There was practically nothing that Arthur Despi can do short of outright defiance of a Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruling that effectively voided his legitimacy as Bantayan mayor.
With Despi not showing up, it was easy for the provincial office of the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG-7) to serve the notice of execution on the Comelec decision to disqualify Despi and declare former mayor Christopher Escario as the winner in last year’s elections.
Last Friday was a quiet, businesslike transfer of power, as it should be, since no one from either Despi or Escario’s camps want any violence or confrontations to break out. But while the transfer is peaceful, the political dispute is far from being resolved.
Still, Bantayan residents can breathe a little easier knowing that nothing out of the ordinary will occur that will disrupt the town’s relative peace and tranquility as well as the delivery of essential services to them.
Just like the other local governments in the countryside, Cebu province remains mired in parochial politics, with contending candidates preferring to lodge election protests and slog it through the courts rather than accept the results and wait for the next elections to make a comeback.
This refusal to accept defeat even in the supposed age of automated elections harkens back to the long standing truism that in Philippine elections, there are no losers, only candidates who claim to have been cheated of victory.
It was barely seven years ago when Compostela town in northern Cebu was bereft of local officials who were kept out of office by a lone election protest from defeated mayoral candidate Gilbert Wagas.
There were real fears that Despi may want to entrench himself along with his followers at the municipal hall for refusing to accept the Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the Comelec’s disqualification of his candidacy and eventual victory, owing to a supposedly fabricated certificate of nomination and acceptance (CONA) from the Abag-Promdi party that was later denied by one of its officials.
Even then, Despi moved that Vice Mayor Tony Montemar succeed him as mayor instead of Escario, which Montemar followed up by filing a petition to question Escario’s claim to the mayoral post.
Montemar and even Despi can pursue their claims any way they want so long as Bantayan residents are spared the inconvenience of having basic services like power and water supply disrupted due to unpaid bills caused by questions of who signs the vouchers to process the payments.
Despi’s decision not to put up any resistance even if he won by a majority vote in last year’s elections thankfully prevented another repeat of the Compostela experience and ensured that Bantayan residents will have a stable local government that will look after their welfare.