PRESIDENTIAL candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is next on the agenda of the Commission on Elections, which will decide whether or not he should be disqualified, the poll body’s spokesman said Thursday.
At the “Know Your Candidate Forum” at the Aloha Hotel, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said that like presidential bet Senator Grace Poe, Duterte also had a pending disqualification case against him.
“Until the disqualification issues are categorically resolved, the names of Duterte and Grace Poe on the official list of presidential candidates hang in the balance,” Jimenez told the forum.
Jimenez said the official list of presidential candidates will come out on or before Dec. 15.
In the same forum, Philippine Constitution Association or Philconsa president and senatorial candidate Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said the Philconsa would reserve its judgment until the ruling on Poe’s disqualification case has become final.
But Romualdez said the more choices for president there are for the people, the better.
Jimenez dismissed talk that Duterte might be disqualified from running because the candidate he was replacing, Martin Diño, might be found to be a nuisance candidate.
“There is no more issue of [being a] nuisance candidate for Duterte because Diño chose to withdraw his candidacy even prior to the Comelec taking up the issue,” Jimenez said.
Now, all that is left to decide is if Duterte is qualified as a substitute, he added.
“We understand that Diño named Duterte as his substitute and Duterte filed his CoC as replacement for Diño. Now, the Comelec has to decide whether or not Duterte’s CoC was valid and has met the requirements [and] if he is qualified as a substitute for a candidate for president,” Jimenez said.
The Comelec, he said, will have to scrutinize the CoC filed by Duterte.
In the meantime, any statements from any of the camps about the official list of presidential candidates would be mere speculation until the Comelec comes out with its official roster.
Jimenez also called on the public to set emotions aside after the poll body’s 2nd Division disqualified Poe on the grounds that she had not met the residency requirement of 10 years.
“It is but expected that for any controversial decision, there are rumors of a coup d’etat, that people would mass up on Edsa. These are part of the arsenal of rhetoric of politicians. The Comelec is not affected by such rumors because it has to do its job—to follow the law,” he said.
Instead of adding fuel to the fire, Romualdez appealed to the concerned parties to let the Comelec en banc and even the Supreme Court decide on the poe’s qualifications.
“I appeal to everyone to allow our democratic processes to work. Let them [Comelec officials and SC justices] do their work unhampered,” he said.
“The matter is still pending before the Comelec and can even be elevated to the Supreme Court. I, being part of the Philconsa, reserve any judgment and leave it to the concerned institutional bodies to decide,” Romualdez said.