Comelec urged to reconsider Gen. Lim's exclusion from Senate race

MANILA, Philippines - Businessman Joey de Venecia III yesterday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to reconsider its decision to exclude Gen. Danny Lim from the list of qualified candidates for the Senate.

Lim is an adopted candidate of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), the political party formed by former President Joseph Estrada to which De Venecia also belongs.

The son and namesake of former Speaker Jose de Venecia said the Comelec’s decision was unjust because Lim had the capacity to wage a national campaign, having been adopted by both the PMP and the Liberal Party.

“It taxes the imagination how the Comelec could have arrived at such a conclusion,” De Venecia said in a statement to media.

“The least that Comelec cold have done, if it had doubts, was to request the PMP and the LP to affirm their inclusion of Gen. Lim in their respective slates,” De Venecia added.

The ZTE-national broadband network scandal whistleblower, one of PMP’s senatorial bets, earlier welcomed the inclusion of Gen. Lim in the party’s Senate slate, referring to the military leader as “a man of principle and integrity.”

De Venecia said the Comelec should show its commitment to free, honest and meaningful elections by reversing its decision to disenfranchise Lim. Failure to do so would be considered “irresponsible behavior on the part of the Commission, to put it mildly,” De Venecia said.

De Venecia had also aired his support for Ang Ladlad, the gay rights group seeking party-list representation in the House of Representatives.