Group asks Comelec to take up disqualification case vs Yap

With less than a month before the May 10 elections, a militant fisherfolk group on Tuesday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to tackle the disqualification case it filed last March against former Agriculture secretary and congressional candidate Arthur Yap. In its manifestation, the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) requested the poll body to immediately set a hearing for Yap's disqualification case. "We are puzzled by this development. The disqualification case we filed last March 9 should have been resolved… at least one week after we filed the disqualification case against Secretary Yap," said Pamalakaya chairperson Fernando Hicap during a picket held at the Comelec main office in Intramuros, Manila.

Last March, Pamalakaya said Yap should be disqualified because he is not a real resident in Bohol province’s third district where he is seeking a congressional post in May. The group said the former secretary's real residence is in Pasig City in Metro Manila, and not in Bohol’s third district. To “beef up" its disqualification case, the group filed with the Comelec on Tuesday supplemental information that includes documents signed by three officials of Barangay Buenavista in Loboc town supposedly belying Yap's claim that he lives in Bohol. In January this year, Pamalakaya filed plunder and graft complaints against Yap and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, stemming from the alleged overpricing of P455-million ice-making machines the Agriculture department had purchased. As of posting time, Comelec officials are still in an en banc meeting. Earlier, Liberal Party bets Richard Gomez and Palawan Second District Representative Abraham Khalil Mitra were barred by the poll body from running also because of residency issues. Their cases are both on appeal. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV