SC unseats Maliksi son as Imus City mayor

MANILA, Philippines - Exactly two months before their rematch in the mayoral race in May, Mayor Emmanuel Maliksi of Imus City, Cavite and his rival Homer Saquilayan are switching places.

This, after the Supreme Court (SC) effectively unseated Maliksi and reinstated Saquilayan to the top city post.

According to SC spokesman Theodore Te, SC justices voted 8-7 in their regular session yesterday to uphold an earlier Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruling proclaiming Saquilayan as the real winner in his 2010 battle with Maliksi, son of former Cavite governor Erineo “Ayong” Maliksi.

The SC also lifted the temporary restraining order (TRO) it issued last year that stopped Saquilayan’s proclamation.

“The SC decided to dismiss the petition filed by Maliksi and to affirm Comelec’s resolutions declaring Saquilayan as the duly elected mayor of Imus, Cavite. The decision is immediately executory considering that there are only less than five months left in Saquilayan’s term of office,” Te said in a text message to reporters.

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio penned the ruling, and Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices Mariano del Castillo, Roberto Abad, Martin Villarama, Jose Perez, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Marvic Leonen concurred with it.

Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin dissented from the majority opinion and was joined by Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Jose Mendoza and Bienvenido Reyes.

Last October, Sereno unilaterally issued the TRO in favor of Maliksi.

In the assailed ruling, the Comelec, in a vote of 4-2, affirmed the findings of its first division in August last year that declared Saquilayan the real winner in the 2010 mayoral race after a recount of votes cast in contested precincts showed that he garnered a total of 48,521 votes or 8,429 more than Maliksi’s 40,092.

The poll body was ruling on Saquilayan’s appeal on the decision of Imus Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Cesar Mangrobang last November annulling his proclamation as mayor by the Comelec after the 2010 polls.

In his decision, Mangrobang declared Maliksi the elected mayor for obtaining 41,088 votes as against Saquilayan’s 40,423, or a winning margin of 665 votes, based on the court’s audit of the ballots protested. This ruling allowed Maliksi to assume the mayoral post.