Eastern Visayas Media Without Borders
by Miriam G.Desacada
Tacloban City–The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) En Banc tosses out petition against 5 candidates due to lawyer’s slip-up.
Lawyer Lloyd P. Surigao failed to follow basic rules, including filing with the wrong office and missing payment proofs. The petition alleged candidates hid dismissal from office, but the En Banc dismissed it without reaching the merits.
In a resolution signed by Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia, the Commission junked the petition filed by Atty. Lloyd P. Surigao against Ramon C. Oñate, Emmanuel M. Laurente, Consuelo J. Bonghanoy, Ranulfo O. Gaspan, Sr., and Jonathan T. Yap.
Despite being a member of the bar, Atty. Surigao failed to comply with the most fundamental jurisdictional requirements set by COMELEC Resolution No. 11046. The Commission’s decision highlighted a series of procedural oversights that effectively “locked the door” on the case before it could even be heard.
The Commission noted that while the law clearly mandates petitions be filed with the Office of the Clerk of the Commission (OCOC), Atty. Surigao instead submitted the document to the Office of the Chairman. This required the petition to be manually transmitted through multiple departments before reaching the proper desk.
In what the Commission termed a “condition sine qua non” (an indispensable requirement), the petitioner failed to attach proof of payment for the ₱10,000 filing fee and the ₱1,000 legal research fee. “Payment of filing fee is a jurisdictional requirement and non-compliance is a valid basis for the dismissal of the case,” the Commission emphasized, citing Supreme Court jurisprudence.
The dismissal is particularly significant given the weight of the allegations. The petition claimed the respondents were “dismissed government officials” found guilty by the Ombudsman of grave misconduct and serious dishonesty, which carries a penalty of perpetual disqualification.
Atty. Surigao had accused the candidates of “mocking the election system” by allegedly hiding these facts on their COCs. However, because the counsel failed to follow the very rules he sought to uphold, these serious allegations of material misrepresentation were never reached by the En Banc.
