WEDNESDAY / DECEMBER 4, 2019

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The House's 'veiled threat' againsf Comelec

ile the country was busy debating mission of Appointments-half of which
about Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano's would cogre from the House-would also
controversial P55-million eauldron, C0ltll'lEilTAnY have some sort of pull on the agency. In oth-
the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games' _ EM|L MAMtioN l er words, the undercurrent is clear and the
main man and his allies at the House of Rep- stakes are clearer.
resentatives quietly filed Resolution No. 552 tion,. which mandates that 20 percent of its In fact, the message was received clear-
on Nov. 25, 2019. The two-page resolution mernbers must be party list representatives. ly, albeit unpalatably, on the other end. The
was 'urging" the Commission. on Elections While calls for immediate resolution are popular Commissioner Rowena Guanzon,
(Comelec) to issue certificates of proclama:. normal in litigations, such a call coming of- who has around 15,ooo Twitter followers,
tion (COPS) to party list groups Duterte ybuth ficially. from Congress, more so from the publicly rebuked the Resolution on her social
and Senior Citizens. Just like the certificate of Speaker himself, Carries a different tone and media account, asserting that it "encroaches
canvass and proclamation (COCP) for regular an entirely different meaning. on our independence as an independent con-
district representatiyes, COPS are required Under tbe ConstitutioL the Comelec is stitutional Commission..." and that it ivas "a
for winning pafty list nominees to assume a constitutional body guaran$ed indepen- veiled threat to impeach us..."
office and avail themselves of the perks and dence from other branched of government Interestingly, last Nov. 28, zorg, the
benefits. Aside from fiscal independence, that guaran- Comelec en banc came out with a decision in
Both party list groups have pending legal tee also covers freedom from being dictated the Senior
Citizens party list case, resolving
issues before the Comelec, which prevented or influenced on how it shbuld run itb affairs,
it in favor of Francisco Datol's vrring, yyho is
the issuance of their respective COps. Apari including how it shoukl decide cases pending openly aligned with
Cayehno.
from Ronald Cardena's misrepresentation before it. While the timing of the decision could have
charges regarding his age, the Duterte youth The act of the House of publicly "urging" been pure coincidenbe, it does not erase the
also faces a cancellation proceeding for hav- the Comelec to decide a case is a braz en in- fact
that this public "flexing" to use millefffal
ing been registered without publication and terference in the poll body's quasi-judicial language,
sets not only a terrible precedent, but
without undergoing public hearing. Both re- powers. While the resolution may seem neu- also unavoidably affects the public's percep-
quirements are supposedly mandatory under tral or impartial on its face, the fact that the tion of the Comelec's independence.
the Constitution and Republic Act No. 7941 alliances of the litigants and the leanings of Instead of politicking this way, Cayeta-
or the Paty-List System Act. The Senior Cit- the signatories are openly known make it not. no should keep his eye on the ongoing SEA
izens leadership, on the other hand, is being In other words, it was an obvious call made Games as its lead organizer (a role he has yet
clairned by three different factions, respec- for specific litigants. to explain), and the various issles hounding
tively led by Francisco Datol, Milagros Mag- The public must understand that the the event, apart from his expensive cauldron.
saysay and Godofredo Arquiza. chair and the six commissioners constitut- ..............--
In Resolution No. 552, the signatories ing the Comelec can be removed solely by Emil Marafion lll is a former Comelec official
even chastised the Comelec chair and com- impeachmen! which is commenced in the and now a practicing election lawyer. He is
missioners not only for failing to resolve the House. Second, this resolution comes at the the counsel of the youth petitioners who
two cases six months after the end of the time when the national budget-including questioned the eligibility of Ronald Carde-
canvassing, but also for allegedly denying the Comelec's-awaits bicameral deliber- ma and the legality of the registration of
the party list groups due process. It further ations where budget entries can still be de- Duterte Youth. He also represented the Mi-
claimed that the "continued absence,, of the leted or modified. Third, with the anticipated ' lagros Magsaysay "wing" of the Senior Citi-
groups at the House violates the Co4stitu- vacancies in the Comelec next year, the Com- zens party list..

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