These days, the chill of the morning breeze alerts us anew that the Christmas season has already come. Purple, among other colors, is usually associated with advent, the period of preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. Priests usually wear purple vestments, coincidentally matching the color of puto bumbong.
This typical Filipino Christmas delicacy is made from steaming glutinous rice in bamboo tubes (bumbong or bombong). My mother simply cannot resist having this purple-coloredrice cake served with margarine, coconut flakes, and muscovado sugar during the Christmas season. The cooking process includes sifting and soaking of grains overnight, draining and blending the ingredients to produce a certain consistency, packing them into bamboo tubes prior to steaming, thereby unleashing a flavorful aroma! This kind of purple puto has been associated with Simbang Gabi, the dawn masses traditionally held a few days before Christmas Day where Christians celebrate Advent, which colors include purple, pink, and white.
Incidentally, this particular advent season also marks a milestone event that will dictate the elections and perhaps the country’s destiny. Already of public knowledge are the numerous petitions filed before the Comelec against presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. Collectively, they seek the denial of due course to and/or cancellation of his certificate of candidacy on grounds of false material representation. The most notable ground is anchored on his supposed disqualification based on Marcos’ 1997 conviction for failing to file his Income Tax Returns covering the periods between 1982 and 1985. Those who seek the cancellation of COC of Marcos Jr. contend that he is perpetually disqualified from running for public office because of material misrepresentation. In the COC, Marcos Jr. ticked off “no” in response to the item as to whether or not he was convicted of any offense involving the penalty of perpetual disqualification. The petitioners consider such seemingly trivial answer as making a false statement of a material representation in his COC invoking Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code. What is important to distinguish is that the essence of the denial to or the cancellation of the COC is not based on the lack of qualifications but on a finding of false material representation, which may relate to the qualifications required of the public office he is running for.
It must be emphasized that the misrepresentation referred to in Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code must be material, as in pertaining to qualifications for elective office. These entries include age, residence and citizenship or non-possession of natural-born Filipino status as ruled in the 2011 Supreme Court case of Gonzalez v. Comelec. The candidate’s status as a registered voter also falls under this classification as it is a legal requirement, which must be reflected in the COC (Hayudini v. Comelec, GR 207900, 12 April 2014). In Talaga v. Comelec (GR 196804, 9 October 2012), the violation of the three-term limit by a local official candidate can also be assailed by filing a petition to deny due course or cancel COC. On the other hand, statements that do not refer to the qualifications of a candidate cannot warrant the invocation of Section 78. Wrong entries as to the profession of a candidate are not considered a valid ground to cancel a COC, neither is the use of a name other than that stated in a candidate’s certificate of birth.
Aside from the requirement of materiality, a false representation under Section 78 must consist of a “deliberate attempt to mislead, misinform, or hide a fact which would otherwise render a candidate ineligible.” Otherwise stated, it must be made with an intention to deceive the electorate as to one’s qualifications. The 1987 Philippine Constitution mandates that no person shall be elected President of the Philippines unless he is a natural born Filipino citizen, a registered voter, able to read and write, at least 40 years old on the day of the election and a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding the election. The same law provides that no person who has succeeded as President and has served as such for more than four years shall be qualified for election to the same office at any time. Similarly, a former President of the Philippines cannot run for reelection. Prescinding from this constitutional mandate coupled with the jurisprudential finding of materiality, it appears that misrepresentation can lead to cancellation of COC only pertains to citizenship, voter registration, literacy, age, residence, and Presidential terms, in cases of reelection. Whether or not the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from holding office relates to the qualifications of a Presidential candidate (such that declaring “no” to the same in one’s COC constitutes making a false statement) appears to be the million-dollar question awaiting a golden answer. As the election ballots will have to be printed and distributed months before the actual voting in May 2022, the Comelec has the duty to resolve this critical issue that hounds the candidacy of Bongbong Marcos.
Some have argued that since Marcos Jr. has been elected many times, such a “trivial defect” in his COC must have been cured. After all, he has filed a COC many times, having ran and served as a governor and as a lawmaker prior to this controversy. In the landmark case of Romeo Jalosjos v. COMELEC et al. (GR 205033, June 18, 2013), the Supreme Court held that since “accessory penalty had not been expressly remitted in the Order of Commutation or by any subsequent pardon and as such, petitioner’s disqualification to run for elective office is deemed to subsist.” In this case, then convicted felon Jalosjos was sentenced to suffer the principal penalties of imprisonment, which carried the accessory penalty of perpetual absolute disqualification. Jalosjos, therefore, remained disqualified to run for any elective office, despite the fact that he was elected and served twice as mayor.
In the eyes of a layman, the verdict in the current petitions against Marcos Jr. is predicated on an intricate procedure, perhaps akin to the complex cooking style of puto bumbong (sometimes mistakenly called puto bungbong or puto bongbong). These six petitions assailing the candidacy of Marcos Jr. will have to go through the similar process of “sifting” the allegations, “soaking” the issues vis-à-vis the argumentation, “draining” of everything else irrelevant, “packing” the evidence presented, applying legal and jurisprudential principles, “steaming” through the analytical minds of the Commissioners, and eventually (hopefully) unleashing a verdict with flavorful aroma to most Filipinos, due to its correctness and fairness.
However which way the Comelec will rule, I fear that the aggrieved party will not rest. This controversy has great national implications, the resolution of which is much more convoluted than cooking puto bumbong. The seeming “pains” interspersed in the attempts of assailing Marcos Jr.’s candidacy are like the growing pains of a Christian in the process of testing his faith. As believers, we should not lose our vision nor wrongly interpret a season of pruning or testing. Even Jesus Christ had to go through suffering to learn obedience, thus: “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8). The trials and challenges therefore that we encounter in life serve as a foundation for a higher set of standards and values which we should all aim for, much like the multifaceted process of cooking puto bumbong, as well as the intricate process of resolving the petitions filed against Marcos Jr. The end-result of this pruning and testing process ought to be a life lived to honor and praise our Heavenly Father, as echoed in the Bible, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6-7). Fires will come our way, like them or not. We will all end up better after surviving many fires that test our faith.
We all need “fire” during this cold Christmas season. As we await the complicated puto bongbong (verdict in the cancellation of COC) from Comelec and enjoy the aromatic puto bumbong (purple rice cakes) during the dawn masses this December, let’s not forget that the color purple also represents the supremacy of the King of Kings. As we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ this advent season, the purple around us reminds us to recognize the doctrine that, regardless of how the puto bongbong from the Comelec or the puto bumbong from our street vendor will be served, Our Father in heaven is in control.
A former infantry and intelligence officer in the Army, Siegfred Mison showcased his servant leadership philosophy in organizations such as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Malcolm Law Offices, Infogix Inc., University of the East, Bureau of Immigration, and Philippine Airlines. He is a graduate of West Point in New York, Ateneo Law School, and University of Southern California. A corporate lawyer by profession, he is an inspirational teacher and a Spirit-filled writer with a mission.
For questions and comments, please e-mail me at sbmison@gmail.com.