Pimentel to raise Teodoro case at SC: It took them 6 months to ‘cook’
Former Senate president Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel III — File photo
MANILA, Philippines — Outgoing Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said he is planning to question before the Supreme Court (SC) the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) allowing the proclamation of Marcelino “Marcy” Teodoro as representative of Marikina City’s 1st District.
READ: Comelec lifts suspension on Marcy Teodoro’s win as Marikina rep
Teodoro won against Pimentel in the May 2025 congressional race.
“I’ll just leave our Comelec decision-makers to God,” he said in a text message on Thursday.
“They all know they did something very special in that case, which took them six months to cook,” he added, but did not elaborate.
Pimentel also said, “The very important legal and constitutional issue in that controversy will have to be raised before the Supreme Court.”
“We have to at least try to enforce and enhance [some] kind of Rule of Law here in PH,” he added.
Asked if this means he is planning to bring the issue before the SC, Pimentel answered in the affirmative.
“That’s the plan. Everyone, including me, needs to learn a lesson from this experience,” he said.
“What is right? A person who left the district in February 2024 and returned in September 2024—can this person still run as [a] congressman in the May 2025 elections?” he asked.
In separate petitions filed last October, Pimentel and a certain Leighrich James sought to cancel Teodoro’s certificate of candidacy (COC) over alleged material misrepresentation of his address.
READ: Pimentel surprised by Teodoro’s bid as his rival in Marikina’s 1st district
When he filed his COC in October, Teodoro declared that he had been a resident of the first district of Marikina City for one year and one month already, which is a requirement under the Omnibus Election Code. But this was contradicted by the petitioners, who said Teodoro had been living in Barangay Tuman, which is part of the city’s second district.
The Comelec First Division granted their petitions, resulting in the cancellation of Teodoro’s COC.
READ: Comelec 1st division cancels Teodoro’s candidacy for House seat
In a separate statement, Pimentel called the reversal “a mockery of the Constitution” and warned that it “opens the gates of electoral hell.”
“This reversal is not just a legal setback, for it’s clearly a betrayal of the Constitution and the democratic process,” he said. “It sets a dangerous precedent and opens the gates of electoral hell.”
“If residency requirements mandated by the Constitution can be brushed aside with a flip of a resolution, what stops others from gaming or manipulating the system?” he asked.
It is clear, he said, in the Constitution that a congressional candidate must be a resident of the district for at least one year before the election.
“Disregarding this opens the floodgates for politicians, driven by nothing but self-interest and personal preservation, where they can claim residency wherever they have political advantage,” he added.
The senator also criticized the Comelec’s “turtle-paced” handling of the case, noting that it took the poll body 196 days to come up with a final decision.
This failure to act promptly on the case “deprived the electorate of a clear and lawful choice and allowed a candidate to run under the cloud of a pending disqualification case,” Pimentel said.
“We will exhaust all legal remedies,” he added./mcm
