MABALACAT CITY -- Former mayor Marino “Boking” Morales lodged a motion for reconsideration on the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) dismissing his electoral protest against Mayor Crisostomo Garbo.

Morales sought the “reversing or setting aside of the SC decision” noting the court erred on four issues which were presented as “new evidence.”

These arguments include the territory of the City of Mabalacat which is bigger than the Municipality of Mabalacat; the petition of complainant Pyra Lucas is defective and filed out-of-time; authoritative ruling is necessary in order for a petition to deny due course to prosper; the court erroneously ruled that the second placer in the subject contest should replace petitioner.

Garbo assumed as city mayor after Morales was disqualified to run for mayor here in 2016.

Election lawyer and senatorial candidate Romulo Macalintal earlier said the electoral case of Morales before the SC is still ongoing because they had presented new arguments.

“Naniniwala kaming matatag ang kanyang kaso at sa huli, kami umaasa na si Mayor Boking ang mananaig (We believe that his case is strong and in the end, Mayor Boking will prevail),” said Macalintal.

“With the new evidence we are hoping the SC will side with us,” said Morales, who is now running for vice-mayor.

Morales said the Municipality of Mabalacat has 8,537.98 hectares while under cityhood, its land area increased to 14,660.98 hectares including the 6,101.0042 hectares of the former Clark Air Base.

He added that the court “did not make any appreciation of the fact that the Land Management Bureau of the DENR released a political boundary map of Mabalacat Cadastre containing an area of 16,677.0740 hectares.”