Electricity has yet to be restored in swaths of Visayas-Mindanao blacked out by a super typhoon three weeks ago. The two highest energy officials are busy with their faction of the ruling PDP-Laban. Sec. Alfonso Cusi and Melvin Matibag are asking the Comelec to reopen the filing of candidacies for Election 2022. Supposedly they need more time to nominate presidential and VP standard bearers. They want the ballot printing postponed due to many pending candidacy issues. Legal basis for their petitioned deadline extensions is allegedly the Omnibus Election Code.
Rival parties and poll watchdogs view the Cusi-Matibag move as laughable and sinister. Laughable, because their faction had bungled the selection of candidates. Sinister, because delaying Comelec deadlines could lead to a dreaded No-Election (No-El) scenario.
Cusi and Matibag had grabbed the PDP-Laban leadership from presidential aspirant Sen. Manny Pacquiao and longtime officer Sen. Koko Pimentel. They then named President Rodrigo Duterte as VP bet, with power to choose his presidential running mate. Duterte subsequently declined. Attempts failed to convince Duterte’s trusted aide Sen. Bong Go to run for president. Duterte loyalist Sen. Bato dela Rosa became the last-minute presidential nominee. Dutifully filing his candidacy, he wished aloud that Duterte’s daughter Sara substitute for him. Long deriding the PDP-Laban, Sara instead filed for VP under Lakas-CMD. Dela Rosa promptly slid out. Duterte and Go then filed for senator and president under Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan. Then they withdrew.
Observers thought that was the end of the ruling party’s personality-based politics. Then came on New Year’s Eve the Cusi-Matibag ploy.
At once the Pacquiao-Pimentel wing denounced the “last-ditch effort to subvert the electorate’s will. Their petition may result in delaying and derailing the electoral process ... to have failed elections to prolong their hold on power,” said vice chairman and senatorial aspirant Lutgardo Barbo. He urged the Comelec to junk the bid. Messing up the candidacy vetting and ballot printing allegedly aims to extend the terms of incumbent officials.
Prolonging tenures would be unconstitutional. Except for 12 senators elected in 2019 all officials, from president to councilors, must step down at noon of June 30. Any delay would trigger a political crisis.
Sen. Ping Lacson and Senate President Tito Sotto are ready to thwart that, however. The Reporma Party presidential and VP running mates have long thought out a plan. In case of a No-El, Sotto would convene the 24-member Senate before June 30. A new Senate president will be elected from among the 12 whose term will end in 2025. That Senate head will serve as government caretaker until a president and VP are elected and proclaimed. Spokesman James Jimenez assured that the Comelec will block any election foul-up. Still majority of senators are not taking chances.
Sotto has two choices who are independent-minded and trustworthy for the public. Such interim president would come from among Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Pia Cayetano, dela Rosa, Go, Lito Lapid, Imee Marcos, Pimentel, Grace Poe, Ramon Revilla Jr., Francis Tolentino, and Cynthia Villar.
The Comelec works on tight deadlines under the Election Automation Law. Elections in 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 used machine-readable ballots, with names of all national and local candidates printed on both sides. It is a major departure from mere blank ballots under the Omnibus Election Code.
Automation requires ballots specific to provinces, cities, municipalities, congressional and council districts. Proofreading is done several times of candidates’ names, middle initials, nicknames and parties. Printing cylinders are loaded and unloaded for each of 97,000 precinct clusters; the number of ballots depends on the registered voters plus reserves in case of inadvertent spoilage. Distribution alone takes weeks, including to the remotest mountain and island barangays. Special ballot markers, indelible ink for fingernails, stamp pads and other paraphernalia are delivered to each cluster along with the vote counting machines, standbys and spare parts. Test-runs are held a week before Election Day to ensure VCM running condition, count accuracy and transmission speed. All those necessitated the filing of candidacies and nominations as early as last October and substitutions by November.
The Comelec has yet to rule on the legitimate PDP-Laban officership. Pimentel had won a similar leadership grab in 2019 and is confident of a favorable Comelec ruling again, this time against Cusi and Matibag. The latter two’s claim to ascendancy rests on Duterte being their party chairman. But the other side avers that Duterte lost his PDP-Laban membership and switched parties the moment he substituted as senatorial bet under the PDDS. Under the Omnibus Election Code a candidatecan have only one party membership.
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