Petitioner calls SET ruling a moral victory

ANG KAPATIRAN Party presidential aspirant Rizalito David called the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) decision, which junked the disqualification case he had filed against Sen. Grace Poe over her citizenship, a “moral victory.”

Voting 5-4, the nine-member tribunal threw out the case filed by David, who questioned Poe’s claim to be a natural-born Filipino when she ran for senator in 2013 since she is a foundling.

“It’s still a moral victory for me because the Supreme Court justices voted in my favor,” David said, referring to Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, chair of the SET, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion. Sen. Nancy Binay, daughter of one of Poe’s rivals in the presidency, also voted in David’s favor.

Senators Bam Aquino, Pia Cayetano, Cynthia Villar, Tito Sotto and Loren Legarda voted to dismiss the David petition.

“It’s a pity that our senators failed to rise above their political nature. The issue placed before them was constitutional and legal and yet they voted along political lines,” David said in a phone interview.

“It’s confirmed by how the Supreme Court justices voted, they know their law, they are the ones who understand the law and they voted in my favor. Clearly, what the senators did was just a political accommodation,” David said, adding that he would elevate the case to the high tribunal.

David’s lawyer, Manuelito Luna, said he had yet to see the decision “but in the event it’s a political decision and the senators disregarded the Constitution, then on the strength of the ruling in Lerias case, the Supreme Court will set aside the [SET] decision.”

“Because of the Lerias doctrine which position the justices took will be crucial for a reversal by the Supreme Court,” Luna added.

In the Lerias v. Mercado case, the high court warned politicians who are members of electoral tribunals against partisan voting.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it would definitely take into consideration the SET decision.

“The SET’s ruling will, of course, be taken into consideration by the Comelec divisions hearing the various cases in their own deliberations,” said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.

However, Jimenez added that the poll body has yet to read the SET decision.

“At this very moment, all we have is the information about how the voting went. It would be very enlightening to read the decision itself,” he said in a text message to reporters.

“It may have persuasive effects,” Christian Lim, who chairs the Comelec First Division, said in a separate interview.

The disqualification case David filed in the SET is separate from the election offense case he filed in the Comelec, where he accused Poe of “material misrepresentation” in the certificate of candidacy she filed in 2013 in the poll body.

Separate disqualification cases were filed against Poe in the Comelec by lawyer Estrella Elamparo, former Sen. Francisco Tatad, De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras and former University of the East law dean Amado Valdez.