Mandaue: Petition to junk Mayor Cortes’ candidacy filed at Comelec

Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes. | File Photo

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — A petition seeking to disqualify the candidacy of dismissed Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes was filed in the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

In a 12-page petition, Ines Corbo Necesario and Julia Oporto Narte both residents of Barangay Labogon, Mandaue City alleged that Cortes committed “material misrepresentation” in his Certificate of Candiday (COC) for Mayor claiming to be eligible and seeks to be elected despite him facing perpetual disqualification from public office.

The Office of the Ombudsman issued order last September 26 to dismiss Cortes from public service after he was found of guilty of grave misconduct for allowing a cement batching plan to operate without necessary permits.

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“To date, the said decision has yet to be reversed or set aside…More importantly, to date, no restraining order has been issued to hold in abeyance the implementation thereof and application of the accessory penalties,” states in the petition of Necessario and Narte.

The two petitioners asked to cancel Cortes’ COC for the May 12, 2025 elections and not be given due course. Cortes filed his COC on October 4.

They quoted Administrative Order No. 17, Series of 2003, the amended Rule III of the Rules of Procedure of the Office of the Ombudsman that mandates that “An appeal shall not stop a decision from being executory…A decision of the Office of the Ombudsman in administrative cases shall be executed as a matter of course.”

“Thus, notwithstanding an appeal, the decision which imposed the penalty of dismissal from service together with its accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification is immediately executory. Further, it has long been settled that a dismissal order from the Office of the Ombudsman is executory,” they said.

“When respondent Cortes stated in his Certificate of Candidacy that he is eligible for the office that he seeks to be elected to, he committed a material misrepresentation,” they added.

Cortes has filed a petition at the Supreme Court to prevent Comelec from enforcing the dismissal order by the Office of the Ombudsman against him. He was granted a temporary restraining order by the Supreme court blocking the Comelec from the implementing the cancellation of his COC.