City mayors warn SC of impeachment

MANILA, Philippines—City mayors on Tuesday issued a virtual ultimatum for the Supreme Court to correct what they called its error in recognizing the status of 16 new cities, hinting at the possibility of filing impeachment cases against the justices.

The League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) said it would file a motion for reconsideration today asking the high tribunal to reverse its “flip-flop” ruling on the status of the municipalities-turned-cities on Feb. 15 when it overturned what was thought to be its final decision rejecting the cityhood of the 16.

Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza, LCP secretary general and a leader of the protest, said impeachment is an option available to the LCP.
San Fernando City, Pampanga Mayor Oscar Rodriguez said the justices “still have a chance to correct this mistake.”

“As to whether this will prompt us to file for impeachment, we do not know,” said Rodriguez.

At least three legislators, however, said the LCP should stop “bullying” the SC.

Representatives Eduardo Gullas of Cebu, Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar and Jocelyn Limkaichong of Negros Oriental said the Feb. 15 court decision was simply a recognition of Congress’ power.

“I trust that the justices will really stand their ground this time,” said Gullas. “It will really look bad if the SC will reverse their judgment again because of these bullying tactics.”

Since the laws converting the 16 municipalities into cities were passed and enacted in 2007, the Supreme Court has issued four decisions—first, to declare the laws unconstitutional in November 2008; next, to reverse itself in December 2009; then, to reverse itself anew and declared the laws unconstitutional in August 2010; and the latest was on Feb. 15.

“They claimed there was flip flopping among the SC justices but there was none,” said Gullas.

The LCP argued that the 16 municipalities were not qualified for conversion into cities in terms of population, income and land area.

Mayor Rodriguez, however, said existing 122 cities stood to lose as much as P3.7 billion in their Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) if the status of the 16 as cities were recognized.

He said the issue was about equity, noting that a city like Davao had a population bigger than the populations of all 16 municipalities combined, and if they were recognized as cities, Davao’s per capita spending would only be half of theirs.

Braganza said the original Supreme Court decision rejecting the cityhood of the 16 was “not only final and executory, but has already been executed.”

He said the IRA shares that were supposed to go to the 16 have already been returned to the 122 cities, and that, during the 2010 elections, the Commission on Elections had treated the 16 as towns, not cities.

Former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, author of the Local Government Code, threw his support behind the LCP, saying he did not understand why the high court had flip-flopped on its decision.