EDITORIAL - Too late in the game

For some people, the fight to invalidate the candidacy of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is not over just yet.

After losing their bid before the Commission on Elections, petitioners went to the Supreme Court, asking it to “cancel and declare void ab initio the Certificate of Candidacy for President” filed by Marcos for the recent election, according to a report in Philstar.com.

They also asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order against Marcos’ proclamation by Congress pending the resolution of their petition.

Before anything else, let’s clear it up that the delays brought about the bureaucracy and due process are not the fault of the petitioners. However, this was a move that should have been done long ago. Again, not the fault of the petitioners because there was no way they could tell which way Comelec would go or that it would take so long.

Still, for all intents and purposes, it is too late for this move now, considering that the person they want to prevent from joining in the race has actually already won it, and overwhelmingly too.

In the event that the Supreme Court does side with the petitioners and declare the certificate of candidacy of Marcos invalid, what then should happen? Will the 31 million votes cast for him be invalidated? Will it somehow constitute some form of failure of elections?

Considering how many people voted for Marcos, we can expect things to become a big mess, even ugly, if the Supreme Court somehow finds merit in the petition. Even the mere holding off the proclamation may have adverse effects on the transition of power.

Don’t get us wrong, the petitioners do have bases for moving to declare his certificate of candidacy valid; among others his repeated refusals to file Income Tax Returns and his convictions for doing so.

But, like we said earlier, this was a move that came just too late in the game.