House urged to ask SC to replace 3 justices in HRET

MANILA, Philippines - Marinduque Rep. Regina Reyes yesterday urged the leadership of the House of Representatives to ask Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno to replace the three Supreme Court justices sitting in the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) to protect the independence of the chamber.

Reyes made the call in her privilege speech after the SC junked her petition to disqualify Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin from sitting as members of the HRET, where a disqualification complaint was lodged against her.

Velasco chairs the HRET.

The complaint alleges that Reyes is a US citizen and therefore ineligible to run for public office.

The complainant is reportedly close to Velasco’s son, former Marinduque congressman Lord Allan Velasco, who was defeated by around 4,000 votes in the 2013 congressional elections.

Reyes said she received a copy of a draft resolution on her disqualification case penned by one of the justices in the HRET that effectively unseats her and installs the younger Velasco in her place as Marinduque representative.

“The attendant collateral damage of this ruling is its encroachment on the commencement of the terms of office of the members of Congress to the fourth Monday of July or when the Speaker administers the oath of office in open session,” she said.

The draft HRET resolution makes it possible for the Commission on Elections and the SC to retroactively annul the terms of office of members of Congress during the three-year term.

“These Supreme Court justices sitting in the HRET do not only not represent the interest of the Supreme Court, they represent far worse,” Reyes said. “The justices are castrating the powers of HRET.”

She said Velasco claims to have inhibited himself from the case involving his son.

“The chairman of the HRET who, as he steps out of the hearing chambers, reminds all the other members of the HRET that the case before them involves his very own son. Being a member of a political family involved in congressional elections as his wife is also a congresswoman, Justice Velasco’s mere chairmanship of the HRET is a conflict of interest,” Reyes noted.

She also said Bersamin not only comes from a political family in Abra, but also voted against her petition in the SC where a disqualification case was filed against her, and thus has “effectively prejudged my case, continues to sit in the HRET cases against me.”

She added that while an election case against her was pending in the SC, Peralta did not act on them. But when the House leadership appeared to be siding with her, Peralta “revived” the case against her in the HRET.