A lawmaker filed a House bill seeking to ban candidate substitution in the Philippines.
A solon recently filed a House bill seeking to ban candidate substitution in the Philippines unless the candidate died or was disqualified.
Aside from this, the lawmaker also filed a House bill aiming to restore the old provision in the election law that declared an incumbent as “resigned ipso facto (by that very fact or act)” upon filing the certificate of candidacy for another position.
Cagayan de Oro City Representative and Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez filed two House bills — HB 10380 and HB 10381.
HB 10380 proposed that a political party should be banned from substituting any political aspirant unless the latter died or was disqualified.
According to Rodriguez, substitution due to withdrawal may pose serious questions and may also lead to the “manipulation and mockery of the election process”.
“Withdrawals could lead the voting public to believe that the candidate who withdrew, or even the political party or substituting candidate, is not really serious,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez also said that the Omnibus Election Code allowed the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to disqualify a political aspirant who filed his COC “to put the election process in mockery or disrepute.”
As such, Rodriguez said that any political aspirant who has no real intention to run and only filed for candidacy as a placeholder for another political aspirant should be declared as a “nuisance candidate”.
COMELEC Spokesperson James Jimenez had said the admission of political parties that they have fielded a placeholder in an elective position wouldn’t suffice to declare the COC filer as a nuisance candidate, noting that a lack of a bona fide intention to run needed to be proven.
READ ALSO | Malacañang on Candidate Substitution: “Premature po para sabihing inaabuso”
HB 10381, on the other hand, aimed to restore the old provision in the election law that declared an incumbent as “resigned ipso facto (by that very fact or act)” upon filing the certificate of candidacy for another position.
According to Rodriguez, this would force political aspirants to seriously take running for higher office and “to stop manipulating and mocking the electoral process”, adding that it would make more people believe in the integrity of the elections.
Rodriguez also said that this would prevent incumbents from using their office, public funds and property, and influence in order to promote their candidacy in the elections.
The lawmaker added that the Republic Act No. 9006 or the Fair Elections Act of 2001 scrapped the resignation declaration in the country.
Rodriguez said that the proposed bills he authored aimed to end the practices of some political aspirants and political parties that tend to “doubt the integrity of the elections”.
Both House bills were lodged by the lawmaker last October 13, 2021.
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