VICE presidential candidate Francis Escudero on Sunday slammed the ruling Liberal Party’s members and told them to stop dictating on the Supreme Court how it should rule on the disqualification cases of his running mate presidential candidate Grace Poe.
“I hope the members of the Liberal Party will stop dictating on the Supreme Court to do that or to do this,” Senator Escudero told reporters at the Star Plaza Hotel in Dagupan City.
He made the statement even as he and Senator Poe said they will continue the Conditional Cash Transfer program or dole to the poor following the allegations it will end if the administration candidates lose in the May elections.
“They do not own the CCT. It did not come from their pockets. It’s not their personal money,” Escudero said.
“In fact, that was started during the time of GMA [former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo].”
Escudero had been asked to comment on the repeated calls of the LP, particularly of the party’s national vice chairman Senate President Franklin Drilon, for the Supreme Court to conduct marathon hearings on Poe’s disqualification cases.
Those cases were filed by the petitioners who claim Poe is not qualified to run for president because she is not a natural-born Filipino citizen and she failed to meet the 10-year requirement for a candidate running for president.
The first case involves the petition filed by losing senatorial candidate Rizalito David after the Senate Electoral Tribunal ruled that Poe is a natural-born Filipino citizen. The second case is about the petition filed by Poe on the Comelec’s cancellation of her Certificate of Candidacy for president.
Escudero said they were hoping that the high court justices would finish the oral arguments on Poe’s disqualification cases toward the end of this month.
“We are hoping that their decision will come out by March,” Escudero said.
“We are hoping they will favor Senator Grace for the simple reason that this was similar to the issue that hounded FPJ [the late Fernando Poe Jr., Poe’s adoptive father who ran in the 2004 elections].”
Drilon says he is not dictating on the Supreme Court “but it is very frustrating because we know for certain that the Court could hasten the process by conducting marathon hearings but it has chosen not to do so.”
He urged the high court “to give the case extraordinary attention so that it can be decided earlier in order to protect the integrity and credibility of the May 2016 polls.”