The Supreme Court (SC) will be asked to strike down the Taguig city ordinance that increased to 12 the number of councilors in the two districts of Taguig and Pateros and triggered the late-night confrontation between Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Miguel Zubiri.
Retired SC Justice Dante Tinga announced his plan to petition the High Court next week to nullify the city ordinance and the Comelec resolution that upheld it for violating the Constitution and the law that created the city charter of Taguig.
“The city ordinance and the Comelec resolution approving it are unconstitutional because neither body has the power to legislate the matter,” Tinga stressed. “Only Congress has that power. In fact, the current number of councilors is clearly outlined in the city charter of Taguig, which is an act of Congress.”
Tinga further argued that the Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 23, which Zubiri had accused Cayetano of railroading, “does not have the force and effect of law” since it did not go through the proper legislative process, including its passage on three readings.
Tinga is a long-time resident and former congressman of Taguig. A law professor and dean, he served as senior associate justice of the Supreme Court and, until recently, chairman of the Development Bank of the Philippines.
On Sept. 16, the Taguig Sangguniang Panlungsod passed Ordinance No. 144 to transfer 10 EMBO (Enlisted Men’s Barrio) barangays, which had previously voted in Makati City, to the two districts of Taguig and Pateros and increased the number of councilors from eight to 12 in each congressional and councilor district.
One week later, Cayetano introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 23 with similar provisions, triggering Zubiri’s objection. Zubiri said the resolution was not on the day’s Senate agenda and that it was too late to discuss it. The two senators almost came to blows in the ensuing heated argument before cooler heads prevailed.
The two later patched things up, and Zubiri relented and withdrew his objection, saying the resolution did not have the force of law anyway. The resolution passed just before the Senate adjourned late at night. A video of the confrontation on the Senate floor later went viral on mainstream and social media.
The next day, the Commission on Elections en banc upheld the ordinance in Resolution No. 111069). The House of Representatives concurred with the Senate resolution on the same day.
The transfer of the 10 EMBO barangays to the two districts of Taguig and Pateros was an offshoot of the 2021 Supreme Court decision that settled the territorial dispute between Taguig and Makati over the areas covered by the Fort Bonifacio Military Reservation. The decision confirmed with finality that the barangays legally and historically belong to the territory of Taguig City.
Tinga, who had led the decades-old battle to regain the territory and the efforts to convert Taguig into a city, said that while he supports the transfer of the 10 EMBO barangays to Taguig and Pateros, the increase in the number of councilors from eight to 12 requires a law.
He said it violates both the Local Government Code, under which the Sanggunian has no power to legislate such an increase, and the law creating the city charter of Taguig that set the number of councilors per district at eight. Increasing the number of councilors in the two districts requires a law amending the city charter.
“Neither does the Comelec have the power to extend validity to or approve the city ordinance under the Constitution, the Local Government Code, or any other law,” he said.
‘As things stand, both City Ordinance No. 144 and Comelec Resolution No. 11069 are null and void,” Tinga declared.
