SC ousts P’panga mayor

With just three days away from election day, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the mayor of Mabalacat, Pampanga yesterday to vacate his post for having served more than three terms, which is prohibited by law.

In a 15-page en banc decision, the SC ruled that Mabalacat Mayor Marino Morales is serving his fourth term, being the town’s chief executive without a break since July 1, 1995.

"In just over a month, by June 30, 2007, he will have been mayor of Mabalacat for 12 consecutive years," it said.

The SC ordered Mabalacat Vice Mayor Chris Garbo to assume the mayoral post.

The certificate of candidacy (COC) that Morales filed on Dec. 30, 2003 when he ran for another term should be cancelled, the SC said.

As such, it said Morales "cannot be considered a candidate in the May 2004 elections."

On Jan. 10, 2004, lawyers Venancio Rivera and Normandick de Guzman filed a petition with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the cancellation of Morales’ COC on the ground that he had served three consecutive terms as Mabalacat mayor.

They argued that his candidacy violated Section 8, Article X of the Constitution and Section 43 (b) of Republic Act 7160, or the Local Government Code.

In his answer to the petition, Morales said he was elected Mabalacat mayor for the periods July 1, 1995 to June 30, 1998, and July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2004.

However, he argued that he served the second term from July 1, 1998 to June 30, 2001 only as a "caretaker" or "de facto officer" because he was not validly elected since Branch 57 of the Angeles City regional trial court declared his proclamation as mayor null and void.

The SC, however, ruled that whether as "caretaker" or "de facto officer," Morales exercised the powers and enjoyed the pre-requisites of the mayor’s office, which enabled him to "stay on indefinitely."

Morales added that the Ombudsman placed him under preventive suspension due to a graft case from Jan. 16, 1999 to July 15 of the same year.

The Comelec’s second division, in a resolution on May 6, 2004, ruled that Morales’ term of office was not interrupted by his preventive suspension.

With its ruling, the SC declared moot the petition for quo warranto filed by Anthony Dee, Morales’ rival in the May 1998 elections.