Cortes faces new petition for disqualification from 2025 elections

Dismissed Mandaue City Jonas Cortes. / CDN File

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Another individual has filed a petition before the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) seeking to disqualify dismissed Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes from joining the upcoming May 2025 midterm election.

Lawyer Ervin Estandarte, a resident of Barangay Pagsabungan, Mandaue City, filed the petition on Oct. 25, and the COMELEC received it on Oct. 28.

He asked the COMELEC to cancel Cortes’ certificate of candidacy for material misrepresentation, citing a violation of Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) and Section 40 (B) of the Local Government Code.

Earlier, two other Mandaue City residents had also filed a petition against Cortes’ candidacy.

Ines Corbo Necessario and Julita Oporto Narte, both from Barangay Labogon, filed their petition on grounds of material misrepresentation.

In his petition, Estandarte alleged that Cortes committed a violation in his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) by answering “Not Applicable (N/A)” to a question requiring disclosure of any case, including the case docket, title, filing date, and status.

“Such entry of N/A is a material misrepresentation in the respondent’s COC, as he knew fully well that he was dismissed from service by the Ombudsman and received this order on October 3, 2024,” Estandarte stated in his petition.

Cortes filed his COC on Oct. 4.

The lawyer cited Section 74 of the OEC, which states that facts declared in the COC “are true to the best of his knowledge.”

“Such material representation is knowingly made because on 3 October 2024, a day prior to filing of the respondent’s COC, he received an amended order of the Ombudsman dismissing him from the service to sit as mayor of Mandaue City, Cebu. Thus, he should have indicated in his COC such fact of his dismissal from service. Clearly therefore, by indicating N/A is a material representation necessitating the denial of due course to or cancellation of his COC,” he added.

The lawyer further argued that “by indicating N/A, he misled the COMELEC into believing that he (Cortes) has all the qualifications to run for public office.”

The petitioner also cited a Supreme Court ruling stating, “the denial of due course or cancellation of the COC is not based on lack of qualification but on the candidate making a material representation that is false.”

Estandarte added that had Cortes disclosed his dismissal order, the COMELEC “could have administratively, on its own, denied due course and canceled the respondent’s COC.”

Cortes was ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman for allowing a batching plant to operate in Mandaue without the required permits. This dismissal order prompted the COMELEC to issue a resolution canceling Cortes’ COC.

Cortes then appealed to the Supreme Court, which subsequently issued a temporary restraining order against the COMELEC resolution.

As of this writing, Cortes has yet to comment on the two petitions filed against his candidacy.

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