By Arlie Calalo

THE Commission on Elections has started recall proceedings against six elected local officials, including Pampanga Gov. Eddie Panlilio, but the petitioners will have to race against each other because the poll agency does not have enough funds to finance the process in all six local government units.

?It will be like a first-come, first-served basis,? Comelec Chairman Jose Melo said.

He said his agency had only P50 million when it needed more than P93 million to finance the recall process for all six.

Panlilio aside, the five other approved recall petitions were against Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan; Cabuyao, Laguna Mayor Isidro Hemedes Jr.; Mauban, Quezon Mayor Rexito Bantayan; Matag-ob, Leyte Mayor Gervasio Basbas; and Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija Vice Mayor Rossman Carry Uera.

After the approval of the recall petitions, the next step would be for local election officials to verify the signatures on the petitions, and they had up to March 25 to finish the process, Melo said.

?The verification of signatures will be done at the same time, so there won?t be any impression that we are favoring one petition from another,? Melo said.

?Whoever finishes first will be the first to have special elections.

?Then there will be 45 days for the campaign period,? Melo added, saying the latest date for an election was May 9 because the law prohibits the holding of recall elections within one year of a regular election, which will be on May 10, 2010.

Melo said election officials would thus have only up to March 25 to finish the verification process and organize the recall elections.

He said the election body had asked Congress to appropriate P46,539,189 for the Pampanga recall election; P30,465,605 for Sulu; P6,649,715 for Cabuyao; P3,399,976 for Mauban; P3,152,700 for Matag-Ob; and P2,943,011 for Pantanbangan, but Congress approved only P50 million.

?The P50 million is not enough for the six approved recall petitions. We will have to see which province will be the first to complete the procedure,? Melo said.

But Panlilio questioned the poll agency?s decision and said it ?will have a lot of explaining to do? if it gave priority to the recall election in Pampanga over other provinces.

?Imagine, you have 28 recall petitions in the country. Pampanga was the last of these to be filed, and yet it is one of the first to be approved,? the governor said, adding placing the recall petition against him on top of the list was discriminatory.

?The recall move has a long way to go, but we are prepared should it materialize,? he said.

Meanwhile, House appropriations committee vice chairman Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said that if Comelec needed more funding for the recall elections, it should ask money from Malaca?ang, not Congress.

?[Comelec] should have already provided for that [recall elections] when they submitted their proposed budget for 2009, as a sort of contingency, so they would have available money if there was any recall elections, but apparently they did not,? Lagman said.

?If they have savings, they can use that for the purpose, or if the savings are not enough, they could ask Malaca?ang to provide the funds. I think the President?s contingency fund can take care of that,? Lagman added. With Albert Lacanlale and Roy Pelovello