‘SC to hold special session on poll cases, EDCA next week’

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) is set to hold a special session on Wednesday to decide on pressing election cases, an insider revealed yesterday.

The source said the SC justices decided to hold another session after their last regular session for the year last Tuesday because of the “urgency of the cases involving the Comelec (Commission on Elections).”

Among the issues to be tackled by the high court is the urgent plea of the poll body to lift the temporary retraining order (TRO) issued last Dec. 1 stopping the new policy requiring voters to register biometrics before they would be allowed to vote in next year’s general elections.

The source said the Comelec submitted a manifestation seeking to lift the TRO, which supposedly would affect the conduct of the general elections in May 2016.

The TRO specifically enjoined the poll body from implementing its “No Bio, No Boto” policy, which provides for the disenfranchisement of about 2.5 million voters without digital photograph, signature and fingerprints in their registration records.

The SC has junked a petition of the Kabataan party-list group seeking to extend voters’ registration, siding with the Comelec on the issue.

Apart from this case, the high tribunal might also tackle the petition filed by Rizalito David last Tuesday questioning the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) decision dismissing the disqualification case against Sen. Grace Poe in the 2013 polls.

David asked the high court to reverse the SET and declare Poe as “not a natural-born citizen eligible for national elective post.”

Lastly, the source said, the SC is also set to decide on the constitutionality of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) between the Philippines and the United States.

Justices of the high court were supposed to vote on the petitions seeking to strike down the EDCA before US President Barrack Obama visited the country last month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but decided to reset deliberations to this month.