BACOLOD City – Due to “technicality” the Commission on Elections (Comelec) declared as independent four candidates in the 2019 midterm elections belonging to the local political group Grupo Progreso.
An amendment to their party nomination was “filed out of time,” according to City Election Officer Mavil Sia.
The four candidates were Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, councilors Bartolome Orola and Ana Marie Palermo, and former councilor Archie Baribar.
Familiaran, Orola and Palermo were seeking re-election while Baribar was in a bid for a return to the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
Sia said she learned from the Comelec central office’s Legal Department the decision to declare these four as independent bets on Monday.
The GP led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia, who was also seeking re-election, filed their certificates of candidacy, or COC, on Oct. 11.
Familiaran (Leonardia’s running mate), Orola, Palermo, and Baribar filed theirs four days later, or on Oct. 15.
They were delayed because of a “discrepancy” in their CONA, or certificate of nomination and acceptance, from the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), party of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Government Service Insurance System head Jesus Clint Aranas signed their CONA. While a PDP-Laban official, Aranas was not authorized to sign the CONA for Bacolod City candidates, said Sia, citing the Comelec Legal Department.
The party “tried to make an amendment” but it was “filed out of time”; the four’s declaration as independent bets was “due to a technicality,” Sia explained.
Sia was clueless on who the authorized CONA signatory is.
While they remain candidates and under Grupo Progreso, the four now-independent bets cannot be substituted, stressed the city election officer.
Sought for comment, Familiaran said the decision was “no big deal.”
Panay News was still trying to reach the other three for comment as of this writing.
The CONA is supposed to prove that an individual is a certain political party’s bet. It is submitted alongside the COC.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, PDP-Laban president, submitted on Sept. 27 a list of names of people from the party authorized to issue a CONA.
All duly-registered political parties or coalition of political parties shall submit to the Law Department the names and specimen signatures of the authorized signatories of their official party nominations, the Comelec said.
Potential candidates need to submit the CONA together with their COC unless they want to be considered independent./PN
