On the same boat

With two strikes against her, presidential candidate and Sen. Grace Poe finds herself in the same territory as her late father, acting legend and former presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr.

It took a Supreme Court decision in April 2004, one full month before the elections, for FPJ to get that seal of approval to run against then-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

This time, though, Senator Poe is not alone. Another presidential rival, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, finds himself in the same boat as she is after Martin Diño, the candidate that he substituted for, erroneously listed himself as a mayoral candidate for Pasay City rather than a presidential candidate.

Different circumstances resulted in two of the country’s leading presidential candidates facing disqualification from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) which will decide en banc if legal technicalities will cripple their respective presidential runs.

It won’t be an easy decision. Days after its “no biometrics, no vote” policy was overruled by the Supreme Court, the Comelec finds itself on the defensive after its two decisions to disqualify Senator Poe resulted in a backlash from supporters.

There’s no surprise if Comelec will also receive a similar, if not a stronger expression of outrage from Duterte’s supporters if he does get disqualified, even with the mayor’s admonition to them not to react violently if it does come to that.

But if either the Comelec or the Supreme Court does rule in favor of Poe and Duterte, what are the chances that other candidates in the future will be able to resort to legal loopholes to justify their runs for public office?

Despite the three-term limit in running for local and national positions, as stated in the Constitution, former and aging candidates somehow manage to find their way into the running.

Now we have to throw in erroneous filing of candidacies as yet another exception to the requirements for running for public office.

That candidates should be required to fill out information about themselves in compliance with Comelec requirements and yet be allowed to run even if they don’t meet the qualifications will be looked at with raised eyebrows by other countries, whose stringent election laws leave no room for loopholes.

Yet there are loopholes and Poe can perhaps take comfort in the case of US President Barack Obama, whose citizenship was also questioned by businessman and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

With their candidacies uncertain, the Comelec should decide on the cases swiftly, yet allow their names to remain in the ballot until the Supreme Court rules on their legitimacy.