VETERAN election lawyer Romulo Macalintal on Thursday welcomed Comelec’s announced ban on candidates substitution, projecting the move will reduce the avenues for making a mockery of elections.
Macalintal said the “Comelec should be lauded for its initiative to put an end to the unscrupulous practice of some political parties in substituting candidates until the deadline of filing certificates of candidacy [CoCs] resulting in a mockery of the elections.”
The poll lawyer lamented, in a statement sent to BusinessMirror, “it is like they are playing around with the polls and the voters.”
Macalintal suggested that “these candidates…be taught the lesson that election involves public interest and not only their political and personal interest.”
The veteran poll lawyer reacted to Comelec’s decision, announced by chairman George Garcia on Wednesday, limiting the window for “placeholder” COC filers.
Because of Comelec’s new rule, Macalintal notes that candidates for the 2025 polls will only have until October 8, 2024 to withdraw their candidacy and file the substitution of Certificate of Candidacy (COC).
The Comelec en banc unanimously decided to approve the proposal of chairman Garcia to limit the window for such activities from October 1 to 8, 2024 only.
Garcia held hopes the new policy will prevent “fronts” or “placeholder” COC filers from previous elections, who will be replaced by other candidates.
“To the candidates, lay [down] your cards on the table. They should declare their candidacy and not resort to substitutions…if they really want to serve the public,” he said in an interview with reporters last Wednesday.
In a television interview with PTV, Comelec spokesperson John Rex C. Laudiangco said candidates with a political party will no longer be allowed to withdraw their candidacy or substitute their COC by October 9.
Only the substitution of candidates due to either death or disqualification will be exempted from the restriction.
In the 2022 polls, the filing period for COCs was from October 1 to 8, 2021, but the period for withdrawal and substitution of COC was until November 21, 2021.
‘Comelec sustained by SC’
On Comelec’s latest move, Macalintal said, “this action of the Comelec has been sustained by the Supreme Court in the case of Federico vs. Comelec [GR No. 199612, 22 January 2013], where the SC upheld Comelec’s authority to set a deadline for substitution as part of its constitutional mandate to enforce and administer all laws and regulations relative to the conduct of elections.”
According to the Supreme Court, setting a deadline for substitution is legally justified since withdrawal is voluntary and a candidate should have had sufficient time to ponder his candidacy, Macalintal explained. “Moreover, if a candidate withdraws after printing of ballots, the name of the substitute candidate can no longer be accommodated in the ballot and a vote for the substitute will just be wasted.”
Indeed, he stressed, Comelec’s decision “puts an end to such a nefarious political strategy employed by some politicians to suit their personal interest; and I am very happy Comelec has properly implemented it. It takes an election law practitioner in the person of Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia to put order in our electoral processes for which he should be congratulated and admired.”
