Belmonte: People want Poe, Duterte to run despite DQ cases

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who is also Liberal Party vice chair, says the political rivals of standard-bearer Mar Roxas should be allowed to run despite the cases filed against them. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Liberal Party (LP) vice chair and campaign manager of standard-bearer Mar Roxas said the latter’s political rivals should be allowed to run despite the disqualification cases lodged against them.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the public still wanted Sen. Grace Poe and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to run in next year’s elections.

He called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prioritize the disqualification cases against the two presidential front-runners so that they could finish the issue with the Supreme Court and be done with it.

“Siguro mas gusto ng tao na mas maraming naglalaban. Mas mahirap (na mas konti sila),” Belmonte said.

“The authority should not take time on it. It should give it preference and get it out of the way,” Belmonte said of the disqualification cases.

Two Comelec divisions had disqualified Poe, who led voters’ preference polls, for failing to meet the 10-year residency requirement for a presidential candidate, citing her certificate of candidacy (COC) for senator in 2013. Poe said she erred in the COC.

Poe’s disqualification case, however, was junked by the Senate Electoral Tribunal, although Supreme Court justice members ruled that Poe was not a natural-born citizen.

Defective COC

Meanwhile, broadcaster Ruben Castor, represented by counsel Oliver Lozano, had filed a disqualification case against Duterte over his defective COC. Duterte supposedly submitted his bid to run for president to replace Martin Diño, who indicated in his COC which he withdrew later that he was running for Pasay City mayor and not president.

According to Belmonte, this is the first time the elections have been marred with questions over the constitutional qualifications of the candidates.

“This is the first time really that the qualifications of candidates are being questioned. Kung walang mag-qu-question, go na agad sa mga issues sa kampanya,” Belmonte said.

Belmonte lamented the media focus on the word war among candidates instead of issues affecting the voting public.

READ: Poe vs Duterte vs Binay vs Roxas

“Napakahaba nitong preliminaries e, na qualified ka ba or hindi. Humaba masyado stage na ito. Dapat mabilis na nadaanan ito so that we can get to the issues right away,” Belmonte said.

Belmonte had wanted Poe to run as Roxas’ vice president. With Poe pursuing her own presidential ambitions, Roxas chose Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo as his running mate.

Poe has accused Roxas and opposition bet Vice President Jejomar Binay of being behind the series of disqualification cases against her for her residency and foundling status. The complainants said Poe was not eligible to run because she was not natural-born owing to her being a foundling.

READ: Poe says Roxas, Binay behind disqualification move

Roxas and Binay have denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, Roxas and Duterte got embroiled in a word war when the latter criticized the former interior secretary for his performance during the onslaught of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan) in November 2013. Yolanda, the world strongest typhoon to hit land, claimed over 6,000 lives when it hit central Philippines.

READ: Duterte mocks Roxas record: He can’t handle stress

Roxas retorted that the title of Davao being the world’s safest city was a myth, citing police figures which put the city on the fourth spot for the highest crime rate.

Duterte fired back, saying Roxas’ economics degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School was a lie.

Roxas said he had a diploma to prove his degree, and that he and the mayor should just resort to slapping each other to prove who’s telling the truth.

READ: Roxas to Duterte: Slap me if you can prove my Wharton degree is fake 

Roxas said if he could produce his diploma, he would be the one to slap Duterte.

The official university archives webpage lists Roxas as among its notable alumni “who have served in notable positions in foreign governments.” RC