A senior administration lawmaker on Tuesday appealed to
Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno to reconsider her decision to keep three
associate justices on the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET)
despite potential conflicts of interest involving the three.
In a statement, Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, vice
chair of the House committee on justice, referred to Associate Justices
Presbitero Velasco, Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin, who all sit on the
HRET with lawmakers.
Umali said the justices on the HRET should be replaced not
only to ensure objectivity and fairness in resolving electoral protests but
also to protect the independence of the House.
He cited the case of Marinduque Rep. Regina Reyes, whose
disqualification is being sought by Velasco’s son, former Marinduque
congressman Lord Allan Velasco.
Reyes defeated Velasco in the 2013 elections by around 4,000
votes but Velasco’s camp had protested at the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
that Reyes was a US citizen. The Comelec found merit in the protest.
The case reached the Supreme Court, which upheld the Comelec
ruling that Reyes is a US citizen. Reyes, however, countered that the decisions
of both the Comelec and the high court were questionable as the evidence presented
consisted of passages from a blog and an unverified photocopy of a document
from the Bureau of Immigration.
Mababasa dito: Inquirer.net
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