(Editor's note: The Con-Com of 1986 forgot to fully prevent the danger of not proclaiming a president-elect and vice president-elect as noted by the author.)

The terms of office of all elective officials – president, vice president, 12 senators, all House members, and all local officials (governors, mayors, etc.) will end on June 30. Still in office by then are barangay officials and 12 senators – one is in jail – who will not worry nor bother themselves with the election on May 10.

Not okay

Despite assurances that “everything will be okay” more than 50 million voters still face the following uncertainties:

1. Power failure for hours or days before May 10 and after forcing all 93 million of us to grope for solutions in the middle of deeper predicaments and anxieties.

2. Recording and counting of votes by machines are fully dependent on power plants.

Canvass by Congress

3. The president-elect and vice president-elect are proclaimed by the old Congress in joint public session, not later than 30 days after May 10 (June 10). Congress shall canvass the votes “upon determination of the authenticity and due execution thereof in the manner provided by law. (Sec. 4, Art. VII, Constitution) It is the outgoing Congress that shall pass upon the authenticity and due execution of votes for the president-elect and vice president-elect.

Darkest doubt

If questions of authenticity and due execution of the national votes are not decided with finality within the period of 30 days (or on June 10), there is danger of reaching another dilemma of failure to proclaim the two highest officials that will place in darkest doubts the matter of succession and assumption of office of the president-elect and vice president-elect at noon June 30.

Complete power

Let’s bear in mind that the complete power to proclaim the incoming president and vice president is exercised by the old Congress whose members cease to hold office also at noon on June 30, except the 12 senators serving until June 30, 2013, but cannot perform any form of legislative function or power. This power is far from ministerial or routine but requires judgment and examination of certified votes.

US Congress to count only Let’s compare our system with the US Electoral College. After the November 4, 2008 election, only the 538 electors were chosen. The electors met in mid-December in their respective state capitals and voted for president and vice president, one of whom is not an inhabitant of the elector’s home state. This ensures that presidential and vice presidential candidates from the same party will not be from the same state.

(In 2000 Republican vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney changed his voter registration to Wyoming where he grew up and once represented in Congress from Gov. George W. Bush’s home state of Texas.)

Certified and sealed lists of the votes of the electors in each state were sent to the president of the US Senate who then opened them in the presence of the members of the House and Senate in a joint session on January 3 and the votes were then counted without determining their authenticity and due execution as in RP.

Strict terms

Amendment XX of the US Constitution (effective Jan. 23, 1933) fixes the terms of the president and vice president that “shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3rd day of January...”

The new Congress of 435 House members and the Senate of 100 members “shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3rd of January unless they shall by law appoint a different day. Only 33 or 34 senators face election every two years.

Old lameducks

If more than one-half of the House members and senators in RP are denied reelection they can stall the assumption into office of a new president and vice president by their absence at the joint public session to canvass the votes. The old Congress composed of many defeated senators and congressmen may also refuse to canvass the votes without first determining their authenticity and due execution – in a process equivalent to a protest from the outgoing Congress.

Who will then act as president and vice president at noon on June 30?

No successors

The answer is more of a dilemma. The rule of succession provides that the President of the Senate, Mr. Enrile or in case of his inability the Speaker of the House, Mr. Nograles “shall act as president until a president or vice president shall have been chosen and qualified.”

But both Enrile and Nograles cease to be Senate President (or senator) and Speaker (or congressman) at noon on June 30 – Enrile is running for relection as senator and Nograles is a candidate for mayor of Davao City.

New Congress of full powers

This anomaly cannot happen in the US because the new Congress that took office on January 3, 2009 was given the ministerial or routine duty of counting 538 electoral votes – not to examine and authenticate them. If Obama and Biden had obtained less than the 270-vote majority or a tie of 269 votes with McCain and Palin the new House of Representatives convened on January 3 was ready to elect a President. The votes must be taken by states and a majority of the states – 26 votes out of 50 – can elect a president.

The vice president would then be chosen by 51 senators out of 100. (Amendment XII, US Constitution, June 15, 1804). And the two chosen by the new Congress would assume office at noon of January 20. As the Americans tell it, “No sweat!”

The important act of announcing or electing a new president and vice president takes place long before their inaugural on January 20.

From Fred Loriezo, Orlando, Florida Mr. Loriezo writes: “I only hope this coming election in my country will not be a contest of who is the most popular but of the most qualified.”

(Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com).