4/29/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly when they ratified the Constitution and when they elected their representatives who enacted the law.[27] THE PETITION BEFORE THE COURT Maquiling filed the instant petition questioning the propriety of declaring Arnado qualified to run for public office despite his continued use of a US passport, and praying that Maquiling be proclaimed as the winner in the 2010 mayoralty race in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte. Ascribing both grave abuse of discretion and reversible error on the part of the COMELEC En Banc for ruling that Arnado is a Filipino citizen despite his continued use of a US passport, Maquiling now seeks to reverse the finding of the COMELEC En Banc that Arnado is qualified to run for public office. Corollary to his plea to reverse the ruling of the COMELEC En Banc or to affirm the First Division’s disqualification of Arnado, Maquiling also seeks the review of the applicability of Section 44 of the Local Government Code, claiming that the COMELEC committed reversible error in ruling that “the succession of the vice mayor in case the respondent is disqualified is in order.” ISSUES There are three questions posed by the parties before this Court which will be addressed seriatim as the subsequent questions hinge on the result of the first. The first question is whether or not intervention is allowed in a disqualification case. The second question is whether or not the use of a foreign passport after renouncing foreign citizenship amounts to undoing a renunciation earlier made. A better framing of the question though should be whether or not the use of a foreign passport after renouncing foreign citizenship affects one’s qualifications to run for public office. The third question is whether or not the rule on succession in the Local Government Code is applicable to this case. OUR RULING Intervention of a rival candidate in a disqualification case is proper when there has not yet been any proclamation of the winner. Petitioner Casan Macode Maquiling intervened at the stage when respondent Arnado filed a Motion for Reconsideration of the First Division Resolution before the COMELEC En Banc. As the candidate who garnered the second highest number of votes, Maquiling elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/55820 8/49