A leader in the House of Representatives on Tuesday proposed a measure to ban the substitution of candidates by political parties to put an end to a practice seen as a “mockery” of the election process.
House Deputy speaker Rufus Rodriguez said the practice of putting placeholder candidates should be stopped after several parties were using it as a political strategy after President Rodrigo Duterte replaced the standard bearer of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) in the 2016 campaign.
The lawmaker believed this will finally push aspiring candidates to take the elections more seriously, lamenting that many people are unable to take aspirants seriously ever since the Commission on Elections (Comelec) allowed for candidate switching.
“It is lamentable that for the May 2022 elections, certain candidates for the presidency are perceived to be proxies for some personalities, even if they can be considered as serious aspirants,” Rodriguez said in a statement.
Rodriguez also wanted to restore an old policy that requires incumbent officials to resign the moment they file a certificate of candidacy (COCs) for other positions, to help level the playing field by preventing them from using their offices to promote their run.
This will also discourage substitution, he added, saying that no candidate will want to give up their office to an indecisive aspirant.
Political observers have been suspecting Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa of being a stand-in for the ruling party’s actual presidential candidate, after he admitted that he is willing to give up his slot to Duterte’s daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio.Lakas-CMD, the party of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, also admitted to fielding placeholder candidates for president and vice president.
Election advocates and political scientists have clamored for an end to the substitution practice, criticizing it for causing confusion among voters. However, the Comelec does not see any problem in allowing the practice to continue.
Under Rodriguez’ proposal, all parties aiming for either national or local positions are prohibited to substitute their candidates unless they have passed away or were disqualified before election day. He believes this will give more time to Comelec.“If we maintain the present Oct. 8 COC filing deadline, the commission will have an additional time of more than one month to prepare for the elections. Alternatively, we can move the timelines closer to election day like setting November 15 as the close of the COC filing period,” he said.