Speaker must obey Supreme Court, not House panel, say lawyers

THE HOUSE of Representatives should enforce the Supreme Court’s ruling installing Lord Allan Jay Velasco, the runner-up in the 2013 congressional race in Marinduque, as the legitimate lawmaker for the province, two legal experts have said.

In an interview with reporters, former Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Vicente Joyas and former University of the East law dean Amado Valdez said Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. should honor and implement the high court’s Jan. 12 decision granting Velasco’s plea for mandamus.

The other day, Belmonte said he would not follow the Supreme Court but would implement instead the decision of the House of Representative Electoral Tribunal (HRET) which is to keep Reyes in her seat.

Lead to contempt

“Since the Supreme Court’s ruling is final, Velasco can just take his oath and assume the seat,” Valdez, also chair emeritus of the Philippine Association of Law Schools, said.

Joyas, for his part, warned that disobedience could lead to a contempt case, adding that parties that refuse to implement an order of the court could be penalized with a fine or imprisonment.

“A contempt proceeding is always a remedy available to an aggrieved party in cases of disobedience to a lawful order of the court,” Joyas said.

“Congress must follow the decision” the lawyer added, saying that “the officers of the House of Representatives are vested by law to implement the order of the Supreme Court.”

The court, voting 8-1, with 6 abstentions, ruled that the administration of the oath and the registration of Velasco as the duly-elected congressman for Marinduque “are no longer a matter of discretion or judgment” on the part of Belmonte and House secretary general Marilyn Barua-Yap.

The high tribunal had ruled with finality on October 2013 that sitting Marinduque Rep. Regina Ongsiako-Reyes was disqualified from election to Congress.

The court said the Commission on Elections found out that Reyes failed to prove that she was a Filipino citizen when she filed her certificate of candidacy and that she also failed to meet the one-year residency requirement for congressional candidates.

In deciding on Velasco’s mandamus petition, the court said Belmonte and Barua-Yap were “legally duty-bound” to recognize Velasco as the duly elected Marinduque congressman as the court’s October 2013 was final and executory.

No legal personality

“Any ruling deviating from [the high court’s] established ruling will be contrary to the rule of law and should not be countenanced,” the court said.

The court junked Reyes’ argument that only the HRET could remove her from office. It noted that since her certificate of candidacy was cancelled, her proclamation as winner was void and therefore she had no legal personality to be recognized as a lawmaker in the first place.

Reyes’ camp, through her counsel Harry Roque, said they would file a motion for reconsideration of the court’s ruling on the mandamus case.

Reyes, daughter of incumbent Marinduque Gov. Carmencita Reyes, is a member of the ruling Liberal Party.

Velasco is the son of Supreme Court Justice Presbitero Velasco and incumbent Ang Mata’y Alagaan party-list Rep. Lorna Velasco.