SC flip-flops in Imus City mayoral row

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has flip-flopped in the controversial election case between Mayor Emmanuel Maliksi and his rival, Homer Saquilayan, that has put the Imus City Hall in Cavite to a standstill a month before their rematch in the May polls.

Justices voted 8-7 in their summer session in Baguio City yesterday to reconsider their ruling last month favoring Saquilayan – which was supposed to be “immediately executory” – and instead remanded the case to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), SC spokesman Theodore Te said.

As a result, Te said the writ of execution reinstating Saquilayan as mayor was set aside.

The SC made a turnaround after Associate Justice Jose Perez changed his vote from their previous deliberations. 

In their voting last March 12, Perez voted with the majority in upholding an earlier Comelec ruling proclaiming Saquilayan as the real winner in the 2010 Imus mayoral contest. 

Perez was not present during the deliberations and just left his vote with the office of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.

He was unaware of the opinion of seven other associate justices in the minority at that time – Lucas Bersamin, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Jose Mendoza and Bienvenido Reyes – for the case to be remanded for the collegial resolution of the Comelec.

In yesterday’s deliberations, as the SC acted on Maliksi’s appeal, Perez joined the seven in the previous minority vote, making their stand the ruling opinion.

The earlier majority opinion of Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, and Associate Justices Mariano del Castillo, Roberto Abad, Martin Villarama, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Marvic Leonen thus became the minority opinion in yesterday’s voting.

The new ruling means Maliksi will keep his post until further orders from the court. 

In the assailed ruling, the Comelec, with 4-2 vote, 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 ruled on Saquilayan’s appeal on the decision of Imus Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Cesar Mangrobang in November last year annulling his proclamation as mayor by the Comelec after the 2010 polls. 

Mangrobang declared Maliksi the elected mayor for obtaining 41,088 votes versus 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, son of former Cavite governor and Liberal Party gubernatorial candidate Erineo “Ayong” Maliksi, to sit in City Hall.

After the 2010 polls, the Municipal Board of Canvassers proclaimed Saquilayan as the duly elected mayor with 48,181 votes versus Maliksi’s 39,682 or a margin of 8,499 votes. Maliksi subsequently filed an electoral protest questioning ballots that supposedly had discrepancies, including “double-shading, candidates’ ballot positions, ambiguous votes and so-called over-voting, among others.” But the Comelec upheld its decision favoring Saquilayan.