TARLAC CITY, Tarlac — The legal battle over the 2025 Tarlac City mayoralty race is not yet over as a former city councilor and a barangay chairman have asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling upholding Susan Yap as the city’s duly elected and proclaimed mayor.
In their motion for reconsideration, filed through law firm Gialogo & Associates, ex-politician Amado De Leon and Barangay Tibag Chairman Jar-Ar Navarro maintained that Yap failed to meet the mandatory one-year residency requirement for candidates for local elective office.
The case centers on Section 39(a) of the Local Government Code, which requires a candidate for city mayor to have been a resident of the city for at least one year immediately preceding election day.
The petitioners are asking the SC to set aside its June 3, 2026 decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Kho Jr. and revive the October 22, 2025 resolution of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) en banc, which disqualified Yap on residency grounds.
The COMELEC had earlier found substantial evidence that Yap was not a resident of Barangay Tibag, Tarlac City, for the required period. That ruling reversed an earlier decision of the poll body’s Second Division that had dismissed the disqualification case.
‘COMELEC did not act arbitrarily‘
De Leon and Navarro argued that the COMELEC’s findings were supported by evidence from Barangay Tibag officials and personnel who, according to the petitioners, had personal knowledge of the locality and its residents.
They cited sworn statements from the barangay chairperson, barangay secretary, barangay health workers and other local personnel concerning Yap’s alleged non-residency in the city during the one-year period preceding the May 12, 2025 elections.
According to the motion, the evidentiary value of their statements did not rest merely on their government positions but on the nature of their duties, their regular presence in the community, their personal observations and the consistency of their accounts with the actual use and condition of the property in question.
The petitioners also pointed to the COMELEC’s consideration of statements attributed to one of Yap’s political allies, who they said publicly acknowledged that she did not reside in Barangay Tibag.
They argued that the COMELEC en banc therefore did not arbitrarily give greater weight to their evidence but evaluated the records using standards recognized in election and residency cases.
The petitioners stressed that the poll body had identified factual and legal grounds for its conclusion and relied on evidence it considered competent in determining actual residence.
SC previously restored Yap
The dispute intensified after the COMELEC en banc overturned the Second Division’s earlier ruling in October 2025 and annulled Yap’s proclamation.
The Supreme Court subsequently issued a status quo ante order in November 2025, allowing Yap to reassume the mayoralty while her petition questioning the Comelec ruling remained pending. The SC said the order would remain in effect until the case was finally resolved.
In its ruling favoring Yap, the high court found that the Comelec had gravely abused its discretion in disqualifying her.
The SC emphasized Yap’s longstanding connection to Tarlac City, including her service as governor of Tarlac for three consecutive terms while the provincial government was based in the city.
The Court said she was “hardly a stranger to the locality,” noting that her political exposure and experience in the city showed that she was not a newcomer unfamiliar with its conditions and needs.
The Supreme Court also stressed the importance of respecting the electorate’s choice, saying that the will of the voters should be upheld when the evidence does not establish actual ineligibility. The Court subsequently upheld Yap’s election and proclamation as mayor.
In their latest pleading, De Leon and Navarro asked the high court to reconsider its ruling recognizing Yap as the duly elected and proclaimed mayor, the residency controversy remains subject to further judicial action.
