MANILA, Philippines -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Commission on Elections to explain the validity of its resolution saying that appointed officials would be deemed resigned upon the filing of their certificates of candidacy between Nov. 20 and Dec. 1.

Supreme Court deputy court administrator and tribunal spokesperson Midas Marquez told reporters that the Court gave the Comelec five days to submit its comment on the petition filed by lawyer Romulo Macalintal in behalf of two environment officials.

“We expect that the Court will decide the case next week,” Marquez said.

In a petition filed in behalf of Environment Undersecretary Eleazar Quinto and director Gerino Tolentino, Macalintal argued that the early filing of COCs was only for the purposes of printing ballots for the automated election system.

The lawyer—who represented President Macapagal-Arroyo in the 2004 elections—said the appointed officials would not be candidates until the start of the actual campaign period either in February or March next year.

“Thus, if they are not yet candidates as of Nov. 30, how could they be considered as ‘candidate’ who should be considered as automatically resigned on such date?” Macalintal said.

“The better rule is to consider them as candidate only upon the start of the campaign period in February 2010 for national positions and March 2010 for local positions,” he added.

The Supreme Court justices had their first en banc session on Tuesday after a three-week break.

Marquez said the justices also had initial discussions on the motion for reconsideration of the decision upholding the disqualification of Sta. Monica, Surigao Del Norte mayoralty candidate Rosalinda Penera for premature campaigning.

The Supreme Court’s decision in the Penera decision is now widely seen as indicative of how the Omnibus Election Code’s prohibition on campaigns before the election period should be applied.

Marquez said the resolution of Penera’s appeal would be resolved next week.