The Supreme Court has been asked to stop the Commission on Elections from implementing its resolution mandating the holding of a recall election against San Juan City Mayor Guia Gomez.
In a petition, Gomez through lawyer Analiza Sanchez said the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction when its en banc approved last April 17 this year the recommendation of Deputy Executive Director for Operations Bartolome Sinocurz Jr. to certify the sufficiency of the petition for her recall.
This is even though Gomez claimed the private respondents failed to attach the original copies of the required supporting documents, including the list and signatures of the supporting petitioners for the petition for recall.
Gomez said the failure of the petitioners to attach to their petition original documents and annexes rendered it impossible for the election officer to ascertain compliance with the required percentage or total number of signatories for the petition.
“To be sufficient in form, the rule presupposes that the documents attached to the petition including those containing the signatures of the supporting petitioners are original. By failing to attach original documents, the movant was deprived of due process and the fullest opportunity to meet the accusations against her,” she stressed.
According to Gomez, since the petitioners failed to attach original documents or annexes to the petition, it is as if the petition was not under oath or unverified, adding that is essential that all the allegations therein are based on authentic records.
“Thus, the petition ought to have been dismissed outright for being a mere scrap of paper,” she said.
The local executive said that while it may be argued that the original documents can still be produced during the verification process, it does not remove the fact that even as early as the election officer’s determination on the sufficiency or insufficiency of the petition for recall, the contents of the documents attached to the petition are already the subject of inquiry and therefore at the time of the filing of the petition itself the original documents must already be attached.
She stressed that to allow a belated submission of an original copy containing the signatures of the supporting petitioner’s post-determination by the election of the sufficiency of the petition for recall would enable the petitioners in the petition for recall to rectify a defect or worse to gather real signatures that she added were unavailable at the time of the filing of the petition.
The official said the poll body likewise acted with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction when it issued the challenged en banc resolution even though there was no quorum at the time of its deliberation and promulgation.
The mayor said even the poll body has admitted that there are only three commissioners who took part in the deliberation of the petition for recall against her in violation of Section 5, Rule 3 of the 1993 Comelec Rules of Procedure.
Gomez said Section 5, Rule 3 of the Comelec Rules of Procedure provides that “when sitting en banc, four members of the poll body shall constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business.
“Moreover, given the absence of a quorum, it necessarily follows that the requirement of concurrence of the majority for the pronouncement of a decision, resolution, order or ruling is also impossible because of the withdrawal of the fourth commissioner of the public respondent Comelec en banc,” she added.
Lastly, Gomez said there appears to be a false statement and gross misrepresentation when the petition states that there are 30,540 persons who allegedly signed the petition, when the physical count of the attached documents showed that there were only 27,952 total number of petitioners who signed the petition with address and signatures.
The San Juan City mayor pointed out that it would appear that majority, if not all, the signatures of the supporting petitioners were forged, falsified or otherwise obtained illegally, adding this could be the reason why only photocopies were attached to the petition.
“Since the signatures appearing in the petition for recall were forged and or falsified, then this recall petition should have been denied outright for the private respondents’ failure to obtain the requisite percentage of supporting petitioners to the recall,” Gomez argued.
The poll body had granted the petition of supporters of former San Juan city mayor Francis Zamora and allowed the conduct of a recall election.
The petition filed in September was signed by more than 30,000 residents of the city or more than the required 14, 425 signatures.
Gomez appealed the Comelec’s decision last January but the en banc affirmed its previous ruling, prompting Gomez to file her latest plea.
Zamora lost to Gomez in the 2016 mayoralty race by a little over 1,000 votes.
