December 18, 2009 05:11:00Christine Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Original Story: http://politics.inquirer.net/view.php?db=1&article=20091218-242662
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano Thursday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify Sen. Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal, who is running for president next year, branding her a nuisance candidate.
Cayetano took the opportunity to raise Madrigal’s case before Comelec officials as they attended a hearing by the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Automated Elections System in the Senate Thursday.
“Why is she there and the others are not?” Cayetano asked the poll officials.
A furious Madrigal hit back at Cayetano, saying his statement demonstrated “his ignorance of the law.”
Cayetano noted that Madrigal had no political party to back her presidential bid and had not even joined any presidential forum unlike other presidential candidates, including Nicanor Perlas, who was among those disqualified by the Comelec recently.
Transparency
Cayetano asked the Comelec to be “more transparent” and explain the basis for selecting who could run for president and who could not.
Cayetano is a staunch ally of Sen. Manuel Villar, who is running for president under the Nacionalista Party.
Villar and Madrigal are not only running against each other but have been at odds from the time Madrigal accused him of being behind what she called the double funding of the C5 road extension project and its diversion to benefit Villar’s real estate empire.
Cayetano later told reporters that he did not intend to file a petition seeking to disqualify Madrigal but had only issued a “challenge” to the Comelec to review her case.
“So it’s more of a challenge to them because they can do it by themselves and there was no need for anyone to file a petition,” Cayetano said.
He said that not only did Madrigal have no party. She had not made any effort to organize groups to support her presidential bid. She also had not placed any ads to promote her presidential bid.
‘Attack dog’
“So is she really a bona fide presidential candidate, is her intention real? Or is she allowing herself to be used as an attack dog by another party?” Cayetano asked.
The senator said Madrigal could be an “attack dog” but she could be so not “by running.” He called on her not to make a “mockery” of the election process.
Madrigal expounded on her accusation that Cayetano did not know the law.
“It is amazing how he passed the bar! It is his trapo (a slur for traditional politician) candidate Villar who is running on false campaign advertising and not me,” she said in a statement.
She said she was running on a platform “of principled politics, independent and free from political debt.”
Original Story: http://politics.inquirer.net/view.php?db=1&article=20091218-242662
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