My article in the 1 February 2012 edition of the Business Mirror.
OVER the past few months, several members of the House of Representatives have had to lose their seats for a variety of reasons. In today’s media-saturated world, this has inevitably excited the public’s curiosity about special elections. With the recent passing on of a congressman—and in light of statements implying that it is up to the Commission on Elections to schedule special elections—now would be a good time to provide more information on the matter.
Special elections are called in order to fill a vacancy in either House of Congress. In practice, this vacancy exists only when the leadership—the Senate President for the Senate, and the Speaker of the House for the House of Representatives—formally declares that it exists. In other words, before such a declaration is made, there is no reason for Comelec to even consider holding special elections.
Is there a timeframe for special elections to be conducted? Absolutely. Under the law, if the vacancy occurs at least one year before the expiration of the term of the member of the House of Representatives, the special elections in the legislative district have to be held not earlier than 60 days, nor longer than 90 days after the occurrence of the vacancy. Put plainly, that sets the date of the special elections squarely within the third month from the time the vacancy was declared. However, if the vacancy occurs in the Senate—and senatorial elections are nationwide in scope—the special elections would be held simultaneously with the next succeeding regular election.
Incidentally, people have also asked if a person who has relinquished his seat in the House, and has since been properly replaced in a special election called for that purpose, can eventually come back and reclaim his seat. The short and unadorned answer to that would be: no.
Another kind of election that has been getting a lot of attention lately is the recall election. A recall is the process provided for by law for the removal of an elective local government official on the ground of loss of confidence. This process is kicked off by a written petition of the registered voters in the local government unit concerned.
Recall elections are similar to impeachment, except that the process is strictly political; impeachment by ballot, you could say. No need to quibble about subpoenae and standards of proof, the only measure is the public’s confidence in the elected leader; with no need to actually say why they lost confidence, all voters have to do is sign a petition in sufficient numbers and the official is forced to face the music. And I use the word “forced” advisedly. Under the law, the recalled official is not allowed to resign. Resignation will constitute abandonment of office, punishable under the Revised Penal Code, and the Revised Administrative Code. The poor fellow literally must have to stay and fight.
And he doesn’t get the benefit of lawyers either. Once the recall elections are set, he has to plead his case directly before the bar of public opinion. He must convince the public that he is still worthy of their trust and hope that when the public delivers its judgement, they will have voted for him, rather than for whoever is running against him.
A petition for recall may be filed at any time after the assumption to office of the official sought to be recalled, provided the recall election is conducted not earlier than one year from the time he took office or later than one year immediately preceding the next regular election. This gives him one year to prove himself, and one more year to wrap things up. Pretty fair, but I would expect that the one year in between, where it is open hunting season on him, must be very nerve wracking. Fortunately, the elected officer can probably take comfort in the fact that he can be the subject of a recall election only once during his term of office, again a definite reflection of impeachment.
So how many petitioners does it actually take? If the voting population of the LGU concerned is not more than 20,000, then the minimum number of petitioners would be 25 percent. If there are at least 20,000 but not more than 75,000 voters, you would need at least 20 percent but not less 5,000 voters asking for the recall. With at least 75,000 voters but not more than 300,000, at least 15 percent but not less than 15,000 petitioners would be sufficient. Even bigger jurisdictions than that, and there should be a minimum of 10 percent, but not less than 45,000 voters. That’s a lot of dissatisfied voters. In that sense, too, recall elections echo impeachment. Both are crucial processes, but neither should be too easy to accomplish.