Comelec allows Pimentel to seek re-election as senator

February 13, 2019

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) Wednesday dismissed twin disqualification cases filed against Senator Koko Pimentel who is seeking another term in the May 13 polls. 

The Comelec First Division junked the petitions of lawyers Ferdinand Topacio and Glenn Chong, who is also running for senator, for lacking in merit.

“In view of the foregoing, Pimentel is eligible to run for senator in the May 2019 elections,” said the decision promulgated Wednesday. “The petition is dismissed for lack of merit.”

The ruling said he two years served by Pimentel from 2011 to 2013 were only a “tenure” and cannot be deemed as a “term”.

It cited jurisprudence from the Supreme Court (SC), which defined term as the “fixed and definite period of time which the law describes that an officer may hold office”, in the case of Abundo vs Comelec.

“The SC ruled that the two-year period during which Abundo’s opponent was serving as mayor should be considered as an interruption in his service, which effectively removed Abundo’s case from the ambit of the three-term limit rule,” said the decision.

“Applying the above pronouncements in the instant case by analogy, it is clear that Pimentel has not fully served his first term as a senator, thus the two-term limit does not yet apply to him,” it added.

Pimentel lost his senatorial bid in the 2007 polls to Juan Miguel Zubiri. But Pimentel won a protest against Zubirip,m at the Senate Electoral Tribunal, which proclaimed Pimentel as senator in 2011. DMS