AN ELECTION official said Thursday they will decide on the four pending disqualification cases against Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, a presidential aspirant, to give him “more time” to bring his case before the Supreme Court.
Comelec commissioner Rowena Guanzon said she and her colleagues in the First Division will resolve the petitions filed by broadcaster Ruben Castor, nuisance presidential candidate Rizalito David, and University of the Philippines Student Council chairman John Paulo Delas Nieves quickly so the Comelec could finalize the list of candidates to be printed on the official ballots.
“Our objective is to finish the petitions here in the Comelec at the best possible time so they can bring the case before the Supreme Court,” Guanzon told the reporters.
She made her statement even as Duterte on Thursday lashed backed at Senator Antonio Trillanes IV who said Wednesday it would be a disaster if the tough-talking mayor won the presidency in this year’s elections.
“That’s political garbage,” Duterte said.
“A good exhibit would be Davao City which attained 9-percent economic growth rate under my watch.”
In a television interview on Wednesday, vice presidential candidate Trillanes said he would choose Vice President Jejomar Binay, whom he had been investigating for alleged corruption, over Duterte as things “would be going to be so much worse than a Binay presidency” if Duterte won the May 2016 race.
Guanzon said the Comelec would want to be fair to Duterte by resolving the cases against him quickly.
“To be fair to the candidate, [the cases] should be decided right away,” she said.
On Tuesday, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the commission en banc had decided to consolidate the three petitions against Duterte before the Comelec’s First Division because those were similar.
Guanzon also disclosed a fourth petition against Duterte after lawyer Eli Pamatong was able to pay the P10,000 filing fee. Earlier, the Comelec rejected Pamatong’s petition for failing to raise the filing fee.