Calbayog Mayor expresses desire to run against the incumbent governor in a recall election

By GINA DEAN-RAGUDO, Samar News.com
November 20, 2010

CALBAYOG CITY  –  Since nobody wanted to fight the Tans, Calbayog Mayor Reynaldo Uy finally made up his mind and announced before the press in a conference on Thursday held at I’s Plant Hotel, this city that he is set to run for governor in the province of Samar and Board Member Eunice Babalcon for vice-governor should a recall election be granted by the Commission on Elections.

Said move was an upshot of the League of Municipalities (LMP-Samar Chapter) board resolution where 18 mayors have signified their signatures expressing their support that a recall election against incumbents Governor Sharee Ann Tan and Vice-Governor Stephen James Tan be held.

According to Uy, his desire to govern the province of Samar is not for personal interest but to serve the people, eliminate signing of blank vouchers, quashing ghost projects, giving the 20% development fund to respective towns and restoring the capitol in its old form.

“Calbayog is already a city. Let’s concentrate in Catbalogan for development, Uy said.

The resolution passed by the majority bloc at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan on Thursday during the regular session specifically cites the basis for filing a petition for recall election, to wit:

“First, the incumbent officials in the position have been remiss and remain to be remiss in the performance of their duties and functions as public officials in the Province of Samar; second, basic social services and programs are not properly implemented due to poor administration, lack of capacity to govern, and engagement in divisive partisan politics on the part of said Governor and Vice Governor; third, the people of Samar have long been deprived of the basic services and programs of government in the field of health, education, livelihood, infrastructure, agriculture and other programs and activities meant to improve their lives; fourth, the continued stay in power of the present dispensation administered by Tan Family will only cause more damage than benefits to the people of Samar; fifth, despite repeated public demands asking the present administration of Governor Sharee Ann Tan and her brother Vice Governor Stephen James tan to observe the tenets of good government for the Province of Samar, efforts towards that end are always put to naught because of their personal and family interests, whims and caprices, apathy, greed and arrogance; sixth, the governor, vice governor and their cohorts had conspired in illegally obtaining the make-believe approval of the 2010 budget of the province for no other purpose but to give semblance of legality to their ever-increasing venalities in government; seventh, the people of Samar have been suffering from undue and inept public administration characterized by rampant graft and corruption collectively resulting in the betrayal of public trust and loss of confidence; eighth, the Constitution provides that the congress shall enact a local government code which shall provide for a more responsive and accountable local government structures instituted through a system of decentralization with effective mechanisms of recall, initiative, and referendum, allocate among different local government units their powers, responsibilities, and resources, and provide for the qualifications, election, appointment, and removal, term, salaries, powers and functions and duties of local officials, and all other matters relating to the organization and operation of the local unit; and ninth, Republic Act 7160 specifically provides the initiation of recall process as amended by RA 9244.”

Liberal Party’s counsel Roger Casurao said that in case of Samar Province where it has an estimated number of 450,000 registered voters, only 10 percent from that shall be required to sign in the petition. Such signatures will be verified by the COMELEC.

The Local Government Code of 1991 provides that “no recall shall take place within one (1) year immediately preceding a regular local election”, which refers to one where the position of the local officials to be recalled is to be actually contested and filled by the electorate.

“Dire pwede magparecall within one year tikang lumingkod an usa nga elective official,” Casurao clarified.

It was also learned from the prescon that there were already signature campaigns initiated and the target date for recall is 2011.

To support this allegation, Mayor Uy admitted having made his move in the second district of Samar by helping some officials in the latest Barangay and SK Elections, and he was so satisfied with the result when he gained the sympathy of 20 mayors from among the 25 towns in the whole province.