SC affirms Comelec decision cancelling SK bet's COC for misrepresentation

The Supreme Court has upheld the decision of the Commission on Elections cancelling the certificate of candidacy of a Sangguniang Kabataan bet in 2023 over material misrepresentation. 

The SC, sitting en banc, dismissed the petition for certiorari filed by Merson Calubag challenging an October 2023 Comelec resolution, which cancelled his COC for declaring that “he was not related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any incumbent Sangguniang Barangay member of Barangay Magtangale, despite his mother being a member.”

The Comelec Second Division found out that Calubag — who was then running for SK chairman in Barangay Magtangale, San Francisco, Surigao del Norte — is the son of a Sangguniang Barangay member in the same barangay, violating the Anti-Dynasty clause of Republic Act (RA) No. 10742 or the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act of 2015. 

The SC said it “recognized the legislative framework in RA 10742 for preventing the creation and expansion of political dynasties in the country as the Legislative’s answer to the constitutional call to define political dynasties, at least at the barangay and [Sangguniang Kabataan] levels.”

It held that such “breathes life to the constitutionally enshrined policy of the sovereign to prohibit political dynasties.”

Section 10 of RA No. 10742 requires that a candidate for the position in the SK must not be related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any incumbent elected national office, or to any incumbent elected regional, provincial, city, municipal, or barangay official, in the locality where they seek to be elected.—Sundy Locus/AOL, GMA News