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In past elections, no such notations were made on candidates or party-list groups with pending cases. The Comelec website’s official list of candidates for 2004 bore no such markings.
There are no asterisks on any of the candidates for various posts in Davao City even as cases were filed against some of them. Representative Prospero Nograles, the Deputy Majority Floorleader, filed disqualification cases against “gospel preacher” Edgar Mabilog and Dr. Anacleto Millendez for allegedly being nuisance candidates. Mabilog and Millendez are running against Nograles. Their names bore no asterisks.
Among the party-list groups, Bayan Muna, Gabriela and Anakpawis bear asterisks allegedly “subject to pending cases docketed as SPP 07-015 & SPP 070-016.”
Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador told MindaNews they will write Comelec to clarify the issue as this could cause confusion among voters here and abroad.
The other party-list groups with asterisks are Advocates for Special Children and the Handicapped Movement (Asahan Mo), “subject to pending case docketed as SPP-07-012;” Ahonbayan (“subject to pending case docketed as SPA 07-021”); Filipinos for Peace, Justice and Progress Movement (FPJPM) which is “subject to pending case docketed as SPP-07-013”); Parents Enabling Parents (PEP) Coalition Party (“subject to pending case docketed as SPA 07-010”); Unino of the Masses for Democracy and Justice (“subject to pending case docketed as SPP-06-065”).
In the senatorial slate, Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III and Francis Pangilinan of the Liberal Party have an asterisk each, indicating “official party nomination shall be subject to the outcome of GR Nos. 174992 and 175546 now pending before the Supreme Court;” Alan Peter Cayetano because it is ‘subject to pending disqualification case docketed as SPA 07-023” and Joselito R. Cayetano as his candidacy is “subject to pending disqualification case docketed as SPA 07-017 and SPA 07-018.”