AN official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has stated that winning candidates for the 2022 elections who have pending disqualification cases could still be proclaimed without a final decision that would prohibit the poll body to do so.

Comelec Commissioner George Garcia explained that under their rules, when there is a proclamation, especially if it involves a running individual, as long as there is no final decision on the issue of disqualification and there is nothing to prevent the Comelec from proclaiming, they have no choice but to proclaim the winner.

“Ang rule po kasi natin kapag may proclamation, lalo na po kung ito ay isang tumatakbong indibidwal, hanggat walang pa kasing final na decision doon sa isyu ng disqualification at wala pang nagpe-prevent para kami ay mag-proklama, wala kaming choice para iproklama ang mananalo, lalo na kung ang mananalo ay sa senador, kung halimbawa,” he said.

Meanwhile, Garcia said the policies for the proclamation of the winning party-list for this year’s elections will still be discussed by the Comelec. Under the old rules, the Comelec does not immediately proclaim party-list groups with pending disqualification cases but if the nominee is the one with a pending DQ case, he or she will not be proclaimed pending a final ruling but the party-list will be proclaimed.

“Sa party-lists, iba ‘yung rule natin dun. Ang rule dati ay kapag ang party-list ay humaharap ng disqualification, hindi muna pinapa-proklama. Pero kapag naman ang humaharap ng disqualification ay ‘yung nominees, hindi muna pinoproklama na ‘yung nominees pero pinoproklama na ‘yung partylist,” he said.

Garcia announced on Sunday that the Comelec will proclaim all the twelve winning senators on Wednesday afternoon, while partial winning party-list groups will be on Thursday afternoon.

The law provides that a party-list group that gets at least two percent of the total number of votes cast in the party-list race will be entitled to at least one seat in the House of Representatives.

Those who exceed the two percent threshold will be entitled to additional seats proportionate to the number of votes cast, but the total number of seats for each winning party-list group cannot exceed three.

The ACT-CIS and 1-Rider groups are at the top of the party-list race based on the latest partial and official canvassing results as of Saturday, according to the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC).

Meanwhile, actor Robin Padilla is leading the senatorial elections based on the partial and official canvassing NBOC results, with 25,856,168. By LEE ANN P. DUCUSIN

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Lee Ann P. Ducusin