ILOILO CITY—The Supreme Court has upheld the proclamation of former Antique Gov. Exequiel Javier, reversing his removal from office by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
In an en banc decision dated Jan. 12, the high court annulled the Comelec order, according to a post on the official Twitter account of the Supreme Court’s public information office.
The full text of the decision had not been posted at the Supreme Court’s website as of 3:53 p.m. Friday.
Lawyer Theodore Te, spokesperson of the high court, said the copy of the ruling would be posted later on Friday.
The Comelec and the Department of Interior and Local Government removed Javier from office on Feb. 3, 2015, after finding him guilty of an election offense.
The poll body had ruled that Javier violated the Omnibus Election Code when he ordered the suspension of Mayor Mary Joyce Roquero of Valderrama town in Antique during the 2013 election period.
The election law prohibits the suspension of any elective official during the election period without the approval of the Comelec or unless the suspension is related to graft and corruption.
Gov. Rhodora Cadiao, then vice governor, assumed Javier’s post but Cornelio Aldon, who lost to Javier in the 2013 elections, filed a petition in the Supreme Court that he should be declared and installed as governor.
On Jan. 20, Cadiao asked the high court to order a vice gubernatorial candidate to explain why he should not be cited for contempt for leaking a purported decision of the Supreme Court.
In a nine-page petition filed by the provincial legal office in the Supreme Court on Jan. 20, Cadiao accused lawyer Eduardo Fortaleza of violating the sub judice rule when he sent text messages claiming that the Supreme Court reversed the disqualification and subsequent removal from office of Javier.
The sub judice rule prohibits disclosures and comments on pending judicial proceedings to avoid influencing courts.
In his text messages, Fortaleza, an independent candidate for vice governor, said Javier “could return to the capitol anytime” because the high court issued a status quo ante (the way things before) order related to Javier’s disqualification by the Comelec.
Fortaleza has stood by his statements calling Cadiao’s petition “an exercise in futility.”
Javier is running for governor in the May 9 elections. His son Antique Rep. Paolo Everardo Javier is running for a third term.
The former governor, younger brother of slain former Gov. Evelio Javier, also served as representative of the province’s lone congressional for six terms from 1987 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2010.
He was also the governor from 1998 to 2001 and 2010 to 2013. RC