By Manny Piñol
The expected substitution by Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte of PDP Laban presidential candidate Martin Diño in the 2016 elections has faced a legal snag and it may never happen at all.
Yesterday, shortly after PDP Laban passed a resolution “compelling” Duterte to run for President in case Diño withdraws, the law department of the Commission on Elections submitted a petition to the Commission En Banc seeking the disqualification and cancellation of Diño’s Certificate of Candidacy for being a nuisance candidate.
The cancellation of Diño’s COC would effectively close the door to Duterte’s expected substitution, legal experts who gathered at the PDP Laban headquarters in Manila following the receipt of the copy of the petition said yesterday.
In a 10-page Motu Proprio petition signed by Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal, acting head of the Comelec’s law department, and two other lawyers, the Comelec legal office asked the Commission to “Declare Martin B. Diño as Nuisance Candidate and Refuse to Give Due Course To Or Cancel His Certificate of Candidacy.”
“It is clear that respondent has filed her (sic) COC to put the election process in mockery or disrepute… and that he has no bona fide intention to run for office” of the President, the petition claimed.
“The respondent, in several media interviews, openly admitted that he was filing his COC for President because Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte did not show up and failed to file his COC for the Presidency on the last day of filing thereof,” the petition claimed.
The petition also belittled Diño’s capacity to launch a nation-wide campaign saying that while the respondent is a businessman “it is most respectfully submitted that absent clear proof of his financial capability, respondent will not be able to sustain the financial rigours of waging a nationwide campaign.”
“While it is true that “the right to vote and to be voted for shall not be dependent upon the wealth of the individual concerned, whereas social justice presupposes equal opportunity for all, rich and poor alike, and that, accordingly, no person shall, by reason of poverty, be denied the chance to be elected to public office,’ reality is a bitter pill that Respondent has to swallow,” the petition concluded.
Diño and his lawyers are given 5 days to respond to the petition.
Lawyers said the cancellation of Diño’s COC would effectively prevent the PDP Laban from fielding a substitute, unlike in the case of withdrawal or disqualification.
PDP Laban national chairman Ismael Sueno chided the petition saying that “if there is any mockery of the election process, it is this very petition of the Comelec legal department which prejudges Martin Diño’s true intention in filing his COC and belittles his capacity to wage a nation-wide campaign,” Sueno said.
Sueno said Diño is the deputy secretary general of PDP Laban and has moved around the country conducting membership seminars and advocating Federalism.
“It is our inherent right as a political party of good standing which has participated in national elections since the 1980s to have a line up of candidates to field. Our best bet is Mayor Duterte but since he failed to file his COC as President, the party opted to field Diño,” Sueno said.
“We could have fielded Senator Koko Pimentel and he could have also announced that in case our first choice, Mayor Duterte decides to run within the window allowed by law for substitution, he would yield. Would they have petitioned to declare Senator Pimentel as nuisance candidate?” Sueno asked.
Sueno said that PDP Laban, even with its meager resources, “will fight this mockery of the election process tooth and nail.”
“The true intent of a presidential candidate and his capacity to wage a national campaign cannot be determined by just three lawyers of the Comelec,” he said.
Sueno said Diño will submit his answer to the petition through his lawyers within the prescribed period.
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