Tacloban City—Acting on the petition of Guiuan Mayor Christopher Sheen Gonzales, the First Division of the Commission on Elections has nullified the certificate of candidacy of one of his rivals seeking the post of the lone congressional district of Eastern Samar ahead of Monday’s elections.
In a seven-page resolution issued April 12, the poll body invalidated the CoC of Julio “Shaudy” Gonzales, whose nickname and family name sounds like that of the Guiuan mayor.
Mayor Gonzales, in his petition before the Comelec, claimed that Shaudy Gonzales should be considered as a nuisance candidate whose aim is to create confusion among the electorate in Eastern Samar, particularly intended against him.
Christopher Gonzales is running under the banner of the Nacionalista Party.
The petitioner said that when ‘Shaudy’ Gonzales ran as a barangay chairman of Naga, Quinapondan town during the 2013 barangay elections, he used the nickname “Judith” and not Shaudy.
The poll body’s resolution said Shaudy Gonzales failed to prove that he used “Shaudy” in his CoC when he ran for barangay chairman in 2013. The records instead showed that it was the petitioner, Christopher Sheen Gonzales, who was able to prove by documentary evidence that he indeed used ‘Judith’ and not ‘Shaudy’ as a nickname, it added.
Comelec thus cancelled the CoC of Julio Gonzales, thus disqualifying him from the race. Benjie Antioquia
“Thus, it becomes clear that respondent’s use of Shaudy as a nickname was intended to sow confusion in the minds of the voters due to the similarity of the petitioner’s and the respondent’s last names, and the auditory likeness or phonology of their nicknames. Thus, under section 69 of the OEC, respondent’s CoC must be cancelled and denied due course,” Comelec added.
Changing his nickname from Judith to Shaudy specifically for the upcoming elections “shows that this is a politically motivated move against me by my opponents,” said Mayor Gonzales. Benjie Antioquia