COMELEC Chairman Andres Bautista assured the public recently that the commission En Banc will be holding a special session to fast track the resolution of the pending disqualification cases against Senator Grace Poe and even that of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
This is a welcome move by the COMELEC since both Poe and Duterte are front runners in the forthcoming presidential elections and any hint or suspicion that the commission is prejudiced or biased places the COMELEC’s credibility and impartiality in serious doubt.
A case in point is the allegation by Poe that the COMELEC 2nd Division ruled to cancel her certificate of candidacy (CoC) without even considering some 400 pieces of evidence that prove that she was a resident of the country since 2005. The 2nd Division had ruled that she lacked six months to meet the 10-year residency requirement for president based on the CoC she filed way back in 2012 when she ran in the 2013 elections for senator.
Poe filed with the COMELEC voluminous documents to show that when she went home to the country in 2005 after the death of her father, FPJ, it was, in fact, for good. Among the pieces of evidence she submitted were documents
She enrolled her kids in Philippine schools.
She and her husband, Neil, bought properties.
She and her husband also found employment in the country.
They sold their properties in the US.
She voted in two national elections.
She secured a Tax Identification Number (TIN) from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
All these documents were submitted to the 2nd Division, but surprisingly the division did not discuss, consider, or even mention a single document in the decision it issued. This is the reason why many political observers are saying that the 2nd Division may have committed grave abuse of discretion.
As evidence of her residency status, the 2nd Division relied on a single document – Poe’s old 2012 Certificate of Candidacy – which she filed with COMELEC when she ran for Senator. But Poe already admitted that she made an honest mistake when she entered information in her COC.
She explained that she was not assisted by legal counsel when she filed up the 2012 CoC and, being a political newbie that she is, she misunderstood the question in computing her period of residency. It would appear that, indeed, the 2012 format was confusing since the COMELEC itself changed its format and wording for the 2015 CoC.
If COMELEC itself changed it’s wording, isn’t that a form of admission on the part of the commission that its form was confusing? And if the format was confusing, why would the 2nd Division based its decision solely on this document when there are hundreds of other evidences presented to them?
Sen. Poe has appealed her disqualification to the En Banc. All eyes are now on the Chairman and the other commissioners. Despite being appointees of the current administration, our COMELEC commissioners must prove to a skeptical public that their loyalty is to the Constitution and not to the powers.
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Comments are welcome at articulouno@gmail.com. FRONTLINES OF POLITICS/JONATHAN MALAYA
