ANOTHER hurdle in the bid of Erwin Tulfo to become a full-fledged member of the House of Representatives has been removed as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc yesterday affirmed the division ruling junking the disqualification case filed against him as the fourth nominee of the Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) party list in the May 2022 polls.
In its nine-page decision, the Comelec denied the Motion for Reconsideration (MR) filed by lawyer Moises Tolentino Jr. saying there is no sufficient reason to reverse the ruling and that the appeal was filed belatedly.
“This Commission (En Banc) finds no compelling reason to reverse or to modify the assailed Resolution of the Second Division dismissing the Petition,” said the Comelec.
“Wherefore, premises considered, the Commission (En Banc) resolves, to deny the Motion for Reconsideration for being filed out of time. The Resolution of the Second Division is hereby affirmed,” it added.
The poll body noted how the MR was filed beyond the three-day period provided under Comelec rules.
It pointed out that the petitioner received the decision of the Second Division on May 25, and had only until May 28 to file his appeal.
“Considering that the 28th of May falls on a Sunday, the Petitioner is given until 29 May 2023 to file his Motion. However, the said Motion, while dated 29 May 2023, was only filed on 30 May 2023, a day beyond the prescribed period,” said the decision.
“Considering that no Motion for Reconsideration was filed within the period prescribed in Comelec Resolution 9366, the Resolution of the Second Division became final by operation of law, and hence, it becomes immutable and unalterable. The Resolution may no longer be modified in any respect,” it added.
And even overlooking the issue of the timely filing of the MR, the Comelec stressed that it no longer has jurisdiction over the case of Tulfo because the disqualification petition came more than nine months after the proclamation of ACT-CIS as a winning party-list organization.
“It bears to stress that the Petition for Disqualification was filed by the Petitioner only on 01 March 2023 or more than nine months after ACT-CIS party-list was proclaimed,” it noted.
“All questions on his qualification shall now be addressed before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET),” said the Comelec.
To recall, ACT-CIS secured three seats in the 19th Congress after getting the highest number of votes among all the party-list candidates in the May 2022 polls.
This resulted to nominees Edvic Yap (1st), Jocelyn Tulfo (2nd), and Jeffrey Soriano (3rd) assuming the three seats in the House of Representatives.
Last February 6, though, Soriano resigned from his post, thereby making Tulfo (4th) the next party-list nominee in line to assume the post.
