The Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) faction led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to reopen or extend the filing of the certificates of candidacy (COC) beyond November 15.
The deadline for the filing of the COCs has lapsed last month, but the group, which is chaired by President Duterte, asked the poll body to postpone the printing of the ballots saying political parties should be given more time to decide whom to field in the upcoming May elections.
“(This) petitioner respectfully prays that this Honorable Commission: reopen or otherwise, extend the period for political parties and candidates to file their COCs, previously scheduled from 1 to 8 October 2021,” said Cusi, vice chairman and president of the PDP-Laban wing, in his 20-page “extremely urgent ex parte motion.”
“As a legal and logical consequence of the immediate preceding prayer, (petitioner prays that the commission) admit COCs to be filed by political parties and candidates within the new or extended period to be granted by this Honorable Commission pursuant to the immediate preceding prayer,” he also said.
In the petition, the faction said the Comelec should have set the deadlines by “striking a balance between the logistical requirements of an automated election, and the need to afford all political parties and candidates sufficient opportunity to present to the Philippine electorate the candidates for the upcoming 2022 national and local elections.”
As of now, the PDP-Laban Cusi-led wing has no candidate for president in the 2022 May polls. Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, Duterte’s long-time aide, initially filed his COC for vice president under the PDP-Laban but later withdrew his bid after the President’s daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte filed a COC for vice president.
Go then filed a COC for president as a substitute under the Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan (PDDS) a party supposedly allied with the PDP-Laban. The senator later on dropped his 2022 presidential bid under PDDS.
The other PDP-Laban faction led by Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III is fielding Senator Manny Pacquiao as their presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has yet to decide which of the two factions of the PDP-Laban is considered the “legitimate” political party.