A YouTube video claims that the Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling rejecting the “second placer rule” in local elections applies to the Luis Uy-Bienvenido Abante Jr. case. This needs context.
The high court ruling applies only to local officials covered by the rules of succession under the Local Government Code (LGC).
This does not apply to national elective positions such as the case of Abante, who was declared as Manila’s 6th District Representative after coming second to Luis ‘Joey’ Chua Uy in the 2025 elections, when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) disqualified Uy.
Published on June 22, the erroneous video bore a text on its thumbnail that read:
“2ND PLACER RULE GITANGGAL NA! SUPREME COURT DECISION BENNY ABANTE HINDI PWEDENG PUMALIT KAY JOEY UY (2nd placer rule junked! Supreme Court decision Benny Abante cannot replace Joey Uy)”
The vlogger in the video discussed a June 21 article published by Abogado.com.ph related to the landmark SC ruling that the second placer in local elections cannot be proclaimed the winner in cases where the original winner is disqualified or declared ineligible.
The vlogger claimed that this decision is applicable to the case of Abante and Uy, citing the said SC ruling promulgated on April 22.
In its 37-page ruling, the SC declared that “the rules on succession under the LGC shall apply in all cases where a permanent vacancy results from a local elective official’s disqualification from office regardless of the proceedings involved.”
The SC acted on a certiorari petition filed by Datu Pax Ali Mangudadatu contesting the Comelec’s decision to cancel his certificate of candidacy (COC) in the 2022 Sultan Kudarat gubernatorial race.
Although he won the election, the Comelec found that Mangudadatu “deliberately committed material misrepresentation in his COC.”
The SC ordered Mangudadatu “to cease and desist from discharging the functions of the Office of the Governor of Sultan Kudarat to surrender the same to the duly elected Vice-Governor of the province in the May 9, 2022 elections.”
This indicates that the decision only applies to local officials. A seat at the House of Representatives, as in the case of Abante and Uy, is a national elective position.
In a June 23 article published by the Inquirer, government law professor Dante Gatmaytan of the University of the Philippines explained that the SC’s decision does not apply to the House, noting that the high court might need to issue a ruling to determine if the Mangudadatu case extends to national elective posts.
“The (Mangudadatu) case held that succession under the (LGC) will apply to fill the vacancy. There is no such mechanism with respect to members of the House,” was quoted as saying.
In an interview with TV Patrol published on June 28, election lawyer Atty. Emil Marañon also questioned the applicability of the SC decision to abandon the second placer rule to national positions, noting that the legal basis of the high tribunal in the Mangudadatu ruling “is the local government code, which does not apply to senators and congressmen.”
On June 23, Comelec Chairperson George Erwin Garcia said the poll body will seek clarifications on the implications of the SC ruling for national positions.
The false YouTube video emerged four days after the Comelec 2nd Division declared Abante as the congressman of Manila’s 6th District, based on its June 18 ruling.
The poll body’s 2nd Division stated in its decision that Uy “is at most a naturalized citizen, not a natural-born one” and considered him a non-candidate and his COC void ab initio.
Published by YouTube channel The Journalist’s Opinion (created on Oct. 23, 2015), the inaccurate video has so far garnered 107,586 views, 3,200 reactions, and 835 comments.
