THREE days before the new set of local officials assumes office, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc ordered the Special City Board of Canvassers (SCBOC) to proclaim outgoing Cebu City Councilor Jerry Guardo as the eighth elected city councilor in the north district.
In the writ of execution issued by the en banc on June 27, 2019, the en banc ordered the SCBOC to convene at the Comelec Session Hall in Intramuros, Manila at 10 a.m., Monday, July 1, 2019, for a session and amend the Certificate of Canvass for the Sangguniang Panlungsod of the Cebu City north district by declaring as stray all the votes for Councilor Alvin Arcilla.
It also requests the SCBOC to amend the Certificate of Canvass of Votes and the Proclamation for Sangguniang Panlungsod of the First District of Cebu City, on the basis of the amended Certificate of Canvass.
Cebu City election officer Marchel Sarno said Guardo, together with Alvin Dizon and Raymond Alvin Garcia, will be proclaimed as the duly elected members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod in the North District of Cebu City in Manila on July 1.
Sarno said the three elected officials fall in the sixth (Dizon), seventh (Garcia) and eighth positions.
Guardo obtained a total of 99,115 of votes during the May 13 national and local midterm elections.
The writ was issued after the en banc issued a certificate of finality of the earlier decision canceling Arcilla’s certificate of candidacy (COC).
Arcilla filed a motion for reconsideration on April 1, which the en banc denied on May 28 after it promulgated a resolution.
He also asked for a temporary restraining order before the Supreme Court on June 18, but failed to get one.
On June 21, the en banc issued a Certificate of Finality canceling Arcilla’s candidacy on the grounds that he had used up all three terms and could no longer seek another term.
The writ of execution was issued on Thursday, June 27.
Arcilla was among 12 councilors, along with then Cebu City mayor and now incoming vice mayor Michael Rama and mayor-elect and outgoing Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, who got suspended for six months in 2016 for granting P20,000 in calamity assistance to all officials and employees of Cebu City Hall in 2013 in the wake of the earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda.
Arcilla ran for a third term in the council in 2016 and won.
He filed his COC for the recent May 13 elections despite the three-term limit imposed by the 1987 Constitution.
Cebu City Councilor Sisinio Andales is in the same boat as Arcilla. Andales, too, ran for a third term in 2016 and won.
During the last regular session of the 14th City Council on June 25, Arcilla and Andales, together with outgoing councilor Margarita Osmeña, were given plaques of recognition as three-term councilors.