FILE PHOTO: Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. INQUIRER
MANILA, Philippines — There is no mockery or deception in the series of withdrawals of certificates of candidacy (COC) and substitutions among administration candidates during the past days, Malacañang claimed on Monday.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who himself filed his COC as substitute candidate under the People’s Reform Party, asserted that such substitutions are allowed by law.
“Walang panloloko dahil ‘yan ay allowed sa ating batas,” he pointed out in a Palace briefing, reacting to criticisms that last-minute substitutions are a mockery of the electoral process and a gimmick to deceive the people.
(There is no mockery or deception because that is allowed by law.)
While Roque agrees that such a move is legally right, he refused to answer whether it is morally right or wrong.
“I do not answer issues of morality, I leave that to the people in their sovereign capacity. That’s an apolitical question,” he said.
He also said he sees no abuse in the substitutions made by candidates for the 2022 elections.
Administration candidates and allies had the public in a dizzying haze over the weekend as they finalize their political plans in 2022.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, who is being pushed by some sectors to run for president and succeed his father incumbent Chief Executive Rodrigo Duterte, withdrew her reelection bid and sought the vice presidency, with the former dictator’s son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., as her running mate.
Senator Bong Go, who filed his COC for vice president under a faction of the ruling party PDP-Laban, withdrew from the race for the country’s second-highest post and would instead shoot for the presidency – purportedly upon the instruction of Duterte – under the Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan (PDDS).
PDP-Laban’s standard-bearer Ronald dela Rosa also withdrew his COC for president.
Duterte, who initially accepted a nomination from PDP-Laban to run for vice president but eventually turned it down, then hinted over the weekend that he may face his daughter in the vice presidential derby.
But in a last-minute move, he sought a Senate seat instead and filed his COC for senator just before the filing for substitution period ended Monday.
Duterte was likewise a substitute candidate for PDDS like Go.