A RESIDENT of Sitio Fatima, Barangay Apas, Cebu City has filed a petition to cancel the certificates of candidacy (COCs) of two re-electionists under Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).

The verified petitions to deny due course against Councilors Sisinio Andales and Alvin Arcilla were filed by a certain Allen Canoy last Oct. 22 before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Central Office.

Canoy alleged that Arcilla and Andales are no longer qualified to run again for the same office because “jurisprudence categorically states that suspension from office cannot be considered as an interruption of their term.”

To recall, Andales and Arcilla were among 12 councilors, along with then mayor Michael Rama and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, who were suspended for six months in 2016 for abuse of authority after the City Government granted P20,000 in calamity assistance to all the officials and employees of City Hall in 2013 after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda hit Cebu.

Andales and Arcilla were elected into office in 2010 and were reelected in 2013 and 2016.

Andales and Arcilla, Canoy said, were on their second terms as when the Office of the President suspended them from office from May 17 to June 30, 2016.

The BOPK councilors involved, though, are unfazed.

“Nag-expect na ta, but we consulted our legal counsel and several other lawyers before we filed our COCs,” Arcilla said.

A lawyer, Andales said the petition filed against them is a “matter of interpretation.”

“I do believe that there is no basis in declaring our COC invalid. We are positive that this will be dismissed,” he added. (RTF)