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Comelec junks disqualification cases vs Aquino, Villar, Roxas


The Commission on Elections (Comelec) First Division has junked the disqualification cases filed against Senators Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, Manuel Villar, and Manuel Roxas II. In a resolution promulgated Wednesday, the poll body denied the petition of lawyer Elly Pamatong to disqualify the three for "lack of merit." Aquino and Villar are both running for the president, while Roxas is gunning for the vice presidency in the May elections. Pamatong said the senators should be disqualified for violating the previous ban on premature campaigning. The self-proclaimed international lawyer was pertaining to the Supreme Court ruling decriminalizing any political activities done before the start of the campaign period. The ruling was a reversal of its Sept. 11, 2009 decision where justices voted 8-7 to disqualify Santa Monica, Surigao del Norte mayor Rosalinda for holding a motorcade after filing her candidacy on November 30, 2006 for the May 2007 elections. Under the Omnibus Election Code, a motorcade is considered a political activity. But in its recent resolution, the SC ruled that broadcasting infomercials before the start of the campaign season should be considered as “an exercise of the candidates’ freedom of expression." Pamatong, however, said that the decision, rendered by a “bitterly divided court," should not be followed. The Comelec, for its part, thinks otherwise. "This is by no means a 'bitterly' divided court. So long as the same is 'decided with the concurrence of a majority of the members whoa ctually took part in the deliberation on the issues in the case and voted thereon,' it is good law, and therefore must be applied accordingly," it said in the resolution. The poll body therefore said that they cannot penalize the supposed acts of "premature campaiging." It also dismissed Pamatong's assertion that the senators should be declared nuisance candidates for their supposed failure to present a platform of government. - KBK, GMANews.TV

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