2 Malabon dads may lose seats

Two Malabon City councilors, who both won the seventh council seats in the two districts in the last May 14 elections, may soon find themselves out of the Sangguniang Panglunsod after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) clarified that the local government should only have six councilors for each district.

Lucio Santos and Rogie Yanga, of the first and second districts, respectively, may find themselves at the losing end of the Comelec’s admission of an "inadvertent oversight in the computer encoding" in Section 36 of Resolution No. 3815.

In an undated letter to City Councilor Venancio Sevilla, Pio Jose Joson, Comelec Deputy Executive Director for Operations, admitted that the election body had mistakenly included Malabon in the resolution promulgated on March 26, 2001 which provides a special day for filing certificates of candidacies for the two additional Sanggunian members.

According to Joson, the resolution was intended only for the municipality of Calamba. "But because the plebiscite date of Malabon was synchronically scheduled with Calamba, as much as the plebiscite activities, virtually all Sections in the reglamentary periods, prohibitions, and guidelines were the same. Thus, the inadvertent inclusion of Malabon in Section 36 of Resolution No. 3814 (sic)," Joson wrote.

A plebiscite was held last April to convert Malabon into a highly-urbanized city. The "yes" votes won in the plebiscite which was poorly participated in by Malabon’s registered voters.

Opposition Councilor Eddie Torres has been questioning the proclamation of Santos and Yanga, both considered allies of City Mayor Amado Vicencio.

Torres said Republic Act (RA) 9019, or an Act Converting the Municipality of Malabon into a Highly Urbanized City did not provide for two additional Sanggunian members. Thus, he maintained, the Comelec should have only proclaimed 12 councilors and not 14 last May 21. This prompted Sevilla, another administration councilor, to write to lawyer Jose Balbuena, Director IV of the Comelec Law Department, to shed light on the matter.

In his three-page letter, Joson said RA 9019 is "silent as to the number of the members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod" and cited that in such circumstances, RA 7887, which provides that "all cities with one legislative district and all municipalities in the Metro Manila area shall have 12 councilors each."

The Comelec, however, still has to resolve whether or not to disqualify Santos and Yanga who have both been attending the Sanggunian sessions since they were proclaimed. – Nikko Dizon