‘Pe(e)ing’ on Comelec, term limit

IN OCT. 10 and Oct. 17 columns, I took up Cebu City Councilor Jun Pe’s brazen experiment to go around the term-limit law. After three terms as north district councilor, he runs for another term as south district councilor. Would he get away with it?

So far, no hurdle is up yet. A Comelec official said Pe and two other local legislators didn’t have to resign until the campaign period begins on March 29.

That is just an opinion though that doesn’t come from Comelec en banc, which decides the principal issue: whether Pe should be disqualified on the basis of spent term limit.

And it’s just about staying in office until onset of the campaign period, not about the right to run for the same position in the same legislative body.

Pe hopes to beat the law and its regulators by hopping from north to south with the Comelec and the courts not quick and bright enough to see a sleight of hand.

Did Tomas Osmeña try that after he served three terms as mayor? He ran for congressman and will hold the post briefly, a one-night stand he must hate and is in a rush to leave.

Did Bebot Abellanosa and Raul Alcoseba change residences after nine years in the
City Council?

They didn’t. Bebot runs for Congress while Raul wants to become Provincial Board member, which the law allows.

Not same stuff

But all of them look the other way as Pe unzips pants and starts pissing on the law, the Comelec, and, eventually, the courts.

Even though they’re BOPKs, they must not be of the stuff Pe is made, which includes enormous gall and a perverse capacity to twist the law’s intent.

[paseares@sunstar.com.ph]