In Albay: Rosals file MRs, to elevate cases to SC

By Cet Dematera

LEGAZPI CITY---Albay Governor Noel Rosal and his wife, Legazpi City Mayor Carmen Geraldine Rosal, are planning to elevate their disqualification cases to the Supreme Court (SC).

Gov. Rosal was disqualified by the First Division on September 19, while the city mayor was disqualified by the Commission on Election’s Second Division last October 4, this year.

The Albay Governor called on his supporters and constituents to stay calm as the case is going through the legal processes.

The city mayor said she will file a motion for reconsideration within the five-day period after the Second Division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) disqualified her on October 4.

In an official statement posted in her Facebook Account, the mayor said that her lawyers are already preparing the motion for reconsideration that has to be filed within the five-day prescribed period given by the Comelec.

“My lawyers are preparing the motion for reconsideration and we will be filing the same within the five-day period,” She said.

“In the meantime, I beg your indulgence as I refuse to answer further questions about my case. The rule of sub judice dictates my silence on the matter from now on,” she explained.

She said she would continue to focus on his job as mayor of Legazpi City.

But Rosal had issued a comment on the portion of the Comelec Second Division’s resolution saying that she was found guilty by reason of “my indispensable cooperation” in the distribution of the cash aid in which the disqualification case was anchored.

“With all due respect to the Second Division of the Comelec, it is settled in law that a person becomes a principal by indispensable cooperation when he performs an act, without which the offense would not have been accomplished,” Rosal said.

She added: In my case, I cannot fathom how my alleged appearance during the questioned event was indispensable, considering that it would have pushed through just the same – with or without my appearance.”

Her husband, Gov. Noel Rosal, was also disqualified by the Comelec’s First Division last September 19, on the same grounds.

Rosal won by over 230,000 votes against former Albay Gov. Al Francis Bichara; while the lady Rosal won only by over 500 votes against lawyer and former Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. during the May 9 elections.