Comelec supervisor’s house
bombed
AN improvised bomb damaged the house of provincial elections
supervisor Vidzfar Julie in Indanan, Sulu but no one was hurt in the incident
late Wednesday night, said Chief Supt. Joel R. Goltiao, Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao police director.
Goltiao said the findings of the local explosives and
ordnance division team showed that the bomb used at Julie’s house was similar in
make to what was exploded at the Comelec provincial office located at Barangay
Poblacion, Capitol Site in Patikul late Saturday night. He said the IED was made
from dynamite used by local fishermen.
Special elections for barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan
officials will be held in some barangays in ARMM on Saturday following Comelec’s
declaration of failure of elections in these areas. – Raymond Africa
Batas faces another hurdle in
first nominee
PARTY list group Batas may have to hurdle more than the
withdrawal of its accreditation by the Commission on Elections after allies of
its first nominee claimed that the latter cannot be supplanted by the number 2
nominee without his consent.
The Comelec Second Division revoked Batas’ accreditation last
month after it found the party a mere extension of the Ang Dating Daan (ADD)
religious organization. The poll body also noted that the group’s first nominee
and ADD’s vice presiding minister Daniel Razon had used his position as ADD
preacher to campaign for the party in the May 14, 2007 elections.
Batas is appealing the Comelec decision.
Last May 11, Batas counsel Melanio Mauricio said they have
already informed the poll body of Razon’s expulsion as first nominee and are
hoping for Comelec’s favorable action on their appeal.
Sources at the Comelec said Mauricio also let go the party’s
lead counsel Lindley Santillan last August although Santillan continues to
represent Razon and third nominee Jay Sonza and has reportedly petitioned the
Comelec on behalf of his clients to reconsider the disqualification of the
party.
The same sources said Mauricio cannot move up as first
nominee after ousting Razon because nomination to a party list group "may no
longer be changed, altered, or withdrawn after it has been submitted to the
Comelec without the written consent of the concerned nominee or if he dies or is
incapacitated."
Even if Razon’s nomination could still be legally withdrawn,
the sources said Mauricio would still be disqualified as first nominee to a
House seat because he ran as a senatorial bet under Raul Roco’s Aksyon
Demokratiko party in the 2004 elections and this is prohibited under the party
list nomination rules.
Batas garnered 385,810 votes last May, equivalent to 2.42
percent of the total votes cast for the party list polls and entitling it to one
seat in Congress.
Hunt on for shabu lab
operators
MANHUNT operations are on against a Chinese-Filipino national
and his Filipino cohorts who operated a secret shabu laboratory in Angeles City.
The laboratory was raided by operatives of the Philippine
Drug Enforcement Agency last Tuesday.
The Nueva Ecija regional trial court issued a search warrant
against the suspects who were identified as a certain Alex, a Filipino, and an
alias Cai, a Chinese national, and their other companions who managed to escape
during the raid.
PDEA director general Dionisio Santiago said PDEA and local police jointly
undertook a week-long surveillance of the laboratory along Remy Street in Villa
Theresa Subdivision based on a tip from an informer. Seized during the raid were
equipment and chemicals used in manufacturing shabu. – Celine Marteja
