Electoral coup

Grace Poe asks what should be the quintessential question of this time: If elections are held and there is only one candidate, will the exercise be valid?

The context for that question is the alleged LP plot to eliminate all rivals to their standard bearer. That seems to be the only way to make Mar Roxas win, take the electoral battle out of the electoral arena. That is to say mount an “electoral coup.”

It will, of course, degrade our democratic institutions and render our electoral democracy a complete farce. But as far as the LP is concerned, that could not be more important than retaining their grip on power.

Last week, the Comelec’s Second Division ruled Poe unqualified to run for President of the Republic. This week, the same ruling could be handed down by the First Division on three other petitions seeking Poe’s disqualification.

Such an outcome will erect a very high barrier to Poe’s candidacy. The legal questions raised against Poe’s candidacy will very likely be elevated to the Supreme Court.

Even there, she will be handicapped by the fact that all three justices at the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) voted against Poe’s qualifications for the highest office in the land. Although the three will likely inhibit themselves from participating in the High Court’s deliberations on the Poe cases, the weight of their extensively argued dissenting opinions at the SET will hang over the deliberations of their other colleagues.

At any rate, the issues on citizenship and residency raised against Poe will understandably produce a drag on her campaign. That seems to be indicated by the nationwide survey published in yesterday’s papers. Poe’s numbers dropped to 21% while Duterte’s numbers spiked to an astonishing 38%.

Poe’s camp claims the Comelec disqualification ruling is the handiwork of LP operatives. They packed the poll body with their partisans who dance to the tune set by Mar Roxas strategists.

If there is indeed a well-orchestrated LP plot to eliminate rivals, then Rodrigo Duterte is doomed. It seems easier to throw out Duterte’s certificate of candidacy than to rule Poe unqualified. The Davao mayor is substituting for a party-mate who filled out a form to run for Pasay mayor and then withdrew early on to prevent being declared a nuisance.

Duterte, the current survey darling, earlier accused LP propagandists of spreading disinformation about him. He has said Mar Roxas is the worse person to become president.

In a word, there is no love lost between the mayor and the ruling party. The LP, if Poe’s account of that party’s powers is true, could make Duterte vanish from the scrolls.

If both Poe and Duterte are stricken out, and assuming the votes are equally distributed between Binay and Roxas, Binay wins. Therefore, if this campaign of candidate-assassination is indeed true, then Mar’s operatives need to get rid of Binay too in some form or manner.

This is the reason why the Binay camp is now bracing for precisely the sort of disqualification maneuvers mounted against Poe. The vice president’s lawyers have filed suits against some of those involved in the smear effort.

If the “electoral coup” progresses nevertheless, our democracy will enter a very dark day.

Xevera

Rolando Santos, president of the Xevera Mabalacat Homeowners Association, recently wrote a letter concerning the plight of 10,000 residents of this now controversial township. The letter is addressed to both Home Development Mutual Fund president Darlene Berberabe and HUDCC chair Chito Cruz.

Since our housing authorities filed charges against the developer of large township project, the 10,000 homeowners have been thrown into limbo. They are now unsure of their status as property owners. They do not know where to pay their monthly amortizations. They feel they have become unwitting victims in a battle between public agencies and a wealthy property developer.

These are not fictional homeowners. They actually reside in the township even if their existence in now legally in question. They are honest members of the Pag-IBIG Fund and paid their dues for years.

While the government agencies and the property developer fight their battles in court, the homeowners remain unsure of their future.

In his letter to the housing agencies, Santos pleads for an early resolution of their fate. They have lives to build and they want to do so with some certainty over the properties they invested their life savings in. The legal tangle left the township incomplete – an inconvenience borne entirely by the actual residents.

Pag-IBIG accused the township developer of double-selling – a charge the resident themselves deny. Pag-IBIG claims the developer owes the fund P6 billion. The developer, on the contrary, demonstrates that it is Pagibig that owes the project P600 million.

This is the sort of case that could go on for eternity. Meanwhile, there is no one to protect the interest of the actual homeowners. Pag-IBIG has not even verified with them its claim of double-selling.

No one seems sure who should represent the homeowners in this tangle of court cases. Whose responsibility is it to look after the wellbeing of the township residents?

Either the Pag-IBIG Fund or the HUDCC should attend to the letter sent by the homeowners. The public agencies should have, much earlier, clarified the legal status of the housing beneficiaries and protected their claims.

Do the public agencies expect the developer, the person they threw in jail, to assume the task of protecting the homeowners who legitimately acquired their units through the intermediation of the Pag-IBIG Fund?

In this case, the intended beneficiaries have become victims.