Enrile: I will convene Congress in same week if elections fail

Senate President and reelectionist Juan Ponce Enrile said on Monday that in the “extreme possibility" that a nationwide failure of elections occurs on May 10, he will immediately convene Congress “not later than Friday of that week, announce that there was no election of president and vice-president," and follow the Constitutional rule on succession: that whoever is Senate President when the vacancy occurs will serve as acting President until a new President and Vice-President shall have been elected. Asked for details on GMA7’s Unang Hirit, where he guested with two other senatorial candidates for the election forum Hiritan 2010, Enrile said: “At that point, if I'm not elected as a senator and there's not enough for a quorum in the Senate to elect a president of the Senate after June 30, I will relinquish my position as Senate President to a senator whose term will end [in 2013], and make him Senate President so that the rule of succession will continue." Enrile was referring to a number of incumbent senators who could legally replace him as Senate President if he is not reelected, since their terms would end in 2013 and are not involved in the presidential contest. He mentioned specifically Senators Francis Escudero, Francis Pangilinan, Alan Peter Cayetano, Joker Arroyo, Gregorio Honasan, and Edgardo Angara. Asked further if the political crisis was such that he could not even convene the incumbent Senate to effect the transition, Enrile said: “Ah yun ang problema—yung hiatus. Pag nangyari yun, ang dapat na gagawin ay hindi na succession kundi pulungin ang mga liderato, lahat ng partido na sumali sa eleksyon, pati ang mga simbahan ng Pilipinas, lahat ng leaders ng sectors, at pag-usapan kung sino ang dapat hahawak ng kapangyarihan ng Presidente ng Pilipinas pagkatapos na magbitiw ang Presidente ng Pilipinas sa June 30." (That would be a problem—a state of hiatus. If that happens, what needs to be done is no longer the rule of succession, but to gather all the leaders, all the parties who participated in the elections, including Philippine churches, all the leaders of various sectors, and come to an agreement about who should take the place of the President of the Philippines when she leaves on June 30.) Some commentators have urged Enrile to resign as Senate president in favor of a senator whose term ends in 2013 and is currently not running. That would purportedly avoid a scenario where Enrile's claim as president of the last Senate to the third highest rank in the national line of succession could be questioned. Enrile has refused to resign. Enrile downplays election failure scenario As in his earlier pronouncements, Enrile downplayed fears of a total failure of elections, as well as worries that this would lead to a leadership vacuum. He insisted that the Constitution clearly provides for rules of succession that will apply in most situations. In a separate interview by GMANews.TV before the show, Enrile said: “In the first place, we must be clear by what is meant by failure of elections. It means that no ballots were cast on election day," adding that this represents a wide range of scenarios and not just the most extreme case of most voters nationwide not being able to cast their votes. Even if there was a real failure of elections in some areas, the Comelec would still have to determine whether these partial failures would substantially affect the results of the presidential, vice-presidential, and senatorial voting, Enrile added. But in “the extreme case" that the failure of the May elections produces no new President and Vice-President by June 30 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Vice-President Noli de Castro bow out, Enrile said the Senate President will serve as acting President to fill the vacancy, convene Congress, and call for a special election to elect the President and Vice-President. Article VII, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution says: “Where no President and Vice-President shall have been chosen or shall have qualified, or where both shall have died or become permanently disabled, the President of the Senate or, in case of his inability, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, shall act as President until a President or a Vice-President shall have been chosen and qualified." Article VII, Section 10 further says: “The Congress shall, at ten o’clock in the morning of the third day after the vacancy in the offices of the President and Vice-President occurs, convene in accordance with its rules without need of a call and within seven days, enact a law calling for a special election to elect a President and a Vice-President to be held not earlier than forty-five days nor later than sixty days from the time of such call." The term of six other senators will end in 2013 and are thus eligible to serve as Senate president beyond June 30, but three of them are directly involved in the current presidential or vice-presidential race. These are Senators Benigno Aquino III, Manuel Villar, and Loren Legarda. “They will not be seen as neutral," so they should not be considered as his possible replacement for the Senate presidency, Enrile clarified. The three others, not mentioned by Enrile as possible contenders, are Senators Panfilo Lacson, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Juan Miguel Zubiri. Enrile said that if he is reelected as Senator, he would remain as Senate President and perform his task as acting President until the 15th Congress is convened and is able to elect its new set of leaders. He added that he had made a thorough study of all relevant Constitutional provisions and laws on the issue of presidential succession, and that “other people should do the same before they open their mouths."— HS, GMANews.TV