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Also, the matters contained in the following were written in accordance with the law, rules, and jurisprudence prevailing at the time of writing and posting, and do not include any future developments on the subject matter under discussion.
AT A GLANCE:
In the case of Macalintal v. COMELEC (G.R. No. 263590, June 23, 2023) the Supreme Court declared RA 11935 unconstitutional for violating the right to due process of law, and accordingly, infringing the constitutional right of the Filipino people to suffrage. It laid down the criteria which shall serve as guidelines in the determination of the validity of any future laws or rules postponing elections.
In Macalintal v. COMELEC, the Supreme Court discussed the right of suffrage, holding that as a democratic and republican state, our governmental framework has for its cornerstone the electoral process through which government by consent is secured.
The Court cited its decision in Geronimo v. Ramos, where it declared that voting plays an important instrumental value in preserving the viability of constitutional democracy. Indeed, not only is the right to vote or the right of suffrage an important political right; the very existence of the “right of suffrage is a threshold for the preservation and enjoyment of all other rights that it ought to be considered as one of the most sacred parts of the Constitution.”
As the SCOTUS recognized in Yick Wo, voting is a “fundamental political right, because it is preservative of all rights.” No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws, under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.
Unquestionably, thus, the right of suffrage is a treasured right in a republican democratic society: the right to voice one’s choice in the election of those who make the laws and those who implement them is indispensable in a free country that its absence will render illusory other rights, even the most basic.
In Geronimo, the Court held that such a right is among the most important and sacred of the freedoms inherent in a democratic society and one which must be most vigilantly guarded if a people desires to maintain through self-government for themselves and their posterity a genuinely functioning democracy in which the individual may, in accordance with law, have a voice in the form of his government and in the choice of the people who will run that government for him.
Verily, by its very nature, the right of suffrage stands on a higher — if not distinct — plane such that it is accorded its own Article under the Constitution, separate from the other fundamental rights. Because of the fundamental and indispensable role that the right of suffrage plays in the preservation and enjoyment of all other rights, it is protected in various international instruments.
Thus, in declaring RA 11935 unconstitutional for infringing the constitutional right of the Filipino people to suffrage, the Supreme Court took the opportunity to provide the following criteria, which shall serve as guidelines in the determination of the validity of any future laws or rules postponing elections:
- The right of suffrage requires the holding of honest, genuine, regular, and periodic elections. Thus, postponement of the elections is the exception.
- The postponement of the elections must be justified by reasons sufficiently important, substantial, or compelling under the circumstances:
- The postponement must be intended to guarantee the conduct of free, honest, orderly, and safe elections;
- The postponement must be intended to safeguard the electorate’s right of suffrage;
- The postponement must be intended to safeguard other fundamental rights of the electorate; or
- Such other important, substantial, or compelling reasons that necessitate the postponement of the elections, i.e., necessitated by public emergency, but only if and to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation.
- Reasons such as election fatigue, purported resulting divisiveness, shortness of existing term, and/or other superficial or farcical reasons, alone, may not serve as important, substantial, or compelling reasons to justify the postponement of the elections. To be sufficiently important, the reason for the postponement must primarily be justified by the need to safeguard the right of suffrage or other fundamental rights or required by a public emergency situation.
- The electorate must still be guaranteed an effective opportunity to enjoy their right of suffrage without unreasonable restrictions notwithstanding the postponement of the elections.
- The postponement of the elections is reasonably appropriate for the purpose of advancing sufficiently important, substantial, or compelling governmental reasons.
- The postponement of the elections must be based on genuine reasons and only on objective and reasonable criteria.
- The postponement must still guarantee that the elections will be held at regular periodic intervals that are not unduly long.
- The intervals must still ensure that the authority of the government continues to be based on the free expression of the will of the electorate.
- Holding the postponed elections at a date so far remote from the original elections date may serve as badge of the unreasonableness of the interval that may render questionable the genuineness of the reasons for the postponement.
- The postponement of the elections is reasonably narrowly tailored only to the extent necessary to advance the government interest.
- The postponement must not violate the Constitution or existing laws.
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Alburo Alburo and Associates Law Offices specializes in business law and labor law consulting. For inquiries regarding legal services, you may reach us at info@alburolaw.com, or dial us at (02)7745-4391/ 0917-5772207/ 09778050020.
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