Pasacao mayor unfazed over recall petition

PASACAO, Camarines Sur (July 14, 2011) – The lady municipal mayor of Pasacao, Camarines Sur remains unfazed after a municipal councilor submitted a petition at the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) seeking  a recall election aimed at ousting her.

First Municipal councilor Nino Tayco, a known adversary of the mayor of this town, has filed a petition at the local COMELEC office asking to subject Mayor Asuncion Villamante-Arceño (AVA) to recall election. The petition is supported by a list of signatories that Tayco claims represent at least 20 percent of all registered voters who like the mayor removed from office.

Unfazed, Mayor AVA said she is ready to take on her detractors. According to her, the COMELEC is yet to verify the veracity of the signatures and she believes that the COMELEC will not act on the petition favorably because the adverse allegations put forward to support her recall are unfounded and have no basis.

The mayor said that majority of the elected officials whose signatures appeared in the petition have denied signing the document and have executed affidavits.

Under Philippine law, within the period after an election and one year before the next scheduled election, 10 to 25 percent of registered voters in a locality, depending on the total number of registered voters in the territory, can petition the COMELEC to schedule a recall election that may remove an elected local government official.

Pasacao, Camarines Sur falls within the 20,000-75,000 bracket where 20 percent of voters are required to sign for a recall petition to progress.

After submitting his petiton to the COMELEC, Tayco now says he has complied with the required number of signatories and he is now looking forward to an election in which he is willing to run for town mayor. (With reports from Noriel Oya)