Former Palompon, Leyte Mayor Myra Georgina Arevalo. | CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines—A mayoral candidate in Palompon, Leyte, has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to reverse the “dubious” appointments of at least 43 members of the local electoral board (EB).
Dr. Myra Georgina Arevalo especially questioned the appointment of non-teaching personnel or non-DepEd staff to the EB.
In addition, she alleged that some of the EB members are currently assigned outside of their locality while others are either related or were earlier appointed by political figures in the barangays, incumbent or dismissed town officials and some of the candidates in the May elections.
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The EB consist of the chairperson, poll clerk and a third member.
“With all these observations, I cannot avoid but to think that this list was done either without proper vetting or with malice,” Arevalo said in a letter that she sent to Comelec Officer III Elvisa Tui on March 5. A copy of her letter was also sent to Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia and Lawyer Remlane Tambuang, the regional executive director of Comelec Regional Office VIII.
Arevalo, a former mayor in Palompon town, is seeking the mayoral seat against dismissed mayor Ramon Oñate.
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She said that to date, Tui has not acted on her concern.
Electoral Board
In her letter, Arevalo said that she first wrote Tiu last February 25 to ask for the official list of the chairman and poll clerk who will serve as part of the EB in the May elections. She alleged that the election officer had refused several times to release the said list until she personally came to her office.
After going over the list, Arevalo raised a concern on the inclusion of private school teachers and those coming from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in the EB.
“There are also those who are also DepEd teaching staff but are currently assigned outside this Municipality, who are also not a priority to serve this election,” read part of her letter.
From the list of 134 EB members, at least five are non-teachers, 10 are non-DepEd teachers while 28 were appointees who have familial ties with barangay and municipal officials and blood relations with some of the candidates.
Quoting Republic Act 10756, Arevalo said that the appointment of DepEd personnel from other localities to be part of their town’s EB can only be done if there is a shortage of qualified teachers in Palompon.
To date, their town has over 600 teachers, Arevalo said.
Selection process
When she asked Tiu as to the basis for the selection of the EB members, she was told that they were randomly selected from the list of teachers.
But Arevalo refused to believe this, based on her observation that most of those who were selected will be serving as EB members for the first time.
“There are more than 600 DepEd teaching staff assigned within Palompon, many have experience as members of the Electoral Board and served in previous elections, and who are supposed to be priorities to be appointed as part of the Election Board,” she said.
Arevalo further alleged that the local Comelec has not consulted the school district heads in selecting the members of the EB.
Meanwhile, Arevallo also reiterated on her verbal request for a list of the third members of the EB “for our comments and to also aid you in the proper vetting process.”