‘Duterte has no business running for president if…’

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has no business running for president if he can’t even follow simple procedures in the filing of his certificate of candidacy, a top Liberal Party (LP) official retorted.

LP political affairs chief and Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice said he agreed in part with the view of Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Duterte’s partymate in PDP-Laban, that the disqualification cases against Duterte were mostly matters of procedure rather than of substance.

“Somehow I agree, but shall we forego procedures?   If you cannot follow an important procedural requirement, you should not be president,” said Erice in a text message.

Erice said that if Duterte would be disqualified by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as a substitute candidate for Martin Diño, he only had himself to blame—for being indecisive (initially filing his candidacy for reelection as mayor) and for making a mockery of the election process (maximizing the substitution period up to Dec. 10 to generate public interest).

Erice said that Diño himself made the error of writing “Pasay City mayor” instead of “president” as the position he was running for in the 2016 elections.

Erice also could not help taking a dig at Duterte’s extra judicial record in clamping down on criminals in his city: “Respecting human rights also involves procedures,” said Erice.

Pimentel had said it was fortunate that the issues raised against the PDP-Laban standard-bearer were procedural matters.

“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,” Pimentel 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,”

Pimentel added.

An ally of Duterte, Davao Rep. Karlo Nograles, said it was important for the Comelec to decide on the cases against Duterte as soon as possible to avoid complications.