SC asked to compel Comelec to enforce term limit of congressmen, senators

A group of lawyers and a newspaper columnist have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to compel the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to enforce constitutional provisions on the term limits of senators and members of the House of Representatives.

A petition filed Monday alleges that the Comelec has failed to enforce Sections 4 and 7 of Article VI of the 1987 Constitution "by continuing to permit 'termed out' senators and members of the House of Representatives to run unabated after the expiration of the term limit by allowing them to have respite or 'hiatus,' despite the absence of such permission in the clear text of the said provisions in the Constitution."

The Constitution says "no senator shall serve for more than two consecutive terms" and "no member of the House of Representatives shall serve for more than three consecutive terms."

The petitioners are lawyers Vladimir Alarique Cabigao, Mary Wendy Duran, Manolito Coronado, Socorro Maricel Namia Nepomuceno, Cesar Evangelista, Manila Times columnist Yen Makabenta, Antonio Santos, and Jef Nalus Aquino.

The petitioners said they have the legal standing to bring the petition because it concerns a "public right" and "aims to compel a public duty."

They want the Comelec ordered to deny giving due course to the certificates of candidacy of "termed out" senators, House members, and local elective officials in the May 2022 elections and future polls, and asked for the declaration as unconstitutional of the election of "termed out" legislators and local officials.

The petitioners said the Comelec's "tolerance" of officials taking "rest period" after two or three consecutive terms stems from a resort to the "original intent" of the drafters of the 1987 Constitution, a view they argued was "contrary" to the will of the people who ratified the Constitution in 1987.

In connection with this, they asked the Court to overthrow three rulings -- Socrates v. Comelec, Sandoval v. Comelec, and Adovo v. Comelec -- in which they said the Court resorted to "originalism."

"Petitioners are urging this Honorable Court to view Sections 4 and 7, Article VI, 1987 Constitution in a different light, in addition to applying the plain text meaning, because the drafters never foresaw, or even if they had foreseen they never thought, that the practice where 'termed out' legislators would seek re-election after 'hibernation' would occur in a rampant and prevalent fashion as what is happening to the polity at present," the petition stated.

They listed 16 former and incumbent senators whom they said sat in the Senate for more than two consecutive terms, including former senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Loren Legarda, and the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago, as well as current Senate President Vicente Sotto III, and senators Franklin Drilon, Panfilo Lacson, Francis Pangilinan, Lito Lapid, Ramon "Bong" Revilla, Jr., Pia Cayetano, and Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III.

They also mentioned several alleged violators of term limits at the House of Representatives, such as Amado Bagatsing of Manila, Juan Ponce Enrile Jr. in the first district of Cagayan, Martin Romualdez of Leyte, Feliciano Belmonte Jr. of Quezon City, and Rodolfo Fariñas of Ilocos Norte, among others.  —KBK, GMA News