Senator Grace Poe is confident that the Supreme Court would not only act swiftly on the petition that her legal team would submit after Christmas but it would also decide in favor of “genuine democratic elections that allow foundlings like her to run.”
Poe’s lawyer George Garcia has announced that he would file a petition on Monday, December 28, challenging the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) decision to cancel her certificate of candidacy (CoC) for president over her citizenship and residency.
“We are confident that, giving due consideration to the strong evidence, jurisprudence and pertinent principles and precepts, the Justices will uphold our cause and the right of the people to a genuine choice in the elections,” the senator said in a statement on Saturday.
The Supreme Court will be on recess until January 10 but the statement pointed out that under Rule 7, Section 7 of the SC Internal Rules, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is empowered to act on urgent cases and issue temporary restraining orders (TROs) or status quo ante orders (SQAOs) without holding a session of the justices, the statement said.
Such reliefs, however, must be confirmed by the majority of the justices when sessions resume, which is on January 11 for the divisions and January 12 for the full court, the statement added.
“I assure everyone that I am still a candidate for president. Let us fight for genuine democratic elections, where Filipinos are allowed to choose their leaders. The ambitions of a few should never be allowed to subvert the will of the majority,” Poe said.
The Comelec en banc decided to grant the four petitions seeking to remove Poe from the presidential race on December 23, or after government has taken a break for the Christmas holidays. The Comelec gave Poe’s camp only five days to seek relief from the high tribunal.
Despite its decision to cancel Poe’s CoC, the Comelec decided to keep her name on the ballot. IDL