Oversize

A 6x10 feet tarpaulin has caused quite a stir in recent days. This now-infamous tarp was posted on the façade of the San Sebastian Cathedral by the Diocese of Bacolod. Printed on it are names of senatorial candidates and party-list groups who voted against the RH bill, listed under Team Buhay, and those who voted in favor of the bill, falling under the category of Team Patay.

At first blush, the Comelec directive to the Diocese — asking that the poster be taken down — seemed to present an interesting constitutional conundrum. You have, on the one hand, the Comelec zealously wielding its power of ensuring the conduct of fair and orderly elections; and the Church on the other hand religiously fighting for her freedom of expression, for her leaders’ right to speak on an issue no matter how negative it may be perceived.

As the Supreme Court has noted, determining the parameters of the State’s power to regulate a citizen’s exercise of basic freedoms in order to promote substantial public interests is a complicated undertaking. To compound the matter, balancing interests of state regulation and individual freedoms has always been an especially emotive issue when it involves elections.

The Constitution itself gives specific powers to the Comelec to supervise the conduct of free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections. However, constitutional law also ranks political speech at the top of the protected forms of expression. So at first glance, this case seemed to illustrate a classic “authority vs. liberty” question.

Closer scrutiny however reveals that the issue is not as exciting as it seems. I could even sum up this whole debacle in a word — oversize.

Who said bigger is always better? Comelec Chairman Brilliantes has been quoted as saying that the objection is not directed against the content of the tarp but that it was just too big to be legal, with 2 x 3 feet as the law’s limit. If this is truly the case, then the Comelec order is “content neutral” and would probably withstand constitutional scrutiny.

But size does matter, according to the Church. A lawyer of the Diocese explained that the tarpaulin’s size is part of the message. The “6 feet by 10 feet size” represents “six feet below the ground” — a symbol of death, and “ten feet standing tall” a symbol of life. This argument of size being symbolic seems to be specious in that, before it was pointed out, I doubt that anyone saw a connection at all. Secondly, wasn’t this claim an afterthought? The church authorities did initially cut the material in half after all, only it still did not meet the regulation.  

The Diocese argues that the Comelec has no jurisdiction to order such removal. First, the tarpaulin is not election propaganda but an expression of the Church’s position against the RH Law; second, said tarpaulin was not displayed in a public place but within private church grounds; third, the Comelec rules apply only to political candidates; and fourth, only the bishop, not the Comelec, can order the removal of the poster as it pertains to the Church’s moral teachings on social issues.

Comelec Resolution No. 9615 defines “political advertisements” or “election propaganda” as “any matter…printed, displayed, or exhibited...that is capable of being associated with a candidate or party, and is intended to draw the attention of the public or a segment thereof to promote or oppose, directly or indirectly, the election of the said candidate or candidates to a public office.” True, the phrase “vote for or against” do not appear, but the poster is labelled “conscience vote” on top and it enumerates personalities and organizations currently participating in the elections. If it were truly just an expression of the Church’s position against the RH law and nothing more, it would not have been limited to the names of current candidates and parties.

That the tarpaulin is situated in private property is not significant as the Comelec’s power is not only limited to that which is public in character. After all, the exercise of police power — when proper — can validly interfere with private property.

The third and fourth arguments seem to touch on the issue of authority and who may be subject to it. There appears to be a misconception that Comelec rules apply only to political candidates. The pertinent laws and regulations will show that Comelec’s authority as to election matters is more encompassing than that.

On the last contention, that only the bishop can order the poster’s removal since it pertained to “moral teachings on social issues” — would that this were true. I do not doubt the bishop’s power, but only the contention that this poster merely referred to moral teachings.

In any case, I think that if there is something that is also unconscionably “big”, it is the fuss we are making over this poster. What first seemed to be a size problem has now become a national issue.

The Diocese could have just re-sized the poster to avoid needless legal hassle and societal division. If the aim of the church leaders was to encourage the flock to vote conscientiously and to consider the social and moral issues of the day, then that message may have been lost in the wake of this controversy. But then again, there might have been other objectives.

As all major networks and broadsheets have carried this story, free exposure was attained. As things stand, the controversy has generated sufficient publicity to get the Diocese’s message across, not only to her parishioners in Bacolod, but to the entire nation.

It will be interesting, come Election Day, to see how the “conscience vote” turns out.

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High hopes: This week’s four centavos go to Dr. Hannah Gay and her team who made medical history when they cured a child born with HIV. Although the team was quick to point out that this would not work on adults or older children (as by that time the virus would have already infected their CD4 cells), the news still gave many infected with HIV hope that a cure is no longer just a pipe dream. Dr. Gay’s team has intensified its work while researchers from around the world have likewise been reporting more promising results. Indeed, Dr. Gay’s team has made many happy (pun intended) and hopes are high that miracles are just around the bend.

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“Troubles are a lot like people — they grow bigger if you nurse them.”              —Author Unknown

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