Winning Cavite Mayor Kevin Anarna seeks Supreme Court review after Comelec voids win

MANILA, Philippines — Supposed Mayor-elect Kevin Anarna of Silang, Cavite said he will take his case to the Supreme Court after the Commission on Elections disqualified his candidacy and nullified his proclamation.

Anarna won the mayoral race with 54,787 votes, nearly 15,000 votes more than his opponent, incumbent Silang Mayor Edward “Ted” Carranza, who filed a disqualification complaint against him before the poll body.

Emil Marañon III, Anarna’s legal counsel, said they will file a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court to seek a review of the Comelec’s decision.

He said the Comelec conducted its motu propio inquiry into the merits of the case without informing the respondent or allowing them to answer the allegations. 

“What is so strange in this decision is that there has been NO NOTICE OF THE SUIT, NO SUMMONS, and NO ANSWER,” Marañon said in a statement on Thursday, June 19.

He told Philstar.com in a phone interview that the poll body’s first division dismissed the disqualification petition due to the lack of proof that the petition was served to Anarna as the respondent.

Carranza then filed a motion for reconsideration, which the Comelec tackled and decided on without their knowledge.  

Citing a 2024 decision by the Office of the Ombudsman that found Anarna guilty of grave misconduct and serious dishonesty, the Comelec en banc granted Carranza’s motion for reconsideration. 

Prior to the decision, the Ombudsman suspended Anarna for six months over alleged irregularities in procuring fiesta decorations, then dismissed him as Silang’s mayor in October 2024. This would result in the disqualification from public office if the decision is final. 

After his dismissal, Carranza was declared mayor as the candidate who ranked second in the 2022 elections. Anarna has since considered his dismissal as politically motivated. 

Marañon explained that the Ombudsman’s decision is not yet final as the case has since been pending with the Court of Appeals. The Comelec’s resolution on disqualification petitions should only be based on final decisions, he added. 

"The effect is 'pag nagfile ng appeal sa Court of Appeals, nagiging non-final (The effect is when you file an appeal to the Court of Appeals, the decision becomes non-final)," he told Philstar.com. 

He also called the Comelec’s decision “vulgarly illegal” and a “gross violation” of Anarna’s constitutional right to due process. 

“In fact, this procedural travesty has never ever happened in the history of the COMELEC,” he added. 

Marañon said they are also confident that the poll body’s decision to disqualify Anarna will be reversed. 

“Itutuloy lang namin yung laban. We hope that this time, we get to experience yung tinatawag na fair and impartial na forum,” he told Philstar.com. 

(We’ll continue the fight. We hope that this time, we get to experience what they call a fair and impartial forum.)

Anarna was also among the local candidates facing a disqualification case for allegedly violating the Comelec’s anti-discrimination and fair campaign guidelines after making a joke about solo parents during the campaign period.