Comelec junks petitions to intervene on petition to cancel Marcos Jr.'s COC

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Second Division on Monday denied all the interventions filed by both parties seeking to boost their respective arguments in connection with the November 2 petition seeking to cancel former Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s Eleksyon 2022 certificate of candidacy (COC) for president.

The Comelec was referring to the petition-in-intervention filed by Rommel Bautista and nine others for the part of petitioners, as well as Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. and three others including Partido Federal ng Pilipinas' (PFP) answer-in-intervention for the part of Marcos Jr., involving the November 2 petition against Marcos Jr.'s COC filed by Fr. Christian Buenafe and five others based on the former Senator's four Tax Code violation convictions that perpetually bans him from seeking public office.

Marcos is PFP's standard-bearer.

"The Commission is of the view that allowing the intervention of Bautista, et al. shall unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties in this case. If the instant Motion for Intervention is granted, this will necessarily result in unduly delaying the resolution of the main petition [since the respondent will have five days to file an Answer to the Petition-in-Intervention once the order admitting the same is served upon him]," the Comelec Order read.

"The Commission (Second Division) is not oblivious to the likely scenario that if the intervention of Bautista et al. is allowed, this would certainly encourage other possible intervenors to file their own motions for intervention. If this happens, the Commission will be placed in an unenviable task of resolving these imminent motions for intervention, thus further unduly delaying the resolution of the main case," the Comelec Order added.

Likewise, the poll body said that the petitioners led by Bautista filed their petition-in-intervention on the petition to cancel Marcos Jr.'s COC on November 8 or 33 days after Marcos Jr. filed his COC for president last October 6 which is beyond the required 25-day interval provided by the Omnibus Election Code (OEC).

"It is readily apparent that Bautista, et al. treats lightly the mandatory period within which to file a petition under Sec. 78 of the OEC. Ruling in favor of the Bautista Motion (petition-in-intervention) would provide would-be litigants who fail to observe the mandatory 25-day period an opportunity to circumvent it at the mere expedient of anchoring it to a Petition filed on time in the guise of a so-called 'Petition-in-Intervention,'" the poll body pointed out.

Lastly, the Comelec said that Bautista and company's petition-in-intervention attached to the Bautista motion to cancel Marcos Jr.'s COC for president for the 2022 polls is not verified, which is contrary to Section 3 (b) of Rule 7s of the Comelec Rules of Procedure.

"Undeniably, this is an additional factor that militates against the allowance of the subject motion," the poll body added.

On the part of respondent Marcos Jr., the poll body also denied the answer in--intervention filed by PFP members based on the failure to provide such to the other parties of the case or the petitioners, which violates Rule 12, Section 2 of the Comelec Rules of Procedure.

Likewise, the Comelec said that Tamayo, et al.'s answer-in-intervention was just an attempt to file a belated answer on behalf of respondent Marcos Jr.

"Here, both Tamayo, et al. and the PFP suddenly entered the picture and attempted to intervene by submitting their respective answers-in-intervention, raising therein matters or defenses which were not advanced by respondent Marcos, Jr. in his answer with prayer for face-to-face oral arguments dated November 19. If the Commission (Second Division) shall admit the Tamayo and PFP Motions and consider the same in the resolution of the main case, we would in effect be according undue advantage to respondent Marcos, Jr.," the Comelec said.

"Entertaining pleadings of this kind will not only unduly delay the resolution of the case at bar, but also effectively sanction the belated filing of pleadings before the Commission without valid justifications. This, we surely cannot countenance," the Comelec added. — DVM, GMA News