Richard says he can still be voted upon, and his votes counted

ACTOR RICHARD Gomez, who is seeking the congressional seat of the fourth district of Leyte against the incumbent’s son, urged supporters not to be “discouraged” with the resolution of the Comelec disqualifying him.
He said his name will continue to appear in the Certified List of Candidates issued last January 30 yet, and the votes cast for him on May 10 will be counted in his favor. Gomez, as of press time, has filed a motion for reconsideration with the Comelec.

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said as much over the national news. Jimenez said that “votes of disqualified bets with pending motion for reconsideration will be counted”.
Gomez added that presuming the case is pending at the Supreme Court by then, whether he or the Codilla camp be the one to elevate it to the highest arbiter of the land, if he wins the vote count then he will be considered the winner.
The Comelec, in a resolution issued on February 17, ruled that Gomez was disqualified “for lack of residency requirement”. The Comelec, however, did not rule on the petition to cancel Gomez’s Certificate of Candidacy, leaving the question open whether a substitution is allowed.
This opinion is also shared by a Manila-based lawyer, whom the EV Mail considers a third independent party as she is not involved in either Gomez’s camp or the Codillas, said in an e-mailed opinion that “ on the issue about no substitution allowed” (as claimed by the Codilla camp), she noted that “nothing in the Comelec resolution says about the issue on substitution. Nonetheless, it is not true that substitution is not allowed. Under the Comelec rules, no substitution is allowed unless and until the disqualification of a candidate becomes final.” (underscoring hers)
She explained, “In Richard’s case, since he will be filing a motion for reconsideration which will be heard by the Comelec en banc and will be decided with finality by the Supreme Court, his disqualification by the 1st Division is not yet final.”
“For all intents and purposes, he is still very much a candidate and votes for him will still be counted and he could still be proclaimed if he garners the highest number of votes.”
“However, if he concedes this early and refrains from filing an MR, or if he has filed an MR, and eventually withdraws the same, that is when his disqualification will become final. Only then will substitution be allowed per Comelec rules.”
She observed that “perhaps his detractors are capitalizing on this because they know that he will be fighting it out until it reaches the Supreme Court. Substitution, therefore, is not yet within the horizon at this time.”
In this vein, she also opined that maybe this is why the Codillas continue to threaten Richard and Lucy with charges of perjury, to make them buckle down to pressure and give up the fight.
On another aspect of the case, the Ormocanon lawyer who is now based in Manila added that on the issue of what will happen to the case if it reaches the Supreme Court, “we all know that election controversies take a while for the Supreme Court to resolve. Chances are, the candidate may have already served the full term of office before he is declared ineligible. If Richard garners the highest number of votes, he can be proclaimed the winner pending resolution on his disqualification case. “
“If, however, Richard only ranks second in the election, his disqualification case will be still be resolved by the Supreme Court, but only in so far as his eligibility is concerned. It becomes useless even if the Supreme Court will rule in his favor because, realistically speaking, the people did not choose him in the first place.”, she added, taking note that this was what happened with the Codilla vs. Locsin case in 2001.
She said Ormocanons and people of the fourth district are not ignorant about this, because the very same case happened here just a few years back.
She further noted, “that is probably the reason why Winnie’s camp is propagating these rumors about Richard no longer qualified to run and that votes for him will not be counted, causing despair or disappointment on his would-be voters because they know that the 1st Division’s resolution is only a momentary victory – if one can truly call it a victory – since the process is long and will take a while to be finally resolved.”
“The Comelec resolution can best be used as a leverage for political propaganda purposes, but not for legal purposes. The plan is admirably sophisticated, though predictable and sad.”, she said.
She ended her piece saying, “Tyrants perpetuate themselves in power by keeping their subjects ignorant and poor”.  By LM Jimenea

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Tagged as: camp, case, Comelec, congressional seat, Court, disqualification, EV Mail, filing a motion, finality, independent party, intents and purposes, James Jimenez, leyte, Lucy, mail, Manila, motion, reconsideration, resolution, Richard, richard gomez, substitution, Supreme, vote count, Winnie