The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc has denied the petition of the administration party PDP-Laban to reopen the filing of the certificates of candidacy (COC) in the May 2022 polls.
The Comelec also junked the bid of the Malasakit Movement of former Metro Manila Development Authority spokesperson Celine Pialago to be accredited as a party-list group for lack of merit.
In a statement, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body unanimously denied the petition to reopen the filing of certificates of candidacy for the national elections filed by the PDP-Laban faction of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi.
It denied as well as the petition to suspend the elections until 2025, which some administration critics saw as an attempt to keep President Rodrigo Duterte in power for three more years.
“Both of them resoundingly denied,” Jimenez said.
Also, the Comelec is looking to start printing the official ballots for the May 2022 polls early next week.
“Our estimate is that our final ballot faces will be completed by January 15. The final ballot face means that is the final list of candidates. So January 15 and we hope to be able to start printing by January 17,” Jimenez said in a virtual press briefing.
Jimenez said the poll body is now preparing for a walkthrough at the National Printing Office (NPO) in Quezon City on Saturday.
“So right now, we are preparing to hold a walkthrough of NPO on January 15. We are finalizing preparations for that this afternoon.
Hopefully, the walkthrough will be in person,” Jimenez added.
He said the ballot faces will be uploaded on their website.
Jimenez said the petition of the PDP-Laban Cusi wing to re-open the COC filing was denied as the grounds it cited were not meritorious.
The Comelec en banc refuted the PDP-Laban’s allegations that “there is no reason” for the poll body “to set the deadline so early.”
“One of the justifications forwarded by the commission in response to the allegation is that, obviously, the allegation does not take into consideration all of the other preparatory activities that are being conducted by the Comelec. That in fact, the setting of the date of the filing of COCs is not arbitrary in any way. That’s why we denied their request,” he said.
Meanwhile, in denying Malasakit Movement’s accreditation, the Comelec said it failed to meet the requirement for a sectoral party-list organization.
“They were unable to prove that they represent a marginalized and underrepresented sector,” Jimenez added, noting that Pialago’s group can elevate the issue to the Supreme Court.
The Comelec has yet to release the detailed resolution explaining their vote.
Earlier, PDP-Laban Cusi wing secretary-general Melvin Matibag justified their petition, saying Comelec “cannot, and should not, proceed with printing of ballots for the 2022 elections while several cases affecting candidates and party-lists are still pending before it.”
Jimenez said Wednesday this would not be the first time ballot printing will commence despite the pendency of disqualification and other cases against certain aspirants.
Meanwhile, Jimenez also said the petition filed by the National Coalition for Life and Democracy (NCLD) for the postponement of the polls until 2025 has been denied, with voting on the issue also done in Wednesday’s en banc session.
Asked if the first ballots to be printed are for overseas voters, the Comelec official said, “We will let you know as soon as we finalize the walkthrough plans but yeah, we are looking at January 17 as the start and then normally we do start with overseas ballots mainly because they are the first out. They are going to be used as early as April. Let me just verify if their ballots are the ones to be printed first.”
Filipino voters overseas will be the first to vote in next year’s polls, or one month ahead of the voting in the country. They will only be allowed to vote for candidates in national positions.