Another disqualification case vs Tulfo junked
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) First Division has dismissed another disqualification case against administration senatorial candidate and incumbent ACT-CIS Rep. Erwin Tulfo due to a procedural defect.
In a three-page decision dated March 11, which was made public on Wednesday, the division said petitioners Berteni Causing, lawyer Diosdado Calonge and Graft-Free Philippines Foundation Inc. (GPFI) failed to attach proof that Tulfo was furnished a copy of their Feb. 25 petition.
Section 4 (1) of Comelec Resolution No. 11046 issued in August last year states that petitioner “shall, before filing the petition, furnish the respondent with a copy of the petition with complete annexes, through personal service or email, to the physical address or email address indicated in respondent’s COC (certificate of candidacy).”
“It bears emphasis that the afore-cited provision used the word ‘shall.’ The term ‘shall’ is a word of command and one which has always or which must be given a compulsory meaning and it is generally imperative [or] mandatory. Thus, compliance thereto is strictly enjoined,” the division said.
Ground for dismissal
“Settled is the rule that failure to comply with a mandatory requirement warrants the dismissal of the petition,” it added.
The division’s presiding commissioner, Aimee Ferolino, and Commissioner Ernesto Ferdinand Maceda Jr. voted in favor of dismissing the disqualification petition, while Commissioner Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal took no part in the case.
Causing, Calonge and GPFI had asked the poll body to disqualify Tulfo from running for senator on several grounds, including his conviction for libel by the Supreme Court, his being a member of a political dynasty and questions over his Filipino citizenship.
Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia, meanwhile, said the petitioners may still file for a motion for reconsideration, which would be heard by the commission en banc. He said he would leave it to the lawyers of the petitioners to consider the proper legal remedy to take.
“It’s a blunder, a big error. The respondent should also be copy-furnished so that he would know what is he being sued for, what the petition is, because failure to copy-furnish is a ground to dismiss the petition,” Garcia told reporters in an interview after the signing of a contract on the transmission of election returns between the poll body and telecommunication companies.
Compliance needed
According to him, the Comelec will only legally acquire jurisdiction over the matter being raised by complainants when they comply with procedural and mandatory requirements.
On March 4, the First Division dismissed on a technicality another disqualification case against Tulfo, his siblings Ben and Wanda, their sister-in-law and nephew who are all running for various elective positions in the May 12 polls.
The petition filed by lawyer Virgilio Garcia was deemed insufficient in form because he failed to attach the COCs of the respondents, which is required under Resolution No. 11046.
Among the grounds cited by Garcia in his petition were the citizenship issue and of Tulfo and his other family members in elective posts being a political dynasty.
