Imus mayoral row: NP bet says LP using delay tactic

Mayor Manny Maliksi of Imus, Cavite (C). Radyo Inquirer 990AM file photo

SAN PEDRO, Laguna—Nacionalista Party member Homer Saquilayan cried foul over what he said was “dilatory tactic” by his political opponent and incumbent Imus City Mayor Emmanuel Maliksi, after the Supreme Court on Thursday reversed its earlier ruling that declared Saquilayan winner in the 2010 mayoral elections.

“I’m saddened by the decision of the Supreme Court [which] gave way to [Maliksi’s] MR (motion for reconsideration),”  Saquilayan said in a phone interview.

The Supreme Court, as it reversed its earlier ruling, also ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to undo the writ of execution that it had issued authorizing Saquilayan to sit as mayor. The reversal also reinstated Maliksi, a member of the Liberal Party, as mayor.

Saquilayan said he had not received a copy of the new order yet but demanded  the

Comelec, to which the case was remanded, to decide on the election protest with finality.

“They should decide now and settle this. It’s the credibility of the Comelec that is at stake here,” he said.

Saquilayan was declared winner of the 2010 mayoral race but was unseated in December 2011 after a lower court ruled that Maliksi was the real winner. Saquilayan elevated the case to the high tribunal which ruled last March that he was the duly elected mayor.

The Comelec, acting on the first Supreme Court ruling, ordered Maliksi to step down and for Saquilayan to assume the post.

But Saquilayan, after taking his oath of office on March 18, was never able to assume the position because Maliksi refused to leave the mayor’s office, saying that the high court decision was not yet final because of the motion of reconsideration that he filed.

The latest court ruling was based on the motion that Maliksi filed.

Maliksi and Saquilayan are now continuing their race for the mayoral seat in the May 2013 elections.

In an earlier Philippine Daily Inquirer report, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes said the battle between Saquilayan and Maliksi would be rendered moot by results of the elections in May.

If Comelec went through the process of recounting the ballots cast in the elections of 2010, Brillantes said it would take the poll body up to a month to finish it.