Amendment of substitution rule in election laws readied —Gatchalian
By J.Lo
“In fact me and a few other senators will file this week law that will remove substitution criteria,”Senator Sherwin Gatchalian and other senators will file bill amending substitution rule in Omnibus Election Code this week.
Gatchaian said substitution rule “has become tool for political use and not supposed to be.
“Definitely, withdrawal criteria, because there are two: disqualification and withdrawal, so we’ll remove the withdrawal.”
Article IX, Section 77 of Omnibus Election Code provides: “If after the last day for the filing of certificates of candidacy, an official candidate of a registered or accredited political party dies, withdraws or is disqualified for any cause, only a person belonging to, and certified by, the same political party may file a certificate of candidacy to replace the candidate who died, withdrew or was disqualified.”
Gatchalian, who is seeking reelection in the 2022 elections, said this will be applied not only in the national posts but also in the local level.
He explained putting “placeholders” is not the intention of substitution rule in election laws.
“That’s not the spirit of the law… spirit of the law is once you file, you don’t place placeholders in order to prolong the deadline,” Gatchalian said.
“And we will file bill to remove that so that very clear there’s disqualification and probably death that will be allowed for substitution,” Gatchalian added.
Gatchalian pointed out Commission on Elections (Comelec) technically set the deadline of filing of certificate of candidacy on November 15 due to substitution rule.
“The deadline is supposed to be October 8 but with allowing substitution, in effect is November 15…so my view here is there should only be one, which is November 15…the logic why Comelec allowed October 1 to 8 is because they said they will start printing ballots already, but they cannot print ballots until November 15, after which, substitution is completely over…so let’s just make it November 15 and not prolong the agony of guessing who’s gonna file, who’s not gonna file,” he said.
Some senators have backed calls to scrap the substitution rule in the election laws, saying this has been “abused” by some politicians.
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