Verdict on Panlilio electoral case known before yearend

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga , Philippines  – The election protest filed by rival Lilia Pineda against Gov. Ed Panlilio will be known before yearend, according to a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official.

Edgardo Cervando of the Comelec’s controversies and disputes division told The STAR the resolution is being kept secret until the parties have been informed and the disclosure made at the Comelec’s session hall.

“Such events are box office hits and invites a full house, including media,” he said. Cervando said the Comelec second division’s decision cannot be known until the ponente reads aloud the verdict during the session.

“It’s just like bingo and the ones who pick the numbers assigned to the cases are not even members of either of the divisions, but rather directors of the Comelec,” he said.

“It just so happens that most of the celebrated cases landed in the second division.”

Panlilio said he expects to be ousted. “It seems to me that the objective of the whole thing is to unseat Governor Panlilio,” he said.

Pineda, who ran under the pro-administration Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) party in 2010, will again face Panlilio, who has joined the Liberal Party, in next year’s elections.

The Comelec’s first division has Rene Sarmiento as presiding commissioner with Commissioners Leonardo Leonida and Armando Velasco as members, while the second division has Nicodemo Ferrer presiding with Commissioners Lucenito Tagle and Elias Yusop as members.

Supporters of Panlilio have started daily prayer vigils in front of the provincial capitol, amid expectations that the Comelec would eventually order his ouster.

In a statement, a multi-sectoral group called Kapampangan Kontra Recount (KKR) accused Malacañang of “manipulating” the electoral protest.

Another group of some 100 Kapampangan multi-sectoral leaders, including volunteers of the Noynoy Aquino Movement, held a protest march in the capital city of San Fernando denouncing “political patronage” last Monday.

KKR called on Kapampangans to join the nightly prayer vigil and pin black ribbons on their shirts and display the ribbons at their homes and on vehicles “to manifest the death of democracy in our province.”

The electoral protest could be elevated to the Supreme Court before the May elections next year, Ferrer said.

He had no way of determining how long it would take the Comelec and the Supreme Court to resolve Panlilio’s appeal, he added.

Ferrer and the two members of the Comelec’s second division have dismissed the petition of lawyer Ernesto Francisco to inhibit themselves from the electoral case against Panlilio. – Ding Cervantes