The poll body unanimously junks the ruling party's plea on the grounds that the arguments it presented were not meritorious. PHVote WeDecide
The Commission on Elections threw out a petition filed by a faction of ruling party PDP-Laban to reopen the filing of certificates of candidacy and postpone the printing of ballots for the 2022 polls.
For example, the PDP-Laban faction led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi had argued that the ballots cannot be printed yet anyway, due to the pending cases before the Comelec.“This is not the first time we will be going to print [the ballots] with pending disqualification cases. The fact that there are pending disqualification cases has never been a reason for suspending the start of printing ballots,” Jimenez said.
The poll spokesman also asserted that the one-week period the Comelec set in October 2021 for national and local aspirants to file their candidacy papers is not arbitrary. In arguing to reopen the COC filing, the Cusi wing had cited outdated provisions of election laws. It mentioned Batas Pambansa Blg. 881 and Republic Act No. 7166, which would have allowed aspirants to file their candidacy papers until the day before the start of the campaign period. It also cited RA 8436, which set the COC filing deadline not later than 120 days before the elections.