New Comelec exec inhibits self from previous clients’ cases

George Garcia, newly appointed Comelec commissioner.

MANILA, Philippines — Election lawyer George Erwin Garcia, a newly appointed member of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said on Tuesday that he had inhibited himself in the cases of his former clients.

One of Garcia’s clients was presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“In fact, the reason I did not immediately assume [the post] was that I prioritized inhibiting myself and my withdrawal from all the cases where I had an appearance,” Garcia, speaking partly in Filipino, said in “DZMM Teleradyo.”

He had been asked for assurance that he would not lean n favor of the cases of Marcos.

“In the end, of course, I will be leaning towards what might be in his favor because I was with him before. That’s why I inhibited myself. The discretion is mine,” he said.

He added that he made a full disclosure of the cases he had handled to the Comelec’s clerk of commission.

He pointed out: “Everyone is expecting that the name I made for myself, no matter how small, I will ruin in just a case. But what will I gain from that?”

A sole disqualification case against Marcos Jr. remains unresolved by the Comelec.

The other cases have been dismissed — two petitions seeking to cancel his certificate of candidacy, a petition to declare him as a nuisance candidate, and the three consolidated cases seeking to disqualify him.

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