Puerto Princesa mayor confident Comelec will deny recall petition

MANILA, Philippines - Puerto Princesa City Mayor Lucilo Bayron believes that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will uphold the principle of fairness and integrity and will deny the election recall petition filed against him by his erstwhile rival and former mayor Eduardo Hagedorn.

In a statement, Bayron said he believes the Comelec will uphold the will of the people of Puerto Princesa as expressed during the 2013 local elections when he won by more than 10,000 votes over Hagedorn’s wife Ellen.

Bayron’s camp also expressed doubt on the authenticity of the voters’ signatures in the recall petition.

According to Bayron, he does not believe that all the signatures in the recall petition are genuine and real.

Bayron said many of the voters who allegedly joined the petition had talked to him and clarified that they never signed the recall documents,  thus many of the signatures were supposedly falsified.

The Comelec, in Resolution 9864 it approved last April, earlier declared the recall petition sufficient in form. However, the verification process is temporarily on hold because of lack of funding.

Under the procedure on recall elections, after declaring the petition to be sufficient in form, the Comelec has to verify if the voters’ signatures are genuine.

Meanwhile, contrary to claims made by the rival camp that the local tourism industry, the city’s bread and butter industry, is on the decline, Bayron said tourist arrivals in the city have in fact increased under his administration.

“In my first seven months in office, that is, from July 2013 to January 2014, tourist arrivals in the city have surpassed the tourist arrivals during the same period of Hagedorn’s term by more than 12,000 additional tourists,” he said.

Bayron also said new investors’ confidence has also improved because over the same period there were 6,500 new businessmen who ventured in the city.

“The figure is in fact 1,500 higher compared to the the new businesses over the same period under the administration of Hagedorn,” he said.

The crime rate, according to Bayron, has also decreased because of improved police presence.

“Also, we were also able to get rid of fixers manipulating the sightseeing trips to the Underground River which was dominant under the term of Hagedorn,” he alleged.

“We have introduced a system in handling tourists who want to visit the famous tourist site hailed as one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature,” he said.

During the first few months of his term, Bayron said the city government was able to give out a monthly allowance to the 38,000 students in public elementary and high schools, something that was never done before.

Also, for the first time in two decades, he said senior citizens and persons with disabilities are enjoying monthly allowances under his administration.