INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Ex-mayor of Pasay seeks disqualification of other Trinidads

Inquirer

Julie M. Aurelio

MANILA, Philippines -- Pasay City’s dismissed mayor has filed disqualification cases against two mayoral candidates who bear the same surname as he does.

Former mayor Wenceslao “Peewee” Trinidad said Ramon Trinidad, 40, and Neil Trinidad, 25 have no resources to sufficiently fund their campaign for the May polls.

In a three-page motion for disqualification he filed with the Commission on Elections, Peewee alleged that the two other Trinidads were simply “nuisance candidates.”

“They were just running to confuse the voters so that I will lose,” Peewee said in a phone interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

The ex-mayor, who is running under the banner of the United Opposition -- Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino, added that Ramon is a tricycle driver in Pasay, while Neil is a jobless resident.

“They may be independent candidates, but what is their financial capability to run for mayor? How can they buy election paraphernalia with that kind of living?” Peewee asked.

The former mayor was dismissed from service along with nine other officials after undergoing a six-month preventive suspension, in connection with an allegedly anomalous garbage contract. The mayor denied the charges and said they were cooked up to rid Metro Manila of an opposition politician.

On Wednesday, a motion for disqualification was also filed against Peewee by a village captain, who claimed that the ex-mayor’s dismissal from government office rendered him unqualified to run for public office again.

Meanwhile, Pasay Representative Consuelo “Connie” Dy is also facing another Dy for the mayor’s post.

A businesswoman identified as Segundina Dy is running against the congresswoman in the May polls, but the local Comelec said it cannot consider the other Dy as a nuisance candidate.

Segundina is reported to own real estate in Pasay, as compared to the two Trinidads.

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