The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has caused the postponement of the hearing on the electoral sabotage case filed against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
This after the Comelec failed to furnish the counsel of the former President with a copy of its Motion for Reconsideration on the decision of the court to grant bail to Mrs. Arroyo three days before the scheduled hearing today at the sala of Pasay City Regional Trial Court Judge Jesus Mupas.
The hearing today was supposed to tackle the motion for reconsideration filed on the grant of the bail petition of the former President.
The Rules of Court require a party-movant to furnish the adverse party with copy of the motion at least three days before the scheuled hearing to give them to prepare, otherwise their motion will be considered as not filed.
Esmeralda Ladra, lead prosecutor, said they furnished lawyers Benjamin Santos and Ray Montri Santos, counsels of Mrs. Arroyo, last Thursday only via registered mail.
Santos informed the court they have not yet received the copy of the motion sent to them by mail and it was only before the start of the hearing that they were able to get a copy through service of the Comelec.
This caused some irritation on Mupas who questioned why they had to resort to mailing when the hearing was six days away.
Ladra said since they were mailing the motion within Metro Manila, they throught the same would reach them after one of two days but it apparently did not.
However, registered mails are known to move at a snail’s pace even those sent within the same area.
Mupas, however, did not strike out the motion for reconsideration filed and merely required the defense to file their comment within five days from their receipt of the motion.
The hearing had been reset to Aug. 10 at 9 a.m.
Meanwhilem the Comelec said it will be presenting more witnesses to strengthen its electoral sabotage case against Arroyo.
“They would be different from the 10 additional witnesses or even more, if if necessary. Aside from bringing back principal witness and former Maguindanao provincial administrator Norie Unas, if needed. To give a more clear picture about what happened in Malacañang” ” said Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes in a TV interview yesterday.
He noted that the new witnesses are election officers and they are still looking for other witnesses.
“Primarily, election officers really. But we are looking for more,” Brillantes noted.
However, he refused to name them for security concerns.
The Comelec chief noted that they are looking in their list of witnesses after Arroyo was granted bail last week.
“We are studying it. We have had, for a long time, a list of possible witnesses. We thought when we presented Unas, that would have been sufficient. But now that she has been granted bail, we will look at our list again.