San Juan mayor asks SC to stop recall election

San Juan Mayor Guia Gomez has urged the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the Commission on Elections from implementing its resolution finding sufficiency in the petition for recall election in the city.

In a 52-page petition for certiorari, Gomez also asked the high court to nullify the Comelec's decisions on the petition for recall and determine the agency's jurisdiction in handling the said petition.

The petition for recall came after some 30,000 duly registered voters and San Juan residents filed a petition of loss of confidence against Gomez in September last year.

While the Comelec, in November last year, found sufficiency in the petition for recall, Gomez, in her petition, said the agency has acted with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction when it approved the recommendation of Deputy Executive Director Bartolome Sinocruz Jr. for sufficiency of the recall petition.

This is so, she said, because the private respondents failed to attach the original copies of the required documents, including the list of signatures of the supporting petitioners for the petition for recall.

Gomez also said Comelec acted with grave abuse of discretion when they deliberated and subsequently issued the resolution finding sufficiency of the petition for recall even without quorum.

"As admitted by public respondent, the vote after deliberation is 2-1-1, signifying that there are only three commissioners who took part in the deliberation of the petition for recall against herein petitioner," Gomez's petition read.

Gomez, in her petition, underscored that the issues she raised are of "transcendental importance" as it involved the position of mayor of San Juan City.

"The power to recall given to the electorate should be protected from abuses and political maneuverings given that this exceptional remedy is now resorted to and utilized by defeated candidates to harass, threaten and malign incumbent elective officials like herein petitioner to serve the ends of partisan politics," the petition read. —Erwin Colcol/ALG, GMA News