MANILA, Philippines — Election lawyer George Erwin Garcia, a newly appointed member of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said on Tuesday that he had inhibited himself in the cases of his
“In fact, the reason I did not immediately assume [the post] was that I prioritized inhibiting myself and my withdrawal from all the cases where I had an appearance,” Garcia, speaking partly in Filipino, said in “DZMM Teleradyo.”“In the end, of course, I will be leaning towards what might be in his favor because I was with him before. That’s why I inhibited myself. The discretion is mine,” he said.
He added that he made a full disclosure of the cases he had handled to the Comelec’s clerk of commission. He pointed out: “Everyone is expecting that the name I made for myself, no matter how small, I will ruin in just a case. But what will I gain from that?”The other cases have been dismissed — two petitions seeking to cancel his certificate of candidacy, a petition to declare him as a nuisance candidate, and the three consolidated cases seeking to disqualify him.