Guv unfazed by "no vote" threat

CEBU, Philippines -“I did not know that their votes were for sale.”

This was Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia’s reaction to the threat of the Evangelical Christian Coalition of Cebu, Inc. (ECCCI) that they are not voting for her if she seeks for a national position in 2013 because of her position in the proposed cemetery at the Osmeña Shrine in Barangay Kalunasan.

ECCCI president Romeo Borado earlier appealed to Garcia to leave them alone. Borado pitches that Garcia’s intervention on the issue may be considered a political suicide for her.

“I did not know that their votes were for sale and I thought belonging to various religious groups they would be the last to sell their votes,” Garcia told reporters yesterday.

The ECCCI asked Garcia to spare them from whatever conflict she had with Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña.

Garcia has already instructed the Provincial Legal Office to review the terms and conditions when the Province donated the seven-hectare lot in Barangay Kalunasan to the Cebu City government for the Osmeña Shrine in 1965.

“The instruction stays for our legal office to study the situation and to recommend to me possible legal action that the province should take to protect the interest of the Province, votes or no votes,” Garcia said.

Garcia said as chief executive, she is tasked over and above anything else any other consideration to uphold the interest of the province or the city as the case maybe at all times in consonance with her sworn duty to uphold the law.

“Vote buying in any form or manner is illegal,” Garcia warned.

Borado claimed there are at least 10 million protestant voters in the country like the Adventists, Baptists and Aglipayans, and he is sure they will sympathize with the group’s plight of having own resting place for protestants.

In Cebu Province, Borado also claimed they have at least 600,000 voters and whoever Garcia wants to succeed her in 2013 might be affected if she fails them.

ECCCI is a coalition of 23 non-Catholic churches that include Life-Giving Baptist, Banilad Christian Fellowship, Baptist Conference of the Philippines, First Baptist, World for Christ, Shalom Baptist, Assembly of God, Evangelical Free Church, among others.

Osmeña during his stint as mayor of Cebu City donated four hectares of the property to ECCCI in May 4, 2010, days before the 2010 national and local elections. The donated property will be converted into a cemetery. — (FREEMAN)