THE SUPREME Court has validated with finality the 2013 election of Antique Gov. Exequiel Javier as it junked the motion for reconsideration of Javier’s political adversaries pressing for his disqualification over the issue of his having suspended a local official during an election period.
In an en banc session last Tuesday, the high court denied the petition for reconsideration that the private respondents had filed in a certiorari case against the Supreme Court decision in favor of Javier.
“The denial is effective immediately,” said court spokesperson Theodore Te.
He said the ruling upheld Javier’s continued stay as governor.
Disqualified
The high court had granted last Jan. 12 Javier’s petition stopping the enforcement of the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) en banc order a year ago canceling his 2013 certificate of candidacy.
The poll body disqualified the governor for suspending Valderrama town Mayor Joyce Roquero during the election period, an act that was previously banned by law.
The petitioners cited an Omnibus Election Code provision in seeking his disqualification for enforcing a suspension during the election period.
The provision bars any public official, private corporation or association, religious organization or landowner from coercing or intimidating his subordinates to “campaign or vote for or against any candidate as any aspirant for the nomination or selection of candidates.”
Explicitly repealed
But the high court said the Comelec lacked the basis to disqualify Javier as Republic Act No. 7890, which amended the Revised Penal Code and the Omnibus Election Code, had already explicitly repealed the cited provision.
In its unanimous ruling last month, the high court said the Comelec’s “stubborn insistence” that RA 7890 “merely impliedly repealed [the ban] despite the clear wordings of the law amounted to an arbitrary and whimsical exercise of judgment.”
Granting Javier’s certiorari plea, the high court found that the Comelec had committed grave abuse of discretion in disqualifying him.