(Eagle News) — The Supreme Court has ordered President Rodrigo Duterte to comment on the quo warranto petition filed against him by former nuisance presidential candidate Elly Pamatong.
The High Court gave the President 10 days to do the same.
In filing the 6-page petition for quo warranto, Pamatong, who also ran for president at least two times and was tagged a nuisance candidate in 2016, referred to what he said were Duterte’s public admissions he ran for president without a “(Commission on Elections-approved) certificate of candidacy.”
According to Pamatong, Duterte’s withdrawal of his COC for the post of mayor in Davao, and “thereafter” his filing of another COC “for another position or for the position of the presidency” was “illegal.”
He said that even if Duterte filed a COC “as substitute for Martin Dinio’s COC for mayor in Pasay City” that was “altered” into a COC for the presidency, “the (deadline for the) filing of COCs already expired.”
“Further, at the time of the elections on May 9, 2016, (Duterte’s) application for a (COC) was not approved because the Comelec en banc had not up to that time decided with finality on the four petitions challenging the eligibility of Duterte for the presidency,” he added.
He claimed that “to this day, the same decision has not been heard or decided by the Comelec en banc.”
The Comelec, however, has junked all four petitions.
Under Rule 66 of the Rules of Court, only the Office of the Solicitor General, a public prosecutor, or someone who has legitimate claims over a post that is the subject of the quo warranto petition can initiate quo warranto proceedings against people in office.
Pamatong has already been arrested for allegedly being the brains behind the foiled bombing attempt of three members of USA Freedom Fighters of the East (Usaffe), which he claimed to have founded, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 in 2014.
He also earned the label “Spike Boy” after he ordered his supporters to throw metal spikes on EDSA in 2004.
