S1L56 – COMELEC will not disqualify Bongbong Marcos
Of course the COMELEC will not disqualify Bongbong Marcos. He is one of only two viable presidential candidates and, arguably, the front-running one.
Yes, there is ground to disqualify him. But I don’t think the COMELEC will be swayed by ordinary grounds alone. Like any constitutional body, it will venture beyond statutory boundaries into the realm of legal philosophy where it is not difficult to find an argument to support any logic.
First of all, the 1987 Constitution gives the COMELEC the exclusive power to “enforce and administer all laws and regulations relative to the conduct of an election.” (Article IX, Sec 2[1])
When the law uses redundancy (enforce and administer) or refinement (laws and regulations) coupled with a saturation adjective (“ALL” laws), and a term of leniency (“RELATIVE” to the conduct) it’s a carte blanche signal to apply all flexibility to address any situation.
The classic fallback argument is always “the spirit of the law prevails over the letter of the law.” Operatively this means whatever is included in the spirit of the law, although excluded by the letter of the law, is deemed included in the law. Conversely, whatever is against the spirit of the law, even if included by the letter of the law, is deemed excluded from the law.
Don’t bother re-analyzing and re-explaining it—except during your Final Exams—because there’s a simpler and far more common analogy. When it comes to resolving an election-related conflict, the COMELEC has the luxury of calling the glass either half-empty or half-filled.
Sometime ago, I’ve already written about the fallacy of the President of the Philippines having to be a well-achieved individual (find that article in the archives at alphasectionclass.blogspot.com). So it doesn’t matter if BBM did not graduate from any ivy-league university. So long as he can spell his own name, that’s enough.
He was convicted of tax evasion and his unbelievably thoroughly-unprepared lawyer claims they have filed an appeal with the CA. (That’s even wrong. The CA has no jurisdiction. It’s actually the Court of TAX Appeals or CTA). I’ll bet you my bottom dollar his main defense is that what he did was not tax evasion (which is criminal) but a sloppy job of lawful tax avoidance—which is both curable and, more importantly, NOT indicative of moral turpitude.
Given that appeals in this country proceed at a glacial pace, the elections will be upon us before the CTA Division hearing the Marcos appeal could even sit down to deliberate.
So, contrary to most people’s impression, there is really no insurmountable impediment to the COMELEC dismissing the Marcos disqualification case. The only challenge COMELEC faces, if it is minded to let Marcos off the hook, is how to write the Decision in the kind of language the general public will swallow.
In this regard, the COMELEC is assured that there is a huge demographic out there that is already prepared to embrace a Marcos victory in this disqualification case. On the other hand, the segment of society that would bemoan a non-disqualification will be keen not to project any fear of a possible BBM electoral win. They will not protest a dismissal too loudly, either, and instead be more cavalier about looking forward to a Leni-BBM “one-on-one.”
Back to making a Decision swallowable—it’s often said that Filipino society and culture is matriarchal. Everybody just loves “Mama Mary”—who cares about “Papa Joseph”??—so the formula is to use “motherhood” language all the way. Talking legalese is male-chauvinistic. FLOWERY language is what is needed
So I expect the COMELEC to speak in terms of “transcendent considerations that are responsive to the sovereign will of the People.” In other words, “let the Filipino People be the judge” in an election that is “fair and square” where no contender is “handicapped by anything but the true expression of the nation’s mandate” free from any vitriol and violence, “Kapayapaan para sa inang bayan.”
There will be wisely-chosen words, too, aimed at buttressing the COMELEC’s proactive wisdom in ensuring that “any victory by any camp will not be under the perpetual shadow cast by a lingering challenge to its legitimacy” owing to the “improvident pre-emptive elimination of the only viable challenger against it in a campaign that showed tremendous balance.”
Boos and catcalls centering on BBM’s ‘presumptive’ tax evasion will be diffused by ready comparisons with more horrible examples of bigger tax evasions, like ABS-CBN’s, or virulent corruptions like Janet Napoles’ porkbarrel bomb. Yes, Bongbong Marcos may have stiffed the BIR a few million pesos, but how has that hurt YOU so far? As the saying in the PBA goes, which every kanto boy understands, “no harm, no foul.”
And finally the COMELEC can say that any decision it had made will be galvanized by the electoral result, whichever way it goes, for it is “Divine Providence that the voice of the people is the voice of God.”
Vox populi vox Dei.
Given all of these things it’s now easy to see why, for the COMELEC, not disqualifying BBM is a piece of cake.
How much would a non-disqualification of BBM affect the other candidates? LENI ROBREDO not so much. She had already roundly beaten Marcos once, when it could have been easier for people to vote for Marcos to compensate for not voting for Duterte back in 2016. After all, those who could not swallow Mar Roxas (or maybe The prospect of a Korina Sanchez First Lady) STILL voted for his runningmate Leni. But those who did not vote for Digong did not even find it necessary to “make up” for it by voting for Bongbong. They STILL voted for Leni even if they were “tao ni Duterte” so to speak.
The results of the ensuing protest recount ALSO proved, if to no one else to Bongbong himself, that his claimed “bailiwicks” did NOT exist.
But keeping Marcos in the running will gaslight the fatalistic instinct now among Leni’s supporters, myself included–make them work harder, run “more scared” than ever, hopefully for its own good. It will be a huge mistake to underestimate the strength in number of what amounts to the Philippines’ version of a Donald Trump base.
The COMELEC upholding Marcos’ candidacy cannot come as a surprise, or did anyone REALLY think they would get the presidency on a silver platter?
Bongbong Marcos, on the other hand, has only one big problem: fake pollsters and trolls can’t vote.
About the Author
The author is a writer and lawyer based in Baguio City, Philippines. Former editor of the Gold Ore and Baguio City Digest, professor of journalism, political science and law at Baguio Colleges Foundation (BCF). He is a photographer and video documentarist. He has a YouTube channel called “Parables and Reason”
About Images: Some of the images used in the articles are from the posts in Atty. Joel Rodriguez Dizon’s Facebook account, and/or Facebook groups and pages he manages or/and member of.