Nene: No need to enact new law to prevent leadership vacuum

MANILA, Philippines - Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday that there is no need for Congress to enact a new succession law to prevent a leadership vacuum that may arise in case of failure of the 2010 elections.

Pimentel said he does not believe that there will be a failure of elections just because this will be the first time that the country will have fully automated elections.

He said that an amendment to the Constitution, and not an ordinary legislation, could modify the order of presidential succession prescribed under the Charter.

“It is possible that there may be a failure of election in certain areas, a few municipalities or cities. But this will not prevent the Commission on Elections from determining and proclaiming the winning presidential and vice presidential candidates as early as possible,” the veteran lawmaker said.

Pimentel does not agree with a proposal that would allow the l2 non-reelectionist senators to elect from among themselves a new Senate president.

Pimentel said this will not conform to the constitutional rule that the Senate cannot function and elect its president unless there is a quorum of at least  l3 senators or one half plus one of the chamber’s 24 members.

He said that since the elections will be held on May 10, 2010, there will be enough time for the Comelec to resolve any problem and proclaim the winning presidential and vice presidential candidates before the term of President Arroyo expires on June 30, 2010.

Pimentel said Congress, through its oversight functions, should see to it that safeguards for orderly, fraud-free and credible elections are fully implemented by Comelec and Smartmatic instead of bothering itself with the enactment of a law to designate an interim or caretaker president which may be in anticipation of an illusionary scenario and therefore just be a waste of precious time.

Pimentel said the nation should be relieved over the assurance of Fernando Rafanan, director of the Comelec law department, that a failure of the automated elections is impossible.

Rafanan, who chaired the Comelec’s special bids and awards committee for the automation project, said that in case the electronic voting machines break down in certain areas, the back up machines could be used.

Smartmatic was contracted to manufacture and deliver 82,500 voting machines, which is more than the required number of machines included in the P7.2-billion automation contract.

Pimentel expressed confidence that the automated system will live up to its promise of speeding up the counting and tabulation process and eliminating fraud that had been the bane of manual elections in the past years.

“On the whole, we have every reason to believe that the automated elections will be much more credible than the manual system.