Comelec junks petition to disqualify Pacquiao, Lapid

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Second Division on Tuesday junked a petition seeking to disqualify re-electionist Senator Lito Lapid and congressional aspirant and boxing champion Manny Pacquiao from the May 2010 elections. In a promulgation held Tuesday, the poll body’s Second Division dismissed the disqualification case filed by self-proclaimed international lawyer Elly Pamatong against Lapid and Pacquiao for "utter lack of merit." Last December, Pamatong said Pacquiao and Lapid should be prevented from running because they are just “unqualified professional entertainers." “Both Pacquiao and Lapid are politically blind, being unschooled in the art of governance and politically leadership," he said in his petition. “We cannot just simply hold our hands akimbo and idiotically watch our republic being feasted upon by these power-hungry political pedestrians who want to grab everything in sight." Pamatong had also earlier sought the disqualification of former President Joseph Estrada, former defense chief Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. and senators Manny Villar and Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III from the presidential race. He also asked the Comelec to bar President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from seeking a congressional seat in Pampanga. But the poll body dismissed all of the cases for lack of merit. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV