TWO days after attending the inaugural session of the 15th Cebu City Council on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, lawyer Sisinio Andales is booted out of his office.
On Thursday, July 4, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) deemed as final and executory the cancellation of Andales’s certificate of candidacy (COC), which he filed in October 2018.
Andales failed to get a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court (SC).
The Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) stalwart was among the three councilors—Margarita Osmeña and Alvin Arcilla—who were recognized on their third and last term during the last regular session of the 14th City Council last June 25.
He said in a phone interview that the SC usually sends its TRO through email, but he did not receive such document on Thursday.
However, Andales told SunStar Cebu that he filed a petition before the SC, asking it to review the Comelec’s decision to cancel his COC.
He is hopeful that the merits of his petition would be given due course by the SC.
The Comelec issued on July 4 a ceritificate of finality, upholding the en banc resolution issued last June 27 that cancelled the candidacy of Andales as city councilor on the grounds that he has served three straight terms.
A fourth consecutive term is prohibited under the 1987 Constitution.
Last June 28, the Comelec en banc denied the motion for reconsideration filed by Andales, who sought the reversal of the decision to cancel his COC.
Joel “Panday” Garganera will replace Andales. But Garganera has to wait for the en banc to issue an execution order before he could sit in the City Council, according to Cebu City North District Election Officer Marchel Sarno.
Both Garganera and Andales were incumbent councilors when they ran for the eight available seats for the north district in the City Council in the last May 13 elections.
“This is 8 (This is it), the w8 (wait) is over,” Garganera said in a text message to SunStar Cebu.
Garganera was number 8 in the ballot.
Barangay Apas resident Allen Canoy filed the petition in October 2018, asking the Comelec to nullify Andales’s COC as the councilor was seeking a fourth straight term.
Andales was still able to run and win, finishing the race in the fifth place. Garganera lost, after he only placed tenth among the 17 candidates.
Sarno said Andales’s case is similar to that of Arcilla.
A writ of execution was issued first last June 27 to boot out Arcilla and make Councilor Jerry Guardo as the official eighth member of the City Council’s north district.
Garganera, on the other hand, is set to file a motion for execution before the Comelec en banc.
After the writ of execution is issued, Garganera will become the eighth councilor. Guardo will move up to the seventh place.
Andales and Arcilla were among the 12 councilors 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.
Then mayor and now Vice Mayor Michael Rama and then vice mayor and now Mayor Edgardo Labella were also included in the suspension.
Andales and Arcilla sought a fresh term in the recent May 13 elections, saying their second term had been interrupted by the suspenson. Comelec also cancelled the COC of Arcilla, who also won in the last elections. (JJL)