In defense of the Constitution and the Comelec

The Commission on Elections en banc has come under attack from the camp of Sen. Grace Poe Llamanzares for disqualifying her as presidential candidate and canceling her Certificate of Candidacy on Dec. 23, 2015—two days before Christmas. The en banc ruling affirmed the Dec. 11, 2015 resolution of the First Division, which found Mrs. Llamanzares ineligible to seek the presidency for not being a natural-born Filipino, and for lacking the 10-year residency requirement under the Constitution.

A week or so before the en banc resolution, the Times headlined a story predicting a five-to-one vote disqualifying Mrs. Llamanzares and cancelling her CoC. The story was attributed to former Comelec chairman Sixto Brilllantes, Jr., a well-known Poe Llamanzares supporter. The 30-page ruling confirmed the Brillantes story, except that the vote is six-to-one, with only Commissioner Christian Robert S. Lim dissenting.