OSG backs Comelec ruling in Jalosjos Jr.’s favor

The Office of the Solicitor General has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision against the Commission on Elections in relation to the hotly contested congressional election in the first district of Zamboanga del Norte last year.

Representing the Comelec, the OSG said in its motion of 5 November that the poll body did not commit a grave abuse of discretion when it declared a certain Frederico Jalosjos a nuisance candidate and transferred his votes to Romeo Jalosjos Jr.

Jalosjos Jr. was proclaimed the winner of the congressional seat, which the SC countermanded in its ruling last 8 August.

In that ruling, the SC ordered the Comelec to proclaim Roberto T. Uy in lieu of Jalosjos Jr., as without the votes transferred from the nuisance candidate, Uy had garnered more votes than Jalosjos Jr.

But in a 20-page motion, the OSG said the SC decision lacked merit as the High Court had no jurisdiction to pass judgment on the case because Jalosjos Jr. had already taken his oath at the House of Representatives.

If the case were to be given due course, the proper venue should be the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal, or HRET, and not the SC, the OSG explained.

Likewise, the OSG averred that the declaration by the Comelec of Frederico Jalosjos as a nuisance candidate should stand as the immutability of judgments should be respected.

Jalosjos Jr.'s party also filed a separate motion through Atty. Edward Gialogo, pointing out that the nuisance candidate actually stood as a substitute candidate for a certain Lester Uy Ong, supposedly a cousin of Roberto Uy, the beneficiary of the SC decision.

Furthermore, it was pointed out that Frederico only changed his surname to Jalosjos at the local civil registry office.

In the motion, Jalosjos Jr. called a mockery of the electoral process and a deception on the voters of Zamboanga del Norte the tactics employed by his rivals.