MAYOR Lucilo Bayron of Puerto Princesa City allegedly disrupted the Commission on Elections (Comelec) verification proceedings on the recall petition seeking his ouster on Saturday, as he reportedly barged into the poll body’s operations at the city coliseum and confronted the election officer in charge, tore up an official resolution which he did not like, and virtually threw out the entire recall operations from the premises.
Alroben Goh, lead convener of the Puerto Princesa Recall Movement, reported to the Comelec office in Manila that the entire Comelec team was stopped from doing its tasks and was thrown out of the Puerto Princesa coliseum, where recall proceedings were being conducted, minutes before the completion of the nine-day verification process of the recall petition ordered by the Comelec and subsequently, by the Supreme Court.
Goh claimed that Bayron barged into the Comelec operations venue and confronted Election Officer Mon Garduce over a Comelec resolution which he did not like.
The Comelec resolution issued by Comelec Election Officer Orlando Ba-alan ordered the extension of verification proceedings until 11:59 p.m. on the same day because there were only 1,000 signatures left for verification.
Goh said the Comelec resolution, apparently, infuriated Bayron, who wanted the verification process terminated.
Bayron allegedly grabbed the copy of the poll body’s order while the election officer was discussing it with him, Goh said.
Then, Bayron allegedly tore the Comelec resolution into pieces before a raucous crowd, consisting mostly of his supporters, some mediamen, Comelec verifiers, authorized observers of both camps at the Comelec verification center and city residents in the coliseum, Goh said.
Bayron’s outburst was reported in the social media. He was captured on video while barging into the proceedings and tearing the Comelec resolution which he did not like. The video clip tagged as “Desperadong Mayor” was uploaded in YouTube by a concerned resident.
Joel San Juan