Rizalito David asks SC to issue TRO on nuisance candidate ruling

Defeated senatorial bet Rizalito David blasted the Commission on Elections for supposedly committing a grave abuse of discretion when it declared him a nuisance candidate in the 2016 presidential race.

In the petition for certiorari his camp is set to file soon, David asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order stopping the Comelec from implementing its decision declaring him a nuisance candidate.

David said he was deprived of due process in two instances: when the poll body declared him an independent candidate because his party, the Ang Kapatiran Party, said it would not be fielding any standard bearer in the upcoming elections; and when it said he had no ability to mount a national campaign because he only earns a living by being a broadcaster.

David said the Comelec's findings have no basis since the letter from Ang Kapatiran that it cited in its decision was only a “purported personal letter” of party president Norman Cabrera which had “the clear intent of nullifying the strength of the Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance, which Petitioner earlier attached to his COC (certificate of candidacy).”

David said the process by which the Comelec came to the conclusion that he had no backing of a political party “is beyond any form or matter of logical and legal remedial reasoning.”

“How respondents could so eagerly and adamantly declare a mere letter to be the kind of evidence as to comprise what is substantial evidence is therefore the very core of how gravely they abused their discretion in the exercise of quasi-judicial power, which in turn unjustly deprived petitioner of his right to due process,” David said.

With regard to the Comelec's conclusion that he cannot finance a national campaign, David noted that the financial capacity for such an endeavor is not a requirement to run for office. He said that not only does the COC application not require disclosure of the applicant's financial endowments, but he also presented proof of expected support from campaign donors.

David, a defeated senatorial bet who had filed disqualification cases against Senator Grace Poe and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, said he can actually prove that a national campaign “need not be so centered on money” since he is a broadcaster.

“Even granting that the lack of a party and a lot of money in the bank, running for president just the way he intends to gets nowhere near 'putting the election process in mockery and disrepute,” David said, quoting a portion of the Comelec's decision.

Aside from depriving him of his rights, David said, the poll body's decision to declare him a nuisance candidate “lacks a form of life” and is “invalid.”

“A logical proposition has form of life if it conforms to reality as intelligent humans perceive it. Here, every finding made by the Respondents not only does not conform to reality; but it so completely ignores it,” he said. — Xianne Arcangel/BM, GMA News