The Supreme Court (SC) stopped temporarily the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from enforcing its resolution that allows public appointive officials to continue holding public office even after their nomination as Party-List representatives.
The issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) by the SC on the petition filed by election lawyer Romulo B. Macalintal was announced by lawyer Camille Sue Mae L. Ting, SC’s spokespersons, during a press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
In his petition, Macalintal challenged Section 11 of Comelec’s Resolution No. 11045, which, among other things, allows public appointive officials to continue holding office even after being nominated as a Party-list representative. He sought the issuance of a TRO.
Ting said: “The SC 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 that public appointive officials are deemed resigned upon filing their certificate of candidacy.”
Ting also said the SC required the Comelec to comment on the petition within a non-extendible period of 10 days from receipt of the resolution.
In his petition, Macalintal told the SC that Section 11 of Comelec Resolution No. 11045 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.”
“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,” Macalintal said.
“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,” he also told the SC.