Election lawyer reiterates call to abolish presidential electoral tribunal

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s former election lawyer reiterated calls on Friday to abolish a body that hears election protests for the presidency and the vice-presidency. It is unconstitutional for the Supreme Court to create the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), lawyer Romulo Macalintal said in his 16-page reply to the Solicitor General which earlier upheld the body’s creation. Members of the PET receive separate pay and are allowed to hire employees especially for the tribunal, "even if no cases were filed with the PET or even if the cases have long been dismissed or terminated," Macalintal said. Macalintal cited the Solicitor General's April 20 comment as saying that the PET is "a necessary incident of the power of the Supreme Court to be the sole judge of all contests relating to [the presidency and vice-presidency]," and that the PET and the SC are one and the same body. "The creation of the PET where the SC justices receive allowances and are entitled to hire confidential employees amounts to the holding of dual positions since these benefits are separate from what they receive as regular justices and when further designated as members of the Senate or House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal," Macalintal added. He also cited former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban as admitting in his newspaper column that the PET "was created by the (Supreme) Court. Worse, the justices are given separate allowances and additional personnel as PET members." Macalintal maintained that the SC en banc, composed of all SC magistrates, is the only constitutional body to deal with election protests, and that by virtue of Sec. 12 Art. VIII of the 1987 Constitution, SC justices are prohibited from being designated to any quasi-judicial body like the PET. The PET is composed of the 15 SC magistrates, with the chief justice acting as chairman and the associate justices sitting as members. It receives a separate budget from the national government. Under the 2010 budget, about P55.97 million has been allotted for the PET. Five days before the May 10 polls, Macalintal resigned from the Palace after President Arroyo called for the postponement of the elections following glitches in poll preparations. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV