By Ferdinand Patinio
MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has dismissed the second disqualification case filed against senatorial candidate and ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo.
In a three-page ruling released Thursday, the Comelec First Division junked the petition filed by the Graft-Free Philippines Foundation, Inc. and Berteni Causing due to technicality or for the petitioners’ failure to comply with the requirement to submit a Proof of Service of the petition to Tulfo.
“Settled is the rule that failure to comply with a mandatory requirement warrants the dismissal of the Petition. In view of the foregoing, the Commission (First Division) hereby resolves to dismiss the instant Petition,” the poll body said.
“Upon scrutiny of the submitted Petition and its attachments, it appears that Petitioner failed to submit a Proof of Service of the Petition with complete annexes to the Respondent or an Affidavit of Service, in case the former is not possible. Hence, it cannot be ascertained whether the Respondent received a copy of the Petition with complete annexes.”
Graft-Free Philippines and Causing on Feb. 25 sought to disqualify Erwin, saying he is part of a looming political dynasty in the Senate with the presence of his brother, Senator Raffy Tulfo, and another brother, broadcast journalist Ben Tulfo who is also seeking a Senate seat.
They also claimed Erwin should be disqualified for being an American citizen, a violation of the Constitution on the grounds of his conviction for four counts of libel deemed final by the Supreme Court.
Earlier, the Comelec’s First Division junked a petition filed by lawyer Virigilio Garcia, to disqualify five candidates from the Tulfo clan, for being insufficient in form.
The petition was also dismissed after the petitioner failed to attach the certificates of candidacy (COCs) of senatorial bets Erwin and Ben, party-list nominees Jocelyn Pua-Tulfo (ACT-CIS) and Wanda Tulfo-Teo (Turismo), and reelectionist Quezon City Rep. Ralph Tulfo. (PNA)
