Is Bag-ao above the law?
By Alvin Capino | Posted on Jan. 18, 2013 at 12:01am | 2,448 views
President Benigno Aquino III has warned embattled Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia to adhere to the law. We wish the President can convince his allies to do the same.
It would seem, however, that Mr. Aquino’s allies are above the law and his “tuwid na daan” do not apply to them,
Take the case of Rep. Arlene “Kaka” Bag-ao who, if the law is adhered to strictly, should have already been removed from the official roster of the House of Representatives.
Bag-ao, a party list congressman representing Akbayan, is running for a regular seat for the congressional district in island province of Dinagat under the Liberal Party.
The party list law is clear that she cannot continue to represent the Akbayan party list once she files a certificate as the candidate of another party.
Section 15 of Republic Act 7941, the Republic Act “providing for the election of party-list representatives through the party-list system,” clearly states that “Any elected party-list representative who changes his political party or sectoral affiliation during his term of office shall forfeit his seat.”
It should be noted, as one legal expert pointed out, that the wording of that particular provision of the Party-List law is very clear and uses the imperative “shall” which connotes that removal from the party list seat is automatic once a party list representative changes political party.
Bag-ao, a lawyer, tried to wiggle out of her legal dilemma by using the Jesuitical argument that she is just a “guest candidate” of the Liberal Party and therefore Section 12 or Republic Act 7941 does not apply to her.
An election lawyer, however, finds this excuse of Bag-ao hilarious especially since she is a lawyer. The election law expert says there is no such thing as a guest candidate. “The CONA requires that you accept the nomination and join that party.”
We researched pertinent Comelec regulations about CONA or the Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance and it was clear from the “Guidelines on the filing of Certificates of Candidacy and Nomination and Acceptance of official candidates of registered political parties or coalition of political parties in connection with the May 13, 2013 automated synchronized national, local and ARRM regional election” promulgated by Comelec on September 11, 2012.
Section 2 or the Comelec guidelines state that in the Certificate of Candidacy the candidate will among others state under oath “the duly registered political party or coalition of political parties to which he belongs”.
Clearly, when Bag-ao filed her Certificate of Candidacy in October 2012 she declared under oath that she is a member of the Liberal Party and because of this sworn statement she is no longer a member of Akbayan and could no longer represent Akbayan in the House of Representatives.
But instead of being forced to step down as party list representatives by operation of law Bag-ao was “rewarded” by Malacañang with the release of P140 million in pork barrel funds by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.
The P140 million represents the pork barrel for the Dinagat district where she is running as congressman which had not been released ever since the elected congressman in that district, Ruben Ecleo Jr., was removed from office after his conviction for a graft case was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Malacañang and Speaker Sonny Belmonte have justified the release of the Dinagat pork barrel fund to Bag-ao because she has been designated as caretaker of that district.
The Dinagat district pork barrel is of course separate and distinct from the pork barrel of Bag-ao as the Akbayan party list representative.
If the law is strictly enforced and Bag-ao is considered as automatically removed as Akbayan party-list representative when she filed her COC as a member of the LP and got a CONA certifying that she is indeed a member of the LP last October, isn’t the release of the pork barrels for Akbayan and for the Dinagat district to her illegal?
Aside from the legal issues on Bag-ao’s use of the Dinagat district pork barrel, there are also ethical issues involved. The release of the pork barrel of Dinagat district would have been no problem if Bag-ao was just a caretaker.
The controversy here is that more than a caretaker for the district, Bag-ao is a candidate as congressman for that district and it is not hard to think the many ways that she would use that huge amount as her campaign fund.
In what reeks of political opportunism, Bag-ao has used a big chunk of the Dinagat district pork barrel to purchase 77 units of multicab utility vehicles, six luxury 4X4 vehicles, nearly of which had been distributed to barangay in the municipality of Tubajon which is reportedly her political bailiwick and where she expects to get most of her votes.
With all these actuations, it is really funny to hear Bag-ao describe herself as a “principled solon”. How can you be principled when you cannot even adhere to the law?
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