MANILA, Philippines - The Marinduque election
controversy is far from over even with the insistence of the Commission on
Elections (Comelec) that the proclaimed winner, Regina Ongsiako Reyes, was a
disqualified candidate.
The
House of Representatives will not recognize Lord Allan Jay Velasco, who Reyes
beat and who the Comelec wants to belatedly proclaim as the new winner.
Velasco
is the son of Supreme Court (SC) Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr.
“As
far as the House is concerned, the duly elected representative of the lone
district of Marinduque is Regina Reyes,” Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II
said yesterday.
“She
was the one who has been proclaimed by the provincial board of canvassers, and
she has taken her oath before Speaker (Feliciano) Belmonte and has assumed
office,” he said.
On
Reyes’ part, she said she would raise her disqualification in the appeal she
would file with the SC asking the tribunal to reconsider its ruling last June
25 that the Comelec still had jurisdiction over the issue.
Gonzales said the Comelec lost its
jurisdiction over Reyes’ case the moment the provincial canvassing board
proclaimed her winner, and any question after that about her election and
qualification should be resolved by the House of Representatives Electoral
Tribunal (HRET).
“We
have to be consistent with the Constitution, which says that the HRET shall be
the ‘sole judge’ of all questions about the ‘election, returns and
qualification’ of a House member. We also have to be consistent with our
assertion that the HRET’s jurisdiction begins with the proclamation of a
congressional winner,” he said.
In line with this stand of the House,
Gonzales said the chamber is also recognizing Angelina Tan as the winning
candidate in the fourth district of Quezon.
Reyes
belongs to the ruling Liberal Party (LP), to which Belmonte and Gonzales also
belong, while Tan is a Nationalist People’s Coalition member.
The
Comelec has annulled the proclamation of both Reyes and Tan. In Tan’s case, the
Comelec wanted her opponent, Wigberto Tañada Jr., who she beat by more than
4,000 votes, as the winning candidate. The Tañadas are LP members.
Gonzales
said Velasco should now pursue the election protest he has filed against Reyes
shortly after the latter was proclaimed winner.
“He
should pursue that in the HRET, which is the proper forum and whose
jurisdiction over his case he has already recognized,” he said.
Like
Velasco, Tañada has filed an election protest against Tan with the HRET.
Velasco wielded influence?
In
a press briefing the other day, Reyes hinted that Associate Justice Velasco
allegedly wielded his influence in the tribunal’s recent decision annulling her
proclamation.
But
Velasco yesterday denied Reyes’ insinuation that he used his influence in the
disqualification case against her.
“The
allegation that he wielded his influence in the case is baseless and malicious.
Being a lawyer and an officer of the court, Atty. Reyes should have been
circumspect in her statements,” Velasco’s office said in a statement.
Reyes
said she is convinced that the SC allegedly sped up the resolution of her case
since it failed to ask the comments of those involved in the case before
issuing a ruling.
She
also alleged that she was not given fair treatment by the Comelec and the SC
because she was not given a chance to prove that she is indeed a Filipino
citizen.
Reyes
presented to the media proof that she is a natural-born Filipino, and that she
was able to comply with the requirements under Republic Act 9225 in renouncing
his foreign citizenship, which she acquired when she married an American
citizen in the United States.
Reyes
also lamented that the Comelec and SC supposedly gave credence to a published
article of an unknown blogger who claimed that she is an American citizen, when
the truth is, she was born in the Philippines, her parents are both Filipinos,
and she also has an affidavit of renunciation of foreign citizenship. – With
Edu Punay, Paolo Romero
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