MARICHU VILLANUEVA: 'GHOSTS' OF ELECTIONS PAST AND PRESENT
MANILA, NOVEMBER 2, 2009 (STAR) COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva - Malacañang should stop feeding the fantasies of certain people by making public claims there is a “clamor” among Pampanga cabalens of President Arroyo for her to run for Congress in next year’s elections. This is most unfair to President Arroyo as the “ghosts” of her “Hello, Garci” nightmare would surely haunt her again.Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelie Fajardo should be careful in issuing such kind of statement. Fajardo should remember she is speaking for, or in behalf of the President. So whatever she dishes out — as one of the several official mouthpieces of the Palace — it is accepted as something coming no less from the President herself.
Could this be the reason why Vice President Noli de Castro — despite consistently topping presidential mock polls in the past — has reportedly decided he won’t join the 2010 race? Why run if he could succeed as President? Through the constitutional process of succession, the Vice President assumes office if indeed President Arroyo decides to run for Congress.
That is if Mrs.Arroyo would resign out of delicadeza. But lately, official words coming from the Palace do not include such scenario of the Vice President taking over.
Fajardo’s statement came after the Chief Executive’s election lawyer, Romulo Macalintal opined there is no legal barrier for the incumbent President to run for lower office. After Macalintal asserted this, a petition was filed last week at the Supreme Court that sought to stop her from taking advantage of an election rule where elective officials like her who file their certificates of candidacy need not resign from their posts.
A certain Henry Giron filed the petition at the SC to question a provision of Resolution 8678 issued by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that implemented this “rider” provision included in the Fair Elections Act of 2001. Giron is a self-confessed supporter of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. who lost to President Arroyo in the controversial May 2004 presidential elections where the “Hello, Garci” scandal erupted.
Obviously, Giron took a preemptive strike on the Palace trial balloon on Mrs. Arroyo’s possible running in the congressional district of her son, incumbent Pampanga Rep.Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo. Palace advisers using this scenario of Mrs. Arroyo running for Congress might be a ploy to ward off image of being a “lameduck” President. With eight months left in her term, this is a rather risky tack.
The pro-administration congressmen even warned there could be “leadership vacuum” if President Arroyo would be compelled to resign once she indeed runs for Congress. By giving credence to this much-speculated congressional run of the President in her home province, the Palace is giving the opposition the ammunition to revive calls for her resignation from office.
The opposition, on the other hand, should also refrain from raising the bogey of “failure of elections” in obvious bid to derail the holding of the first-ever automated elections all over the country in May 2010. I’ve heard a radio interview of Comelec commissioner Rene Sarmiento who cited last week a specific provision of our Constitution as a contingency in case of such “failure of elections” scenario. He pointed to this provision that mandates the Senate, as a continuing body, to elect a Senate president to assume the presidency until the next President is elected and installed into office.
The poll body though — headed by Comelec chairman retired Justice Jose Melo — is ready and determined to carry out in full the automated polls on schedule. Melo, in fact, stood Comelec’s ground against any extension of the new voters’ registration, the deadline which ended Oct.31. As of the last count by Comelec, there are some 2.8 million newly registered voters all over the country. They will join 40 million other Filipino voters who can exercise their rights of suffrage.
Typical of the “last-minute” mentality of Pinoys, a petition was filed at the SC on the eve of the deadline. The youth party list group Kabataan sought SC intervention to compel the Comelec to grant at least one month extension of the new voters’ registration.
Like the Comelec, I do not see any compelling reason to extend it. The law, as passed by Congress, precisely provided a specific period for this purpose so that the Comelec could strictly follow a timetable to ensure the success of the maiden holding of automated polls in the country. There’s really no valid ground to extend it when everyone is given almost a year to register.
If my twin boys — who are first time voters — could do it within the period prescribed, why can’t others do it? In fact, it is much easier to register as a voter in the Comelec than getting one’s tax identification number (TIN) from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). This I discovered when I tried to secure TIN for my twins as a new requirement for the renewal of their drivers’ license.
Before you can get a TIN, the applicant must submit not only a copy of his or her birth certificate (as certified by the National Statistics Office) and a barangay clearance. I could not fathom the wisdom why a taxpayer must get such barangay clearance as proof of residence. Why would the BIR bother with a taxpayer’s residence? For as long as a taxpayer pay the correct taxes on time, he or she must be given the leeway to pay his dues in any BIR office or BIR-accredited banks in the country.
To my horror, I also found out that before you can get a barangay clearance, you have to pay P20 for that small piece of paper that is valid for 90 days only. The amount is certainly small but it’s taxing too much one’s patience just to secure the signature of the barangay chairman and the president of the homeowners’ association.
Don’t you think it’s more prudent and sensible for the Comelec, not the BIR, to require barangay clearance as proof of residence as the best way to prevent so-called “flying” as well as “ghost” voters? These are the voters that must be exorcised from the Comelec registry.
It will be the first national elections that Melo would conduct since he assumed office in January 2008. So far, Melo has shown his brand of leadership that is haunted by the “ghosts” of past and present elections. It’s a tough “ghost-busting” job for Melo!
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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