The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has denied the petition of PDP-Laban seeking to re-open the filing of the certificates of candidacy (COC) in the May 2022 polls.
"It was denied as well as the petition to suspend elections until 2025. Both of them resoundingly denied," Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez said in a virtual press briefing on Wednesday, Jan. 12.
He said the petition of the PDP-Laban wing of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi to re-open the COC filing was denied as the grounds it cited were not meritorious.
"The decision was anchored on the fact that the grounds provided by the petition were not meritorious. The petition was saying its impossible to do all of these things because there are still pending cases. That's a wrong assertion. This is not the first time that we will be going to print with pending disqualification cases. So the fact that there are pending disqualification cases has never been a reason for suspending the start of printing ballots," said Jimenez.
"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. We showed that it's not arbitrary and in fact the petition had in fact ignored a bunch of preparatory activities... because the grounds being raised were not meritorious, the petition was denied," he added.
As for the reason why the petition of the National Coalition for Life and Democracy seeking the suspension of the polls was denied, Jimenez said, its best to just wait for the actual resolution.
"As far as the individual justification for the denial of petition to suspend the elections, we have to wait on the actual resolution. Right now they just discussed it and they all agreed that it should be denied," he said.