Commission on Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon Saturday said the Fair Elections Act will apply to senatorial candidate and boxing champ Manny Pacquiao, too.
Pacquiao has been reported to be preparing for a fight with Tim Bradley in Las Vegas on October 9, a month before the May polls. “They say he’s going to have a boxing match, he can, of course, box, that is his privilege but if he shows his boxing match here in my opinion it will have consequences because he is a candidate, ” she said.
“I don’t want to preempt the commission. In my opinion it will have consequence, let’s see if he will decide to have a match and airs it here,” she said, citing the live telecast of the fight via Pay-Per-View.
?It’s like actors. If they run, they are not supposed to make movies as that’s unfair. Newscasters, if they run, go on leave cause (because) that would be unfair to the other candidates. That is the intent of the law,” she said. Meanwhile, the Comelec just filed its memorandum in the disqualification case against presidential candidate Grace Poe before the Supreme Court, “We are just waiting for its ruling,? Guanzon said.
All the preparations for the May 9 polls are already ongoing, 7 million ballots have already been printed so far with Poe’s name among the presidential candidates, she said.
?If she is disqualified her votes will be considered stray, the system is not going to be disturbed,” Guanzon said.
She said an appeal on the Duterte disqualification case is also pending before the Comelec en banc.*CPG
