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PDP Laban to challenge SOCE extension before SC

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Doris Bigornia, ABS-CBN News

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte&#x27;s party, PDP Laban, is set to question before the Supreme Court (SC) the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruling extending the submission of candidates and parties&#x27; campaign expense reports until June 30.Incoming House Speaker Pantaleon &quot;Bebot&quot; Alvarez said the law on submission of the Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) is very clear.&quot;No extension. It&#x27;s the problem of the political parties, including Liberal Party (LP), if they failed to do the filing, but they cannot violate the law,&quot; he said Friday.&quot;Malinaw na paglabag ng batas yun, kasi very clear naman yung batas. In fact, ang ginamit pa na mga pananalita ay &#x27;shall be final and inextendible.&#x27; Wala namang ibang ibig sabihin yun di ba? Malinaw na hindi pwedeng i-extend. I mean, the real intention of the law is to penalize political parties and candidates who fail to file on time their SOCE,&quot; he added.Alvarez warned a government without a vice-president now looms since the law says that those who fail to submit their SOCE will not be allowed to assume office without a certificate of compliance from the Comelec.Vice-President-elect Leni Robredo is a member of the LP, which failed to submit its SOCE on time last June 8. The party only filed its SOCE on Tuesday, or six days after the deadline.Robredo, however, was able to submit a separate candidate SOCE to the poll body on time.According to Alvarez, all members of the LP who won in the May 9 polls should not be allowed to assume office, pointing out that his partymates and all the others who ran in the elections complied with the law.&quot;Baka iniisip nila (LP) they&#x27;re still in power, they can get away with it. Kasi lahat ng partido nag-comply eh, di ba?&quot; he said.Comelec commissioners who voted for the extension, meanwhile, may face impeachment, he added.READ: <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/06/16/16/lps-soce-extension-plea-gets-comelec-nod">LP&#x27;s SOCE extension plea gets Comelec nod</a>The Comelec en banc on Thursday voted 4-3 to extend the deadline for the filing of SOCE until June 30. The LP had requested for a 14-day extension.The commissioners who voted for the extension were Arthur Lim, Rowena Guanzon, Al Parreño and Sheriff Abbas.Comelec chairman Andres Baustista and commissioners Christian Robert Lim and Luie Guia voted against the extension.Comelec spokesman James Jimenez explained the absurdity of the result if the poll body would not allow the extension, which, he noted, would benefit five senators, 115 congressmen and 40 governors.Meanwhile, Oriental Mindoro 2nd District Rep. Reynaldo Umali, a former LP member who is now with the PDP Laban, believes the late filing of the party&#x27;s SOCE is a non-issue and has just been blown out of proportion.Umali said based on Comelec rules, the penalty for late SOCE filing is only P50,000.He said an individual who was voted into office by the people could not be prevented to sit just because his or her party failed to file campaign expense reports. - With reports from Jay Ruiz, ABS-CBN News; ANCREAD: <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/06/09/16/leni-not-in-peril-amid-lps-late-soce-filing-lawyer-says">Leni &#x27;not in peril&#x27; amid LP&#x27;s late SOCE filing, lawyer says</a>

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte's party, PDP Laban, is set to question before the Supreme Court the Comelec ruling extending the submission of candidates and parties' campaign expense reports until June 30.

PDP Laban to challenge SOCE extension before SC

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PDP Laban to challenge SOCE extension before SC

Doris Bigornia,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jun 17, 2016 12:17 PM PHT

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Updated Jun 17, 2016 04:55 PM PHT

Read More:

Comelec

commission on elections

pdp laban

duterte

rodrigo duterte

supreme courts

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