DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 June) – Datu Pax Ali Mangudadatu has been unseated as Governor of Sultan Kudarat in a Supreme Court (SC) decision released on June 19, but Vice Governor Raden Sakaluran, who is mandated to “serve the remaining duration of the term July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025” will sit as Governor only for five days – June 23 to 27 – as the new set of elected officials assume their posts on June 30.
Mangudadatu, however, will return as Governor of Sultan Kudarat on June 30, having been elected last May 12 to a three-year term until 2028.
The Supreme Court en banc also abandoned the “second-placer rule” in local elections, ruling that the position of Sultan Kudarat Governor left vacant by the disqualification of Mangudadatu in the 2022 elections will instead be filled through the rule of succession under the Local Government Code.
The high court ordered Mangudadatu to “cease and desist from discharging the functions of the Office of the Governor of Sultan Kudarat and to surrender the same to the duly elected Vice Governor of the province in the May 9, 2022 elections.” It said the Vice Governor — Raden Sakaluran — “shall serve the remaining duration of the term July l, 2022 to June 30, 2025.”
In a 37-page decision promulgated on April 22 but released on June 19, the high court upheld the resolution of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) canceling Mangudadatu’s Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for failing to meet the residency requirement to run for governor of Sultan Kudarat.
In October 2021, Mangudadatu, then incumbent mayor of Datu Abdullah Sangki in the then undivided Maguindanao, filed his COC for the gubernatorial post in Sultan Kudarat province for the May 2022 elections, declaring his residence in Barangay Tamnag, Lutayan, Sultan Kudarat. His opponent, Sharifa Akeel Mangudadatu, wife of former Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, petitioned the Comelec to cancel his COC, arguing that he was not a bona fide resident of Sultan Kudarat, as required by law.
Comelec ruled in favor of the petition, citing Mangudadatu’s continued discharge of mayoral duties in a different province as proof of his failure to reestablish residence in Sultan Kudarat. The decision was affirmed by the Comelec en banc and later by the Supreme Court.
The Court declared that Mangudadatu committed material misrepresentation by filing his COC for Sultan Kudarat Governor, knowing he did not satisfy the residency requirement. As a result, all votes cast in his favor were not counted and considered stray.
The ruling also marked the Court’s abandonment of the second-placer rule, which previously allowed the candidate with the second-highest number of votes to be proclaimed as winner in such cases.
“The second-placer rule undermines the people’s choice in every election and is repugnant to the people’s constitutional right to suffrage,” the decision stated, citing the constitutional guarantee of the electorate’s right to choose their leaders.
Under the new doctrine, the Court said vacancies caused by disqualification will now be filled by the duly elected Vice Governor, under the Local Government Code’s rules on succession.
The decision settled previous inconsistencies in jurisprudence regarding the filling of posts vacated due to candidate ineligibility or disqualification.
Mangudadatu elevated the case to the Supreme Court after the Comelec rulings, but the high court’s decision is now final and executory.
The ruling emphasized that the electorate cannot be compelled to accept a candidate they did not vote for and reaffirmed the principle that elective public offices must be filled only by those who receive the highest number of valid votes.
The Court also cited Republic Act 6646, or the Electoral Reforms Law of 1987, in explaining the treatment of votes in cases where a candidate is disqualified before the elections.
The Supreme Court’s decision is expected to guide future cases involving the disqualification of local elective officials. (Zoe R. Hontiveros / MindaNews intern)
