Supreme Court releases ruling on Bulacan gov row

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) formally released yesterday its ruling nullifying resolutions and an order of the Commission on Elections (Come-lec) that ousted Bulacan Gov. Joselito Mendoza and proclaimed his rival, former agrarian reform secretary Roberto Pagdanganan, as the winner in the 2007 gubernatorial contest.

In a 15-page decision penned by Associate Justice Jose Perez, the SC ruled that the Comelec committed grave abuse of discretion in ordering Mendoza’s ouster in favor of Pagdanganan’s protest when the poll body violated its own rule requiring majority vote in executing its decisions on election cases.

The SC said the failure of Comelec to muster the required majority vote even after the rehearing of the case last Feb. 15 “should have caused the dismissal” of Pagdanganan’s poll protest.

The SC said the Comelec “completely ignored and disregarded its very own decree” under Section 6 Rule 18 of the Rules of Procedure, which requires a majority vote of four among its commissioners before a ruling becomes final and executory, when it issued the order for Mendoza’s ouster and the succeeding writ of execution.

Under the same rules, the Comelec should have junked the complaint of Pagdanganan, the SC added.

The nullified Comelec ruling showed that Pagdanganan got 342,295 votes as against Mendoza’s 337,974, or a vote margin of 4,321 votes.

The 9-4-2 voting of the justices on the case was announced by SC spokesman Midas Marquez last Tuesday “to avert any violence that may occur” because of earlier tension in the Bulacan provincial capitol.