Case Digest (G.R. No. 207264)
Facts:
Regina Ongsiako Reyes v. Commission on Elections and Joseph Socorro B. Tan, G.R. No. 207264, October 22, 2013, the Supreme Court En Banc, Perez, J., writing for the Court.
Petitioner Regina Ongsiako Reyes ran for Member of the House of Representatives for the lone district of Marinduque. On October 10, 2012 private respondent Joseph Socorro B. Tan filed with the COMELEC a petition to deny due course to or to cancel Reyes’s certificate of candidacy (COC) under Section 78 of the Omnibus Election Code. The COMELEC First Division granted Tan’s petition and cancelled Reyes’s COC in a resolution dated March 27, 2013.
Reyes filed a motion for reconsideration before the COMELEC En Banc, which denied it in an En Banc resolution promulgated May 14, 2013. That En Banc resolution, by operation of Section 3, Rule 37 of the COMELEC Rules of Procedure, would become final and executory five days after promulgation unless restrained by the Supreme Court. Despite the May 14 En Banc ruling, the Marinduque Provincial Board of Canvassers (PBOC) proclaimed Reyes as the winner on May 18, 2013; Reyes later took oaths of office (notably on June 5 and June 27, 2013) and actions were taken in the House thereafter.
On May 31, 2013 the House forums received two filings ad cautelam: an election protest by former Congressman Lord Allan Jay Velasco and a quo warranto petition. On June 5, 2013 the COMELEC issued a Certificate of Finality declaring its May 14 resolution final and executory. Reyes filed an original petition for certiorari (Rule 64) with the Supreme Court on June 10, 2013 seeking annulment of the COMELEC First Division and En Banc resolutions; the Court, by Resolution dated June 25, 2013, dismissed the petition for lack of grave abuse of discretion by the COMELEC. Reyes filed a Motion for Reconsideration of that Resolution; respondent Tan filed a Comment; Reyes later filed a Manifestation ...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the COMELEC lose jurisdiction over petitioner Reyes’s qualifications upon her proclamation and oath such that the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) had exclusive jurisdiction?
- Did the COMELEC commit grave abuse of discretion in cancelling Reyes’s certificate of candidacy by admitting certain evidence and denying due process?
- Was the COMELEC incorrect in applying R.A. No. 9225 (the Citizenship Retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003) or otherwise imposing a qualification not in the Constituti...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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