Daughter hits untimely process

A daughter of the late Cebu Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr. yesterday criticized the camp of 2010 vice gubernatorial candidate Glenn Soco for pursuing the election protest against Sanchez while their family is still grieving and preparing for Sanchez’s funeral.

Grecilda “Gigi” Zaballero-Sanchez, eldest daughter of the vice governor, said she mentioned the protest to President Benigno Aquino III who visited the wake yesterday.

“I saw the (frown) on his (the President’s) face,” she said.

“One thing I know for sure is that that my dad won a resounding victory,” Gigi said as she decried receiving a text message to send a representative to witness the recount of votes for vice governor.

She said the family will fight Soco’s protest but this is not their priority since the vice governor is dead.

She said fighting the protest would be best done by acting Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale

“I have met Mrs. Magpale, I have talked with her before and she sounds reasonable… she seems to be reaching out to the family and that I would really appreciate,” Gigi added.

She said whoever succeeds as vice governor must fight to bring back the rights and privileges of the Office of the Vice Governor, which was taken by the executive department.

Cebu Provincial Election Supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano retrieved ballot boxes from Mandaue City and Consolacion town that will be used in the recount of the votes of Soco and the vice governor in Manila.

Only 29 percent of the ballot boxes from the province will be used in the recount.

Soco’s laywer Beulah Coeli Fiel apologized for the proceedings, saying it was not intentionally timed during the mourning period for the late vice governor.

“We mean no disrespect,” she said, adding that their camp was the 16th to file a poll protest nationwide.

If they postpond their protest after Sanchez funeral, their protest will be put in the end of the list, she said. /Reporters Dale G. Israel, Ador Vincent S. Mayol and Jucell Marie P. Cuyos