Padaca allies vow to block recall move

ROXAS, Isabela — As efforts to recall Gov. Grace Padaca snowball, her political allies are closing ranks, vowing to give the plotters a hard time.

Isabela second district Rep. Edwin Uy, considered as Pada—ca’s political godfather, told a press conference here last Friday that he, along with Padaca’s other supporters, will oppose the recall move "to the hilt."

"We will make it hard for them to recall Gov. Padaca," said Uy, provincial chairman of the administration’s Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD).

Under the 1991 Local Government Code, the local electorate can remove an elective official from his post through recall even before his or her term expires, for loss of confidence.

Uy said the recall move is untimely, and a recall election uneconomical and only a waste of government money.

A province-wide recall election, he said, needs at least P28 million for election materials and the salaries of teachers who will serve in the poll.

Uy said it would be immoral to use government funds for such an unnecessary political exercise.

"Why not wait for the 2007 elections?" he asked, appealing to the recall movers to give Padaca a chance to serve Isabelinos for three years.

Uy warned that he would file an impeachment case against commissioners of the Commission on Elections who would approve the holding of a recall election against Padaca.

Election lawyers said at least 175,000 petitioners are needed to start the recall process, adding that the only way to recall a local elective official, after the 1991 Local Government Code was amended, is through people’s initiative.

Isabela has 705,000 registered voters.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Isabela United Opposition, a multisectoral group which supported Padaca’s victory over former governor Faustino Dy Jr., are set to meet this coming week to assess the progress of the recall move.

The STAR learned that 25 of the province’s 35 town mayors and one city mayor have reportedly "committed" themselves to the recall move.

Former governor Benjamin Dy belied reports that the Dy clan is behind the recall move.

"If ever there would be one member of the Dy family who would join the recall move, that is his personal undertaking," he said in his radio program, Good Morning Isabela, on the Dy-run radio station dwDY.