SC upholds election of La Union town mayor

MANILA, Philippines —  The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the election of Frank Ong Sibuma as the mayor of Agoo, La Union.

In an en banc session on Tuesday, the SC nullified a resolution of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which canceled Sibuma’s certificate of candidacy (CoC).

The high court also junked the writ of execution issued by the Comelec, which annuled Sibuma’s proclamation and proclaimed Stefanie Ann Eriguel-Calongcagon as town mayor.

Alma Panelo filed a petition to cancel Sibuma’s CoC, saying he misrepresented himself as a resident of Barangay Sta. Barbara in Agoo when he is a resident of San Eugenio in Aringay.

In response, Sibuma said he had established his residency in Agoo since his birth.

The SC said the Comelec Second Division committed grave abuse of discretion when it ordered the cancellation of Sibuma’s CoC without any prior finding that he had committed a ‘deliberately false and deceptive representation’ of his residence qualification,” a press briefer by the SC read.

Sibuma, who ran under the People’s Reform Party in the elections in May last year, garnered 21,364 votes. Calongcagon got 16,603 votes.

The SC said the Comelec Second Division had a  “grossly unreasonable appreciation and evaluation of evidence” when it relied on the certification of barangay captain Erwina Eriguel, the paternal aunt of Sibuma’s rival, that he is not a resident of Agoo.

The high tribunal said the second division also failed to resolve Panelo’s petition prior to the elections.

“The court ruled that all doubts should be resolved in favor of Sibuma’s residence qualification to give fullest effect to the manifest will of the people of Agoo electing him as their mayor,” the SC ruling read.