Comelec: No request to allow Du30 to vote
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday said it did not receive any request from the camp of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been detained in The Hague since March awaiting trial for crimes against humanity, seeking to allow him to qualify for overseas absentee voting.
“We did not receive any request,” Comelec Chair George Garcia said when asked about any supposed request from the Duterte camp.
Garcia was reacting to the claim by Vice President Sara Duterte that her father’s lawyers had requested that the former president be allowed to vote overseas.
According to Sara, the Comelec did not allow such a request from her father’s camp.
“From what I understand, his lawyers tried to request from Comelec if former President Duterte can vote outside of the absentee voting law because that is the only way for him to vote,” Sara told reporters in Filipino in Davao City after casting her vote for the 2025 midterm elections at Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School.
“Unfortunately, he (Duterte) was unable to exercise his right to vote this time and I’m sure he is sad about that,” she added.
But even Salvador Panelo, Duterte’s former chief presidential legal counsel, also had no idea about the supposed request to Comelec.
Right to run for office
The former president was arrested on March 11 on orders of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity for a brutal war on illegal drugs that has left thousands of suspects dead during his presidency from 2016 to 2022.
He was arrested after arriving from Hong Kong where he, along with his supported candidates, campaigned for votes from overseas Filipinos there.
Duterte is running for mayor in Davao City against his former Cabinet secretary, Karlo Nograles.
Under Philippine law, candidates facing criminal charges, including those in detention, can run for office unless they have been convicted and have exhausted all appeals.
Duterte is widely expected to win as Davao mayor, a position he held for more than three decades before becoming the country’s 16th president in 2016. But it is less clear how he can practically serve as mayor from behind bars.
His spiritual adviser and close political ally, televangelist and Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo Quiboloy, is also running for a Senate seat despite being detained on charges of sexual abuse and human trafficking. He is also wanted in the United States on similar charges.
Interim release
As Duterte’s lawyers continued to contest the ICC’s jurisdiction, especially after Duterte withdrew the country’s membership in the international body in 2018, the Vice President said they were organizing another “Send him home” gathering at The Hague on May 31, her birthday.
“I promised to celebrate my birthday in the presence of both my parents, so I will be coming over there with my mother to celebrate my birthday with them and organize this forum in The Hague,” she said.
Sara said her father’s lawyers were still working on the documents needed to support the petition they would file seeking his interim release.
“The lawyers hadn’t filed the interim release request yet because they needed more documents to support it and the lawyer did not want to file the request when some documents were still lacking,” she said in Filipino. “They want to file the interim release petition with complete documents to support it. They are still working on it.”
On March 14, Duterte faced the ICC for the first time in an initial appearance hearing via video link from his detention facility in The Hague.
He is scheduled to appear for the confirmation of charges hearing on Sept. 23, during which prosecutors can present part of their evidence and the judges will decide what charges can be included in the indictment.
A trial is not expected to start until early 2026.
Election spotlight
Monday’s midterm elections will be for half of the 24-member Senate, all the 317 seats in the House of Representatives and various positions in provinces, cities and municipalities.
The spotlight is on the race for the Senate that could determine the political future of Duterte’s daughter Sara.
She faces an impeachment trial in the Senate in July over accusations of plotting to assassinate President Marcos and corruption involving her office’s intelligence funds.
She has denied the allegations, saying they were spread by her political opponents to destroy her.
Sara is considered as a strong contender for the 2028 presidential race. But if convicted by the Senate, she will be removed as vice president and disqualified from holding public office. To be acquitted, she needs at least nine of 24 senators to vote in her favor.
“The 2025 midterm elections will be crucial, because the results will set the pace for what will happen next, which family or faction will dominate the elections in 2028,” said Maria Ela Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines. —WITH REPORTS FROM GERMELINA LACORTE, AP AND INQUIRER RESEARCH
