A lawyer filed on Friday a motion at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) seeking to disqualify former Senators Franklin Drilon and Sergio Osmeña III from running in the 2010 polls for not completing the six-year interval mandated by the 1987 Constitution before seeking re-election.

Lawyer Vladimir Cabigao said both Drilon and Osmeña, who are running under the Liberal Party (LP) banner, should be disqualified from the race because they have “not completed the prohibitory of one term, or six years” from their last term in 2007.

The two ex-senators, according to Cabigao, can only seek another term “in the 2013 elections” where they will complete the “six years or one term interval to comply with the constitutional mandate that no senator shall serve for more than two consecutive terms.”

But Drilon dismissed the disqualification case, convinced that it has no legal basis.

“This petition seeking to disqualify me is a nuisance suit initiated by Malacañang lackeys to harass President Macapagal-Arroyo’s political critics through underhanded and unscrupulous tactics,” he said in a statement.

Drilon said even Comelec law department chief Ferdinand Rafanan said that they can run for a third term after only three years following their last and second term.

“The law did not intend to prohibit a Senator from running for the same position within the six-year full term following their two-term limit,” he said recalling Rafanan’s statement.