Ousted Batangas town mayor seeks Supreme Court TRO to keep post

STO. TOMAS, Batangas, Philippines—Midway through his three-year term as mayor of Sto. Tomas town, Renato Federico is facing an uphill battle to keep his post.

Federico on Monday sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court after the Commission on Elections ruled as “invalid” Federico’s substitution for mayoral bet Edna Sanchez when he ran against rival Osmundo Maligaya during the May 10, 2010.

Maligaya, who ran under the Liberal Party ticket of President Benigno Aquino, lost by a margin of 5,810 votes against Federico, a Nacionalista Party (NP) bet in the elections.

The Comelec en banc decision issued on December 21, a copy of which was handed to media here on Tuesday, also cited the “illegality of the proceedings of the Municipal Board of Canvassers (MBOC)” in coming out with a second certificate of canvass of votes and proclamation (CCOP) which had the name of Federico as winner.

Federico filed his certificate of candidacy on May 5, 2010, which was way beyond the December 14, 2009 deadline for the filing of a substitute certificate of candidacy (COC), said the Comelec.

The ruling said the December 14 deadline for filing of substitute COC should hold “if the cause of substitution is withdrawal of an official candidate.”

The Nacionalista Party had no bet when former Batangas Governor Armando Sanchez died on April 27, 2010 during a campaign sortie against incumbent Vilma Santos-Recto.

At the time of his demise, his wife Edna Sanchez was the mayoral bet of Sto. Tomas town.

On May 5, Federico filed his COC as substitute for Edna, who in turn filed her candidacy for governor in place of her deceased husband.

“It is not the death of Armando Sanchez that caused a vacancy in the mayoralty race in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, rather it is the withdrawal of the candidacy of former Mayor Edna Sanchez,” said the Comelec in its decision.

The Comelec decision also deemed Federico’s proclamation as newly elected mayor as “an outcome of an illegal and highly irregular proceedings of the MBOC.”

On May 11, the MBOC printed a canvass of votes and proclamation of winning candidates for Sto. Tomas mayor and vice mayor with the name of Edna Sanchez.

The MBOC afterwards printed a second CCOP of winning candidates for mayor and vice mayor but this time with the name of Renato Federico printed, as the duly elected mayor, cited the Comelec.

As it was an automated elections, information on the names of candidates had been configured prior to election day and as such “the canvassing and consolidated systems application cannot generate reports certificate of canvass of votes and proclamation bearing names that were not included in the configuration,” said the December 21 Comelec decision.

The Comelec ruled that the MBOC did not have “any authority to print another CCOP to correct what they tagged as a mere clerical error.”

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, counsel of Federico, said the Comelec decision was illegal for reversing two decisions that were already final and executory.

The first decision, he said, was issued on May 8, 2010, in which the Comelec en banc unanimously approved Resolution No. 8889, which upheld the candidacy of Federico as substitute to Edna.

On October 19, 2010, Topacio said the Comelec Second Division issued another resolution upholding Federico’s candidacy as valid and legal. This was in response to a petition of Maligaya asking the poll body to annul Federico’s candidacy, he said.

“Comelec has no authority to reverse decisions which are final and executory,” he said.

Topacio said he was asking for a TRO that would lift the Comelec order as “it is a shame for you to sit in a government where you are not mandated.”

Maligaya could not be immediately contacted by phone.

Sto. Tomas town, a first class municipality known as one of the old settlements in Batangas province lies at the foot of the inactive but fabled Mt. Makiling.