The fight is not yet over for warring political clans in the City of San Juan, Metro Manila’s smallest city.
On Wednesday, supporters of former vice mayor and defeated mayoral bet Francis Zamora filed a petition before the local Commission on Elections seeking an election recall for the mayoral post, citing “loss of confidence” in incumbent Mayor Guia Gomez.
Gomez, however, called the petition a “desperate attempt” for the Zamoras to gain power and insisted the petition would be deemed “defective” by the Comelec.
Zamora’s supporters gathered 30,000 signatures of residents who supposedly want another election and presented it to the Comelec in a bid to unseat Gomez, now on her third and last term as mayor.
Their petition alleged that Gomez committed “corrupt acts, incompetence, abuse of power and dereliction of duty.”
“Even before the elections, the people are already longing for change because the Estradas are in power for almost 46 years in San Juan. Just last August, they’re already lording here for 48 years already,” Zamora told the Manila Standard in a phone interview.
“[A list of] 30,000 people—this is a manifestation of the real sentiment of the people here now,” he added.
Gomez was the common-law partner of former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, who was mayor of San Juan for 17 years. Estrada is now the mayor of Manila, and Senator JV Ejercito is their son. JV was also mayor for nine years and congressman of San Juan for three years.
Gomez, however, accused Zamora of buying signatures in the guise of financial assistance to secure signatories for their recall petition.
“They are paying our countrymen more or less P5,000 per individual under the guise of ‘cash for work’ to get signatures,” the 75-year-old Gomez said in a statement. “Even the relatives of our community leaders are saying these are mere fantasies and hoaxes.”
With a registered voting population of just over 71,000, San Juan only needs a little more than 21,367 voters for the recall to proceed, Zamora said.
“This is more than double of what is required,” he added.
The Zamoras were former allies with the Ejercito-Estrada clan, but recently engaged them in a heated battle for key posts in the city in the last elections.
While the elder Zamora, Ronaldo—San Juan Representative and House Minority Leader—won the congressional seat over former councilor Jana Ejercito, Francis and his vice mayoral running mate, senior councilor Totoy Bernardo, lost to Gomez and Janella Ejercito.
Of the protest, Gomez said: “Look, one year after the elections, is it possible for them (Zamoras) to get thousands of petitioners in just six days?”
Under the Local Government Code, the power to recall a local elective official due to loss of confidence shall be exercised by registered voters within a year from the date of the local officials’ assumption of office, and within a year before a regular local election.
Should Gomez lose the election protest, she is deemed removed from office.