Two weeks after San Pedro City officials averted a possible “explosive” political situation prior to the 2025 local elections, the Sangguniang Panglungsod of the city has finally closed the book on another contentious issue that has threatened to create divisions within the city.
In its regular session last October 15, the city council finally allowed Councilors Marion Acierto and Iryne Vierneza to take their respective seats at the Sangguniang Panglungsod.
The event was an anticlimactic ending to a legal battle over the issue of whether Acierto and Vierneza – who had placed 11th and 12th during the 2022 national elections – should be allowed to serve at the city council due to legal technicalities.
Backgrounder
To recall, in its Minute Resolution No. 22-1002, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) decided that starting from the 2022 national elections, the city council of San Pedro, Laguna should be apportioned 12 seats.
However, city officials led by Vice Mayor Ina Olivarez, citing the 2013 charter of the city which had only apportioned 10 seats, took what critics had called a “narrowly legalistic” point of view and prevented Acierto and Vierneza from taking their seats.
Then, last February 2023, the Department of Local Government (DILG) ordered its regional office in Calabarzon to implement Comelec Minute Resolution No. 12-1002 “to ensure that the proclaimed two additional candidates in the Sangguniang Panglungsod of [San Pedro City] assume their respective positions and receive the compensations and benefits appurtenant hereto.”
Supreme Court decision
Nothing more was heard on the case until last October 11, when the city government got the final word from the country’s highest tribunal dismissing the LGU's petition to junk the Comelec ruling allowing Acierto and Vierneza to take their seats.
In the 11-page ruling promulgated last May 28, the Supreme Court affirmed that Comelec, in allocating 12 councilors to the Sangguniang Panglungsod of San Pedro, "simply applied" Republic Act No. 6636, (An Act Resetting the Local Elections from November 9, 1987 to January 18, 1988), which states that “other cities comprising a representative district shall have 12 councilors each."
"Comelec is correct that the provision of Republic Act No. 6636 referring to 'other cities comprising a representative district shall have 12 councilors each' was triggered when the City of Biñan and the City of Santa Rosa were separated from the First Legislative District of Laguna. To hold otherwise would allow a different treatment to petitioner that would be inconsistent with other cities similarly situated," the ruling stated.
Further, the high court noted that the city government "erroneously claimed", as it stressed in its petition, that the commission "arrogated" upon itself the act of declaring San Pedro a lone legislative district.
"It mistakenly equated the allocation of 12 regular seats to its Sangguniang Panglungsod as indicating that it is no longer part of the First Legislative District of Laguna... However, nothing in the assailed minute resolutions [of Comelec] states that petitioner is no longer part of the first district," the Supreme Court added.
Meanwhile, it is also clear that the city government of San Pedro had changed its once hardline stance on the issue, as was manifested during the October 15 session of the Sangguniang Panglungsod.
Notably, Vice Mayor and Sangguniang Panglungsod Presiding Officer Olivarez made no more fuss and instead announced that Acierto and Vierneza will now take their seats as members of the city council, effective “immediately.”
Meanwhile, other city councilors also expressed the hope that this resolution of what has been a contentious issue of the two councilors will finally enable the city government to move forward with its shared goal of socio-economic progress.
"Let us view the Supreme Court ruling not just as a legal judgement, but also a moral imperative, a call to action for all of us in public office," Councilor Lonlon Ambayec said in his privilege speech during the session.
Accepting reality
This latest move of the city officials of San Pedro is also indicative of what appears to be a broader move by the city government to avoid dissension and instead invite “the powers that be” to unite instead for the common good of San Pedrenses, a political analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity told OpinYon Laguna.
“Of course, the city government can no longer challenge the legal imperative to prevent Acierto and Vierneza – the Philippines’ highest court has affirmed the Comelec decision. The fact that city officials accepted the Supreme Court decision without any more fuss speaks of what appears to be a series of moves by the current Mercado administration to avoid any trouble that could destabilize its goals for the city,” the analyst noted.
Not only that, with the issue of Acierto and Vierneza legitimacy now resolved, the Sangguniang Panglungsod can concentrate on its primary task of enacting laws that would benefit San Pedrenses, he added.
“Not to mention that with two additional councilors who are finally legitimized, San Pedrenses now have two additional voices in the city council. No matter what their political alliances are, what’s clear is that the voters who chose Acierto and Vierneza are no longer deprived of their chance to have their issues and grievances heard by the city government,” the analyst said.
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