MANILA, Philippines -- Elected public officials who have been placed under preventive suspension cannot claim interrupted terms to be able to circumvent the three-term limit, according to a Supreme Court ruling.

Voting 10-3, the Supreme Court en banc said in a ruling promulgated Wednesday that the candidacy of Lucena City councilor Wilfredo Asilo for a fourth consecutive term in the 2007 elections was a violation of the three-term limit set by the Constitution.

In a 20-page decision penned by Associate Justice Arturo Brion, the Court granted petitions seeking his disqualification and ruled that his term of office from 2004 to 2007 was not interrupted by the preventive suspension imposed on him in 2005.

?Preventive suspension, by its nature, does not involve an effective interruption of service within a term and should therefore not be a reason to avoid the three-term limitation,? the Court.

?It is severance from office, or to be exact, loss of title, that renders the three-term limit rule inapplicable,? it added.

Asilo was elected councilor for three consecutive terms from 1998 to 2001, from 2001 to 2004, and from 2004-2007.

The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan placed Asilo on preventive suspension in connection with a criminal case in 2005.

The suspension was lifted during his term and the councilor continued in the performance of his duties.