House to unseat Fernandez as Laguna lawmaker soon

MANILA, Philippines - The House leadership is bent on implementing anytime soon the order of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) unseating actor-turned-Laguna congressman Dan Fernandez for failing the six-month residency requirement.

Baguio City Rep. Mauricio Domogan, chairman of the House contingent in the nine-man HRET body, asked Speaker Prospero Nograles to enforce the December 2008 ruling that declared Fernandez “ineligible” to represent the first district of Laguna due to lack of residency.

Nograles said House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor “will implement the (HRET) order next week.”

House secretary-general Marilyn Yap said they have received a copy of the “order of execution” last Sept. 23. The HRET voted 7-2 in unseating Fernandez.

A source said the House leadership has no choice but to honor the ruling after Fernandez failed to secure a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court.

Fernandez’s legal counsel, lawyer Sixto Brillantes, said the HRET order is “final and executory.”

Nograles, who has been the subject of an ethics case by Brillantes, earlier said the administrative case is “premature and baseless” because the HRET has yet to issue a writ of execution.

A former vice governor, Fernandez won by a huge margin of at least 35,000 over Neric Joaquin, his closest rival, in the May 2007 congressional race. But the quo warranto suit that sought the disqualification of the winning candidate, was filed by Jesus Vicente.

Fernandez said the HRET decision could not yet be enforced because it had been questioned before the SC.

He added that the Lower House is enjoined to wait for the ruling of the SC, which has the final say on the legal issues that he raised.

The two HRET members who ruled in his favor were Laguna Rep. Justin Mark Chipeco and Justice Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez of the SC. Fernandez is the husband of actress Sheila Ysrael.

“I hope that I will be given the chance to prove the legitimacy of my residency in the first district of Laguna,” he said.

Fernandez has listed as his current address Villa Toledo in Barangay Balibago, Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

The former actor argued that the HRET ruling was erroneous because he has been residing in this address for two-and-a-half years. Fernandez was a former second district board member and vice governor of Laguna.

The seven other HRET members are SC Justices Consuelo Ynares-Santiago and Conchita Carpio-Morales, and Reps. Mauricio Domogan of Baguio, Fredenil Castro of Capiz, Roberto Cajes of Bohol, Solomon Chungalao of Ifugao, and Florencio Miraflores of Aklan.