Belmonte rejects Odilao's request

CEBU, Philippines - House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. has rejected the request of David Odilao, Jr. for the suspension of the release of the Priority Development Assistance Fund and other benefits of Rep. Pastor Alcover, Jr. of the Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) Partylist.

In a letter dated September 12, 2011, Belmonte told Odilao, who claimed to be the official nominee of ANAD Partylist, that Alcover remains recognized by law and the Constitution as the legitimate representative of the partylist until a competent authority rules otherwise.

“Until then, he cannot be denied the due release of his PDAF allocation, to which all members of the House of Representatives are entitled to,” Belmonte said.

Belmonte instead asked Odilao for the developments pertaining to the case he filed before the Supreme Court against Alcover.

But on October 4, 2011, the SC denied the petition filed by the group of Odilao seeking to reverse two separate rulings of the Commission on Elections Second Division.

The SC dismissed the petition filed by the group of Odilao against the Comelec and ANAD Partylist and affirmed the leadership of Alcover.

Alcover yesterday said that he has yet to talk to Belmonte regarding the SC decision.

However, Alcover expressed that if he is recognized by the Speaker pending the resolution of the case filed by Odilao, how much more now that the High Court had already ruled in his favor.  

The Comelec granted on August 5, 2010 the petition of ANAD praying for the cancellation of the Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance of Odilao using the name of ANAD. The Comelec also denied on August 11, 2011 the petition filed by a certain Constante Raval praying for the cancellation of the Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance of Alcover and four other nominees.

In ruling on the petition of the group of Odilao, the Supreme Court said, “The Court resolved to dismiss the petition for failure to sufficiently show that any grave abuse of discretion was committed by the Commission on Elections in rendering the challenged resolution which, on the contrary, appears to be in accord with the facts and applicable law and jurisprudence.”

ANAD placed 26 from out of 184 party-list groups that participated in the May 2010 elections. It got almost 300,000 votes nationwide, which entitles it a seat in the 56 slots for party-list groups in Congress. (FREEMAN)