Comelec favors Teodoro over Pimentel as Marikina congressman-elect
Suspended Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro. — Photo by Jason Sigales/INQUIRER.net
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc has lifted its May 12 order suspending the proclamation of outgoing Marikina Mayor Marcelino “Marcy” Teodoro as the congressman-elect of the city’s first district.
In a 38-page resolution promulgated on June 25 and made public on Thursday, the poll body granted the consolidated motions for reconsideration filed by Teodoro, and reversed the Dec. 11, 2024 resolution of its First Division which ordered his certificate of candidacy (COC) canceled.
“Finally, the [COC] of herein respondent [Teodoro] for [member] of the House of Representatives, 1st District, Marikina City in the 12 May 2025 National and Local Elections is hereby reinstated,” the Comelec said.
Of the poll body’s seven commissioners, only four took part in the writing of the decision. Comelec chair George Garcia and Commissioners Aimee Ferolino and Rey Bulay did not participate, citing “previous professional relations with the parties.”
According to the Comelec, the petitioners failed to prove that Teodoro committed material misrepresentation in his COC for the May 12 polls regarding his residency. It also found no proof he abandoned his domicile in the first district.
The petitioners, who included his rival for the House seat, outgoing Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, had accused Teodoro of violating Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code, saying he lied when he claimed to be a resident and registered voter of Barangay San Roque in the city’s first district for 13 months.
They added that Teodoro only transferred his residency and voter registration from Barangay Tumana in the second district just a “few weeks” before the start of the COC filing period on Oct. 1, 2024.
They further said that Teodoro was supposed to run in the second district but “apparently realizing that the odds are stacked against him,” he decided to move back to the first district on Sept. 26, 2024.
But the Comelec said in its resolution the petitioners failed to demonstrate “any fraudulent intent or dishonest motive” on Teodoro’s part when he filed his COC, while his application for transfer of voter registration was pending.
READ: Comelec: More resolutions on pending cases out before June 30
No material representation
According to the poll body, there was no material misrepresentation in Teodoro’s COC on his voter registration as he checked the option of “I will be a registered voter of …” and listed his address in the first district.
The “phrasing reflects a future-oriented, contingent status that is conditional upon the expected approval of his pending application,” it noted.
Teodoro’s voter transfer was approved on Oct. 18, 2024 or 13 days after he filed his COC and before the final deadline for COC cancellation.
The Comelec further said the petitioners failed to produce any evidence that Teodoro continued to live in the second district such as “utility bills, tenancy documents, property records or other indicators of actual physical presence in the [area] during the relevant period.”
At the same time, it found “nothing wrong” with Teodoro’s flip-flopping transfer of voter registration.
Citing the 1995 Supreme Court decision in Aquino v. Comelec (G.R. No. 120265), the poll body said there is nothing wrong in an individual changing residences to run for an elective post, “for as long as he is able to prove with reasonable certainty that he has effected a change of residence for election law purposes for the period required by law.”
In a statement, Teodoro described the Comelec decision as “a victory for the people of Marikina.”
“I welcome this decision. It affirms what we’ve believed from the beginning, that the voice of the people matters and should never be silenced,” he said.
