Comelec defers proclamation of 19 winners due to DQ cases
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc has ordered the suspension of proclamation of 19 candidates in the just concluded midterm elections pending resolution of the disqualification cases filed against them.
Three of the candidates have topped the polls in their areas, among them Marcelino “Marcy” Teodoro, who is leading the race for Marikina City’s first congressional district with more than 45,000 votes over his sole opponent, outgoing Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, as of 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Comelec’s First Division had canceled Teodoro’s certificate of candidacy (COC) in December last year following two disqualification cases alleging that he was not a resident for at least a year in the district where he ran.
Teodoro filed a consolidated motion for reconsideration, which is pending before the en banc.
Lawyer Jeryll Harold Respicio, a staunch critic of Comelec’s automated election system, was also poised to win the vice mayoral race in Reina Mercedes, Isabela, but the first division stopped his proclamation “until further orders.”
Respicio is facing a disqualification case filed by Comelec’s Task Force Katotohanan, Katapatan, at Katarungan (KKK) sa Halalan for posting videos online wherein he claimed Comelec’s automated counting machines (ACMs) could be hacked to send fake election results.
Convicted candidate
The proclamation of Darwin Sia, who leads the 11-way race for councilor in Manila’s second district, was also halted by the Comelec en banc, which affirmed last May 5 the second division’s decision to cancel his COC.
The division ruled last March 21 that Sia committed material misrepresentation in his COC for failing to disclose that he had been convicted of electricity pilferage, which is categorized as a crime of moral turpitude.
Under the Omnibus Election Code, persons convicted with finality of crimes involving moral turpitude are barred from holding any public office.
Sia ran under the Aksyon Demokratiko party of Mayor-elect Isko Moreno.
Comelec Chair George Garcia said on Tuesday that the poll body would pursue the cases against the candidates, whether they lost the elections or not.
The 19 candidates make up the initial list and it is “possible that the orders of suspension directed against certain individuals or candidates may increase as we move on with the day. Because that was just what the Commission acted upon earlier,” Garcia, speaking in a mix of Filipino and English, told reporters.
Election violations
However, the candidates may elevate their cases all the way to the Supreme Court.
In the run-up to the May 12 polls, several disqualification cases and other poll-related violations were either filed or received by the Comelec.
Last week, the Comelec Task Force Baklas filed disqualification cases against 24 candidates for allegedly violating the guidelines on illegal campaign materials.
Among them were senatorial aspirant and Valenzuela Rep. Eric Martinez, mayoral candidate Christopher Felipe Clemente, and gubernatorial candidates Salvador “Bogs” Dungao Violago and Wilhelmino Manucdoc Sy-Alvarado.
Last month, the Comelec also reported that it had received 63 reports of alleged vote-buying and abuse of state resources (ASR) violations ahead of the May elections.
It said most of the vote-buying complaints it received primarily involved money, followed by rice, goods and groceries.
The ASR infractions, meanwhile, usually involved the abuse of the government’s social assistance program and the use of government facilities.
The Comelec has prohibited the presence of candidates, their families, staff and even their political materials during the distribution of social assistance programs such as the Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program or Akap, the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations, and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers or Tupad during the campaign period.
