Ex-Justice Tinga seeks to void Taguig ordinance on number of councilors

Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Dante Tinga (File photo from the University of the East Facebook account)

MANILA, Philippines — Former Associate Justice Dante Tinga filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking to invalidate a Taguig City ordinance increasing its councilor seats from eight to 12.

In filing a petition for a temporary restraining order on Monday, Tinga pointed out that increasing the number of councilor seats would be unconstitutional as the city council has no power to do so — and no law would warrant it.

“Since the City presently has two councilor districts, the City Ordinance would increase the councilor seats from 16 to 24, which is unconstitutional. The petition asked the High Court to issue a temporary restraining order,” Tinga said.

Aside from the local government of Taguig, also included in the petition are the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

He said the situation is due to the fact that the Comelec promulgated a resolution that sought to implement the “invalid” city ordinance; the same goes for both chambers of Congress for ratifying the city ordinance, also through a resolution.

READ: Comelec adopts Taguig ordinance on Embo barangays

According to Tinga, both resolutions did not have “the force and effect of a law” as it did not undergo the prescribed three readings for a measure to become a law under the Constitution, and bear the signature of the president.

READ: Taguig ordinance hiking number of councilors void