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SINCE the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
ruling declaring the proclamation of Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong have
already become final and executory, the Supreme Court should now
affirm her election as representative of the First District of
Negros Oriental.
In a 40-page memorandum,
Limkaichong through her lawyer Pete Quadra, asked the High
Tribunal Supreme Court to affirm the Comelec’s ruling
proclaiming her as the duly elected representative of the First
District of Negros Oriental in the May 2007 elections.
“The resolutions
sustaining the proclamation of petitioner Limkaichong being already
final and executory, [oppositors] could no longer question the
validity of the same,” the lady lawmaker said, in seeking the
dismissal of the petition filed by her rival candidates assailing
her victory in the last year’s congressional race.
Limkaichong, who ran under the
banner of the administration Lakas-CMD Party, won by a majority of
7,746 votes over her next rival Olivia Paras, and less than 40,000
votes over the third placer, former Rep. Jerome Paras. Olivia is the
wife of former Rep. Jacinto “Jing” Paras, a brother of Jerome.
On May 25, 2007, the
Provincial Board of Canvassers of Negros Oriental proclaimed
Limkaichong citing as basis Comelec Resolution 8062 providing that
there shall be no suspension of the proclamation of winning
candidates with pending disqualification cases.
It can be recalled that
after she filed her certificate of candidacy for the position of
representative of the province’s First District, two
petitions for disqualification were filed against Limkaichong with
the Comelec. Napoleon Camero filed the first, while the second
petition by Renald Villando, on the ground that she is allegedly not
a natural-born Filipino.
Limkaichong refuted the
allegation, insisting that she is a natural-born Filipino because
her father was already a naturalized Filipino citizen after taking
his oath of allegiance as Filipino citizen on October 21, 1959. He
was issued a certificate of naturalization on the same date.
While the disqualification
case was pending, the Comelec en banc on May 18, 2007 promulgated
Resolution No. 8062, providing that there shall be “no suspension
of proclamation of winning candidates with pending disqualification
cases . . . without prejudice to the continuation of the hearing and
resolution of the involved cases.”
Despite the Comelec
resolution, Villando and Olivia Paras questioned the proclamation of
Limkaichong.
Nonetheless, Limkaichong
said the Comelec has sustained her election, as member of the House
of Representatives, when it denied the petition of her rivals
seeking to annul her proclamation.
--William B. Depasupil
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