By US News Agency / Asian

Claiming the Commission on Elections’ (COMELEC) manner by which it disposed of its cases is not worthy of credence, a Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge here disqualified from his post the mayor of Viga, Catanduanes, who was installed by the poll body after proclaiming him winner in the May 2010 elections.

In her decision handed down last week, RTC Branch 43 Presiding Judge Lelu Contreras said Viga town mayor Abelardo Abundo Sr. was already ineligible to serve as mayor, despite his May 10, 2010 elections victory, because it was against the three-term limit for local officials.

In fact, Abundo was not even a qualified candidate for the position as both the 1987 Constitution and the Local Government Code of 1991 cleary prohibit a fourth term for a local official, Contreras said in the decision.

The decision was in response to a quo warranto petition filed by a certain Ernesto Vega, who claimed he was a registered voter but reportedly a supporter of Abundo’s chief rival to the post, former Mayor Jose Torres, according to a report of the Catanduanes Tribune.

In his petition, Vega declared that Abundo has been elected mayor of Viga in the 2001, 2004 and 2007 elections and assumed office and performed his duties and responsibilities for three consecutive terms, it said.

Vega said Abundo was even disqualified from running for another term and more from serving another term as mayor given the provision of the Constitution that states in Article 10, Section 8 state that: “The term of office of elective local officials, except barangay officials, which shall be determined by law, shall be three years and no such official shall serve for more than three consecutive terms.”

In her decision, Contreras also cited Section 43 of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991 state that: “(a) The term of office of all local elective officials elected after the effectivity of this Code shall be three (3) years, starting from noon of June 30, 1992 or such date as may be provided for by law, except that of elective barangay officials: Provided, That all local officials first elected during the local elections immediately following the ratification of the 1987 Constitution shall serve until noon of June 30, 1992.”

“(b) No local elective official shall serve for more than three (3) consecutive terms in the same position. Voluntary renunciation of the office for any length of time shall not be considered as an interruption in the continuity of service for the full term for which the elective official concerned was elected,” the law said.

Abundo, on the other hand, said in his motion for reconsideration filed promptly after receiving a copy of Contreras’ ruling late last week that he did not serve the full term from 2004 to 2007 as he assumed office only after winning an election protest and serving for only one year and two months.

Legal opinions of the Comelec and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) he secured stated that he was qualified for re-election in the May 10, 2010 polls.

Last July, the Comelec’s First Division even dismissed “for lack of merit” the petition for disqualification filed by Torres against Abundo on ground it contended that the latter failed to serve the entire duration of the second term because his assumption of office and exercise of the functions thereof only commenced on May 8, 2006.

“The period from July 1, 2004 to May 7, 2006 served as a gap which renders the three-term limit inapplicable,” the Commission’s First Division said in the ruling.

Contreras, however was not impressed by the poll body’s ruling as citing the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Simon Aldovino, Jr., et. al. vs. Commission on Elections, et. al. (G.R. No. 184836), she said Abundo’s assumption of office on his second term, no matter how short it was, was a service of the term covering the period from 12 noon of June 30, 2004 to 12 noon of June 30, 2007, the term for which he ran and was declared a winner in an election contest.

“The period from July 1, 2004 to December 12, 2005, during which the election contest was pending in court, is but an interruption in the exercise of Mr. Abundo’s powers as mayor but not an interruption of the term,” Contreras declared.

Neither could Abundo’s situation during the period be considered akin to involuntary renunciation because the SC ruling in Aldovino is clear that it is severance from office or loss of title that renders the three-term limit rule inapplicable, the RTC judge said.

She said that Abundo did not lose his title during the period when the election contest was pending and, on the contrary, he was claiming title to office through the election protest that he filed against Torres.

She said that the Court could not be persuaded by the decision of the Comelec in dismissing the petition for disqualification against Abundo because of the conflicting and contradicting decisions in the cases involving Caramoran Mayor Agnes Popa as well as then Panganiban Vice Mayor Robert Fernandez against Mayor Gregorio Angeles rendered by the Second Division.

The Popa decision overlooked a procedural lapse in the filing of an election protest but three months later, the same Division ruled that Fernandez’s failure to state the votes per protested precinct, the very same requirement it overlooked before, was a fatal defect that results in the dismissal of the protest.

“How can this Court be persuaded by the cited decisions of the Comelec when the manner by which it disposed of its cases is not worthy of credence?” Contreras said.

In concluding that Mayor Abundo had already served three consecutive terms from 2001 to 2007 making him ineligible to run for the fourth time in 2010 election, the RTC noted that anyway, he simply won by plurality of votes and not by majority, which is 50 percent plus one.

It cited the Certificate of Canvass which stated that Abundo garnered 3,259 votes representing only 30.7 percent of all the votes cast while his closest opponent, Torres, had 3,040 or 28.66 percent.

On Tuesday, Abundo told the PNA that he remained the mayor of Viga and would hold on to the post until all legal remedies were exhausted.

“If the RTC would not grant my motion for reconsideration, I will elevate the case to a higher court and hope that a more objective decision is obtained,” he said.