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Friday, March 29, 2024

Supreme Court reinstates ousted Antique governor

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The Supreme Court has ordered the reinstatement of ousted Antique Gov. Exequiel Javier.

Voting 11-0, the Court reversed and set aside the order issued by the Commission on Elections en banc which granted the petition   for disqualification against Javier filed by former Lakas-CMD secretary-general and UNA candidate Raymundo Roquero and Cornelio Aldon, also of the Lakas-CMD, over Javier’s suspension of a town mayor critical of his administration two years ago.

Both Roquero and Aldon filed the disqualification case against Javier after he suspended Valderama Mayor Mary Joyce Roquero during the election period.

The Comelec held that Javier violated election laws when he suspended Roquero on Jan. 23, 2013, which falls within the election period.

It was alleged that Roquero’s suspension came after she manifested her political opposition against Javier, also during an election period. Thus, the act falls under “coercion of subordinates.”

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In a decision penned by Associate Justice Arturo Brion, the SC ruled that the basis   for disqualifying petitioner Javier no longer existed with the express repeal of Section 216 (d)(1) and 2 of the Omnibus Election Code by Republic Act 7890.   

The tribunal said the jurisdiction of the Comelec   to disqualify candidates is limited to election offenses under the Omnibus Election Code and that all other election offenses are beyond its ambit as these are criminal in nature.

“The Comelec gravely abused its discretion when it disqualified Governor Javier based on a provision of law that had already been expressly repealed,” the SC stressed.

The Comelec, in its Jan. 12, 2015 decision, ruled that petitioner Javier’s act of preventively suspending   Roquero   during the election ban fell within the contemplation of Section 261(d) of the Omnibus Election Code, which is a ground for disqualification.

It held that while Section 261(d) was repealed by RA 7890, it did not remove coercion as a ground   per se   for disqualification.

“Comelec’s stubborn   insistence that RA 7890 merely impliedly repealed Section 216 (d) despite the clear wordings of the law amounted to an arbitrary and whimsical exercise of judgment,” the SC added.

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