by Atty. Julius Gregory B. Delgado
CAN THE PRESIDENT RUN AS VICE PRESENT WITHOUT VIOLATING THE CONSTITUTION?
The debate has started. The President’s party, PDP-Laban, through its National Executive Committee, passed a resolution urging him to run as Vice President and select his Presidential timber in the upcoming 2022 National and Local Elections. The reason advanced by the supporters of the administration is continuity. In the recent surveys, the President’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, is an early favorite. But with the President’s age, why are they egging him to run as Vice President and why not allow him to just return to Davao City and enjoy his retirement? I can only see two reasons: first, the President’s unusually high rating despite in the final year of his term will boost the candidacy of his daughter; and second, the administration does not want a “bloody” convention which may fragment the administration and will give a happy field day to a united opposition in the upcoming polls.
But can the President run as Vice President without transgressing the fundamental law of the land, the 1987 Philippine Constitution? Section 4, Article VII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution provides:
“SECTION 4. The President and the Vice-President shall be elected by direct vote of the people for a term of six years which shall begin at noon on the thirtieth day of June next following the day of the election and shall end at noon of the same date six years thereafter. The President shall not be eligible for any reelection. No person who has succeeded as President and has served as such for more than four years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time.
No Vice-President shall serve for more than two consecutive terms. Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of the service for the full term for which he was elected. x x x” (Emphasis and underscoring supplied)
On the one hand, those who are advocating that the President can run as Vice President argues that the above-cited provision does not explicitly prohibit the President from running for a lower position. They argue that when it barred the President for any reelection, it pertains to the Presidency only. In fact, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ran and won successive terms as Representative of the Second Legislative District of Pampanga.
On the other hand, those who are saying that the President cannot run as Vice President argues that the intent of the framers of the 1987 Philippine Constitution is to prevent a person to perpetuate himself in power just like what the late President Ferdinand Marcos did. Hence, if you allow the President to run as Vice President and the elected President immediately resigns, then it will clearly be a circumvention of the Constitution.
It is up to the Supreme Court to decide being final arbiter of Constitutional quagmires. For now, the issue is not yet ripe since the President has not yet filed his Certificate of Candidacy for Vice President. Once he will file the same in the first week of October, it is expected that someone will ask for his disqualification, the Commission on Elections will render a ruling and it will reach the Supreme Court. But there are several factors which will aid the Supreme Court in deciding on the matter: first, why was former President Joseph E. Estrada allowed to seek reelection from the same post in 2010; second, if the framers really intended to prohibit that scenario, i.e., wherein the President will seek the Vice Presidency and he will succeed as President by succession when the elected President dies, resigns or is incapacitated to perform his duties and functions, the framers could have easily stated the said prohibition in Section 4, Article VII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. What the text of the Constitution only prohibits is “reelection” but not succession by operation of law. In the case of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who claimed the Speakership of the House, isn’t it that Section 8 of Article VII put her in a line of succession in case of death, resignation and incapacity of the sitting President, Vice President and Senate President?
We will surely have exciting oral arguments in the Supreme Court and another opportunity to enrich our jurisprudence to set judicial precedence to guide our nation in the future elections should the President file his Certificate of Candidacy for Vice President.