Laguna governor ER Ejercito disqualified for campaign overspending

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has disqualified Laguna Governor ER Ejercito on Wednesday due to campaign overspending in the 2013 elections.Ejercito will be replaced by Vice Governor Ramil Hernandez, state-run People's Television reported.“The en banc decision is unanimous, there are seven members of the commission, so the decision for Ejercito to vacate the position was unanimous, meaning each commissioner decided based on documents presented to the poll body,” Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said.Comelec allows candidates to spend only P3 per constituent. With 1,440,660 voters in Laguna, Ejercito’s spending limit is pegged at P4.5 million. However, the poll body found that the governor grossly overshot the limit by spending P23.5 million in the last elections, with P6 million in TV ads alone.Ejercito has five days to get a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court to stop the decision.