ILOILO City – The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in this city welcomed Atty. Dan Cartagena’s petition before the Supreme Court seeking his proclamation as the 12th winning candidate for city councilor due to the death of Councilor Armand Parcon who ranked No. 2 in the polls last month.
Twelve city council seats were contested in the May 13 midterm elections. Cartagena was No. 13.
DILG Iloilo City head Atty. Ferdinand Panes said Cartagena’s petition is a test case as there is no jurisprudence yet on the condition cited.
Whatever the ruling of the court be, the DILG will respect it, stressed Panes.
Cartagena said declaring him the 12th winning councilor would be the most practical move.
Parcon died of pneumonia 10 days after his reelection. He was proclaimed a winner by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) but he was not able to take his oath of office.
While DILG respects Cartagena’s legal moves, Panes said the DILG stands by its current opinion that the death of Parcon created a permanent vacancy in the city council of 2019-2022 – unless ruled otherwise by the court.
Because of this, Panes said, the political party of Parcon would make a nomination for the councilor’s replacement, citing Section 45 of the Local Government Code (LGC).
“As far as the DILG is concerned, na-proclaim na sya (Parcon). Ang oath-taking is formality na lang ina while nagahulat sang bag-o nga term to start,” Panes said.
In his petition, Cartagena said Section 45 of the LGC cannot be applied to the incoming city council of 2019-2022 but only to the remaining unexpired term of Parcon in the city council of 2016-2019.
Section 45 of the LGC stated that in case of an SP vacancy, “the appointee shall come from the same political party as that of the sanggunian member who caused the vacancy and shall serve the unexpired term of the vacant office.”
“Parcon was not yet a member of the 2019-2022 city council because he was not able to take his oath of office and he had not assumed office yet. Indi sya pwede matawag nga member of city council 2019-2022,” asserted Cartagena./PN
