A stalwart of the Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats on Tuesday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to remove the substitution option for candidates.
Deputy Speaker Prospero Pichay, Jr. of Surigao del Sur expressed believes that substitution is not a good practice in the political arena nowadays.
Pichay stressed “this business of substitution is actually creating a chess or poker game among all the parties because like for example, the PDP-Laban fielded Sen. Bato (Ronald) dela Rosa as presidential candidate. But we all know that Sen. Bato is not really serious about running for President,” Pichay said.
He denied that Lakas-CMD’s presidential aspirant Anna Capella Velasco, the party’s executive director, and vice-presidential bet Lyle Fernando Uy are mere “placeholders” waiting for real candidates to substitute them.
“The business of substitution is actually not a good practice,” Pichay, secretary-general of the Lakas-CMD, said.
Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez echoed Pichay’s view as he proposed certain reforms he said would “put an end to the manipulation and mockery of the election process.”
“One reform I am proposing is an almost absolute ban on substitution of candidates by political parties. Another is the restoration of the old rule requiring incumbent officials to resign or to be deemed automatically resigned upon the filing of their certificates of candidacy (COCs) for other positions,” Rodriguez said.
Meanwhile, an election lawyer weighed in on the issue of political parties putting “placeholders,” or members filing candidacies with intention to be substituted, similar to the 2015 move of PDP-Laban when they suddenly fielded Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
According to Emil Marañon, an aspirant admitting he was merely a “placeholder” could be a ground for him to be considered as “nuisance”.
“If you admit publicly that you are just a placeholder in that you yourself has (sic) no intention to run then actually you fit int the definition of a nuisance candidate,” said Marañon, who previously worked as chief of staff of then Commission on Elections (Comelec) chair Sixto Brillantes.
There are 97 presidential aspirants and 29 vice presidential hopefuls, and voluntary substitution is allowed until November 15 before the final list of candidates will be released in December.
Since the introduction of the practice that allows candidate switching, Rodriguez said many people did not believe that some aspirants were serious and qualified for the higher positions for which they filed their COCs.
“It is lamentable that for the May 2022 elections, certain candidates for the presidency are perceived to be proxies for some personalities, even if they can be considered as serious aspirants,” he said.
He said he was proposing that substitution be prohibited unless the candidate-nominee of a political party dies or is disqualified before election day.
This will give the Commission on Elections (Comelec) more time to screen COCs filers, prepare the finalist list of candidates and print the official ballots and related paraphernalia, Rodriguez stressed.
He added that under the present election law, the Comelec has to wait until the Nov. 15 substitution deadline before finalizing the list of candidates even if the COC filing period has ended last Oct. 8.
“If we maintain the present Oct. 8 COC filing deadline, the commission will have an additional time of more than one month to prepare for the elections. Alternatively, we can move the timelines closer to election day like setting Nov. 15 as the close of the COC filing period,” he said.
Rodriguez said the candidate substitution ban and the requirement for candidates who are incumbent officials to resign are reforms that would complement each other.
“A candidate would not agree to be a proxy for a dawdling, wavering or indecisive aspirant if he would have to give up his office. The resignation requirement would apply to all levels, national or local, whether aiming for higher or lower positions,” he said.
He pointed out that the resignation requirement would level the playing field among elective and appointive officials like Cabinet members who are candidates.
“It would prevent them from using their offices, public funds and their influence to promote their candidacies,” Rodriguez said.
The solon said his proposed reforms would force aspirants to take running for higher office seriously and to stop manipulating and mocking the electoral process.
“These would also make more people believe in the integrity of our elections,” he added.
Maranon told ABS-CBN News: “A nuisance candidate under the law means the person has no intention to join the elections but he is doing that for purposes such as a making a mockery out of the election system.
“A petition can be filed against that person to be declared as a nuisance candidate whose certificate of candidacy is void from the beginning; that person declared as a nuisance candidate cannot be substituted.”
At the same time, election watchdog Legal Network for Truthful
Elections (LENTE) hit political groups for seemingly using the November 15 substitution deadline set by Comelec as part of their political strategy.
While taking note of the provision in the Omnibus Election Code that allows substitution for candidates who will die, be disqualified, or withdraw from the race, LENTE Executive Director Rona Caritos pointed out that the filing of Certificates of Candidacy from October 1 to 8 also underlines the political parties’ seriousness and preparedness to field their most competent bets.
“If you’re a political party, you prepare for that, you plan. You don’t just field any candidate as a placeholder. So that’s not a good indication for the political party system in the Philippines because that means those with that kind of strategy don’t think through, don’t plan,” Caritos told ABS-CBN News.
Caritos made these observations days after Dela Rosa’s unexpected filing of his COC for the presidential derby, under the ruling PDP-Laban wing backed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Dela Rosa, a former police general who has been a senator just since 2019, during interviews has been very vocal in expressing his readiness to withdraw from the presidential race in favor of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.
Asked about speculation that Duterte-Carpio will later run for president in his place, Dela Rosa was heard to have said, “E ‘di mas maganda (That would be good).”
Dela Rosa himself admitted that he was picked as the party’s presidential bet just 2 hours before the filing of candidacies closed on October 8.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who is running for vice president, meanwhile said he saw some “abuse” by political groups of the period for substitution.
“The problem in the law is the third option which is “when a candidate withdraws. That is what is being abused. We should amend that and remove it completely. If you are not ready and unprepared, why are you running for public office?… subject to all kinds of abuses. It should be amended,” Sotto said in a text message.
Aksyon Demokratiko Chairman Ernest Ramel, meanwhile, wonders how Lakas-CMD is still considering Marcos as its standard bearer when he already is the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas’ presidential candidate.
He echoed Lente’s observations that certain political parties are now using the period of substitution as a political strategy.
“Just proves their (the politicians’) real intentions are to play politics rather than focus on the country’s problems and the 110 million Filipinos’ daily struggles to find livelihood, jobs, food for their tables and solutions to the pandemic,” he said.
“I disagree with this practice and though admittedly some local candidates of the party may take advantage of this, we highly discourage such tactics or strategy if you will,” he added.
Lito Banayo, Domagos’s campaign manager, called such a tactic a “mockery of the people’s sovereign right.”
“True, these politicians are using the loopholes of the Election Law and Comelec rules to make a mockery of the people’s sovereign right to choose their leaders wisely and properly. We in the Isko-Doc Willie camp condemns such blatant tomfoolery,” Banayo told ABS-CBN News.
Meanwhile, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente reiterated his warning to foreigners asking them to respect the law and defer from interfering with Philippine politics.
Morente said foreigners were prohibited by law to engage in partisan political activities in the Philippines.
“Foreigners joining mass actions and protests including election campaigns is a disrespect to our prescribed laws and is considered as a violation of their stay in the Philippines,” he said.
According to Morente, even those holders of permanent residence visas are not vested with the same political rights and privileges as a Filipino citizen and thus, cannot engage in such activities.
Morente added they had zero tolerance for foreigners who would be “meddling in the internal affairs of the Philippines as a sovereign nation.”
“We are sending this early reminder as we have encountered so many deportation cases of foreigners who have engaged in political activities in the past,” he warned.
“Those foreigners who will be found guilty of such acts, especially electioneering, shall be deported and blacklisted, perpetually barring them from returning to the Philippines,” Morente said.