SISINIO Andales cannot seek another term as Cebu City councilor in the May 13, 2019 elections as ruled by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) second division.
Like fellow councilor candidate Alvin Arcilla, Andales has served the maximum three consecutive terms allowed under the election law, Comelec said.
But Andales said he will file a motion for reconsideration and might even go all the way to the Supreme Court.
Comelec’s cancellation of Andales’s certificate of candidacy (COC) is another blow to the slate of the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK).
Andales is the second BOPK candidate for councilor whose COC the Comelec cancelled after it had done the same to Arcilla’s.
A copy of the Comelec resolution was served to Andales on Thursday, March 28.
Like Arcilla, Andales said he will file a motion for reconsideration before the Comelec en banc.
In a separate interview, Cebu City Election Supervisor Marchel Sarno said that like Arcilla, Andales is still considered a candidate since the decision is not yet final and executory.
“They can still campaign as if they are qualified because the decision is not yet final and executory. It will only become final and executory if the En Banc will release a decision and they cannot get a temporary restraining order,” Sarno told SunStar Cebu.
Once the decision becomes final, BOPK will only have six councilor candidates in the north district, Sarno said.
He said that Comelec’s granting the petition to cancel the COC is like no COC has been filed at all.
“So there is no candidate, unlike the disqualification case that they can substitute,” he said.
In the nine-page resolution, Comelec did not agree with Andales’s argument that his term was effectively interrupted when he served his suspension imposed by the Office of the President in 2016.
“On the merits, we agree with the petitioner that respondent has served three consecutive terms as a member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of First District of Cebu. Thus, he is ineligible for a fourth term for the same position,” the Comelec said.
Last Oct. 22, one Allen Canoy petitioned the Comelec to cancel the COCs of Arcilla and Andales, who both belong to BOPK.
Canoy said Arcilla and Andales were no longer qualified to run for the same office because “jurisprudence categorically states that suspension from office cannot be considered as an interruption of their term.” Arcilla and Andales were among the 12 councilors, along with then mayor Michael Rama and Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, who were suspended for six months in 2016 for granting P20,000 in calamity assistance to all officials and employees of City Hall in 2013 in the wake of the earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda.
According to the Comelec resolution, the interruption of a term exempting an elective official from the three-term limit rule is one that involves no less than the involuntary loss of title to the office, as cited in the Supreme Court decided case of Aldovino. (RVC)