Comelec won’t appeal SC ruling on seniors’ party list

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will not appeal the Supreme Court ruling listing the disqualification of the Senior Citizens party-list group, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said on Wednesday.

Brillantes said the election body would instead hold a hearing later this month to determine which of the Senior Citizens’ two bickering factions should be allowed to sit in Congress.

“We have set a hearing for the two sets of nominees. We will hear the squabble of the two factions to determine who should sit (in Congress) unless someone files an MR (motion for reconsideration),” Brillantes said in an interview.

“But that would not be us. We will no longer file an MR,” he added.

Brillantes said the Comelec decided not to file a motion for reconsideration after reading the Supreme Court ruling overturning the election body’s disqualification of Senior Citizens for illegal “term-sharing.”

“We will just accept it. We’ve read it. This could drag on and we could become weary. We will just see who is the right faction,” he said.

With the Comelec accepting defeat in the Senior Citizens case, there is now only one remaining seat, out of the 58 party-list seats in Congress, whose winner has yet to be declared.

“There’s still one vacancy. If (the party-list group) Abang Lingkod wins (its appeal before the Supreme Court), they’re it. But if they lose, another one will take that seat,” Brillantes said.