EDITORIAL - Here is what must happen

If Jun Pe is what the Comelec says he is -- a different animal in the north from what he wants to be in the south -- then it had been a grievous wrong all these years to call him a Cebu City councilor when he is in fact only entitled to half that distinction.

In the eyes of the Comelec, a councilor from the north district of Cebu City is different from a councilor from the south district. Accordingly, Pe must no longer be addressed as a Cebu City councilor as that implies he is a councilor of the entire city when Comelec says he is not.

Pe got elected thrice as Cebu City councilor representing the north. But since Comelec handed down its brilliant ruling, Pe must henceforth be addressed appropriately as just a councilor from the south, that is if Cebuanos in the south are as stupid as Pe thinks them to be.

If Pe becomes a councilor from the south, which in the eyes of the Comelec is a different position from a councilor from the north, Pe must not be allowed to participate in city council deliberations nor vote on pieces of legislation that pertain to matters affecting the north.

Official Cebu City government vehicles that may be assigned to Pe if he wins as councilor from the south must never be used within the boundaries of the north. Any security details that may be assigned to Pe must stay behind in the south if Pe travels for anything up north.

Whatever salaries, allowances, honorariums or other benefits Pe used to receive as a Cebu City councilor must be cut in half as he will by then just be half a city councilor representing only half the city to the south. You cannot pay for the whole pizza if you get only half of it.

Pe should not be invited to speak or grace events in the north in an official capacity as the Comelec has stripped him of the right to represent the whole city. As a mere south district councilor, Pe can only be accorded the honor in the south.

But Pe isn't entirely to blame for this sea change in Philippine electoral jurisprudence. It is the system that allows men driven like Pe to exploit every loophole there is for the system to bear.

Thanks to the Comelec which, instead of ensuring and safeguarding the sanctity of the electoral process, is now the one that has thrown the system wide open for exploitation, in ways that have never been the intent of anyone, for results that are never for the interest of all.