Changing the rules

Changing the rules

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Rules are essential for the orderly conduct of affairs. This is true in life, in business, in sports, and in all relationships. A universal principle practiced and respected by everyone is that you do not change the rules mid-stream, in the middle of the game. The essence of fair play is that everyone is aware, understands and abides by the rules which govern their various and respective transactions. Keeping the rules constant as an event is ongoing applies to the participants, but especially to the Rule Maker.

Recently, the Supreme Court released its Resolution regarding the revision of ballots for votes cast in Negros Oriental, Iloilo, and Camarines Sur for Vice President in the 2016 Presidential elections.

The revision of ballots was a consequence of the election protest filed by candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. who claimed that the elections were attended with fraud, and that he was cheated of his rightful election as vice president.

In a revision of ballots, there is a Board of Revisors, appointed by the Supreme Court sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), which is tasked with the appreciation of all ballots under revision. Representatives of the contending parties are allowed to participate by essentially objecting to ballots they deem to have been a product of fraud.

The Resolution first informs that the revision of ballots resulted in a net gain for Vice President Robredo of about 15,000 additional votes in her favor. In other words, the revision failed to prove candidate Marcos’ assertions of fraud.

Applying the relevant and applicable Rule 65 of the PET, since there is no substantial recovery from the three pilot provinces in favor of Marcos, which he picked for revision, “the protest may forthwith be dismissed, without further consideration of the other provinces mentioned in the protest.”

PET Rule 65 is quite clear and does not require special or complicated legal interpretation. It is, therefore, expected that the Supreme Court/PET abide by its own Rules, and dismiss the election protest of Bongbong Marcos. This should remove the cloud over the Vice Presidency, raised by the protest, and conclusively establish Vice President Leni Robredo’s right to the Office. A dismissal of the protest should also lend stability to our political situation, which should be good for the country.

However, the expected and predictable result did not take place. Instead, the Supreme Court, ultimate arbiter of disputes, and the final authority on the interpretation of our laws, appears to have departed from the path of normalcy and ignored its own Rule 65.

Instead of judicial interpretation, the Supreme Court, in the case of Marcos vs. Robredo, has opted to deviate from its primary task, and instead ventured into judicial legislation. Lawyers and law students know that, every so often, the Court resorts to judicial legislation for good and justifiable reasons to accomplish the higher ends of justice.

In its Resolution, the Supreme Court, in an unexpected twist, chose not to dismiss the protest, but required the parties to comment within 20 days on Bongbong’s third cause of action to annul the elections in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao. Why the Court should even entertain this prayer by Marcos in the light of Rule 65 is truly mind-boggling!

What good and justifiable reasons are there to justify the Court’s deviation from the standard norm? What higher ends of justice have been accomplished?

It is suggested by one Justice that the Court acted pursuant to the demands of due process. Of course, this is all fine, except that by ignoring Rule 65, and choosing to act differently, the Court has deliberately Changed the Rules. This change now guarantees that the resolution of the case will be further delayed. In turn, it also results in a denial of due process, and the right to a speedy resolution of the case.

Delay will result because even if the Court favors Bongbong, and decides to nullify the results in the Mindanao provinces which he chose, a new election in these places must be held. These are the rules followed by the Commission on Elections, which, parenthetically, have the exclusive jurisdiction to declare a failure of elections.

With the holding of special elections, Bongbong’s quest will become moot and academic because the likelihood is that the Vice President’s term will have expired or be close to expiring by then. That is assuming that no further election protests are raised. In the meantime, Robredo continues to sit as Vice President, pending the completion of this whole process.

It is also wrong to assume that with a nullification of results, the remainder of the valid votes for each candidate will become the basis for determining the duly elected Vice President. Otherwise, a graver injustice and denial of due process would be suffered by the disenfranchised voters in Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Maguindanao. The disenfranchisement of voters would be an affront to our democracy.

So the Court, overwhelmingly packed with appointees of the President — who makes no secret of his preference for Bongbong — must agonize over the choice between Justices returning a favor for a Presidential appointment, or fulfilling their patriotic and constitutional duty to uphold the Rule of Law.

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Author’s email: [email protected]

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