Winning mayoralty bet asks Court to unseat mayor
A mayoralty candidate in Antique has asked the court to implement its decision declaring him as the winner in the May 2007 elections.
Although the decision of Judge Rafael Penuela, presiding judge of branch 64 of the Regional Trial Court in Antique, was appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), candidate Walden Lim moved that the court issue a writ of execution installing him as the mayor of Tibiao town.
A hearing on the motion was scheduled yesterday afternoon.
The move to unseat the Mayor Sotera Tamayo came after Penuela rendered judgment in election case no. 2007-01 earlier this month voiding the proclamation of Tamayo and declaring Lim to be the duly elected mayor for Tibiao.
After looking through the ballots from 51 precincts during revision proceedings, the Court concluded that Lim should be credited with 4,711 votes, and not 4,574 as earlier tallied, as against Tamayo's 4, 638 votes.
Through his counsel, Lawyer Jose Mari Benjamin F. U. Tirol, Lim argued that the 58 votes declared stray be counted in his favor and that all 'Lim' votes be credited to him.
Shortly before the May 2007 elections, the Comelec declared Angel Lim as a nuisance candidate, and consequently ordered his name to be stricken off from the list of candidates for mayor. However, his name was not removed from the list on election day, as a result of which 'Lim' votes were declared stray.
"Since Angel Lim has been disqualified by the COMELEC, there was, and is, legally speaking, the only candidate surnamed 'Lim' who ran for the position of mayor of Tibiao, Antique in the May 2007 elections is protestant," the trial court said in its decision.