Rule allowing GMA to run questioned

MANILA, Philippines - A taxpayer has asked the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing a resolution that would allow President Arroyo to run for Congress without resigning the presidency.

Sen. Lito Lapid invoked that resolution to be able to return to the Senate after he lost the mayoralty election in Makati to Mayor Jejomar Binay in 2007.

Petitioner Henry Giron, head of the Article 64 Movement, said the possibility of Mrs. Arroyo running for Congress was among the considerations in their petition.

Denying any political affiliation, they filed the petition on their own initiative, he added.

However, they supported Fernando Poe Jr.’s candidacy in the 2004 presidential elections, he said.

Giron said the Comelec resolution is based on a provision of Republic Act 9006, the Fair Elections Act of 2001 that repealed section 67 of the Omnibus Election Code.

The repealed provision required incumbent elected officials to resign their posts before running for another position, he added.

Giron said section 4 of Comelec Resolution No. 8678 provides that an elective official shall not be considered resigned upon the filing of his or her certificate of candidacy for the same or any other elective post.

“The above cited provision will affect not only the petitioner but also the electorates, particularly the candidates (appointive and elective) participating in the coming 2010 elections,” he said.

Giron asked the SC to prohibit the Comelec

from making the repealing provision of R.A. 9006 as a basis for issuing guidelines for the filing of certificates of candidacy for next year’s elections.

“This provision was just inserted in R.A. 9006 in 2001 but did not undergo deliberations in the House of Representatives,” he said.

“It was only raised during second reading when the bill was in the Senate already.”

Giron said the law that repealed the rule on mandatory resignation of elective officials upon filing of certificates of candidacy had violated the Constitution.

It also violated the constitutional right to due process, right to information, and the equal protection clause, he added.

Giron said the new law discriminates against appointive officials, who are required to resign upon filing of their certificates of candidacy,

“Repealed Section 67 allows a defeated candidate to retain to his old position, therefore resulting in a retroactive mandate the 1987 Constitution does not provide,” he said.

Last week, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal asked the SC to stop the Comelec from implementing a resolution requiring appointive officials to resign before filing their certificates of candidacy.

Macalintal, representing Environment and Natural Resources Undersecretary Eleazar Quinto and director Gerino Tolentino, said the advance filing of COCs was only provided under the Poll Automation Law (R.A. 8436 as amended by R.A. 9369) for the purpose of printing the names of the candidates in ballots for the automated elections.

“It is respectfully submitted that the better rule is to consider such person, including the petitioners herein who will file their COCs on

or before Nov. 30, 2009, to be ‘ipso facto resigned’ only upon the start of the campaign period for which they file their respective

certificates of candidacy,” read the petition.

Backing Giron, 42,000 barangay chairmen asked the SC to allow them to intervene in the case through a separate motion.

Led by barangay chairman Federico Jong of Teacher’s Village West in Quezon City, the group supported the argument of Giron that barangays should be non-partisan.

The Article 64 Movement is a multi-sectoral organization based on a provision of the Local Government Code mandating non-government agencies to participate in the government’s economic policy-making.

Founded in 1999, the Article 64 Movement has members in Pasay City, Manila, Pasig, Caloocan City and Antipolo.