LP Congress bet mum on disqualification case

SANTA CRUZ, Marinduque— The camp of lawyer Regina O. Reyes, Liberal Party (LP) candidate for representative of Marinduque, remained mum on a disqualification case filed against her in the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Joseph Socorro Tan, a registered voter of Torrijos, Marinduque, petitioned the Comelec to disqualify Reyes for falsely stating her age in her certificate of candidacy (COC) as June 3, l964, when some pertinent records showed her birth date as July 8, 1959, while others stated that she was born on July 3, 1960.

Tan alleged that Reyes also falsely stated in her COC that she is single when she is allegedly married to a Batangas solon. The petitioner added that Reyes failed to renounce her American citizenship, making her both a Filipino and American citizen when she filed her COC.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer tried to get in touch with Reyes’ mother, Gov. Carmencita Reyes, head of the LP in Marinduque, and Toll Regulatory Board executive director, lawyer Edmund Reyes Jr., Reyes’ brother, for comment, but calls and text messages remained unanswered.

Provincial Board Member Alan Nepomuceno, LP mayoral candidate in the capital town of Boac, when asked for comment, merely said: “The Comelec has jurisdiction over disqualification cases.”

“Marinduque Rising” blogger Eli Obligacion, in his Facebook account, posted that from October last year to February this year, Reyes has not commented on the issue of citizenship raised against her. “Usually silence means admission,” he said.

Obligacion is a tourism consultant of Reyes’ political rival and incumbent Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco.

In the last 35 years, as Marinduque consistently remained a fourth-class province, the province’s political landscape has been dominated by one family—the Reyes clan.

Its matriarch, Carmencita Reyes, has served under six presidents from strongman Ferdinand Marcos to President Aquino at present. The wife of former Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Edmundo Reyes Sr., she started as an assemblywoman in the Marcos parliament from 1978 until 1986.

She also served as representative of the province’s lone district from 1987 to 1998. Carmencita ran and won as governor for three terms, from 1998 to 2007. She ran anew and won as representative of the lone district, from 2007 to 2010.

Her son, Edmund Reyes Jr., replaced her as representative from 1998 to 2007.