VIGAN CITY – Ilocos Sur first district Rep.
Ronald Singson Thursday welcomed the disqualification case filed by his rival
in the congressional race, Bertrand Baterina, before the Supreme Court, but
said he has not yet received a notice from the tribunal to comment on the case.
SC clerk of court
Enriqueta Vidal has sent out a notice stating that the tribunal, acting on
Baterina’s petition for certiorari, “resolved, without giving due course to the
petition, to require the respondents to comment thereon 10 days upon receipt
hereof.”
“My lawyers are
confident that they can defend and uphold the legitimacy of my candidacy and
that it was and is valid,“Singson said.
“Ever since the issue
was brought to light by the media, we have been waiting for the notice from the
high court so that our lawyers could air our side,” he said
Singson said they
would submit their comment once they receive the notice, although his offices
here and at the House of Representatives in Quezon City have yet to receive a
copy of it.
Singson said it is “presumptuous”
for Baterina to have himself declared winner by the SC supposedly for being the
“lone qualified candidate” in the election.
“He should first have
himself voted upon with a majority of the votes by our constituents before
claiming victory. It’s sweeter to become a congressman that way,” Singson said.
The Supreme Court had
asked Singson to comment on a petition to disqualify him as a member of the
House of Representatives for his drug conviction by a Hong Kong court in 2011.
According to a notice
issued by Vidal to the parties, the tribunal, acting on a petition for
certiorari by Bertrand Baterina, “resolved, without giving due course to the
petition, to require the respondents to comment thereon within 10 days from
notice hereof.”
Baterina filed the
petition after the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) dismissed
his complaint for Singson’s disqualification for having been filed “out of
time,” meaning beyond the 15-day deadline from the time Singson was proclaimed
on May 14, 2013.
Baterina said he was
seeking the SC’s intervention because the HRET and the Comelec have failed to
enforce the Election Code.
He said the election
law explicitly bars a person convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude
from seeking public office within five years from his conviction.
He said the Comelec
refused to resolve the disqualification case he filed against Singson despite
having sufficient time to do so.
The Comelec passed the
case on to the HRET, which it said had acquired jurisdiction over it with
Singson’s proclamation.
Baterina said the
HRET, instead of dismissing his complaint on a technicality, should have
confronted the more substantial issue of his opponent’s disqualification on the
ground of his drug conviction in Hong Kong.
“An offense involving
moral turpitude is defined as everything which is done contrary to justice,
modesty or good morals… In Office of the Court Administrator vs Vicente
Librado, the Supreme Court categorically stated that drug possession is a crime
involving moral turpitude,” he said.
When his
disqualification case was pending with the Comelec, Singson said the poll body
could not disqualify him based on his conviction by a foreign court.
But Baterina, in his
certiorari petition before the SC, said the tribunal and the Comelec, in at
least two cases, have ruled that the election law does not distinguish between
a conviction by a local or a foreign court.
In one case, he said a
candidate for governor was disqualified due to conviction of a much lesser
offense – insurance fraud – in the United States.
He also said Singson’s
certificate of candidacy was defective and void from the start, as it was not
sworn to before a qualified officer.
He asked the SC to
declare him winner, claiming he was the “lone qualified candidate” for the
congressional seat in their province’s first district.
Singson returned to
the country in early 2012 after serving time for more than a year in a Hong
Kong jail for drug trafficking.
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