The decision was released on Wednesday (April 24) by the Comelec First Division or just two days after the Supreme Court reversed the poll body’s decision to junk the same disqualification filed against the governor.

Recently confronted by heavy criticism for defending the massive enrollment of Chinese students in Cagayan, Mamba’s disqualification will allow incumbent Vice Gov. Melvin Vargas Jr. to automatically take over the governor’s office.

The embattled governor vowed to file a motion for reconsideration asking the Comelec En Banc to reverse the division ruling.

The poll body’s previous decision allowed Mamba, who won the 2022 gubernatorial race, to be sworn in and occupy the seat as governor.

On April 24, the Comelec’s First Division disqualified Mamba after finding him guilty of violation of Sections 2 and 13 of Resolution No. 10747 in relation to Section 261 (v) of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) which declared illegal the release, disbursement or expenditure of public funds for public works projects from March 25 until May 8, 2022.

Mamba’s disqualification rendered vacant the governor’s seat in Cagayan.

The disqualification ruling followed the release by the SC of its decision that declared the poll body to have abused its discretion when it junked the disqualification complaint against Mamba.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Jhosep Y. Lopez, the SC said the Comelec En Banc erred when it ruled that the complaints of vote buying and other election violations were filed by complainant Ma. Zarah Rose De Guzman-Lara out of time.

De Guzman-Lara, who lost the elections by at least 24,000 votes, filed a petition for certiorari before the SC as she contested the 2022 Comelec ruling that rejected her vote buying complaint.