MANILA – Malacañang will respond to a Supreme Court order directing President Rodrigo Duterte to answer a quo warranto petition seeking to nullify his victory in 2016.
“We respect the order of the Court. We will respond as ordered,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told the media on Friday.
Roque’s statement came on the same day the SC issued the order, giving Duterte 10 days to respond to the petition that perennial nuisance candidate and suspended lawyer Elly Pamatong filed.
Pamatong believes that Duterte’s certificate of candidacy (COC) in the 2016 national elections was illegal.
In his petition, Pamatong said Duterte lacks the constitutional authority to “represent the government in any capacity” because his COC was filed late and was “never approved” by the Commission on Elections en banc.
The Comelec en banc accepted Duterte’s candidacy as a substitute for then anticrime advocate and now Interior undersecretary Martin Diño in December 2015.
With over 16 million votes, Duterte won in the May 9, 2016 polls.
“We are confident that the Supreme Court will render the correct and wise decision to a petition utterly bereft of legal and factual merit,” Roque stressed.
He added that Pamatong’s petition is headed to the dust bin as the Rules of Court states that only the Solicitor General, public prosecutors, and a person claiming entitlement to an allegedly usurped position are allowed to file a quo warranto.
A quo warranto proceeding, as defined under Rule 66 of the Rules of Court, may be brought on behalf of the government to remove an unqualified official from their position. It may be initiated against anyone who “usurps, intrudes into, or unlawfully holds or exercises a public office.” (With a report from PNA/PN)
