Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The justices, in their full court meeting, ordered Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista to answer within five days the lawsuit filed against him by online news organization Rappler.
Rappler accused Bautista of handpicking media entities and granting them exclusive rights to broadcast and livestream the presidential and vice presidential debates.
Rappler said this is discrimination against other media outlets, including the goverment-owned PTV-4.
On Saturday (February 20), Bautista said it was “unprofessional” for Rappler to sue him, since the poll body did not force the agreement to any media entity — and that Rappler duly signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA).
He urged the online news organization to “abide by the contracts that they have entered into.”
“I’m disappointed that after participating in the negotiations, after signing the contract then all of a sudden they’re now backtracking and basically want out,” Bautista said.
The poll body chairman earlier claimed he was willing to argue the case before the Supreme Court (SC).
Petition for printing of voting receipts
The high court also directed Comelec to comment within five days on the petition filed by Philippine Red Cross (PRC) Chairman and senatorial candidate Richard “Dick” Gordon, asking the SC to compel the poll body to print voting receipts during the May elections.
Gordon said the Comelec is mandated to do so under the amended automated elections law which he authored.
Also read: Gordon wants ballot receipts issued to voters
The Comelec decided not to print receipts, saying it could lead to vote buying and it would extend voting period by as much as seven hours.
Meanwhile, the high court junked the petitions of four presidential and a senatorial aspirant for being nuisance candidates.
The justices also ruled against petitions of four party-list groups.
The court also denied with finality the appeals of one presidential candidate and six party-list groups.
SC Public Information Chief (PIO) Theodore Te, however, refused to comment on how soon the court will resolve the case of Sen. Grace Poe.
Poe’s case is already up for resolution.
Also read: Solicitor General defends Poe in 5th round of SC oral arguments
