JV: Zamoras used public funds to push recall elections

MANILA, Philippines — The camp of San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora and his son, former vice mayor Francis Zamora, reportedly used public funds to entice poor residents to sign the petition for the holding of recall elections to oust Mayor Guia Gomez, Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said yesterday.

Ejercito said his 75-year-old mother was “being bullied by the Zamoras using their power, money and influence.”  

“But we will stand by our principles and fight for what is right. Even money and power from a mining empire will not stop us,” the senator said.

He said the Zamoras extended government health and cash-for-work assistance to poor residents, which enabled them to obtain over 30,000 signatures for the petition. 

“I hope the Comelec (Commission on Elections) takes this into consideration. Public funds, medical assistance, financial assistance, scholarships were used in gathering these signatures. This is too much,” he said.

Ejercito lamented that the city’s political culture has changed from unity to division “because of the ambition and obsession of the Zamoras.”

He said San Juan City has been undergoing tremendous development in the past year as a result of his mother’s sound financial management.

“The city now is capable of undertaking projects and programs that were just a dream before. The residents and businessmen are satisfied with the progress and development,” he said.

“Just one question, do you think the Zamoras run for public offices to serve the people of San Juan? On the contrary, Zamoras run not to serve the people but to protect their business interests especially in mining,” he added.

Private citizen Zamora 

The recall election process is aimed at ending the 48-year rule of the Estradas in San Juan and not to bully Gomez, the younger Zamora said yesterday.

“How can I bully her when they are in power and I’m a private citizen already as I lost in the last election? The issue here is her capacity to serve her constituents,” he said in a press conference at Club Filipino in Greenhills.

Zamora lost to Gomez by 200 votes in the last mayoral race.

He said the Estradas wanted to perpetuate themselves in power in San Juan City to control businesses and own large pieces of land.

Ejercito, himself a former San Juan mayor, is a son of Gomez and former president and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.

On Wednesday, the Comelec en banc ruled that the recall petition signed by some 30,000 residents is sufficient in form as it granted Gomez’s camp a three-day period to file a motion for reconsideration.

Last May, Sophia Patricia Gil, Raul Sevilla, Raymond Alzona and Jun Paul Aquino filed the petition, accusing Gomez of failing to protect residents from the proliferation of illegal drugs in the city, graft and corruption, incompetence, abuse of power and dereliction of duty.

The petitioners accused Gomez of delaying the recall process as the Comelec could not locate her to serve her its order. The three-day period to file a motion for reconsideration starts once Gomez receives the Comelec ruling.

“For the record, I have not received any Comelec resolution on the sufficiency of their petition. On why it is taking that long, why blame it on me? Why not ask his ‘legal friends’ who are providing him with unofficial and false information?” Gomez said in a statement.