TACLOBAN CITY- The court declared mayor of San Policarpo town in Eastern Samar has yet to take her post with less than two years before the holding of the next elections.
Virginia Acol, who was earlier declared as the “rightful winner” could not just yet assume the post occupied at present by Mayor Conrado Nicart III after the latter secure a 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO).
The TRO, issued by a regional trial court in Oras, also in Eastern Samar, is to expire on September 30. “We respected the TRO thus we were constrained not to hold office for the meantime. We know how to follow the law” Acol said. Interestingly, the court that issued the TRO was the same court that ruled that it was Acol who won the mayoralty race against Nicart, son of Eastern Governor Conrado Nicart. In her ruling, Judge Juliana White, presiding judge of RTC- Branch 5 ruled that Acol was the real winner during May 2013 mayoralty polls against Nicart, who is now serving his second term.
Based on the court decision, Acol garnered 3,773 votes against Nicart’s 3,667 votes or a margin of 106 votes. Nicart was proclaimed by the members of the board of elections inspectors as the winner based on the strength of the votes he garnered, 3,945, as against Acol’s 3,857 votes or a difference of 88 votes. Acol, a businesswoman, said that she tried to get inside the municipal hall last July 23 but failed to do so as the building’s entrance was locked with dump trucks placed just outside the front of the building. Upon the advice of her lawyers, she rented a private place where she holds office as mayor of the town, Acol said. Acol said that while she is supposed to hold office in just over a year before the conduct of the 2016 elections, she still want to discharge the functions as mayor so she could serve her people. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA)
