The Supreme Court (SC) was asked on Monday, Sept. 16, to declare unconstitutional a Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolution that allows government appointive officials to still hold office while running as candidates of a Party-List organization.
In a petition, lawyer Romulo B. Macalintal asked the SC to stop the Comelec from enforcing Section 11, Rule II of the poll body’s Resolution No. 11045 dated Aug. 28, 2024.
Macalintal said the provision in the Comelec’s resolution states that “public officials who accept a nomination as a party-list representative may continue to hold office even after acceptance of their nomination.”
He pointed out that the provision in the resolution violates Section (4), Article IX-B of the Constitution and existing jurisprudence that “no office or employee in the civil service shall engage directly or indirectly, in any electioneering or partisan political activity.”
He argued that the resolution will allow public appointive officials to engage in partisan political activities and even facilitate the misuse of public funds to support partisan political activities.
Also, he pointed out that the resolution will give undue favor and unwarranted advantage to public appointive officials who will be allowed to seek elective offices without relinquishing their appointive posts, thus, violating the equal protection of the laws guaranteed under the Constitution.
In issuing the resolution, Macalintal said the Comelec contradicts the SC’s 2010 decision which ruled that any person holding a public appointive office, including active members of the Armed Forces and employees in government-owned and controlled corporations, would be considered ipso facto (by the fact itself) resigned upon filing of their certificate of candidacy.
Macalintal reminded that that “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.”
“It is unbelievable that the Comelec would suddenly make a change of heart in the 2025 elections,” he lamented.