Possible DQs not welcome to voters, says Speaker

House Speaker Sonny Belmonte Jr. INQUIRER PHOTO / LEO M. SABANGAN II

SPEAKER Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Tuesday said a possible disqualification (DQ) of one or two of the leading candidates for President would not sit well with Filipino voters.

“The people will of course want more candidates fighting it out,” Belmonte said in a talk with reporters.

Belmonte was referring to the DQ cases filed against the two leading presidential candidates based in recent surveys—Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Grace Poe.

Duterte’s certificate of candidacy for President, which was filed on Nov. 27 is being contested because the person he is substituting for filed an erroneous application. Martin Diño of PDP-Laban wrote down that he was running for Pasay City mayor, not President.

Poe is facing four DQ cases in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) questioning her citizenship (as a foundling, she has no proof her parents are Filipinos) and residency (she is short of the 10-year residency requirement for a presidential candidate).

Strong candidates

Since Duterte and Poe are strong candidates, Belmonte urged both the Comelec and Supreme Court (which would ultimately decide on the issues) to decide the cases with urgency to avoid complications.

“The authorities should not take their time. They should give it preference and take it out of the way,” Belmonte said.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, a supporter of Duterte, agreed with Belmonte that the Comelec and the high court should let the candidates run and allow the people to make their choice.

“We should not do anything that would lead to a winner by default. We don’t want a few people sitting in some office disenfranchise millions of voters by disqualifying their presidential bet,” Nograles said.

Rep. Edgar Erice of the ruling Liberal Party said that the country was governed by rules that should be followed by every body, especially those who planned to lead the country.

“We have to respect the rule of law. It is not the lookout of their rivals for them to qualify to run. They should blame themselves, nobody else,” said Erice, who is pushing the candidacy of the administration standard-bearer, Mar Roxas.

Erice said Duterte played “pabebe,” or coy, in the months before the Oct. 16 deadline for filing certificates of candidacy while Poe had all the resources to make her application correct.

“It might be unpopular and make the contest less exciting, but that is the law and no one is above it,” Erice said.

Odds stacked

Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said Tuesday the odds seemed to be stacked against Poe in the Supreme Court, where she planned to go to if her appeals in the Comelec would be turned down.

Three justices who sat in the Senate Electoral Tribunal had voted to disqualify her as a senator last month although they were outnumbered and Poe won the case, Osmeña said. “This is the indication of the mindset of the lawyers, justices.” With a report from Leila B. Salaverria