Disqualify Ilocos Norte town mayor, Comelec asked

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has been asked to disqualify the incumbent mayor of Dingras, Ilocos Norte from seeking re-election.

Petitioner Nathaniel Ruben Taylan, who filed the disqualification case before the Comelec office in Intramuros, Manila last week, said Dingras Mayor Marynette Gamboa should be barred from seeking public office because she is a fugitive from justice, having a criminal case abroad.

Gamboa allegedly evaded prosecution for three felony charges before the Ventura County Municipal Court in California.

Documents obtained from the Ventura County which Taylan submitted to the Comelec showed that on Jan. 27, 1997, Gamboa violated Sections 470, 475 and 476 of the Penal Code after she allegedly uttered and passed an altered traveler’s check in the amount of $1,000 with the alleged intent to defraud Macy’s, Thomas Cook and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp.

She also allegedly willfully and unlawfully possessed eight unfinished counterfeit traveler’s checks and counterfeit US currency, according to the documents.

The bond that Gamboa posted for her release was forfeited early on, but she failed to appear in court when required to do so, according to investigator and bail enforcement agent Ronney Podskalan, who was employed by ABC Bail Bonds to locate and return Gamboa to court.

Podskalan also said in his statement issued to the court that a new alias of the defendant had been uncovered as early as 1998.

Aside from her alleged criminal records in the US, Gamboa, a first-time mayor, has been implicated in the slay attempt on her closest mayoral rival Joefrey Saguid of the Nacionalista Party in November 2008, the killing of Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative board president Lorenzo Rey Ruiz in September 2009, and the ambush on NP candidates in Dingras last December.