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MAGALANG, Pampanga: Local residents are urging police authorities to
once and for all resolve the long standing standoff at the municipal
hall by installing the rightful mayor of the town.
A number of concerned citizens have appealed to
the police to prevent possible violence and further disruptions of
vital services being rendered by the town as losing mayoral
candidate and Angeles City businessman Romulo Pecson has yet to
vacate the mayor’s office despite an en banc resolution of the
Commission on Elections (Comelec) quashing the writ of execution
issued on May 22 by Judge Irin Buan of the regional trial court in
Angeles City.
Felixberto Feliciano, a resident of the town,
expressed dismay on the prolonging situation in their town because
police are hesitant to implement the rightful order of the Comelec
and the regional office of the Department of Interior and Local
Government (DILG).
“We are the victims here,” said Feliciano
adding that police authorities should implement the Comelec order so
Mayor Lyndon Cunanan could attend to the regular public services and
other important business matters.
Earlier, the Comelec en banc declared Cunanan
the elected town mayor of Magalang after ordering the lower
court’s decision of the trial be set aside and the subsequent writ
of execution dated March 11, 2008, as quashed.
At present, Cunanan is holding office at the
municipal health office, which is several meters away from the town
hall. As a result, services of the local municipal health office are
disrupted.
Meanwhile, Cunanan’s legal counsel Francisco
Yabut clarified a claim by Pecson he has to wait for 30 days after
the promulgation of the Comelec decision making it final and
executory. Instead Pecson has 30 days within which to file
certiorari before the Supreme Court.
Pecson’s camp through his lawyer former
Bacolor mayor Ananias Canlas Jr. claimed that there is still 30 days
before the Comelec decision can become executory.
Several local residents are calling for Pecson
to abide by the decisions of the Comelec and the DILG pending his
filing of his protest motion to the high tribunal so as to maintain
the law and order in Magalang.
Tension is gripping the town after Pecson, who
owns the Roel’s Hotdog factory based in Angeles City, announced
through the local media that he would not relinquish the mayorship
of Magalang after he was proclaimed winner by the RTC.
-- Mark Louie P. Roxas
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