Reyes says she won’t recognize SC disqualification

MANILA, Philippines - Marinduque Rep. Regina Reyes yesterday said she would not recognize the Supreme Court (SC) decision disqualifying her from office.

In a statement, Reyes said she had been expecting the SC decision since the father of her rival, Lord Allan Velasco, is one of the senior justices of the high tribunal, referring to Presbitero Velasco.

According to Reyes, her disqualification case is now under the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) and it is only in this that she will defend her case.

She said she is also confident that the HRET will give her ample chance to defend herself from the allegations being hurled against her.

For the meantime, Reyes said she will focus on positive things like authoring resolutions that will help the people and the country.

She said it is not yet in her plan to file an impeachment complaint against Justice Velasco, adding that she is a member of House committee on justice, which hears impeachment complaints.

Reyes won by 4,000 votes in the May 13 congressional race in the lone district of Marinduque against Lord Allan, who filed a disqualification case against her, alleging that she is an American citizen.

But Reyes said the petition against her has no basis since it was only based on a blog on the Internet by an unknown blogger, a photocopy from the Bureau of Immigration, which was not even certified as true copy, which allegedly proves that  she is an American citizen.

Before she registered her certificate of candidacy, she said she had renounced her US citizenship in front of a public administrator.

In his dissenting opinion, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. said all the evidence against Reyes were hearsay.