WHEN Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez filed his bill limiting the rule on substitution of candidates in an election, it started serious discussions on the merits of this much-abused procedure.
Rodriguez sees a mockery of the election process in our democracy as candidates — local and national — tend to abuse the rule on substitution. The play is simply a childish but smart trick: get someone to file for your desired position, with the intent of withdrawing to give way to the real candidate. The ruse is that the real candidate wanted to know who are the possible rivals for the position before deciding, at the last minute, to take the plunge.
Since it is by way of this “withdrawal-substitution” that Mayor Rodrigo Duterte became president, the Comelec does not see any wrong in this. The poll body’s spokesman, James Jimenez, said the Comelec was “not really” against the rule allowed by law on substitution by withdrawal.
‘Candidates for top positions
should show their
conviction to run early.’
“We see substitution as a necessary remedy under the law. What would perhaps be a better idea is if Congress were to introduce some controls, some sort of regulation because right now the law is pretty wide open,” Jimenez said.
To this, Representative Rodriguez has a crisp retort: no amount of regulation of the substitution rule could prevent a mockery of the election in the country as long as candidates who withdraw from the race can be replaced.
The congressman claimed there is “nothing sacrosanct” about Section 77 of the Omnibus Election Code, which allows the substitution of candidates on grounds of death, disqualification, or withdrawal.
“Candidates should decide ahead of time and be sure if they are running to file at least on the deadline. They cannot put somebody there because they are still thinking and still deciding on it,” Rodriguez said. In his bill, Rodriguez wants to limit candidate substitutions only on grounds of death or disqualification.
“Experience has shown us that this has been abused and it has made a mockery of our election system,” he said.
In this position, Rodriguez has the backing of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives and Senators Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, Grace Poe, Joel Villanueva and Juan Miguel Zubiri who all filed similar bills. Many lawmakers, of course, are for the retention of the current rule, as they see its future use for them.
We support Rodriguez’ amendment to the law. Candidates for top positions should show their conviction to run early.
