QUEZON CITY (PIA) — The Supreme Court has granted a prayer for a temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing a section of its resolution allowing public appointive officials to continue holding office even after being nominated as party-list representatives.
In a press conference today, October 1, 2024, SC spokesperson Camille Ting said, “The Court granted the prayer for TRO, effective immediately. Comelec is enjoined from implementing Section 11 of its Resolution No. 11045. All parties are required to observe the status quo. Public appointive officials are deemed resigned upon filing their certificate of candidacy.”
Lawyer Romulo B. Macalintal earlier challenged before the SC the subject Section 11 of the Comelec Resolution. He also sought the TRO against the implementation of this rule.
Ting added, “The Court also required the Comelec to comment on the petition within a non-extendible period of 10 days from notice.”
“The Court further required the Office of the Clerk of Court En Banc to personally serve the Court’s Resolution on the Comelec, which shall likewise personally file and serve its Comment,” she said.
Macalintal asked the SC last month to declare as unconstitutional Section 11, Rule II of Comelec Resolution No. 11045 dated Aug. 28, 2024 which states, among others, that “public officials who accept a nomination as a party-list representative may continue to hold office even after acceptance of their nomination.”
According to Macalintal, the rule violates Section (4), Article IX-B of the Constitution and existing jurisprudence that “no officer in the civil service shall engage, directly or indirectly, in any electioneering or partisan political activity.”
He said, “In previous elections, such as in the 2022 national and local elections, the Comelec has been very consistent in its rule that public appointive officials shall be considered ipso facto resigned from office and must vacate the same upon the filing of Certificates of Nomination and Acceptance of Nomination in party-list elections as provided in its August 2021 Resolution No. 10717.”
“The assailed rule of the Comelec, if not stopped by the Supreme Court, will open the floodgates to a number of high-ranking government officials to seek nomination as nominees of party-list groups, giving them full advantage in the political field to the damage and prejudice of candidates not connected with the government,” Macalintal warned. (PIA DMD)
