“x x x.
Prior to the elections, any question on a presidential candidate's qualifications must necessarily be resolved by the COMELEC to safeguard the sanctity of the electoral process and protect the electorate from ineligible candidates. Otherwise, all the nuisance presidential candidates, who were disqualified by this Court for being nuisance candidates, should now be allowed to run and their qualifications to run for President can only be determined after the elections by the Presidential Electoral Tribunal. Likewise, any presidential candidate, claiming to be a natural-born Filipino citizen, regardless of his or her dubious nationality, can now run for President as his or her citizenship qualification can only be questioned after he or she wins the elections. This is the inevitable absurd result of the majority's faulty reasoning.
X x x.”
-Senior Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio
Dissenting Opinion in:
MARY GRACE NATIVIDAD S. POE LLAMANZARES, petitioner, v.
COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS and ESTRELLA C. ELAMPARO, respondents, G.R. No. 221697, April 5, 2016.
MARY GRACE NATIVIDAD S. POE LLAMANZARES, petitioner, v. COMMISSION ON ELECTIONS, FRANCISCO S. TATAD,
ANTONIO P. CONTRERAS and AMADO D. VALDEZ, respondents, G.R. Nos. 221698-700, April 5, 2016.
SC.JUDICIARY.GOV.PH
