Comelec to defer to SC on Soce

The Commission on Elections said on Thursday it would defer to the Supreme Court’s decision on a petition to nullify the deadline extension of the candidates’ statements of contributions and expenditures (Soce).

“We will follow whatever the SC’s definitive ruling regarding the matter,” Comelec chair  Andres Bautista said in a text message. It was, however, not known when the high court is likely to hand down its ruling.

He issued the statement after the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas (PDP-Laban) ng Bayan asked the Supreme Court to nullify the Comelec’s extension of the filing of Soces, upon the request of the Liberal Party.

PDP-Laban, which filed a petition for certiorari before the high court, is the party of President Rodrigo Duterte, while losing presidential candidate Mar Roxas belongs to the Liberal Party.

Theirs is the second petition to question the Comelec’s decision to move the Soce deadline to June 30 instead of the original June 8 date, a deadline which the poll body had earlier deemed as “non-extendable.”

Last June 28, the Supreme Court dismissed the motion of retired Col. Justino Padiernos of the People’s Freedom Party and lawyer Manuelito Luna questioning the Comelec resolution, on a technicality.