Brillantes backs move to oust poll winners

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. defended their decision to unseat erring candidates for failure to submit their Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs) over election lawyers’ claims that the poll body’s order did not go through “due process.”

Although Brillantes admitted that their decision to penalize the 422 elected local officials “was not stated under the law, but under a Comelec resolution,” election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said that the poll body should have written to the local officials prior to informing the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Congress.