HAYUDINI V. COMELEC, G.R. NO.
207900, APRIL 22, 2014
FACTS:
On October 5, 2012, Hayudini filed his Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) for the position of
Municipal Mayor of South Ubian, Tawi-Tawi in the May 13, 2013 National and Local Elections
held in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Ten days after, Mustapha J. Omar (Omar)
filed a Petition to Deny Due Course or Cancel Hayudini's CoC. Omar basically asserted that
Hayudini should be disqualified for making false representation regarding his residence. He
claimed that Hayudini declared in his CoC that he is a resident of the Municipality of South
Ubian when, in fact, he resides in Zamboanga City.
Thereafter, Hayudini filed a Petition for Inclusion in the Permanent List of Voters in Barangay
Bintawlan, South Ubian before the Municipal Circuit Trial Court (MCTC). Despite the
opposition of Ignacio Aguilar Baki, the MCTC granted Hayudini's petition on January 31, 2013.
On that same day, the COMELEC's First Division dismissed Omar's earlier petition to cancel
Hayudini's CoC for lack of substantial evidence that Hayudini committed false representation as
to his residency.
Oppositor Baki, subsequently, elevated the case to the Bongao Regional Trial Court (RTC),
Branch 5. The RTC, on March 8, 2013, reversed the MCTC ruling and ordered the deletion of
Hayudini's name in Barangay Bintawlan's permanent list of voters. In view of said decision,
Omar filed before the COMELEC a Petition to Cancel the Certificate of Candidacy of Gamal S.
Hayudini by Virtue of a Supervening Event on March 26, 2013.
On May 13, 2013, Hayudini won the mayoralty race in South Ubian, Tawi-Tawi. He was
proclaimed and, consequently, took his oath of office.
On June 20, 2013, the COMELEC Second Division issued a Resolution granting Omars second
petition to cancel Hayudini's CoC.
Hayudini, thus, filed a Motion for Reconsideration with the COMELEC En Banc, arguing that its
Second Division committed grave error when it gave due course to a belatedly filed petition and
treated the March 8, 2013 RTC Decision as a supervening event. The COMELEC En Banc
denied Hayudinis Motion for Reconsideration for lack of merit. The COMELEC declared Omar
as the mayor.
Thus, Hayudini filed the instant petition for certiorari and prohibition.
ISSUE:
Whether or not the COMELEC committed grave abuse of discretion in declaring Omar as the
duly elected mayor.
HELD:
NO. It bears stressing that one of the requirements for a mayoralty candidate is that he must be a
resident of the city or municipality where he intends to be elected. Thus, under Section 74 of the
Omnibus Election Code, it is required that a candidate must certify under oath that he is eligible
for the public office he seeks election. In this case, when petitioner stated in his CoC that he is a
resident of Barangay Bintawlan, South Ubian, Tawi Tawi and eligible for a public office, but it
turned out that he was declared to be a non-resident thereof in a petition for his inclusion in the
list of registered voters, he therefore committed a false representation in his CoC which pertained
to a material fact which is a ground for the cancellation of his CoC under Section 78 of the
Omnibus Election Code. Petitioner's ineligibility for not being a resident of the place he sought
election is not a ground for a petition for disqualification, since the grounds enumerated under
Section 6839 of the Omnibus Election Code specifically refer to the commission of prohibited
acts, and possession of a permanent resident status in a foreign country.
As held in Aratea v. COMELEC, which is a case for cancellation of CoC under Section 78 of the
Omnibus Election Code, a cancelled certificate of candidacy void ab initio cannot give rise to a
valid candidacy, and much less to valid votes. Whether a certificate of candidacy is cancelled
before or after the elections is immaterial, because the cancellation on such ground means he was
never a candidate from the very beginning, his certificate of candidacy being void ab initio. We
then found that since the winning mayoralty candidate's certificate of candidacy was void ab
initio, he was never a candidate at all and all his votes were considered stray votes, and thus,
proclaimed the second placer, the only qualified candidate, who actually garnered the highest
number of votes, for the position of Mayor.
