SC junks Tañada’s petition

LUCENA CITY—The Supreme Court has junked the petition of defeated Quezon congressional candidate Wigberto Tañada Jr. (Liberal Party) to nullify the victory of his rival in the May elections, saying the case should be decided by the House of Representative Electoral Tribunal (HRET).

Angelina Tan, a candidate of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, was proclaimed winner in the congressional elections in the fourth district of the province two days after the polls and took her oath of office on June 13.

With the events taking place, the Supreme Court is “now without jurisdiction to resolve the case at bar,” according to the decision penned by Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe and concurred in by the 14 other magistrates.

As to the canvass of election returns and Tan’s subsequent proclamation, the issues fall under the “sole jurisdiction of the HRET,” said the decision, a copy of which was forwarded to the Inquirer by Tan’s lawyer, Frumencio Pulgar, on Sunday.

The ruling was promulgated on Oct. 22, but Tan received a copy of it only on Nov. 21, Pulgar said.

After Tan’s proclamation as winner, Tañada immediately filed a petition before the Commission on Elections on the ground that the third candidate, Alvin John Tañada (Partido ng Masang Pilipino), was no longer qualified to run.  The poll body had canceled the certificate of candidacy (COC) of Alvin John before the May 14 elections.

Despite the cancellation on the basis of his “material representation,” Alvin John’s name was not deleted from the ballot and still received 7,038 votes. Wigberto Tañada maintained that the provincial board of canvassers had erred in counting the votes.

In the final canvass of votes, Tan got 84,782 votes and Wigberto Tañada, 80,698.