House ponders next move after legislator’s disqualification

The House of Representatives is still mulling what to do with Marinduque Rep. Regina Reyes (shown in photo) after the Supreme Court upheld with finality her disqualification from the 2013 election for failing to renounce her American citizenship. INQUIRER.net file photo

MANILA, Philippines—The House of Representatives is still mulling what to do with Marinduque Rep. Regina Reyes after the Supreme Court upheld with finality her disqualification from the 2013 election for failing to renounce her American citizenship.

Posing a dilemma is the need to ensure that the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) would not be rendered useless in the issue, according to House leaders.

Under the Constitution, the HRET is the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns and qualifications of House members.

Reyes’ disqualification would mean that her rival in the race, Lord Allan Velasco, would get to sit as the province’s representative.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte on Wednesday said he had asked House lawyers to study its options with regard to the issue, claiming the House has yet to officially receive the latest ruling from the high court.

In the meantime, Reyes remains at the House, said Belmonte.

He said the House could not just disregard the HRET’s role in ruling on matters involving House members.

“Remember, she was proclaimed. That is not something unimportant to us, because under the Constitution, the HRET… has jurisdiction over all of these matters,” he said.

“We want to be sure… the HRET is not being rendered useless,” he added.

He also said he would ask the Commission on Elections what action it had taken against the board of canvassers that proclaimed Reyes.

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said one option being studied, aside from directly implementing the Supreme Court’s final judgment, is for a pleading to be filed before the HRET using the high court’s ruling as a basis.

He said any action taken would be precedent-setting.

Meanwhile, fellow LP member and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali came to Reyes’ defense, castigating the Supreme Court for its ruling against her.

Umali, in a privilege speech, noted that the high court, in previous decisions, had already ruled that the proclamation of a candidate divests the Comelec of jurisdiction over disputes relating to the election and qualification of the proclaimed representative, in favor of the HRET.

The high court recognized the HRET’s jurisdiction in a largely similar case involving Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan. And yet, he added, it ruled differently in Reyes’ case, he argued.

Umali, in the same speech, lambasted the high court for its ruling declaring lawmakers’ pork barrel funds as unconstitutional, pointing out that it had also ruled otherwise in a recent case.

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