Te warns COMELEC vs allowing Marcos Jr. to extend deadline in responding to disqualification case

By James Hernandez

Former Supreme Court (SC) spokesperson Theodore Te warned the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) on Thursday (Nov. 18) against granting the request of presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to extend the deadline in filing his reply to the disqualification petition against him.

Te, who is the counsel of the petitioners who filed the disqualification case, said in a statement that “the consequence of granting the respondent’s motion for more time would be for the Comelec to flout its own rules, which the Supreme Court had already ruled in previous instances as grave abuse of discretion.”

The lawyer cited that the COMELEC Second Division issued a summons dated Nov. 11 to Marcos “to submit his verified answer within an ‘inextendible period’ of five days from receipt of notice.”

Te said Marcos had until Nov. 16 to file his response to the petition since the presidential candidate admitted receiving the notice on Nov. 11.

However, Te said Marcos filed a motion for extension of time which asked the COMELEC to allow him more time to file a response.

“Petitioners, through counsel, on November 17, 2021 opposed the ‘Motion for Extension of Time’ and requested the Comelec to observe its own rules, specifically Rule 23, section 4(6) which the Comelec cited in its summons to respondent Marcos Jr.,” Te said.

“In their Opposition, petitioners also cited jurisprudence by the Supreme Court on the ‘mandatory and peremptory’ character of ‘inextendible periods’ as well as the Court’s recognition that ‘procedural rules in election cases are designed to achieve not only a correct but also an expeditious determination of the popular will of the electorate’,” he added.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)