The Philippine Online Chronicles

Liberal Party standard bearer Aquino has appealed to the Commission on Elections to declare Kilusang Bagong Lipunan's presidential bet a “nuisance.”

Aquino's lawyers, Attys. Sixto Brillantes Jr. and Juanito C. Arcilla, filed a motion for intervention and reconsideration on Friday for the poll body to block the candidacy of KBL's Vetallano Acosta.

Lawyers of current survey frontrunner Aquino said that Acosta's aim is to “dislodge Aquino from his original position as the first name” in the list of presidentiables on the printed ballot.

Since the names will be arranged in alphabetical order, Acosta's name will be the first on the list, and Aquino only second.

“He is undeniably a nuisance candidate. Aquino used to be the number one in the ballot. Now Acosta will be number one. Has anyone seen or heard him in the past?” Brillantes said on GMANews.tv.

Aquino's camp cited a study conducted by the University of Vermont which revealed that the “order in which the candidates' names are listed on the ballot has a 'discernable' effect on the vote share” received by the candidates.

According to the study, the candidate whose name appears first on the ballot “would receive, on the average, two-and-a-half percent extra votes than those listed after.”

Aquino's counsel also questioned the legitimacy of Acosta's KBL endorsement, saying that the latter has not submitted any authentic and legal document to prove that he was nominated by the Marcos-led party.

The Comelec Law Department had earlier declared Acosta and Lawyer Oliver Lozano, both under the KBL party, as “nuisance candidates” under Resolution 8713 and disqualified them to run for president and senator, respectively.

Acosta's name, however, was reinstated by the Comelec Thursday, along with independent candidate Nicanor Perlas via Resolution 8743, raising the number of presidential candidates to 10.