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DRILON: COMELEC EN BANC HAS NO JURISDICTION IN APPROVING NP-NPC MERGER
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) sitting en banc has no jurisdiction over the accreditation of the “bogus” coalition between Nacionalista Party (NP) and the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), with former Senate President and LP senatorial candidate Franklin Drilon saying that the petition for both parties’ approval of the merger should have been dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Drilon said that the NP-NPC’s petition for accreditation should have been heard by the Comelec sitting in division, not sitting En Banc, as provided under the rules of the Commission. “The Comelec En Banc should not be the one that decided on the instant petition. No division of Comelec has issued any ruling so it is practically erroneous. Let me remind that this action of the Commission takes precedence, and they should avoid it by immediately reversing the ruling,” said the former Justice secretary. “Iisa lang ang implikasyon nito: peke ang NP-NPC Coalition (This has one implication: the NP-NPC Coalition is fake),” he stressed.Drilon also said that the En Banc should remand the petition to division level which is the proper venue. He also supported Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento’s position that the merger was “null and void” since the parties’ respective national convention failed to approve the coalition to get the dominant minority status in the May 10 elections. Documents submitted by NP-NPC to the Comelec showed that only the parties’ respective executive committees agreed on the coalition. Sarmiento, in his eight-page dissenting opinion supported by Comelec Chairman Jose Melo, particularly cited Section 3, Rule 3 of the Comelec Rules of Procedures which states that “The Commission shall sit in two Divisions to hear and decide protests or petitions in ordinary actions, special actions, special cases, provisional remedies, contempt and special proceedings except in accreditation of citizens’ arms of the Commission.” “It is therefore clear that the instant petition is within the jurisdiction of the Commission, sitting in Division, and not by the Commission sitting en banc,” Sarmiento wrote, also citing a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Ma. Amelita C. Villarosa vs. Comelec and Restor, G.R. No. 133927 in November 23, 1999, that upheld the jurisdiction of the Commission sitting in Division. Earlier, LP general campaign manager Florencio “Butch” Abad said the LP will appeal the decision that favored the “fake” NP-NPC coalition.
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