YPS

If the Pres, VP, Sen Pres, Speaker, and the SC Presiding Justice went on a cruise and the boat sank, who would be in charge? If the constitutions provision for succession is based on the abhorrence and avoidance of a power vacuum and if the constitution should be treated as a logical, dynamic selection engine, then it should follow a logical path of searching for a replacement among the remaining elected officials.

The military is never a logical option as it has no mandate from the people to govern. Nor does is have the organic capability to govern as its context of governance and chain of command excludes certain civil rights.

The same logic might be used to apply to the current debate of succession in case of failure of elections.

In an election scenario the same logic can apply with the exception that any Senator or elected official within the possible selection list who is RUNNING in the elections should be excluded from the line of succession. This is based on the possible conflict of interest in seeing a fair count take place. In this case, the constitution as logical search engine would now weigh each remaining elected official by finding an indicator of a mandate to serve in the temporary capacity of Chief Executive. Using an empirical value would be the most logical basis. An empirical and unbiased value would be votes received in the last elections with the highest votes being proof of a numerical seniority over his elected officials. In this case, the logical successor would be the Senator with the highest votes in 07.

Short of Senator Enrile giving up his post as Senate President, or being unable to resolve an election crisis within the 60 days needed to proclaim the newly elected President, and Loren being disqualified since she is currently running for Vice President, then Senator Chiz might be the logical choice as interim caretaker President.