Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — It appears the cases blocking Sen. Grace Poe’s bid for the presidency will drag on longer than expected.
The question now is: will her name be included in the ballot?
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said it is likely.
Comelec will begin printing the ballots on February 1. For that, it plans to finalize the list of candidates on January 26 — the same day the Supreme Court set the next oral arguments on Poe’s cases.
“Basta kami, kapag panahon nang mag-imprenta ng balota, we will look at the situation at that point in time and what is the legal order in place. In which case, yun ang aming susundin,” Comelec Chairman Andres “Andy” Bautista said on Wednesday (January 20).
[Translation: When it is time to print the ballots, we will look at the situation at that point in time and what is the legal order in place. In which case, that is what we will follow.]
Related: Questions center on citizenship, residency as SC begins oral arguments on Poe’s DQ case
On Tuesday, the high court began hearing the cases. Only six magistrates had their turn to ask Poe’s lawyer.
Comelec hoped to start printing the ballots on January 27 but pushed it back because a number of candidates, like Poe, still have pending cases.
In any case, the poll body said it will not stop treating them as candidates unless they lose their cases and exhaust all appeals.
Related: Poe confident in SC oral arguments
That means Poe will remain in the roster unless the high court grants the petitions against her candidacy.
“She’s already on the list so the question lang is whether this case will be resolved in time to say with certainty whether she should stay on that list. So I guess that’s what we’re all looking forward to, the resolution of this case,” added Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.
“Whatever list we release prior to that will not have changed and we will have to go with the ballot as is. If her name is on there, then her name is on there.”
