Gomez appeals Comelec disqualification

MANILA, Philippines - Unfazed by his recent disqualification, actor Richard Gomez filed a motion for reconsideration with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Saturday, well ahead of the deadline today.

Gomez, together with his legal counsels, former Justice Manuel “Lolong” Lazaro and lawyer Alex Avisado, argued that the Comelec First Division made a serious and reversible error when it disqualified him despite the fact that it conceded that he was able to establish his actual physical presence in Ormoc, Leyte way before the one-year residency rule set by law.

Avisado said, “The issue here is no longer the one-year residency rule which Richard Gomez already complied with but his intention to permanently reside in Ormoc which the Comelec said was lacking because he still owned a house in Greenhills.”

“In establishing his domicile of choice in Ormoc, our Constitution and election laws do not require him to sell his house in Greenhills, which he maintains for purely practical reasons,” Avisado added.

For his part, Lazaro said that in disqualification cases, the Supreme Court (SC), through Chief Justice Reynato Puno, has already declared: “Where the sovereignty of the people is at stake, we must not only be legally right but also politically correct. We cannot fail by making the people succeed. We cannot frustrate this sovereign will on highly arguable/technical considerations. In case of doubt, we should lean toward a rule that will give life, to the people’s political judgment.”

Lazaro further said that in the concurring opinion of Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez in the case of Tecson v. Comelec [424 SCRA 402 (2004)], the SC ruled that it may not exercise its judicial power to disqualify a candidate before election as that “would definitely wreck the constitutional right of the people to choose their candidate. Only after the election is over and a winner is proclaimed, and the result of the election is contested, may the Court participate and decide the contest.”

To disqualify a candidate before election is “to intrude into the right of the voters to elect by direct vote the people they wish to vote for as congressman, thereby constricting and limiting the candidates and consequently the right of the people to vote,” the SC added.

These are also the same principles that were applied by the Comelec in dismissing the disqualification case against former President Joseph Estrada, and Gomez expects that they also be applied in his disqualification case, the actor’s legal counsels said.

Gomez said the recent Comelec ruling has spawned a “public outrage” in the fourth district of Leyte, forcing the residents to start a signature campaign urging the Comelec to reconsider its decision and give them a chance to choose their own leader.

In fact in just one day, Gomez’s camp received a total of 20,277 signatures from Ormoc City and the municipalities of Palompon, Merida, Matag-ob, Kananga, Albuera, and Isabel, comprising the entire fourth district of Leyte.

“The public clamor for a change of leadership is overwhelming. I owe it to the people of Leyte to continue this fight,” Gomez said in a statement.