{"id":190054,"date":"2018-11-17T04:52:28","date_gmt":"2018-11-17T09:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=190054"},"modified":"2018-11-17T04:52:59","modified_gmt":"2018-11-17T09:52:59","slug":"pimentel-wants-disqualification-case-junked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/17\/pimentel-wants-disqualification-case-junked\/","title":{"rendered":"Pimentel wants disqualification case junked"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_190055\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-190055\" style=\"width: 3300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/049a8899.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-190055\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/049a8899.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3300\" height=\"2400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/049a8899.jpg 3300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/049a8899-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/049a8899-768x559.jpg 768w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/049a8899-1024x745.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3300px) 100vw, 3300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-190055\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE: FOR A SENATE SEAT. Former Senate President Aquilino &#8220;Koko&#8221; Pimentel III is interviewed by media after filing his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for senator in the 2019 mid-term elections at the Comelec head office in Intramuros, Manila on Thursday (October 11, 2018). (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Senator Aquilino \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel III on Friday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to dismiss the disqualification case filed against him by lawyer Ferdinand Topacio for lack of merit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is incumbent upon the Honorable Commission to dismiss the instant petition filed against the respondent for utter lack of merit,\u201d said the lawmaker in his 26-page Verified Answer filed before the poll body.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that he did not commit any material misrepresentation in his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) when he claimed to be eligible to run for senator in the 2019 polls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the absence of any deliberate attempt to mislead, misinform, or hide a fact on the part of the respondent, the Honorable Commission cannot and should not deny due course or cancel the COC of the respondent,\u201d Pimentel said.<\/p>\n<p>He also cited the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on the Abundo Sr. vs. Comelec case, wherein Abundo was deemed unable to serve his whole three-year term as mayor, from 2004 to 2007, since he was only able to assume post for a year and a month after being declared as the winner in the poll protest case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndeed, while the respondent was ultimately declared winner in the election protest for the 2007-2013 term, respondent\u2019s full term was drastically reduced by the active service rendered by (Senator Miguel) Zubiri,\u201d the senator said.<\/p>\n<p>Last October, Topacio filed a disqualification case against Pimentel in the forthcoming mid-term polls, saying the latter is ineligible to run.<\/p>\n<p>Pimentel is seeking for a new term in the May 2019 elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA\u00a0\u2014 Senator Aquilino \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel III on Friday asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to dismiss the disqualification case filed &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":190055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ferdinand-patinio","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}