Gwen: LP won’t gain from move vs Soco protest

THE Liberal Party won’t stand to gain in its bid to intervene in the election protest filed by businessman Glenn Anthony Soco against the late Cebu vice gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, who was Soco’s running mate in the 2010 elections, said that the Liberal Party’s representative, the late vice governor Sanchez was already deceased.

“Now, who is afraid of what might be uncovered? Is someone behind all of this? And is trying to move heaven and earth in order to prevent the truth from coming out. The truth that may have been obscured by certain machinations in the past elections,” Garcia said.

The Liberal Party represented by its Director General Gladys Cruz- Sta. Rita filed a motion for intervention on the poll protest.

Last July 19, an “Urgent Motion for Leave of the Commission to Intervene” was filed at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Second Division in Manila.

Comelec Provincial Supervisor Attorney Lionel Marco Castillano, for his part, told Cebu Daily News this is a “novel idea” of the Liberal Party.

Castillano said that he had not yet encountered a poll protest being intervened by the party to which the candidate was affiliated.

“Novel nga idea nga ang party ang mo-intervene on behalf of the deceased,” he said.

He said he would reserve his comment on the case and would leave it for the second division to decide.

Compared to Grecylda “Gigi” Sanchez- Zaballero’s motion to intervene, Castillano said he has “not yet seen any jurisprudence”.

The Commission on Elections second division threw out Grecylda Zaballero’s motion to intervene in the poll protest last July 13. /Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus