SC rules with finality on disqualifying Rizalito David, other ‘nuisance’ bets

The Supreme Court has ruled with finality to uphold the declaration of Rizalito David as a nuisance candidate barred from the May presidential elections.

In an en banc session, the high tribunal denied the motions for reconsideration of David and candidate Simeon de Castro.

"The court denied with finality the following motions for reconsideration from resolutions of the court which affirmed Comelec decisions declaring their candidacies to be nuisance or dismissing the various petitions relating to cancellation of certificates of candidacy," said SC spokesman Theodore Te in a media briefing Tuesday.

David currently has a pending petition with the Supreme Court seeking to reverse a Senate Electoral Tribunal decision declaring Senator Grace Poe, among his competitors in the 2013 senatorial race, as a natural-born citizen eligible to run for Senate.

Apart from David and De Castro, the SC likewise upheld with finality the Comelec's decision to deny the registration of Women and Child Crime Abuse Accreditation as a party-list group in the May polls.

Meanwhile, the SC also thumbed down separate petitions from Wendell Lope, Antonio Aquino, and Jay Angelique Jaafar seeking to reverse the Comelec's decision to declare them as nuisance candidates.

Lope wanted to run for president, while the other two wanted to run for the Senate.

The SC also dismissed a petition from another group, the Scholarship ng Masa Party-list, challenging Comelec decisions denying their registration as a party-list group. The SC, however is not yet final, and may still be appealed by the petitioner.

In all the cases, the SC ruled that "the Comelec did not act with grave abuse of discretion in so holding" them as nuisance candidates or ineligible as party-list groups. -NB, GMA News