Two Palawan-based voters have urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify former governor Mario Joel Reyes who is seeking to regain the province’s top elective position in the coming May 9 election.
The petitioners cited as reason Reyes’ conviction by the Sandiganbayan for corruption, thus perpetually barring him from holding public office.
In their 16-page petition for disqualification, Nasir Radjudin Miranda and Mohammad Vinarao Asgali, both registered voters and residents of Batazara, Palawan, also asked the Comelec to cancel Reyes’ certificate of candidacy for governor for being a “fugitive from justice” when he fled the country to evade a warrant of arrest issued against him in connection with the alleged murder of Dr. Gerry Ortega in January 2011.
A former bodyguard of Reyes who turned state witness in the murder case tagged the ex-governor as the mastermind of Ortega in the killing of Ortega, a staunch anti-corruption crusader, environmentalist, and broad journalist.
The petitioners invoked Section 3 of Republic Act 3019 which imposes a penalty of imprisonment of six years to eight years, with permanent disqualification from holding public office.
Reyes’ anti-graft conviction stemmed from a May 5, 2011 information filed with the Sandiganbayan, indicting the former Palawan governor for allegedly giving “unwarranted benefits, preference, and advantage” to Olympic Mines and Development Corp.
Records of the case stated that Reyes committed graft by approving the renewal of the firm’s small-scale mining permit despite violations of the terms and conditions of its previous permit.
The petitioners said the case was docketed as Criminal Case No. SB-II-CRM-008 and raffled to the Third Division of the Sandiganbayan.
On August 29, 2017, the Sandiganbayan Third Division rendered a decision in Reyes’ case and found him guilty as charged.
Reyes filed a motion for reconsideration on September 11, 2017, but the anti-graft court denied it on January 25, 2018.
This prompted Reyes to file a petition for review with the Supreme Court challenging the August 29, 2017 and January 25, 2018 decisions of the Sandiganbayan.
In a subsequent urgent motion, Reyes also filed for review the Sandiganbayan’s resolution revoking his bail that was earlier granted to him after his conviction.
On May 9, 2018, the former Palawan governor also filed an urgent reiterative motion to review the revocation of bail.
“On September 18, 2019, the Third Division of the Supreme Court rendered a decision upholding the Sandiganbayan’s decision.
“The disqualification from public office imposed on the respondent is clear and undeniable, the disqualification of the respondent as the gubernatorial candidate of the province of Palawan for the 2022 National and Local Elections is necessarily called for,” the petitioners said.
In the same complaint, petitioners also claimed that Reyes could be considered a fugitive from justice, for avoiding a standing warrant of arrest issued by the Court of Appeals in December 2019 in connection with the Ortega murder case.