Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
SEN. AQUILINO “Koko” Pimentel III on Thursday shrugged off disqualification cases against presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, saying these were based on procedure rather than substance that the Davao City mayor could easily hurdle.
Pimentel, president of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan that adopted Duterte as a substitute standard-bearer in the May elections, said he expected the challenges in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to be resolved before the campaign period officially begins next month.
The senator said the cases filed against Duterte could be considered harassment or propaganda to try to leave the disqualification issue hanging up to election time.
“Fortunately for us, the issues being raised against Mayor Duterte’s candidacy are matters of form and procedure, so definitely these will not linger or remain unresolved up to campaign time. This will be over by early January,” he said in a phone interview.
“When it comes to form and procedure, the Comelec will have to decide this with finality before finalizing the list of candidates,” he added.
And unlike questions on substance, issues concerning procedure could be concluded in the Comelec and need not go to the Supreme Court, he said. By February, he expects all issues on Duterte’s candidacy to be cleared up.
So if the game plan by Duterte’s detractors was to create doubts on the mayor’s bid for President, they could not stretch the issue, he said.
The petitions challenging Duterte’s candidacy are centered on a purported clerical error committed by Martin Diño who put in his certificate of candidacy (COC) he was running for mayor of Pasay City instead of PDP-Laban presidential candidate.
One of the three petitions contends that Duterte’s COC was filed beyond the Oct. 16 deadline.
Duterte was a last-minute addition to the race for the presidency. After repeatedly saying he would not run for President, he filed a COC for the highest executive post as a substitute for his party mate Diño.
Duterte’s camp believes the petitions questioning his candidacy would be dismissed.