Comelec eyes criminal charges vs KBL’s Acosta

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Friday that it is thinking of filing at least two criminal charges against disqualified Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) presidential bet Vetellano Acosta for allegedly lying about important data in his certificate of candidacy (COC). Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said that Acosta can be charged with falsification of public documents for making a false declaration while under oath. On Tuesday, Comelec records revealed that the KBL bet is not even a registered voter in the area where he claims to be one, making him ineligible to run for public office. (See: KBL's Acosta may be ineligible to run for president) "When you file your COC that's under oath so the contents of the COC are true. And if it's false, he can be sued," he told reporters in an interview. On Thursday, the Comelec disqualified Acosta and declared him a nuisance candidate. (See: Comelec disqualifies KBL presidential bet Acosta)
Aside from falsification, Comelec Law Department head Ferdinand Rafanan said that the poll body can also file perjury charges against Acosta. "He can be sued for perjury, it could also be falsification, it could be these two criminal cases," he said. He added that making false statements may also be a violation of Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC). However, the poll body official said that they would prefer if somebody would file a complaint instead of the Comelec pursuing the case motu propio or on its own. The reason for this is so that they wouldn't be accused of favoritism, he said. "More than 50,000 yung COCs, para kaming witch hunter niyan (There are more than 50,000 COCs, we would be like witch hunters)," he said, with the implication that the Comelec admits difficulties in verifying all the information provided by thousands of candidates in their COCs. Falsification of public documents and perjury are both punishable by imprisonment and a fine of at least P5,000. On the other hand, violation of the OEC may be considered an election offense which is punishable by one to six years imprisonment, disenfranchisement, and disqualification from holding public office. Overlooked? But asked how the Comelec could have overlooked the false information on Acosta's COC, Larrazabal said they do not know. "That goes through the law department eh, it's being looked at now," he said, adding that they are prepared to "take action" if the poll body had in fact "missed" something. Rafanan, for his part, said that not all documents pass through the law department. He added that his department was the one that recommended Acosta's disqualification the first time around. Acosta, a banker, was earlier disqualified from seeking public office for failing to prove that he could launch a nationwide campaign without the backing of a political party. But after filing a motion for reconsideration with a certificate of nomination from the KBL, his candidacy was approved by the poll body. (See: Perlas, Danny Lim make it to official list of candidates in May polls) "Walang kinalaman ang law department dun (The law department had nothing to do with that), absolutely nothing," said Rafanan. But he said that he had already proposed a COC that would prevent these kinds of problems from happening. He said that the system he suggested would immediately reject aspirants who are not registered voters. "That was in the revised form that I prepared, (but) it was ignored... so we're having these kinds of problems," he said. Acosta's name stays On the other hand, Larrazabal said that Acosta's name will stay on the ballot. He said the votes for the disqualified KBL bet will be considered as stray votes. He also told the Liberal Party, which is asking the poll body to reprint the ballots with Acosta's name (see: LP to ask Comelec to reprint ballots minus Acosta's name), that doing this is "not so simple." The commissioner said that the poll body would have to redo the source code for the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) and canvassing system—in the process delaying the elections by months. "It would be difficult. I hope they understand the implications of their proposal," he said. Larrazabal added that the LP should not be so concerned with the order of the listing of the candidates on the ballot. With Acosta already disqualified but still listed on the ballot, LP standard bearer Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's name will remain as number 2 on the list of presidential candidates. "If people want to vote for them, they will... they should give more credit to the voters, they should give more credit to their candidate," he said.—JV, GMANews.TV