Poe camp hopes ‘honest mistake’ in COC would also be forgiven

Senator Grace Poe during a presconference in Tarlac City, following COMELEC’s first division canceling Poe’s certificate of candidacy for President, voting 2-1. Poe says her camp expected the ruling, and will file for motion for reconsideration on the following days.
INQUIRER/ MARIAANE BERMUDEZ

The camp of Senator Grace Poe is hopeful that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would also accept the “honest mistake” in her certificate of candidacy (COC) in 2013 after the poll body decided to accept the COC of her rival, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

READ: It’s official, Duterte now a candidate for president — Comelec

“We welcome the decision of Comelec to accept the COC of Mayor Duterte. As stated before, we believe that in a true democracy, individuals should be allowed to offer themselves to the electorate to serve the country, as well as people should be allowed to choose their next leaders from a complete list of candidates. In a democracy, the freedom to choose is the most powerful tool of the people,” Poe’s spokesman, Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gathalian, said in a text message on Thursday.

“With this positive decision we are hopeful that the Comelec en banc applies consistency in rendering decision on the MR of Sen. Poe. In this case (Duterte case) they accepted the ‘mistake’ of Mr. Dino, hence we believe that they should be consistent and accept ‘honest mistake’ of Sen. Poe in her 2013 COC when she ran for senator,” Poe’s spokesman added.

READ: Duterte ‘glad’ of Comelec acceptance of his COC – legal counsel

Gathchalian was referring to Martin Diño, the original standard-bearer of PDP-Laban, who later withdrew his COC. Diño was replaced by Duterte.

Diño’s COC indicated, however that he was running for mayor of Pasay City.

Meanwhile, Poe has a pending appeal at the Comelec en banc after its first and second divisions ruled to disqualify her from the 2016 presidential race for allegedly making false statements about her period of residency in the country and her status as a natural-born Filipino.

READ: Comelec disqualifies Grace Poe

In its decision to disqualify Poe from next year’s presidential race, the Comelec’s Second Division ruled that there was a deliberate attempt on Poe’s part to mislead, misinform or hide a fact when she stated in her COC for President that her period of residency in the Philippines up to the day before the May 9, 2016 elections was 10 years and 11 months.

But such declaration, it said, was false based on her own COC for senator in 2013 where she stated that she has been a resident of the country since November 2006. CDG