By Joel R. San Juan
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) has decided to keep its hands off on the scheduled fight of Filipino boxing icon and senatorial candidate Manny Pacquiao against American boxer Timothy Bradley on April 9 in Las Vegas.
At a press briefing, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the poll body decided during its regular en banc meeting not to act on allegations that the fight would violate election laws as it would give Pacquiao undue media exposure, to the disadvantage of other senatorial candidates.
Bautista said the Comelec cannot act on the matter because there is no actual complaint filed before it in accordance with its rules, and that the fight has yet to happen, thus, there is no justiciable controversy at present.
The Comelec agreed with the camp of Pacquiao that the letters of aspiring Senator Walden Bello and lawyer Rene Saguisag merely asked for advisory opinion or to advise Pacquiao not to push through with the fight as it might violate Republic Act 9006, or the fair election law.
Being a quasi-judicial body, the Comelec said that it does not have the power to issue advisory-opinion since its judicial powers could only be exercised where there exists actual case or controversy.
“We are not talking about allowing or stopping. As I have said, there were just three things that we found [on the grounds that] there was no formal complaint in accordance with the rules; the fight has not yet occurred; there is as yet no justiciable controversy,” Bautista said.
Pacquaio’s lawyers, led by Romulo Macalintal, noted that the maximum media exposure that the boxing icon will get is only 36 minutes under the mandatory three-minute-per-round rule if the fight reaches 12 rounds.
They added that it could even be less than 36 minutes or even three minutes or just a few seconds, if the fight ends in the first round.
“His determination to hold such event, which might be his last time to climb the ring, is not intended to give him ‘undue or unfair advantage’ but that it has to be done before his youth is gone to give our country and our people the pride and glory they justly deserve, which is always foremost in his heart and mind,” Pacquiao’s camp said in a letter earlier sent to the Comelec.
Under the law, according to the boxer’s lawyers, all candidates are given 120 minutes of TV and 180 minutes radio advertisements per station.