Unseated lawmaker appeals SC ruling

MANILA, Philippines - After accusing a senior magistrate of “wielding influence” in her case, unseated Marinduque Rep. Regina Ongsiako Reyes has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to reconsider its ruling upholding her disqualification in the recent polls due to her supposed American citizenship.

In her motion for reconsideration, Reyes questioned why the SC resolved her case without first getting the comment of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

“With the hasty decision, the Supreme Court justices who signed the majority decision will not be able to fault law professors, law students, law practitioners, and trial judges – who will read the jurisprudence that is now incipiently coming out of this case and as will be memorialized in the SCRA and Philippine Reports – to suspect or even conclude that there was no other factor that may have impelled the Honorable Court to take such ‘hasty and imprudent action’ except to make the ‘son of a Member of the Court’ benefit from the resolution,” she alleged.

Reyes insisted that her taking her oath of office before Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. was valid even if it was not done in “open session.”

“Is the Honorable Court saying that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the current Congress when the elections were held cannot, while Congress is not in session, administer an oath to anyone who desires to take his or her oath before the Speaker of the House before his term expires at noon of the 30th of June following the elections?” she argued.

In its ruling, the SC held that the Comelec has kept its jurisdiction over Reyes, who does not become a member of the House until she completes three stages specified in the law – valid proclamation, proper oath taking, and official assumption of office at noon of June 30 after the polls.

The Comelec has annulled Reyes’ proclamation but her case has also reached the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET), the body tasked to resolve electoral cases against members of the House.

But apart from appealing the SC ruling, Reyes also sought the inhibition of Associate Justice Jose Perez, who wrote the assailed decision.

She alleged that Perez has close links with Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., whose son, Lord Allan Jay Velasco, was her rival and the proclaimed representative of Marinduque’s lone district following her disqualification.

Reyes said Perez had served as Velasco’s deputy for five years when Velasco was still court administrator.

Last week, Reyes accused Justice Velasco of using his “unelected post” to promote the interest of his family. She even threatened him with an impeachment case.

Velasco has inhibited from the case. His camp has described Reyes’ accusation as “baseless and malicious.” Lord Allan, for his part, turned the tables on Reyes and accused her of trying to influence the SC in her case.

The young Velasco was proclaimed winner by the Marinduque board of canvassers at the Comelec office in Manila yesterday, saying, “I feel that I have been vindicated.”   â€“ With Mayen Jaymalin