Vendors ask Comelec to disqualify Calamba mayor

An organization of vendors in Laguna has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify the incumbent mayor of Calamba from seeking re-election for having been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.

In its petition filed before the Comelec, officials of the Public Market Vendors Association of Calamba, Inc. (PMVACI) led by its Chairman of the Board Francisco Moreno, said that Mayor Lajara was convicted and sentenced by final judgment by the Municipal Trial Court of Calamba, on March 21, 1980 for violation of Presidential Decree 1602 (illegal gambling), having been caught playing monte.

He said that Lajara has avoided serving the penalty imposed on him by the court. The Clerk of Court of the MTC of Calamba has attested that records do not show Lajara’s payment of fine, service of the subsidiary imprisonment nor was he granted probation. — Jose Rodel Clapano