Reopen filing of candidacies, ruling party asks Comelec

MANILA, Philippines — Facing the ignominy of having no standard-bearer in the May 2022 general elections, a faction of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) on Friday petitioned the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disregard its own rules and reopen the filing of certificates of candidacy (COC).

In a statement, the PDP-Laban faction headed by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said it asked the Comelec to scrap its “self-imposed deadlines” for next year’s election because of cases still pending before the poll body.

“The party believes that the Comelec should reopen and allow the filing of COC … in view of the fact that it 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,” said lawyer Melvin Matibag, secretary-general of the Cusi wing.

“This petition will benefit everyone and should be intently considered by the Commission,” he said.

Matibag argued in the petition filed on Friday before the Comelec that the Oct. 1 to Oct. 8 period for the filing of certificates of candidacy was “unreasonable, unnecessary and legally impossible.”

But the Comelec, a quasijudicial body mandated to manage the country’s elections, has always been responsible for the schedule of election activities since its founding in 1940.

The Inquirer tried but failed to find an instance over the past 81 years that the Comelec reopened the period for the filing of candidacies because one party failed to field standard-bearers.

The PDP-Laban itself, founded in 1982, has managed to field presidential and vice presidential candidates in every election since 1986, a year after the enactment of the Omnibus Election Code.

The Cusi wing acknowledged that the automated election system law allowed the Comelec to set the deadline for the filing of COC.