Romeo Jalosjos Jr., the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Television and Production Exponents Inc. (TAPE), has filed a motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court (SC) to reverse its decision to unseat him as the proclaimed congressman of the first district of Zamboanga City.
In a decision on Aug. 8, the SC ordered the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to proclaim Jalosjos’ May 2022 election rival Roberto Uy Jr. as the winner and annulled the proclamation of Jalosjos.
Romeo Jalosjos Jr. (Contributed photo)
Jalosjos received a copy of the SC decision on Oct. 18 and filed his motion for reconsideration on Nov. 3.
The Comelec, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), also filed a motion for reconsideration with the SC, supporting Jalosjos’ position and asking the SC to reverse its decision.
In his motion for reconsideration, Jalosjos maintained that since he was already proclaimed as the winner in the May 2022 elections as congressman of the first district of Zamboanga City, the case is now under the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) and not the Supreme Court.
After he was proclaimed, he took his oath of office before a senator and assumed office as a member of the House of Representatives on June 30, 2022.
With this, he said in the motion, “the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (to the exclusion of any other court or tribunal including the Honorable Supreme Court) became the sole judge of all contests relating to his election, returns and qualifications.”
“With highest respect to the Honorable Supreme Court, if its ruling that a proclaimed winning congressional candidate must first take an oath before the Speaker of the House of Representatives prior to becoming a member thereof (to justify its jurisdiction over this case) is not reversed, the current Court will be remembered in history as the Court who cemented in jurisprudence a decision that,” among others, removed the “constitutional 3-term limit for members of the House of Representatives.”
Jalosjos also pointed out the disqualification of Frederico “Kuya Jan” Jalosjos, another candidate in the congressional race, by the Comelec in April 2022 for being a nuisance candidate.
On June 16, 2023, Comelec issued a writ of execution directing the Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC) of Zamboanga del Norte to reconvene on June 23, 2022 and “credit the votes obtained by Frederico P. Jalosjos in favor of Romeo M. Jalosjos, Jr. in accordance with the Resolutions of the COMELEC; and thereafter proclaim the candidate who obtained the highest number of votes as the duly elected Representative of the 1st Congressional District of Zamboanga del Norte.”
After Frederico’s votes were credited to Jalosjos, the latter won the election and was proclaimed as the winner.
Jalosjos pointed out that he had already fulfilled the three requisites for the HRET to take over the case including his proclamation, taking oath of office and assuming office.
“Therefore, being already a Member of the House of Representatives, any question relating to the Private Respondent’s election, returns and qualifications exclusively belongs to the HRET,” he said.
He cited the rules of the HRET, which states that “the Tribunal is the sole judge of all contests relating to the election, returns, and qualifications of the Members of the House of Representatives.”
Meanwhile, the Comelec has also backed Jalosjos’ position that the HRET has jurisdiction over the case and asked the SC to reverse its decision.
“With utmost respect, the mere issuance of a SQAO [status quo ante order] by this Honorable Court could not divest the HRET of its sole and exclusive jurisdiction over a congressional election contest post proclamation. Suffice it to state, the fact that petitioner Frederico obtained a miniscule vote of 5,424 from the 144,412 total number of votes cast vindicates respondent COMELEC in declaring him as a nuisance candidate,” the Comelec said in its motion.
It added, “Comelec respectfully and strongly submits that it is the HRET which has jurisdiction over the election contest subject of the instant case. Such jurisdiction effectively attached to the HRET the moment that private respondent Romeo was proclaimed by the PBOC of Zamboanga del Norte on 23 June 2022, as the duly elected Representative of the First Legislative District of said province.”
“Private respondent Romeo also took his oath of office on the same day that he was proclaimed. To reiterate, these developments followed public respondent Comelec’s issuance of a Writ of Execution on 15 June 2022 in light of petitioner Frederico's failure to timely move for the reconsideration of the 19 April 2022 Resolution, which rendered said Resolution final and executory,” it said.
“The Comelec asked the SC to reconsider and/or vacate its Decision dated 8 August 2023 and to issue a new one dismissing the Consolidated Petitions for lack of jurisdiction and for utter lack of merit,” the Comelec added.
