Inviting chaos

There are speculative reports that the Supreme Court will allow the inclusion of Sen. Grace Poe’s name in the ballot if the printing starts with the SC still dithering over the disqualification case against her.

That will be inviting chaos. The nation cannot afford this scenario, and the SC must not allow it. All SC justices must work overtime, give up some sleep to settle this question with finality before ballot printing starts. That’s about three weeks away – more than enough time, in the digital age, for the justices to conduct thorough research, compose their opinions and come up with a ruling, with time to spare to settle expected motions for reconsideration.

For that matter, the disqualification cases against another presidential candidate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, must be settled before the ballots are printed.

As important as the final ruling on both candidates is the release of the decisions on time.

If Poe and Duterte are excluded from the ballot and later declared to be qualified, how will voters indicate preference for either candidate on election day? Will the ballots have to be redesigned? Will the voting machines accept the changes?

The Commission on Elections may have to prominently post information materials at all polling centers on election day, informing voters that Poe and Duterte remain in the presidential race. Complaints may crop up from the candidates and their rivals alike. The candidates may claim that the information is not displayed prominently enough, while their rivals may say that the materials give Poe and Duterte undue advantage in name recall.

Still, such problems are less complicated than those that may arise if a candidate is included in the ballot and later disqualified.

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Some of the supporters of the disqualified may still indicate the names on the ballot. Whether inadvertently or deliberately, that spells trouble. Will the ballots be considered spoiled and tossed aside? What if the number of spoiled ballots is greater than the number of votes garnered by the proclaimed winner – indicating that the disqualified candidate would have won if allowed to run?

And what if, instead of setting aside spoiled ballots, all the votes are counted for qualified and disqualified candidates alike – and the disqualified wins? This is guaranteed to fuel calls for the nation to accept vox populi, vox dei. What happens then to our election laws, rules, and jurisprudence set by the SC?

While the idea of vox populi, vox dei underpins a democratic system, the messy situation that might emerge due to slow SC action can only weaken our democracy, dysfunctional as it is.

Vox populi in our case could then look more like the situation described by English scholar Alcuin way back in 798. Alcuin was said to have advised Charlemagne against listening to those who said the voice of the people is the voice of God, “because the tumult of the crowd is always close to madness.”

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Both Poe and Duterte have promised to abide by the SC ruling on their candidacies, and I have no doubt that both have the good sense and patriotism to persuade their supporters to do the same.

Both have also said that if disqualified, they would support other candidates, so that should minimize the confusion for their followers. But again this commitment is firmed up only when any disqualification becomes final.

As in previous cases when we were frustrated by the pace of Philippine justice, I look with envy at the South Koreans, who resolve judicial cases with stunningly impressive speed. This is done within a democratic setting, and swift justice is applied equally, even when it involves South Korea’s high and mighty – such as former presidents and heads of the powerful chaebols.

In the latest case, the daughter of the chairman of Korean Air was indicted, tried and convicted less than a month and a half following her arrest for ordering one of her family’s planes to return to its gate in New York after a purser served her macadamia nuts the wrong way. The woman, who issued a public apology, was freed on a suspended prison sentence three months later.

This was just a nut rage case. But even more complex cases are resolved quickly in South Korea. Within a year, a verdict was handed down in the case of the April 2014 ferry sinking that left more than 300 people dead, with the captain’s life sentence affirmed by an appellate court by April 2015.

South Korean officials have told me that their justice system is not always as impressively swift and efficient. But there is greater public pressure for justice to be rendered, I was told, when those indicted belong to the wealthy and powerful of South Korea. And they told me priority is always given to high-profile cases imbued with public interest.

Similar priority must be given to the disqualification cases in our presidential race.

The decisions are awaited, and the SC must rise to the occasion. Man landed on the moon nearly half a century ago; surely the Supreme Court can come up with a decision on time. If it fails, it will be a supreme disservice to the nation.