CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – A week after the first division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) eased tension at the Paniqui, Tarlac municipal hall upholding Mayor Miguel Rivilla in his post, the samepolls body threw the town into confusion by issuing a suspension of its own resolution.
Comelec Commissioner Lucenito Tagle signed last Nov. 28 an order saying Rommel David, whom Rivilla defeated by over 3,000 votes in the last polls, could stay onas mayor after he, backed by the local police, occupied the third floor of the town hall last Oct. 28.
Previously last Nov. 12, Tagle and other members of the Comelec’s First Division issued a resolution declaring Rivilla as legitimate mayor, as an RTC decision last October declaring David as mayor based on a vote recount, was “null and void.”Violence broke out at the Paniqui town hall last Nov. 14 as thousands of Rivilla’s supporters, encouraged by the Nov. 12 verdict of the Comelec, sought the ouster of David from the town hall’s third floor, recalled Rivilla’s leader Manly Garcia.“David fled, but there were damages to the municipal building and normalcy was restored. The employees were also given their delayed salaries,” Garcia said.
Rivilla’s supporters massed up anew at the municipal hall yesterday after they learned that the same division of the Comelec had issued another resolution reversing its earlier decision that favored Rivilla. In his order and behalf of the Comelec, Tagle oted that David filed last Nov. 19 before the Comelec en banc a motion for reconsideration of his case and that therefore he would still stay on as mayor of Paniqui
