"The idea of a vice-presidential run by President Duterte is completely devoid of subtlety or mystery."
Anyone who is sufficiently knowledgeable about the workings of the PSE (Philippine Stock Exchange) is bound to have been struck by the similarity between President Rodrigo Duterte’s announced 2022 election plan and a maneuver that is often restored to by businessmen unwilling to undergo the administrative and financial rigors associated with a company’s being listed on the Big Board of the PSE. The maneuver is called backdoor listing.
Backdoor listing involves listed companies that for one reason or another – financial, technical, competitive or legal—have been operating unsteadily or are dormant. A backdoor lister simply acquires control of an incentive or dormant company and proceeds to use it for any corporate purpose it wants; it does not have to undergo the scrutiny by the PSE Listing Committee that companies applying for listing have to undergo. Not all applicants for listing make it past the Listing Committee.
Giving all sorts of reasons—the need to be able to continue his campaigns against illegal drugs, insurgency etc., the importance of continuity in government policymaking—President Duterte has declared his desire and intention to run for the vice presidency in next year’s election. The Constitution bars a president from seeking reelection but does not prohibit him or her from seeking the nation’s second-highest position after his or her term. Given his absolute control of the PDP-Laban Party, it is a certainty that Rodrigo Duterte will get his party’s nomination as 2022 vice presidential candidate if he persists in his just-declared plan.
As earlier stated, Mr. Duterte’s intention to run for vice president next year is strikingly similar to PSE backdoor listing. Entry to the presidency through the front door is barred to him by the constitutional prohibition, so he will try to get back into the presidency through the back door, i.e, the vice presidency. Like the PSE backdoor lister, VP candidate Rodrigo Duterte will not be violating the letter of the law; no constitutional or regulatory prohibition is involved.
When they see a businessman or a business group buying control of a listed company whose shares have not been bought and sold for a long time, stock market folk know what is taking place: A backdoor listing is in progress. In the same manner, constitutional and legal experts are well aware of the possibility of a return to the presidency by an elected Vice President Rodrigo Duterte upon the resignation of a submissive president, e.g., Sara Duterte or Christopher Go. Besides death and impeachment, the other ways by which the presidency can be Constitutionally vacated are resignation and permanent disability. Vice President Rodrigo Duterte conceivably could backdoor his way back into Malacañang through succession-upon-resignation. The idea of a vice-presidential run by President Duterte is completely devoid of subtlety or mystery.
The strokes involved in a stock market backdoor listing and a presidential backdoor maneuver are vastly different. In a stock market, backdoor listing the future of one company is all that is at stake. In a presidential backdoor maneuver, it is the future of an entire nation that is at stake.
