he would consider running under the LP should his Lakas-CMD party not name him as official candidate. Vice Gov. Joseller Guiao, a member of the Kampi party who earlier publicly declared his support for the presidential bid of Sen. Noynoy Aquino, as well as Sen. Lito Lapid, also of Lakas-CMD, already announced their plans to run for governor.

In an earlier interview, Panlilio said that LP president Franklin Drilon had offered him and Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca slates in LP’s senatorial slate.

This, even as lawyer George Garcia, legal counsel for former provincial board member Lilia Pineda, said in a telephone interview yesterday that his client’s electoral protest against Panlilio will not be rendered moot and academic once she files candidacy for any political post in next year’s elections.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) set Nov. 30 as deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy to make way for preparations for computerized polls.   

The second division of the Comelec is now attending to Pineda’s case after a recount of gubernatorial votes cast in this province in 2007 was finished by 21 committees last month. There are reports that Mrs. Pineda will run for either governor or mayor of Lubao, President Arroyo’s hometown in Pampanga.

“The case of Mrs. Pineda is different from the cases of Sen. Miriam Santiago against former president Fidel Ramos and the case of Sen. Loren Legarda against Vice President Noli de Castro. The cases of the latter two were rendered moot after they ran for a political office, won and were proclaimed,” he said, noting that Mrs. Pineda has not been proclaimed winner in any political post.

Garcia said that while the Comelec’s second division has yet to rule on Pineda’s case, he expected that the case will finally end up before the Supreme Court regardless of who would be favored by the Comelec’s decision.