SC orders removal of Lucena City mayor

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has given the go signal for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to unseat Mayor Barbara Ruby Talaga of Lucena City.

The SC refused to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would stop the Comelec from executing a ruling ordering her removal from office.

In a one-page resolution on May 31, 2011, the high tribunal did not act on the petition of Talaga for a TRO against the Comelec or even a status quo ante order that would allow her to remain in office.

Instead, the SC deferred its action and ordered the Comelec to file its comment within a period of five days from receipt of the resolution.

Without a TRO or SQA, the Comelec could proceed with its resolution against Talaga and issue its writ of execution by unseating her as mayor of Lucena.

The Comelec ruling orders Vice Mayor Roderick Alcala to take over as mayor by order of succession under the Local Government Code. It also asked the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Comelec Region 4 director to execute the order.

The poll body earlier annulled the election and proclamation of Talaga as mayor of the city and ordered her to cease and desist from discharging the functions of her workplace.

The ruling stemmed from a petition for annulment of Talaga’s proclamation by losing mayoralty candidate Philip Castillo and Alcala’s petition for intervention.

Talaga filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) as a substitute for her husband Ramon, even though the latter had not yet withdrawn his COC or had been disqualified.

The Comelec said “Barbara’s filing her COC made her an additional candidate not a substitute, and in her failure to qualify a permanent vacancy was created in the position of the city mayor.”

“For failure of respondent Barbara Talaga to qualify, therefore, a permanent vacancy was created in the position of mayor of Lucena City. And following the established jurisprudence that the wreath of victory cannot be transferred from the disqualified winner to the repudiated loser (Philip Castillo), the law on succession under Section 44 of the Local Government Code shall apply,” the ruling likewise added.