Lemery mayor steps down

Mayor Raul Bendaña of Lemery town in Batangas province on Tuesday stepped down from office after recognizing the authority of a government order requiring him to relinquish the top municipal post. Radio station dzBB said Bendaña left the municipal hall peacefully. He had previously insisted that he would only give up the mayoralty seat upon the issuance of an order from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). Bendaña's political nemesis, Eulalio Alilio, had alleged that the mayor's allies cheated and robbed of him victory during the May 2004. Alilio lost by a narrow margin of 467 votes based on the count of the Commission on Elections (Comelec). He then filed an election protest, wherein he alleged that massive cheating marred the previous local polls. The Lemery regional trial court-Branch 5, in its decision regarding the mayoralty struggle, noted that Alilio should have won by 1,044 votes. Alilio ran as an indepenent candidate, while Bendaña was affiliated with the Liberal Party. Lemery is a first-class municipality known for its beaches, which serve as a relatively nearby getaway for urban dwellers in the Philippine capital of Metro Manila. The town's economy also relies on its fishing industry. According to the 2000 government census, Lemery has a population of 66,528 residents in 12,709 households.-GMANews.TV