COMELEC ORDERS ALBAY GOVERNOR ROSAL TO VACATE POST

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has ordered Albay Gov. Noel Rosal to “immediately” vacate his office due to his post-elections disqualification case.

The order was formally served on Tuesday on Rosal and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to see to the orderly transfer of authority to Vice Governor Edcel Lagman Jr.

Rex Laudiangco, spokesperson for Comelec, said the order should be implemented unless Rosal secures a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court, where he appealed his disqualification.

“The Comelec is ordering Governor Rosal to vacate the post and the [gubernatorial] office in Albay. This [order] will be implemented by the DILG [and] is immediately executory,” Laudiangco said in a news conference on Tuesday.

“If we receive a TRO, we will comply with whatever is stated in the order,” he added.

In decisions issued on Sept. 19 and Nov. 18, the Comelec disqualified Rosal as candidate for Albay governor for distributing cash assistance to tricycle drivers and senior citizens during the election spending ban for the May 9 elections.

The poll body similarly disqualified Rosal’s wife, Legazpi City Mayor Geraldine Rosal on the same grounds.

Both petitions were filed by Joseph Armogila, who alleged that the cash assistance for tricycle drivers and senior citizens in Legazpi City, where Rosal was the immediate former mayor, was not exempted by Comelec from the ban on disbursing public funds within 45 days before the elections.

The Comelec decision against Rosal had become final while that against Mayor Rosal has yet to be decided with finality by the seven-member Comelec en banc.