Drilon: Comelec should postpone ballot printing, wait for SC decision

Senate President Franklin Drilon said Thursday the Commission Elections must postpone the printing of ballots and wait for the Supreme Court to decide on the disqualification cases against Senator Grace Poe. 

“The Comelec just have to postpone the printing of the ballots and just have to double time in order to have the ballot printed,” Drilon told reporters during the Kapihan sa Senado.

“What I’m saying is we hope that the Comelec can postpone the start of the printing and await the Supreme Court decision and the SC must decide as soon as practicable,” he added when asked what should be done if the SC fails to render decision before the start of ballot printing.

Drilon said his understanding is the ballot printing will start first week of February.

“I am concerned with the January 19 oral arguments, the schedule is a little tight. If they finish the oral arguments on January 19, well and good, but sometimes they have another day or two days,” he said.

The SC set the oral arguments on the disqualification case filed against Poe before the Senate Electoral Tribunal on January 19.

Poe's camp also has two pending appeals before the Comelec en banc concerning the earlier decision of two divisions cancelling her certificate of candidacy for president.  Poe's camp earlier said they will bring the matter before the high court should the Comelec en banc affirm the rulings of either divisions.  

Oral arguments

Meanwhile, at the same Senate forum, Drilon said that after the oral arguments, the parties will be required to submit a memorandum within 10 days and by estimate it will be by the end of January 2016 that the case would be submitted for resolution.

“That means the decision will come after the end of January. In the meantime, the ballot must be printed and considering that over 1,400 municipalities in this country, you have 1,400 variations in the ballot,” he said.

“Postponing the printing of ballots is the most preferred because if you print now and then what appears in the ballot are those sanctioned by the SC, what will happen?” he added.

Drilon said it will just be a question of the capacity of the printers.

“There is no law which states that you should start printing on February 1. That is the schedule that they have decided on in order to complete the printing before the elections,” he said.

Asked if the Comelec can postpone the elections, the Senate leader refused to answer.

“I don’t want to venture into that,” he said. 

Drilon said the Comelec is now in a bind and he does not want to be in the shoes of the poll commissioners.

“The Comelec is really in a bind, the Comelec is in a very difficult bind. They decide either way it will be brought to the SC. They now have to start thinking as to how far they can push back the printing of the ballots,” he said.

“Talagang I don’t want to be in their shoes at this point because things are not within your control e. They are also in limbo, the Comelec,” he added.

Asked if it is just more practical to let the names of the candidates on the ballot and just disregard the votes for them if they are disqualified by the SC, Drilon said there is nothing practical or impractical at present.

“They just have to decide and pray. They decide and pray that everything will be decided in a timely manner,” he said.

Asked if the postponement of the ballot printing has happened before, Drilon said: “The printing issue became a reality only with the automation, before wala namang automation, dati sulat sulat lang kaya walang variation yung ballot.” — RSJ, GMA News