Duterte lawyer sees dismissal of DQ case

Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte shows his Certificate of Candidacy for President at the Comelec, tuesday.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

THE DISQUALIFICATION case against presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte is likely to be dismissed after the petitioner failed to show up at a hearing Tuesday in the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the lawyer of the Davao City mayor said Tuesday.

Vitaliano Aguirre made a verbal motion to dismiss after the petitioner, radio broadcaster Ruben Castor, and his lawyer, Oliver Lozano, failed to show up at the preliminary investigation of the disqualification case in the Comelec First Division.

“We are expecting a favorable decision,” Aguirre told the Inquirer in a telephone interview. “His no-show was a violation of the summons of the Comelec that stated that nonappearance of the petitioner or his counsel is ground for dismissal of the petition.”

Nuisance

Duterte belatedly filed his certificate of candidacy for President as a substitute for Martin Diño, the standard-bearer of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino- Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).

Diño quit the race ahead of a Comelec hearing that he may be declared a “nuisance” candidate. But Castor later came up with his case, contending that Diño’s certificate was flawed because what he put in the space for the position aspired for in the May elections was mayor of Pasay City instead of President.

Urgent motion

Aguirre said Lozano had filed an urgent motion on Monday that indicated Castor had no intention of showing up in Tuesday’s hearing, saying that based on their submitted disqualification petition, the Comelec could issue a ruling.

“The factual basis of the petition are the admitted facts stated in Martin Diño’s certificate of candidacy, consequently the only issue is purely a legal one. Therefore, there is no need for a conference on Dec. 15 and the hearing on Dec. 16 and due to the sole legal issue, we ask for a prompt resolution of the same,” Lozano said in his motion.

Lozano said the Duterte camp had not answered Castor’s petition, adding that the hearings called were “premature, unjust and dilatory and invite anarchy.”

Aguirre told reporters the absence of Castor was a sign that he had lost interest in the case.

The Comelec clerk, Abigail Nilagan, said that the case would be raffled among the three commissioners of the First Division to decide who would write the decision on the motion to the dismiss. A hearing scheduled for Wednesday has been called off.