Ruling on nuisance bets final, appeals should be taken to SC – Brillantes

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. on Monday said that nuisance candidates who would want to appeal the poll body’s decision on the senatorial candidates who were given the green light to run for the May 2013 elections should take the matter up to the Supreme Court (SC).

“It was an en banc ruling…they should go to the SC and wait for the resolution,” Brillantes said when asked by reporters about the actions that nuisance candidates could contest the ruling.

It had earlier been reported that out of the 57 “colorful” candidates who attended the two-day Comelec special hearing, only five were approved by the poll body.

Brillantes had identified the candidates to have qualified as Ricardo Penson, Samson Alcantara, and Democratic Party of the Philippines’ (DPP) Christian Señeres, Baldomero Falcone and Greco Belgica. A total of 27 other qualified candidates, mostly from the Liberal Party-led administration coalition and the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), had also been approved by the poll body for the mid-term elections.

But Norma Nueva, a 75 year-old business management graduate who had been disqualified by the poll body, went to the Comelec main office in Intramuros Wednesday and appealed to Brillantes to not consider her as a nuisance candidate. She also said that during the Comelec hearing she attended, she filed another certificate of nomination and acceptance (Cona) saying that she was running under the party Partido ng Manggagawa at Magsasaka (PMM), and not with the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL).

Brillantes, however, said that the Comelec ruling was final and irrevocable. He added that based on the rules, they could not honor her second Cona.

“We have rules that if you changed your Cona, the second party won’t be considered,” Brillantes said. Nueva had earlier passed a Cona stating that she was running under the KBL.

The KBL and its candidates engaged in a fierce debate during the Comelec hearings because of serious internal disagreements among their members as to who was the leader of the party

Melchor Chavez, one of KBL’s candidates whose candidacy was also not approved by the poll body, insisted that a certain lawyer named Vicente Millora was the chairman-president of the party, and that he was a candidate based on the certificate of nomination (CONA) issued by  a certain Vicente Millora.

Brillantes, however, noted that based on the records of the Comelec, former Comelec commissioner Jaime Opinion was the leader of the party. He had said that KBL candidates withdrew their candidacies, while others, who were considered as independent after not accrediting the Cona issued by Millora, also did not pass the screening.

Meanwhile, Nueva, in separate interviews with the media, also blasted news reports saying that she “flirted” with Brillantes during the Comelec hearings, arguing that she only had a “very pleasant conversation with the Chairman that day.”

“I did not flirt I will never do that because as a bible preacher it is very unholy to be called a flirt,” she said.

Nueva, during the interviews, drew cheers from the crowd when he told Brillantes during the hearings that ““Malakas pa ho ang asim ko (I still have a strong sex appeal)..I’m still very much available.”

Asked about this, Nueva said that the word asim was misinterpreted by people with dirty minds and that what she meant by “asim” was that she still had the “power and strength to wage a powerful, national campaign.”

“The meaning of asim is that i still have the strength, courage, and endurance to do all these things,” she said.