SC unseats Mabalacat mayor

WITH just four days before the May 14 midterm elections and more than a month before his current term expires, the Supreme Court yesterday voided the proclamation of Marino "Boking" Morales as mayor of Mabalacat, Pampanga for having already served three previous consecutive terms.

In a 15-page en banc decision, the Court unanimously cancelled Morales’ certificate of candidacy (COC) dated Dec. 30, 2003, and directed the vice mayor-elect of the municipality to serve Morales’ remaining term until June 30, 2007.

The high court granted the separate petitions seeking to nullify a Commission on Elections’ resolution allowing Morales to run despite having already served three consecutive terms. The petitions were filed by a group of lawyers led by Attorneys Venancio Rivera and Normandick de Guzman; and Anthony Dee who is also running for mayor.

"Respondent Morales should promptly be ousted from the position of mayor of Mabalacat. (He) cannot be considered a candidate in the May 2004 elections. Not being a candidate, the votes cast for him should not be counted and must be considered stray votes," the SC ruled.

The SC junked Morales’ argument that his current term which ends on June 30 is not his fourth because a previous term he served from July 1, 1998 through June 30, 2001 should not have been counted since his proclamation for that term was declared void by the Angeles City regional trial court branch 57.

Morales said his term of office was also interrupted by a six-month preventive suspension imposed upon him by the Ombudsman, during which Dee was proclaimed the duly elected mayor and served as one.

The high court, however, said that Morales was "validly elected for the term July 1, 1998 to June 30, 2001… and he served as mayor until June 30, 2001. He was mayor for the entire period, notwithstanding the decision of the RTC in the electoral protest case filed by petitioner Dee ousting him as mayor. Such circumstance does not constitute an interruption in serving the full term."

The SC noted that even as "caretaker" or "de facto" officer, Morales exercised the powers and enjoyed the prerequisites of the office which enabled him to stay on indefinitely.

"Morales is now serving his fourth term. He has been mayor of Mabalacat continuously without any break since July 1, 1995. In just over a month, by June 30, 2007, he will have been mayor for 12 continuous years," the court said.

Rivera and De Guzman petitioned the Comelec on Jan. 10, 2004 to cancel Morales’ COC which he had filed five days earlier on the ground that he had already served three consecutive terms as mayor. The Comelec found Morales disqualified to run for another term on May 6, 2004 and subsequently cancelled his COC.

But Morales filed a motion for reconsideration which the Comelec en banc granted, saying that the Angeles City RTC’s nullification of his proclamation for what was to have been his second term (July 1998-June 2001) made him a de facto mayor and severed his continuous service for three consecutive terms.