The Supreme Court (SC) has been asked to reconsider its decision that declared Susan Areno Yap-Sulit as a qualified candidate and declared her as the duly-elected and proclaimed mayor of Tarlac City in the 2025 elections.

In a motion for reconsideration, Amado S. De Leon and Jay-Ar Capulong Navarro reiterated that Yap-Sulit was not a resident of Tarlac City for at least one year prior to the elections and, thus, disqualified to be a candidate for city mayor.

The motion was filed by Gialogo & Associates through lawyers Edward G. Gialogo, Joshua Mikael M. Quintana, Vanessa L. Galindo and Rebecca Joy M. Malitao.

The SC’s full court decision sought to be reconsidered was written by Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho Jr.

De Leon and Navarro pleaded the SC to reinstate the Oct. 22, 2025 ruling of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), as a full commission (en banc), that declared Yap-Sulit a disqualified candidate.

They told the SC that while Yap-Sulit was governor of Tarlac province and the seat the provincial government is in Tarlac City, she was not a resident of the city at least one year before the May 12, 2025 elections.

The one-year residency requirement is mandated under Section 39(a) of the Local Government Code.

In a motion for reconsideration, De Leon and Navarro said in disqualifying Yap-Sulit, the Comelec gave weight to the sworn statements of Tarlac City’s Barangay Tibag chairperson, barangay, secretary, barangay health workers, and other local personnel who testified on the non-residency of Yap-Sulit in Tarlac City a year before May 12, 2025.

The motion pointed out: “The probative value of this evidence did not arise merely from the official titles of the affiants. It arose from the nature of their duties, the frequency and temporal proximity of their observations, their personal knowledge of the locality, and the consistency of their accounts with the condition and actual use of the property.”

It cited a previous SC ruling which states that a barangay certification of residence constitutes compelling proof, not only because it enjoys the presumption of regularity in the performance of official functions, but also because barangay officials, by the very mandate of their office, are expected to know the residents within their jurisdiction:

It also noted that aside from the statements of the barangay officials, the Comelec, in disqualifying Yap-Sulit, also took into consideration the statements of her own political ally, who publicly admitted that she did not reside in Barangay Tibag, Tarlac City.

Thus, De Leon and Navarro said the Comelec’s ruling on the disqualification of Yap-Sulit “did not arbitrarily or capriciously accord greater evidentiary weight to the evidence presented by private respondents. Its Resolution identified the factual and legal bases for that determination and relied on the very categories of evidence that this SC's own jurisprudence has consistently recognized as competent and probative in determining actual residence.”

“The Comelec, en banc, evaluated the evidence in a manner entirely consistent with the standards laid down by both the law and this Court's own decisions,” they said.

The Comelec “cannot be said to have acted arbitrarily in according substantial evidentiary weight to evidence that this Court itself has repeatedly recognized as competent and probative on the issue of actual residence,” they added.

They asked the SC to “reconsider and set aside the decision dated June 3, 2026 and dismiss the petition for certiorari (filed by Yap-Sulit) for failure to establish that the Comelec en banc committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction; and reinstate the Resolution of the Commission on Elections En Banc dated Oct. 22, 2025….”

Ruling in favor of Yap-Sulit, the SC said it respects and upholds the will of the electorate, “not despite a candidate's ineligibility, but because, from the evidence presented, there is no such ineligibility.”

It said that Yap-Sulit served as governor of Tarlac and held office in Tarlac City for three consecutive terms.

“She is hardly a stranger to the locality. Even if the period of her residency in Tarlac City is disputed here, her political exposure to and experience in the city shows that she is neither a stranger nor a newcomer who is ‘unacquainted with the conditions and needs of a community,’” the SC said.

It pointed out: “At the very least, her election as the city mayor does not defeat the very purpose for the residency requirement.”