House Electoral Tribunal adopts new rules on poll protests

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) has adopted and promulgated new rules to speed up proceedings in deliberating and deciding electoral protests.

The HRET is the sole judge of all contests relating to election, returns, and qualifications of members of the House pursuant to Article VI Section 17 of the Constitution.

It is composed of nine members, three of whom are Supreme Court (SC) justices designated by the chief justice, and six are House members chosen on the basis of proportional representation from political parties and parties or organizations registered under the party-list system.

Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, an HRET member, said the body regularly updates its rules for better proceedings. The last time it amended its rules was in 2010.

He said the major change in the new rules is that the body did away with divisions that assigned cases.

“There will no be longer divisions because the decision of a division is going to be deliberated on by the en banc or the entire HRET, which will have the final decision anyway,” Enverga said.

“We will have a ponencia for every ruling and this will be deliberated upon by the body,” he added.

Enverga said this will enable the handling of cases to proceed faster for the benefit of concerned parties.

He said some of the cases decided on by the HRET were being elevated to the SC.

An election protest can be raised by a candidate who has filed his or her certificate of candidacy and was voted upon within 15 days from June 30 of the election year or the date of actual assumption to office, whichever is later.

It can only be filed by candidates who obtained the second or third highest number of votes.