Another Brillantes setback
STRIKE FIVE!
The Supreme Court dealt the Commission on Elections a fifth straight blow on Wednesday, restraining the poll body from proclaiming the winners in the party-list elections. Is the TRO the proverbial last straw that will break Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr.’s back?
The series of setbacks, all related to the conduct of the May 2013 elections, that the Brilantes Comelec suffered in the hands of the High Tribunal started with the court’s ruling stopping the Comelec from enforcing its order to remove the Team Buhay-Team Patay campaign posters that the archbishop of Bacolod hung on the wall of his cathedral.
This was followed by the decision that all but undid the Comelec’s disqualification of 52 party-list groups on the ground that they did not represent any marginalized and underrepresented sector. Next came the ruling that stopped the poll body from implementing a “final and executory” order in the Imus (Cavite) mayoralty election protest.
When the Supreme Court handcuffed the Comelec for the fourth time, Brillantes became emotional. Stung by the Court’s order stopping the commission from implementing the airtime limits of political ads, a tearful Brillantes announced that he was considering resigning because he felt that the Court was trying to run the elections.
A week later and apparently helped by President Aquino’s implied expression of trust in him (the President said that he wished Brillantes would not resign), the Comelec chairman regained his equanimity and announced that he was staying put.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ordered the Comelec and the “agents, representatives or persons acting in your place or stead, to cease and desist from further proclaiming winners among party-list candidates.” The court said that its TRO was “effective immediately and continuing until further orders” from it.
How has Brillantes taken this latest slap from the court? Unlike the last time, the chairman appears unperturbed. In fact, he took a positive spin to the order, saying that it at least validated their earlier proclamation of 53 winners because the TRO merely prohibited further proclamations.
The TRO was issued upon petition of the Coalition of Senior Citizens in the Philippines, which obtained the 10th highest number of votes in the May 13 elections despite its having been disqualified by the Comelec, along with other party-list groups including the anti-communist group, Anad.
The Senior Citizens, Anad and the other groups were declared ineligible to participate in the elections by the Comelec in accordance with the new guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in the case involving 52 party-list organizations. These groups had been excluded by the Comelec but were able to persuade the Supreme Court to reverse the decision.
Anad, whose representative in Congress, Jun Alcover, is from Cebu, had earlier indicated that it was also going to question its disqualification. It is not known, though, if it had already filed a petition similar to the one submitted by the Senior Citizens to the Supreme Court.
Interestingly, the Court reprieve came just a day after bad news came for the country’s most senior citizens from another front. Last Tuesday, President Aquino vetoed a bill that would have granted centenarians a P100,000 bonus and a 75% discount on purchases of goods and services.
Aquino said that the huge discount was oppressive.
Everybody, including the elderly, wins some and loses some.
(frank.otherside@yahoo.com)