Supreme Court upholds ouster of Batangas town mayor

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the ouster of Mayor Renato Federico of Sto. Tomas town in Batangas.

In a 19-page decision released yesterday, the SC affirmed an earlier ruling of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) nullifying Federico’s proclamation for his invalid substitution of Edna Sanchez in the 2010 mayoral race.

Dismissing Federico’s petition, the SC held that the poll body correctly invalidated his substitution that came after the Dec. 14, 2009 deadline provided for under Section 13 of Comelec Resolution No. 8678.

The SC junked Federico’s contention that the Comelec resolution cannot prevail over the provisions of Section 77 of Batas Pambansa Bilang 881, or the Omnibus Election Code, which provides that a “substitute candidate nominated by the political party concerned may file his certificate of candidacy for the office affected in accordance with the preceding sections not later than mid-day of the day of the election.”

The Comelec, according to the SC, “is empowered by law to prescribe such rules as to make efficacious and successful the conduct of the first national automated election,” and “as automated elections had been mandated by law, there was a need for the early printing of the ballots.”

“So that all candidates would be accommodated in the ballots, the early filing of the COCs (certificates of candidacy) was necessary. If there would be late filing and approval of COCs, the names of aspiring candidates would not be included in the ballot, the only document to be read by the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines,” read the ruling penned by Associate Justice Jose Catral Mendoza.

“Without question, the votes garnered by Edna could not be credited to Federico as he was never a legitimate candidate. As there was an invalid substitution, there could not be a valid proclamation,” it added.

With this, the SC lifted the temporary res-training order it issued on Jan. 17 last year, which enjoined the Comelec from proclaiming Osmundo Maligaya as mayor of Sto. Tomas.