38 sacked solons say SC yielding to Palace pressure

Thirty eight party-list representatives disallowed by the Supreme Court to sit in the House of Representatives accused the high tribunal yesterday of yielding to pressure from Malacañang, their lawyer said.

Ricardo Blancaflor, also one of the 38 sectoral representatives, claimed that the six of the 12 justices who voted in favor of the decision were "influenced by Malacañang."

He identified them as Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., Justices Bernardo Pardo, Arturo Buena, Sabino de Leon, Minerva Gonzaga-Reyes and Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, all appointees of President Estrada.

"This is because they want to reduce the number of congressmen so that they cannot have the needed two-thirds vote in the impeachment proceedings against the President. The whole purpose is to make sure that we don’t sit while there is an impeachment proceeding," he said.

Blancaflor was referring a looming impeachment case against Mr. Estrada, whom Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson had accused of receiving millions in kickbacks from illegal gambling lords.

He said that the Oct. 6 ruling had "no basis in law and jurisprudence" and ran counter to the law creating the party-list election system.

"The decision is political in nature. This is against the very spirit of the party-list system," Blancaflor said.

Voting 12-3, the Supreme Court ruled that the 38 party-list candidates who won in the 1998 elections cannot take their seats in the House because they did not get the required minimum two percent of votes cast.

The 38 candidates lost their bid when the court nullified a resolution of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) declaring them winners.

In its January 1999 resolution, the Comelec decided to allow the 38 to join 14 others in the House, citing a need to fill all the 52 House seats reserved for party-list representatives.