House body OK’s bill that will bar parties from replacing candidates who quit race

By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio

WITHDRAWAL of candidacy should no longer be a valid ground to register a replacement candidate, according to a bill approved by a committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

In the unnumbered substitute bill that amends Section 77 of the Philippine Omnibus Election Code, the House Electoral Reforms and Suffrage Committee agreed to remove withdrawal by a candidate as a valid ground for substitution.

The Code, which prescribes the grounds for candidate substitution, was also amended in the bill to include a political candidate’s mental or physical incapacity as a valid reason to be substituted by another bet.

“(The substitute bill) incorporates the main premises of the subject bills, replacing withdrawal with permanent incapacity as grounds for substitution, moreover, it includes a proposed definition of permanent incapacity,” Mountain Province Rep. Maximo Y. Dalog, Jr. said during the panel’s deliberation of the substitute bill.

A prominent case of candidacy substitution in 2016 would be that of then-Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte’s replacement of Martin Diño as Partido Demokratiko Pilipino’s (PDP) standard-bearer for the presidential elections, which Mr. Duterte ended up winning.

The Commission of Elections (Comelec) is also seeking to limit the grounds for candidacy substitution for the upcoming 2025 midterm elections, the electoral body’s chairperson said in a media briefer earlier this month.

Comelec Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia proposed the banning of candidate substitution for any withdrawal from the electoral race after the last day of the filing of certificates of candidacy.

“Upon reading of the substitute bill drafted by the committee, we subscribe, and we fully support the draft resolutions of the committee… on substitution,” Comelec Deputy Executive Director for Operations Rafael B. Olaño told the House panel.

Commenting on the bill’s approval, Maria Ela L. Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, said the bill would allow political parties to strengthen their procedures for selecting candidates to be fielded during elections.

“(It) will limit causes of substitution and in the process may help political parties to strengthen their internal procedures of selecting candidates early on,” she told ����ý in a Viber message.

“This bill is important as it seeks to prevent abuse of the candidate substitution process. The process was used in 2016 and much abused in 2022, especially by the PDP-Duterte faction,” she added.

Hansley A. Juliano, who teaches political science at the Ateneo de Manila University, said the bill could ramp up political violence leading to an election as permanent incapacity would be a valid ground for substitution under the proposed measure.

“Considering the tendencies of contentious partisan politics… it may also uplift any possible attempts at political violence during the campaign filing period to ‘permanently incapacitate’ opposing candidates,” Mr. Juliano told ����ý in a Facebook Messenger chat. “This is a security threat which may need to be prepared for.”