ER Ejercito's son asks SC to compel Comelec to print new ballots for Laguna

The son of former Laguna governor Emilio "ER" Jorge Ejercito on Monday asked the Supreme Court to compel the Commission on Elections to print new ballots for Laguna, where his name is still included as one of the gubernatorial bets despite having withdrawn from the race.

In an urgent manifestation and motion, Jorge Antonio Genaro Ejercito told the high court that he had already withdrawn his certificate of candidacy for the gubernatorial race as early as February 1 this year.

On February 18, he requested that his name on the ballot be taken out but the Comelec denied it on March 18 "due to tight timelines."

Jorge, however, quoted a recent radio interview in which Comelec chairman Andres Bautista said that the 56.77 million ballots for the May 9 elections had already been printed and the printing was made at a "record speed" and ahead of schedule.

Jorge had earlier requested but failed to get a temporary restraining order from the high court against the inclusion of his name in the ballots.

In his main petition, Jorge said the “non-deletion of his name from said ballots would cause confusion among the voters of Laguna which may lead to their disenfranchisement because of the similarity of surnames since his father, ER Ejercito, is also running for governor under the surname 'Ejercito' and some voters would still vote for him (Jorge) thinking he is still a candidate."

The Comelec denied Jorge's motion “due to tight timelines” of the poll body, but Jorge insisted that the ground “is false and misleading because the Comelec halted the printing of ballots on February 17 because the name of the political party of Senator Miriam Santiago, a presidential candidate, was not included in the ballot.”

Jorge also argued that “the Comelec admitted in various media releases that the printing of the ballots started last February 15 and by April 25 it shall have finished printing all the ballots, thus the Comelec has all the time to delete my name from the ballots since it has not yet started the printing of the ballots for the Province of Laguna.”

Jorge also cited reports that the Comelec started printing first those ballots from remote provinces to ensure prompt delivery of the ballots before the elections.

Jorge wanted the SC to issue a TRO directing the Comelec to halt the printing of the ballots for Laguna until its last date of printing on April 25, or that the Laguna ballots be the last batch of ballots to be printed to give ample time for the SC to act on his urgent petition. —ALG, GMA News