“UNJUST and unfair.”
So said a progressive lawmaker after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc has ruled to disqualify Sen. Grace Poe from the 2016 presidential race.
Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares on Wednesday said the poll body’s decision was “anti-democratic and an assault to the people’s sovereign right to choose the nation’s leaders.”
“They (Comelec) did not only disenfranchise her but also the millions of supporters who want her to be president,” Colmenares said in a statement.
“Comelec has become a tool in the sinister machination of the administration to disqualify leading presidential candidates,” he added.
The lawmaker, who is running under the senatorial slate of Poe, believed that the Supreme Court would “promptly reject and correct this patently unfair and unjust ruling (of the Comelec).”
On Tuesday, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the motion for reconsideration filed by Poe “looks like it was denied” although the poll body has yet to issue a promulgation.
The Comelec first and second divisions have earlier ruled to disqualify Poe, citing her citizenship and residency issues.
The camp of Poe, however, has said that they would “exhaust all legal remedies” and elevate her disqualification case to the Supreme Court.
“We will appeal to the wisdom of the Supreme Court. We know that our arguments are based on laws. Senator Poe is a natural born Filipino and has met the residency requirement,” Rex Gatchalian, spokesman of Poe, said in a statement.