Solicitor general backs Angara petition vs Lacson

Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo asked the Supreme Court yesterday to uphold the contention of Sen. Edgardo Angara that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) should withdraw its recognition of Sen. Panfilo Lacson as standard-bearer of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP).

In a 13-page motion, Benipayo said the poll body must only recognize the candidates nominated by Angara as LDP chairman, among them action star Fernando Poe Jr. for president.

Benipayo said Lacson and any candidate endorsed by Makati Rep. Agapito Aquino, LDP secretary-general, must be considered as independent, and should not be entitled to any copy of the election returns.

"In the instant case, there is only one LDP that is headed by LDP chairman Angara," he said. "There is no other LDP that is separately headed by private respondent LDP secretary-general Aquino."

Benipayo said the Comelec acted without or in excess of jurisdiction when it issued Resolution No. 6453 recognizing the Angara and Aquino factions of the LDP and their candidates for president down to the last town councilor.

"For the authority to sign certificates of nomination is among the internal matters that are purely for the party members to settle among themselves," he said.

"The Comelec has no business, much less authority, to run the affairs of the LDP or have its own judgment supplant that of the LDP," Benipayo said.

He added the resolution could not and should not be used as basis for allowing Aquino to sign certificates of nomination.

"Aquino himself admitted during the Dec. 30, 2003 hearing at the Comelec that the signing authority for the certificates of nomination for the party is bequeathed to the party chairman under its plenary powers," he said.

Benipayo said even if Aquino was authorized to sign certificates of nomination under the Comelec resolution, it must still be accompanied by an authorization from the party chairman to be valid.

Aquino cannot claim that his authority to sign certificates of nomination was delegated to him by the LDP executive council or by the party chairman, considering that he was placed under "indefinite forced leave" last Dec. 6, he added.

Angara had sought a restraining order from the Supreme Court to stop the Comelec from enforcing its Jan. 6 resolution allowing Lacson and Poe to separately run for president under the LDP banner on May 10.

The main issue is who between him and Aquino could nominate candidates, he added.

In an en banc resolution, the Supreme Court has ordered Aquino and the Comelec to answer Angara’s petition.

It set oral arguments on the case at its session hall on Jan. 21 at 2 p.m.