PARACELIS, Mountain Province vice mayor-elect Djarma Rafael is currently appointed to sit as acting mayor as the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is currently resolving a disqualification case against the mayor-elect Avelino Amangyen.
“You, as vice mayor of said municipality, shall assume the Office of the Mayor in an acting capacity without prejudice to the Comelec’s resolution of the Motion for Reconsideration,” said Araceli San Jose, regional director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Cordillera, in a letter to Elmer Manuel Sagsago, the counsel of elected Vice Mayor Djarma Rafael, who sought legal opinion from the DILG to dispel confusion among the public.
Amangyen’s certificate of candidacy was previously nullified by the Second Division of the COMELEC on April, prior to the elections, and Amangyen was disqualified due to a nondisclosure of a conviction for violation of the Forestry Code, the penalty for which includes perpetual disqualification from holding public office. Amangyen’s motion for reconsideration is still currently being resolved by the COMELEC.
Amangyen, while facing disqualification, won the mayoralty race against incumbent Marcos Ayangwa.
San Jose said that while the decision is pending, Rafael will assume the office in a temporary acting capacity.
“In the event that no resolution on the motion for reconsideration will be issued by the Comelec on the noon of June 30, there shall exist a temporary vacancy in the position of the Mayor… the vice mayor shall then assume as the mayor in an acting capacity,” read the letter.
