Succession scheme illegal, says Enrile

SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday doubted the constitutionality of a proposed legislation that would lay down the rules on presidential succession in case the 2010 elections, the first fully-automated polls in Philippine history, should fail.

The measure would authorize 12 senators with terms extending to 2011 to elect a new Senate president within their ranks to assume the role of interim president of the Republic if no new president is proclaimed on or before June 30, 2010 due to the breakdown of the electoral process.

The proposal, as suggested by some legal luminaries, was to fill a leadership vacuum that could trigger constitutional crisis and political turmoil in the country. The potential problem partly stems from the fact that Enrile’s term as Senate President would end on June 30, 2010 although he is running for reelection.

Enrile said the 11 non-reelectionist senators, minus Antonio Trillanes IV who is in prison, would not be able to function and elect a Senate president from among themselves because they are short of the 13 senators, or one-half plus one, to have a quorum as prescribed by the Constitution and Senate rules.

Trillanes is detained for abandoning his trial in November 2007 for leading the June 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, where he and 321 soldiers took control over the Oakwood Towers in Makati City. His actions in 2007, where he called for the ouster of President Gloria Arroyo, triggered a standoff at the Peninsula Hotel.

The suggestion for the succession law “betrays a lack of knowledge of the Constitution and Senate rules,” Enrile told the Kapihan media forum at the Manila Hotel.

The idea that the Senate is a continuing body was true under the 1935 Constitution, not under the 1987 Constitution, Enrile said.

Because after June 30, 2010, only 12 senators would be left, and they could not hold sessions, much less elect a new Senate president for lack of the minimum number prescribed by the Constitution, Enrile said.

Despite his reservations over the proposal, Enrile said he would relinquish his position should the majority decide to replace him.

“I am open to any leadership change in the Senate. I did not seek my position. It was given to me voluntarily. And I am thankful to my fellow senators for their confidence in giving me this honor to become their president,” he said.

Because of Enrile’s doubts, Senator Loren Legarda withheld filing the bill that would lay down the procedures by which the 12 non-reelectionists would elect the Senate president from among themselves before Congress adjourns in June.

She instructed her legal staff to study further the ramifications of the bill.

Both the Senate and House of Representatives should decide on such succession scheme, Senator Francis Escudero, chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments, said.

Escudero said he would propose that Congress convene five days before June 30 to draft the process for electing the interim president should the elections fail and no president and vice president had been proclaimed.

Senator Joker Arroyo said he is uncomfortable because the proposal is based on a doomsday scenario for 2010.

“The idea that such extreme situation will happen is very disturbing. That means we have no faith that the Commission on Elections can do its job,” Arroyo said.

He also asked whether a Senate president, temporarily serving as the country’s president, could command the respect and obedience of the Armed Forces and the police.

Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. was also skeptical on the need for such succession law, arguing that a total failure of the automated elections is far-fetched.

“It is possible that there may be a failure of elections in certain areas. But this does not necessarily mean that the Comelec will be prevented from proclaiming the winning presidential and vice presidential candidates,” he said. –Fel V. Maragay, Manila Standard Today