House bill limiting grounds for candidate substitution nears passage

Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. —Photo from Bong Go Facebook page

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed on the third and final reading a measure banning election placeholders, a mode of substitution that former President Rodrigo Duterte used to allow him to run for President in 2016.

During the plenary session, 195 lawmakers voted to approve House Bill (HB) No. 10524, which would amend Batas Pambansa 881, or the Omnibus Election Code of the Philippines, and limit the grounds for substitution to death, permanent incapacity, or disqualification.

In 2015, Duterte’s party mate in the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), the late Martin Diño, withdrew his certificate of candidacy (COC) for President. This was before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) could resolve petitions for his disqualification as a nuisance candidate based on discrepancies in his COC. Diño then nominated Duterte to be his substitute for PDP-Laban standard-bearer in the 2016 presidential elections.

READ: Comelec gets stricter: No more ‘placeholder’ ploys

The bill proponents said that HB 10524 would prevent a “mockery” of the electoral system using placeholders to beat the deadline for filing COCs set by Comelec.

The draft measure seeks to amend Section 77 of BP 881, deleting the withdrawal of candidacy as among the grounds for substitution and replacing it with just permanent incapacity.

It defines “permanent incapacity” as a mental or physical impairment that renders the candidate unable to perform the duties corresponding to the position he/she is running for.

The bill tasks Comelec with consulting with stakeholders in crafting the implementing guidelines for the proposed law.