'Transition leader is Senate's call'

MANILA, Philippines - Filling a possible power vacuum by installing a transition president is largely the call of the Senate, according to two congressmen.

Rep. Teodoro Casiño of the party-list group Bayan Muna told ABS-CBN News Channel’s “Strictly Politics” program on Tuesday night that if senators elect a new Senate president shortly after the May 10, 2010 elections, there would be no vacancy in the presidency.

“The new Senate president will act as the nation’s interim leader in case there is a general failure of elections in May and the winning presidential and vice presidential candidates could not be determined,” he said.

Casiño said within two weeks after the polls, the nation would know if there was a failure of elections that would prevent the proclamation of the presidential and vice presidential winners.

“I trust that the 23 senators would then elect their new Senate president from among those whose term of office ends in 2013 and who will serve as the country’s acting president after noon of June 30, 2010, when President Arroyo’s term of office ends,” he said.

He said like Mrs. Arroyo, the term of office of incumbent Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile expires at noon of June 30 next year.

If Enrile would seek reelection, an election failure would also prevent the Commission on Elections from determining whether he won or not, he added.

Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao, chairman of the House committee on revision of laws, agreed with Casiño.

He said electing a new Senate president would be the fastest and surest way of resolving a possible leadership crisis that could arise from a major glitch in the automation of next year’s elections.

If senators elect their new leader before Mrs. Arroyo’s term expires, there would be no need for Congress to pass a bill expanding the line of succession to the presidency to include 12 senators whose term of office ends in 2013 and the Supreme Court justices, he said.

Aggabao’s committee has endorsed the approval of such a bill, authored by Nueva Ecija Rep. Edno Joson.

A similar bill to include the Supreme Court chief justice in the line of succession was filed by Casiño and Bayan Muna colleagues Satur Ocampo and Neri Colmenares.