Saying the resolution approved by the Taguig City Council is unconstitutional, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Dante O. Tinga on Monday, filed a petition asking the high court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO).

The petition of Tinga sought to invalidate the ordinance passed by the city council of Taguig on 16 September that increased the number of councilor seats in the city from eight to 12 per councilor district.

Tinga said that since the city presently has two councilor districts, the ordinance would increase the seats from 16 to 24 which is unconstitutional.

The grounds raised by the petition of Tinga to warrant invalidation are: The increase of the number of councilor seats requires a law and the power to do such exclusively pertains to Congress, and there is no law delegating the power to increase the number of city councilor seats to the City Council, thus in the absence of such law, the assailed ordinance is unconstitutional.

The petition also impleads the Commission on Elections as party-respondent for promulgating a resolution that seeks to implement the invalid city ordinance.

Included as party respondents are both the chambers of Congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, for ratifying the city ordinance through the concurrent resolution.

Tinga pointed out in his petition the concurrent resolution does not have: “The force and effect of law” for three reasons: It did not undergo the prescribed three readings for a measure to become a law under the Constitution; it did not bear the required signature of the President which is also under the Constitution; and even a joint resolution approved by both houses of Congress that passed through three readings in the two chambers and approved by the President was deleted “void and unconstitutional” insofar as it purports to amend the provision of an earlier law in Ang Nars Partylist et al vs. the Executive Secretary, et al., 864 Phil. 607, 2019.

The retired magistrate added that the legal problem could have been avoided had the registered voters of the 10 EMBO barangays been fully enfranchised, as they should be, through the appropriate law, a law making the said barangays the third legislative district of Taguig City and making it also as its third councilor district.

Tinga recalled that as early as 26 June 2024, he wrote Speaker Martin Romualdez to propose the creation of a new legislative district out of the 10 EMBOs, with a draft bill and Introductory Note enclosed.