"Nothing prohibits Duterte from running for vice president."
"Nothing prohibits Duterte from running for vice president."
The 1987 Constitution was drafted by the unelected 1986 Constitutional Commission. Unelected, because the members were personally handpicked by then President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. Thus, the charter is often called the Cory Constitution.
The first paragraph of Section 4, Article VII of the 1987 Constitution states that “… The President shall not be eligible for any re-election. 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.”
From the foregoing, it is crystal clear that an outgoing president is not prohibited by the charter from running for vice president in the election held at the end of his term as President. Thus put, President Rodrigo Duterte recently announced that he is open to running for vice president in the 2022 elections.
Here is where lawyers Christian Monsod and Rene Saguisag enter the picture.
Monsod is one of the unelected members of the 1986 Constitutional Commission. He used to work for the Lopez empire that owns the ABS-CBN Corporation, and he is a critic of the Duterte administration.
Saguisag was the spokesman of President Corazon Aquino, and was a former senator.
Monsod and Saguisag say that President Duterte is not allowed under the 1987 Constitution to run for vice president. Their basic argument is that the charter prohibits any President from seeking re-election to a second term.
They speculate that if Duterte does win as vice president in the 2022 elections, all that he needs to become president again is for the newly elected president to resign so Duterte can succeed as president. For them, that plan will work if a pro-Duterte candidate wins as president. That must be the reason why, Monsod and Saguisag suspect, Duterte is not very much against allowing his daughter or close ally to run for President in 2022.
Monsod and Saguisag announced that If Duterte runs for vice president in the 2022 elections, they will question the validity of his candidacy before the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Be that as it may, the arguments advanced by Monsod and Saguisag are absolutely untenable.
First, the prohibition recited in Section 4, Article VII of the Constitution speaks of re-election, not succession. A vice president who succeeds a president assumes the presidency not by re-election, but by succession. Clearly, the arguments of Monsod and Saguisag are misplaced.
That Section 4 clearly distinguishes between “re-election” and “succession” is quite explicit, because Section 4 itself uses both terms separately in two consecutive sentences within one and the same paragraph, to wit:
“ … The President shall not be eligible for any re-election. 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.”
In other words, there is nothing in Section 4, Article VII of the Constitution which prohibits President Duterte from running for vice president in the 2022 elections.
Next, it appears that Monsod and Saguisag are resorting to pure speculation. They are already assuming that whoever runs for President (with Duterte as the bet for Vice President) will win. Monsod and Saguisag ought to know that to disqualify Duterte from running for Vice President on mere speculation that Duterte’s running mate will win, is fanciful. On that ground alone, whatever case they intend to file against Duterte in the Comelec will be dismissed.
For the record, if Monsod and Saguisag actually file a case to disqualify Duterte from running for vice president, I will join the case as an intervenor and oppose them.
At this juncture, some questions need to be raised.
Monsod proudly calls himself a drafter of the 1987 Constitution. Why didn’t he make the provisions of Section 4, Article VII clear enough to embody his arguments against Duterte?
The Constitution Monsod drafted prohibits a senator from holding office for more than two consecutive terms. If Monsod is a staunch defender of the Constitution, why didn’t he question Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel’s current third consecutive term as a senator?
For that matter, why is the Cory Constitution, a charter Monsod drafted, festering with so many ambiguous and even erroneous provisions? Just take a look at its provisions governing amendments to the charter and you will see what I mean.
Last year, Monsod took the position that the refusal of Congress to renew the legislative franchise of the ABS-CBN broadcast network is unconstitutional because it is an abridgment of press freedom.
Contrary to what Monsod argued, the Supreme Court ruled that the power of Congress to renew a legislative franchise is discretionary, and that the refusal of Congress to renew the ABS-CBN franchise does not abridge press freedom.