Lawyers differ on whether Duterte could run

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (PNA photo)

Sixto Brillantes, former chairman of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and election lawyer Romeo Macalintal gave differing opinions on whether Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte could run for president in the 2016 election.

Duterte, who declared on Sunday his bid for presidency will fill for Martin Diño as PDP-Laban’s presidential bet. Diño withdrew his candidacy for president in October 29, this year. PDP-Laban subsequently named Duterte as their replacement candidate.

According to Brillantes, Duterte could run for president in 2016 under PDP-Laban since Diño has withdrawn his candidacy

“The grounds in fielding a substitute are death, disqualification and withdrawal. Diño withdrew, so he can be replaced. Why will the party be made to suffer? They nominated one candidate and he withdrew, so why can’t the party replace him?” Brillantes was quoted as saying in a Philippine Star report.

On the contrary, Macalintal said that there may be legal impediments if Duterte will run for president under PDP-Laban. Macalintal noted that DIño, in his Certificate of Candidacy filed before the Comelec, indicated that he was running for mayor of Pasay City instead of president.

“If the basis of the substitution of Duterte is the COC of Diño, from what I know, there may be some legal impediments. One is because he filed to run for Pasay City mayor, not for president,” Macalintal said in the same report.

Macalintal noted that in case Comelec declares Diño as nuisance candidate, it is as if Diño did not file certificate of candidacy at all.

Comelec officials have not yet given statement on whether Duterte could substitute Diño.