Decision on Poe DQ case deferred

Presidential aspirant Senator Grace Poe. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) on Monday discussed but did not resolve a motion brought by Sen. Grace Poe seeking to overturn a decision by the poll watchdog’s Second Division to disqualify her from next year’s presidential election.

Hours after six of the seven election commissioners sat down to deliberate on the presidential bids of Poe and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Comelec Chair Andres Bautista told reporters the commissioners had not arrived at decisions.

“We don’t have a decision yet. We talked about the cases today but we are meeting again tomorrow. [We’ll] have another [full session],” Bautista said.

Commissioner Christian Robert Lim did not participate in the deliberations. The head of the Comelec First Division inhibited himself from Poe’s disqualification case, which stemmed from a petition filed by a former government lawyer, Estrella Elamparo.

“I think it has to do with his prior professional relationship with Attorney Elamparo … the inhibition is for the [full-commission] proceedings on the motion for reconsideration [brought by Poe],” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez told reporters.

Lim confirmed the information, saying Elamparo was a former associate at his own law firm, Lim Ocampo & Candelaria.

Last week, Bautista announced that the Comelec would hold an executive session on Monday to decide which candidates would make it to the official ballot for next year’s general elections, with Poe’s and Duterte’s presidential bids at the top of the agenda.

Today is the deadline set by the Comelec for the release of the list of candidates whose names will be on the 2016 ballot.

Motion for reconsideration

Poe has asked the Comelec to reconsider the 3-0 decision of its Second Division to grant the petition of Elamparo to disqualify her from the presidential election on the grounds that she was not a natural-born Filipino and she did not meet the 10-year residency requirement for presidential candidates.

The members of the Second Division are Election Commissioners Al Pareño, Arthur Lim and Sheriff Abas.

Poe has yet to bring a motion for the reconsideration of the First Division’s 2-1 decision to disqualify her on the same grounds, raised by former University of the East law dean Amado Valdez, former Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad and De La Salle University professor Antonio Contreras.

The members of the First Division are Election Commissioners Luie Guia, Rowena Guanzon and Christian Robert Lim.

Lim voted for Poe. His inhibition from the commission’s deliberations has made Poe’s chances of winning an appeal dimmer.

Going to SC

Poe Monday said her lawyers were preparing for a battle in the Supreme Court.

“I don’t want to lose hope in the Comelec… but as I have been telling myself, this will eventually end up in the Supreme Court,” she said.

Poe said her lawyers would submit the same documentary evidence used in the Comelec to the Supreme Court despite the willingness of a possible relative of her unknown biological parents to undergo DNA tests to prove that she was a natural-born Filipino.

“I’m not pinning my hopes on that because our legal argument is that all foundlings should be accorded the same rights [as children whose parents are known],” she said.

Poe was abandoned in a Catholic church in Jaro, Iloilo province, shortly after birth in 1968. She was adopted later by movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. and his wife, movie actress Susan Roces.

She said that when her cases reached the Supreme Court, she hoped the justices would render a decision based not just on the letter of the law but also on “justice and on the spirit of the law.”

Bautista said Monday’s Comelec session also discussed Duterte’s case, referring to a petition filed by radio broadcaster Ruben Castor urging the commission not to allow the Davao mayor to substitute for PDP-Laban presidential candidate Martin Diño due to an erroneous entry in Diño’s certificate of candidacy (COC).

Diño wrote in his COC that he was running for mayor of Pasay City instead of for President, an error that Castor said made the document “void, legally inexistent and without legal effect.”

Jimenez said there was a possibility that the full commission would consolidate all the cases against Poe and wait for her motion for reconsideration of the First Division’s ruling.

Quick action

Senate President Franklin Drilon said the Comelec should resolve the cases against Poe and Duterte immediately to give the Supreme Court time to resolve them in its turn.

Drilon said he was sure the cases would be elevated to the Supreme Court.

The resolution of the cases would remove doubts about the fairness and credibility of next year’s elections, he said. With reports from Marlon Ramos and Christine O. Avendaño