SC asked to compel Comelec to drop ex-Laguna gov son from ballot

Son of former Laguna Governor Emilio “ER” Jorge Ejercito on Monday asked the Supreme Court (SC) to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to delete his name from the official ballots of the province of Laguna as a candidate for governor in the May 9, 2016 elections.

In an urgent petition for certiorari, Jorge Antonio Genaro Ejercito through his counsels Romulo Macalintal and Antonio Carlos told the high court that he had already withdrawn his certificate of candidacy (COC) for the said position as early as February 1 this year.

However, he said the poll body failed to act on his motion to withdraw and cancel his COC and that Comelec still printed his name in the ballots as one of the candidates for governor of Laguna.

He said the “non-deletion of his name from said ballots would cause confusion among the voters of Laguna which may lead to their disenfranchisement because of similarity of surnames since his father, ER Ejercito, is also running for governor under the surname “EJERCITO” and some voters would still vote for him (Jorge) thinking he is still a candidate.

READ: Ousted Laguna gov may run again, Comelec rules

“Despite a timely withdrawal of his Certificate of Candidacy for said position, specifically on February 1, 2016, Comelec, with grave abuse of discretion denied petitioner’s said request for deletion of his name without any valid and legal ground except to say that the denial was ‘due to tight timelines’ in Comelec’s preparation for said elections,” the petition said.

Ejercito said that when the poll body failed to act on his withdrawal of candidacy, he filed a motion to delete his name on February 18, however, last March 18, he received a copy of a resolution of the Comelec denying his motion “due to tight timelines.”

He said the ground cited by Comelec is “false and misleading” because it was even able to halt the printing of ballots on February 17 since the name of the political party of Senator Miriam Santiago, a presidential candidate, was not included in the ballot.”

READ: Santiago party’s name missing as Comelec starts printing ballots

“With due respect, it is petitioner’s humble submission that Comelec’s said ground is false and misleading.  This is so because on February 17, 2016, Comelec ‘halted the printing of ballots because the name of the political party of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was not included in the ballot’ and Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista confirmed that the “printing was stopped because the name of the party of Santiago was missing,” he said.

“If the Comelec could accommodate Senator Santiago by inserting in the ballots her political party on February 17, then it is grave abuse of discretion and discriminatory on the part of the Comelec to say that tight timelines prevented it from deleting or excluding my name from the ballots when the withdrawal of my COC was made on February 1 and the motion to delete my name [was] filed on February 18,” he added.

He also noted that Comelec itself admitted that the printing of the ballots started last Feb. 15 and would be finished by April 25, “thus, the Comelec has all the time to delete my name from the ballots since it has not yet started the printing of the ballots for the Province of Laguna.”

He also urged the high court to issue a restraining order directing the Comelec to stop the printing of the ballots of the province of Laguna until its last date of printing on April 25 or the said ballots be the last batch to be printed to give ample time for the SC to act on his urgent petition. RAM