ANGELES CITY– The Commission on Election (Comelec) is set to rule in favor of suspended Paniqui, Tarlac Mayor Miguel Rivilla against an order of the Regional Trial Court in Tarlac replacing him with a mayoral candidate he defeated in the last mayoral polls.
“This will ease the growing tension at the town hall where both camps occupy,” said Rivilla’s supporter Manly Garcia.
Rivilla, who is under a 60-day preventive suspension over another case, said he would reassume his post on Dec. 8 when his suspension ends. Rivilla is a second cousin of Pres. Aquino on the maternal Cojuangco side of his family.
Last month, the Regional Trial Court installed Rommel Ramos, the mayoral candidate whom Rivilla defeated in the last polls, as mayor of Paniqui. Rivilla received the other day a photo copy of the verdict of the poll body’s First Division, headed by Commissioner Lucenito Tagle, issuing an injunction he petitioned against the decision of RTC judge Agapito Laoagan Jr. installing David.
Before Laoagan ruled on the electoral case, the same RTC under a different judge had already junked the petition of Rommel David whom Rivilla had defeated by over 3,000 votes. Laoagan, who was assigned to the RTC in Benguet province, was later appointed assisting judge in Paniqui.
He ordered a recount of ballots for the mayoral polls which allegedly showed double shading of some 3,000 ballots that otherwise favored Rivilla. The invalidation of the ballots led to David’s allegedly winning the mayoral elections by some 600 votes.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said that the invalidation of the 3,000 votes meant that some 3,000 of the voters were disenfranchised. “The injunction of the Comelec against the RTC decision would invalidate all other acts that followed, including the installation of David,” Garcia said.
Gov. Vic Yap ordered the preventive suspension of Rivilla based on the resolution of the Paniqui legislature, initiated by David’s wife, Councilor Evelyn David, after Rivilla reportedly failed to get the approval of the local board in the use of local funds to pay the salaries of the medical personnel of their district hospital.
Rivilla has openly blamed his uncle, Tarlac 1st District Rep. Henry Cojuangco, for the cases filed against him. This, Rivilla claimed, stemmed from his outdoing his uncle in the construction of the local district hospital Rivilla’s electoral case has also brought to light the rift in the politically powerful Cojuangco clan that has long dominated politics in Tarlac.
While Rivilla blamed his uncle Henry Cojuangco, former Tarlac Gov. Margarita “Tingting” Cujuangco, wife of Jose “Peping” Cojuangco who is younger brother of the late Pres. Corazon “Cory” Aquino, joined the other Saturday some 300 rallyists supporting Rivilla at the town hall.
