Kiko Pangilinan hits ballot spot adjustments

Former Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan (INQUIRER FILES)

MANILA, Philippines — Former senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan on Thursday said that the adjustment of ballot spots for Senate aspirants in the midterm elections is causing “uncertainty and confusion” and that his camp has already printed campaign materials using his original number.

Pangilinan, in a text message to INQUIRER.net, said he is also appealing to the Supreme Court (SC) to solve pending temporary restraining orders (TRO) before the Comelec’s scheduled reprinting of ballots on Saturday, January 25.

“It’s like the price of a commodity that endlessly goes up and up,” Pangilinan said of the total number of senatorial candidates in Filipino. “When will it end?”

“Seriously, I hope the SC resolves all similar pending petitions immediately as the uncertainty and confusion undermine the Comelec’s constitutional mandate of ensuring orderly elections,” Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan’s number on the ballot had to be adjusted twice due to the high court TRO’s favoring senatorial aspirants previously declared by Comelec as nuisance candidates.

When asked if this development had an adverse effect on his campaign logistics, Pangilinan replied: “Yes it has as we had already printed out a batch of posters with the original number.”

On January 14, the SC ordered Comelec to put Subair Mustapha on the ballot at the 47th spot. This change led to the adjustment of the ballot numbers of 12 senatorial aspirants, including Pangilinan, who was moved to the 51st spot.

Another SC TRO released Tuesday, January 21 favoring Francis Leo Marcos or Norman Mangusin will lead to another ballot number adjustment, which will again affect Pangilinan and several other aspirants.

If not for the SC’s order to include Mangusin in the senatorial roster, the Comelec would have resumed the reprinting of ballots on Wednesday, January 22. 

The printing of ballots was first postponed on January 14 as the Comelec would need to include Mustapha’s name.

The printing of over six million ballots already began on Jan. 6, but the Comelec had to discard it since it did not contain the names of Mustapha and Mangusin, which cost the Comelec  P132 million.

Pangilinan had even suggested putting Mustapha on the last spot of the ballot to avoid adjustments of ballot numbering.

But Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia disagreed with this suggestion, noting that the Omnibus Election Code states that candidates should be arranged alphabetically.

Garcia also said this move may even prompt candidates to raise this issue before SC as they could cite the equal protection clause under the law.

“I disagree with the decision of the Comelec to turn down our proposal but it is what it is,” Pangilinan said in response.