200 candidates face disqualification

MANILA, Philippines — Around 200 candidates for various positions in next year’s elections may be disqualified, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

“As of Wednesday, the Comelec... filed petitions to deny... 95 COCs (certificates of candidacy) while 78 private complainants filed disqualification petitions,” James Jimenez, spokesman for the Comelec, said yesterday.

Jimenez said petitions to disqualify candidates could be filed as long as their rivals have not been proclaimed.

He said the Comelec would summon  the parties involved in disqualification complaints, adding that they could come up with a decision within 30 days.

“The Comelec is looking at eligibility based on... the Constitution and... laws... You don’t have to be a good or  bad person. As long as your are eligible you can run,” Jimenez said.

The Comelec expects to remove all unqualified candidates before the printing of ballots starts in January.

In the 2016 elections, Jimenez said the number of senatorial candidates was trimmed down from 174 to 50.

“There is no... maximum number of candidates, but we... will be able to bring it down to a reasonable number,” Jimenez said.

Meanwhile, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said the Comelec could dismiss motu propio or on its own the petition to cancel the COC of Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III over alleged violation of the two term-limit.

Macalintal said Pimentel merely served the unexpired term of Sen. Miguel Zubiri after winning his election protest in August 2011.

“As ruled by the Supreme Court, an involuntary interrupted term cannot in the context of the disqualification rule be considered as one term for purposes of counting the term limit,” he said.