EDITORIAL - Congressman for a day

If cheating and ineptness have become institutionalized in the country’s electoral system, it’s because of cases such as Noel Cariño’s. Last Friday, as the 12th Congress ended its session, the businessman finally took his oath as the duly elected congressman representing Pasig City. The three-year term that was stolen from Cariño ends on June 30, but he has no more lawmaking left to do.

In 2001 the Commission on Elections had declared Cariño the loser in the May 2001 congressional race in Pasig. Cariño filed a protest with the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal. It took the HRET ages to act on the protest, finally completing a recount only last January. The tribunal’s finding: Cariño defeated his rival Henry Lanot by more than 2,000 votes. Lanot elevated the case to the Supreme Court, which upheld the HRET ruling. The Supreme Court decision became final only last Thursday. Thus did Cariño manage to get sworn in on the last day of the congressional session. He can’t claim the same seat in the 13th Congress; he has lost his re-election bid and doesn’t plan to file a protest.

How did Cariño get robbed of his mandate? This must be established so that punishment can be meted out. If he was a victim of cheating, the perpetrators must be identified and then punished together with the candidate who benefited from the cheating. Even if this case turns out to be just an honest mistake by poll personnel, sanctions should be imposed on those who think they can tally votes when they couldn’t even hurdle grade school math. We’ve heard enough election personnel mumbling about "honest mistakes" when crucial zeroes are added to or disappear from the votes of certain candidates. Such careless stupidity cannot be allowed to continue.

As for the electoral tribunals, they should set their respective deadlines for resolving poll protests and finishing recounts, so that a candidate who is cheated will still have a good chance of serving at least half of his term if he wins his protest. Letting cases like Cariño’s pass without implementing reforms and imposing punishment will guarantee more cheating and incompetence by poll personnel in the next elections.