Cusi-led PDP-Laban asks Comelec to reopen filing of COCs for Eleksyon 2022

The faction of the PDP-Laban led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi has asked the Commission on Elections to reopen the filing of certificates of candidacy months after the deadline lapsed in October.

The group, chaired by President Rodrigo Duterte, also  asked that the Comelec postpone the printing of ballots, saying parties should also be allowed more time to decide whom to field in Eleksyon 2022.

In a petition Cusi signed, the PDP-Laban faction said that the Comelec should have set the deadlines "by striking a balance between the logistical requirements of an automated election... and the need to afford all parties and candidates sufficient opportunity to present candidates."

The PDP-Laban faction added that as it stood, the Comelec still could not print the ballots for the 2022 elections given the numerous pending incidents before and involving the poll body.

These include: 

• the eight petitions seeking to cancel COC of, if not disqualify presidential aspirant and former Senator Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.
• the pending PDP-Laban petition asking the poll body to declare Senators Manny Pacquiao and Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III as illegitimate PDP-Laban representatives
• the six-party-list groups which secured Temporary Restraining Order from the Supreme Court against Comelec Resolutions denying their accreditation as party-list group, among others.

"Proceedings before this Honorable Commission and even the Supreme Court render it legally impossible for the ballots to be printed," the petition read.

"Under the  circumstances, Petitioner respectfully pleads with this Honorable Commission for it to reconsider its 1 to 8 October 2021 deadline for filing COCs and  reopen or otherwise extend this same period, prior to printing of ballots, which, in turn are subject to the resolution of cases pending before this Honorable Commission and the Supreme Court," it added.

While the filing of COC was set last October 1 to 8, political parties were allowed to substitute their candidates until November 15.

"As a legal and logical consequence of the immediately preceding prayer, [the petitioner asks the Comelec to] postpone the printing of ballots  for the  2022 national and local elections pending resolution  of  cases  before this Honorable  Commission  and  the  Supreme  Court; and set the hearing of this case for oral argument on the earliest date that may be conveniently accommodated by the hearing calendar of this Honorable Commission," the petition said.

The PDP-Laban has no candidate for president in Eleksyon 2022.

Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, a long time aide of the President, initially filed a COC for vice president under PDP-Laban.

He withdrew the bid after Duterte's daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte filed a COC for vice president.

Go filed a COC for president as a substitute under Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan (PDDS), a party allied with the PDP-Laban.

The senator in the end also withdrew his 2022 presidential bid under PDDS.

Two factions of the PDP-Laban are vying for recognition before the Comelec—that of Cusi and Duterte, and the other of Senator Aquilino Pimentel III and presidential candidate Senator Manny Pacquiao.

"Petitioner respectfully submits, therefore, that while empowered by RA No. 9369 to 'set the deadline' for the filing of COCs, this Honorable Commission should do so, guided by the reckoning dates provided in BP Blg. 881 and RA No. 7166, on the one hand, and/ or RA No. 8436, on the other hand, or, at the very least, consider the date of printing of ballots for the upcoming 2022 elections as a reckoning point," the petition read.

BP Blg. 881 is the Omnibus Election Code, while RA 7166 is the Act Providing for Synchronized National and Local Elections and for Electoral Reforms.

RA 8436 is the law amended by RA 9369 which is the Automated Election law

Eleksyon 2022 is set on May 9, 2022.  —NB, GMA News