What's worse than denying the people their right to select their leaders? The answer is simple: refusing to acknowledge the people they have chosen to represent them during elections.
That's exactly what's happening in San Pedro City, Laguna, where the issue of whether two councilors whose bid to represent their constituents has been blocked by the local government for purely legalistic reasons has reached a stalemate.
Two months after the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) ordered its regional office to implement the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) ruling allowing Councilors Iryne Vierneza and Marion Acierto to take their seats at the Sangguniang Panlungsod, there is still no clear indication that the issue will be resolved with finality in the near future.
For one, city officials have indicated that they will take this issue all the way to the Supreme Court, despite the fact that both DILG and Comelec have decided that the LGU's argument that Congress alone has the right to "reapportion" members of the Sangguniang Panlungsod have no legal basis.
The two councilors are still reportedly prevented from performing their duties at the Sangguniang Panlungsod, which meant that the people who trusted them during the May 2022 elections are still prevented from being represented at the local council.
This situation should not escape the attention of DILG, Comelec and other concerned national officials.
The fact that the city government seems to be willing to defy orders handed down from above is tantamount to abuse of power - the very abuse of power which the current city administration is claiming to rectify.