Brillantes: Keep Grace Poe on the ballot; she can still go to SC

By: Tina G. Santos - 9 years ago

Grace Poe/FACEBOOK PHOTO

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) should put Sen. Grace Poe’s name on the 2016 ballot despite its Second Division’s decision to cancel her certificate of candidacy for President, former Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes said on Saturday.

Speaking in a news forum in Quezon City, Brillantes explained that Poe can still elevate her appeal to the Supreme Court in case she gets an unfavorable decision from the full election commission.

Poe’s lawyer George Garcia said he would file Poe’s motion for reconsideration on Monday.

“What if she wins in the [Supreme Court]? How will you put her name back [on] the ballot? I think it’s best to just put her name there,” Brillantes said.

No problem

He said he did not see any problem in putting Poe’s name on the ballot even if the Supreme Court ruled against her later.

“The Comelec simply will not count the votes cast for her because they will be considered ‘stray votes,’” he said, citing as an example the case of presidential candidate Vetellano Acosta in the 2010 elections.

“Acosta was a nuisance candidate but his name was [on] the ballot. His votes were not counted at that time. The same should apply here,” Brillantes said.

May be listed

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said Poe’s name might be included in the list of candidates that would be printed on the official ballots for the 2016 polls.

“The tendency is that if there is a case that has not been resolved with finality, the tendency will be to put the name of the candidate on the list. It doesn’t matter who,” Jimenez said.

“If a person has a pending motion with anybody that may have an effect on the candidacy, and they’re put on the ballot, it’s easier to ignore the votes cast for that person than to take them out of the ballot and then later on find out that they should’ve been on the ballot in the first place,” he said.

“It’s more practical to include the name of a person and just stray the votes later on if they turn out to be unqualified,” he added.