MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has rejected the petitions seeking to reopen the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs) and to suspend the May 9 elections.
According to Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, the petitions filed by the PDP Laban faction led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and the National Coalition for Life and Democracy (NCLD) were unanimously denied.
“It was denied (Cusi’s petition) as well as the petition to suspend the elections until 2025. Both of them resoundingly denied,” he said in a virtual press briefing Wednesday.
The arguments presented by the group were not meritorious, he said.
“The petition likewise alleged that the Comelec has the authority to set the timetable and basically short of saying that the Comelec was arbitrary in setting the timetable and we showed that it’s not arbitrary and in fact, the petition had in fact was ignored a bunch of priority activities that made it necessary for the schedule to be set the way it was,” Jimenez added.
Concerning the decision on the NCLD petition, he stated that they must wait for the actual ruling to be released.
“Right now, they just decide it and they all agreed that it should be denied,” Jimenez added.
Meanwhile, he stated that the poll body junked the Malasakit Party-List accreditation because it did not meet the requirements for a sectoral party-list organization.
“They were unable to prove that they were representing the marginalized underrepresented sector,” he said.
The accreditation of Mother’s For Change (MOCHA) has been approved by the Comelec.
“The decision granting the petition for accreditation is simple because the group MOCHA met all of the sectoral requirements for a sectoral organization. That was the justification for the ruling,” Jimenez said.
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