DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte can run for president because there is no legal stumbling block in his way, according to former Commission on Elections chairman and election lawyer Sixto Brillantes said Tuesday.
Brillantes contradicted the position of another election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, who argued that Duterte is not qualified to run since the candidate for president that he was supposed to replace would be declared by the Comelec as a “nuisance candidate.”
But Brillantes argued the Comelec lost its legal basis to take up Martin Diño’s status as a presidential contender after the latter withdrew his Certificate of Candidacy last month.
Brillantes said there were three requirements for a candidate to qualify as a substitute—if the candidate has died; if the candidate is disqualified; and if the candidate is declared a nuisance.
“All three requirements [for a candidate to substitute for another bet] do not constitute a stumbling block for Duterte. He can run for president. The candidate he was replacing has not died, neither was he disqualified nor declared a nuisance candidate,” Brillantes said.
Macalintal earlier claimed Duterte could be barred from joining the presidential race because the Comelec is likely to declare Diño as a nuisance candidate.
“Diño can no longer be declared a nuisance candidate because he has already withdrawn his CoC even before the Comelec could take up his case,” Brillantes explained, adding that Duterte would have had a problem had the Comelec disqualified or declared Diño a nuisance.
“Diño withdrew his CoC before the Comelec could disqualify him or declare him a nuisance, so he is not a nuisance. Diño’s withdrawal made the Comelec lose its basis to take up on the case. There is nothing to contest because he withdrew,” he said.
But Camiguin Rep. Xavier Jesus Romualdo, a staunch ally of the ruling Liberal Party, said the legal issues hounding Duterte is more complicated than the citizenship and residency case of Senator Grace Poe.
“The issue is whether there is a valid substitute. The problem was that when [PDP-Laban’s Martin Diño] filed his certificate of candidacy [intended not for presidency but for mayoralty position],” Romualdo said.
“That complicates things basically, and the Commission on Elections has to resolve that,” he added, stressing that there was no one to be substituted to begin with.
YACAP party-list Rep. Carol Jayne Lopez, also a Roxas supporter, said the entry of Duterte will not make a dent on Roxas campaign.
“I am from Mindanao, specifically from the General Santos City. I am for Mar Roxas. Davao City is not the entire Mindanao. It is not the entire 82 provinces. So it is just one area, one location,” Lopez said.
For his part, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez said Duterte’s popularity and supposed accomplishment in Davao was “overrated.”
He said there is a question of “quality” and “qualification” over his intention to run for president as against his accomplishments in Davao.
As far as Fernandez is concerned, Duterte has not achieved so much in terms of developing Davao City in his 22 years in office.
“If I will be given the chance to develop Davao in just 10 years of leadership, I can surpass what Duterte has accomplished for the people of Davao,” Fenandez said in Filipino.