Embattled Mayor Antonio Prospero Esquivel. Photo by Armand Galang
JAEN, Nueva Ecija – The Commission on Elections Second Division has denied for lack of merit the Motion to Inhibit and to Resolve filed by sitting Mayor Antonio Prospero Esquivel against its head.
In an order dated Feb. 16, the Comelec division cited the Supreme Court ruling in Villamor v. Manalastas and Umale which stated that “bare allegations of bias and prejudice as not enough, in the absence of clear and convincing evidence, to overcome the presumption that a judge will undertake his noble role to dispense justice according to law and evidence without fear or favor.”
The order was signed by Presiding Commissioner Socorro Inting and Commissioner-Senior Member Antonio Kho, Jr.
Esquivel filed the motion, seeking among others, to inhibit Inting from further presiding in their case.
Esquivel is locked in a legal battle with Mayor Sylvia Austria whose reinstatement was earlier order by the Comelec Second Division through a status quo ante order.
According to the Comelec order, Esquivel “through his counsel imputes to the Presiding Commissioner (Inting) the conclusion that she has exhibited bias when she issued a Temporary Restraining Order/Status Quo Ante Order against the respondent (Esquivel)” without notice of and hearing and before the case was even raffled to her division.
The division said that Sec. 5, Rule 30, of the Comelec Rules of Procedures, as amended, clearly allows the issuance of the TRO without prior hearing.
“It is incorrect to state that the Presiding Commissioner, and consequently the Second Division of this Commission issued the assailed Order prior to the raffle of the case before it,” the Comelec Second Division also said.
As early as Jan. 5, 2021, it added, the division through the clerk of court received the minutes of raffle held on even date at 5:30 p.m. and attended by representatives of the chairman and all commissioners.
In finally denying Esquivel’s motion, the Comelec body condemned its filing.
“This Commission (Second Division) condemns in no stronger words the action of the private respondent and his counsel in leveling malicious imputations against the person of the Presiding Commissioner without substantial proof just to seek a tribunal sympathetic to their cause,” it said.
As of press time, Esquivel remains to be the sitting mayor as the Department of Interior and Local Government has yet to implement Austria’s reinstatement based on the status quo ante order.
