Comelec denies petitions on election postponement, reopening of candidacy filing
THE COMMISSION on Elections (Comelec) has dismissed a petition to postpone the May 2022 national and local polls, and another filing seeking to reopen the filing of candidacy, which ended on Oct. 8.
“Both of them resoundingly denied,” the poll body’s spokesperson, James B. Jimenez, said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
He said the Comelec, in an en banc session, denied the National Coalition for Life and Democracy’s move to postpone the elections to 2025.
He also announced that the petition filed by a faction of the ruling PDP-Laban party to reopen the submission of Certificate of Candidacy (COC) was junked.
“The setting of the date of the filing of COCs is not, in anyway, arbitrary, that’s why we denied it,” Mr. Jimenez said in a mix of English and Filipino.
He noted that the petitioners did not take into consideration that there are other election preparation activities aside from ballot printing.
“One of the main allegations is that the deadline is set by the Comelec itself, right?… One of the justifications forwarded by the commission in response to that allegation is that, obviously the allegation does not take into consideration all of the other preparatory activities that are being conducted by the Comelec.”
He also underscored that this is not the first time the Comelec will be holding elections while there are disqualification and other cases pending. — Jaspearl Emerald G. Tan
