Susan withdrawing FPJ’s P100,000 deposit for poll protest

Movie actress Susan Roces asked the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) yesterday to refund the P100,000 partial cash deposit of her late husband, Fernando Poe Jr., since his electoral protest against President Arroyo has "officially" been terminated.

In a four-page motion filed through lawyer Sixto Brillantes, Roces said the P100,000 should be returned to her following the PET’s ruling last March 29 rejecting her as Poe’s substitute in the electoral protest.

"The undersigned counsel, for and on behalf of its deceased client, protestant FPJ and the current administratrix of the estate of said deceased FPJ, hereby formally moves and petitions the Honorable Tribunal to order and direct the refund of the sum of P100,000 posted by way of partial cash deposit by said deceased protestant FPJ, thus allowing its withdrawal, and that upon approval hereof, that the refund payment be made payable to the deceased protestant’s widow Susan Roces, Jesusa Sonora Poe, in her capacity as the administratrix of the estate of the deceased protestant FPJ," read the motion.

Brillantes said the breakdown of the P100,000 include the P50,000 filing fee required under Rule 29 of the PET Rules, with receipt No. 12286951 dated July 23, 2004; and the P100,000 as partial cash deposit imposed under Rule 30, with receipt No. 2794422, dated July 23, 2004.

"With the dismissal and termination of the above protest case and considering that the partial cash deposit of P100,000 was not touched and remains unspent and undisbursed, that the said sum should thus be refunded to the estate of the deceased protestant FPJ currently being administered by his widow Jesusa Sonora Poe, aka Susan Roces," read the motion.

Justice Leonardo Quisumbing said the Supreme Court does not have any rule on substitution or intervention, but it does not allow for the analogous application of the Rules of Court, decisions of the Supreme Court, and the decisions of the electoral tribunals.

Quisumbing said Rule 3, Section 16 of the Rules of Court allows substitution by a legal representative, but this rule cannot be applied to election contests.

"In our application of this rule to an election contest, we have every time ruled that a public office is personal to the public officer and not a property transmissible to the heirs upon death," he said.

"Thus, we consistently rejected substitution by the widow or the heirs in election contests where the protestant dies during the pendency of the protest.

"We recognized substitution upon the death of the protestee but denied substitution by the widow or heirs since they are not the real parties in interest."

Last March 29, the PET issued a 14-page ruling written by Quisumbing, rejecting Poe’s electoral protest against Mrs. Arroyo.

In the same decision, the motion of Roces to intervene and substitute for Poe in his election protest was also denied on the grounds that she was not the real party in interest.

"The motion of Roces to intervene and substitute for the deceased protestant is denied for lack of merit," read the decision.

"Acting on the protest and considering the notice of the death, submitted by counsel of protestant Poe, we also resolve that Presidential Electoral Tribunal case No. 022, entitled Ronald

Allan Poe, aka Fernando Poe Jr., versus Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, should be as it is hereby dismissed on the ground that no real party in interest has come forward within the period allowed by law, to intervene in this case or be substituted for the deceased protestant."

Roces was given 15 days to submit her motion for reconsideration, but she decided instead to submit a manifestation informing the PET that she would no longer do so.

The PET ruled that Roces could not substitute for Poe because under its rules only the registered candidate who obtained the second and third highest votes may contest the election of the President.

"Patently, Mrs. Poe (Roces) did not receive the second and third highest votes for she was not even a candidate for the presidency in the election that is being contested," read the decision.

Poe was declared by the Commission on Elections as second only to Mrs. Arroyo in the May 10 presidential elections, while Sen. Panfilo Lacson came in third.

Supreme Court spokesman Ismael Khan said the "real party in interest" who could pursue Poe’s election protest against Mrs. Arroyo would be either Lacson or Vice President Noli de Castro.

De Castro ran in tandem with Mrs. Arroyo.

Neither Lacson nor De Castro filed protests against Mrs. Arroyo.

Mrs. Arroyo was proclaimed the duly elected President by Congress shortly past midnight on June 24 last year.

She took her oath of office before Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. on June 30. — Jose Rodel Clapano