By Ben Rosario
A petition seeking the disqualification of a Liberal Party candidate who was proclaimed winner in the congressional contest in Marikina City was among the first 11 batches of May 2019 election protest cases filed before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET).
Former Commissioner of the Philippine Competition Commission and Marikina 2nd district Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo (Photo from PHCC / MANILA BULLETIN)
Former ABS Party-list Rep. Eugene Michael de Vera filed a petition for quo warranto ad cautelam against his rival, Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo, saying she is both “prohibited” and disqualified to run for any office during the May 13 elections.
Quimbo resigned as commissioner of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) to seek the congressional post left vacant by her husband, former Deputy Speaker and Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo.
De Vera, who lost to Quimbo in the congressional race in Marikina City’s Second District as official PDP-Laban candidate, said his political rival should have been disqualified by the Commission on Elections months before the May 13 polls. But the poll body failed to resolve his petition seeking the cancellation of Quimbo’s certificate of candidacy.
Represented by lawyer Jacinto C. Garcia Jr., De Vera urged the HRET to declare Quimbo “prohibited” and disqualified from becoming a congressman, thus, is “ineligible” to occupy the position.
Citing Section 8 of Republic Act 10667 that created the PCC, De Vera pointed out that Quimbo is barred from holding any public office within two years from her resignation as commissioner of the said agency.
This RA 10667 provision specifically declares that commissioners “shall not be qualified to run for any office in the elections immediately succeeding their cessation from office.”
“By reason of respondent Quimbo’s ineligibility for the said position, that she be ousted and dropped from the rolls of the House of Representatives,” he stressed in his appeal to the HRET.
De Vera also urged the nine-man tribunal chaired by Supreme Court Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta to declare him the duly elected congressman and direct the speaker of the House to officiate his oath of office and include his name in the roll of members of the chamber.
The lady lawmaker, De Vera said, was fully aware of this prohibition under the law because she was among the signatories of the rules and regulations implementing RA 10667.
“By signing thereto, respondent Quimbo unequivocably signified her agreement to all the provisions of the said law and cannot just repudiate it based on whims and caprices,” the petitioner said.