Petition filed before SC
not derailing Comelec
Preparations for June 2
special election continue
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Election Lawyer Romulo Macalintal filed a petition to stop the June 2 special election in the fifth district of Negros Occidental before the Supreme Court at 10:20 a.m. yesterday, but it is not stopping the Commission on Elections from going ahead with preparations for the polls.

Election provincial supervisor Jessie Suarez said “anything is possible, but as long as there are no orders from Manila we have to continue our activities in order to be ready for June 2.”

The special election for a new congressman of the fifth district is being held following the death of Rep. Ignacio Arroyo Jr. on January 26.

Taking advantage of the five-week break in the impeachment trial at the Senate, two members of the defense team of controversial Chief Justice Renato Corona yesterday came to Bacolod and told Negrenses to be wary of  what they call “half-truths and lies” being peddled and propagated by those who want his ouster from the Supreme Court.

Defense team members Karen Jimeno and Rico Paolo Quicho yesterday said they are convinced  that Corona will be acquitted by the Senate acting as impeachment court, stressing that no evidence has been presented, except a piece of paper that contained “allegations.”

“The evidence presentedwas only based on news reports,” Quicho said.

Commission on Audit chairperson Maria Gracia Pulido-Tan yesterday confirmed to Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda that she had inhibited herself from the COA review of the sale and lease of the 7.7-hectare Negros Occidental provincial government property in Bacolod City to AyalaLand Inc.

In Bacolod Wednesday night, Lacierda had told the Bacolod media: “We will ask the COA chairperson if she really inhibited and if there was a formal declaration of inhibition.”

“Our understanding is that Chairman Grace Tan has inhibited herself over the concern that the law firm of her husband is the lawyer for the Sys,” he said.