Editorial - Slow resolution

With the next presidential elections still three years away, it looks like the principal contenders will be Vice President Jejomar Binay of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance and Interior Secretary Mar Roxas of the ruling Liberal Party.

Binay has made no secret of his plans; Roxas, whose Cabinet position requires non-partisanship, has said he is focused on his job. But members of the LP, where Roxas is on leave as president, said they have no other standard bearer in mind, so it looks like a looming rematch for the two men, although this time for the nation’s highest office.

With the next bout approaching, the Presidential Electoral Tribunal still has not resolved the protest Roxas filed, challenging Binay’s proclamation as vice president in 2010. Resolution by the PET, composed of 15 Supreme Court justices, has been further slowed down after the SC allowed the Commission on Elections to use in the midterm polls in May 57,255 of the 76,340 ballot boxes covered by Roxas’ protest. Binay, who was proclaimed the winner by a margin of 727,084 votes, has filed a counter-protest, contesting the results in over 40,000 precincts.

Considering the work and logistics involved in resolving this protest, the slow pace is understandable. But many other electoral protests for lower positions, filed with other tribunals, have also moved at snail’s pace. It is not uncommon for final rulings to be handed down when the term for the contested position is over or has only a few weeks or days left.

This slow pace of resolution has been one of the biggest incentives for poll fraud. When cheating pays, it is sure to be perpetuated. The slow pace is also unfair to real winners whose service to their constituents is hampered by harassment complaints filed by sore losers. From any point of view, the slow resolution of electoral protests is bad for a democracy where the power of the people is manifested in the ballot.