Former Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura. INQUIRER.net / CATHY MIRANDA
The Consultative Committee (Con-com) tasked to review the 1987 Constitution is eyeing the creation of a unified electoral tribunal under a federal form of government.
Former Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura, chairman of the Con-com subcommittee on the federal government, said the Federal Electoral Tribunal (FET) would have jurisdiction over all contests relation to the election.
Nachura said this would abolish the existing Presidential Electoral Tribunal, the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) and the House Electoral Tribunal (HET) and unite them as one under the FET.
Unlike the SET and HET which have three members from the Supreme Court (SC) and six from the respective chambers, the former magistrate said the FET would be composed of one presiding justice and 14 associate justices.
With the unification of these three existing electoral tribunals, Nachura said that the proceedings into electoral protests would be “cost-effective” and “time-efficient.”
“It will save time. It will save cost,” Nachura said in a press briefing at the Philippine International Convention Center on Wednesday.
“We feel that if you really want an honest down to earth discussion of an election case, to delve into the election code, let us have judges, justices to do that for us,” the former magistrate said.
Likewise, Nachura said the qualifications for FET members were stricter, explaining that for a person to be qualified as a tribunal member, he or she must have 15 years of experience as a judge of a lower court or engaged in the practice of law.
FET members must also be recognized election experts, at least 50 years old, and natural-born citizens of the country, he added.
“(They must) serve during good behavior until they reach the age of 75 years or become incapacitated to discharge the duties of their office,” Con-com spokesman Ding Generoso said of the FET members’ term of office. /je