THE House of Representatives has dropped ABS Party-list Rep. Eugene de Vera from the rolls.
During the plenary session in the evening of November 19, Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. moved to expel De Vera, the lawmaker who claimed to be the duly-constituted minority leader of the House following the appointment of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as House Speaker.
Andaya, in his manifestation, cited a communication from the ABS Party-list informing the House of Representatives that De Vera has been expelled as its member as well as a Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolution saying that De Vera, being a member of the House, is under the House's jurisdiction.
LPGMA Party-list Representative Arnel Ty objected to the move and questioned the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives to oust De Vera.
He said the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) is the sole judge on qualification cases and ousting De Vera without a resolution from the HRET is unconstitutional.
Answering Ty, Andaya said, "The majority leader is in no way part of the case in HRET. As it is right now, we have this letter from the Comelec for us to proceed with the dropping of the name of Eugene de Vera from the list of rolls."
"My manifestation is not a motion which would be voted upon. It is a request that the name of Representative De Vera be dropped from the rolls," said Andaya.
De Vera decried this decision by the House of Representatives, saying it is "unconstitutional," "illegal," and violated his right to due process.
"Only the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal has the jurisdiction to determine if a sitting congressman, particulary a party-list congressman, is qualified or not," he said.
"The issue is my bona fide membership in my party-list. My party-list has no more jurisdiction to determine that because jurisdiction has been given to HRET because I'm already a sitting congressman," he added.
De Vera invoked Rule II Section 5 of the Rules of the House of Representatives which states that "...In cases where a candidate has been proclaimed winner by the Commission on Elections and the validity of the proclamation is put on question on any judicial or administrative body, such candidate who has been proclaimed winner and assumed office on June 30 following the election shall remain a member of the House of Representatives absent final or executory judgment on or resolution of the question of the over the proclamation of the member by the appropriate judicial or administrative bodies."
He likewise stressed that an incumbent congressman could only be ousted in two modes: through the filing of an ethics complaint if the case is in relation to disorderly behavior and through the filing of a quo warranto case before the HRET.
De Vera said he will appeal the decision but if the House of Representatives will not strike it down, he will challenge the ruling before the Supreme Court.
It can be recalled that after Arroyo was named House Speaker last July, three groups emerged and invoked that they are the duly constituted minority bloc.
The first group was composed of Liberal Party lawmakers and the Makabayan bloc coalition, with Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo as minority leader; the second was the group of Minority Leader Danilo Suarez and the lawmakers who voted for Arroyo as Speaker; and the third group was the group led by De Vera, with members including former speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and former majority leader Rodolfo Fariñas.
After the House of Representatives ruled and recognized the minority bloc led by Suarez as the duly-constituted minority bloc, the Quimbo and the De Vera group sought redress before the Supreme Court.
Their respective petitions, seeking to declare their respective groups the legitimate minority bloc, remain pending before the High Court.
Although Suarez admitted in an earlier interview that he was hurt after De Vera, a former member of his bloc, sided with Alvarez, he repeatedly denied that the minority bloc had a hand in the moves to oust De Vera.
De Vera, when asked who are those behind his ouster, told reporters that he does not want to speculate.
Fariñas, in a statement, said Article VI of the Constitution provides clearly that the HRET “shall be the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns, and qualifications of their respective Members. “
"Thus, the qualification of Rep. De Vera as the party list representative falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of the HRET," he said.
He likewise said that the House od Representatives can expel a sitting congressman found to have committed disorderly behavior only upon a vote of two thirds of all its members.
"But it should be for “disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its members.“ And under our Rules, an ethics complaint must be filed and due process followed," stressed Fariñas. (SunStar Philippines)