Do we still need to divine the striptease of Inday Sara Duterte? No, we don’t.
Substitution of candidates by withdrawal is a statute allowed in Section 77 of the 1985 Omnibus Election Code. Election lawyer Emil Marañon III calls it the inherent prerogative of a person to change one’s mind.
It is plain and intelligible, however, that the Duterte habit for substitution is not just a simple change of mind necessitated by human exigencies. It is exactly a striptease. It is foolhardy to believe that, in the end, the player will not undress. There is no explanation other than it being a strategy that makes a mockery of the substitution clause. It is an abuse of law, and it must be addressed.
The Revised Election Code of 1947 allowed only two grounds for substitution: death and disqualification. It was the 1971 Election Code under the Marcos dictatorship that introduced the third ground of withdrawal.
In 2016, Rodrigo Duterte repeatedly said he would not run for president. He, however, later withdrew his candidacy for reelection as Davao City mayor and instead joined the presidential race as a last-minute substitute for Martin Diño, who had filed as standard-bearer of the PDP-Laban party. Diño, of course, has since been rewarded with the post of undersecretary of the interior and local government.University of the Philippines political science professor Maria Ela Atienza disparages that Duterte habit we are seeing unfolding again before our eyes: “Candidate substitution becomes a ‘mockery’ if it is used to advance politicians’ agenda. It shows lack of respect for the electoral process as a democratic process. Instead, they use it as a tool hoping to further their interests.”
“A party uses this as a strategy, waiting first for the other parties’ candidates to file and allowing a weak or unknown candidate to file first. It will then substitute the actual candidate, hoping that it will catch the other parties by surprise and get more attention from the media and the public,” Atienza said.
To prevent abuse of the substitution clause and in observance of the true intention of the law, Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro has filed a measure seeking to prohibit changing of candidates unless the original bet dies or is disqualified. That will restore the law to the spirit of the 1947 Revised Election Code.
Rodriguez also proposes to require incumbent officials to resign or be deemed automatically resigned upon filing of candidacy, saying a candidate would not agree to be a placeholder for an indecisive aspirant if he or she were to step down from office.
Atienza agrees with Rodriguez that substitution “should be allowed only in cases when the original candidate is incapacitated or suddenly dies. There should be stricter penalties for substitution as mere strategy.”
As we have seen in 2016, substitution has become merely part of a playbook. In effect, and this is the most important baseline, the candidate uses lying. Think of what effect that has on one’s ethical deportment and governance once one wins.
Is Sara Duterte lying? In my opinion, she is.
Observe her November 9 Facebook statement: “Ito lamang po muna” (Just this for now), apparently meant as the installment of the day, as in the political satire “abangan ang susunod na kabanata” (wait for the next chapter).
Baste Duterte then announced his withdrawal as vice mayoral candidate. He said he was merely following the instructions of his sister. It is as though there are patent family rights to the Davao city hall.
When politicians striptease, the rumor mills grind. The Sara scenarios currently circulating are precisely part of the playbook to keep her in the public’s top of mind. One such scenario claims she will meet with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo this November 11-14 at Balesin Island with over 90 congressmen to firm up her run as vice president to Bongbong Marcos.
Another scenario claims to have full access to the Duterte script calendar: On November 11, Bato dela Rosa withdraws his candidacy; on November 12, Sara flies to Manila; on November 13, she takes her oath as member of PDP Laban; and on November 15, she substitutes for Bato dela Rosa as presidential candidate.
A third scenario says she will substitute for Bongbong Marcos who is in danger of being disqualified. The scuttlebutt also says President Duterte will influence the Comelec to rule for Bongbong’s disqualification to pave the way for his daughter’s presidential candidacy.
What if these rumors will be proven true? Note the gravity of the power play implications behind them. What gives people in power the propensity to lie? Why, it’s the culture of impunity that they espouse, cocktailed with the lust for power. We should be ashamed of our “democracy.”
Bato dela Rosa responded to journalists’ questions when he filed his candidacy for president: “Do I look like a mockery to you?” Yes, he does.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
