Mocking election laws

For months on end, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte kept the public guessing, claiming a lack of interest in the No. 1 post as well as fatigue and a wish to retire. “Give the presidency to one who wants it; I don’t” was how he rebuffed calls for him to run as PDP-Laban standard-bearer.

He’s an original, not a substitute, Duterte also declared in dismissing talk that he would run under the substitution law of the Commission on Elections, after a party mate inexplicably filed a certificate of candidacy for president despite an apparent lack of means and experience.

Now, barely a month later, he announces that he has “crossed the Rubicon” and is firmly in the running. He says he changed his mind as a matter of principle because he cannot stand the decision of the Senate Electoral Tribunal to junk the disqualification suit against presidential candidate Grace Poe. He invokes the law, saying that the Philippines under a president who is not a natural-born Filipino is a violation of the Constitution.

Yet Duterte and PDP-Laban chair Sen. Koko Pimentel, both lawyers, seem bent on using their legal smarts to shoehorn his candidacy for president despite a technical flaw in Martin Diño’s COC. In the rush to beat the October deadline, Diño, a former barangay captain, had filled out the COC form for president but clearly stated that he was running for mayor of Pasay City. Early this month, the Comelec indicated that Diño might be declared a nuisance candidate. Whereupon he withdrew his COC for president, allowing Duterte the window needed for his own candidacy and confirming what many had suspected as his and his supporters’ game plan all along.

After all, substitution of candidates is allowed when the original candidate dies, withdraws, or is disqualified by the Comelec.

And what of the technical flaw in Diño’s COC?  A clerical error, very minor, according to Pimentel and Duterte’s announced running mate, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, also a lawyer, who continued to carry a torch for Duterte as the man hemmed and hawed.

But veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal is unimpressed: “Diño’s COC appears to be defective; hence [it] cannot be the basis of any substitution because it is as if Diño never filed such a COC.” And should the Comelec later declare Diño a nuisance candidate, his COC is denied due course or cancelled, Macalintal says, adding that “the effect is as if no COC had been filed.”

Duterte says he has no problem with that. He says it is up to the Comelec to rule on whether he can run under the substitution law, or not. But if not, he promises, he will take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Cayetano hails the mayor’s candidacy for president as a game-changer—and maybe he’s right. Duterte’s actions reveal more about him and the dark underbelly of Philippine politics than his rivals can ever dig up.

By basing his candidacy on a loophole in the law, he shows disrespect for its spirit and makes a mockery of its intention—a contempt for the election process, a disdain for perimeters and rules meant to level the playing field. Is he serious about governance or does he think of the electorate as a plodding, undiscerning mass?  And why is the Comelec silent on the matter? When will its legal department conclude its study and announce what’s what according to its laws and mandate?

Duterte’s stated reason for finally throwing his hat into the presidential ring—the SET decision on Poe’s disqualification case—is also disappointing to an electorate that expects aspirants to be galvanized by platforms of good governance and public service. Yet another cause for disappointment is his avowed disdain for the presidential debates that the Comelec said it would set up for the benefit of the electorate. He pronounced the planned public exchanges a waste of time, “since nothing comes of them.” Indeed, given what has transpired thus far, why go through the process? Why abide by the rules? Why give voters a chance to know where one stands on the burning issues? Why give them a glimpse of one’s ideas, such as they are?

That politicians continue to try the tricks in the books does not bode well for the nation’s future. And neither does the sight of voters lapping up the bombast and drama, the fireworks and swagger that politicians offer in lieu of a platform. The circus has truly come to town.