There is no basis for San Juan City to hold recall elections against Mayor Guia Gomez since there is no clamor from San Juaneños for it, Sen. JV Ejercito said on Thursday.
Defending his mother, Ejercito said San Juan City has significantly improved under the administration of Mayor Gomez. The city had just garnered back-to-back citations, the senator noted—the prestigious Seal of Good Local Governance by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Excellent Rating from the Civil Service Commission as contained in its Anti-Red Tape Act Report Card.
These awards, Ejercito said, “profess the good governance Mayor Guia is implementing in San Juan City,” noting that more projects are underway such as the construction of the Hall of Justice, the new San Juan Medical Center, and the Rehab Center.
“San Juan is being run very well,” said the senator, who was mayor and congressman of Metro Manila’s smallest city before his mother took over. “It is rapidly developing and services are bound to further improve, then comes this recall petition from a political foe who cannot accept defeat.”
“Amid all these progress, how can there be a ‘loss of confidence’ and incompetence?” Ejercito said.
On Wednesday, supporters of former vice mayor and defeated mayoral bet Francis Zamora filed a petition before the local Commission on Elections seeking the election recall for the mayoral post, citing the reasons the senator mentioned.
Zamora’s supporters gathered 30,000 signatures of residents who supposedly want another election and presented it to the Comelec in a bid to unseat Gomez, now on her third and last term as mayor.
Ejercito, the son of Gomez by former President and current Manila Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada, insisted there is no reason to hold recall elections “in our beloved San Juan City.”
He debunked the accusations of fraud against Gomez, calling them “baseless” since “the act is virtually impossible in an automated election.”
“Should San Juan’s development be stalled because of the ambition of one man [Zamora]?” he said.
Zamora had earlier filed a disqualification case against Gomez for her camp’s alleged vote-buying activities, but withdrew the case to give way to the recall petition.
Gomez, in turn, has accused Zamora of buying signatures in the guise of financial assistance to secure signatories for their recall petition.
“They are paying our countrymen more or less P5,000 per individual under the guise of ‘cash for work’ to get signatures,” the 75-year-old Gomez said in a statement. “Even the relatives of our community leaders are saying these are mere fantasies and hoaxes.”
With a registered voting population of just over 71,000, San Juan only needs a little more than 21,367 voters for the recall to proceed, Zamora said.
“This is more than double of what is required,” he added.
