MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker is calling on Solicitor General Jose Calida to step down out of “delicadeza” after the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, junked former Senator Bongbong Marcos poll protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.
“This is a big shame to the OSG (Office of the Solicitor General) that muddled with a private matter and supported Bongbong Marcos,” Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers party-list) said in Filipino hours after the SC unanimously rejected Marcos’ bid to overturn the results of the 2016 vice presidential elections.
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Calida, who supported Marcos during the 2016 elections, has taken positions that would have benefitted the former senator during his poll protest.
The government’s top lawyer, like Marcos, moved for the inhibition of SC Associate Justice Marvic Leonen from the poll protest.
He also told the SC that it has the power to declare a failure of elections — something which Marcos was pushing for in his protest.
When the SC deliberated on whether ovals on ballots shaded by just 25% are valid, Calida said there would be no basis to apply the 25% threshold in the recount, while the Commission on Elections said in its own comment that voting machines were calibrated to read as valid votes marks that cover at least 25% of the oval.
“The PET decision, clearly, is also a big legal slap on the Solicitor General, who even intervened in the case in support of Marcos — who is clearly, a private party!” House Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna party-list) said.
In defending his stance on the shading of ovals, Calida said that it is his duty to present to the PET “the position he perceives to be in the best interest of the Republic.”
He added that the solicitor general can present a stance that may be different from the government agency he may be representing, which in this case is the Comelec. — Xave Gregorio with reports from Kristine Joy Patag