EDITORIAL - A mockery of elections

The true voice of the people of Pasig has finally been heard. That was the statement of Noel Cariño the other day after the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal proclaimed him the duly elected congressman for the lone district of Pasig City.

Too bad the people of Pasig may have only two weeks left for their real voice to be heard in the halls of Congress. The House adjourns on Feb. 6 for the election break, and Cariño may still fail to assume his seat if the man who has occupied his post for the past three years, Henry Lanot, appeals the HRET ruling.

Cariño filed his electoral protest on May 29, 2001, shortly after the congressional elections. The HRET ruled that he won by 1,369 votes over Lanot. A narrow margin, to be sure, which requires scrupulous validation of election returns in Pasig. But Pasig is not a big city. Why did it take three years for the HRET to determine how many votes went to Cariño and Lanot?

This is not the first time that duly elected officials got to assume their posts just months before the end of their term. Out of laziness, ineptness or plain disregard for the people’s will, election authorities take their sweet time deciding electoral disputes. This has to be the only country where a loser is allowed to assume an elective post for almost the entire term of office, robbing the winner of his mandate.

What happens now to the salaries, allowances and other perks funded by Juan de la Cruz that were given to Lanot in the past three years? Will he refund the money or simply write an IOU? Will he pay for the use of ser-vice vehicles that should have been assigned to Cariño? What happens to projects Lanot picked for funding under the congressional pork barrel?

Such situations make a mockery of elections, undermining the people’s will and encouraging poll fraud. Poll cheats know that as long as they are proclaimed winners shortly after elections and get to assume their seats, it will take a miracle to kick them out within the first or even second year of their term. Stealing even two-thirds of the real winner’s term is good enough for a loser. And election authorities perpetuate this injustice.