No Christmas celebration at Abalos ancestral home

MANILA, Philippines - Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur Abalos disclosed yesterday that the traditional Christmas Day party at the ancestral house of the Abalos family was cancelled after his father, former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos, was detained on charges of electoral sabotage.

“Tomorrow will be a sad Christmas for our family,” the mayor said.

He said the Abalos family usually spends noche buena at the ancestral home where supporters also pay a courtesy call on his father, a former mayor of the city.

He said his father usually supervises the cooking of the food during Christmas Eve in the house on Kanlaon Street.

“We all grew up in our ancestral home and we see to it that every year we will have a reunion,” he said.

Mayor Abalos said the family would instead hold their noche buena at the detention cell of the former Comelec official at the Southern Police District headquarters in Taguig City.

He said he has already sent a letter to Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo requesting for an extension of visiting hours at the detention cell so that their supporters could be accommodated to see their former mayor.

“We are still waiting for the approval of our request,” he said.

The mayor said even if his father is facing two counts of electoral sabotage charges, he is still entitled to celebrate Christmas with family and friends.

“If the convicts at the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa are allowed to be with their families during Christmas then there will be no reason to deny the same privilege to my father who is still a detainee,” he said.

“It’s the whole family that is psyched up to spend Christmas in jail. Pinaghahandaan na namin (We’ve prepared for it),” Mayor Abalos said.

Yesterday marked the older Abalos’ first week in jail, after Pasay City Regional trial Court Judge Jesus Mupas ordered his arrest for allegedly manipulating the 2007 senatorial elections in the provinces of North and South Cotabato in favor of the Arroyo administration’s senatorial candidates.

Last Friday, tension gripped Mupas’ courtroom after Abalos sought his inhibition over allegations that two lawyers claiming to be the judge’s emissaries asked for P100 million from him in exchange for favorable decisions.

Mupas, for his part, branded the allegations as malicious and ordered Abalos’ camp to show cause why he and lawyer Brigido Dulay should not be held in contempt. – With Aie Balagtas See