Silent’ revolution thru election

This year, the 40th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution falls within the 40-day period of Lent, or the Cuaresma. Marked in our country’s history every Feb. 22 to 25, the EDSA People Power Revolution saw the ouster of then ailing president Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. and his family from Malacañang Palace.

Nothing much has changed 40 years and six presidents since then. The late president’s namesake son, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM), got elected to the highest office of the land and paved the return of the Marcoses to Malacañang.

Now in the middle of his six-year administration, PBBM declared he is now in the process of selecting who he will be supporting to succeed him in the May 2028 presidential elections. This is now what PBBM is doing after his estranged Vice President Sara Duterte declared her intention to run for the presidency.

Speaking at our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Ernest Maceda vowed to make Filipinos assert their sovereign power through what he calls the “silent revolution” in the exercise of the right of suffrage by the people. Maceda pointed to our country’s post-EDSA 1987 Constitution that empowered the Comelec to implement such democratic elections of our government officials.

This year, the 40th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution falls within the 40-day period of Lent, or the Cuaresma. Marked in our country’s history every Feb. 22 to 25, the EDSA People Power Revolution saw the ouster of then ailing president Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. and his family from Malacañang Palace.

Nothing much has changed 40 years and six presidents since then. The late president’s namesake son, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM), got elected to the highest office of the land and paved the return of the Marcoses to Malacañang.

Now in the middle of his six-year administration, PBBM declared he is now in the process of selecting who he will be supporting to succeed him in the May 2028 presidential elections. This is now what PBBM is doing after his estranged Vice President Sara Duterte declared her intention to run for the presidency.

Speaking at our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Ernest Maceda vowed to make Filipinos assert their sovereign power through what he calls the “silent revolution” in the exercise of the right of suffrage by the people. Maceda pointed to our country’s post-EDSA 1987 Constitution that empowered the Comelec to implement such democratic elections of our government officials.

Maceda said the Filipino voters flex their muscles in electing their choice of national and local officials in regular cycles. As mandated by our Constitution, Maceda pointed out the Comelec takes charge of the holding of mid-term elections every three years for national and local officials and every six years for the president and vice president, including the conduct of plebiscites and special elections as required by law passed by Congress.

In fact, the seven-man poll body headed by Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia has been in the thick of preparations for the holding of the special elections in Antipolo City on March 14, Saturday. The special election will be held following the death last Dec. 20 of Representative Romeo Acop of the second legislative district of Antipolo City.

Under Republic Act (RA) 6645, as amended by RA 7166, the Comelec is mandated to call and conduct a special election in the event that a permanent vacancy occurs in the House of Representatives at least one year before the expiration of the term. The election must be held not earlier than 60 days and not later than 90 days following the vacancy.

Also later this year, the Comelec is awaiting the final decision of the 20th Congress on the proposed resetting anew of the first-ever parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The Senate last Wednesday approved on second reading Senate Bill (SB) 1823, which seeks to reset the BARMM parliament polls to the second Monday of September this year.

The BARMM parliament elections have already been postponed four times. The BARMM parliament polls were first postponed when former president Rodrigo Duterte signed a law putting it off from May 2022 to be synchronized with the May 2025 national and local elections. The move to postpone the elections a second time came about when the Supreme Court (SC) issued a decision in September 2024 excluding Sulu from the BARMM.

The Comelec was already prepared to carry out the previously Congress-approved BARMM parliament polls reset to March 30 this year. But the poll body was forced to call it off after the delayed approval by the Bangsamoro Transition Authority of a new local law on reallocation of the six districts of Sulu in the aftermath of the SC ruling on Sulu.

Lawmakers emphasized the importance of holding elections to give voice to over 4.5 million residents of BARMM, advancing democratic participation and the transition to parliamentary governance in the region. The BARMM is the only region in the Philippines operating under a parliamentary form in compliance with the Bangsamoro peace agreement of the government. Its first regular parliament will be composed of 80 members, 40 political party representatives, 32 district representatives and eight sectoral representatives, a composition that cannot be completed without a valid districting framework.

While the Comelec is ready to resume activities for the BARMM parliament election, Maceda told us the poll body is also busy preparing for the conduct of the nationwide barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) in November this year.

Originally, Maceda recalled, the Comelec was faced with “super elections” last year when three major polls were all scheduled months apart in 2025. The first was the mid-term elections in May while the BARMM parliament elections were supposed to take place in October and BSKE in December.

Thus, it prompted PBBM to sign into law RA 12232 which moved the BSKE to the first Monday of November 2026. Under RA 12232, subsequent regular BSKE will be held every four years thereafter.

Incidentally, the SK Reform Act of 2015, or RA 10741, should be a good guide to Congress in the proposed bill to ban any candidates who come from political dynasties to run in SK polls. Specifically Chapter 2, Section 10 of this law prohibits SK candidates from having relatives within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any incumbent national, provincial, city, municipal or barangay official.

Maceda agrees to a second-degree limit as simpler and more practical for the Comelec to enforce, using standard civil documents and community evidence, compared with broader restrictions that cover more distant relatives such as cousins and in-laws.

Our post-EDSA Constitution provided for the ban on political dynasty but passed on to Congress the responsibility to pass an enabling law. But after several Congresses since 1987, no such Anti-Political Dynasty Law has been passed.

Yes, it’s the “same old, same old” story, as many are wont to say.

Also coming from a political clan, Maceda reminded Filipinos to exercise with “discernment” the power of “silent revolution” to remove from power bad political dynasties.