If there’s any person or agency to be pilloried, it’s no other than now retired Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer – good riddance – and the COMELEC itself for letting Ferrer put a free-hand, “singly,” on the unresolved election problem after the winners had been proclaimed.
There is no doubt that Commissioner Ferrer alone, without concurrence of other commissioners of the Comelec 2nd division, gave due course to the protest, despite the prior proclamation of winners by the board of canvassers. It was a no-no proposition, given the proclamation as fait accompli. The last Comelec order was for reconvening the municipal board of canvassers, but opposed by the other political camp. Nothing else ensued on that incidental issue until the local electorate recently made their “people power” in mass anger and frustration.
The nagging queries: Why has Comelec let the case sleep? Why did Comelec allow Ferrer to keep the case e unmoving, that then chairman Jose Campos had reportedly bewailed? Has the Comelec allowed the “inter-commission” conflict, to seep down to the personnel? Was it likewise true that now retired Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal had opted to retire early because of the internecine atmosphere in the Comelec and the prevalent “shenanigans”? Is the present perception likewise tenable that the other trustworthy Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, is also on the verge of quitting too?
With the unique Compostela election results placed under suspension after proclamation, it showed that Ferrer broke the entrenched policy for the already proclaimed winners to continue in office, with the case still pending resolution. It also appeared that the case was ordered amended by Ferrer motu propio, thereby including the winning Vice-Mayor and the eight elected councilors, also after their proclamation.
Again, what happened to the Comelec order to reconvene the municipal board of canvassers and, upon opposition by the protestant, Comelec has long sat on the case for over a year now. Why did Ferrer hastily retire, without at least resolving first the simple incidents at hand or proceeded to resolve the main cause of action.
The people of Compostela have over-stretched their patience and tolerance to official inanity, amounting to trumpery. DILG-7 Pedro Noval was the first “non-mayor” of Compostela to quit his non-mayor post and let subordinate, Jerome Gonzales, take over. Meantime, many official matters are not acted which only the bonafide elected municipal officials can so initiate and act upon.
Incidentally in the interim, Director Noval and his proxy Gonzales could have been unwanted apparatchiks that the local electorate have found inutile, with neither real power nor modicum of authority. As current usage goes, poor Gonzales could be snubbed by Compostela folk as mere “frenemy,” that is, enemy disguised as a friend.
Indeed, the editorial cartoon of The FREEMAN of May 11, 2011 – a year after the general elections – is a timely wake up call for the Comelec to act pronto without further dilly-dallying. “No one else but the Comelec, both for the highly unusual and questionable action, and then for taking forever to resolve the complications of such action,” aptly concludes The FREEMAN. Further, the TF correctly diagnosed in post mortem, that Comelec’s errors, nay, blunders, “resulted in a vacuum of governance in the town, to the detriment of its innocent residents.”
It’s high time for bureaucrats and all sedentary and sinecure public functionaries at all levels, be highly observant of what is the law in given cases. Like, the Compostela governance letdown because of the obviously messy and egregious motives in putting to sleep the issues before them affecting the public interest.