Better late

This puts an entirely new dimension to the aphorism “better late than never.”

I thought I had seen the worst of it when Toti Carino was finally proclaimed duly-elected representative of his Pasig constituency just in time to attend the closing session of Congress. That was several years ago.

Now, after this Congress adjourned sine die, the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) proclaimed Angelito “Jett” Reyes as the duly-elected congressman from Taguig. The HRET is a panel composed of three Supreme Court justices and three congressmen.

Soon after the 2007 count that resulted in the proclamation of Henry M. Duenas as Taguig congressman, Reyes filed an electoral protest. As these things go, the count was slow and tedious. It was costly as well. But Reyes was bent on seeing justice done.

When the recount, by hand, of the ballots was done, Reyes was shown to have won over Duenas by 37 votes. That is just about as close as any congressional election could get. Reyes is now the duly-elected gentleman from Taguig. But there is no longer a seat in the House.

Duenas had served out the entire term that Reyes ought to have served. My question for the electoral experts is this: In the event Reyes — who is running for the same seat this election — wins, does this mean, for purposes of enforcing term limits, that he is effectively on his second term?

I am not sure. There are lawyers who built lucrative careers sorting out things like this one.

Perhaps, Romy Macalintal, the only lawyer I know who sends out legal advice by text, might have an answer for this one. In my layman’s mind, it would seem that charging Jett Reyes one term less for purposes of determining term limits (for the three years he was not able to serve) would compound the injustice.

Jett Reyes is a talented young civic leader seeking to begin a career as a legislator. Three years were already shaved off that potentially bright career because of the time it took to finally resolve his electoral protest.

In a Congress populated, in the main, by long-winded lawyers, Reyes might bring a whiff of fresh air. He is a stock broker and analyst — presumably a guy with a good grasp of economics and finance.

A community crusader against illegal drugs, he might redeem an otherwise strongly emerging city from the taint of being an area seemingly under the grip of drug lords. How many drug “supermarkets” have been busted in Taguig lately?

Why did it take so long for the HRET to determine the real winner of the 2007 Taguig electoral race? How many ballots did they have to count?

I cannot imagine justice being substantially served by proclaiming the actual winner after the term of office he had sought effectively ended a couple of weeks ago. Here, that other aphorism about justice delayed being justice denied sounds so true.

The saddest part of this story is that Jett Reyes is not a unique case. Last month, the Comelec announced three provincial governors were not duly-elected for the posts they had occupied for three years now — then allowed some more room for their lawyers to maneuver to keep out the duly-elected protestants.

The three provincial governors determined to have actually lost in the 2007 elections are Jonjon Mendoza of Bulacan, Ed Panlilio of Pampanga and Grace Padaca of Isabela. All three, by coincidence, are now with the LP — although the protests filed against each of them were done long before, when they belonged to other political factions. Notwithstanding, the LP has labeled the decisions on these three cases as part of a ploy to undermine their party. No statement could be more opportunistic.

At any rate, the protestants against the three are all still waiting to be installed in their rightful seats. Jun Dy in Isabela, Obet Pagdanganan in Bulacan and Lilia Pineda in Pampanga have been declared actual winners in their respective provinces. The terms to which they have been rightfully elected to are all running out very quickly.

I understand the Comelec is very busy these days looking after the automation of our electoral process. But they do seem to be dragging their feet in these three cases.

If justice has to be done, it must be done swiftly. What parody it will be if the actual winners to elective posts are installed on the day their terms of office end.

If these highly visible cases are an indication, late resolution of electoral protests appear to be the rule rather than the exception. Filing an electoral protest is always an expensive proposition. The person contesting the proclamation of the wrong candidate shoulders the costs of a recount. The process of settling an electoral process is nothing less than Byzantine: there are enough opportunities for lawyers representing the wrongly proclaimed to buy time through complex legal maneuvers.

The process itself of settling an electoral protest appears inherently unjust. The complainant in the protest spends for the recount while the defendant spends simply to delay resolution. In a country with among the highest number of lawyers per capita, the process seems to be loaded against candidates who have been cheated of their electoral mandate.

There should be a better way of settling contested electoral proclamations, a way that is fairer to those who strongly feel their electoral triumph was stolen from them by unscrupulous rivals. We cannot go on proclaiming actual winners just as the terms of office to which they are entitled have virtually run out.

Maybe automating our electoral process will, in the future, also simplify the resolution of electoral protests. With automation, the sad cases of the likes of Jett Reyes, the three actual governors and that of Toti Carino earlier should not be repeated in the future.