Respect Comelec Decision, Let Justice Prevail
Grace Padaca has absolutely no reason to hold on to a post that she gained due to massive fraud and other irregularities in the May 2007 elections.
The Comelec decision unseating her is just, valid, legitimate and not tainted by any form of bias.
This verdict is a clear reflection of the cheating that happened in 13 towns in the province in 2007, when thousands of ballots were accomplished by one or two persons, and when the different inks used in many ballots betrayed a pattern of bogus votes stuffed into the ballot boxes.
She can no longer hide behind a veil of sincerety, honesty and innocence. Neither can she feign weakness and play the underdog card. Let us not forget that she was in power as governor at the time these fraud were committed. She was more than capable. She had the machinery and capacity contrary to what she would expect us to believe.
Only an intelligent mind with a criminal bent can implement the systematic manufacture of ballots.
Padaca must abide by the Comelec decision since she submitted herself to the commission’s jurisdiction, the process was followed to the letter and her lawyers witnessed how the ballot were taken out of the boxes,revalidated and the bogus ones cast aside.
Fairness also requires that the unseated Governor Padaca comply with the order unseating her since the Comelec was convinced that cheating did happen, and the spurious ballots had to be invalidated, consistent with jurisprudence and electoral practice. The cheater must never benefit from these votes.
The pattern of cheating was established not only by the Comelec but by the revisors chosen to appreciate the contested ballots. Revisors for all parties were present, that is, revisors for Padaca were there as well.
Comelec commissioners can only be swayed to act with dispatched when evidence so warrants, and the case of Governor Benjamin Dy against Governor Grace Padaca presented a mountain of proof that showed her winning margin of 17,007 was spurious.
Shorn of these votes, Comelec found Dy winning the contest by 1,051 votes.
It is thus ministerial on the part of the Comelec to order Padaca’s unseating and it becomes a matter of course for her to comply with an order by an independent body mandated by the 1987 Constitution to ensure the conduct of clean, honest and free elections.
The commissioners were pressured, not by the lawyers of Benjamin Dy but by the gang of non-government organizations (NGOs), Liberal Party (LP) stalwarts and the rabid Padaca backers who are now finding malice in the decision.
They are now busy contriving a conspiracy theory, with Malacanang as the culprit and other defeated local candidates acting as the beneficiaries. They smell a rat but that rat is firmly ensconced in the minds of the saboteurs of peace in Isabela.
People with fertile minds, particularly those a mile removed from Isabela politics, now craft a theory that Padaca is being punished for aligning with the LP, the same theory advanced to explain the ouster of Bulacan Gov. Joselito Mendoza.
The Comelec order unseating Padaca did not materialize out of thin air. It was brought about by a thorough scrutiny of the ballots and the invalidation of ballots that were proven to have been accomplished by one or two men with golden arms. It was the product of adherence to the rule of law.
Padaca can no longer argue that the plea of Dy for the execution of the order pending appeal is premature and can not hold sway.
The Dy camp complied with the law and even tolerated the delaying tactics of Padaca’s group that caused the Comelec to defer action on the protest for the last eight months.
Padaca’s camp witnessed the revision of votes and their objections were heard and resolved in time.
Where is the so-called injustice here?
Padaca is not a Joan of Arc who is leading the campaign against a tyrannical political dynasty.
Rather, her debacle in 2007 was her undoing and the Joan of Arc of Isabela must remember that her sins from 2004 to 2007 caused widespread disenchantment and led to the voter’s dumping her in the May 2007 polls.
Padaca, for one, failed to equip and support the four public hospitals in Isabela along with the provincial hospital.
Her strange P5-million spending was also disallowed by the Commission on Audit (COA), which found no reason for the expense.
The Commission on Audit report showed that Padaca, between April 2 and May 2, 2007, has authorized , on atleast 35 occassions, the cash release of some P4.9million as “fund assistance” to her supporters.
The state auditing agency noted that these cash releases violated Section 104 and Section 261 of the Omnibus Election Code. Section 104 refers to prohibited donations by candidates while Section 261 refers to prohibited acts during the elections to include vote buying and the release of public funds during the campaign period.
The report, signed by the state auditor IV Beatriz Pataueg and Esperanza Baliton, noted that the COA has already sent 14 notices for Padaca to explain these disbursements but to no avail.
The last indorsement sent to Padaca, thru COA regional officer in charge, Atty. Elwin Gregorio Torres, was dated May 29, 2009 and so far, it is not clear whether Padaca has answered the COA’s demand.
The illegal disbursement of public funds is not good governance thus there is no tenable reason to allow unseated Padaca to occupy the office she has illegally usurped, as found by the Comelec.
She also caused the unseating of department chiefs at the provincial capitol and waged a hate campaign against local officials suspected of being loyal to the Dy family.
By now, the people should know that Padaca has four graft cases pending before the Office of the Ombudsman, including the misuse of funds on the few days leading to the 2007 elections.
She must leave the provincial capitol now.
We call every law-abiding Filipino to see the truth for what it is.
We congratulate the Commission on Election for standing firm and abiding by the truth despite the insurmountable pressure brought about by the reckless and wanton attacks perpetrated by Padaca’s camp, a clear sign of her desperation.
We beseech those who claim to be for truth and justice to accept what is genuinely true and genuinely just, not what they believe to be true and what they want to be just.
We, the real Isabelinos affected by the just, moral, righteous and honorable decision of the Commission on Elections pray that our countrymen see through our eyes and not through those who only claim to know our plight.
THE PEOPLE OF ISABELA