13/04/2026
The (SC) En Banc, during its session on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, through the ponencia of Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho, Jr, denied the petition for certiorari filed by Merson C. Calubag (Calubag), which challenged the Commission on Elections’ (COMELEC) Resolutions canceling his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for Sangguniang Kabataan Chairperson of Barangay Magtangale, San Francisco, Surigao del Norte, during the 2023 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections.
The COMELEC found that Calubag falsely stated a material fact in his COC when he declared he was not related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any incumbent Sangguniang Barangay member of Barangay Magtangale, despite his mother being a member.
Section 10, or the “Anti-Dynasty clause” of Republic Act No. (RA) 10742 (Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act of 2015) requires that a candidate for the position in the Sangguniang Kabataan must not be related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to any incumbent elected national office, or to any incumbent elected regional, provincial, city, municipal, or barangay official, in the locality where they seek to be elected.
The SC “recognized the legislative framework in RA 10742 for preventing the creation and expansion of political dynasties in the country as the Legislative’s answer to the constitutional call to define political dynasties, at least at the barangay and [Sangguniang Kabataan] levels.” It held that such “breathes life to the constitutionally enshrined policy of the sovereign to prohibit political dynasties.”
Read the full text of the Press Briefer at https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/?p=163046
Copying of this content is subject to the SC PIO’s Credit Attribution Policy: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/credit-attribution-policy/