Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Monday said Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano’s ‘important’ condition in his snap elections scenario could be declared unconstitutional, while a political expert said such a call ‘invites instability,’ especially at a time when rumors of a military coup have swirled.
Sen. Cayetano, in a Facebook post on Sunday, floated a ‘what if’ scenario for the president, vice president, House and Senate lawmakers to resign and allow a snap election, but with ‘one important addition’ of not allowing incumbent politicians to run for one election cycle.
Carpio noted that Cayetano’s proposal of not allowing any elective official to run in the special elections could be considered unconstitutional.
‘If this is put into law, its constitutionality will surely be challenged and will likely be declared unconstitutional,’ Carpio said in a message to Inquirer. ‘This is the problem in Cayetano’s proposal.’
‘You cannot disqualify en masse all incumbent elected public officials from running for public office without a lawful cause as provided by law,’ he explained.
For University of the Philippines associate professor and political analyst Jean Encinas-Franco, Cayetano’s resignation proposal for House and Senate lawmakers will render special elections impossible.
‘The Congress would have to pass the law [on special elections]. What would happen if there was no Congress?’ Franco told the INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.
‘Irresponsible’ words amid coup rumors
Franco also said Cayetano’s call will cause instability amid recent rumors of a military coup plot against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which has since been denied by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
‘The fact that it’s coming from an incumbent senator who should work towards political stability is a bit, I think, irresponsible,’ Franco said.
‘It’s really inviting political instability, and given that there were rumors of a coup a while ago, then I think it’s an irresponsible statement,’ she continued.
The rumor of a military coup came on the heels of a major corruption scandal involving flood control infrastructure that has prompted an ongoing Senate probe and the formation of an independent commission to investigate the suspected collusion between lawmakers, government officials, and contractors to embezzle billions of pesos from the country’s coffers.
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson revealed that ‘almost all’ senators in the 19th Congress inserted at least P100 billion worth of items in the 2025 General Appropriations Act.
Furthermore, Lacson said budget insertions of House lawmakers are ‘much, much more’ than the senators.
While insertions or amendments are not necessarily illegal, congressional inquiries revealed that this measure was often used for multi-million flood control projects, which were later revealed to be substandard due to overhead costs incurred for alleged kickbacks of senators and House lawmakers.
After his revelations on the Senate budget insertions, Lacson on Sunday announced his resignation as chair of the blue ribbon committee due to what he said was disappointment expressed by his fellow senators on how he conducted the hearing on flood control anomalies.
Due to failed bid for Senate president?
In relation to this, there had also been speculations, particularly on social media, that senators are eyeing a switch in sides and supporting Cayetano to become the next Senate president.
Franco also noted that there were people who believed that Cayetano made that snap election remark since he had no numbers to become the next Senate president.
‘Even if he no longer has the numbers in the Senate, he should have been more careful in making that statement,’ Franco said.
Meanwhile, Cayetano’s latest remark on resignation prompted calls from his own brother, former Taguig City mayor Alan Peter Cayetano, and Palace press officer Claire Castro to lead by example and step down from his post.
‘He probably thinks it will never happen,’ Franco said. ‘That’s why he said it.’
‘But then again, the fact that he knows that it’s not going to happen, then it’s all the more irresponsible,’ she added./abc