Sanchez' lawyer says no default rule during preliminary confab

CEBU, Philippines – The legal counsel of Cebu Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. said that his client cannot be declared in default for their failure to attend the preliminary conference the other day by the Commission on Elections Second Division in relation to the election protest filed against Sanchez.

"There is no default in a preliminary conference," lawyer Oliveros Kintanar, Sanchez's legal counsel said, adding that the lawyer of defeated vice gubernatorial candidate Glenn Soco should read the new guidelines on automated elections.

Kintanar said that they have not received any communication from the Comelec that there will be a preliminary conference.

"Me and my client have not received any order from the Comelec. So how can we attend? " Kintanar asked.

Soco's lawyer, Beulah Coeli Fiel said that Sanchez was declared in default by the Commission en banc after the latter failed to show up during preliminary conference the other day.

A litigant who is declared in default is no longer allowed to present his evidence during the trial proper.

It can be recalled that Soco filed an election protest against Sanchez before the Comelec last May 20 on grounds of massive fraud and immense irregularities in the conduct of the election.

In his 13-page petition, Soco prayed to the Comelec to declare him as the winner and duly elected vice governor of Cebu. He only got 517,687 votes as opposed to Sanchez's 543,924 votes. - With Jose P. Sollano/BRP (THE FREEMAN)