Disqualification cases

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

The disqualification cases against Sen. Grace Poe started it all. Now, all over this Banana Republic, such cases are being filed left and right by protagonists aspiring for government positions so they can waylay their rivals and get the plum posts. The cases are being filed with the Commission on Elections whose decisions can be overturned by the Supreme Court, being the highest judicial body in the land. Come to think of it, shouldn’t these cases be filed directly with the SC so cases would be been settled with finality earlier?

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Are lawyers to blame for this, so they can bleed more money out of their clients? In the case of Poe, if the cases did not have to go to the Comelec, ballot printing would have started by now, with no doubts about qualifications at least of those running for president. It would have saved this blighted nation a lot of political uncertainty, and the Comelec could have attended to pressing matters in preparation for the May polls.

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As political pundits say, whatever decision is reached by the Comelec, either the candidate or the petitioner in a disqualification case goes to the SC anyway. The SC disregards Comelec rulings. So why waste time, effort and people’s money for useless Comelec deliberations?

All Comelec divisions were unanimous in their decision to disqualify Poe. The cases went to the SC anyway, where Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno is arguing for the case of foundlings.

Even Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is not yet off the hook despite unanimous decision by a Comelec division to junk all disqualification cases against him. Lawyers say petitioners can still seek reconsideration of this ruling, after which the cases will go to the full Comelec, whose decision will also be open to a motion for reconsideration. Then the cases can go to the SC, regardless of the entire Comelec’s decision.

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By the time all legal remedies have been exhausted and the SC comes up with a ruling that is final and executory, the May elections would have long been over.

And because the SC some years ago reversed its own supposedly final, executory decision, there is a possibility that the disqualification cases could become bogged down in litigation.

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Pundits are saying there is a dilemma Poe and Duterte could be included in the ballot but lose with the disqualification cases still awaiting final SC ruling. The tribunal may just archive the cases, explaining the candidates’ defeat has rendered the cases moot, as the SC did in the disqualification case filed against presidential candidate Joseph Estrada in the 2010 race. Erap placed second in that race. Without legal machinations, he might have won, according to his minions.

Now, both Poe and Duterte are strong contenders. What if anyone of them wins and is later disqualified. Our neighborhood perennially drunk philosopher says since the Comelec is inutile in deciding qualifications of candidates, it should stop doing the work since it is a waste of time and public resources.

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In the local level, disqualification cases on account of citizenship have been reported in Northern Luzon.  

In Basista, Pangasinan, only a month before the start of the campaign period for local candidates, the Comelec is set to proclaim the new mayor of this town.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista signed a writ of execution on Jan. 27 declaring Jocelyn Perez as the mayor and directing Manolito de Leon to relinquish his post.

Perez will take her oath at the Comelec office in Intramuros on Feb. 12.

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On Nov. 10, the Supreme Court affirmed a full Comelec resolution issued on Oct. 9, which annulled the proclamation of De Leon over his citizenship.

The Comelec resolution said De Leon lost his citizenship when he was naturalized as an American citizen.

De Leon defeated Perez in the 2013 elections by only 67 votes.“At this time, he is qualified to run and seek a local elective position. However, his acts of using his American passport on Sept. 10, 2010 and June 26, 2011, or before the 2013 elections effectively barred him from running and holding public office. He reverted to his earlier status of being a dual citizen,” the Comelec resolution stated.

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In the province of Kalinga, Gregory FarnawClaver, a gubernatorial aspirant filed a counter-affidavit with the Comelec saying he is  eligible to run considering the Comelec has “not yet decided” on merits of a case on allegations of his citizenship.Claver is the son of former Kalinga Rep. Wiliam “Billy” Claver.

Henry Gupaal, executive assistant of incumbent Kalinga Gov. Jocel Baac earlier petitioned the Comelec alleging Claver was a U.S. and Filipino citizen.

In his complaint to the Comelec, Gupaal said Claver should be disqualified because the latter’s renunciation of his American citizenship in October 2015 is invalid because he was merely sworn in by a notary public and not a public officer authorized to administer an oath.

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Claver reportedly became a naturalized U.S. citizen in February 2007 after he joined the U.S. Army in September 2005.

But twice, Claver said, he has renounced his foreign citizenship under oath first in October 2012 and in October 2015.

Claver said in a counter-petition, with this, he reverted to his Filipino citizenship four years ago under Republic Act 9225, or the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003.

Gupaal, however, claimed that Claver remains a dual citizen because in American laws, his renunciation of American citizenship must have to be approved first by the U.S. State Department to be effective.

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The two main issues raised by Gupaal, Claver said, were answered by the Supreme Court in two cases decided in 2012 and 2009, when the High Tribunal ruled that RA 9225 only requires compliance with two requirements for a natural born Filipino, who has re-acquired citizenship, to qualify as a candidate for public office.

The requirements are for the candidate to take an oath of allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines and to execute a personal and sworn renunciation of foreign citizenship, which Claver, said in his petition, was complied with.

He also cited the Supreme Court decision on Arnado vs. Comelec that the two requirements to qualify as a candidate for an elective position does not require anything else such as   additional affirmative action or processes imposed by the relevant foreign laws or foreign governments to render such foreign citizenship renunciation effective.(See page 1 for more details.)

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The Comelec has not yet acted on Gupaal’s petition even as Claver has filed his counter-affidavit. It is status quo in the meantime – meaning Claver can still run considering the Comelec has not yet acted on the matter. The case could reach all the way to the Supreme Court. If the Comelec or the SC would still not make a decision on the case on electionday, what will happen? That, our neighborhood philosopher would say, calls for another drink.