By Leslie Ann Aquino
About 70 cases involving senatorial aspirants in the May 2019 midterm polls have so far been decided by the Commission on Elections in its bid to finally come out with the final list of candidates.
According to Comelec spokesman James Jimenez, majority, but not all cases, were ruled as disqualification of those who filed their certificates of candidacy.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez (FILE PHOTO / CAMILLE ANTE / MANILA BULLETIN)
"Vast majority of those cases were ruled for disqualification," he said in an interview.
However, the poll official did not give the names of the senatorial aspirants involved in the cases.
To note, the poll body is eyeing to start the printing of the more than 60-million ballots on the third week of this month.
Jimenez earlier explained that the delay in the release of the official list was because they are still not done in the process of screening the candidates.
"What is important is when we finally release the list, the corrections will be minimal afterwards," he said at that time.
The poll body was originally eyeing to release the official list of candidates on December 15 but later moved it the following week.
The Comelec pushed back the release of the list to allow the Comelec en banc to completely resolve pending disqualification cases involving those that filed COCs.
“This will allow pending issues related to several candidacies to be settled, without negatively impacting the final contents of the 2019 ballot,” Jimenez said.
More than 152 filed their COC for senator in October.