The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has rejected petitions seeking to postpone the elections scheduled this May and to reopen the period for filing of certificates of candidacy.
“Both were denied unanimously. They were both resoundingly denied,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said yesterday in a briefing, referring to the petitions filed by the National Coalition for Life and Democracy (NCLD) and a faction of the administration party PDP-Laban.
“The decision was anchored on the fact that the grounds provided by the petition were not meritorious,” he said.
He said the bid of the Cusi faction of the PDP-Laban to reopen the COC filing period was denied for lack of merit.
As to the party’s call to postpone the printing of the ballots, Jimenez said it was also found to be lacking in merit.
“This is not the first time that we will be printing ballots with pending disqualification cases,” he said. “The fact that there are pending disqualification cases has never been a reason for suspending the start of printing ballots.”
In a 20-page petition, the PDP-Laban wing of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi asked the Comelec last December 31 to reopen the COC filing period, which was held on Oct. 1 to 8, 2021.
Aside from reopening the COC filing period, PDP-Laban also asked the Comelec to delay the printing of the official ballots, citing as ground the pendency of numerous legal proceedings involving individual candidates and party-list organizations.
On the petition to postpone the elections, filed by the NCLD, Jimenez said, “The ground being raised was not meritorious so the petition was also denied.”
Last month, the NCLD filed a petition asking the Comelec to postpone the May 9, 2022 national and local elections due to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Copies of the decisions were not yet available as of press time.
Cusi said the party has not seen the ruling but will evaluate its options.
The Cusi led faction has not fielded any presidential and vice presidential candidate in the May elections but initially supported the vice presidential bid of Sen. Christopher Go who has withdrawn.
The other PDP-Laban faction welcomed the Comelec decision.
“First, we congratulate the Comelec for the swift action dismissing a baseless petition which has dangerous implications. Second, we can only hope and pray that there will be no other attempts to make possible a NO-EL (no election) scenario,” said Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, chairman of Pacquiao faction of the PDP-Laban.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who is running for vice president, said the people should remain vigilant against any attempt for a NO-EL scenario even as the poll body dismissed the petition.
PARTY-LIST GROUPS
The Comelec denied accreditation to the party-list organization Malasakit Movement Inc. (Malasakit Movement) led by former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority spokesperson Celine Pialago.
Jimenez said the group “was unable to prove that they represent the marginalized and underrepresented sector.”
Malasakit is one of 14 organizations included in the raffle for the order of listing in the official ballot for party-list groups held last month despite having a “pending incident.”
In the raffle, Malasakit was listed #96 in the official ballot for the May polls.
With the Comelec’s decision, only 177 party-list groups will be included in the official ballot.
The final list of candidates may be out by January 15, Jimenez said.
“Our estimate is we will be able to finish our ballot faces by January 15. Having the final ballot faces mean that there is the final list of candidates. So, we will go with January 15,” he said.
The Comelec was supposed to come out with the final list on December 15, then reset it to end of December 2021, and again on January 7, because of pending cases against several aspirants.
Meanwhile, President Duterte concurred with the deputation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and other law enforcement agencies, to help ensure the “free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections” in May.
President Duterte in signing Memorandum Order 59 on December 31, a copy of which was released by Malacañang only yesterday, concurred with the Comelec request to deputize the AFP and other law enforcement agencies and instrumentalities of the government to assist in national and local polls on May 9. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Raymond Africa
