CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Gov. Eddie Panlilio petitioned yesterday the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to suspend for three weeks the recount of votes for governor cast in the 2007 polls in this province to enable him to raise funds for him to monitor the recount process.
In a “manifestation and motion” prepared by his lawyers Ernesto Francisco, Sixto Brillantes, and Pete Quadra, Panlilio said that “the on-going revision of ballots imposes a very heavy financial burden on the herein protestee and to date, has drained the meager available funds of protestee.”
Panlilio, the document said, “has to spend and has been spending P550 per revisor per day, over and above the same daily fees of his five [5] alternate revisors and the P2,000 per diem of his solitary supervising revisor, plus the added costs of photocopying of the revised ballots – his total disbursements on a per-day basis amounting to a staggering sum of approximately about P30,000.”
The governor’s funds, mostly from donations of supporters, are expected to be exhausted in three days, the petition to the Comelec said.
Earlier, Panlilio, a priest whose priestly authority was suspended by San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto when he ran for governor in the 2007 polls, earlier said his assets are worth only about P700,000, including his motorcycle and old van.
Panlilio asked the Comelec to suspend the recount starting Sept. 7. He said that should the polls body, in “a remote event”, refuse this plea, he “shall be forced to cease assigning revisors to the on-going revision; with the option to return with a few, some of several of the said revisors, should he be able to raise some extra funds to appropriately compensate them.”
But this, he warned, would make the recount “obviously a one-sided exercise with only the revisors of the protestant in attendance.”
The recount of gubernatorial votes in Pampanga resulted from the petition of former provincial board member Lilia Pineda who ran and lost to Panlilio by 1,147 votes. Pineda, mother of Pampanga Mayor’s League president Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda, was the candidate of the administration Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi).
Pineda said there was “misreading and misappreciation of ballots, insertion of face or unofficial ballots, fraud and other election anomalies, “dagdagbawas’ and vote buying” during the last gubernatorial polls in Pampanga.
Pastors from various Christian denominations from all over Pampanga formed recently the Pampanga Christian Ministers’ Council (PCMC) to assert that they believed in the “integrity” of the 2007 local elections. They also started a fund raising drive to help Panlilio defray the cost of monitoring the recount being done in Comelec central office in Manila. The pastors were from various Christian denominations based in the towns of Apalit, Guagua, Candaba, Macabebe, Masantol, Porac, Floridablanca, Sto. Tomas, Minalin, Mexico, and this city while one is from Jesus is Lord Movement (JIL).
Panlilio said in his petition yesterday that his request for a three-week suspension of the recount process “is not unreasonable and would not truly be unfair” and that “when compared and equated with an absolutely iniquitous situation that will ensue where only the protestant’s revisors are actively participating in the revision process.”
In a “manifestation and motion” prepared by his lawyers Ernesto Francisco, Sixto Brillantes, and Pete Quadra, Panlilio said that “the on-going revision of ballots imposes a very heavy financial burden on the herein protestee and to date, has drained the meager available funds of protestee.”
Panlilio, the document said, “has to spend and has been spending P550 per revisor per day, over and above the same daily fees of his five [5] alternate revisors and the P2,000 per diem of his solitary supervising revisor, plus the added costs of photocopying of the revised ballots – his total disbursements on a per-day basis amounting to a staggering sum of approximately about P30,000.”
The governor’s funds, mostly from donations of supporters, are expected to be exhausted in three days, the petition to the Comelec said.
Earlier, Panlilio, a priest whose priestly authority was suspended by San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto when he ran for governor in the 2007 polls, earlier said his assets are worth only about P700,000, including his motorcycle and old van.
Panlilio asked the Comelec to suspend the recount starting Sept. 7. He said that should the polls body, in “a remote event”, refuse this plea, he “shall be forced to cease assigning revisors to the on-going revision; with the option to return with a few, some of several of the said revisors, should he be able to raise some extra funds to appropriately compensate them.”
But this, he warned, would make the recount “obviously a one-sided exercise with only the revisors of the protestant in attendance.”
The recount of gubernatorial votes in Pampanga resulted from the petition of former provincial board member Lilia Pineda who ran and lost to Panlilio by 1,147 votes. Pineda, mother of Pampanga Mayor’s League president Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda, was the candidate of the administration Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi).
Pineda said there was “misreading and misappreciation of ballots, insertion of face or unofficial ballots, fraud and other election anomalies, “dagdagbawas’ and vote buying” during the last gubernatorial polls in Pampanga.
Pastors from various Christian denominations from all over Pampanga formed recently the Pampanga Christian Ministers’ Council (PCMC) to assert that they believed in the “integrity” of the 2007 local elections. They also started a fund raising drive to help Panlilio defray the cost of monitoring the recount being done in Comelec central office in Manila. The pastors were from various Christian denominations based in the towns of Apalit, Guagua, Candaba, Macabebe, Masantol, Porac, Floridablanca, Sto. Tomas, Minalin, Mexico, and this city while one is from Jesus is Lord Movement (JIL).
Panlilio said in his petition yesterday that his request for a three-week suspension of the recount process “is not unreasonable and would not truly be unfair” and that “when compared and equated with an absolutely iniquitous situation that will ensue where only the protestant’s revisors are actively participating in the revision process.”
