Comelec commissioner questions SC decision on shortened term

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Julio Desamito has challenged the Supreme Court decision ordering him and two others to step down as poll body commissioners on Feb. 2, 2001, one year before their terms are supposed to expire.

Desamito filed last Dec. 28 before the Supreme Court a petition for intervention and a motion for reconsideration urging the High Court to modify its Dec. 13 decision which ends their terms of office on Feb. 2, 2001.

The two other poll body officials whose terms will end are Comelec Chairman Harriet Demetriou and Commissioner Teresita Dy-Liacco Flores.

While admitting that he is not a direct party to the case involving Demetriou whose term of office expires on Feb. 2, 2001, Desamito stressed that he would be adversely affected and prejudiced by the disputed decision of the High Tribunal.

He argued that his term of office should end only on Feb. 2, 2002. He said the High Court’s ruling that the starting point of the term of office of members of all three constitutional commissions is Feb. 2, 1998 had prejudiced him because it will reduce his term of office by one year.

He explained that declaring the terms of office of the first appointees under the 1987 Constitution commenced on Feb. 2, 1998 "clearly disregards and violates Section 15 of the Transitory Provisions (Article XVIII) of the Constitution."

Section 15 states that "the incumbent members of the Civil Service Commission, Comelec, and the Commission on Audit shall continue in office for one year after the ratification of this Constitution, unless they are sooner removed for cause or become incapacitated to discharge the duties of their office or appointed to a new term. In no case shall any member serve longer than seven years including service before the ratification of this Constitution."

He said the 1987 Constitution did not provide expressly or even impliedly that the terms of office of the first appointees must commence on the date of the adoption of the 1987 Constitution or on Feb. 2, 1987.

However, such failure cannot be correctly interpreted to mean that the beginning of the terms of office "is understood to coincide with the effectivity of the Constitution upon its ratification."

Desamito contended that such interpretation is not in consonance with, and in fact contravenes one of the essential requisites of a written constitution, like the 1987 Constitution.

Meanwhile, Demetriou has manifested that "she is not joining in the aforesaid petition for intervention and has wholeheartedly accepted the most unanimous decision of the Honorable Court…"

On the other hand, Flores has not made any comment regarding the said Supreme Court decision.