Tiñga questions increase in Taguig council seats at SC

Retired Supreme Court Justice Dante Tiñga filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Monday, seeking to invalidate the ordinance passed by the Taguig City Council that raised the number of councilor seats in the city from eight to 12 per district.

In his 40-page petition for certiorari, Tiñga challenged City of Taguig Ordinance No. 144, as well as Comelec Resolution No. 11069 and Concurrent Resolution No. 26 enacted by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, all of which facilitated the “unauthorized” increase in the number of councilors per district.

Currently, Taguig City has two councilor districts, and the ordinance dated Sept. 16 would expand the total number of councilor seats from 16 to 24, which Tiñga argues is “unconstitutional.”

‘Without due authority’

In his petition, accompanied by a plea for a temporary restraining order (TRO), Tiñga argued that the authority to increase councilor seats lies with Congress.

“Owing to the established scope and breadth of the law-making power of Congress, the increase in the number of councilor seats requires a law duly enacted by Congress and approved by the President,” the petition said.

It further said that by enacting Ordinance No. 144, the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Taguig “arrogated unto itself without due authority under law the power to increase its own size by adding councilors to the Sangguniang Panlungsod.”

The petition argued that there is no existing law authorizing the Sangguniang Panlungsod to increase the number of city councilors, rendering the ordinance “unconstitutional.”

‘Profound implications’

“This honorable court should, of course, realize the profound implications of such a position. If sustained, local sanggunians are now free to increase their own compositions despite the absence of legislative authorization,” it said.

The concurrent resolution of both chambers of Congress lacked “the force and effect of a law,” the petition noted, as it did not undergo the mandated three readings required for a measure to become law under the Constitution and did not bear the President’s signature.

Citing the case of Ang Nars party list, et al. v. The Executive Secretary, et al., Tiñga pointed out that even a joint resolution approved by both houses of Congress after three readings and signed by the President was declared “void and unconstitutional” for attempting to alter a provision of an earlier law.

Tiñga also said that the legal issue could have been avoided if the registered voters of the 10 Embo barangays had been fully enfranchised through an appropriate law, which would designate these barangays as the third legislative district of Taguig City and establish it as its third councilor district.