By Atty. Howie Calleja
Last January 6, the entire world saw the United States Capitol Building suffer a violent attack by supporters of the former U.S. President. What was once a symbol of democracy to the Western world became the victim of the product of months of election conspiracy theories. As a mob of fanatics of the former President breached the grounds, one couldn’t help but think that the violence was preventable.
Do we not face the very same threat? Instead of months of conspiracies and refusing to concede, the Philippines has their own billionaire spending years on his own campaign to refuse defeat. Now that we have seen the worst possible effects of crying fraud, will we finally say enough is enough?
Bongbong Marcos has lived in an alternative reality for almost five years now and, for the sake of our own Republic, this issue must be laid to rest. With only a few months from the start of the filing of candidacies, and a little over a year until the next election, the Supreme Court must continue to do everything in their power to stop this blatant attempt at undermining our democratic process. They have done an admirable job of remaining independent in the face of vicious political attacks to move for inhibition, but it is now time to remove all semblance of doubt from the minds of the BBM supporters.
For sometime now, the Marcos campaign to undermine the 2016 election has been centered on invalidating the votes of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which they believe would give them the lead in the long-declared Vice Presidential race. As COMELEC has already verified and repeatedly upheld the elections in ARMM, the results remain to be valid. But attempts to invalidate ARMM votes, and undermine the entire region’s electoral process, takes on the consequence of subjecting all positions to scrutiny (from President to local councilors), opening up the floodgates for doubt in our elections – and unrest. The potential for this process to invalidate the local positions is enough for us all to take heed of the warning that the US Capitol insurrection had on all democratic states. We have had a long history of tense, and even violent, local elections. Declaring the ARMM vote has invalid should not be seen as an option, lest it create even more opportunity for violent power struggles.
However, there is the preverbal monkey wrench: if the Court believes there must be an answer to pacify the BBM camp, they may instead set aside the ARMM votes and order a recount. Though we can maintain certainty that Marcos would lose again, this option can only validate any feelings of doubt as to the legality of the 2016 election. If the Court decides to give into the idea of a recount, it would unfortunately grant legitimacy to their claims of fraud. We hope, instead, that they remain standing firm and independent, dismissing the baseless claims outright – to prevent any doubt of fraud from lingering.
The Court must resolve this issue as soon as possible. Otherwise, by continuing to allow room for doubt in the minds of the BBM camp would, in effect, be to the benefit of the current administration. Malacañang has said nothing on BBM continuously undermining the Office of the Vice President, and has yet to condemn the camp for its fishing expedition, allowing him to save face in the years following a crushing defeat. Though it is obvious to everyone living outside of the Marcos’ alternative reality that the 2016 elections reflected the intent of the electorate -and that Congress rightly proclaimed Leni as the winner in the Vice Presidential race- it is best to settle the issues at hand.
If we continue to shove their claims to the side, it opens up a new landscape for the 2022 elections, where a BBM Presidential run is viable. Or even a Sara-BBM ticket, where the tandem would be carried by the inaction of the fraud claims; creating an atmosphere of anger and distrust among their supporters. I hope we will not let this come to fruition, and instead see the entire country recognize the legitimacy and strength of the current Office of the Vice President. Ultimately, the Supreme Court’s attempts to settle the issue over the past few years is entirely admirable, and they must stand firm and remain independent amongst the overwhelming pressure from all sides. It is only with this, coupled with a united opposition against one (or more) candidates hand-picked by the administration, that the truth will be illuminated for the Filipino people; ahead of an election that already promises to be full of attempts to mislead the public.